Hiring & Training

The Kids In The Hall: The Outcasts Who Keep America Running

What if the kids who never fit the system were exactly the ones built to fix it? This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin Brown gets more personal than usual. After using AI to explore patterns and tendencies he has noticed in himself his entire...

99.08% Diagnostic Accuracy: Inside a Master Tech’s Playbook

Joe Adams interviews Adams Automotive Master Technician Josh Gerbrecht about his journey from technician to top diagnostician, sharing the systems that drove his 99.08% diagnostic accuracy and the big takeaways from a Key-to-Key-to-Callbacks weekend. They discuss the front-office/back-office symbiosis, the Rack Attack inspection process, recruiting and paying technicians their worth, shop tours and hospitality, and how AI could streamline diagnostics and incentivize accuracy over just speed.   AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

Shop Owners: Maybe YOU'RE the Problem | Tristin Sweeney - 38

Running a shop is hard enough—you don't need your software making it harder. 😂 If you're ready for more clarity, better organization, and a smoother experience for both your team and your customers, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAt 29 years old, Tristin Sweeney is running an auto repair shop, building automotive technology, and questioning some of the industry's favorite excuses. In this episode, Tonnika Haynes talks with Tristin about his unconventional path from the startup world into automotive, acquiring Honest Automotive, building Shift, and why owning a shop became the ultimate testing ground for solving real industry problems. But things get spicy when they tackle the supposed technician shortage, outdated hiring practices, shop owners blaming younger generations, and why good employees may be leaving shops that refuse to change. They also dig into AI, technician training, communication, leadership, burnout, and why new technology should solve problems instead of creating more work. If you're a shop owner who keeps saying, “Nobody wants to work anymore,” this conversation might make you look in the mirror.Timestamps:00:00 Why automotive has become unattractive to work in00:23 Downshift intro00:42 Meet Tristin Sweeney: 29, busy, and obsessed with automotive01:23 Audi, Volkswagens, and where the car obsession started03:15 Can you be a great service advisor without knowing cars?04:40 There are more automotive careers than turning wrenches06:26 From tech startups to the automotive industry07:17 Getting laid off, joining ShopGenie, and finding his industry09:17 Running TWO automotive businesses at 2910:11 How Tristin bought Honest Automotive after finding it on Facebook14:01 Has shop ownership given him gray hair yet?14:32 Building a shop around passion and customer experience16:21 Honest Automotive is also Tristin’s “laboratory”16:48 How Shift Automotive was born18:19 Building software from the problems that drive shop owners crazy19:10 Technology problem or people problem?20:17 How does someone working 60–70 hours a week avoid burnout?22:55 Success isn’t worth burning yourself out by 3023:19 Tonnika gets VERY personal about Tristin having kids 😂25:32 Why Tristin is committed to automotive for the long haul28:53 Shift grows to more than 150 shops30:02 Why simply SHOWING UP can change your career31:21 The “Gen Z stare” and learning how to communicate33:34 Get in rooms where you’re uncomfortable37:04 What will automotive look like 10 years from now?41:11 Shop owners who ignore AI WILL get left behind42:43 How should shops prepare technicians for new technology?43:27 Does every tech need to understand the newest cars right now?45:48 Why the next generation matters more than ever47:58 What does a technician actually need to “look like”?48:48 Is the technician shortage actually a hiring problem?49:48 How many great technicians are shops overlooking?50:48 “I hire people. I don’t hire jobs.”52:00 Why automotive can be an unattractive place to work54:18 Great shops generally aren’t struggling to find applicants54:51 The talent is out there—and some of them want to leave their current shop55:55 If recruiters can steal your technicians, that’s a YOU problem56:04 Most shop problems start with the owner57:30 Accepting criticism from your employees—even your own son58:03 Old-school leadership vs. the way Tonnika leads today59:33 The macaroni-and-cheese recipe for evolving a family business1:01:47 Is treating every employee differently “coddling”?1:03:50 Why one universal pay plan doesn’t work for everyone1:04:39 Flexible schedules, flat rate, salary, and what actually motivates people1:07:08 Shop owners who refuse to compromise may lose great technicians1:07:56 Bad bosses create the next generation of bad bosses1:08:21 Why leadership and communication have to be learned1:13:00 Stop micromanaging every detail of your shop1:14:22 “Granddad did it that way” isn’t a good enough reason anymore1:15:28 The Carfax data debate gets spicy 😂1:16:24 What Carfax actually gets from your shop1:17:47 Tonnika’s grandfather discovers OnStar and thinks “they’re coming for him”1:19:03 Technology fear usually comes from misunderstanding1:19:45 Tristin’s legacy: Leave automotive better than he found it1:20:00 Where to find Honest Automotive and Shift Automotive1:21:22 Closing, AI hot takes, and what’s next

216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors

216 - Coach the Call: Using AI Insights to Develop Stronger Service Advisors August 26th, 2026 - 00:54:51 Show Summary: Strong phone skills can turn more incoming calls into appointments while building trust from the first interaction. Consistent call reviews give service advisors a clear path to improve without making coaching feel like punishment. AI call analysis reduces the time required to find useful coaching opportunities and helps owners identify patterns across their team. Positive reinforcement also matters because great calls give advisors examples they can repeat. Simple habits like smiling asking for the appointment and using the customer’s name can dramatically improve the experience. Better phone performance ultimately supports stronger customer relationships higher appointment conversion and long term shop growth.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development   Guest(s): David Boyd, Founder & CEO of Callinbound Tonnika Haynes, Owner of Browns Automotive, Downshift with Tonnika Haynes Show Highlights: [00:04:00] – Listening to real calls reveals missed opportunities that owners rarely see. [00:10:00] – AI identifies coachable calls without hours of manual review. [00:14:00] – Consistent coaching creates awareness before advisors answer each call. [00:17:00] – Replace a hard no with a plan focused on customer needs. [00:24:00] – Help advisors self coach instead of simply pointing out mistakes. [00:28:00] – Every missed appointment can represent significant lost customer value. [00:34:00] – Asking for the customer’s name immediately creates a stronger connection. [00:39:00] – Scheduled call reviews make coaching normal instead of threatening. [00:43:00] – Asking for appointments helped turn successful marketing into a fuller calendar. [00:49:00] – Call tracking connects marketing performance with actual appointment conversion.   In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fv9ewVBoSks   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night. Thank you for joining. So excited for us to have this conversation today with some really good friends. Everyone, this is to be an interactive webinar. So you're sitting there, you've got questions, you've got concerns, type them into the chat. We wanna be able to ask those questions of our panel today as we are talking about a very interesting topic. And with us today, first, is our good friend, Mr. David Boyd of Inbound Communication. David, how the heck are you, brother? David Boyes: I'm great. I, I, uh, I fully intended to have my jacket on, Jimmy. Jimmy Lea: Man. David Boyes: So excited to be here. We Jimmy Lea: coordinated on this and everything. David Boyes: I know. I, uh- Next time ... I, I was, I was lucky as, as busy as we've been at Call Inbound to, uh, uh, get up and, and organize and dress today. So I really, uh, it's always great to see you and of course, um, uh, we got to visit a little bit out at, uh, Worldpac STX and, uh, man, I tell you what, your wardrobe is always top notch. Jimmy Lea: Hey, thank you. Thank you. We're glad you are dressed today, just don't stand up. Thank you very much. David Boyes: Great. Jimmy Lea: And joining for us in our conversation today, David, is Tanika, Tanika Hayes with, uh, Haynes with Browns Automotive. Tanika, how the heck are you, sister? Tonnika Haynes: I'm doing good, guys. What's going on? Jimmy Lea: Staying alive. Good to see you. Great to see you. Also at STX, what did you think of the, the conference there with Worldpac? Tonnika Haynes: It, it was really, really good. I was not prepared for the size of it. There was a lot of people. People were peopling. So, um, once I got adjusted to all of the crowds and everything, I enjoyed it. I hadn't sat in a class in a really long time, like at an expo. Ooh. I'm usually just walking around and being nosy, but I picked up some good nuggets, so it was great. Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. That's awesome. Well, if, if the STX was a large conference to you, I would suggest that you really prepare yourself months in advance if ever you come out to SEMA and Apex in Las Vegas. Tonnika Haynes: I will be there this year. Oh, good. I keep hear- hearing that, so I don't know what meds I need to be on to take, To take it all in. But Jimmy Lea: we'll- You- Tonnika Haynes: I'm excited about it ... Jimmy Lea: we, we will talk about that because there is more than you can see within a week, and you really only have three days at Apex, four days at SEMA. You want to map out where you're gonna go, who you're gonna talk to, who you're gonna see- And for you, Taneka, schedule some time to sit down and chill Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. I'm gonna have to definitely do that. You're talking about, um, scheduling times. I'm gonna schedule time to go sit in the corner and recoup. Uh-huh. So where's Taneka? She's in the corner. Jimmy Lea: Yep, and, and I- It's David Boyes: scheduled time ... Jimmy Lea: I, I'm gonna work with you on that because I know the corners, I know the places where you can go and, and find some solitude. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Jimmy Lea: I am. Well, our conversation today is in preparation for making your shop better David, I'm gonna kick it over to you, brother. Let's start this conversation with Taneka. David Boyes: Yeah. Let's, uh, let- let's kinda move into this. You know, we're, uh, talking about communication, and there are so many facets that impact the customer experience. I think that it's important to know that, you know, there are tools and there are, uh, from an owner or, and manager's perspective and from a service provider's perspective, there are ways that we rally around making communication better. Um, you know, one of the things that is common at all shops is, uh, the customer phone call. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah. David Boyes: So you winced a little bit. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Uh, how many times do we, you know, talk about our phone skills, uh, getting better on the phone, understanding the customer, understanding their needs, addressing their needs? And there's so much, you know, revolves around, uh, the phone calls and, and the way that our advisors and our front office team handles these. Maybe you have a CSR, maybe you have, you know, a service manager. Um, but people are, are answering calls all day long, and this becomes important that we understand who's answering the phone- Mm-hmm ... how they're communicating, what, what's the message that's being shared. Every time that phone rings, uh, that, you know, we like to say that's money calling. So Taneka, let me just ask you, you know, what, what are some of the challenges that you see or the, uh, the successes that you have with your team when it comes to managing and, and, uh, getting better on our phones? Tonnika Haynes: I wanna start by saying, um, I think I listened to my first phone call at my meeting with Jen- Jennifer, with the Institute. I'm currently coaching with the Institute, and that is life-changing- Yeah ... to listen to your team answer the phone. So if anybody's out there and they have not done that, they have not listened in on a phone call, figure out a way to do it. I don't know if it's gonna be a little paper cup and a string, but figure out how to do it. Um, and then I, listening to my own phone calls, and I- I'm the boss, right? I still cringe. And so you never know what's missing from those phone calls, what, what, what is standing out. You know, my team, we would not even ask for the appointment. Like, "Would you like to bring this in today?" You know- Oh ... you ask all the questions, they go through the scripts, but then we found that they were not saying, "Hey, would you like to get that done? Would you like to bring that in today or tomorrow? What works for you?" They were leaving it all to the client to say- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... " Tonnika Haynes: What's next? What's next?" Hmm. So they were answering the phone, and they were s- being very polite, but they were not closing. They didn't have a lot of words with closing. And so with inbound, I've been able to coach- You know, when you listen to yourself and you're like, "Ooh, ooh." And you can say, "Do you see what you did there?" Or even, 'cause you know, the team can listen to their own phone calls. "Oh, I see what I did there. I see where I dropped the ball." So that was, opened up a whole bunch of eyeballs around here. Well- It's like, "Oh, it's Monday, it's time to listen to phone calls." Like, "Ah." But you just increasingly get better over time. Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. And, and the ability, Taneka, the ability to have calls from today- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm ... Jimmy Lea: or from yesterday or, or even the day before. Uh, there was a time a decade ago when we would have to listen, as coaches, we would listen to calls. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. We're trying to find a coaching call, a call that is coachable, and this might be a call from two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Mm. The advisors are going, "Dude, oh man, that's forever ago. No, man, I, I don't do that anymore. I'm not like that." But David, I, I think you kind of solved a bit of that problem with your phone services. David Boyes: Yeah, thanks. It, you know, it's, it's important to, to recognize. I think every owner I've ever talked with has a similar issue. It's... And a lot of it rev- revolves around time, right? Are, are we aware of what's actually happening- Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... David Boyes: on the front line? Mm-hmm. And, uh, some of it is, uh, I wanna keep this a little bit at arm's length because I, I can tell you as an owner, I will have an emotional response when I listen to that phone call. And Taniki, you brought up a great point. For owners and managers here that are on the phone, please listen to your own calls. Yeah. Do it at least one time. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Well, twice. Have to Tonnika Haynes: bite the bullet. Just do it. David Boyes: Yeah. Just do it. And, Tonnika Haynes: and, and be ready. Just like- ... just like, "Oh, that is me." Yeah, that is you. David Boyes: Do it- Yeah do it twice because the first time that you listen to a call, uh, it's gonna just be weird, right? So listening to myself on recordings is always weird, but there's this heavy lift of time, right? Am, am I aware of what's actually happening on the front line, and how are we interacting with customers? And then do I have, do I have a mechanism to understand what's my expectation? As an owner, um, you know, it, it's important to establish that expectation. Maybe you're working with a call coach, maybe you've been in trainings yourself. It's, it's ideal to have a method by which you're going to measure your call handlers. And, um, you know, we wanna be professional. We want to build confidence and, and build rapport with these customers. It doesn't have to be fast, but typically- Mm-hmm ... you know, an incoming call from a customer is likely an appointment setting call or a status call. We're gonna set that status call, uh, bucket aside for a second 'cause we wanna be in front of, uh, status calls instead of having customers call us. But if you're listening to these and you have that rhythm around it, uh, we understand how these small habits can build on one another. Am I, am I smiling when I answer the phone? There's something physically that hap- When I, when I physically smile, there's something that is noticeable in the way that I'm communicating. And, uh, am I, am I clear? So what are the expectations? You know, uh, if you watch your advisors, I have, uh, my little cordless handset here. If they tuck their phone in like this, and, and you know, they're, they're trying to multitask Listen to those calls because likely it's very, very difficult to hear on the other side of this. So listening to calls, uh, helps us understand how, you know, how we conduct ourselves, how we conduct business, how am I representing the business that I, you know, that I'm working at as a professional. But also, what is the customer hearing and what is the customer's experience? So, um, these are, uh, important points, and it starts by listening. Jimmy, you brought up a, um, an important aspect here. Historically, we would listen to call after call after call after call to try to find something I can use to coach. So Taneka, you might do this. You've got a call recording system. It doesn't do much but just record those calls, and now I have to go through this, this process to identify a coachable opportunity. And this is now I think where we can move effectively into technology, right? We all hear so much about AI today, and what's really nice about, uh, having, you know, a, a phone system that records is now you have an asset, and you can use that asset to do something more with it. And we can use AI to help that heavy lift of time and, you know, take 90% of the time requirement off. So instead of having to spend 30 minutes, I might have to spend two or three minutes to take that call, sit down with my service advisor, go through this, and have a meaningful, constructive conversation about the things that work well. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I, I love, David, that your software makes it so easy to find these coachable calls so much faster. A- and Taneka, that's just gotta be a lifesaver for you as well, coaching your service advisors. Tonnika Haynes: It is. I remember, um, speaking with a friend, fellow shop owner, and he's like, "I need you to set aside a time." And so what I did is on my calendar, on Wednesday, that's the day that I sit down and we go over phone calls. And so, you know, you got the dashboard, and that dashboard will say, "This is a coachable call. This is a coachable call." And it is a habit for me as the owner/manager, um, to make sure that I'm staying on top of it all the time because we'll slip into old habits, right? So me listening to the calls and bringing the service advisor or, um, or bring Jay in and say, "Hey, let's listen to this. Let's see how we can get better." You know, you continuously improve on it, and you don't slide back into old habits. Because I'm not on the phone as much anymore. If I have to answer the phone, I know personally, and everything's at stake for me, I slide back into old habits. So we all are capable of it, and so having that dashboard in front of us and said, "Hey, this is a call you need to look at," the service advisor or the person answering the phone does not feel like they're being picked on, but they're being improved upon. So, "Look, I'm just lifting you up. This is what we can do. Do you see how we can make this better?" And it's a we, it's a us, it's coachable, it's there, it's real, and, um, I really enjoy th- that part of the dashboard. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. How often, Taneka, do you send, "This is a really good call"? This is a really good call. I Tonnika Haynes: like a really good call How often do you send that to the team? You know what? Yeah. I probably should do that more. But when I see a good call, I, I, I like to share it. And when I get a good review, like I l- literally just got a good review based off of a bad situation that we were able to turn around with proper communication, and the customer l- literally said, he's like, "The communication... The problem was still there," he said, "but the way they handled it and the communication was key." So he was not satisfied when he left, but the way that we dealt with it afterwards, and that recording of how we guided him through the process, and how we, you know, we apologized, we came up with a plan, apologized again, and kept it moving, and that was a great coachable call. It's like, this is how you handle a bad situation. Look how we won here. So yeah, those are just as important as the, as the losses, as the bad calls. "Hey, this is a good call. G- this is a good call." That balance is super important. Yeah, it balances it. Yeah. And then, you know, it's like, okay, I did that right. Even when that client is a client that does not belong to you, and you can hear them tell the customer, it's like, "Hey, you know what? Appreciate your call, but this isn't the place for you." And that's not the word for word, but, "Hey, you handled that good. Thank you for saving us from a nightmare." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Amen. Share it with your team. So you gotta share the wins and the, the misses. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And, and, uh, for a lot of people, I think they struggle in the creative. So if they can hear it, that it's already been done, they can duplicate. Sure. They can mimic. They can do the same thing over and over and over again. So the more we send these beautiful calls, "Oh my gosh, you guys did so well on this phone call. I, I love this part, this part, and this part," they're able to duplicate that, and they'll do it over and over and over again. And then, then you're- The mistakes that are being made become much less because you're showing, you're, uh, mirroring to them these are the really good calls that we wanna hear. Tonnika Haynes: And, and sharing that when you're going over a call, you got the good call here, we can work on this call, but this is another good call. You know, we talk about giving that sandwich. Yeah. And so that's another opportunity you can give that good sandwich. So when it's time to come in on Wednesdays and listen to your phone calls, you're like, "Ooh, I know I got one coming and I think I know which one it is." And then you're like, "Yeah, but you got this one too, so you won here, and, uh, we missed on this one, but next time it's not happening." Right? Right. So it's, you know, it's all in coaching. Jimmy Lea: Oh, David Boyes: it's so true. You just said something that's super important, and, uh, ooh, I think I know which one this is. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, there, there's a lot to unpack there. I, I, I love the, the good with the bad. We'll talk about that more too, but, um, creating the awareness. So consistency wins, and, um, I'll say it again, be consistent with the process because consistency wins. And when you have that rhythm where it's familiar and it's expected, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna listen to calls, we're gonna go through this, identify the opportunities, um, it's not good and bad calls, it's, you know, it, it, uh, we call them top calls or champion calls and coachable calls. So a coachable call isn't inherently bad. Maybe we even got an appointment. Tonnika Haynes: Mm. David Boyes: Right? But there's, there's opportunities. So, uh, when we have that rhythm and it's expected, what's really important about what you just said is the awareness. So when I go to pick up that phone, is this the call that Tanika's gonna be talking with me about tomorrow or, you know, Wednesday, whatever our rhythm is? It, it will begin to create that moment of pause that as an a- an advisor when I'm picking up that phone, I can take that breath. Yeah. I can, I can, uh, let that, uh, you know, that technician that just blew me up Tonnika Haynes: Let 'em David Boyes: go. I can let that slide off. I can shake that off. Yeah. And I can focus for a moment to make sure that that customer knows right at this moment they are absolutely the most important person to me right now. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that's an important message to convey over the phone, our, uh, the, you know, the way that we speak, the words that we use, my en- excitement and enthusiasm about being on that call all comes through. So as we get through this rhythm and we develop the consistency and it becomes normal, now I've got that awareness on my team that, hey, this next call I'm taking, I'm gonna have the moment of pause to focus because this might be the next one that, that we're reviewing. I want this to be a positive call that, that Tanika's coming to me and saying, "You did really well on this one. Let's continue to develop this," and, you know, replicate the things that are working well. Instead of, "Hey, there's some opportunity here. You know, you didn't ask for the appointment. You were, you know, pricing over the phone. You said 'no'." No comes out in a lot of ways, doesn't it, Tanika? Where- Tonnika Haynes: Oh, yeah ... we, David Boyes: we might be telling somebody, uh, "You know, I'm really busy right", or, or, or "W- we, we're really busy right now, I can't get you in until Friday." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: That's, that's, we might as well just say, "No, I can't help you." Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. You, that's, that's all they heard was the no. Um, even if you give... And, uh, everybody knows that I'm, I'm big on nos. Like, I can give you a no where there's some healthy nos, but then there's some nos and you have the customer saying, "Hey, um, m- my brakes are making the noise and it just started." And he's like, "Oh, no, I can't see you till Friday." He's like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna die before Friday. I wanna see somebody now." Um, so you don't, you have to learn how to coach them and say, "Yes, so bring that in. Let's take a look at what you've got, and then we'll come up with a plan." You didn't promise that it was gonna be today or tomorrow, but you said, "Bring it in. I'm worried about your safety. Let's see what you've got." Yeah. "Let's see if you should really be concerned about that check engine light. It might be a EVAP code." They don't know that, "But go ahead and bring them in." So and then you, like you said, the cadence in it. This, I'm not gonna make you any promises over the phone, and I would literally say that. "Hey, I don't wanna disappoint you by making a promise that I can't keep. So don't- Yeah ... don't make me, don't put me in that hole. But I need you to go ahead and bring that in to me as soon as you can. Um, and let's scan it. Let's see what you've got, and let's see if you should really be worried, if you can make that trip or we need to bring you in right away. We will help you come up with a plan." So just that solid no. "No, I'll see you Friday." Jimmy Lea: He, " Tonnika Haynes: Meh. No you won't." Yeah. Like, so that's support. That's Jimmy Lea: my- David Boyes: It, it becomes very collaborative in what you just said. Hey, let, let's make this about you, let's make this about your safety and your confidence to drive that vehicle. Maybe you gotta get across town and your commute is 30 minutes. Let's make sure that your vehicle is safe, and then once you're here and we make sure you're safe, let's talk about, uh, when we're gonna have that on the schedule. We'll get that vehicle in Tonnika Haynes: and prepared. Yeah. What are the next steps? Yeah. So let's go ahead and get- let's get your nerves calm- Mm-hmm ... and then let's come up with the next step. Let's come up with a plan. Us, us, us, we, we, we. So Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. And, uh, you talk about s- building a solid foundation for this, the solid foundation for their skills so that the, the ongoing training you're doing really builds on that foundation. Uh, we've got a three-day service advisor with the institute. We're gonna give a shout-out to the institute here right now. So everybody grab out your smartphones, scan the QR code if your service advisor needs a solid foundation. Thank you, David. If you need a solid foundation- Registered now ... and you need to start with... Yeah, get registered. I know you've been to a couple of these, David, 'cause- I have you've talked about all the skills here just really, really well. If your service advisor needs that and you need to go from zero to hero very quickly, this is an intensive that you wanna send your service advisor to, and it will be at headquarters in Ogden, Utah. Fly right into Salt Lake, and, uh, and we got you set up there in Ogden. So, yes, David Boyes: scan that. It's a beautiful drive up from the airport. This class is, uh, it, it, it will help establish the, the fundamentals to build on. Yeah. So you come here, it's, you know, it's boot camp, right? We're, we're going to make sure that we're establishing the expectation and give you something to build on as the owner. Send your service advisors in here. Uh, they'll get those fundamentals, and then you'll have, you know, these, these mechanisms, uh, to improve them over time. I promise you it'll be a, a real game changer for your frontline. Tonnika Haynes: Well, you know what? Beautiful. I wanna piggyback on that. Um, and I wasn't coached to saying this. If they've already been, send them again. Jimmy Lea: There you go. Mm. Tonnika Haynes: Send them again, because here's the thing that I know, and I'm just gonna make it simple. I want you to think about your favorite movie. Like when, when I was in the 20s, for me it was Friday, the movie Friday. And then we watched that movie every Friday after work with the crew that I worked with, and it was just the most ignorant movie and the best movie for my generation. Each time I watched that movie, I would see a different thing. So I want you to think about your favorite movie and, or v- your favorite comedy. Each time you'd watch it, you would pick up something else. So it was like, "Oh, I didn't see that that last time." So even when it comes to training, "Hey, I did this three-day class and I did it a year ago. I grew." Jimmy Lea: Do it again. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Do it again. Do it again. You, you're never too mu- uh, there's never too much coaching. So just do it again and you'll see it from a different angle. I just wanted to say that. Yeah, 'cause, um, there's been some classes that I, I take, and not just this one, but other classes, like, let me take that class again. Yeah. And you're like, "Aha. I didn't remember that from last time." Yeah. I didn't implement that from last time, 'cause we, you guys tell us, and coaches will tell you, "Just go and implement one thing. One thing." I mean, watch those changes, and then the next time you take the class, let's do one more thing, maybe two, and get, get a little bit better. Right. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So speaking of training, ASTA, A-S-T-A, is coming up here real soon, Taneka. Real Tonnika Haynes: soon. We're less than 30 Jimmy Lea: days out. Let's give them a shout-out. Tonnika Haynes: Shout out to ASTA. Those are the people, not the people that made me, but it's my just one, my just one thing that I took away from there each time has helped build me to where I am. And I am, I cannot say I would not be where I was without them. But I would not be where I was, where I am without them. From those, those people that I met, the village that I met, meeting you, meeting my first coach, just meeting my, my industry brothers and sisters that I can call on at any time when I'm about to flip out, or when I have a win. 'Cause you know as owners and when, when you're a little higher, you can't share your wins with everybody without some jealousy. True. Yeah. So when you have a win and you have that community to call on. Mm-hmm. So yeah, ASTA is the place to be, September 24th to 26th, right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. So I hope somebody shows up. And, uh, I wanna meet some... Well, I know Jim. I'll be there. Jimmy will be there. You will not miss him. David Boyes: He'll have the jacket. Tonnika Haynes: He will have plenty of jackets on. It is a fun atmosphere, lots of community, lots of learning and growing. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have a jacket war, so anybody who wants to play. David, you're bringing your jacket, so David Boyes: who wore Jimmy Lea: it best? Yes. Yeah. David Boyes: Yeah. I, I wanted to make sure that we were gonna f- uh, be able to carve out some time to do the who wore it best. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, David Boyes: always. I think, so B- Benji will be involved. Brett will probably be involved, right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, you, you two- Mike Allen ... Mike, okay, Mike, yep. Tonnika Haynes: I, I, I feel like we should have a girls version of this, 'cause you know, if the women got involved- Jimmy Lea: We always lose Tonnika Haynes: I mean, we would just throw you guys under the bus. Jimmy Lea: It's true. We tried that, Tanika, and you swept it. Yeah. You swept it. There, there was no- Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do that to you guys ... competing with Jimmy Lea: Tanika. Tonnika Haynes: I don't wanna do... Yeah, I don't wanna do that to you, so we'll, we'll figure it out. Maybe I'll make a f- couple phone calls and text messages and see what's up. David Boyes: Yeah. Speaking of phone calls. Speaking of phone calls. Tonnika Haynes: Throw that back in. David Boyes: I have a question for you. Yeah. Yeah. That's, hey, I couldn't have asked for a better softball there, but that's great. Um- ... thinking, thinking about the coaching process, you know, I, I, I had mentioned before it can seem a little uncomfortable, even as an owner. You know, listen to two calls, because that first one, you're gonna be so- Mm-hmm ... consumed by how weird I sound on the phone, right? So, but when you, when you started this with your team, what, how was it received? What were some of the, the challenges, uh, do, you know, h- what feedback did you get about listening to calls and going through the analysis? Tonnika Haynes: So I wanna say that when I first did it in, in coaching, so in a group setting, and you're listening to your team, so they call in, they have to do a call and they'll record a call. And so it's like, "Oh, well this time she did this, and this is the excuse." You wanna come up with excuses. You wanna defend- Right yourself. I wanna defend my shop. And so that service advisor's gonna wanna defend him or herself. Like, "Oh, well, you know, that customer and this was that." I was like, "No." So you get past that, and it's like, okay, like I said, you give the sandwich. Okay, so this is a great call. You tell me what you could have done, could have done better in this call. Right. 'Cause I don't wanna be in... 'Cause if you go into attack mode and say, "Oh, you should do this better, and you didn't follow the script, and you, you, you, you, you," you're gonna get somebody that's gonna put up a guard and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I did my best." So I'll say, "I know you did your best on this, this one call, and you did a great job on this call. What happened, brother?" Balls in your court. Tell me how you can improve on this. Mm. What do you need from me to help you improve here? Was there a distraction? What was, what was the problem? So I kinda feel like I can teach them to self-coach. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: I'm, I'ma give you a whole toolbox. You've got this toolbox. You know what a good call to- sounds like. Like, you also have a mirror. There's a mirror right there. Look at yourself. You've got reminders. I've got sticky note reminders on each, each person saying, "Don't forget to ask for the sale." What happened? "Oh, man, I was distracted, I sh- I should've..." Yep, you should've put the mouse down. You should've put the mouse down. So usually people will first get defensive, same. Mm-hmm. Um, then the defense mechanism starts to come down. Say, "All right, okay, so how do we fix this so next time I cannot find a bad phone call?" Jimmy Lea: Bingo. David Boyes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I love it. It, yeah. I love that you have a mirror there and you have sticky notes there helping as well, Taneka. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's, that's so good. ' Tonnika Haynes: Cause we forget. And- And it's okay- Oh, we do ... 'cause we get busy. But the Jimmy Lea: more Tonnika Haynes: we work on it- And I, Jimmy Lea: I, you... I'm certain that you guys have heard this before, that a fake smile is better than a real frown. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. David Boyes: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: Yes. And I'm really good at that. And so I've learned that because I've been doing it a very long time, so people know that I can really make you... I could, like, really fuss you out, and I would sound so sweet 'cause I'm smiling at you the whole time. "Well, you know what, Jamie? I think that was the stupidest thing you've ever said." Jimmy Lea: And if you do it with a smile, you can Tonnika Haynes: get away with it. And you're doing it with a smile and, and when you're shaking your head. So that smile makes a difference. And when I'm- It does ... picking up the phone out of an emergency, if they are busy up front and I'll see that phone ringing, and I pick it up and I'm not ready personally, I'm not ready to answer that phone, and it's a client that knows me, and I'm not smiling, I will get a, "Hey, Taneka, what's wrong?" You Jimmy Lea: okay? 'Cause Tonnika Haynes: they, "You okay?" And I'll say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was distracted." 'Cause that's usually what happens, you're distracted, or that service, that, um, technician just rubbed you the wrong way or something's happened at home. So but once you put that smile on- You just fake it till you make it. And now you, I usually don't like to say that, but sometimes you do have to fake it till you make it. Like, yeah, absolutely. And use those words of, those positive words. Absolutely. Let's look into that for you. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Sure. I love it. Love it. We talk about the phone call and how much it's worth. Uh, Bimmer PhD Motorsports is saying, "Can we dig into that a little bit?" How much does it cost to get that phone to ring? How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? You talk about the mindset and you talk about the service advisor- Mm-hmm ... and the smile that's needed to be there, fake or real. How much is that phone call worth, Tanika? Have you analyzed any of that in your shop? Tonnika Haynes: So that was actually a, um, something we did in the 20 group with my coach Jen. We went through that and we calculated how much it costs to sh- get that phone to ring. And I really wish I was prepared and I had that number for you. But once you realize that number, share it with your team. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: And then, uh, the institute probably has, um, a blueprint on how to figure that out. So you're looking at how much your website is, your Go- Google ads, any form of marketing that you have out there, down to the phone bill. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: How much does it cost to make that phone ring? And once you see it as the owner, you're gonna be like, "Whoa." And you share that with the team. Like, every time that phone rings, it costs me this. And then also think about your ARO. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Bingo. Tonnika Haynes: And every time- Yep, yep ... we do not get a y- yes, and we don't get that client through the door, we lost $850. Potential $850, potential $1,100. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Tonnika Haynes: So once we start thinking about, you know, everything, everything's not about money. It is That Jimmy Lea: we keep score. Tonnika Haynes: It is how we keep score. Yeah. Like, you know, we, we talk about we've got the metrics on the dashboard. Numbers don't lie. People do. Your emotions will. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: It costs me $75 every time that phone rings. Mm-hmm. And when you ring it, and when you land that deal, that's a potential 850, or whatever your ARO is, or whatever- Yeah ... that's what it is. And that's, and how long does it take to get that one client to get through the door? Yeah. And also think about how long you can hold onto them as a client. How many years Jimmy Lea: are you gonna- Tonnika Haynes: What's the lifetime value of the client? What's the lifetime of that client? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So that smile when you answer the phone, yeah, that's worth a lot of money. Jimmy Lea: Tens of thousands of dollars. Tonnika Haynes: Tens of thousands. So go ahead and put your Vaseline on your teeth- Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm ... Tonnika Haynes: and, and start a- smiling. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's an old theater trick. Yes. Are you a, are you a musical theater person? Tonnika Haynes: No, but I just know about- Where are you pulling that from? ... Vaseline on your teeth and, 'cause you get tired of smiling. You, you know, at the conference, you have this whole muscle thing. You're like... Jimmy Lea: Uh, yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Keep s- keep, just keep smiling, smiling, smiling. Jimmy Lea: That's right, David Boyes: Dorothy. Those are important numbers, uh, to know how much does it cost to get that phone to ring. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, in some cases it can be, uh, you know, several hundred dollars depending on really all of those factors around generating those phone calls, and then what that ties into when the phone does ring, um, and we don't ask for the appointment. Has that $850 or $1,100 just walked over to my competitor across town? Yeah. But it also sets the stage when we're talking about coaching and development to bring it back to what's in it for me. As a service advisor, you know, most high performing shops are incentivizing their advisors on these, you know, these GP numbers and, you know, there might be other metrics on Google reviews, maybe have spiffs for these different things. It all requires us to generate the appointments and get those vehicles in so that we can have an inspection and we can, you know, generate the, the estimate and ultimately have a sale, and then make this an amazing experience for the customer so they're gonna come back next time. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: Uh, at the very front end of the phone call, you know, it, it takes X number of dollars to make the phone ring. When that phone rings, the customer, if they're a first time caller- Uh, they're likely y- we as, as a business are likely setting the stage within that first 15 to 20 seconds for the length of our relationship. So based on those initial interactions, we're going to begin setting the stage of how well this customer visit is going to go, uh, how much that we're developing trust with this customer. Do they trust me as an advisor? Do they trust this business, that we're experts and we're gonna help them, and we're gonna do so in a, in a fair and meaningful way? And then also, uh, we're going to set that basis for a repeat customer. Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: So that, that's where we get into the, the longevity of our relationship. Interestingly enough, so much of this happens at the very first moments of that very first phone call. And when we acknowledge that as a service advisor, I'm like, "Oh, that does tie back to the paycheck I get." As a business owner, "Wow, that ties back into the stickiness of my customers." I love, you know, repeat customers. I love repeat business. So we wanna drive these skills up front. Uh, Taneka, you talked about, you know, sitting down and going through, um, some of these calls and the, the service advisor reaction. Have you really developed and, you know, share your expectations on how you'd like the, the phone answered? I'm not asking about a script. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: But like that flow, right? We don't wanna create robots. Right. What have you done at, when you, you know, train and develop your team on here's what I would like to hear from you? Tonnika Haynes: So I haven't honed that in 100%, but I, I do know that we wanna thank them for calling. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: We wanna know how did you find out about us? Great. Is this your first time calling? How'd you hear about us? So, so we can track that, right? Yeah. Was it a repeat? Was it a neighbor? Was it a Google? How did you... Was it a postcard? How did you hear about me? Um, what can I help you with, and how soon can I get to it? Can you bring that in today or tomorrow? And, um, and smile. So I have these little things that I want them to say that's on the side- Yeah ... of their computer, and I don't want you to sit there and read and just say, "Oh, well, yes, sir, how can I help you today?" I want it to flow naturally because that's who we are as a shop. We- we're not a scripted shop. We're, we're a bunch of goofy people, actually. People. We just happen to fix cars. Um, and that's who we are. Yeah. And I want that to come through. I want you to be friendly. I want you to re- when they come in with the cat or the dog or whatever, please not a cat, but the dog. I want you to put in the notes, this is, this is that customer's name and this is what their dog's name. If they refer to their, their car, "My car's name is Pearline." If you called my car by his name, I'm not taking it nowhere else So I want you to build that relationship. And so I don't have a script and I don't have a formula yet, and maybe I should work on that. And, um, we do have like a SOP. Yeah. Probably should do a better job at that. But then what you just said made me raise my eyebrow, like, I should do better with that. But we do have some things that I'm, that are non-negotiables. David Boyes: You've got your flow there, which is great. Mm-hmm. And I think you're, you're doing better in that than, than- Yeah ... uh, some owners that, that we talk with. I encourage, I encourage everybody to have a flow, right? Yeah. We, we wanna kind of go through the conversation. I'll tell you the number one, um, deficit that I hear within the first probably 10 seconds of a phone call is asking for the customer name, right? So- Right ... "Thank you for calling ABC Automotive. How may I help you? Um, yeah, I can help you with that. My name's David. What's your name?" Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: It's so simple. Yeah. And, uh, I listen to call after call after call. I mean, these, they, they pop out because of our AI call analysis, but where we go through this whole process and we've had a 90-second call or a two-minute-long phone call, and at no point ask the customer name. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And then you assume that the name on a caller ID is their name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Right. Tonnika Haynes: That, that's a problem, too. I know that we were doing... I was doing it as well. Yeah. I would do it as well. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But, um, and, and with that, I had a little challenge saying, "Hey, I want to see you guys' name on the, the review." Yeah. And it really bothers me when a client calls to check on their car, and I have to, have to answer the phone, "Hey, who was your service advisor?" "Uh, I don't know." What? David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: They need to know your name. David Boyes: Mm. Tonnika Haynes: So I had to make sure that everybody had their own business cards when the car was dropped off. "Hey, my name is Stuart. This is who you should call to check on your car. Everybody here can help you, but I'm the main person." So I think a lot of people just don't do that, and say, "Hey, well, my name's Tanika. Who am I speaking with?" Great. "Have you been here with us before?" David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: You know, if it doesn't pop up on the caller ID, "Have you been here with us before?" Yeah. But the caller ID pop up, that's a game changer. Am I skipping ahead? Should we not go that far yet? David Boyes: No, you're fine. Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Thank you, David. Yeah, just be ready. Yeah, be ready when, when David Voigts calls Brown's Automotive, and you call and say, "Brown's Automotive. This is Tanika. Hey, David, how can I help you today?" What is that? What are you doing? You knew I was calling. You know, like- Yeah ... yeah, caller ID exists. People forget about that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: But- They do. They do. But it, it's just extra special. Yeah. And that's what the caller ID... I know one thing I do when the customer's walking in, and if I know I have a blue Toyota Coro- Corolla coming in at 9:00. "Who is this coming in?" Yeah. "Hey, Mrs. Such-and-such. Good morning. Oh, hey." Instead of saying, "Can I help you?" Yes, you can help me. That's why I walked through the door. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. " Tonnika Haynes: Hey, M- hey, Mary David Boyes: Jane." Or, "Hang on a second. I'll be with you in a second." Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. No. David Boyes: Don't do that. Tonnika Haynes: Don't do that. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: So, um, there's a lot to be said about customer service, and there's a lot to be said about s- calling people by their name. Jimmy Lea: Amen. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: It creates familiarity. Yes. And, uh, when, when we have familiarity, we have a relationship. Mm-hmm. It's in- it's potentially implied. But people love to do business with, with the, the folks that they have a relationship with. Mm-hmm. And they're inclined... You know, this is the fun thing about consumer behavior and human behavior, is when I have a great experience, I wanna rally my friends around that too. I want to include them in the joy that I get to experience when I come see Tanika and her team. Yeah. So I'm gonna- I, I'm gonna be much more likely to tell folks about it. If I have a meh- Meh ... average experience, it's probably not gonna come up in conversation. I'm not gonna stick my neck out there. But, um, how do we do that? Well, we address people by their name. We know when they're calling, right? I might even be pulling that up in my shop management system or my CRM. Just the s- the second the phone rings, it's gonna pop and present that information. "Yeah, I saw you were in three, three months ago, and we had looked at, you know, X, Y, Z on your vehicle. Should we add, add some additional time to take care of that this time?" Right? It, we have an awareness. They have confidence in us. We know them as a person. We know their vehicles. And now we're, we're joining together with our customers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, at, at a common goal, right? And it comes back to their safety. Well, Tonnika Haynes: so what'll happen is you'll get a client, and, um... Sorry about the background noise. That's all right. You'll get a client, and they're not thinking about their car. They, they, they've grown to love you. They've grown to know you. They know you by your name. And then you made the recommendations last time. They trust you enough that they are just gonna be like, "Okay, whatever. I'll talk to you about it next time. Tanika's gonna remember that for me." Say, "Hey, Miss Mary Jane, you remember we talked about..." "I don't remember we talking about." "Well, here's a copy. I'm gonna send that over to you. We're gonna look at it, these things again." Yeah. It's just like having a whole system, and then you become that person. It's like I don't have to remember what my car needs 'cause Tanika and her team have the history, and they know me by my name. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Tonnika Haynes: Right. And they're gonna take care of me. David Boyes: The paradigm shift there is I, you know, as a service advisor, I'm the expert. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: As the service manager, I'm the expert, right? You've come to me because of our and my expertise, and I'm sharing the belief that you wanna be safe and you wanna care for your vehicle. So allow me to make these recommendations. Allow me to, to keep that, those notes about our previous interactions so that when we meet to, when we meet again, we can make sure that w- you know, we're, we're not starting from zero- Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm David Boyes: that we already have this information available, and we're going to improve that experience. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: Um, on the, on the call coaching side of it, um, you know, I, I think at some level you've kinda normalized it in your shop, and I'd love to learn more about how, you know, how did you do that? It's, it's not typical, I would say, that people are just, like, rallying around, "Let's listen to calls," right? 'Cause part of it is, you know, the exposure or this kind of fear of judgment. But once you normalize that and make it consistent, um, I'd love to know how you've done that and, and keep the, uh, the Big Brother mentality out the door. Tonnika Haynes: Well, I don't, well, we've got cameras, and we've got these things recording the calls. And, and first of all, these calls are not being recorded to get you. These calls are recor- Yeah ... recorded to cover your butts from that crazy person that swear they didn't say it. Mm-hmm. These calls are recorded to make you better. Um, I remember Chad say, "Hey, just put it on the calendar. Just put it on the calendar." It's like ha- having that one-on-one for the first time. Nobody knows what to say or to do. I'm not trying to attack you. I'm just trying to make you better. So let's just... I listened to my call. Be vulnerable. Me. Hey, Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Tonnika Haynes: you don't wanna listen to your call. I didn't wanna listen to my own call. But let's, let's do this. It's just on the calendar. And like I said, the defense will just break down a little bit at a time, and I found that with my one-on-ones again. Like, we do a first Monday one-on-one. If I was late or if I skipped the one-on-one, they're like, "Well, why did, I didn't get my one-on-one. Am I in trouble?" They look forward to it. Everybody wants positive reinforcement. Amen. So if you keep it positive, and then some- like, "Hey, I looked at 10 of your calls, and out of the 10, only 3 of them were coachable." Or, "Hey, you remember when we started out, how you would have, like, a 11 bad calls out of 20? Dude, you only got two this time." So make sure we measure it, okay? Schedule it, measure it, keep it going. Know you're uncomfortable, they're uncomfortable, and just say- I don't wanna do this. Nobody wants to do it. Nobody wants to lift that... Well, a lot of people don't wanna lift the heaviest weight for the muscle gain. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be painful, but it's gonna get easier. It's gonna be easier for me and you as the coach and the coachee, or is it a coachee? Whatever. So, I mean, it, it's... I don't know if there's an easy way to put it, but I just know that you just keep doing it, you be consistent, and you let them know if you're uncomfortable. Like I hear shop owners say, "How do you start this one-on-one stuff? How do you start this coaching stuff?" You just start it. And you're just like, "Ooh, hey, I don't know what I'm doing either. Let's do this together." Yeah. "Let's, let's get better together." Like, I'm listening to my calls too. We're all getting better together. So I would just say start it, put it on a schedule, make it, make it pop up, show up. Yeah. Wednesday, coaching calls. Jimmy, one of the- Schedule it. It's ready to go. David Boyes: Yeah. That, that's perfect. I, I, I love the perspective too. And Jimmy, one of the, you know, the things that I share with owners consistently is be consistent. Mm-hmm. So I think the, the technology drives that, right? We're delivering an email with, you know, here, here's a, a top call, here's a coachable call. Here's some additional information. So delivering that is important, and the technology really helps us drive that consistency in this case. So, um, when that, that email comes out, here's a call example, you don't have to do anything with that today, or you can. If you don't, there's another one tomorrow, right? Mm-hmm. And we wanna create that normalcy. And th- this is the part that drives change, is one, you know, we're, we're making this normal. Yep. And Tanika, you were just talking about that, right? We're gonna put this on the calendar. People begin to expect it, right? It becomes normal for them, and that's a super important milestone in the coaching, training, and development process, is that sense of normalcy in the shop. And then, um, u- understanding the expectations and, you know, where do we have the opportunities. Um, Tanika, you know, one, one thought that comes to mind here is, you know, you'd mentioned at the beginning, like ask for the appointment. As you began doing this, you know, what, what did you begin to understand and, and see happening across, you know, the phone calls and across your organization? What patterns began to emerge? And really, what's that aha moment you had where you're like, "This is bringing value to me while I'm bringing value to my team"? Tonnika Haynes: Ooh, that's a good question. So when we start asking for the appointment, you know what? The calendar filled up. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. So the marketing was working. And, um, but the big aha moment... Ooh, that's a good question, Dave. You got me on that one. Should have text me that before you asked me that one. I'd been ready. David Boyes: My Tonnika Haynes: apologies. Phone with you. Aha moments with phone calls. I don't know. I, I really, I can't answer that one for you, but what I do wanna say before I forget the chance, don't get the chance to say it, when they're sitting beside each other up front and they're lis- 'cause they're, everybody can hear everybody's phone calls. Mm-hmm. I can hear them say, "That was a good one. What was that one about?" Or like Stuart would tell Hailey, he's like, "She's, she's had a lot of good phone calls here lately. I can hear the change in the way she's handling the phone calls." So again, um, may have got a little bit off subject, but them helping each other and encouraging each other. Maybe they can only hear one end of the phone call, but there's some key words like, "Oh, you killed that one." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. " Tonnika Haynes: You killed that one." Or making that sale on the phone call. Yeah. "I heard how you delivered that BVI. I heard that delivery. You gave them the good sandwich," and they said yes. Like this morning, she was like, "She said yes to everything." It's like, "God, it's working." Imagine that. Love it. Imagine doing a training, following the instructions, and it actually working. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Gotta David Boyes: love that. It really is the aha moment too, right? Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. David Boyes: You're, you're going through, you're driving consistency. You have, you know, some form of flow and expectations, and you're learning from one another. I love the fact that- Mm-hmm ... they're listening at least to one side of each other's conversations- Right ... in real time. Tonnika Haynes: I David Boyes: think I'm lucky Tonnika Haynes: with that- And then getting to populate from that ... with my team. David Boyes: Yeah. Tonnika Haynes: I think I'm lucky with my, 'cause they're, they're not in competition, and, um, it's like how do you keep them... I don't know. God blessed me with that, but I'm just lucky that way. But encouraging each other- So. Jimmy Lea: It's good. That's good, Tanika. You, you've set up a solid culture there, solid people. They've got great results. You're listening to the phone calls. Consistency, like David's talking about. You know, um, hearing one side of the conversation helps a little bit, but if you, if you, as an owner, if you're only listening to half the conversation and you are not booked up three, four, five, six, seven, eight days in advance, chances are you're missing the other half of the conversation, and you need to listen to it. So you do need a device, a program, a, a hardware. You need a, a phone system that allows you to listen to all sides- Mm-hmm ... of the conversation. You've g- just gotta be able to do that. You gotta be able to do that. Now I'm gonna give another shout-out here as we work in our marketing. So a lot of times I hear shops talking about their marketing. "Well, my marketing's not working. I'm not... It's not working. It's not working." A lot of times it comes back to the phone call. Mm-hmm. How well is the phone call being handled or treated from an advisor? But speaking to the marketing part, we've got a shout-out here for the institute is holding a marketing intensive this October 26, 27, 28. Tanika, I just got off the phone with Brett Faidley. He is signed up. He is coming out for Mars Conference, so if you wanna get signed up as well, sister, we'd love to have you out here. Tonnika Haynes: I gotta get a real flashy jacket for that one. Jimmy Lea: Uh-huh. Tonnika Haynes: Pull out my Jimmy Lea: rhinestones. Right behind that Mars Conference. So if you got your smartphone there in front of you, grab out your smartphone, turn on your camera. There's the QR code right there. Oh, man. Flash the QR code and get registered. The, the, uh, the Mars Conference is going to be awesome. It is a conference where when you are done with the workshops, it's a three-day conference. When you're done with that three-day conference, you have 2027 mapped out, ready to go, and you know what you're gonna be doing month to month throughout that whole next year. It's super awesome. I, I love the Mars Conference. David Boyes: I do too. So Jimmy Lea: come- David Boyes: I was at the last one. Excited to be there. I'm, let me just say I was there as a participant at the last Mars Conference. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. David Boyes: And, uh, one, getting to, you know, to interact with so many, uh, friends across the industry was great, but also, uh, you know, I, I, I don't own a shop. I own a, uh, communication business. I took so much away from that that I immediately applied. I can speak from my own experience. Uh, and I know, uh, you know, many of the participants there that took those components right back to their shop and made immediate changes. So it is, uh, it's not just a, um, it's not just a workshop where you're gonna come away with a flashy workbook and put that in a dusty cabinet somewhere and never do anything with it. I promise you, you attend the Mars Conference, and, uh, you will come away energized and ready to make a real difference in your shop Jimmy Lea: Yep, for sure. For sure. Tonnika Haynes: All right. Like I s- I'm never gonna be at work if I keep coming, following you around, Jimmy. David Boyes: Just imagine your wardrobe, though. Tonnika Haynes: Oh, I know. It'd be so good. Jimmy Lea: It'd be so good. Tonnika Haynes: But no, we'll see. I, I'm thinking about that. I thought about what we talked about the other day, but we're not gonna get off subject 'cause I do that a lot. David Boyes: It can happen. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. David, what else? What else can we talk about with phones, phone systems, programs? Um, can we track our marketing using your phone system? David Boyes: Yeah. Uh, just on that very note, you know, the, uh, uh, we'll talk about this a little bit this year at Mars as well, but, you know, market tracking is important, right? We, we spend a lot of money, and understanding the performance, uh, is important. So with our phone system, you know, we can provide, uh, market tracking numbers if you have different campaigns, mailers, text messaging, website, uh, related, uh, leads that you're generating. Um, we can certainly provide unique numbers. The customer experience is the same, and the, um, you know, the shop experience is the same, except you have all of this additional data about, you know, how many calls were generated. So that's important to know, and, uh, it's also important to, uh, use that as a, you know, a good baseline of information about your capacity to manage phone calls in your shop. So when we look at some of the, uh, the other performance metrics, how long does it take us to answer the phone? Are we answering the phone, right? Jimmy Lea: Mm. David Boyes: In order to ask somebody for the appointment, we have to first answer the phone. Uh, and if you're spending this money on marketing campaigns, there are a variety of reasons, and I'll just tell you one example that I hear often from owners is, you know, they put out a marketing number and they, you know, advisors, uh, might believe that it's, you know, it's generating bad leads, something like that, so they won't answer that phone. Um, but we wanna, we wanna understand, uh, the behavior of what's going on. Is it something that we can control? Um, are, are we effective in the marketing campaign? What information do I have around that? And then additionally, uh, running that into the call analysis, uh, so that we understand are we, are we converting these, right? If we're generating the leads, are we actually generating appointments? And then, uh, from that point, if you know you have the appointment, you can measure your performance, uh, go forward. So there's a lot of data that we can capture, um, other than just sending in all of these phone calls to the main number. Jimmy Lea: I love it. David Boyes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love the, the phone is such a powerful tool. I love when we can multitask that tool and do multiple things with the, the same tool. Very cool. Very cool. But i- if there a- any questions, comments, concerns from our audience, we would love for you to type those in. If there's questions for David or questions for Tamika, go ahead and type those into the comments section. While they're doing that, I will say if you are trying to keep up with me, good luck. But you can find it on our website. The website page is, uh, wearetheinstitute.com/events. That's all of the events that are coming up here in the very near future where you will see the institute participating and locking arms with the industry to help elevate the industry. Our motto, our mantra is, better business, better life, better industry. We're gonna lock arms with you as a shop owner so that you have a better business. The net result of you having a better business is that you have a better life. Tonnika Haynes: Mm-hmm. Jimmy Lea: And not just you have a better life, your advisors have a better life, your technicians have a better life. Your, uh, your partners have a better life. Your spouse Your advisors' significant others, their spouses, uh, their, their technicians and their spouses, the, and their children. Everyone elevates, everyone breathes better, everyone sees a bluer sky and greener grass when we have a better business, a better life, and our commitment is that we will help this become a better industry. Looks like there's a couple of comments that did come through. Oh, no, that's Raleigh posting out the webpage for the events. Yeah. Uh, super awesome. Super awesome. Uh, last final thoughts, final ideas. David, we'll start with you. Tanika, then to you. Yeah. That we can help this industry grow. David Boyes: Tanika, thank you for joining today and, and sharing your experience. It's super valuable for, for me as a provider to our industry that, uh, we understand how we're driving impact. So thank you again for that. Thank you for your trust and support. For the, uh, the audience, uh, Call Inbound is our company, callinbound.com. Uh, we provide communication services, uh, call tracking information, uh, advisor call handling performance metrics, and AI call analysis. But above all, we're part of the industry, right? So, uh, I got my start with, uh, with the institute in a 20 group. Got, you know, very ingrained in the industry, uh, while I was building my company. And, um, you know, I'm proud to say that I'm part of the, uh, not just the automotive aftermarket, but the, the service repair industry. Thank you, Tonnika Haynes: gentlemen. I wanna make, make sure you know that I appreciate your company. Um, I don't know how many employees you have, but it seems like they're all just sitting in the same room waiting to help. I can send an email and I get a response so quickly, and it's always been consistent great service, so I do appreciate that. And, uh, anybody that's on the fence, whether you, you know, I'm like, "I don't wanna listen to phone calls, that's just another thing for me to need to..." Do it. Listen to the phone calls. Start with yourself. Start with yourself as the owner. I always say start, start with yourself. I always assume that I'm the problem, then I can work from there. Listen to your phone calls, and if you think you're good and then you listen to them, you realize how bad you are, think about how bad your team is if you're not coaching them. So get them in coaching call services or what- whatever. Listen to the phone calls. Get everything in order. And not only will you make better sales and better connections, more appointments, but I really truly believe that it could save you a lot of heartache. Yeah, they record bad calls, too. Bad calls from the other end that you're, you know, that you need, I hate to say for court, but anything. It's like, "Hey, sir, we've got that call recorded and that didn't go quite the way you're saying it's gonna go." So that's another part to it that could, that could be very important in your shop. We call that David Boyes: the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. David Boyes: We'll take that to the replay booth. Tonnika Haynes: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: It, it, it's an important to CYA. Exactly. You gotta cover your own behind. Tonnika Haynes: There's a great... That's a great tool for that. Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yep. Yep, for sure. Well, with that, thank you very much. David, thank you for being here. Taneka, thank you very much for being here. Tonnika Haynes: Any Jimmy Lea: time. Look forward to seeing both of you very soon at our next conference, and to give you a big hug and say hello. Uh, bring your best jackets, David. Say Tonnika Haynes: less. Gotcha. Say less. Back in the David Boyes: studio. Jimmy Lea: Yes, yes. Very much looking forward to working with all of you in the very near future. And for everyone that is listening, thank you so much for joining us today as we talk about building a better business, a better life, and a better industry. My name is Jimmie Lee. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and we're here to lock arms with you and make a difference. Click on it. Come find us. We're here to help. How can we help you? Let's make a difference. Talk to you soon.

Ep 173: How to Upskill Leadership Skills in the AI Era with Jacki Lutz

From Key2Key to Massive Cashflow - August Key2Key debrief - Bonus Zoom Episode 13

Glenn Piccolo and the Auto Hospitality Group debrief an explosive Courtside weekend and break down how shops can actually get started with the Key2Key concept.   Also, overcoming public-speaking fear through repetition, using scatterplots to track team development, and available resources (VIP Rack Attack, leadership classes, AI Academy, and Auto Shop Answers) to help shops scale.   AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

Ep 112 - Coaching Call #20 | Mike is Going to Charge for Diag??

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Mike Allen sits down with Matt Lofton for another open-book coaching session, digging into the real numbers behind one of Mike’s shops and figuring out what has to change to push it past 20% net profit. They break down car count, closing ratio, effective labor rate, gross profit per billed hour, staffing capacity, revenue per employee, and why a shop can look busy while still leaving a lot of money on the table. The conversation eventually forces Mike to reconsider one of his favorite controversial strategies—free diagnostics—and whether qualifying customers and charging for testing could actually improve the shop. As usual, there’s plenty of math, sarcasm, questionable financial decisions, and Mike reluctantly admitting that Matt may have a point.Timestamps00:00 Mike Forgot the Most Important Podcast Preparation: A Drink01:21 A $734 Power Bill vs. Matt’s Accidental Backyard Rainforest04:25 Growing the Business Just Creates New Problems07:35 Are Shop Owners Bad at Celebrating Wins?11:33 Opening the Books: $115K Revenue, $530 ARO & 24% Closing14:40 The Shop’s Best Month of the Year15:18 Building a 20%+ Net Profit Goal18:18 How to Calculate the Revenue Your Shop Actually Needs20:41 Can the Current Team Produce Enough Hours?25:45 “I Have No Excuse Not to Put $25K–$30K in the Bank”27:04 Could This Be a 30% Net Profit Shop?27:45 The Gross Profit Per Billed Hour Every Shop Needs to Know30:21 The Problem With a 24% Closing Ratio31:47 Your Loss Leader Doesn’t Have to Be for Everybody34:29 23 Cars Out of 110 Generated $034:57 “We’re Not Hospice for Cars”35:19 Should Repair Shops Have an Age Limit on Vehicles?36:32 Mike Admits He’s About to Make a Bad G-Wagon Decision39:58 Matt Sees Mike’s Effective Labor Rate and Gets Sad41:12 Mike Calls Capacity Calculators “Mental Masturbation”42:02 Should Mike Finally Start Charging for Diagnostic Testing?43:15 What McDonald’s Can Teach Repair Shops About Pricing44:04 Qualifying Customers Before Giving Them Something Free46:25 Mike Promises to Rage-Bait Matt Again46:54 Raising Effective Labor Rate Could Add $500K in Capacity49:11 What Should the Entry-Level Diagnostic Fee Be?51:41 The Revenue-per-Employee Hiring Benchmark55:05 Is It Already Time to Hire Another Technician?55:49 Why Your Shop Can’t Operate at Redline Forever57:17 “Good Dude Is Not a Qualifier for Employment”59:42 Mike Prepares to Admit He Was Wrong About Free Diag

Building a Career From Scratch at 30 with Sean Pierce

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff talks with Oregon technician Sean Pierce about his unconventional path into automotive repair, from car audio and alarms to trade school, ASE certifications, and advanced diagnostics. Sean shares lessons from working on exotic vehicles and Sprinters, explains why process and proper brake work matter, and discusses his shop’s hourly-plus-bonus pay structure and technician development pipeline. They also explore scan tools, hybrids and EVs, ADAS calibration, liability, parts quality, and the challenges of bringing the next generation into the trade.Timestamps:00:00 Trade School Journey 00:53 Podcast Intro and Wildfires 01:30 Farm Life and Animals 02:58 Toyota vs. Sprinter Shop Specialties 03:44 Sprinter Repair Nightmares 06:55 Car Audio and Euro Roots 10:57 Exotic Car Installs and Ferrari Stress 12:48 Becoming a Technician and Earning ASEs 15:52 Training Technicians the Right Way 18:00 Pay Plans and Shop Culture 20:21 Building a Community Reputation 26:14 Parts Quality and Counterfeit Components 35:26 On-Car Rotor Truing 38:40 Hub Preparation and Brake Vibration 41:28 Flat Rate vs. Quality 43:05 Proper Brake Bedding 45:56 Why Diagnostics Is Addictive 51:33 Setting Diagnostic Expectations 57:44 Audi S8 Diagnostic Nightmare 01:03:49 Scan Tools and Diagnostic Resources 01:08:38 Hybrids and EVs 01:13:03 EV HVAC Safety Warnings 01:14:11 ADAS and Calibration 01:15:53 Tesla and Self-Driving Reality 01:17:25 Calibration Liability and Pay 01:25:07 What Frustrates Technicians Today 01:27:49 How Passion Changes With Age 01:31:22 Side Work and Going Solo 01:40:15 Building the Next Generation of Technicians 01:48:13 Two-Year Goals and Wrap Up Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Are You Running Your Shop… Or Is It Running You? | Darin Johnson - Ep 37

You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMORunning an auto repair shop is one thing—but what happens when the shop starts running you? In this episode, Tonnika Haynes sits down with Darin Johnson, a one-man shop owner from Great Bend, Kansas, who admits he's working seven days a week, struggles to tell customers no, and hasn't taken a real vacation since 2018. They get into the difficult transition from technician to business owner, why coaching and industry connections have changed Darin's approach, and how raising his labor rate didn't create the customer revolt he feared. Tonnika also gets fired up about boundaries, last-minute customers, “free” tire pressure checks, and why serving your community doesn't mean allowing customers to control your schedule. Darin is heading to ASTA with a mission: build his network, learn how to step away from the shop, find help, and finally create a business that gives him a life outside the bays.Timestamps:00:00 Cold open: “It’s gonna be on one more day”00:19 Downshift intro00:38 Darin still has a FLIP PHONE?!02:10 Meet Darin: Running a one-man repair shop in Kansas02:44 How he accidentally became a shop owner04:27 From hot rods to 25 years in automotive05:39 Does Darin really want to stay a one-man operation?07:06 Heading to ASTA for the first time07:40 Why Darin LEFT his first training event early08:39 Coaching struggles: Knowing what to do vs. actually doing it09:55 The real reason Darin is coming to ASTA10:16 Shop ownership can feel like you’re on an island13:08 Working seven days a week & being married to the shop14:20 The people-pleasing problem15:03 Customers asking about cars at dinner and the grocery store16:27 What happens when the shop becomes your only hobby?20:26 Feeling guilty for taking time away20:57 “Schedule your hats”—including downtime22:59 Darin’s five-year plan: Train someone to replace him23:38 His last REAL vacation was in 201824:34 Open-heart surgery changed how Darin viewed the business25:21 Becoming an owner instead of just a technician28:06 Why 15–20 cars are constantly sitting at the shop28:34 The work Darin has finally started saying NO to30:49 Bringing an accountability partner to training32:42 Why a few unhappy customers can ruin your mindset33:58 Should you just FIRE the worst 5% of your customers?38:02 Tonnika gives Darin his official ASTA assignment40:40 Finding your automotive family42:39 Why Tonnika recommends coaching43:57 Coaching’s impact on Darin’s mindset and mental health45:01 “I wish I would’ve done this 10 years ago”46:04 Why shops that don’t train get left behind46:58 Darin now has the highest labor rate in town47:34 Tonnika’s $12 lawnmower tire era 😂49:00 Learning how to say NO without losing customers49:12 Scheduling your different “hats” as an owner51:10 Customers don’t control your schedule51:44 “It’s been on for two weeks? It can wait another day.”53:05 Your six-month-old check engine light isn’t suddenly my emergency53:50 How “real quick” jobs steal HOURS from your day54:52 Why Tonnika refuses to just throw air in a tire55:32 “My air isn’t free!”56:23 The right way to say no: Give customers another option57:45 Darin’s ASTA challenge & what’s coming in Part 2

Top 5 Qualities of a Genuine Service Advisor [RR 1106]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode What makes a good service advisor great? Levi Linseman, performance coach at Autoflow, shares the five human qualities that separate a good service advisor from a truly trusted professional. With 25 years of automotive experience, including 15 years at the service desk, Levi explains why eye contact, a smile, warmth, caring, and humility can turn everyday transactions into long-term customer relationships. The conversation also explores sophisticated professionalism, the role of AI in the customer experience, proactive communication, hiring for coachability, and why the best advisors know when to simply say, "I don't know." What You'll Learn The 5 qualities that define a genuine service advisor.How admitting mistakes can actually increase customer trust.Why AI should support the service advisor, not replace the human connection.How digital vehicle inspections can improve transparency and communication.Why coachability and continuous learning are essential for advisors.How proactive communication reduces customer anxiety.Why setting clear expectations can dramatically improve the customer experience.What shop owners should look for when hiring their next service advisor. Great service advisors do more than sell repairs. They build trust, reduce anxiety, communicate with honesty, and make customers feel cared for. Technology can make the process more efficient, but genuine human connection remains one of the most powerful advantages a shop can offer. Levi Linseman, Performance Coach, Autoflow Learn more about the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with on-site training and six days a week of support: http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download Our Mobile App:https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderBooks Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom Page:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomEpisode Collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:https://remarkableresults.biz/Automotive Field TheorywithMatt Fanslow:https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the NumberswithHunt Demarest: https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Brian and Kim Walker: https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitzwith Chris Cotton: https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communicationwith Craig O'Neill: https://craigoneill.captivate.fm                                        

From Harsh Truths In Mentorship To Reaching A $14M Operation | EP11 | Shop Fix Academy Podcast

Hard conversations don’t hold you back, they expose what has to change if you want to grow.In this episode, multi-shop owner Adam Preusser sits down with Guy Roberts and Michael "The Berg" Rosenberger to talk about the kind of mentorship that doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. This conversation gets into why real growth often starts with accountability, covering the relationships that challenged Adam's thinking and expanded what he believed was possible. He shares what he learned from the mentors who pushed back, why surrounding yourself with people who simply agree with you can keep you stuck, and how those hard-earned lessons helped shape the owner he became while building an operation now profiting roughly $14M annually. Learn why the right mentor should challenge you, accountability has to come before growth, and you need to hear the harsh truths you've been avoiding.Join Shop Fix LITE and learn alongside experienced coaches and a community of shop owners committed to building stronger, more profitable businesses.https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-lite?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-lite&utm_content=ctaAccess free guides, training, and on-demand replays from Shop Fix Academy to keep growing long after this episode ends.https://shopfixacademy.com/replays-and-guides?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shopfix-resources&utm_content=ctaThere's something different about learning in a room full of shop owners who are solving the same challenges you are.https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta

Episode 283 - Revamping Trade Shows While Building Industry Community with Tonnika Haynes

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Tonnika Haynes. Tonnika shares her experiences navigating trade shows like Vision and ASTA, highlighting the challenges of scaling events while maintaining their community feel. The conversation touches on the struggle to balance profitable training with meaningful content for shop owners. They also discuss the importance of grassroots networking and accountability within industry associations, emphasizing the need to evolve while remembering what made previous events special.00:00 Trade show insights and takeaways04:45 Struggling to secure instructors09:25 Improving trade show quality11:08 Evaluating training investment costs15:18 Investing in employee training18:21 Challenges in Automotive Training22:41 Getting great deals at the show23:30 Boosting vendor sales at trade shows27:40 Considering a move to a convention center30:58 Regional networking events in Asheville35:07 Adjusting content for wider appeal37:22 Demand for hands-on Tesla class41:53 Early board experiences discussed42:36 Addressing organizational dysfunction46:57 Launching the new podcast52:03 Discussing video production deadlines53:03 Braxton starting a media company56:04 Introducing the next topic

Autoshop Ministries Episode 8: Do Your Part - When Faith Demands Action

Joe and Pastor Devante explore how faith and obedience work together, using examples from Exodus, Nehemiah, and Jesus’ first miracle. They challenge listeners to move from asking God for blessings to doing the practical next step—identify one thing you’ve been praying about and act on it before the end of the day.

Mistakes That Nearly Broke Us Became Systems That Saved Us

You can be busy. You can have trucks lined up outside. You can be selling work every single day. And you can still go broke. This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin is joined by his wife, Marilyn Brown, and daughter, Jordan Valle-Perez, for a very...

Your Shop’s Toughest Competitor Is in the Mirror [THA 499]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Who is your shop's toughest competitor: the business down the street, or the people inside your own four walls? Carm Capriotto sits down with shop owners Dwayne Myers and Al Oramas to explore internal competition and why the biggest threats to a shop's success often come from within. The conversation challenges owners to stop obsessing over competitors and start examining their own leadership, consistency, processes, and customer experience. What You'll Learn Why operational consistency matters and how small deviations can create chaos.Why owners can't effectively lead from the "engine room."How true delegation requires owners to let go of control and trust their teams.Why "everything speaks" when it comes to the customer experience.How standing at the curb can reveal things owners no longer notice inside their own shops.How simple physical and operational improvements can create meaningful change.Why asking employees what they love and what they would change can reveal the true health of a business. Your greatest competitor may be staring back at you in the mirror. The shops that grow stronger are willing to look inward, challenge their own habits, listen to their teams, and consistently raise the standard. Leadership isn't about controlling every detail; it's about creating the environment, expectations, and trust that allow the entire team to perform at its best. Dwayne Myers, Dynamic Automotive, 8 locations, Maryland. Dwayne’s previous episodes HERE. Al Oramas, Pro Auto Care, 2 locations, Denver and Littleton, CO Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ David Boyes, President of ‘Today’s Class”  David’s previous episodes HERE Brad Updegraff, Dave’s Ultimate Automotive, 7 locations, Austin, TX. Brad’s previous episodes HERE. Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download and Listen on Our Mobile App: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections...

Why Young Technicians Keep Failing | Riley Spence - Ep 36

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HERE00:00 Meet Riley Spence and the dangers of reading internet comments03:12 Starting in the automotive industry at 14 years old04:54 Learning from mistakes, trouble, and a different career path06:06 Moving from turning wrenches into service and parts management07:36 Being promoted without training, procedures, or support08:21 Are service advisors really doing the easier job?09:52 How technician roles differ between dealerships, independents, and fleets12:31 Front and back must work together—not against each other14:35 Ego, arguments, and the shop cultures nobody wants17:23 Why Riley loves his current shop and the people around him18:34 Not every mentor is right for every apprentice19:02 Riley admits how ego hurt him as a young technician20:11 What Tonnika tells young employees who ask for help but won’t listen22:20 Making mistakes, slowing down, and learning without giving up24:20 What happens when a technician oversells their abilities25:51 Tonnika’s “green banana” scale for inexperienced technicians26:54 Do experienced technicians actually want to teach the next generation?28:30 The most important lesson for apprentices: shut up and listen30:00 Could an experienced technician learn from a 20-year-old apprentice?33:00 How younger employees can make an entire shop better35:18 Accountability, respect, and preparing young people for the workforce37:42 Mental health is real—but it cannot erase accountability41:04 Work-life balance and creating a safe place for technicians to talk44:10 Riley shares a costly mistake involving a car with no brake pedal47:52 The high-school dropout who became a talented technician50:35 Finding potential in unexpected employees51:24 How shops can make automotive careers more attractive53:01 Tool allowances and helping young technicians build a toolbox54:45 Why shops need to invest in training55:20 Technicians don’t have to wait for their employer to educate them58:40 Don’t let a bad shop stop your career growth01:03:00 Why support at home matters in a demanding automotive career01:05:11 Parenting your own children is not “babysitting”01:07:33 From “Brown’s daughter” to “Tonnika’s dad”01:08:09 Making a difference in employees’ lives01:10:36 What legacy really means inside and outside the shop01:12:52 Why shop owners need honest feedback from their employees01:21:11 Jordan’s roadside repair and a helpful stranger01:22:11 Banana pudding, Southern culture, and automotive friendships01:23:47 The automotive leaders Riley admires01:26:32 Why conversations and community are changing the industry01:27:00 Why Tonnika finally started a podcast01:27:29 Showing young people that automotive can be a great career01:29:24 Riley’s responsibility to the next generation01:29:42 Dirty hands, clean money

Bonus Episode - Emily Oliver On Keeping It in the Family While Facing Challenges and Growth at a Small Auto Shop

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Emily Oliver joins the podcast to share her journey of taking over a small family auto repair shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Emily talks about the challenges of modernizing operations, from adopting new software like Shop-Ware to implementing more thorough documentation and communication processes with customers. The conversation also highlights the complexities of hourly billing in auto repair, the challenges of managing family roles in business, and the importance of continuous learning and adaptation as the shop grows.00:00 Family auto shop's history08:56 Simple billing system explained10:55 Tracking time in auto repair bays19:04 Standardizing Inspection Processes23:10 Issues with technician pricing30:07 Convincing family about car maintenance36:33 Communicating with customers39:47 Dealing with other mechanics' issues46:27 Early challenges and learning curve54:21 Managing finances and staying focused56:10 Discussing parts pricing strategy01:01:21 Gaining insights from peer feedback

Ep 171: How Emotional Intelligence Makes Better Leaders with Dan Taylor

Why Flat Rate Is Failing Today's Technicians with Dustin Stutzman

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Dustin Stutzman, a shop foreman and high-efficiency flat-rate technician, shares why he left engineering for the automotive industry and how he became a master technician without a dedicated mentor. Drawing from years in dealership service departments, Dustin explains how flat-rate pay, poor dispatching, and corporate policies often discourage quality repairs and technician development. The conversation explores AI, diagnostic pay, training, dealership culture, and what it will take to retain skilled technicians in the future.Timestamps:00:00 Learning Without Mentors 00:47 From Engineering to Automotive 01:51 Work-Life Balance and Career Values 04:45 AI and the Future of Service Advisors 07:16 Paying Technicians for Video Inspections 11:45 The Shop Foreman Role 14:07 Dispatching Work by Skill Level 17:19 Solving a Cold-Start No-Start Mystery 23:31 Fighting for Diagnostic Pay 24:50 Feeling Appreciated by Great Leadership 30:00 Leaving After Pay Cuts 34:46 Dealer Groups and Industry Consolidation 39:48 Becoming a Chrysler Master Technician 42:40 Life on the Training Road 43:27 Why Dustin Avoided GM 44:30 Diesel Emissions and Warranty Pay 49:02 Getting Diagnostic Time Approved Upfront 55:40 Quoting Worst-Case Repairs 57:53 Service vs. Parts Department Friction 01:03:41 Dispatch Roulette at Dealerships 01:05:15 Demanding Real Diagnostic Data 01:05:46 The Air Filter Diagnostic Lesson 01:11:25 Old-School Electrical Diagnostics 01:13:57 Chrysler Warranty Pay and the Neon Squeak 01:15:19 The 40-Hour Dash Rattle 01:16:46 Brick Road Dash Rattle 01:17:32 One-Shot Repair Success 01:18:06 Foam-Filled Repair Solution 01:19:25 Why Dustin Praises Chrysler WiTech 01:21:09 Preventive Maintenance Matters 01:22:34 Oil Change Reality Check 01:25:19 The Cost of Oil Neglect 01:29:45 Training Technicians Under Flat Rate 01:33:18 The Missing Career Path for New Techs 01:34:39 Learning by Doing 01:37:45 Advocating for Better Pay and Metrics 01:41:20 Dealer Groups and Technician Burnout 01:45:07 The Technician Shortage and Pay Gap 01:50:16 Keeping Great Technicians 01:53:16 Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Events Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

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

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREIf you're like me and aren't good at marketing, don't do it on your own. Let the experts handle it. Touch HERE for more on Turnkey Marketing.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERE When I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!In this episode of Confessions of a Shop Owner, Mike Allen and Bryan Pollock get into technician pay, work ethic, training, shop culture, and whether today’s owners are expecting too much from the modern workforce. Bryan questions whether the self-motivated technician is disappearing, while Mike pushes back on the idea that someone should receive six-figure pay before developing a six-figure skill set. They also get into government regulation and price-gouging enforcement, bad repair shops, Mike’s anonymous Facebook trolling, and why sometimes the industry’s problems feel impossible to fix. And because this is Confessions, Mike also explains how he managed to injure himself playing kickball on the beach.Timestamps:00:00 Mike’s Casino Decisions & Bryan’s Corvette Disaster04:54 Mike Gets a Letter From the Attorney General07:34 Fraud Alert…Live During the Podcast08:05 Mike’s Fake Career as a Professional Blimp Folder12:23 Confession: Mike Has Been Trolling Shop Owners Anonymously17:17 Why There’s More Than One Right Way to Run a Shop19:37 Three Shop Owners With Completely Different Business Models21:44 David Roman Wants Absolutely Nothing to Do With Mike24:19 Cheap Labor Rates & Buying Failed Shops’ Equipment25:07 Is Bryan Becoming a Cranky Old Shop Owner?27:05 Are Technicians Becoming Too Dependent on Shop Owners?29:22 Bryan’s Crash Course Into Becoming a Technician32:26 Is the Self-Motivated Technician Disappearing?33:23 Should You Make $100K Before You Have $100K Skills?35:31 What Happens When Newer Cars Get Even More Complicated?35:58 “I Want to Learn”…But Won’t Use Free Training37:10 Technicians Who Say Training Is “Too Basic”39:18 Bryan’s Government Intervention Rant Begins41:00 Price Gouging vs. Shops That Can’t Fix Cars43:43 Who Gets to Decide What an Auto Repair Shop Should Charge?47:01 Why Government Regulation Won’t Fix the Real Problem48:10 Should Shops Call Out Bad Repairs From Other Shops?52:44 Mike Adds Four Employees to His Shops55:10 Mike’s Most Embarrassing Kickball Story57:02 Mike Defends His Sumo Wrestling Record58:25 Why You Need to Be at ASTA Expo

Bring the Classroom to the Shop: Raising the Bar For On-Site Training [RR 1105]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video EpisodeWhat if the best place to train your technicians isn't a classroom, but your own shop?In this episode of Remarkable Results Radio, Carm Capriotto sits down with Brandon Steckler, former Motor Age editor and industry educator, to discuss S.W.A.T. (Steckler Worldwide Automotive Technical Training and Diagnostics) and his mission to elevate automotive repair through hands-on education, diagnostic support, and a culture of continuous learning.Brandon explains why effective training should close knowledge gaps rather than simply provide quick answers, and why shop owners should view education as an investment in their people, their business, and the entire local repair community.What You'll LearnHow S.W.A.T. combines just-in-time diagnostic support with technician training.Why on-site training can create stronger technical foundations and better diagnostic habits.Why shop owners shouldn't fear inviting neighboring businesses to participate in training.How collaboration between local shops can strengthen the entire automotive repair community.Why technicians need to become "perpetual students" as vehicle technology continues to evolve.How investing in training can improve technician confidence, productivity, and profitability.Why bringing education directly into the shop can shorten the distance between learning and earning.Great technical training doesn't simply help a technician fix today's vehicle. It builds the knowledge, habits, confidence, and diagnostic thinking needed for tomorrow's challenges. Brandon's message is clear: shops that consistently invest in education create stronger professionals, stronger teams, and a stronger industry.Brandon Steckler, S.W.A.T Training and Diagnostics. Brandon’s previous episodes HERE.Brandon's Cell Phone: 1 (484) 824-4621Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://remarkableresultsradiopodcast.captivate.fm/napaautocare NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/Connect with the Podcast:Download and Listen on Our Mobile App: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmThe Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Facilitating Wisdom Through Storytelling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/Automotive Field Theory: From Diagnostics to Quantum Physics and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm

Your Shop Isn't Scaling Past $1M For These 5 Reasons...

The average U.S. auto repair shop profits under $600K, however the average Shop Fix Academy grown shop profits $2.4M. Guy Roberts and Michael “The Berg” Rosenberger cover 5 proven strategies that explain why so many owners still can’t break the $1M ceiling. This is not a car count problem. It is a leadership, people, systems, and capacity problem. Learn whether or not a $1M manager can actually lead a $2M store, why the employees who helped you reach your first million may not be the ones who can help you double profits, and how hiring more bodies can double overhead without moving production. They unpack the “Front of The Step, Back of The Step” model every growing shop owner needs to understand. Stay tuned to get the right people producing at the right level, and scale a $1M shop into a $2M operation without crushing cash flow along the way.Ready to break through your next growth ceiling? Shop Fix PRO gives you 1:1 coaching, proven systems, and a community of experienced shop owners to help you build a stronger, more profitable business.https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-pro?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-pro&utm_content=ctaExplore free replays, practical guides, and proven resources designed to help you improve profitability, strengthen your team, and grow your shop with confidence.https://shopfixacademy.com/replays-and-guides?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shopfix-resources&utm_content=ctaThe best shop owners never stop learning. Explore upcoming Shop Fix Academy events and find the training that's right for you and your team.https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfa-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta

Episode 282 - AI, Recruiting, Shop Culture, and the Drive for Better Hires with Promotive

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood and David Roman are joined by Sam Freeman, Alexandra Pare, and Daniel Ekstrand from Promotive. The group demos “Paige,” Promotive’s AI-powered virtual recruiter, showcasing how AI is transforming the hiring and prescreening process in the automotive industry. The conversation dives into current industry trends, including why technicians are leaving dealerships for independent shops and the top reasons candidates are looking for new positions. They also get candid about the frustrations of online reviews, sharing stories and strategies shop owners use to respond to feedback—both good and bad.00:00 Overview of Promotive's Services11:55 Managing morning priority calls15:43 Handling Language and Mumbling Issues18:44 Automated messaging for applicants27:21 Icy disaster during bachelor party32:58 Early adoption of Facebook and DVI37:41 Missed email confusion42:59 Hotel room negotiation challenge44:38 A quick conference trip52:30 Challenges of running a car shop59:36 Trying the Worst BBQ in KC01:03:25 Handling negative feedback01:07:19 Feedback on Uber improvements

Don't Send Your Service Advisor Into A Battle Unarmed

Your service advisor may be the gatekeeper of your entire business, but have you actually trained them to protect it? In Part One of this two-part Repair Shop Reckoning conversation, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey break down one of the most expensive...

July Courtside & Key2Key Debrief: The No‑Risk, Perfected Business Model - Bonus Zoom Episode 12

Glenn Piccolo hosts the Profit Panel with special guest Todd Hayes to debrief Key2Key to Callbacks and the Courtside program in Houston. They highlight our high-energy training, VIP Rack Attack day, and real stories from team members like Mike Quinn who transformed from knowing nothing about cars to running the entire Houston market in three years. Guests emphasize implementation over theory: surrendering to the concept, doing the work (start with the take‑five), teamwork between front and back of house, and the idea that this perfected business model removes risk when executed. To come and be a part, contact Todd Westerlund at 925-980-8012 or visit AutoshopAnswers.com. Auto-Shop-Media.com

213 - The Wealthy Tech: Building Value, Skills, and a Stronger Future

213 - The Wealthy Tech: Building Value, Skills, and a Stronger Future July 22, 2026 - 00:59:59 Show Summary: A technician’s greatest long term asset is the knowledge they build throughout their career. Intentional learning helps strengthen confidence and improve problem solving while creating more opportunities for growth. Experience becomes valuable when technicians review mistakes and use those lessons to improve future performance. Small efforts repeated over time can produce major gains in efficiency and skill. The right tools support the work but knowledge determines how effectively those tools are used. Technicians who continue learning become more adaptable and more valuable in a changing industry.   Host(s): Kent Bullard, CCO, The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence Nick Pope, Industry Coach, The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence   Jim Cokonis, Technical Director, Today's Class Show Highlights: [00:00:00] – Technician wealth includes skill value satisfaction income and opportunity. [00:05:42] – Growth begins when you seek people who challenge your thinking. [00:10:12] – Experience creates wisdom when mistakes become useful lessons. [00:15:02] – Every workday provides another chance to improve your skills. [00:18:27] – Intentional practice transforms routine work into professional growth. [00:23:36] – Confidence comes from knowing how to find solutions. [00:29:08] – Focused daily learning can quickly strengthen technical ability. [00:34:04] – Repetition improves efficiency productivity confidence and performance. [00:42:06] – Tools support the repair while knowledge creates lasting value. [00:47:02] – Investing in yourself creates the strongest long term return.   In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.   👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UUqQdK1xqPM   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript: Kent Bullard: Hello everybody. I am so excited for the topic we're gonna cover today, the wealthy technician. Today we're gonna dive into building your skills, building your value as a technician in the marketplace, and really building a solid future for you. Today we've got Nick Pope and Jim Kokonis, both incredible instructors. And I couldn't be more proud to work alongside these gentlemen today. Gentlemen, welcome to the webinar. Good Jim Cokonis: morning, Kent. Everybody. Nick Pope: Good morning, Kent. Good morning everyone. Thanks for having us. Before we- I was... real quick, as Kent said w- we're gonna be covering the wealthy technician, and we wanted to just quick touch base on what defines wealthy. Jim, what are some thoughts that come to your mind right away? Jim Cokonis: I guess that depends on the person. But value, skill, job satisfaction, pay, all of it. Nick Pope: Yeah, I like that. And you said value and building on that. Value creates opportunity. So Kent, could you please take this away? I- Kent Bullard: yeah, I honestly, just coming back to this wealthy. Wealthy has several different definitions, and I know that we're gonna cover a few of those today. Let's jump into our, this next slide here and kick this thing off So before we get started, we know we've got a lot of you out there. I think we ended up having 40 to 45. Let us know that you guys are here in the chat, and I'd love for you guys to introduce yourselves. So what's your role? Where are you from? And think about this, name one thing that you've been able to do this year that made you a more valuable technician. As you guys are answering those questions in the chat I wanna cover some ground rules for this webinar. If you guys have any questions, please ask them in the chat. I'm gonna be your voice for this webinar. I'm gonna be p- paying attention to the comments and asking Nick and Jim your questions. Let's keep it as positive and constructive as we can. I know that sometimes these conversations can get very heated. We're very passionate. We care deeply, but let's try to put this in a positive forward perspective. And take notes, key takeaways, and most importantly, like all of us were having before we started this webinar, is to have fun. Nick, I'm gonna hand it back to you, sir. Nick Pope: Perfect. Thank you, Kent. So as we talk about what builds a, a valuable technician, Jim made some ex-excellent points and, the, the one thing that really stands out to me is every day we have the opportunity to build on where we were. And as we move on to our next slide here, we're gonna talk a little bit deeper about that. There's many areas that we can dive into, but before we do that, I want to start out with a little bit of a story. And, t-to take back myself in time, back when I was an early technician, a lot of what I knew then I do not know now, right? Over time, there are things that we're going to pick up along the way, but when we're at a certain point in our lives, we really don't have the capacity to look at things through a certain perspective. And what I mean by that is for most of us that were, or are right now young- ... early technicians, we're learning the ropes, right? We may be in a new role in a new business and understanding what the dynamic is there. Where do we fit in? We may have a family, and we're trying to figure out how to be, a good husband or a good wife and then, a good father or a good mother. Our focus is on a lot of other things, and a lot of the time, naturally, we're just trying to make a living to get by, and that's extremely understandable. Now, the one thing that I wish I would have known then that I know now is if I would've just opened my mind a little bit earlier, sooner in my career, I would've had the ability to learn a little bit more that would really add up over time. Just a little bit, versus just doing the same thing over and over again. Jim, can you think of a story back in your time when you can put yourself back into, in your early careers as a, or your early career as a technician when you were first starting out? What was your mindset like then? Jim Cokonis: My first job out of trade school was working in a fuel injection shop. And That that environment where one piece of dust can ruin a rebuild or destroy a piece of equipment gave me an extreme attention to detail and cleanliness. And it took me a long time to figure out that w- the way I need to do a fuel injection pump is different from what I need to do on an engine rebuild or a transmission repair. Because I would use the same really detail-oriented, super clean approach to everything I was doing, and there comes a point when you hit a spot where the customer's not willing to pay for that attention to detail on that job. So I had to learn that pretty early on in my career. Nick Pope: Yeah. Was it ever a thought in your mind to get yourself in a place to expand your mind and challenge yourself and find new things that you can use and apply in your career. Jim Cokonis: Wow. Okay, here's a quote we haven't talked about in the past, Nick, but, I heard a piece of advice from somebody a long time ago that says, "If you wanna keep growing, if you find you're the smartest person in the room, find another room." And I still find it very easy to be in a room where people are smarter than me. And I seek that out because, I like to be challenged and learning something every day. Even with all these experience highlights I still try to learn something every day. So yeah, I definitely would challenge myself, take on something new. Nick Pope: Yeah, I love that. Nick. And, yeah. Kent Bullard: Nick, we've got a question for you, by the way. Sure. From Michael on Facebook. Do you think you, younger Nick, would have listened? He says that, "I think this industry has to have some pivoting moments to even prepare their minds for that upgrade." Nick Pope: That's a great question. And I really think that if I was exposed to it in a way where it struck curiosity within me, yes. I was not, and, that's a big driving force why we're here right now, quite frankly to begin. But I only knew what I knew, and, I was surrounded by people who were very skilled. I had some great mentors that really elevated my game. As Jim stated, the, the people around you are going to shape you in one way, shape, or form. And ideally, it is a, a great honor to be around people that are extremely knowledgeable because you can pick up so much. You don't realize what you catch when you're around people of that stature and it's priceless. The moment you understand what's happening and you pick that up, and you're intentional about really paying attention to the details of how they carry themselves, how they think, how they respond upon certain situations and approach things, how they use the resources around them it's remarkable. Yeah, I th- I like to think if younger Nick had someone that planted that seed or maybe knocked me on the head and said, "Hey, we gotta look at it this way," I probably would've at least thought about it, right? So great question. Kent Bullard: At least in, in my perspective I didn't have to have an older Kent. I had other people that were there for younger Kent that really helped me on my own path, I take a bit of appreciation for that. So Nick, we've got a few of these Jim Cokonis: your environment will impact you good or bad. Choose your environment wisely. Kent Bullard: So Nick, you've got a couple of these things here listed for what builds a valuable technician. Nick Pope: Yep. There are just a few examples here. There are definitely going to be more, but these are a few areas that are going to work uniquely together. They're going to be combined. They're compounding quite a bit over, the course of a day into over a long period of time. So as we invest into ourselves and grow our knowledge we are hopefully gonna be in a position where we can take that and apply it into what we do. So the value of that is ultimately not only going to reflect, our role and our ability to be successful, but it's also hopefully going to impact our income, right? When we see wealthy, automatically we're going to think money. That's what I think when I hear it, but there's way more to it than that. And, circling back, the, the wealth really in our career is really what lies in between our ears. Our knowledge is going to take us places and as we continually grow that, we have the ability to stay on top of the trends within our industry and keep up it with, as things are evolving. And also just keep up with if we're working in independent shops, right? There's a large array of vehicles we're working on and that's a lot in its own. So ultimately it's endless and we can look at that two ways. We can look at it as, yeah, it's overwhelming, it's a lot or we can view it as this is great because there's always going to be something new to learn. We're ultimately challenged in the environment we're in, which is the ideal environment is to be challenged. Experience. Jim, how do you think experience factors into, building value within ourselves as technicians? Jim Cokonis: For me, I've always taken experience to grow wisdom. I've... Have you ever had your butt put in a bucket by a car and carried out of the shop? Nick Pope: Yeah, more times than I can count. Jim Cokonis: Yeah, that's experience. That's experience, and am I willing to take that and learn from it to not... To me, the craziest thing that you can do is continue to make the same mistake and get frustrated by it. If a method I tried didn't work we used to have this saying called "Fix the car backwards to learn forwards." So review what you did, what didn't go well today, what did go well today, and use that experience to practice in your mind to set your head up for the next time you see that. So that's what experience does for me. It helps my problem-solving. And there- Yeah ... there you go. There's a couple that tie together. Three, the three first, knowledge, experience, and problem-solving all feed off of each other. Nick Pope: Yeah, absolutely. And we could probably even tie consistency in there, 'cause that's happening over and over again, right? And I love how you said, what you said about experience because when we think about experience, what is it? It's in the h- it's in history, right? It's our past, which is ultimately our history, and what's done is done, but what's done is done as a reference for us to examine and articulate, what worked well, what didn't work. Kent Bullard: It's through those repetitions that you build that, that kind of, library of, "Hey, I've solved this problem in the past. This is what I did. I can use this in this new situation." I like what Joe said here, just relevant to building value. He said, "I was a tech at the beginning of my career. Now I oversee several Bosch auto service shops with apprentice technicians, and I wanna help them become certified master techs." So I think sometimes, especially we go back to that conversation of the technician coming out of out of the trade school. It's like, what does their field of view look like? Is it just finding a job so I can take care of myself, or is it this long-term, where's the road actually go? I see, a lot of technicians are in positions now in their careers that, that aren't working on cars. They might be, on a webinar teaching others, Nick Pope: yeah. Kent Bullard: Joe, thank you for the comment. Nick Pope: Yeah, Joe, that's- Just- ... amazing, and that sparked one thing on in my mind, Kent, when you said road, and with Joe's statement that we just saw, right now we have the opportunity to really, rise up. If we are senior level technicians, if we have a lot of experience if we're a foreman, a mentor, whatever the case may be. But there's an old saying "If you wanna know the road ahead, ask those coming back." And when I was young- ... I wish I would've had somebody that was already coming back that was intentional about trying to guide me, right? Nowadays, we have that opportunity and think about just the position that we're in where we can really build people up with knowing what we know, right? Experience, you cannot teach that from a book Kent Bullard: I love that quote Nick Pope: When we talk about measurable goals and results, those are gonna be tied together, and, these might be ind- individual goals where we're working on a certain area where we can improve upon. Maybe it's something new. When we talk about, results results are generally not gonna lie if we're measuring them accurately and we're being honest with ourselves as we monitor them. And it's good to measure, our progress because it's going to motivate us. It's gonna give us live, tangible data where we know where we are. And if we have to make any adjustments along the way, we can do that and that'll increase our ability to improve in all of these areas that you see here a-and then some. I'm gonna move on here. Go ahead, Kent Before we go to the next slide, I'm just curious 'cause as we're talking about going and experiencing new problems, solving new problems, does Joe... Joe, if you're still listening, do you find being a mentor is a new challenge that you're going through right now? Kent Bullard: And do you see that the experience you've had is helping you through that? I'd love to know in the comments Jim Cokonis: Give him a little while to type that out and keep rolling. Nick Pope: We... There we go. He Jim Cokonis: says yes. Straightforward answer. I love Nick Pope: it. I like it. Nice and direct. As we, forward think a little bit here, and we shift gears, what does our opportunity look like? And, as we talk about opportunity, we can really break it down. So for example, if we have 250 days out of the year that we're working over the span of 10 years, that's 2,500 opportunities that we have. 25 opportunities that we have while we're already at work, where we're making a living, doing what we do. But yes, we're going to get better by doing a lot of the same things day in and day out. However, what if, each day we spent a little bit of time being intentional about trying to learn something new and try something new while we're getting in the repetition, while we're making a living, while we're serving our customers Kent Bullard: When you put it like that it's almost a... Sorry to butt in, guys. No, you're good. It's almost a bit of a grace, right? Because maybe I'm not able to leverage every single day, but at the same time, there's hope because tomorrow's another day that I have a new opportunity to learn and grow, rather than saying I didn't learn today, so I'm just gonna stop trying." I, I remember somebody saying that you don't get fat eating one hamburger, and you don't get skinny eating one salad, right? So you've gotta... It's the multitude over a period of time. So if you end up having a cheeseburger on a Friday don't beat yourself up. Come back tomorrow better. Jim Cokonis: Find a better cheeseburger? Yeah. Sorry. Wagyu. You know- so I got a question for you, Nick. When you put something- Yeah ... like this up here- why can't I just learn from doing the job? Why-- W- I'm playing the game every day. Why can't I learn from playing the game? Nick Pope: I don't think that-- I think the real question is, how can I learn by playing the game? Because ultimately we're learning every day, right? We might not really realize it, but when we're in the daily grind we are going to face new things. There's gonna be a car that comes in with an electrical issue that we have not encountered before, right? So we are learning, but are we intentional about it? Meaning if I have an example that comes to mind it's an electrical issue I've had in the past, and we'll just say we have a We'll just make it simple. We have an electrical issue with a, a lighting system, right? We've been down this road before, and automatically we might already know, what the answer is. Do we really know? And when we shift our mind and when we try to create that with a little bit more of an open mindset, we are going to automatically put ourselves in position to learn with the understanding that we do not know, even though we have walked that path before. Does that make sense, Jim? Kent Bullard: It I see it Oh, I was gonna add on, or is that all right, Jim? Jim Cokonis: Go ahead. Kent Bullard: I feel like it's not okay. Jim Cokonis: No, Kent Bullard: it's... Go ahead. I've got my thought in my head. I feel like it has to be, it has to be intentional because when we get in the habits, when you get in the, the, I'm just doing the work, I'm just doing the work, you can turn off... And not to say that those of you aren't doing that out there, but you can turn off your brain, 'cause this is work I've done. This is work I'm used to. This is work. And you fall into those habits rather than having something that is a little more like you said, intentional. It's introspective. What are the things I'm doing specifically that I know that I can improve on, right? It's like going from, hey, I play basketball on the weekends, to somebody who's professionally playing. They're tracking how many assists they have, how many layups they have, how many, three three-pointers they shoot, those types of things Jim? Jim Cokonis: That you just, there, you segued right in. So there you are standing on two wheels going, "Neow." Professional athletes still work with coaches. They track their stats. And everything I've ever taught, I tell people, "Train your weak side. Train your places where you struggle so that you don't struggle and your performance comes up." And if a person's playing baseball and they struggle against left-handed pitchers, I'm gonna take practice from a left-handed pitcher until I can start to figure out how to see the ball come in the direction it's gonna come against that pitcher. If I go out in a game and I'm starting trying to throw a bunch of three-pointers and I can't hit it then all I'm doing is wasting time and offering a, a better opportunity for a turnover. I'm gonna practice my three-pointers when I'm not in the game. And so if you wanna learn a system, if you wanna learn a vehicle, to some extent we have to be able to do that on the fly at the car. I call it just-in-time training, JITT. You gotta know your JITT. And we have to have the ability to do that, but that gets easier if we already have the skills to look up service information, to comprehend it quickly, and to do all these things. A lot of us as techs, maybe we weren't that enamored in school and, we didn't like math, we didn't like science, and we didn't like to read. Okay, let's go be auto mechanics. And then the reality is we get out there, and what do we have to do? We've gotta read and comprehend technical information that may be at a upper high school or collegiate level. I've actually run Ford OBD information into an analyzer, and it came back that it was 12th grade or collegiate level. And if we struggle to read that, we gotta practice that, and we gotta get better with that because the faster we can digest that information and turn it into knowledge, then we can apply it. And that helps us get through the job faster. Kind of- So maybe my personal goal is to get better at reading I like some of the comments coming in. Andrew Condontzet said, "I wouldn't say that it's about learning every day," because you're right, not every day has those learning experiences, but what I tell our young techs is that every day you need to be 10% better every day. Kent Bullard: Sean, I love what Sean says because this goes back to it can't just be in the moment. You've gotta have some external feedback. I would rather learn from someone else's mistake than from my own. And then Joseph Joe said, "Great point on coaching. Doctors say they have a practice." I think that applies for our shops also, especially with the new products and technologies coming down the pipeline. We have so m- many more advancements, and they're getting faster and quicker and more every day Jim Cokonis: that, I like Joe's response because I used to tell people, they'd say, "What do you do for a living?" I'd say, "I'm a practicing technician." Kent Bullard: That's all it is. Nick Pope: There's a lot of truth to, to having that mindset. We never... let, let's circle back. We don't want to have our lid too low where we're not gonna be able to grow, right? So we wanna keep it- ... as high as we possibly can so we can continue to expand our capacity. Now, when we look at, just measuring, our workdays, right? We have 2,500 workdays, 2,500 opportunities and yes, every day we would love to get better. We would love to learn more every day. Whatever that case may be, whether we have training outside of work, whether we have a mentor that we're working with while we're in work the goal is to have some kind of system in place where we're just intentional about closing the gap on the areas that we need to improve upon. And Jim makes an extremely valid point. It may not directly mean, something to a system in the shop that we're struggling with. Most likely it will be, but what if, the biggest gap we can close right now is maybe improving how we comprehend things or how we read or understand information? Because as things continue to change, most of our resources are written documents and wiring schematics which change occasionally as well. So continuing to just understand that content throughout those resources is extremely massive. And not to go too deep into it, but I do wanna just plant this seed that everybody does learn differently. Everybody does hear things differently. And- ... it's good to keep that open mind as we begin to, coach a technician or if we're a technician that is being coached. If you don't understand something, ask questions. Make sure that we're receiving the information in a way that it is sinking in and we truly understand it, otherwise we're not going to be able to move forward and progress. Kent Bullard: That's right. You gotta have that feedback, which I think takes us to our next slide. Nick Pope: So when we talk about feedback and live data and, when we look at, data logger on vehicles, right? We're looking at live information and, let's just take that. We understand what that is, when we're looking at a car. But let's look under our hoods and think about, a few things and ask ourselves if we've been paying attention to this. Because again, as I alluded to earlier, we're all at different points in our lives, and wherever we are, we may not have had the exposure to this. And, we're-- we can look at, where is our knowledge level? How do we measure that? What does that look like? And confidence, confidence is gonna tie into so many things. And in our industry, we're most likely going to be presented with vehicles that have issues we may have not seen before. And- ... and that's okay, but how confident are we when we get a vehicle in our bay with a problem that we've never really ran into, right? And that's a testament to us, and it-it's not that we have to have all of the answers, but the real question is: Do we have the tools and the knowledge to find them? And then we can take a look at adaptability is another really important one, and that's really going to tie into, to our confidence, right? How adaptable are we to go from, being super efficient at general line work with steering and suspension and brakes and then jumping into, diagnosing we'll just say any networking issues, for example, right? There's a huge gap there. But, are we able to do that? Are we adaptable? Where are the low-hanging fruits that we can trim to get to the point where we need to be? And the most important thing is we just need to be honest with ourselves because nobody knows everything. And Jim, we've, we have talked about this before, but, when we have the mindset that we only know what we know, how does that help us as a technician? Jim Cokonis: We've had a lot of conversations, Nick. I'm trying to... I gotta know what I know, but I also have to know what I don't know. That's where wisdom comes from. So if I don't know what I don't know and I get a new vehicle in and I'm doing brakes on it I've been doing brakes for X number of years, maybe decades. And maybe I never learned that you gotta open the bleeder screws before you push a caliper back, and I shove the pistons back on a caliper, and I just trashed the ABS unit on a GM because I didn't read service information on that model to the point where GM had to put a bulletin out to inform their technicians that they were causing warranty issues on these cars 'cause they were doing it wrong. But knowing what I don't know when I get something new in front of me and having the ability to go to that service information real quick that's gonna keep me from having the mistake because I'm gonna go learn something. Did, did I answer your question? Nick Pope: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You're... I agree with you after we get off this webinar today, write this question down and, ask yourself if you're paying attention to the live data i- in your career. And write down some areas that are important to you, and here are some examples that are extremely universally related. However, we're all at different places, so whatever resonates with you, I encourage you to take some notes on that. Jim Cokonis: Love it. I like that you have mindset as determined, not stubborn. Nick Pope: Yeah. It is an option, but right now I think you were looking at this and using it, Jim. If I don't remember, ... forgive me, but I think you are determined. Jim Cokonis: Am I? Nick Pope: You are. So we're gonna talk a little bit ab- See Jim Cokonis: you're be- you're being a lot nicer here. One person in the comments said 10% every day, and you're only asking for one. Nick Pope: 1% of knowledge. He said 10% of i- I think just getting better every day. Okay. And but I- Yeah, there we go ... I caught that right away, and I'm like, "I love this guy. He's shooting high." Jim Cokonis: That's it. Nick Pope: Shoot high, baby. Jim Cokonis: I- Nick, the thing I said to you, and the thing I'll say to everybody here, right? We've all gotten those jobs. Maybe we had a job that didn't go real well, and we get one of those in the bay, and we spend the first 15 minutes going, "I really hate doing these," and Nick Pope: ra," Jim Cokonis: right? Because we're human, and we can get that stinking thinking which gives us a hardening of the attitudes. I love Zig Ziglar. He used to say stuff like that. But if we just go, "Let's get started." A journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step. So start taking things apart. Start looking at it. Get the service information. Look at the procedure. Maybe I did something that cost me time the last time. Just- I- ... just get going. Kent Bullard: Do something. I'm of the mind that rather, I'd rather make a mistake than not make a decision at all, because at least the, there's movement and there's feedback, right? So if I make a mistake, I can backtrack and go in the di- in a different direction. If I don't move, then I don't move. Just don't take the crank bolt out on that Ford. But anyway. I won't now, 'cause now I know. Nick Pope: Or take it out and have it towed into yours truly. We're here to help. There you go. When we talk about- Jim Cokonis: Does this take- im- Does this take four hours a day to do this? Do you have to have four hours a day dedicated to... some- somebody that's pretty, pretty well-known said that your skillset's really gonna get better in the second 40 hours. I won't call him out per- personally, but I hope this, this is one of the clips that gets made. He talked about the second 40 hours and got a lot of pushback. But is it really the second 40 hours? There's... Or are there any studies that say, if you wanna go from here to here So many minutes a day in your chosen field, focused and learning, within a number of years you'll be in the top percentage of knowledge in your field. Nick Pope: One study that I do know that has been done as of late they say one hour per day of dedicated time to learning whatever it is, new. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, for example, great, one hour a day for 365 days, Jim Cokonis: you're- It's gonna be intentional though ... Nick Pope: it's intentional learning, but you're going to be way up there as far as your skill set and knowledge in that. So you're-- I agree with you, Jim, you're right. And and the message here is not go and spend an hour a day at learning how to improve at, maybe using an oscilloscope, whatever the case may be. If you wanna do that, yeah, absolutely do that, but the key is you have to want it. You have to make that decision, and it has to be for the right reasons. And that's the most important thing, otherwise it's not going to be real or effective. Cameron, you make a really good point, and I love your mindset about staying positive when you're approaching something where you may have low confidence at the beginning. And I'm really glad you brought that up and shared your comment with us because the truth is where our mind goes is, a lot of times, is ultimately what's gonna dictate what the outcome is. So if we're gonna go into something, fearing failure, and failure is the only thing that's on our mind, we're most likely setting ourselves up to failer-- to fail. And if we're aware of our low confidence, that's fine. And how you're handling this is just remarkable. Keep doing what you're doing and share that with your team 'cause these are the little things that we're not gonna pick up in shop information. Last time I checked, there's no warnings on removing crank bolts from Ford to, tell you to be positive before you take this out without doing certain things. I'm gonna just jump forward and we're gonna talk a little bit about, how we can use information and understanding to create knowledge. One of the biggest common misconceptions that I believe when we're just talking about learning is when we think we have the information, a lot of times that doesn't mean that we ultimately have the knowledge, right? We might have read something or saw something or watched something on a video which is great. It's information. But how are we Getting ourselves to the point where we can really understand it, where we can apply it, right? If you've worked with somebody before maybe you've been on the receiving end and someone has just walked you through something new you have not done, and they ask to confirm that you understand, "Do you understand?" Or, "Do you have any questions?" And unconsciously, most of the time, we, we-- we'll answer, "No, I got it," because we just saw it. We think we have it. And, there's really no easy way to put this, but the truth is, do you really understand it, though? So when we talk about information, we're learning the what, right? So we're getting the facts, we're getting the data, we're getting the details. That's the what. But the real factor in this, what really ties it all together is the why. The why is gonna create that understanding and the why is for us to figure out. The why has to be intentionally driven and that's really gonna create that connection, and then we're gonna understand how to do it, and then we can go do it The only other area I wanted to just point out is don't take the information here to heart. This is just speculation with the multiplier here. Technically, when I did the math, if we have two hundred and fifty opportunities over the course of the year, it's about twenty-six times improvement if we spend fifteen minutes a day on intentional learning. But what I wanted to just point out is, how growth multiplies, right? And you can see over a series of time it really starts to trend in the right direction. It's a small amount, right? So just imagine if it's even more than this. It's gonna be quite substantial. So the goal is, whatever the opportunity may be, we're gonna be able to learn, we're gonna be able to apply what we learned a-a-and grow. And it's a cycle that is extremely repeatable Jim Cokonis: That next slide you have, I think that I teach the continual improvement cycle of, for problem-solving, and you basically have a learning cycle here that reinfor- you know, the different parts of it reinforces it. It's, it doesn't have a beginning and an end. It really doesn't. So go ahead and get into this, because this slide, And, the, the one-two after this I think we really need to cover before we wrap up. Nick Pope: Yeah. And a lot of this information we have covered, we're tying things together now to send her home. But, when we talk about repetition, right? The power of repetition is incredible. That's really where we go. We're going to get increases in our efficiency. We're gonna build our confidence. We are going to build our proficiency, our productivity. As long as we're doing, as long as we're hitting the mark, right? We're hitting the quality mark. We're not having comebacks. Yeah, there's things that are out of our control, and at the point, at that point, that's just what it is at the end of the day. There's never going to be perfection, but, we can aim high and wherever we land we adjust and we go back at it again. But, we have the ability to continually, use repetition to improve what we're already doing. But in addition to, we can tie in our intentional learning to that, which is really going to multiply our growth. It's gonna really give us, a little bit more wing under our wings to elevate our careers and have such a large impact across the board. So as we continue to climb and learn, in different areas that we're not completely competent in or continue in areas that we might think we are, but there's areas we maybe can learn a little bit better upon or catch up on something new that's just coming out. Whatever the case is, there's always going to be something and that's a beautiful thing. And the key here is together, we can continually grow over the period of time by creating this cycle. And like Jim said, it never ends, right? So there's going to be different levels as we go, but it's a constant cycle. This- It truly never ends. Kent Bullard: This goes back to something that you said earlier, Jim, where you're talking about, those, those additional hours and doing it an additional hour every day. There's a lot of studies that show-- This is why video games are being used heavily in education now, is because it's not about, hey, here's the insight, here's the stuff you need to learn, and here's all of this information. It has to go through a cycle of presen-presenting that information, gaining some competency and understanding, enough so that you can apply it. And once applied, you can see the feedback of that execution, which informs your next move, and it's the repetition of that cycle that builds competence Right? Is gaining that insight applying it, seeing the results, and then getting more information. You've got that there where you've got proficiency, efficiency, productivity, and confidence. What you're doing is you have to go through that cycle of application and insight to gain the competence, right? So you could sit in a class for four hours, but if I can't go and do something with that and apply it and see if it got the result I was hoping to get, I'm not gonna gain that, that confidence I was hoping to get from that insight. Nick Pope: Yeah, and, and I, can I s- can I share a hack for people who may struggle to be disciplined and learn? A lot of us techs have a We have a tick, we have a thing that we're normal. H- how many of you people, how many people in the audience have struggled to sit down and read a book or something like that? Jim Cokonis: But if you find something that interests you, you'll look up and four hours went by. Okay? So bring that last slide back up It's just an example, but if you are struggling to get started with learning to be disciplined in this, I encourage you, there's something about adults. Adults learn different than children, and we will be drawn to things that we're interested in. That's what the algorithms do on social media and everything. They find things you're interested in, they feed it to you so you get hooked. Do it with yourself. Pick it. Okay? So find something that you're interested in. Maybe you're not really good at electrical work, or you got bit by electrical work and now you're interested in figuring out why. That's when you're ready to learn electrical, not when you're sitting in class being taught that, volts and amps and ohms and resistance and all that stuff. You're "Oh my goodness just tell me how to fix the car." But when you get interested in something and you're like, "Why did I misdiagnose this blower motor?" And then you find something, you find that there's this relationship, and you go print out that formula and you stick it on the toolbox on that pull-out drawer where we can write up invoices, and every time you pull that drawer out, you see that formula, guess what? It's gonna stick in your head, right? And then you'll be able to do it from memory. So find something you're interested in to start with, and then once you do that, start looking for how things are related. Because I used to teach guys, "Look, electricity is fluid dynamics, and that applies to a fuel injection, it applies to hydraulics, and it applies to air flow in an engine." Okay? So if I have pressure through resistance, over time I get flow. And that's how a f- an old Ford DPFE sensor used to work. I used to draw it up as a series circuit and teach guys how it worked, and they went like, "Oh. Oh." So once you learn one thing really and you start seeing those common concepts, and you can start applying it to the brake job. Why do I step on the brakes and it dogs to the left, and then when I let up it dogs to the right? I've got an imbalance in application and release. What could cause that? I started asking myself better questions. Sorry. Yes. I'm on fire today, Nick. I apologize. It got my brain going. I figured I'd share it. No, let's go. Nick Pope: Glad you jumped in. Kent Bullard: No you made something- You had me going ... you made a really good point, Jim, in that not only do we have to learn this new stuff, but we have to find relevant examples where we can apply it in our own life. In talking about, "Yeah, I gotta get the work done, but why did I get the work done that way, and why do I need to pay attention to this?" Because it's gonna help me in the future. It's taking that insight and applying it to real world situations where you can execute and you gain that insight Nick Pope: Yeah. And in closing, one thing that sparked my interest here was there's more than one way to skin a cat. There's more than one way to cook a steak. There's always, other things that we can learn from other people around us. So keep your mind open because you might be able to take something away that could help you do what you're doing already just a little bit better. And, you know- That's right ... as we think about, how repetition makes us faster, right? It's gonna increase our efficiency. By combining that with intentional learning, it's going to make us better. This'll be just one quick slide, and the picture that we're painting here is we have one day, we have one decision, and we have one step forward. So over the course, we have, again, over the year, hypothetically, 250 opportunities. Each one is gonna count. You have the choice, right? You have the decision to make them count So Jim- Kent Bullard: Ooh. ... Nick Pope: Jim is really excited to talk about this slide. And, we've been... You probably noticed a little bit of a trend here. We've been talking about knowledge a little bit, right? And it's so important, right? It's extremely important in our careers, in our lives. This goes beyond the shop. It truly does. However, we wanna be in a position as professionals in whatever it is we do where we are valuable, right? In my opinion, nobody is replaceable, period, end of story. Now, we're gonna leave that at that because that's not what we're here to talk about but my point is we can invest in ourselves It doesn't have to be every day. It can be, designated to certain times, whatever the case may be. But the, the thing here is, what can we carry with us every day? I don't think I can carry my toolbox with me every day. I know we have toolboxes that have brakes and steering and suspension on them and that's awesome. Tow hitches. Yeah. It's extremely great, right? Toolboxes on wheels in our cars, wonderful. However, the tools help us get the job done. There's no question or doubt about that we need those tools. However, the most important part or asset to us is in our mind and we talk about interest. Jim, have you ever spent a lot of money on a tool truck? Have you ever financed anything, perhaps? Jim Cokonis: Oh, I have. I have. Yeah. But I always paid it quickly. Nick Pope: Yeah. Because Jim Cokonis: the, the- why did you pay it Nick Pope: quickly? Jim Cokonis: Because the, the amount of interest on the payments off of most of the tool trucks is almost like going for a payday loan. Nick Pope: Yeah. Jim Cokonis: But here's, here's the thing. Is it nice... And I'm specifically speaking to younger techs, and I'm not calling anybody out if you've made different decisions. I got a friend that has a toolbox so big he has a snowmobile mounted on top of it. But if we think about this, it's nice to have a nice toolbox. It's nice to have everything organized, and there will come a point in your career when organization of the toolbox, arrangement of tools, ability to do inventory quickly, will save you time over the course of the day, the week, the month, the year. And that's absolutely true. But you I worked for many years out of a repo'd Snap-on bottom box and a factory paint blem top box that I got for a graduation present, and it took me a long time before I bought a really nice, large, one of the largest roll cabinets they made at the time and paid it off quickly. But here's what I'll say about toolboxes. I love 'em. I love good tool storage. I like organization. I have not figured out how to plug that box up to a car and fix it yet. And so I had five scan tools before I bought a fancy s- fancy toolbox, okay? So the other thing that I learned in my career after a period of time, do I buy the whole rack of sockets? There was a time when I pre-delivered Kubota tractors, and there was one giant half-inch drive Allen wrench I needed to check the front differential for factory fill. I didn't buy the whole rack of half-inch Allen wrenches. I bought that one, and I still have it. I didn't buy all the large Allen drives. I bought the 17 millimeter for checking the diffs on certain vehicles, and that saved me a lot of money over the years. And that, that's what allowed me to buy some of the s- the tools and the scopes and the scan tools and things that I had, and I would get called to look at vehicles that other people couldn't get into because I had the equipment. Because getting the right kind of equipment drove my knowledge, and my knowledge drove my proficiency, and that actually made me wealthy in several ways. So if you're new to this, tools are fantastic. Buy judiciously and- ... put the money into yourself. Does that make sense? Kent Bullard: I'd love to, I'd love to add to this, Jim 'cause we do have a bunch of conver- comments coming in, but from my own part of this, it's like, look, y- you want to invest in the tools. Those are things that you can use your experience and your hands your body to go and fix the car. Like you said, I can't plug the, the toolbox into the car, and it's really our knowledge and experience that can make those tools valuable. What I've seen is that we can get transfixed on just building our tools and saying our tools is our value, and that's not necessarily true. You have to have both. You have to have the right tools to work on the vehicles, and you have right tools to do the job, but it's not gonna work unless you've got the experience, the knowledge, and the know-how. And you have to have both of those things. So don't lose sight of investing in your own skills and talents for investing in tools. James said something really great. He said, "In the beginning of this journey, the feedback was generally negative with our technicians, but it was a requirement that was implemented." I'm assuming training. Fast-forward to today, they have more interest in discussing topics and one has decided to pursue ASE certification. We lost Joe apparently on some of this, and I think that's par for the course. You've got a lot of technicians who've invested, thousand- hundreds of thousands of dollars in their tools. Andrew said it's for the free stickers." Cameron said "The day you stop learning is the day that you die." I truly believe that there. And then Joe said, "Very good information. Share this information with the shops." Joe, we'll connect with you after this. Yeah. Nick Pope: So the, it's clear, we're pushing that the greatest investment is in yourself. And the, the truth is, tools wear out. Knowledge is going to pay forever as long as we continue to nurture that and grow. So I wanna just talk a little bit about opportunity, right? We've talked a lot about opportunity and, if our shop is willing to invest in us and give us the opportunity outside of, the walls of our shop, or if we're looking into any type of training, within whatever the case may be, are we willing to embrace that and really take on that opportunity to the point where we see the value in it for us, for our career even going a little bit deeper- Jim Cokonis: is this... I'm sorry to cut you off, but is this like a 401? If the shop's gonna put money into the 401, is, if it's gonna match what we put in, are we willing to put in our level to get the extra? Is like that, actually. So this is kinda like the reverse of that. Kent Bullard: Oh Jim Cokonis: my gosh, that's Kent Bullard: such a brilliant analogy, Jim. Jim Cokonis: Don't tell Kent Bullard: anybody. I love that. No, I love that. Jim Cokonis: It just came into my head. I'm like, "Ah, this is like a 401." Nick Pope: Y- absolutely. Here's the thing. If, for one, if it's not costing us anything but our time and our energy, that's great. And whatever the cost may be, the value is something that we're gonna be able to carry with us, hopefully forever, right? And then multiply that around the people that work alongside us. But the point is, are you gonna multiply that investment? And, the caveat here is we talk about compound in- interest with tools- ... on a tool truck, right? Where is that money going, and is it adding value to us? If we're paying all that extra money and interest we're losing money. Jim Cokonis: Yeah. Nick Pope: And now let's flip it and go the other way. And Jim, your analogy's spot on. We can multiply the investment that's put into us for ourselves. So- Jim Cokonis: So can I kinda tie something together, Kent? And this'll kinda lead into what you wanna get to. Beautiful. You talked about how they're using video games and b- believe it or not, flight simulators were what really taught education and industry that gamification of training works. Okay? And everybody knows that most people know that I'm with Today's Class, and we have an app that delivers content. So many questions a day. It's designed to be, just a daily little hit of training that's related to your job role, and it really focuses on foundation and core content, and then throws some interesting things out from time to time And it gets the shop talking, and some shops run contests with the points because you get so many points for a correct answer, but you don't get as many points for an incorrect answer. But you have the opportunity to learn something right there. Because we'll explain it. We don't just go, "Eh, you failed." It's like, "Here's why." All right? So we gamify it, and it's still interesting because y- you'll ask a question about putting, dielectric grease on a connector for an ignition coil, and you'll get a lot of people that push back on that concept. "You can't put dielectric grease in the contacts." And I can't do this, but I will tell you all, I created a video that supported the practice with technical service bulletins and diagnostic charts from General Motors, part numbers from Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, for dielectric grease exactly for the purpose of preventing terminal fretting on connectors even though they're inside of a w- a weather pack fitting. And The question was designed to teach that piece of knowledge. But it is amazing how many people just go, "That's absolutely not true. You can't do that." And it's just you should really write this up and send it to all the engineers at these companies, because they're lost." But there's always opportunities to learn. Did you guys know that some Ford oil filters require no lubrication when you s- tighten them down? And it's like, what? And it's because some of them are on aluminum housings. Fords and Chryslers are on aluminum housings, and if you lube them up and you tighten them down too much, you warp the housing and you cause a leak. I didn't know that, not until we were doing research, and that's something I learned. I'm like, "Wow, I'm gonna share this in a question." That one gets a lot of angst too, but it's an opportunity to learn and it's a game. It's not a test, it's a game. Kent Bullard: I think this, this puts us near this end, end part here Jim. We started this series with an idea of just introducing some different concepts with the technical training that we move along. Investing in yourself, growing yourself. I know that the focus of today's class is building careers, and that's what we wanna do at the institute as well, is build lifelong meaningful careers. So I wanted to give a, a big thanks to today's class for helping us out with this webinar. And just to reinforce what Jim was saying today's class is Gear Group's daily training platform designed to help shops and technicians really build their knowledge and their capabilities through that consistent learning. Rather than relying solely on those occasional classes or events or webinars, like we're doing here, today's class delivers that training through personalized three to five-minute sessions each day that fit naturally into your guys' workflow just like the comment said there. The platform includes technical training for technicians, but we also have been working to and we have content now for service advisors, managers, and other team members as well, so the whole shop can get invested in this continuous growth and development every day. This experience is designed to keep everybody engaged through the daily participation, gamification, like you said, rewards, and personalized learning paths that you can customize with your shop. Today's class helps those technicians reinforce comprehension, build your confidence, and grow your performance and value as a technician one day at a time. You guys can schedule a, a free demo today, and I'm gonna put the link in the chat. If you guys are interested for a, a free demo, just to check out the training, it's incredible. Any questions, we'll hang out for a few minutes here. If we have any more questions for this. Nick, final thoughts? Nick Pope: Thanks for everyone for taking the time to, to be here today. And, in closing the the big takeaway I hope that you have is that the greatest investment that you will ever make is in yourself. So keep building every day. Jim Cokonis: Awesome. Thanks, Nick. Thanks, Kent. Kent Bullard: And thank you guys- Thank you, Jim and Kent everyone in the comments who attended here. Keep an eye out. Pay attention to the institute, to today's class, to GEAR Group. We're gonna be posting on social, and I guarantee you with the success of these webinars, we're gonna bring some new and incredible things to you guys very soon

Ep 166: Why Great Leaders Give People Permission to Fail with Ron Helmer

How to Build a Business While Raising a Family | Kassiady Markham - Ep 31

You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, Kassiady Markham joins Tonnika Haynes to share her journey of building Phase Two Automotive alongside her husband from the ground up. Kassiady opens up about the challenges of balancing motherhood, business ownership, and overcoming setbacks—including business failures and family health crises. She emphasizes the importance of coaching for growth, setting boundaries at work, and building generational wealth for their family.Timestamps:00:00 Kassiady introduction: therapy, humor, and owning half the company01:02 Shop origins: EMT careers and turning a car hobby into a side hustle04:08 From “side gig” to baby in the office—juggling kids and business05:16 Struggles: marriage stress, foreclosure, and raising autistic children07:00 When the first business collapsed and the comeback began10:09 Taking a leap (again): Starting over with Phase Two Automotive13:32 IRS threats and the decision to take full control14:29 Stepping into leadership: Doing the books, HR, and payroll16:36 Coaching with Elite: Solving problems, boundaries, and marriage tips18:45 Why running a family business was the only way20:01 Who’s in Kassiady corner when it gets hard? Support systems23:30 How the team runs the shop (including her brother!)25:38 The crucial role of coaching in unlocking new growth27:20 The vision: generational wealth, success goals, and involving the kids30:35 Lessons learned: “It’s not a bad life—just a bad day.”32:01 Setting work boundaries and prioritizing family34:19 Therapy as self-care; keeping the marriage strong39:05 Parenting philosophies and supporting kids to adulthood41:14 Leading as the only woman in the shop: standing firm43:19 Customer confrontations and not backing down44:50 Real advice for women running shops or helping husbands50:39 Discounting, boundaries, and protecting the shop’s future54:49 Giving back to the community—doing good when it matters56:29 Expansion goals: property headaches and future shop dreams60:08 Rapid fire: first car, dream car, entrepreneurship in one word61:49 Biggest lesson: Wishing they’d started coaching sooner62:13 Why she’ll never be without a business coach

Ep 165: Leadership Isn't Talent, It's Daily Practice with Lynne Ghelfi

Ep 107 - Rich Falco | The ADAS Mistake That Could Cost You Everything

Keep shop management, payments, marketing (all the things) all in one place with Tekmetric. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Click HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing has made my life SOOO much simpler, AND they've helped keep the phone ringing. Do you need these two things too? Learn more HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2027 is coming up in February and NOW is the time to sign up. It's happening in Vegas February 4-6 and it will be the best 3 days of your shops year when you attend. Learn now HEREIn this episode, Mike Allen welcomes Rich Falco to talk about the challenges and stories behind running a shop in today’s changing automotive landscape. They focus heavily on why shop owners need to invest in technician training and the difficulties many shops face bridging the gap between what techs want to learn and what the industry demands. A key theme that emerged was the growing impact of ADAS calibrations, the risk of improper repairs, and the increasing need for specialized equipment and procedures.Timestamps:00:00 Scope Drama: Impressive Diagnostics or Just for the ‘Gram?01:05 Poker Nights & Shop Camaraderie02:58 CTI Training Center – Tech Paradise04:44 Bikers, Miatas & Life After Kids05:11 Running a Mobile Calibration Business06:29 Body Shop Calibrations: Bent Brackets & Bad Installs07:05 Small Shops vs. Chains: Who Cuts Corners?08:00 Essential Tools for Mobile Programming & Diagnostics09:11 How Much Does a Well-Equipped Van REALLY Cost?10:49 Why Shops Should Avoid “Hero” Jobs on Exotic Cars13:15 Overconfident Techs (And When Ego Bites Back)14:18 CTI’s Latest: Technician Evaluation & Skills Platform16:17 Closing the Gap: Tech Training You Want Vs. Need19:22 Best Training Tools: Online vs. In-Person21:02 Shop Owners Bringing In-Depth Training to Their Doorstep23:53 Should You Build Up Domestic Programming Skills?24:34 Playground for Technicians: Touring the Research Center25:07 Autel vs. PicoScope Throwdown26:44 Shops Chasing “Hero Work” vs. Profitable Bread & Butter28:18 Building Technician Career Paths—Real Tools for Real Growth30:21 The Real Deal: What Techs Actually Want in Shops32:42 Shop Owner Secrets: Training, Recruiting & Retention34:44 Why the Best Techs Invest In Their Own Training35:37 Networking & Recruiting at Industry Events37:17 Rookie Shop Owners Who Get It Right (And Bring Cocktails)41:47 Short-Form Training – The Secret Techs Actually Use42:39 Why Boring Training Videos Kill Your Shop Culture44:42 Not Reading the Service Info? Big Mistake45:09 ADAS Calibrations, Liability, and Lawsuit Risks47:24 Will Self-Driving Tech Change Everything?52:45 Should We Fear (or Welcome) Our Robot Car Overlords?54:05 Endgame: Cards, Cocktails & Hospitality at the Next Expo

The Biggest Mistake Shop Owners Make with Josh Coomes and Brian Ramsburg

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HERERecorded at Tools in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Jeff sits down with Josh Coomes of Auto Shop Therapy and technician Brian Ramsburg to discuss the realities of running a modern repair shop. Brian reflects on more than 18 years in the trade, the challenges of being a solo technician, and why he enjoys variety in his work, while Josh shares his customer-first approach, leadership lessons, and the importance of protecting a shop's reputation. Together, they explore diagnostics, pay plans, hiring, training, and building a culture that values quality over speed.Timestamps:00:00 Listen or Become a Liability 00:35 Tools in Hershey Introduction 02:37 Brian's Career Journey 04:18 Owning a Job vs. Owning a Shop 07:42 Customer Empathy and Service Standards 09:21 Turning Away Older Vehicles 14:48 Favorite Types of Repairs 18:02 Why They Avoid European Vehicles 19:40 Shop Scheduling and Profitability 21:56 Technician vs. Owner Priorities 25:38 Working Relationship Challenges 28:28 Hiring and Leadership Lessons 36:20 Mentoring and a Proof-Based Culture 40:41 Pay Plans and Team Morale 42:03 The Starter Diagnosis Debate 45:41 The Stress of Being the Only Technician 48:50 Quality Control vs. Book Time 52:40 Shop Standards and Fair Productivity 55:27 Workflow and Imperfect Data 58:51 Flat Rate Pressure Stories 01:05:10 Hiring Through Working Interviews 01:10:23 Charging Properly to Grow 01:12:44 Final Advice and Closing Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

The Mistake That's Costing Your Shop Money | Nick Yannessa & Chi Wong - Ep 30

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika welcomes Nick Yannessa & Chi Wong to talk about how they started a auto repair shop. Nick brought up how he thinks it's dangerous to judge customers based on their car or background—presenting recommendations equally is key for success. They all discuss the importance of efficiency and processes, especially for one-person operations, with strategies ranging from shop layout to streamlined part sourcing. The discussion explored how relationships—whether through peer support, coaching, or personal connection with customers—can make or break both morale and business success.Timestamps:00:00 Growing up in the business, judging customers & learning not to assume03:00 The wild origin story of a Philly-area repair friendship07:00 Shop ownership journeys: from dealer frustration to Craigslist finds13:15 Shop expansions, partnerships, and the big pains of growing fast16:30 Management mistakes: Getting hurt by the wrong coaching advice22:30 Why shop friendships (and roasting each other) drive real growth26:00 Breaking out of the tech mindset — why process & sales skills matter35:00 Single bay or big staff? How to thrive as a one-man show41:30 Efficiency hacks: leg surgery for your shop layout47:00 The power of batching tasks, double-dipping on equipment, and finding your warehouse51:00 Bootstrapping a new shop, from free desks to Techmetric (or not)59:00 Real-life sales training: How to pitch brakes and win trust1:12:00 Dealership vs. Indie: Why premium service isn’t just about the brand1:20:00 Body shop margins, insurance games, and why service rocks1:33:00 The secret sauce: Making your shop unforgettable1:39:00 Building trust over time (without a single DVI)1:44:00 Health, happiness, and generational wealth—success beyond KPIs1:46:00 Why driving a free CR-V might beat flexing a Cadillac1:52:00 Building benefits for your people, and leveling up your future1:58:00 Final rants and why you need to be the “dive bar” your customers love

Deferred Work: The Most Overlooked Growth Opportunity in Auto Repair [RR 1101]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Most auto repair shops are sitting on a goldmine of untapped revenue without realizing it. In this episode, Carm Capriotto welcomes Jimmy Alauria of 3A Automotive & Diesel Repair to discuss how deferred work can become one of your shop's most effective growth strategies. By pulling just two years of data from his shop's database, he discovered $3.3 million in potential revenue from deferred services. From better customer communication to smarter follow-up systems, Jimmy explains how to turn yesterday's declined repairs into tomorrow's repair orders. What You'll Learn Why your customer database is one of your shop's most valuable assets.How deferred work can create significant new revenue without increasing car count.Why shops should schedule the next appointment before the customer leaves.While DVIs provide excellent transparency, their primary goal should be to educate the customer and help them plan, rather than to force an immediate $5,000 repair order. Jimmy notes that customers decline work not necessarily because they lack trust, but because they need time to budgeHow categorizing repairs by safety, reliability, maintenance, and appearance improves customer understanding.Understanding the customer's personal "car goals," whether they love the car and want to avoid a new car payment, or they hate the car and want to trade it in, is also critical to framing recommendations effectively.The shortcomings of traditional CRM follow-up systems and how AI can improve communication.How AI helps prioritize repairs and translates technical repair language into customer-friendly messaging that drives response. Deferred work isn't lost business; it's future opportunity. By building better follow-up processes, educating customers, and using technology to communicate more effectively, shops can strengthen relationships, improve customer retention, and unlock substantial revenue already waiting in their database. Jimmy Alauria, 3A Automotive and Diesel Repair, Phoenix, AZ. Jimmy’s previous episodes HERE Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://remarkableresultsradiopodcast.captivate.fm/napaautocare   NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download and Listen on Our Mobile App:https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm                                          

I FIRED My Top Performers and Reached $5.6M | EP6 | The Shop Fix Academy Podcast

With a growing shop, a great local reputation and a team that ran the business without him, Allen Baughman thought he'd finally built the dream operation every shop owner chases, but instead his top performers were quietly telling his techs the shop was a sinking ship and plotting to start their own. In this episode, Allen breaks down the mistakes that led to 10 empty bays and him being forced to turn wrenches again, the pay plan switch that erased his profit for six straight months and the vital leadership and culture lessons that he learned to turn everything around and build a $5.6M repair shop. Join The Fastest Growing Network Of Auto Repair Professionals! Get the structure and clarity your shop has been missing with Shop Fix LITE. https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-lite?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-lite&utm_content=cta-textlinkGet Tickets Now!Learn the systems top shop owners use to consistently increase profit and build stronger teams at Shop Hackers Conference. https://shophackersconference.com/?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shophackers2026&utm_content=cta-textlinkJoin Us at Our Events! Explore Shop Fix Academy Events led by operators who have solved the same profit, leadership, and operational challenges you’re facing now. https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta-textlink

Episode 278 - Can You Create A Disney World Experiences in Auto Repair With Bret Beitler

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, David & Lucas are joined by Brett Beitler to discuss the challenges and rewards of leadership in both family entertainment centers and the auto repair industry. Brett shares his experience in turning around struggling businesses, highlighting the importance of strong leadership, employee empowerment, and cultivating a culture of unreasonable hospitality. The conversation also explores the differences in leadership needs between industries, emphasizing the value of coaching, communication, and continuous personal growth for business success.00:00 Setting up automatic audio switching09:40 Inspiration to join preschool industry10:28 Expanding business in Houston16:37 Forming a Leadership Partnership23:16 Improving airport bathroom satisfaction27:04 Issues with Accountant and Bookkeeping35:00 Dealing with customer feedback40:18 Finding the Right Coaching Clients43:05 Practicing effective leadership skills53:33 Teaching Leadership to the Next Generation58:29 Empowerment in the Workplace01:01:37 Keeping up with rapid tech changes

AutoShop Ministries Episode 4 - Iron Sharpens Iron: The Power of Friction in Business

Joe Adams and Chaplain Devontae Tidwell discuss the importance of partnerships, community, and mentorship in business, using Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to show how the right people sharpen you and produce ROI. The episode emphasizes finding mentors, creating healthy friction to grow, paying it forward by mentoring others, and practical steps to get into the right rooms and relationships.

The Shop Owner Comparison Trap | Anders Gustafson - Ep 29

Running a shop is hard enough—you don't need your software making it harder. 😂 If you're ready for more clarity, better organization, and a smoother experience for both your team and your customers, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes welcomes Anders Gustafson to discuss the real journey of shop ownership, from humble beginnings to scaling up. Anders shares the challenges of starting a shop with little experience, reflecting on the lessons learned from opening a second location and the importance of picking the right spot. Together, they get real about the mental toll of comparing yourself to others on social media, the need for community and coaching in the automotive industry, and why self-growth matters more than flashy online wins.Timstamps:00:00 The Comparison Trap: Social Media and Shop Owner Wins01:26 East Coast Roots: Moving for a Dream02:15 Breaking into Automotive: From Office Job to Shop Life03:38 U-Hauls & Humble Beginnings—Opening Shop in Virginia07:27 Location Matters! Lessons from Two Stores11:01 Second Location Struggles & Mistakes14:36 Going It Alone: The Cost of Not Getting Industry Support17:32 Social Media: More Harm Than Good?19:02 Measuring Growth: Why the Only Race is With Yourself25:02 Teaching & Tectonic: How Humor Changes the Game28:23 Tech-Enabled Services: ShopLevers Explained32:46 Business Partners: Horror Stories & Happy Endings37:04 Boondoggling Across the Globe: Adventures Post-Shop Life41:40 Real Shop Drama: Roller Coasters, Jabronis & Jalopies44:00 The Power of Coaching, Training, and Community46:53 From Fear to Freedom: Finding Your Shop Owner Tribe49:01 Shop Ownership = Roller Coaster (and Why You Should Love It)52:44 Google Reviews, Value, and Standing Your Ground

212 - Think Like the Circuit: Mastering Electrical Diagnostics

212 - Think Like the Circuit: Mastering Electrical Diagnostics June 23, 2026 - 01:02:01 Show Summary: Electrical diagnostics become much easier when technicians understand the fundamentals instead of relying on guesswork or the parts cannon. Jim Cokonis and Nick Pope share real shop stories that highlight how critical thinking and a solid understanding of circuits lead to faster and more accurate repairs. They explain how wiring diagrams voltage drop testing and logical troubleshooting can eliminate costly misdiagnoses. The discussion also explores continuous learning teamwork and building stronger communication inside the shop. Finally they challenge technicians to close the gap between thinking they know the answer and proving it with proper testing.   Host(s): Kent Bullard, CCO, The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence Nick Pope, Industry Coach, The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence   Jim Cokonis, Technical Director, Today's Class Show Highlights: [00:00:00] – Learn why electrical knowledge is essential for every repair today. [00:05:05] – Jim shares a blower motor misdiagnosis that changed his testing approach forever. [00:08:00] – Nick explains how one corroded ground created a lasting lesson. [00:11:45] – A transmission replacement failed because the real problem was electrical. [00:20:05] – Learn how wiring diagrams guide faster and more accurate diagnostics. [00:24:10] – Follow current flow instead of guessing where the fault exists. [00:31:30] – Free circuit simulators help technicians visualize electrical theory and testing. [00:39:20] – Small daily learning habits create top performing technicians over time. [00:44:30] – Think like a circuit to improve communication across the entire shop. [00:49:55] – Strong fundamentals create confident technicians and accurate diagnostics every time.   In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.   👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iMqCrP4N6JU   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript: Kent Bullard: Hello everybody, and welcome to today's webinar. We are s- kicking off our technical training series. I gotta tell you, the content that we have today is awesome. We've got some incredible instructors with us and some really fun stuff we're gonna cover. So to get things started, I'd like to introduce the webinar. Here we go. Today we're gonna be covering mastering electrical diagnostics, as well as some critical thinking skills. Where's everybody coming from? I'm out of Utah today. We've got some people on the East Coast. Our trainers, instructors are on the East Coast. Let us know in the chat. We're gonna be watching that as we go through this. Our real goal with this series was to dive into a lot of the technical skills, but at the same time some of the critical skills that you need to be a good technician in the shop, to work well with your the skills that you need to develop, the team that... and relationships you need to develop. And so we had a mashup of technical and business training, some development training here, and it's awesome. I've loved to see how these guys have put this content together. Today what we're gonna do is we're gonna dive into some technical content, some critical thinking skills. At the end of this training, we're gonna open up for a Q&A, and we'll actually hang on a few minutes past, maybe 10, 15 minutes after the hour, to answer any additional questions that you guys might have. So first off, we're gonna be asking some questions throughout, so let's practice this. What tool do you guys tend to start with or rely on more when starting electrical diagnostics? And type in the chat either a one or a two to answer the poll. One, a scan tool, or two, an altimeter. Let us know in the comments section. So looks like we've got Southeastern Tennessee, we've got Wyoming, South Florida. Oh my gosh, Milwaukee, Brookfield, Wisconsin, New Jersey. My goodness. So we've got that poll going. Let us know do you tend to start with a scan tool or with your multimeter when you start electrical diagnostics? At the same time, if you guys have any questions I've been in- involved in a lot of these trainings. I've done-- gone and taught classes. I tend to enjoy open discussion and conversation. Now, in this type of circumstance it can be a little challenging, but hey, that's what I'm here for. I'm gonna be your guys' voice with the instructors. So if you have questions or comments or you wanna add to the dialogue, I strongly urge you guys to let us know in the chat, and I'm gonna answer those questions for you or ask those questions for you so we can get them answered. At the same time, let's keep things positive and constructive. We wanna make sure that questions get answered. We don't wanna, maybe punish somebody who, if they don't know what's going on or they do have those curious questions, that's what this space is for, right? So we wanna keep things positive and constructive and again, take notes, key takeaways, and most important, we want you guys to have a lot of fun. So before we introduce our instructors, what I'd like to ask is, what would you rather leave with today? Actually, do we have poll results for that? Can you post those for the first question? All right. Let's try this one then, guys. What would you rather leave with today? Number one, one big idea that you can take back, or number two, several practical tips that you can deploy in the shop. While you guys answer either one or two in the chat, and I think it's just a one or a two. I'm not quite sure how the poll system works, but there we go. We've got a few there. Several practical tips. Love that. The guys that we have on here, we've got Jim Kokonis and Nick Pope. These guys have been some incredible instructors. I'd love to bring them on and introduce them. I'm very excited for the content they're gonna share with you today. We've got a lot to dive into. Welcome guys. Thank you for joining us. And Jim, I'm gonna hand things over to you. Jim Cokonis: Awesome. Welcome everybody. For those that don't know me, Nick and I had a conversation, and I always start off classes with, "My name's Jim Kokonis, and I don't know everything." We were joking about making the title under my name Eternal Student. But I have a question for you, and this is an official poll, but just give us a yeah or a no. Has anybody in the room ever had their hind end put in a bucket and carried out of the shop by a car that was being difficult? I have. I have, and I'm gonna share a story with you early on. But when we think about electricity, i- is there anything on the car that isn't controlled, monitored or communicated with electrical anymore? You don't, you can't even do suspension work and brake work without understanding electricity and systems and how those components work. I'm seeing some yeses in the chat. W- if you're, if you say no to that, I'm like, "What are you working on? Wrought iron gates? I don't know." We've all been humbled by a car, right? Nick? We've all had that, and what I wanted to share with you is that I had a long time ago in my career, I've got a experience highlights. I was diagnosing a vehicle with an inoperative blower motor, and I had bought one of those new-fangled logic probes. You hook it up to power, and you go around and you touch places on the circuit and right? If you touch something that had power, it goes meep, gives you a green light, and you touch something where it's supposed to be on the ground side of the circuit or the low side of the circuit, it goes merp, and it gives you a red light. So I go to the blower motor, and I get my meep, and I get my merp, and I call a blow- call a blower motor. And I put the blower motor in it, and it didn't fix it. For the longest time I had that logic probe. And it was great for some uses, but I had that thing in my toolbox with the pigtail cut off of it to remind me that electrical testing has other aspects of it that we've gotta keep in mind. So with that said- This slide was just an introduction to that conversation. But here's a, here's an interesting one. This is an example of one of the questions, not how it's presented, but the basic question that's on the platform. And this question is- questions aren't designed to test with today's class. They're designed to teach through the question. This particular question is looking for an understanding, and Nick and I had a conversation about that, and he's gonna chime in here in a minute. But the question basically says, which of the following choices apply to testing a circuit or a device with an ohmmeter? And these are the four options. Now, this is what we call a multi-answer question. And so on the real platform, it's always gonna say select all that apply. And it's gonna indicate through a couple different ways that there's more than one answer here. So the- there are two correct answers on this. And a lot of people get this one wrong, be honest with you. And so when they answer the question, they're gonna get a response. If they get it right, it'll look like this. Now, this is an actual screen capture. And it says that it can determine if a wire is completely broken and it can tell if a device has an open circuit. Then it ... An incorrect answer is it can determine if several strands inside of a wire are broken and it confirms if a device is good. What do you guys think about that? Put a comment in the chat. But Nick, what do you think about this? Nick Pope: Jim, this one really resonates with me. I would be lying if I said this does not trigger a memory that stuck with me most of my career. We've all had those, and this one for me started shortly after high school. I was working at the dealership and I had a customer vehicle with the complaint of a flashing four-wheel drive light, and come to find out I had that classic no communication with the four-by-four module. And upon traveling through the Ford trouble tree, I came to the point where I was presented that I needed to replace the module. And I put the module in, went through the programming process, and lo and behold, it was not repaired. And at that point- I had that gut-wrenching feeling. I was sick to my stomach. I felt horrible. Went back, went through the motions, not once, but twice, and ended up coming to the same result. So then at that point, I was embarrassed, I was frustrated I felt horrible. I, I spoke with my manager, and his automatic response shocked me. He automatically walked me over to the foreman, and the shop foreman came over and wanted to help walk me through this. And that really helped me feel a lot better aside from, the obvious, right? And we got to the realization that there was a corroded wire. So it's... in specific, it was a corroded ground wire. And, I knew right away what I did wrong, and I... it just slipped my mind, and at that point I realized a really valuable lesson that has stuck with me my whole life. And, this ties into, resistance is as only as good as the circuit is that can withstand the load of that circuit. And now this is something that I've been able to carry on and share with, all the people I have worked with throughout my career, and it was a very valuable lesson in so many ways, shapes, and forms. However, it really got me to the point where I understood that I have all of these resources around me, resources and service information, resources with tools, with my experience, with my peers, and I need to use them and I need to think for myself to really know why the failure occurred, how it occurred, if there were any other variables to it, to ensure that it is repaired properly and it does not happen a- again. And the one thing I wanna just point out, Jim, is in this process, not only did I have so many great takeaways that stuck with me my entire career, however, there were people there that were there to support me and help me learn this lesson. And yes, it cost the shop money, however, the silver lining is when we have people around us that are willing to invest in us and lift us up in these moments, it sticks and those are the really valuable things of wanting to continue and grow in our careers as technicians. Jim Cokonis: Thanks, Nick. Costing a shop money. Scott made a comment in chat that says an ohmmeter can only tell you when a circuit is bad. There's some other fancy types of tools and things that we can use to see very small changes, but most technicians when they're using an ohmmeter, and they love to give you... And I know Ford is "Check for continuity on this wire, check for continuity on this wire." It only takes, one or two strands to get an ohmmeter to go, "Yep, beep," and give you a continuity tone. And yet it can cost you money. So when we look at that, th- this is a, this was a real vehicle. And you can put your comments into the chat too. Here was a vehicle that had set multiple codes and the transmission was in limp mode All right? And so I've got a, I've got an example of the codes that were set, and I've got an example of the wiring diagram that's on this slide here. And w- we're not gonna dive into everything here, but this vehicle came in and the shop diagnosed it as a bad transmission, and they replaced the transmission. And it didn't fix the vehicle. And so the vehicle got a new PCM put in it. And the reason I know that is because they called me to program it at the time, and I'm like, "Where are you getting this PCM from?" And at the time, they w- the company they were buying it from would bench program this older GM because they had the tools to do it, and they would do it free of charge because they were buying the PCM from them. So I'm like, "They'll do it for you." So they did that. Unbeknownst to me customer was in a rental car while they were trying to figure this thing out 'cause they didn't get it back in time. So the customer's in a rental car. They put a transmission in it. That didn't fix it. They've had a PCM put in it. That didn't fix it. They had the transmission rebuilder, well-known company, send out a test box, and they ran through phone support and did a whole bunch of tests with this specialty box, and they said, "We're gonna send you another transmission." So now it's had a second transmission put in it, and it's still not fixed. And then I got another phone call. "Can you come out and look at this?" And of course, in their mind you have the factory scan tool for this General Motors vehicle. Can you come out here and see if you can see something that we can't see? And so I went out there. I did use my scan tool, but I used their service information and got a look at this thing. I went out and scanned the vehicle. I came in and went to the service information. I went back out. I found a- an area of the wiring that I was interested in. I found a problem. I took a jumper wire and connected from a fusible link to the output of a specific fuse, and then we took and drove the truck and the transmission was normal. Total elapsed time, 20 minutes. What do you guys think was wrong? Any thoughts? Anybody care to, to venture a guess? Kent Bullard: Nick, what do you think? Nick Pope: Gosh. Jim, could it have been a corroded wire? Jim Cokonis: It could have been. It could have been. I'm gonna highlight an area. You see all these shift solenoids? Down here on the right-hand side of this wiring diagram, if you look at that you see the splice S116, and that the PCM shows that's an ignition feed. So the PCM knows when the ignition is turned on, right? And then that wire feeds all of the shift solenoids. I like what- And then the shift solenoids are controlled by the PCM. Kent Bullard: I was gonna, I was gonna add, Scott said something interesting. He said, "There's three fuses in the world: good, bad, and missing." And he says, "Oh, four now, not seated properly." Jim Cokonis: I think I know Scott. If it, at least I know the name. We don't have faces on here, but anyway. Yeah, Scott. Yeah. It... and you're exactly right. But wait a minute, I'm gonna add a fifth. Incorrectly made fuses that are not fuses, they're pieces of wire that burn up harnesses when they should pop. Okay? And we've seen this in the world as well. So now we can make that into five. The whole sum total of the problem with this thing is this particular vehicle had a specific spot in the ignition switch that completed this circuit. And that's coming from a fuse, and I'm sorry the way this went on here, it cut it off. But that fuse is coming from an output of the ignition switch, and it feeds that transmission power. And all of those codes were all circuit-related electrical codes. And if we think about that, if we understand how electricity works, there was a reason why I looked at the codes, I looked at a wiring diagram, and I went straight to a specific spot on the truck to get to the fuse block because it was an easy place to test That computer is doing a voltage drop test at one point in the circuit. We're feeding it voltage, and it is saying that coming through these solenoids, I don't have enough voltage to control this thing. It's declaring a circuit problem A smoke fuse. Yeah, Michael, definitely a smoke fuse. So that's all the computer's doing when we're checking, con- continual component monitoring. It's looking at powers and grounds, and if we understand electricity and we look at this thing, how many of you guys have ever seen a code that says circuit open or shorted to ground? Wait a minute How can that be? How can it be those two different extremes? Back in the day, the, we didn't run a bunch of extra wires, we didn't have a bunch of extra circuits, and the computer, if it wasn't seeing voltage when it should, then either I'm on the control side of this device, like on, on the ground side of this solenoid, and the voltage can't come through the solenoid, so maybe I have an open in the circuit, or this wire is broken, or this wire is shorted to ground, which is making the voltage drop there, and the computer can't see it because it's only looking at one spot. And so the way I used to describe this is the computer only knows what it can see. If that computer was monitoring this little yellow wire here, and it also had the ability to monitor here and monitor up here and monitor over there, it could tell you exactly where the break was. Oh, I've lost voltage between these two points. But the computer can't do that. That's our job. So how well do we understand electricity? And so just like Nick said, he, when he had that one early in his career, it told a, taught him a lesson. When I misdiagnosed that blower motor, it taught me a lesson. And then, 25, almost 30 years ago, I was going out and doing this type of stuff for other shops, and was one of the first mobile diag and programming guys out there, and I can't tell you how many times you'd get there and this complex problem that had spent, three weeks in the shop and had a customer in a rental car turned out to be a pretty straightforward electrical problem So with that in mind, let's take a look at this one. This is older. Some of you guys will recognize this. But let's say we had a circuit code for fuel injector number five. So we had a P0205 code. If we had that, if we actually had that as a code, what is the most likely area that you would look in? Where would you start? Throw something into the comments Kent Bullard: Michael said "Could I watch a recording of the class?" Yes, we're gonna give recordings afterwards. We'll post those and share those out, Michael. Same with the resources and links. Let us know in the chat, guys. Jim Cokonis: Glad to have you here, Mike Kent Bullard: Nobody yet Jim Cokonis: Nobody, nobody's put anything in- Anybody have any ideas? Look, I'm gonna say something right now. This is a safe space. There will be no teasing, laughing, groaning. We all make mistakes, and I'm not gonna go, ha, you're wrong." That's not what this is about. This is about just, I don't know about you guys, but if you've ever been to a big event or whatever, You'll realize that the networking and talking through things, we think we need to learn hands-on, but actually if we have a conversation about something and we talk ideas and methods through, we actually are gonna retain probably about 60% of those conversations. We have some answers. When the only thing that gets a little bit past that- Kent Bullard: So Jim, it looks like Scott had said injector would be my starting point. Shad said fuse 15 amp, and then Scott also added the rat chewed wiring. Jim Cokonis: Okay. Okay. So remember what I was talking about with a voltage drop test, all right? As opposed to a resistance test, a voltage drop test. When this computer is looking, and I'm sorry, this is not a full good wiring diagram, but I wanted to be really detailed in. This is one of those old sequential fuel injection centralized injectors. This is old school, but I could have picked anything that has sequential fuel injection. When you look at this, each one of these w- pink wires is power to a fuel injector, okay? And then each injector is individually controlled by a specific driver circuit in the computer. So the fact that I'm setting a fuel injector number five circuit code But I'm not setting a circuit code for any of the other injectors Do you think this could be a fuse? Now I know somebody answered fuse, and I'm not picking on them, not at all. But I know a lot of technicians were taught by someone somewhere, always check your fuses. Now there's some validity to that, so I'm not knocking it. But my goodness if we have a situation where four things are fed off the same fuse and three of them are working, we can probably take the idea of the fuse being an issue and move it down in priority. Now- Michael- If it's injector- Michael said test the control side ... number five. Kent Bullard: Huh? Michael said, Test on the control side. Jim Cokonis: Test on the control side or at the device. But Mike, I don't disagree with you, but one of the things you have to realize, and this is why I love wiring diagrams for understanding what I'm gonna do with electricity. This connector point right here at D10, that connection, there's a splice and there's two wires coming right out of that connector. I could actually have a problem where one of them's making connection, and so that's why fuel injector two's not having an issue, but fuel injector five is. So that could be on the feed side. Now, if I go down to this central injection harness and I go along and I probe at E, D, B, H, J, and L, if I can get to those and they all have power, and then I go over here to this black and white wire at pin A and I don't have voltage, I've got it here and I don't have it here. Where's the open? It's at the injector. But if I have power coming out here and I have it all the way to the computer, could I potentially have a bad driver? Could. But if I have it coming out here at pin A on this black and white wire and I don't have it at the computer, now I'm looking for a broken wire on that ground side. Does all this, is all this making sense? Is it, are you seeing like this logical thought process of how we go after it? Nick Pope: Seems like you're going about it the, with the path of least resistance, Jim. Jim Cokonis: Ba-dum-bum. Yes. Yes. We don't want electrical work to be revolting, right? Sorry. This is one. And this cooling fan setup has been around forever. I'm gonna zoom in on this thing a little bit You guys have seen these General Motors cooling fans with the three relays used to control the fans. And if you see, it's got a cooling span low-feed relay, low-speed relay a span a fan speed control relay, that's an interesting term, and then a high-speed relay. And if we look at this there's multiple fuses here, right? There is there's a fuse here that's a 10 amp, and that's on the control side. Then we have this 40 amp fuse that's feeding the fan. That's hot at all times, right? And then we have cool fan high fuse, 40 amp. So we got two 40 amp fuses here. So how does this thing actually work? Here's my two fans down here. Left cooling fan, right cooling fan And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this 'cause we don't have it, and I need to get this thing turned over to Nick. But this fan, if I understand this diagram, when this relay, the low-speed relay is turned on, if I trace this, right? The power comes down from this K1 fuse, 40 amp. It goes through this relay and it goes down through this fan Then it comes up and goes up through this relay, and if this relay is normally open, it comes back down and it actually goes through the second fan to ground. So how are the fans wired? Are they in series or are they in parallel? Kent Bullard: In series? Jim Cokonis: They're in series. Okay? So if two identical devices are in series and we understand our electrical theory, they're gonna share source voltage. So if the car is running at 13 and a half volts, each one of these fans, if they're the same size, they're gonna share the voltage. They're gonna run at low speed. And then when we toggle on the switchover relay and the high-speed relay, basically what happens is when we toggle over here, we put the one fan directly to ground, so now it has full source voltage, and the other fan gets fed full source voltage. And so now these things will run at full speed. And I have watched time and time again where somebody will get a vehicle in and it's getting awful warm and the air conditioner doesn't work real well, and they've got one fan that runs all the time When the car gets hot, nothing happens and then one fan comes on high. So what can be wrong? It can be one of the relays, it could be one of the wires, could be one of the fuses, but we have to look at this circuit holistically and go after it. And so with that being said, I'm gonna show you guys a couple of things that you can use. And Kent, do you have the do you have the webpage? I do. The browser? Yep. Drop that in chat for everybody. I have used these simulators from the University of Colorado Boulder to help techs learn electrical and description and operation and theory for a lot of years. I don't even want to talk about it. But I have a couple of these open, and a lot of people have found these helpful. You can actually set up an electrical circuit, and I built this one already, and you can measure the battery voltage And it says 13 and a half volts, and I can actually adjust the battery voltage. And then I can go over and say, okay, with this circuit working, how much voltage is actually reaching the bulb? And I'm showing conventional theory. And oh, it says 13 and a quarter volts because I have the ability to add resistivity, which is the real thing that happens when a wire is carrying current. It's gonna have a little bit of internal resistance, and it's gonna cause a little bit of a drop. If there happened to be too much resistance, I would see that get bigger. I can do a voltage drop directly across a load. And so now out of 13 and a half volts from the battery, this light is getting 12.17. So is that because I've got a problem somewhere, or is that just the normal amount? And I can adjust that a little bit. Hang on a second There, now it's less than a volt lost in the wiring. So you can actually test along and see if there's an issue, and then if there is an issue, it could be because there's additional resistance somewhere Now look what happens when we start testing voltage We see 13 and a half there. We still have seven volts after the bulb. That's because it is taking energy get across that resistance, and that could be bad wire, a bad connection, a bad ground. And so this little simulator can help you have the time to play around with these concepts and prove them to yourself. And by the way, when you see a guy that's new to a scope and he's "I wanna check the injector current with my scope, which wire do I go around?" It's because they don't really understand that the current flow on a series circuit is the same no matter where you check, and this allows you to reinforce those concepts in your head. You guys think that this thing is useful? Kent Bullard: Oh yeah. Jim Cokonis: If you got a, if you've got a person you're trying to help learn electricity, probably one of the best references. Nick, you wanna take it away and talk about putting this all together? Nick Pope: Yeah, absolutely. And building on what you just shared with us, Jim, we had some conversation and electricity's tough to teach. It's tough to understand because you can't see it. So having these illustrations really helps, and it's a really powerful free resource to use. So I encourage those of you with us to, to use these and share these with people All right, so we're gonna talk a little bit about using our minds. And earlier in my story regarding the four-wheel drive module, I talked about the powerful takeaway I had a- about learning to think for myself and using the resources around me. I'd like to go a little bit deeper into that, and we'll just start with some of the items on the left here. So we have our scan tools, our wiring diagrams, service information, oscilloscopes, specialty tools. These are all tools that we can use. Now we do need to spend time to understand how to use them and how they work. And I'm gonna just pick on myself. When I was using the multimeter, I never once even thought about the amount of voltage that's induced into the circuit when I would be testing the resistance, right? And it's a small amount, and that's why when I ran that test to check for resistance that I had an acceptable reading. So those little tiny caveats to this multimeter, and really any tool that we're gonna be using, make a big difference. So it's not something we can just pull out of a toolbox and use. Understanding them understanding how we can read a wiring schematic is huge. Jim did a really good job pointing out how we can use a wiring diagram as a map and we can pinpoint certain areas to, to isolate. If we have several codes that are gonna be related to a certain circuit, that's gonna give us a really good direction to, to jump onto to look at and hopefully find the problem. Those are just resources that we can start to use once we understand them. The other resources I wanna talk about are on the right side. Technical training experience, mentors and peers, real world testing, curiosity and questioning. I can't stress how important it is to be curious and to question things. Take advantage of the situations in the shop and lean on those people that are around you. It really shouldn't be a competition. At the end of the day, we're all in this together and we're all gonna have our strong areas that we are really talented in. However, the more we work together and help build each other up, the better of an atmosphere we're gonna have, the more we're all gonna learn and grow together, and that's the mindset we want. The moment that we close that door on being curious or wanting to not learn or grow anymore is the moment we are stopped dead in our tracks. And with the way the industry has been going for as long as I can remember, it's constantly changing, right? We're always coming up with new innovations. There's new technology, new trends. It's endless. And Jim, what are your thoughts? Do you think that to stay ahead a little bit it's great to just try to stay on the cutting edge, to stay current with technology? Kent Bullard: Jim, I think you're muted, sir Jim Cokonis: Yes, I muted myself. I have a f- a friend that has a nickname called Rural Joe, and some people in the group probably will know who I'm referring to, who, who made the comment about a second 40 hours. And I pushed back on him a little bit that it only takes a little bit of effort to stay at the top of your game. And so the way I look at it, Nick, is Michael Jordan didn't do his practice only on the basketball court. Best golfers in the world still work with co- coaches and they still practice and they have practice sessions and train. And putting the time in to do some of that is how you keep up with the technology and you learn the new technique. But if you go try and pick up that fancy new thing without learning anything about it, it can actually cost you time in the shop. So where do you do that? So yeah, absolutely. I think you've gotta, you gotta put some effort in to stay up on it. Kent Bullard: Do you think it's a give and take? And I'm just gonna make some assumptions, guys, and I hope I'm not to- off base or putting myself out there. But do you think that s- some, in some cases technicians are looking at those questions, those sidebars where I might have somebody who's younger than me is asking these questions, it's taking away from my ability to produce hours, which can hit my, wallet. And I would just add on that, that I think sometimes we can get into... 'Cause I've done it myself. There's times where I've, "Hey, I can't help with this or that because I'm really just trying to get this thing done." But at the same time, that investment of the training, having somebody else with additional resources or knowledge or experience, or even just yourself investing in that additional insight, that frees up efficiency later on. So it's a small investment early on, but you'll make the dividends back later. Do you think that's About right or in that ballpark? Nick Pope: It- Jim Cokonis: Go ahead. I'd like to know what the people in the audience are thinking, but everybody seems to Kent Bullard: be quiet. Michael added it's the back 40, he said, by the way. Jim Cokonis: Yeah, I s- I saw that. It made me chuckle. I'm sure he'll make a meme of it soon Kent Bullard: So Michael a different Michael added, "Brian Pollack is a smart guy. By practicing new tests, he is becoming proficient with them by doing his second 40 hours of learning." Jim Cokonis: Yeah, he Mike knew exactly who I was referring to. And yet this person is also, a single dad and a business owner and everything else, and he's trying to juggle it all like we all are. And we're not telling somebody that if you wanna be, if you wanna be the absolute pinnacle, that you've gotta, work 100 hours a week. I heard a thing a long time ago, Nick, you may actually agree with this, but if you spend even 15 minutes a day doing some independent study or learning in your chosen field, that it's only a few number of years before you're in the top 10%. Nick Pope: Yeah, 100%. And I, building on that, I read a study where if you spend an hour a day working at anything over the course of the year, you're gonna be in, in that top 10%. So I think the trend here that is a commonly shared view is we don't need to spend, 40 hours a week in addition to training and learning. If we want to and we love that, great, go for it. That's awesome. However, we can take off smaller chunks, and those are going to compound and in the long run, in the grand scheme of things, we're gonna be able to maintain and continue to grow. And it doesn't have to be a one-all be-all with one resource. There are many different resources. So those are really wonderful things to take advantage of. But the point of this slide really ultimately is the most important tool that we have is in our minds, right? It's it is our minds. And when we think about that, how are we sharpening that? Jim Cokonis: Against other minds Nick Pope: Exactly Jim Cokonis: So there... how many of the names that are in the chat do you guys recognize? 'Cause I'm recognizing a bunch of these guys. And they are, to my knowledge, they're people who put in the extra time. So I would really be interested in hearing from them what do they think is a good approach to continue the opportunities for these types of conversations, of get-togethers, of building these groups where You know, because I don't know how Nick feels, but I know me. I don't have to be the smartest person in the room. As a matter of fact, I don't really wanna be the smartest person in the room. I wanna be in a room of people who challenge the way I think. I love it when I'm teaching a class and I have a student challenge me because it's like it could be my issue. Maybe I didn't explain it well. Now I have an opportunity to get better with what I'm doing, or my tongue might've gotten in front of my eye teeth and I didn't see what I was saying, and so I said it wrong. If nobody ever speaks up, everybody that was in the class gets hurt by that. I, Kent Bullard: I- Jim Cokonis: And so I wanna know what these guys think about what can we do with... there's 20 groups for owners, or should there be 20 groups for shop techs? Maybe we can handle a 40 group. I don't know. But should there be jam sessions like this that are deliberate with a chosen topic that gives us an opportunity to learn skills from each other? I have a- I'm just brainstorming here. Go ahead. Kent Bullard: I have a thought, Jim. So first off- ... I just wanted to bring in, Michael had said everyone should be attending, the ASTA event that's coming in September, where Jim and Brian are gonna be teaching some great classes. I think, and for me, this has been the differentiator, 'cause I flunked, barely graduated high school, totally flunked out of college. I've never considered myself a very smart guy, but I did surround myself with the tools and the resources, and definitely the people, that if ever I came into a problem, there was resources that I could lean on to help me move past that point. And I think there is a distinct difference between that back 40 that we were talking about, and it has to do with being proactive or reactive, intentional practice versus just reaction. So you're gonna be going through a lot of these things in your general day-to-day. You're gonna encounter these vehicles. You're gonna run through some of these, diagrams and these maps, and you're gonna deal the, with these problems, and those are all opportunities. You're gonna have online sessions like this. That's another opportunity. You're gonna have conversations with people about this specific webinar in your shop. That's another opportunity to gain some competency, to have that micro-learning opportunity, and it's whether or not you're intentional about it. If you are paying attention, if you are leveraging that and understanding this is an opportunity for me to gain a little bit of insight and a little bit of experience, that's where I think you get that compounding effect over time, where you have those opportunities because it's intentional and it's not reactionary. Does that make sense? Jim Cokonis: No, I agree. I just, the, Scott made a comment in the chat that back in the day that's what IATN was, and we used to have different chat rooms, and we used to have the forums and things. And there's still venues like that. But the other thing was there were events. I can remember going to to Toady's house and shop. We called him Toady because we called him Tech of the Year. But a guy that was in South Carolina hosted a whole bunch of people that came from around the country for a jam session one weekend, and we brought different tools and techniques and showed each other things and had fellowship and beverages and learned. So was it vision? No, but it was a very, it was a microcosm of vision. Oh, Tim. Yeah Scott remembers Tim Taylor. Yeah, not that Tim Taylor. But yeah we've been, we've b- we've done events like this, and I guess what I'm looking for is and Big Bird, Michael is out there calling me the Greek philosopher 'cause he knows me too. It's one of those deals where we need to figure out, 'cause What, what is going to change the industry? And I don't, I think the only thing that's gonna do it is us. That's just me. Kent Bullard: Nick, did you have a final thought on- Nick Pope: I do. Absolutely. And I wanna build on your statement, Jim, what is going to change the industry? And I also look at it as, how can we improve the industry? How can we rise above to the occasion, to the challenge, to find the resources, find the people, create the community where it's going to allow everybody to accelerate consistently? I have one more slide that I'd like to talk about, and this is gonna tie the team together in the shop. And this works out really well because we're on the electrical topic, and I want us to just think about for a moment how we can think like a circuit, and we can think about when we're linking our technician through our service advisor through the customer, right? When we have a complete circuit, our communication is clear. At any point, if we run into a resistance issue, that can slow down that process, right? In any of those areas, the technician could have a delay and maybe get caught up looking at something on the vehicle and then delay communication to the advisor, and then that trickles down to the customer, right? Just like on a vehicle, if we have high resistance in a circuit, it's gonna slow down our voltage. And again, the process is delayed. So thinking about this the power of continuity, not only on a car electronically speaking, but in, in our buildings and our businesses, is extremely important and valuable. I do realize that sometimes there are disconnects in really any of these areas. And I- I'm curious, I wanna know for those of you listening and that are with us, in the chat type in, and I want to know if your team is connected or disconnected or has resistance. So type in disconnected, connected, or resistance. I'm curious to know. This is extremely important. And when we're firing on our cylinders, our team dynamic is going to be outstanding, and it's just gonna continue to build a really great environment where we want to be at work every day. So I don't see anybody chiming in, so hopefully you do. I would really love to hear if you are connected, disconnected, or have resistance with your team. Jim, as we get to an end here I wanna share something with you and everyone with us. There are... There's one thing that I'd like to talk about, and it's the space between, and we're gonna look at the space between thinking and knowing. So we've all had multiple issues where we feel we've been here before, we've seen this before. We get that technician intuition where we have a code and a symptom and we just know we've been there. Now we think this is it. It's so tempting to just say, "Gosh, this is just what it needs and I'm gonna send it and we're gonna let it go." So tempting, right? We can get that one hour for our labor diag and move on to the next thing. Most of the time, does that work? I don't know. I'm not gonna say anything there, but I think you guys know where I'm going with that. But on the other side, there's knowing. Knowing isn't always just for you. It should be, but it should be for our customers, it should be for our business. That's the valuable part of doing what we do to the T. The value in going deep to find out the real why even though we feel like we've been there before. It might feel unnecessary, however, it's critical to do that because it's part of what we do. So I just want you to think about the gap between thinking and knowing, and when we close that gap, that really unifies us to a high-level professional, and at the end of the day it's the right thing to do. Jim Cokonis: Agreed. Just tell Scott not to load the parts cannon. He's over here laughing in the chat. Anyway. Nick Pope: The parts. Jim Cokonis: I think Kent Bullard: it's- Yes ... I think it's really important what you're saying here, Nick, when you're saying the space between. I think when we're in that point of, it's chaos at the shop. You've got so much on your plate. We can become reactionary in that we don't think about that gap. We think about either we hit it or we missed it, and that's it. And when we look back, that's what we're looking back towards. It's all past. We missed the mark, and then we feel bad. And by the way, you can't change anything that happened back there. But when you look at the gap, that is a forward-facing thing. Here is where I'm at, here's where I wanna be, and there's an, a space in between I can focus on. That is momentum building. That is progress. If you can focus on the gap, you can ask the right questions, you can leverage the resources available to you, that's how you close the gap and that's how you make progress. Doesn't have to be perfect. You can make mistakes, but then what's the gap, right? Nick Pope: Are learned. Lots of lessons are learned in the gap and the goal is to not make them over and over again. To learn it, the goal is to learn from them and share those with those around us so they can do better than us. Kent Bullard: Love that. Nick Pope: Yes, absolutely. So that's all I have for my slide, everybody. Jim, I'm gonna throw this back to you. Jim Cokonis: I've actually... My presentation portion of that's done. I think Kent had some- Kent Bullard: I was gonna ask- Closing business. Jim Cokonis: Go ahead ... Kent Bullard: so Jim, if there's one thing that you would want the attendees or the students to take away from the electrical training that you covered today, what would that be? Jim Cokonis: The biggest thing that I was trying to point out in that is that anything advanced that we wanna do is all in the basics, and it's that way in everything. If you don't have a solid foundation under a house it's not gonna be strong and it's not gonna stand. You can't build a skyscraper on a sound foundation. And a lot of people get frustrated 'cause they wanna learn the, the high-end moon phase type stuff, and they wanna focus on that. My message is that if you really understand the fundamentals, you can be the person that creates the moon phase tech when you, tech- technique when you need it. But if you're just copying somebody else, I wanna be careful how I say that. If you're just copying somebody else, you haven't internalized the skill yourself. That's it. Kent Bullard: I think that's really insightful, and I wanna go back 'cause I learned quite a lot. I'm not a car guy, so thank you for this. But I really liked, when you were talking about the sequential and connecting the dots. I think sometimes with those problems you're dealing with it's more of that sporadic I'm just trying to solve the problem," and you end up spinning your wheels. You're going in this direction or that direction. I think it's really important to have that base foundation to start with and an end goal, and just to connect the circuit. And if you can follow the path, then you can look at the opportunities or the challenges that you really need to deal with rather than the busy work that might be distracting you, the red herring that might be, pulling you in the wrong direction. And you can save a lot of time, effort, and stress by being a little more strategic in where your attention and focus is when you're dealing with these problems. Anyway that's one of my takeaways, is look at a lot of these challenges as a sequential, right? Go back through the map from the, where you need to, where you're starting from and where you need to be, and then work the map. That was my takeaway. I really appreciated that one. With that said, we're coming up on just a few minutes here, everybody. I wanna talk a little bit about this series and what we're planning with this, and I wanna give a big thank you to Today's Class for helping us put this together. We have another training coming up. Part two is gonna be on the 8th, and it's not just oil. We're gonna talk about understanding modern lubricants and service recommendations, and at the same time talk about, some of the skills necessary on the... to be a good technician, to have a good career in that phase and things that'll help you out be better and put you in a better opportunity. And part three is gonna be the wealthy technician. This is about building values, skills, and a stronger future for yourself. Just to highlight some things with Today's Class, we've had quite a lot of shops who are starting to use it, and a lot of technicians who really appreciate it. And it goes back to some of the things that we mentioned earlier. They have a lot of dynamic content in that it's going to evaluate where you're at, what are the needs, what are the gaps that you have in your skill set, and then help provide the training necessary in very short intervals, so you can get that consistent practice over time. There's a lot of fun gamification. I'm still going through and learning some of the, systems myself. It's really fun to beat my dad in scores and and share that. And no, it's been a, it's been a really good treat to see some of the paths that they have there, 'cause it's not just for technicians. It can be ser- for service advisors and managers, and you can even curate some of the training in your shop and in, with your team. Maybe if you're looking for ASE testing prep and wanna get your, really sharpen your ax on those, they've got a pathway for that as well. If you guys wanna know more information about that I'm gonna go ahead and share... Let's see. We'll go to this next slide here, but I'll share a link there that you guys can get more information on Today's Class. At this time, we're gonna open it up to just questions and takeaways. We're closing things out. We're gonna get to this point here, but any of you here wanna hang out with us for a few more minutes and ask some more pointed questions, some more detailed questions, we've got Jim and Nick here to answer those questions. And just a big thank you to ga- to everybody who participated in this, who joined us for this. Keep an eye out for the other ones. We're really excited for those to come out and yeah. And again, tell us what you guys want training on. You can send that to the link I provided it earlier. But let's see. I'll re-share that link as well. That's gonna be content@todaysclass.com. Any questions? Let's see what we got here. A few comments. Aziz said "Relating DTCS and wiring diagram and the basics of how to work helps a lot. Thanks for revalidating my techniques." I actually, I really appreciate that. Sometimes we just need that recognition and validation that we're doing the right things. Christopher Johnson said, "Know your fundamentals." Awesome. We here for a little bit longer if anybody has any questions Jim Cokonis: Electricity is actually one of my favorite things because it's physics and it's logical And unlike other aspects of life- It's not emotional. It's not emotional. It's not illogical. It can be Kent Bullard: emotional. Jim Cokonis: I'm the only moody one allowed in here. Anyway Thanks, Chad Always learning, lifelong learning. Listen, content@todaysclass.com is an email address. With some planning and knowing we can put together, one of these things and schedule it out. But here's one of the big things for me with training is how do we know we're covering the right stuff, and how do we know if it actually takes? And that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about this platform with the adaptive learning content, because the forgetting curve is real. You can hear something and you can think you've got it down, and within a few days you're gonna lose 90% of what you heard. If you don't go and reinforce it and lock it down then it disappears. And so that's one of the reasons why I got excited about this concept of blended learning. So we can do an event like this, we can do an in-person jam session, and if it's intentional, we can actually create content that comes back and asks questions to be sure that somebody picked up the key points, that they lock those fundamentals down. And to me, that's the ultimate way to learn is because you have to... and then you can have a situation where somebody has taken some content and they've got a proficiency of understanding the basic terms we're gonna use, so now we don't have to explain the terms and we can get right into the meat of the topic. So if you have any interest in what that can look like in the future, again, send us an email and let's talk about what that looks like. Kent Bullard: I'm more excited to check out some of the simulations. I've had talks about electrical for a w- over the years, and I've never really understood it. This is one of the first times I've actually seen how those charts actually work and the way that the current's gonna flow and all of that. So that was really insightful to see it physically. It's digital, but to physically see you manipulate and show how it is affecting the current was really cool. Jim Cokonis: Awesome. Kent Bullard: I'm excited for the next one, which we're gonna be talking about, fluid dynamics and not just oil, right? Lubricants and service recommendations. You guys have some really good content on that as well. All right with that said, if we don't have any other questions, thank you all so much for being here. Jim Cokonis: And thanks for the comments in the chat too. Good stuff. Kent Bullard: Yeah. Thank you guys for your contribution and joining the conversation. We hope to see you on the next one with even more questions. Nick Pope: Thanks everyone. Bye for now. Kent Bullard: Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Jim. Jim Cokonis: Thank you.

Ep 106 - Mike Allen, Bryan Pollock, & Braxton Critcher | The Repair Industry is Like a Bucket of Crabs

Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code Confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERE Make your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREThis one was a long time coming. Today, Mike, Bryan and Braxton dig into some of the wildest and most misguided comments from the Confessions of a Shop Owner Facebook page recently. They tackle the notorious “$358k technician” story, breaking down why so many techs can’t do the math—or just don’t want to believe the numbers. You'll have a lot of fun hearing what some people in the industry have to say about some of the hot button issues...or really their lack of understanding. Timstamps:00:00 Techs in the comment section: “Nobody makes that much!” The $350K technician saga02:31 Are you watching the podcast, or just the reels? Context, context, context!05:07 Reggie’s story: Would you leave for a $1/hr raise? Why context gets lost online07:12 Diagnostic skills, cognitive leaps, and why some techs will never make big money10:09 Fairfax, VA: High rent, high output, high pay – breaking down the math11:19 “Crabs in a bucket” and raging over others’ success13:11 Who are the real 1%ers in the shop world? Defining success in auto repair15:03 The service advisor breakdown: Where does all the time go?16:09 Rage-baiting with advisor accountability, tracking every minute in the shop18:29 Punch cards, bathroom codes, and memories of dealership micromanagement20:01 How hard is it, really, to do a 10-minute write-up?21:23 Mediocre service advisor confessions (& Braxton’s epic shade)22:25 Do your employees secretly listen to your podcast?23:45 The all-star “A Tech” myth: Can anyone really “do everything”?25:11 Ego, memory, and those wild open forum stories26:26 Are you really a unicorn tech, or did you just burn a car down?28:00 Training vs. tech evolution: Has the industry outpaced technician effort?29:21 After hours learning: What the top techs are really doing30:26 Commenters vs. reality: Reading comprehension fails (and laughs)33:02 “Never lost to a car” – the world’s biggest shop lie35:01 Toolbox wars and the rolling rig debate: Weight, wheels & wild finance42:02 Remote diagnostics, shop culture, and the power of process49:00 Why context is everything: Dealerships, warranty companies & internet assumptions52:28 If you’re mad at a reel, maybe just listen to the episode (and visit our sponsors)

Flat Rate Doesn't Match the Real Repair with Josh Forbes

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is with Josh Forbes of Maxim Muffler in Winnipeg talks about his unconventional path into the automotive industry. What started with constant breakdowns on his first car—a 1993 Ford Tempo—turned into a career built through hands-on learning, apprenticeship experience, and years of navigating different shop environments. Josh shares lessons from dealership life, the importance of shop culture, why employee appreciation matters, and his concerns about the future of right-to-repair legislation.Timestamps:00:00 Tools and Debt Lessons 00:45 Podcast Introduction 02:44 Shop Schedule and Weather 03:27 First Cars and Fuel Costs 08:22 Tempo Breakdowns That Started It All 12:24 College Training at Fanshawe 14:17 Choosing the Trade Path 17:54 Ford Dealer Quick Lane Reality 24:19 Book Time vs. Real Repairs 36:41 Why He Left the Dealer 39:06 Finding the Right Shop 41:29 The Culture That Changed Everything 45:21 Appreciation Over Pay 52:17 How Bad Culture Breaks Technicians 55:04 Forever Apprentice Mindset 58:44 Trade Pay Gap Debate 01:02:19 DIY Repair Horror Stories 01:07:54 Training Service Writers 01:16:24 The Right to Repair Fight 01:21:22 Quality Control Basics 01:23:46 Training Instead of Punishment 01:27:35 Oil Leak Case Study 01:31:46 Recognition and Longevity 01:37:35 Smart Tool Buying 01:40:05 Diagnostics, Process, and School 01:47:00 Wrap Up and Final Thoughts Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

What Nobody Warns You About Shop Ownership | Andrew Klement & Caleb McElmurry - Ep 28

You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes sits down with Andrew Klement and Caleb McElmurry to dive into the realities of young shop ownership in the automotive industry. Andrew and Caleb talk candidly about their rough starts, the importance of being profitable (and actually charging the right prices), and how building a supportive community has made all the difference.Timestamps:00:00 Young shop owners introduce themselves, plant mom stories, and moving from mobile to brick-and-mortar04:36 Caleb describes his dealership beginnings, lessons from a used car lot, and why integrity matters06:35 Andrew shares his “started from the lawnmower” story, learning on the job, and meeting the right mentors12:27 Why both left bad bosses and how they leveled up their skills13:55 Building a customer base: overcoming $20 repair mindsets and finding the right clients17:15 The hardest part of moving from technician to owner—payroll, pricing, and pressure21:21 Learning to price (and value!) your work: Big mistakes shop owners make25:28 What it actually means to take care of your community—and yourself34:12 Balancing family and business: honest talk about shop life with kids39:16 The shop mistake neither will EVER repeat again43:03 Coaching, community, and why there’s no single right way to win in this business57:00 Are you building a legacy? Talking new generations and what it means for your shop1:01:50 What to know before you open your own shop (spoiler: it’s harder than you think!)1:16:10 Why undercharging and sacrificing profit is hurting everyone in the industry1:21:55 Being proud of what you’ve built—yes, you deserve that truck!1:29:12 Marketing in small towns & finding the customers who value your shop1:33:09 There’s more than one way to run a shop—and that’s okay1:39:09 Real talk: mental health, community, and lifting each other up in the industry1:44:01 Wrapping up: finding your people, making it your own, and why the journey is worth it

Curing Organizational Drag: The Courage to Fire a Non-Fit Employee [RR 1100]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Building a successful auto repair business isn't just about hiring great people; it's about creating a culture where the right people can thrive. In this episode of Episodic Education, Carm Capriotto welcomes Matt Lachowitzer, founder of Matt's Automotive Center, to discuss the leadership principles that helped grow his company to 11 locations. Matt shares why protecting culture sometimes means making difficult personnel decisions, how investing in employee development fuels long-term success, and why great leaders always begin by looking in the mirror. What You'll Learn Why one employee who doesn't fit your culture can create organizational drag.When letting go of a top performer is the best decision for your team.How leaders should evaluate their own role before blaming an employee's performance.How 29-day customer follow-up calls build trust and long-term loyalty.How company-wide training events reinforce culture and accelerate growth.The leadership mindset required to build a business that succeeds without depending on one person. Strong businesses are built by protecting culture, developing people, and leading with both accountability and compassion. Matt's leadership philosophy demonstrates that long-term success comes from investing in your team, making values-based decisions, and creating an organization where everyone has the opportunity to grow. Matt Lachowitzer, Matt’s Automotive Service Center, Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota and Minnesota. Listen to Matt’s previous episodes HERE Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://remarkableresultsradiopodcast.captivate.fm/napaautocare   NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Download and Listen on Our Mobile App:https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/app/Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fmhttps://remarkableresultsradiopodcast.captivate.fm/napaautocare                                          

Maximizing Profit Through Effective Labor Rate Strategy [THA 493]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Your posted labor rate may not be the labor rate you're actually collecting, and that gap could be costing your shop thousands of dollars every month. In this episode, Carm Capriotto is joined by Andy Adams, a shop owner and business coach, and Rob Sperring, a service manager, to explain why the Effective Labor Rate (ELR) is one of the most overlooked yet impactful performance metrics in the auto repair industry. They break down why ELR falls short, how it affects profitability, and the practical steps every shop owner can take to close the gap. What You'll Learn What Effective Labor Rate (ELR) is and why it matters more than your posted door rate.Why healthy shops should collect at least 90 percent of their posted labor rate.How unbilled diagnostic time, underpriced canned jobs, and complimentary inspections reduce profitability.Why excessive discounting, even with good intentions, can quietly erode your bottom line.Why improving ELR creates opportunities to increase technician compensation and strengthen your business.How auditing repair orders can uncover missed labor opportunities and unnecessary discounts.Why updating your labor matrix and canned jobs can immediately improve financial performance.How sharing KPI's (key performance indicators) with your team builds ownership and accountability throughout the shop. Effective Labor Rate is more than a financial matrix; it's a direct measure of how well your shop captures the value of the work it performs. By understanding where labor revenue is being lost and making intentional operational improvements, shop owners can increase profitability, invest in their teams, and build a stronger, more sustainable business. Rob Sperring, Grand Rapids Motorcar, Grand Rapids, MI Andy Adams, Adams Garage, Terre Haute, IN. Coach at Repair Shop of Tomorrow Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.<a...

Ep 163: The Culture Every Business Owner Wants to Build with Edward Caswell

Stop Running Your Shop Like a Technician | Rick White and Buckaroobob Bucknbob (John Firm) - Ep 27

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREWhat does it really take to run a thriving auto shop without living in the bays? Today Rick White and Buckaroo Bob join Tonnika to break down the journey from wrench-turner to true business builder. Hear firsthand stories about learning to trust your team, why “hiring smarter” is the real secret, and how the right coaching can seriously change your shop’s future.Plus: Why you need to delegate, why “set it and forget it” marketing frees you up to lead, and why building your network is as important as building your car count.Timestamps:00:00 Are you running your shop—or is your shop running you? 02:07 Letting go: When Bob's son joined the family business03:43 The long road from working IN the business to working ON it06:03 Bob’s transformation: Training yourself out of a job07:25 How group coaching built an unstoppable shop owner family10:03 ARO breakthrough: From $252 to $820 by trusting the process12:00 Control freaks, “Mama syndrome,” and learning to let your team lead14:50 Why you must hire people smarter than you—and how to spot them15:43 Book club for bosses: “One Minute Manager” and more game-changers18:01 Coaching: Are you looking for a coach—or just a cheerleader?21:20 Rick’s journey: From micromanagement to true leadership25:51 Letting go: Real growth means they don’t need you every day30:26 Training is NOT optional—why you’re never too good to learn31:39 The three reasons shop owners skip coaching (and how to fix it)33:02 Your only entitlement: Opportunity, not comfort35:59 Facing big challenges—without carrying all that baggage39:02 If you’re still taking technical classes… you’re not leading your shop40:34 Simple details that set your shop apart—yes, the smell matters!41:21 Saying yes to more—adventure, networking, and stepping outside your comfort zone43:22 Big invitations: Family reunions, cookouts & open mic wisdom44:07 Upcoming advisor training and summer events—don’t miss out!

Wayne Stewart and his Precision Tune Shop Transformation - Bonus Zoom Episode 11

Glenn interviews Wayne Stewart, owner-operator of a top Precision Tune in Noonan, GA, about his journey from past struggles to running a high-performing shop. Wayne explains how Auto Shop Answers and Key2Key helped transform his business—boosting sales, improving shop presentation, and fostering a disciplined, winning culture. He shares practical lessons on hiring and developing A-players, managing conflict versus toxicity, and the day-to-day execution that drives results. The episode is a candid look at leadership, faith, and the real work behind creating a standout auto hospitality business.   AutoShopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

Ep 162: How Coachability Turned a Struggling Shop Into a $7M Business with Thomas Andrews

The Conversation Women in Automotive Need to Hear | Maryann Croce , Melissa Birdie Patterson and Tiffany Scherado-Birou - Ep 26

Running a shop is hard enough—you don't need your software making it harder. 😂 If you're ready for more clarity, better organization, and a smoother experience for both your team and your customers, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, the conversation focused on the Amazing Women in Automotive group and its mission to recruit, retain, and engage more women in the industry. One concept discussed was the importance of mentorship and how even new members can offer fresh perspectives to the group. A key theme that emerged was the challenge—and the necessity—of giving yourself permission to evolve as a leader and embrace new roles as your business and life change.Timestamps:00:00 Belonging in Automotive: Propping Each Other Up00:40 What’s Amazing Women in Automotive REALLY About?01:15 The Origin Story: Creating Space and the Mission02:12 Men, Listen Up: Why This Matters for Everyone03:24 Safe Spaces & Real Talk—NOT a Kumbaya Circle05:07 Welcoming Newcomers and Building Confidence06:22 Mentoring & the Power of Fresh Eyes07:09 Automotive Auntie: Why Mentorship Matters08:20 There’s a Community Out Here—Don’t Miss Out09:09 Transferable Skills: You DON’T Need to Be a Tech10:10 Bringing Marketing, Accounting, and More to the Shop11:16 Events, Retreats & Partnering with Schools12:13 It’s OK to Focus on You—Permission to Refuel13:38 Balancing Motherhood & Shop Life: Permission Granted14:41 Leading at Work, Leading at Home: Raising Leaders16:00 Why Don’t We Give Ourselves Enough Credit?17:15 Permission to Say Thank You (& Mean It!)18:14 Auntie Advice: Sometimes You Just Need a Dance Party19:25 AI, SOPs & Finding Time—Give Yourself Grace21:05 Getting Women Out of Their Shell & Into Community22:33 Technician Engagement: Cultural Differences and Challenges24:21 Why You Need to Show Up—Even if You Think You Don’t25:20 Weekly Encouragement & Why Laughter Matters26:07 Tears, Tough Days & Doing Leadership the Right Way27:31 Letting Go: Empowering Your Team and Yourself30:13 Redefining Your Role—No More Mom Guilt32:12 Coaching, Leadership & Sharing the Wins34:05 Raising Leaders at Every Level of the Shop36:00 When Your Why Changes—Identity, Shifts & Legacy40:43 How to Join Amazing Women in Automotive!41:18 The Power of Community & What’s Next

Simple Changes That Make an Auto Repair Shop More Professional | Frank and Margarita Wiebe

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HERERecorded at the TOOLS in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Jeff sits down with Canadian shop owners Frank and Margarita Wiebe of 3D Auto to share their first destination training event and the lessons they're bringing back to their shop. They share how the welcoming community helped them build new relationships, the value of technical and service advisor training, and why effective customer communication starts with selling value—not price. The conversation also covers diagnostics, shop processes, professionalism, preventive maintenance, and building a culture focused on continuous learning and integrity.Timestamps: 00:00 Honesty With Customers 00:46 Meet Frank and Margarita Wiebe 01:42 Road Trip to Hershey 03:39 First Destination Training Event 04:26 Finding Community at TOOLS 06:30 Women's Dinner Experience 08:34 Their Podcast Journey 09:38 Tire Lifting Tips 11:12 Women in the Shop 13:18 Safety and Leadership Lessons 15:09 Favorite Training Sessions 21:11 Hershey Lodge Experience 23:32 Improving Customer Estimates 27:50 Building a Professional Shop Brand 29:48 Training Technicians and Using Lab Scopes 33:41 Battery Testing Best Practices 34:55 Preventive Maintenance Mindset 36:12 Doing Maintenance the Right Way 37:26 Advocating for Customers 39:04 Fleet Maintenance Success Stories 41:41 Why Phone Estimates Don't Work 43:51 Diagnose Before Replacing Parts 46:14 Handling Difficult Customers 51:39 Pricing and Setting Priorities 54:05 Free Services and Due Diligence 01:00:22 Tekmetric Experiences 01:04:13 A/C Season and Fleet Planning 01:06:31 Final Takeaways and Wrap Up Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

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

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!In this episode, Bryan Pollock sits down for a no-holds-barred conversation on shop ownership, team culture, and social media with Zeb Beard. Zeb shares why he's big on visualizing goals—and how that mindset helped him score a brand-new facility. They dive into why having dedicated roles, like a full-time DVI specialist, can massively boost shop efficiency (and profit). Plus, Bryan and Zeb talk about why they're not afraid to stir the pot with the trolls on social media, and how “playing grab ass” at the shop stalls progress.Timestamps:00:00 Why “100% production” is for amateurs01:18 Why techs need to get off Google and show initiative03:40 The hiring hack: leave info out and see who can problem-solve06:00 Raising independent kids—now considered “dangerous”?!08:26 Can’t = Motivation: Zeb's reverse psychology for success10:02 Visualizing ridiculous goals (and how it landed a new shop)12:13 Social media, comedy, and the birth of the viral “road report”14:11 From slow shop to slammed: the power of relatable content16:11 Why automotive posts attract trolls—and why Brian loves ‘em19:03 Haters gonna hate, but the right customers love the realness20:53 Stop showing brake jobs, start showing personality25:35 Growth mode vs “growing into your skin” after scaling up27:47 The struggle to find talent in rural America30:17 Choosing city vs small town for shop location32:41 Surviving a soft market and approval rate dips35:05 Organic marketing: how the “road report” really moved the needle37:00 Tracking the 10-year cycles in auto repair shop business41:58 Boundary setting: solving the “grumpy shop owner” syndrome43:53 Introducing William, the DVI wizard: why every shop needs one48:04 How a DVI specialist and cleanup guy can outpace 3 extra techs54:15 Unlocking ultimate tech efficiency with multiple bays per tech59:18 Real math: How more bays explode your bottom line01:00:47 Firing low producers—why your shop might actually run better

Episode 276 - Navigating Apprenticeships With Angela Mitchell & Shop-Ware Scholarship Winner Kaitlyn Schave

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, the conversation focused on the experiences of an apprentice technician who won the Shop-Ware scholarship. One concept discussed was the importance of standardized processes in the shop to ensure consistent work quality and reduce customer complaints. A key theme that emerged was the value of mentorship and hands-on learning, with support from experienced technicians helping apprentices gain skills and confidence. The discussion explored how exploring diverse training resources, including online courses and technical classes, can accelerate professional growth for new technicians.00:00 Brake pad inconsistencies and complaints05:44 Cleaning caliper brackets16:24 Bringing Kaitlyn on board17:54 Training and skill progression27:40 Learning electrical diagnostics skills31:43 Talking about tough car repairs33:59 Discussing employee pay incentives42:57 Choosing the right conference sessions48:07 Learning diagnostics through videos52:21 Testing car battery voltage58:50 Dealing with difficult customers

Why Busy Shops Stay Broke | Josh Oberlander | Ep 25

You shouldn't have to play detective just to figure out what's happening in your own shop. 😂 If you're ready for all your shop's information in one place, check out Tekmetric HEREConsistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes and Josh Oberlander break down why slowing down and focusing on process can actually turbocharge your shop’s growth. Tonnika shares hard-won lessons about moving from high car count and burnout to prioritizing quality over quantity, showing how DVIs (with more photos!) increase both trust and repair order value. Josh jumps in with actionable advice on building team buy-in, gamifying new processes, and leading from the top. Timestamps:00:00 Leading from the top: Why technicians and advisors must buy in00:35 The untapped power of free training for shop owners01:17 Doing less for more: Getting profitable work from fewer cars02:16 Maximizing ARO by slowing down and focusing on DVIs03:07 The quick lube trap: Saying yes to everything vs. building real value03:23 Photos = trust: How transparent DVIs win more jobs03:34 Josh shares shop success with upping DVI photo counts04:04 Protecting your shop with good photos (and covering your … liability)05:01 Why busy shops are still "broke"—the cost of missing training & coaching06:10 Saying 'no for now': The hardest lesson for shop owners06:41 Why oil changes almost never build loyalty (and what to focus on instead)06:53 Coaching your team: Breaking through resistance to DVI and new processes08:04 Gamifying buy-in: Whiteboards, numbers, and making it a challenge09:20 The 60- or 90-day challenge: Real tracking for real results10:00 Why photo & video DVIs build trust—and prevent burnout11:19 Video in the shop: When and why you want to use it12:08 Technicians, not actors: Keeping DVI videos authentic12:25 The magic of just one extra hour per ticket12:36 Team buy-in starts at the top—stop relying on "because I said so"13:18 Creating a culture of “disagree and commit”14:20 How team input drives goals, ownership, and commitment15:08 Buy-in that sticks: When your team runs the shop without you15:53 Setting the next big goal (and getting your team hyped!)16:06 The never-ending work of real leadership17:01 The payoff of openness: Why your team should know the numbers

From Chaos To Control: One Shop Owner's Journey To Freedom

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin sits down with Isaac, owner of Diesel Dynamics in Texas, to talk about what really changed after six months of focusing on the fundamentals of running a better business. Like so many shop owners, Isaac...

ATTENTION: Shop Owners - Buy Back Your Time | Dan Thieken - Ep 24

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes and Ash Kaplan chat with Dan Thieken, owner of Kreager Tire and Service LLC in Millersport, Ohio. Dan opens up about the journey from sweeping floors as a high school student to owning his own shop, emphasizing the importance of building the right team so that owners can eventually step away from day-to-day operations. He also shares his philosophy on why shops should offer tires—not only as a profit center, but as a window into the car's soul that keeps customers from ever needing another shop. Timestamps:00:00 Why you should ALWAYS offer tires at your shop02:11 Dan Thieken's origin story: From sweeping floors to owner04:32 The leap to management—and whistleblowing on bad leadership05:25 Not a tech? Why owning a shop is still for you07:07 People skills: Bartenders, restaurant work, and automotive service10:41 Building a team so you (finally) can step away13:31 Small town challenges: Hiring, no running water, and real culture16:14 The trust fall: Letting go of your “baby” shop18:17 Shop success = buying back your own time20:04 The slippery slope of coaching and paying it forward22:11 What’s your business mix? Service vs. tires, and how it changed24:22 Two reasons EVERY shop should offer tires25:10 How selling tires unlocks full-vehicle inspections26:20 Stop “selling”—just advise and build relationships28:00 Would Dan ever hire a coach? The answer might surprise you32:26 Advice for new shop owners: Train your replacement34:21 The personal side: Boundaries, empathy, and being “too nice”39:00 Mistakes owners make: Wanting to be absentee too soon43:12 The real trick: Let your staff learn from their mistakes46:00 Why Dan feels more at home away from the counter47:51 Upcoming events, classes, and golf trips

Ep 161: The Leadership Lessons Behind Building a Trades Business with Evan Richard

Ep 104 - Jordan Mosely | The Truth About Scaling an Auto Repair Business

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREIf you're like me and aren't good at marketing, don't do it on your own. Let the experts handle it. Touch HERE for more on Turnkey Marketing.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERE When I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!In this episode, Mike Allen sits down with Jordan Mosely to talk about growth, technology, and the realities of running a multi-location business. Jordan shares how sticking to a proven playbook has helped him scale his quick lube and hybrid locations, and explains why obsessing over small cost details—like labor and materials—makes a huge impact on the bottom line. The conversation also dives into the pain (and promise) of current AI and software integrations, when Mike and Jordan both agree that the right technology is important, but execution, adaptation, and focusing on the basics are what truly drive success.Timestamps:00:00 Covered wagons and old-school shop software02:14 What really goes down at shop events and happy hours03:15 Playbooks and the secret to sticking with a process04:14 The quick lube model vs. full-service auto repair05:48 Learning from industry “gurus” and finding what works06:38 Car wash business models and subscription secrets08:09 Breaking down car wash economics and margins09:26 Pennies make the profit: expense structure and labor10:22 Why every phone call counts—and how much fumbled calls really cost12:04 AI cameras, call reviews, and upgrading shop tech12:41 Why onboarding new AI tools is painful (but worth it)14:00 Using Rilla, custom AI, and making tech work for your team16:28 Are unified shop platforms possible—or is it always 19 subscriptions?18:42 The challenges of double-entry and why Tekmetric stands out20:54 Tectonic event review: what a professional trade show looks like22:24 Fixing cars vs. trying to code your own AI: why you should pick a lane24:00 Confessions about chaos, change—and the need for therapy26:14 Dealing with online haters in the auto industry27:16 Remote and virtual advisors: the future, or a flop?30:07 The “sales hammer” model and selling from afar31:49 What happens when you try to run a fully remote shop32:35 Why execution is everything for new shop models34:42 20 groups, private equity, and the independent shop owner line36:44 Why big shop owners show up at trade shows38:14 Confession time: Subaru oil change disasters and red flags39:25 High turnover in quick lube—onboarding and training struggles40:05 Why you need to launch that training, even if it’s not perfect41:57 What’s next: acquiring more stores, riding the oil price wave, and 1% daily improvement

The Fine Line Between Viral Content and Rage Bait | Bryan Pollock, Tonnika Haynes and Braxton Critcher

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HERERecorded at Tools Pennsylvania 2026, this discussion brings together Jeff with Bryan Pollock, Tonnika Haynes and Braxton Critcher to talk about the realities of growing a podcast and business through social media. They explore why short-form content and reels are essential for reaching new audiences, the downside of viral clips attracting negative comments, and the challenge of balancing attention-grabbing content with long-term brand integrity. The conversation also covers dealing with online criticism, protecting your mental health, and staying focused on helping people make meaningful changes instead of chasing internet arguments.Timestamps: 00:00 Do You Focus? 01:34 Disc Golf Banter 01:52 Emotional Support Wiener 02:10 Tools PA Roundtable Introduction 02:30 Group Chat Chaos 03:32 Reels Are the Devil 05:05 Why Social Media Matters 06:51 Viral Reels and Online Hate 09:29 Deleting Ignorant Comments 11:01 Rage Bait vs. Clickbait 15:00 Shop Rates and Industry Reality 16:24 Producer Clip Strategy 20:58 Can You Change the Industry? 23:53 Choosing Positivity 29:34 Why Good Content Still Gets Hate 32:42 The "Must Be Nice" Mindset 34:40 Handling Large Audiences 35:53 Protecting Your Peace 36:16 Keyboard Warrior Stories 38:34 Why Viewers Get Angry 41:01 You Can't Save Everyone 42:30 The Highlight Reel Trap 48:24 Stop Complaining—Start Changing Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Your Shop Might Be Driving Customers Away | Jessica Watkins - Ep 23

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Jessica Watkins tells Tonnika and Ash about her time in marketing and how she got into the automotive industry. They bring up the challenges women face, from working in shops without AC or clean bathrooms to building customer-centered businesses. Learn from the ladies on how shop owners can make their spaces more inviting for women and why curb appeal, safety, and clean facilities truly matter.Timestamps:00:00 When shops refuse to upgrade: The pain of paper tickets01:04 Is it hot in here? Real talk about shop air conditioning (or the lack of it!)02:04 Jessica’s origin story: Tripling sales & demanding more05:18 Why clean bathrooms and AC matter for customer (and staff!) happiness07:16 The surprising power of shop curb appeal10:22 Making the automotive industry friendlier for women12:10 How Ash built Golden Hour Garage to make shop life easier14:35 The little things that build trust and boost your brand17:50 Want higher prices? Start by raising your standards20:12 Why your marketing matters (and how not to suck at it)22:46 Nosy people are your next customers. Get visible!25:41 Safety first: Creating a shop environment everyone feels safe in28:40 What women notice that shop owners miss31:14 True service stories: When a shop loses a customer for good36:29 Why front counter greetings and clean lobbies can’t be ignored40:13 The secret to staff training and customer loyalty43:06 Confessions & how to encourage more women to join the shop life47:25 Lessons (and laughs) from real shop experiences54:00 How to connect with Jessica and get solutions for YOUR shop!

209 - The Real Story of Growing an Independent Auto Repair Shop with Andy Severein

209 - The Real Story of Growing an Independent Auto Repair Shop with Andy Severein June 24th, 2026 - 01:00:41 Show Summary: Andy Severein shares how Andrew's Auto grew from a single shop into a thriving multi shop operation through coaching leadership and a commitment to continuous improvement. Jennifer Hulbert explains how understanding financials improving repair order value and developing managers helped transform the business. They discuss building a strong culture creating opportunities for employees and preparing the next generation of leadership. Their story shows that long term success comes from intentional growth consistent training and serving both customers and employees well.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development   Guest(s):   Director of Programs & Owner of Service Plus Automotive   Owner, Andrew’s Auto   Show Highlights: [00:02:29] – Jennifer shares her journey from shop owner to Institute program director. [00:06:11] – Andy explains why he purchased a struggling repair shop. [00:09:00] – Coaching revealed the business metrics Andy never knew existed. [00:11:54] – Average repair order nearly doubled through better processes and training. [00:16:00] – Profit sharing and community support became the business mission. [00:20:10] – Learning financial statements changed every business decision. [00:27:00] – Teamwide coaching fueled one million dollars in sales growth. [00:34:00] – Intentional leadership strengthened culture and employee development. [00:38:02] – A newly acquired second shop quickly doubled its repair order. [00:48:00] – Andy encourages owners to embrace coaching before opportunities disappear.     In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_3LVDHjy2G4   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript:   The Real Story of Growing an Independent Auto Repair Shop with Andy Severin 06242026 Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night, depending on when and where you're joining us from today. It is a gorgeous day outside. I hope you are able to go outside and breathe in some beautiful fresh air. Hey, today is awesome. Today is going to be amazing. We've got a great conversation gonna happen with a phenomenal shop owner, with a phenomenal coach and trainer from the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. But before we get into that, let's talk about you and where you're at, and what's going on in your life. This is going to be an interactive webinar. Interactive how? In the comments section, in the questions, in the comments, put in there where you're joining us from today. Love to give you a shout-out here as we are on the live webinar. We're streaming through many different, multiple streams. Multiple live streams are going out on Facebook, and on YouTube, and on StreamYard. So we've got all these avenues that we're reaching out to the industry to, to, for us to connect, for us to come together. So drop in the comments where you're joining us from, city, state, and your shop name. Love to give you a shout-out so we can recognize everybody who is here for this live event. And it seems that everybody is shy today. Which is awesome. That's great. You know where the comment button is. When you find it, put in there your information, and we'd love to give you a shout-out here as we're on our live event. Streaming on Facebook, and on LinkedIn, and on YouTube, and on StreamYard. Oh my gosh, this is so awesome. This is so awesome. All right, for our conversation today Jennifer Holbert is here from the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. She is a shop owner. She is a a coach, an industry coach, an industry facilitator with the GEAR Performance Group, and most recently moved into the position of director of programs with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for being here. Good morning, good afternoon. Jennifer Hulbert: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. Jimmy Lea: Yes. We're gonna have an awesome conversation. I'm in the good morning part, and you're in the good afternoon part. Jennifer Hulbert: I am. Jimmy Lea: 'Cause you're in New York, right? Jennifer Hulbert: I am. Northern New York. Jimmy Lea: Northern New York, awesome. How long have you been in the industry, Jennifer? Jennifer Hulbert: Ooh 25 years? Yeah, 25 years. Jimmy Lea: So you started sweeping floors when you were, like, five, six years old then? Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah, you could say that. I started filing probably when I was in my teens, but officially joined the business in 2001 when we moved to our new building and started as service advising, accounting, marketing, and then now do it all. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, a- and you've had a long journey with the institute as well, joining as part of the GEAR Performance groups, and then moved into being an industry coach. Jennifer Hulbert: I did. Jimmy Lea: What did that... What's that short story look like for you? Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah. I was a group member in group two for about 19 years prior to the opportunity to become a facilitator with the institute. That was four years ago, and just was recently asked and accepted the director of programs position, so I'll be overseeing all of our coaching programs with our owners coaches, our service advisors, and our managers. So just in the infancy of that position right now, and we've got lots of good work to do and lots of exciting things to bring to the industry that I'm super excited to be part of. So yeah, it's been a journey. I, and I know all the things, all the positions, so as, first time coming to a meeting to being an integral part of a group process and looking at elevating our own internal groups and the members that we were talking to, including myself. So yeah, it's been quite the journey. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And here comes a shout-out from Downshift with Tanika. "That's my coach, Jennifer." She is. Thank you, T- Jennifer Hulbert: But love Tanika ... Jimmy Lea: Tanika's with Brown's Automotive out of- Yeah ... North Carolina. Yeah. Chapel Hill. David Boy's also saying, "Hey. Yay, Jennifer." And David, are you joining from Minnesota today? Minneapolis? Are you joining from Florida today? Where is home? Where are your feet planted today? Jennifer Hulbert: He's all over the place. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, that's awesome. That's awesome. Th- thank you for being a coach. Thank you for being in the industry. You are an inspiration f- to many. You have influenced many, and one of those people you have influenced is Andy Severin with Andrew's Auto. Andy, how the heck are you, brother? Andy Severein: Doing wonderful, Jimmy. Good to be here. Jimmy Lea: Good. Bro, you gotta sit up or something. You look... I got out... We Andy Severein: all these people back. Jimmy Lea: There we Jennifer Hulbert: go Jimmy Lea: I'm so excited to talk to you about this conversation a- as we talk about you and your shop and your business. How long have you been in the business, Andy? What does that look like for you? Andy Severein: I started in this business when I was in high school. I swept floors in a shop when I was 14, 15 years old, and got a job working there right out of... I went to Vo-Tech when I was a senior in high school and and their work work experience program puts you out in a shop halfway through senior year. So I started working there yeah, when I was 17, 18 years old, and was in that shop for, probably till I was about 25, I believe. Wow. Left the industry for a little bit, did some different things with trucks, and was learned a lot about life skills and running a business by owning big trucks. That teaches you a lot quickly. And when I got out of that, I got into the used car side of the business in inventory management, which I had my fingers in the repair side of our inventory. I was... I'd say I was a part of this industry at that part p- that point, that time, that 10 years of my life, but in a little different aspect. Yeah, most of my life I've had my hands getting dirty somewhere. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Isn't it funny we all start by sweeping floors? Yep. We got a shout-out coming in from David Boyd. Y- you need... You're sitting low for a tall guy. Reach up there, grab your camera, p- point it down just a little bit 'cause it looks like you're sitting on the floor. Andy Severein: It's down as far as it can go. I'm sorry. Jimmy Lea: Oh, really? That's funny. All right, Da- David, you just gotta get over it, man. Don't worry about it. Hey, so you got out, you went into trucking, you came back into into a shop. Did you go directly into owning another shop, or did you get back into turning a wrench first? Andy Severein: I went into the dealership world and- Yeah ... and purchasing and inventory management. The shop that we 10 years ago we started Andrew's Auto. There was a shop that had been in business for 50 years. It's I could see it from my house. We were that close, and it was a mess. Oh, I bet. I knew the owner. I had a relationship with the owner for years, and I planted that seed at one point. If you're, when you're interested in, in, in getting out that I'd be interested in talking. And I at that point, I don't know if my interest more was in cleaning the property up because I could see it from my house and it's that bad- ... or actually being in the auto repair business. But really my experience, the relationships I had had people coming to me constantly with advice, and had people- Yeah coming to me with looking at... They were looking for advice on their cars, and they were sharing experiences with me, experiences that they had at shops. A lot of them bad experiences. So it really it really it really Made me realize that there was a need in our area for a good, honest repair shop. Yeah. So that was my drive behind it, not having any idea what I was getting into at that point. I just knew how to work on cars. That w- that was really it. But thankfully through my life I've worked for some really good people, and looking back through, all the way back to when I was sweeping floors, what I learned from each one of those employers and even my years in, in being in trucking, what I've learned from each thing really prepared me for where I am today. Jimmy Lea: Oh, Jennifer Hulbert: yeah. For Jimmy Lea: sure. Jennifer Hulbert: In a previous conversation, Andy, you said you- you've always put yourself in front of the right people. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jennifer Hulbert: And I think right from an early age, that was just inherent in your personality to put you- ... in the right place at the right time, in front of the right person, to give you some of these opportunities. Andy Severein: Yep. Yep. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that you're learning along the way. At what point as the business grew, at what point did you realize that your role had to change from being involved in everything to truly being leading the business? Andy Severein: Definitely the institute had a, big part in that. I- Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Jennifer, why are you laughing? Jennifer Hulbert: Because we've had this conversation multiple times. Andy Severein: Yes, we have. Yes, we have. So we, I worked from, it was right in December of 2016 is when we started and things went well. We were busy from day one. We grew, we added people constantly. We did our first major addition renovation to our building in the end of 2019. The the, things were going very well, but there was just so many things I didn't know. And when I I was at the Napa Expo in 2022 in Vegas and and was in one of Cecil's classes, and it just it made me realize there was just a lot that I didn't know, and things I needed to know. And w- what he said really resonated with where we were at that point in time. I had no idea. Like I said, I knew how to fix cars. I didn't know what an average repair order was. We were using Mitchell at that point, and I really paid no attention to the reports. I didn't even know what that stuff was, right? We were just using Mitchell so we had a platform to give people invoices. So it taught me right away some of the, key indicators to, to look at, and I thought, "Whoa. We have a long way to go here." Jimmy Lea: Wow, and by that time you had already been six years in the business. Andy Severein: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And- Yep wow, there comes an eye-opening experience. Interesting. That's awesome. What, what- So from that point, you decided, "Oh my gosh, we've gotta change, we've gotta grow, we've gotta develop." What, at what point did you decide, "Hey, you know what? I need to really look at this coaching and training business. I really need to hire me a coach." What did that look like for you? Andy Severein: What drove that and what's still driving me today, I know I'm getting into the future there, but this business, I started it with my son on day one, and the intention of him taking this business over, I hadn't really put a timeframe on when that would happen, but it I think I realized that I need to make this a well-functioning successful business before I hand it over to him. So that, that was really what, resonated to me at that point. "Hey, we have a long way to go." So that that was, why we made some significant changes there right away and adapting to those changes is hard. I tell people that all the time. Being told, "Hey, your ARO should be this," and you think, "Oh my goodness, how are we ever gonna get from $350 to..." I believe our first goal was $550- ... if I'm not mistaken. And, we were inching- And I- ... inching to 500 and all of a sudden it was like maybe we ought to look at things a little different." Now at 600, I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness." Jennifer Hulbert: I can remember one of those early conversations of, Jen, everyone's talking about this 850, $900 average repair order but you don't understand, my, my customers are different." Andy Severein: "My Jennifer Hulbert: customers aren't going to accept that because I live in an area of the country where we're completely different." And it wasn't until we started to break it down and Andy, you took a really a hard look at understanding the KPIs. We had a lot of discussions on what they meant, what the formulas were, how they're impacted, and that I think opened your eyes to say, "Okay we can do this with a better and a more thorough DVI, and some sales training for our advisors, and a different marketing strategy and conversations with our customers." So I, I was joking with Jimmy before we started this that's typically the first conversation that we as coaches get is, "Oh, wait a minute, you don't understand, my customers are different." And what we've found is what most people realize is no, they're not. They're, they're- ... Jennifer Hulbert: They will respond to the presentations and the information that you're going to give them. And I have some statistics in front of me. In 2022, your average repair order was $367. End of last year it's 732, and I think this year we're knocking the $800 range. So again- ... with some systems, process changes, ideology changes, training, this is exactly what's possible. Andy Severein: Yep. Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. So I have a coaching question for you, Jennifer. How often- are shops coming to you as a coach or you as a facilitator and singing the exact same song that Andy was singing? Jennifer Hulbert: Often. I would say probably 90% of the time. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Jennifer Hulbert: And it's because we're fed, there, there's a lot of noise out there. There, there's a ton of noise of what the industry should be. There, there's news articles there's all kinds of news report of what our industry's reputation is, and it's not positive. So we look at this differently. We wanna educate our customers on what's best for you and your vehicle. Nowhere in our sales process that we teach at the institute or that we coach is a hard sales process. We're gonna look at your situation, your vehicle. We're gonna be open and honest about everything that we see, and then work a plan that's gonna work for you. Andy Severein: I Jennifer Hulbert: love that. So when you address it with honesty and true humility, it, it becomes a different conversation than one of a hard press sales, and I'm gonna sell you services that you don't need. It... That, that's not what we do. That's not the integrity of the institute, that's not the integrity of the coaches, and that's not the integrity of the shops that we work with. So a lot of times it's you don't know what you don't know. True. So you don't understand the power of a DVI process. You don't understand the power of an actual structured sales process. And that's exactly what Andy started to realize, and then really took a deep dive in, is, "Okay, I see things differently now, and I can see where we're benefiting our customers from doing this." "So I'm gonna put all the effort into training staff and making sure that we're starting to work towards those different key performance indicators." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Andy, did you feel called out, just Tanika? She's wondering if this is a setup. She feels like she's being called out right now. Did you feel like you were being called out, Andy? Andy Severein: No. I would say not. No? No Jimmy Lea: When you were first starting, you didn't feel like you were being called out, you didn't feel like you were being spotlighted. And you know what? Now let me tell c- build up a little bit more, clarify a little bit more. I enjoy the process that we have at the institute where we're here to meet you where you are as a business and as a shop owner- Yeah and we're going to start from there. What does it take to run your business? What kind of business do you want to have? 100%. Now- Okay. If that's- Yeah, I do ... the kind of business you wanna have, these are the steps we need to take to get to that business that you wanna run. As opposed to a rubber stamp that says, "Follow this process, procedure, and you'll be successful." Okay you don't understand my clients or my customers Jennifer's laughing 'cause yeah we're gonna meet you where you are. What, how do you wanna run your business? What do you, what does success look like for you? 'Cause Andy, your definition of success might be different than Jennifer's, might be different than mine Andy Severein: Sorry, I dropped out with just a moment there. It was just about a five-second window where I had s- Jimmy Lea: For just the most important Andy Severein: point ... in the meat of that, I lost you. Jennifer Hulbert: He- he was saying what success is to you is not the success to someone else. And I'll use something that's very important to you, and that is compensating your staff very well with your profit sharing plan- and your community involvement and sponsorships. So Andy and I have had the conversation of the effects of that on his, to overall net profit- ... but that's his why. He wants to give the best financial outcome to all of his staff based on their efforts towards their success with a profit sharing plan. And then be a very good leader financially in the community to, to support those organizations that are supporting him. And that's much different than my why, and that's gonna be much different than Tanika's why as well. So we've looked at what's important to you in creating that profitability level so you can carry out that why. Andy Severein: Yeah. Absolutely. That why is something that we've figured out over time. We didn't realize going into it what our true why was. I just wanted to build a race car. I thought, "Hey, I have a shop. I can deduct all these parts and, it'll be great." And it took a few years of doing this until we figured out what our true why is, why we're here, and it's awesome. I love that. I'll back up just a minute, though, Jimmy, to your question, if I felt called out, and maybe I misunderstood what you were saying, but I'd probably share with the people that are listening that are thinking about coaching no. I went in there new to everything that was happening, and I never felt called out, put on the spot "Look at this guy." The group has been awesome from the first time I was there with helping me to feel comfortable and share their, their struggles and successes. I never felt called out in a way that I was uncomfortable. And I'm not sure if that's what you meant, but hindsight, that's what I was thinking. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No. That's exactly it. You weren't called out in an embarrassment point of view, but you were- No ... enlightened into, "Oh, wow, these are some things that I can do. These are the steps I can take and need to take so I can run the business the way I want to." I love that. That's awesome. Now, question for you here about pricing and parts and parts GP and labor rates. This can be very emotional for shop owners. This is an emotional subject. What helped you move from being emotional about these topics and these subjects to becoming more logical in those areas? Jennifer Hulbert: Besides peer pressure. Jimmy Lea: Peer pressure is positive. It can be. Andy Severein: Definitely that emotional attachment that, that, as shop owners you have that. When you're working in the shop, you're, you're turning the wrenches you're hands-on with the vehicles, you're talking to the people at the customer. You're talking to the customers at the counter, and there's people you've known forever, and you know their, their families and their financial situations. There's a huge emotional attachment to that, and it's not bad. Yeah. But it definitely it, it definitely is a hindrance to the growth and success of a business, and I... It took me a while to, to learn and understand that. And it's still why I stay away from the the counter, and the, the service advisor role is so important, and I realize that. I'm so blessed to have the people we have now that are really good at what they do, and they get it. They understand. They're coaching with the APT programs, and I keep putting plugs in for you, but it's been very powerful for us. But overall the growth of the business is dependent on that, so we... I've learned to just stay away Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. Andy Severein: I, of course. Jimmy Lea: You know your strengths and your weaknesses. Go ahead, Jennifer. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jennifer Hulbert: I think you also had an understanding of the overall effect o- of what a labor rate increase will do. So that impacts labor gross profit, which impacts your total GP, which impacts your overall net profit. So- ... when we first started to talk about what is your why, and that you wanted it to input this profit sharing and your community involvement we need- those net profit dollars to be able to do that. And we get those through parts and labor GP. So no, it's not just a 10 or a 15% or 10 or $15 labor rate increase, it's going to overall impact that labor GP, which will help the net profit, which is gonna allow you to do what you want to do. Andy Severein: Absolutely. Yeah, that's so true. Absolutely. Yeah, being in the upstairs your knowledge teaching me initially how to read my P&L. I'd never looked at a P&L. When I started to enroll, I didn't even know how much money we had in the bank. I didn't care. Yeah. Bills were being paid, it was great. But now the composite reporting, which was really hard for me, and you remember that, it was super hard for me in the beginning. And now I'm I'm not gonna say I enjoy doing it, but I see the I see the... I do enjoy doing it. I enjoy the results of it. But the the understanding of how we're getting to net profit and why that net profit is so expensive is so important, Yeah that- It's critical ... that's not being downstairs, but w- my offices are upstairs staying up there and keeping an eye on that is is, it's been my the key to, to, to the growth here. Absolutely. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And let's break this down for those that are watching that don't understand what a P&L is. They hear the word all the time. They hear P&L. This is your profit and loss, pro- P&L, profit and loss. Most shop owners will look at their P&L, they really don't understand it. They're looking for that last number. Is it red or is it black? If it's black we know we're good, we know we're making money. If it's red We're losing money, and that's what the understanding of most shop owners are. At the institute, we also have a financial intensive that helps you as a shop owner to understand how to read the entire P&L, how to get it set up properly with your accountant so that you are getting the right and correct information when you need it most. And a P&L should not take months and months for your accountant to put together and g- and- No ... deliver to you. W- what's the average? How long should it take, Jennifer? Jennifer Hulbert: To, for, to start to make changes? Jimmy Lea: Oh, no. J- In order- Hey, Mr. Accountant or Mrs. Accountant, I would like my P&L. Jennifer Hulbert: You should get that once a month. M- minimally, I would say, our require- our reporting requirement is by the 20th of the month. So you should be getting that by the 15th or the 18th from, for the previous month from your- ... accountant or your bookkeeper. Jimmy Lea: So if you're only getting a P&L once a year, you may wanna either ask for more and get a better understanding, or m- perhaps you need a different- accountant. So if you need a different accountant, we know a guy. Come talk to us. We know a guy. Jennifer Hulbert: We do. Yeah. We do. A- Yeah ... and it, knowing where you're at from a profitability standpoint tells a tenth of the story. So where do we need to put our focus? Yeah. Is it in gross profits for parts? Is it in gross profit for labor? Is it in expense control? Because, so many times- ... we have a lot of members who have really good gross profit percentages, but they're not controlling their expenses and they eat away, their profitability that way. Yeah. We break down our expenses into, what, 30 categories probably, 35 categories individually, and have benchmarks for individual expenses. So th- that's what our owner coaching and our group process does, is we- ... we focus on not only systems and processes within your shop, but the understanding of your financials, so you know- ... which specific areas to target and to make some improvements on. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jennifer Hulbert: And Andy, that's where I credit you because th- we had some, many meetings where he's "Jen, make me understand this. I really need to understand how all this works together," and we probably worked for six months- ... u- until you had that understanding and now you do, and, your profitability is, has increased ex- ... quite a Andy Severein: bit. Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Yeah, and I think there's a lot of shop owners that are out there that are just like you, Andy, that are in that same position that says, "I don't know what I don't know, and this is definitely one area that I need to know more. Help me understand it." And you dig into it, and you dig into it, and you dig into it and the more you learn, the better you are. Our last financial intensive, I think we had 40 plus people here at, in Ogden at the financial intensive. So next April, if you're wanting to understand your income statement and your profit and loss and your balance sheet, come here to the institute. We've got a phenomenal program for you. You definitely want it. Whoa, that was cool. Now, oh, Raleigh. Props, dude. That was your dr- that was mic drop. Scan the QR code. Get in on our next financial intensive. Yes, that is going to be awesome. We'd love to have you here, y- and you will learn tremendous amount. I want to go back to another acronym you dropped out on, on everybody here. You mentioned the APG. N- our industry is full of acronyms. APG stands for the Advisor Performance Group, and that's with the institute. So Andy, you have your advisors in the program right now? Andy Severein: We do. Jimmy Lea: What have you seen with your advisors? What's the change that they've gone through? Andy Severein: Probably the biggest thing I've ... The biggest thing I appreciate that I that I'm getting directly is, their understanding of the numbers that they're achieving and ... But also, the way the program's put together, allowing them to see the big picture of what the business looks like, what it should look like, what it could look like, whatever your circumstance is. But doing that from a different perspective than myself talking to them, I think allows them to grow. And it's one thing for me, for an owner, for somebody to say something to somebody, but when they're hearing from an actual coach, it's like, "Hey, that guy's not just full of hot air. He knows what he's talking about." Now that's been powerful, but aligning all of our people, Yeah ... through those different programs has been really powerful for us. And that growth that we've really seen in the last, what, year or so I can directly attribute to, and I'll drop another acronym, the MPG program, as well as the APG program. Jimmy Lea: So what's the MPG? Andy Severein: The Manager Performance Group. Yep. We have two managers here now, Nate and Brian. My son, Nate, one of them. They just got back from Utah. We've been so busy, we haven't ... We've done some quick debriefs, but we haven't had time to really sit down and put everything together that that I brought back from the group five meeting last week, or the week before last, and then they came back from Utah with their normal plane delays. ... Oh, no. Jennifer Hulbert: Dang. Andy Severein: But they made it. Jennifer Hulbert: And let's talk about what that growth looks like. So in 2023, you ended the year at 2.1 million. 2025, you ended a million dollars up at 3.1. And you- you've entered the managers and the advisors into the program along with working in the owners of- Yep your performance group program. But like you said, you've aligned your entire staff in the direction that you want to take it- ... with training and opportunities and information of to align to that direction. So just you talking to your staff and coming back from one of the GPG meetings, Gear Performance Group meetings- A- and it's like them trying to absorb what your understanding of the training is- Versus now I'm getting it from a coach who is aligned with that ideology, and now we're gonna move everyone in the same direction. So I think for you, Andy, that's been the biggest change. Now, has it cost you some money? Yes. Coaching is not free. Sometimes, people say, "I want cheap coaching." You get what you pay for. That's what you get. And you're gonna get the results that you pay for. A 30%, 32% increase in two years in sales is the... you could attribute that directly to the coaching. And again I know this sounds like a sales presentation for the institute. It, it's not meant to be that way. I just know that Andy and I have had these discussions over the past three years of how, what can I do to improve? And because- ... you have dedicated the time and the energy to some coaching programs, you've got some very good results. Now, you've set some of that standard. I expect X out of you, service advisor, from a gross profit and an average repair order- ... and an effective labor rate standpoint 'cause you've held those standards high- ... and communicated those expectations, which is also very important for results. But y- you've done a very good job at communicating what the expectation is, and then your team has followed up with those results. Andy Severein: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: I love it. Y- there's, the saying is you were talking about the expense of training. Training is so expensive. What what if I train my guys and they leave? What if you don't train them and they stay? Andy Severein: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Andy, have you ever had a situation where you've trained someone and they left? Andy Severein: I have not. We have very little turnover So that's Jimmy Lea: the benefit of training today, is your people will stay. Andy Severein: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. No, we have very little turnover of people. In fact, I think there was only one advisor I had that was, he was here for a short period of time and he had come from managing an entire operation and had another opportunity to go back to what he had been doing. So I don't fault him at all. So he's the only person that I had in training and I hope that the things that he learned, he can take into his future. So- Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Andy Severein: great guy. Yeah. He's a great guy. Oh, Jimmy Lea: I Jennifer Hulbert: totally agree. And let's talk about why your staff stays. What makes you different from some other shops that have some high turnover? And, and- Yeah ... we've talked about this. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Well- What are you Andy Severein: doing, Andy? Jimmy Lea: Is it pizza on Friday? Andy Severein: Wednesdays. Wednesdays. And we try not to do pizza too much. That really gets old, right? We have a big old grill here. I like to make food and do different things. But we really try to take care of our people in many different ways, not just, in their, problems that are going on in their life. We try to speak into their lives as, as much as we can and just be there for them. And, they're our family. We s- we spend more time with the people that work for us than anybody else. I'm careful who I allow into that family. And I feel we've done very well. In fact, we had somebody start here just recently, and his comments are just like every person I've heard in the past. Everybody here just gets along. Everybody helps each other. It's it's, it makes me... i'm really happy of that, and I'm really happy about that, because that's what I want. I wanna treat our guys really well. I want them to be excited about what they do, try to keep them motivated and and try to... My goal has always been to try to have a place that the word on the street is, "Hey, you wanna work for this guy, because they'll really take care of you in every way, not just pay." So it's extending a lot of grace regularly, that's that's part of it. Managing that grace can be tough. But but we... it's a blessing overall. It really is. We have a great staff of people here. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And what those people are talking about is the company culture, the culture that you have created in your company. They're j- it's, they're just so impressed by it, that this is a great company culture. So I... That doesn't happen by accident What are you doing today as a leader that is different than what you were doing three years ago, four years ago, five years ago? What are you doing different Andy Severein: I can't- honestly don't know if I'm really doing anything different. I hope I'm not, actually. I've always tried to connect with everybody regularly and just, listen to their needs and keep an open atmosphere that they can come to us with whatever's going on, if it's a problem at home or just, bumped into another car in the parking lot, don't be afraid to come to us with anything. And I... so to answer that, yeah, I don't feel like I'm doing anything really differently. I have the help of my wife now. She's a huge part of it. She was here in the beginning for the first five years, and she was working the front desk and it wasn't quite five years. It might've been three or four years and she just couldn't do it anymore. It was way over her head. She's a people person. And she had an opportunity to go work in a restaurant for some friends, which she took, and that opened the door for my, my, my front desk guy, Jimmy, to come in here. Jimmy's just an awesome person. He's just a light. He's always smiling. He's a lot like you, Jimmy. He- Jimmy Lea: It goes with the name. That's, Andy Severein: that's- You're both Jimmy. But yeah, Lori came back here in the beginning of '24, I believe. Nice. And she's been here a little over two years now. I convinced her that her skills, while she was much appreciated at the restaurant, the effort that she was putting in there would be would be very beneficial to us and our staff as we grow here. So she is a huge part of it. Plays Jimmy Lea: defense. Yeah. Jennifer, what are you seeing that Andy does different today? And by the way, Andy, you're constantly improving, so to say you're not doing anything different, it's not exactly true, because that constant improvement- ... is changing and you are becoming better. Andy Severein: True. Jimmy Lea: That's true. So as Coach, what are you seeing different that Andy does today that he didn't do when you first met? Jennifer Hulbert: I would agree with him. I think, hi- his heart i- is in the right place in wanting to do- Totally agree ... what's best for his staff. So that's just who, Andy, you are. I think today you're a little more intentional with that I- in some of the conversations and, interactions with the staff from discussions that we've had. I'll give you a recent example that they've just acquired their second shop months ago. Andy Severein: A couple weeks, three, four weeks ago. Yeah, beginning of May we started. Yep. Jennifer Hulbert: And the advisor there, they're looking to, w- we're gonna look to bring her to the service advisor intensive that's happening right now. She's never- Yeah ... flown before, so Lori says I'll go with you." I will join you on the plane. I will go to Utah with you. I will, get you all set up, make sure that you're completely just at peace with this. But that's who Andy and Lori are. So to say- Love it ... that they've done a lot different I would agree with you, Andy. I don't think you have. I just think you're a little more intentional- Yeah ... w- with it today than you may were three or four years ago. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Andy Severein: Yeah. More clarity. Jimmy Lea: See, Andy Severein: and Jimmy Lea: That's to the core of who you are. That's to your heart. Your heart has always been in that right place. And that constant improvement are things that you're doing, the things that happen, you don't, probably don't see that you're doing it. But a coach, someone on the outside looking in would say, "You know what, Andy? You are becoming much more intentional. You are having these great conversations. Your heart has always been there," and it's something that you don't see because it's second nature to you, Andy. But a coach is gonna go, "Hey, you know what? This is unique. This is s- this is special. This is awesome that you do this." That's pretty cool. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That's pretty good. So what is the future? You just added a second shop. Does that mean that there's a third one, or is it too soon to ask? Andy Severein: I've planted the seeds for the third one. I did that a while ago. That might have been the second one, but this one just kinda flew in there quickly. But it's in a neighboring shop. I can see it. It's just one, two- Two buildings over? ... two buildings away. So they were our closest- Wow ... competition. Jimmy Lea: Wow. Andy Severein: Interesting. So we had the opportunity to buy that. The owner was was wanting to retire, and hap- wanted to make it happen quickly, so he we were able to work a deal out there. I acquired all of his employees and and, it's been a, it's been really good so far. We- I'm really excited about where that is and I've said this to Jennifer to take a business that has not been run well for years and apply, what we've learned we- we've learned and applied it here slowly to try to apply it to a business like that is, it's a pretty exciting challenge. And, seeing that ARO, it was 200-some dollars when we started it and I think we're substantially over that. We haven't advertised it yet. The building needs a lot of work, and we- we're looking forward to doing that work over the coming weeks and months. So we're really excited of what the possibilities are there. We really just needed some overflow, honestly. We're almost at capacity here where we are, and having a little bit of of option for more base space to send some work over there, customers we can't help in our time, in their timeframe with our busy schedule to be able to capture them is high on my priority list of what to do, love it. Always kinda looking for ways to, looking ahead to, what is our next, next, way to grow. To have... If there's more shops I don't know if that's- If that happens, fine. I'm, I've no problem with that. I'm not focused on that. I wanna... I still see a tremendous amount of improvement we could do where we are, and we'll try to, we'll try to continue to focus on that. But our pattern's been about every three years we do, what's the next step? 2023 we did a pretty large addition to be able to handle heavier pickup trucks and the dually trucks, construction pickup trucks. We were doing a lot of that stuff, so we put an addition on there. So here we are three years later, buying another shop. That's our that's- this is the next step and, what's the next in three more years? That's been our pattern. We've got some ideas, Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. It- What's gonna come in 2029? That's, you Andy Severein: got to be sweating. Jimmy Lea: Exactly. Andy Severein: Exactly. Oh, that's awesome. Got some pre- got some pretty cool ideas. We'll keep focused keep focused on what could happen there and work towards that goal. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, for sure. I- is it too soon, or can I ask this? You only bought this other shop at the beginning of May, so we're looking at six, seven weeks, eight weeks now that you've- owned the s- the second shop. $200 average repair order. Where are you now? In a very short time period, has it increased significantly, or are you still hovering in that 2 to $300 range? Andy Severein: No it's climbed. I think we're in the $400 range right now. I'm sorry, I haven't looked at that lately. I just realized- Yeah ... as you're asking me that question. So we've about- Yeah ... doubled that. Jimmy Lea: Doubled it in less than six weeks. Andy Severein: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Implementing proper process, procedures. You intro- did you introduce a DVI program to them? Andy Severein: We did. Yep, introduced that. So that's been good. That's a... W- we're trying to... We have-- There's so many customers there that were the customers that that you don't want, that, we're trying to get rid of 'em. They, you tell 'em what their car needs, they take it home and fix it, and then bring it back and get an inspection sticker. We have state inspection here in Pennsylvania, an annual inspection, so that's a huge part of what we do and so yeah, that's been... working those customers out of our system is the goal here. Make way for good customers. And we've really seen a, an upturn just in the last few weeks of busyness. So it's it's exciting. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that is exciting. That's awesome. Congratulations. So a- as we, we look in towards the future here what leadership skills are you working on today To help you strengthen yourself, strengthen the business as you continue to grow, what are you working on yourself or the business in your leadership realm? Andy Severein: Oh, goodness. I'd love to say that I read a book a week or even a book a month, but that doesn't happen. I, and I could I, probably said it to Jennifer and I'll say it again. What we're doing in the GPG groups right now is so good. What we just did in the group five meeting in Indiana the other week our two main presentations are things that are so relevant to me right now, and that's, defining where in the business, where we need to be and what those roles are, and focusing on those things. That's, it, we're... i, it's funny I still struggle with basic things sometimes it feels even what my roles need to be, but that clarity is huge to me, and we're really, as a, we as our mana- myself and the managers really, working on that stuff. But, I'm, I personally, a- and I'll radiate where I started in, in this business, my goal almost from the start was to work my way out of this and create an opportunity for my son to move into which will probably at this point looks like it'll be my son and Brian together, the two managers. And presenting opportunities for them is exciting to me. They're both going to the to Michael Smith to the leadership- Leadership intensive ... in Washington, DC. Oh, yeah. There's another plug. You'll see the thing come across the bottom of the screen right now. Yeah. But Jimmy Lea: it's not- Leadership intensive in July in Washington, DC. Is that the one? That, oh! There it is. Look at that. There Andy Severein: it is. Oh, Mike Johnson. Jimmy Lea: There it is. Yeah, Raleigh, way to go, brother. He gave me a thumbs up. Andy Severein: But I did that course two years ago, I think it was in Ogden, and I really feel like I could do it again 'cause I'm at a I'm... I've learned so much in two years, but I'm really happy to be able to give those guys the opportunity to do that, to let them grow. Because I look at this now as "Hey this is gonna be for you to run." Yeah. And I want them to outperform anything I've ever done. I just wanna set the stage for them to be able to hit the ground running. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And attending another leadership intensive, you're gonna learn even more because you've had two- Andy Severein: Yeah Jimmy Lea: years of runway under your belt that you have learned and developed and grown. Now when you attend it again, you have such a solid foundation. Now you're ready to build that building. You're ready to build upon what you've already learnt, implemented, discovered, rewrote as your truth tapes. You know what those next steps are gonna be, and y- you'll go to leadership intensive. You, your brain will still melt, we'll still have to pour it back in your head because of the learning that will happen And now the development and growth you'll have for the next year as well will be just tremendous. So Andy- ... Jimmy Lea: Get to the DC, get to the leadership intensive. You need to be there Andy Severein: I'll consider that. Jimmy Lea: That's a good idea. Yeah, take that into consideration. Anybody that's watching this as well, and you see it go back to that QR code, get into that Leadership Intensive. It really will change... thank you. It really will change the way you think about yourself, about your business, about your life- Yeah about why you think the way you think, and then you can help to discover why other people think the way that they think. Andy Severein: Absolutely. Jimmy Lea: Oh, so powerful. So powerful. Jennifer Hulbert: And one, one of the things that I really wanna point out to the listeners is, typically when we have a new client coming into our individual coaching program is they see people like Andy, and they're intimidated. But hearing Andy's story, that he started off, fixing cars in a very small shop himself, building it to now a multi-shop owner, not having to be an integral part of the day-to-day of the business because he has put people in the right seats, grown the business to a level that you can have a mid-tier manager- it's totally doable. Now, does it require blood, sweat, and tears? Absolutely. I own a shop. I was a service advisor for two years full time. You don't get to this point without going through some of those steps, but it is doable. A- and- Yeah ... sitting saying I only have 500 or $600,000 in sales this year," that, that was Andy at one Andy Severein: point. Jennifer Hulbert: And, now we're in a completely different scenario because of the changes and the improvements and the attention you've put to these improvements and your leadership style. So I, I get a lot of new members and I was actually at a group two member, or group two meeting a couple weeks ago, and then had a meeting with a member, and, she said, "Jen, you don't understand what we come back to because you have two managers in your shop." And I said, "Hold on a minute. I was you 15 years ago." So i- it does take time, and it does take attention but it is totally doable, and we can take you from opening your own shop, I have two members who had, have started to work with us prior to even purchasing their shop, to now owning their shop, to becoming a multi-shop owner. So the, all of those steps and processes we have the ability and the knowledge and the training and coaching to fill all of those steps, but it is a process. Yeah. You're not gonna go, from Andy opening your shop to $3.1 million being pretty much a hands-off owner in two years. It- ... had taken 10 or 14 to do Jimmy Lea: that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You... If you keep doing what you've always done, you're gonna keep getting what you've always got. You- Yep ... you've gotta do something to change. And so Jennifer, to this specific scenario, a shop owner that you would have worked with that they went from a bucket and a wrench and a computer to multi shop owner what did their timeline look like? So maybe others who are listening can go, "Oh you know what? In six years, I'm gonna be six years older. I'm either gonna be still with a bucket and a wrench, or I can invest in myself and improve." What's that look like? So Jennifer Hulbert: the timeframe differs be- because of this. So it's your ideology, it's your mentality, it's where do you want to go and how are you going to take the steps to get there? We can give you the information. Again, one of the reasons I've suggested Andy being on this podcast is because he's done a lot with the information to get to where he is today. So if you enact it if you take it home and you actually implement some of the things that we talk about, you're gonna move much faster than someone who is, "You don't understand, my customers are different." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Jennifer Hulbert: Two, two totally different types of shop owners. That's true. So I would say the timeframe is different for everyone, but five, six years to go from small to large, Maybe Yeah ... if I had to put a timeframe on it. Jimmy Lea: And I think you hit on the two elements that must be implemented in every situation. You talked about the attention. You've gotta give it attention. You've gotta give it the attention it needs because it doesn't happen by accident. It needs to be it needs your attention. And the second one is that you have to be intentional- Yes ... about what you're doing. Yes. If you don't know what you're doing, you could wander in the forest and be walking in circles because you don't have that compass. Compasses were created before time, before clocks. Why? Because we needed to know where we were going. So compasses are more important. You need a coach, you need a direction, you need some help to make sure you make- Jennifer Hulbert: And some accountability. That, that's what the premise of our whole GPG program is. Is it's not only the facilitator and the coach holding you accountable, you're being held accountable by a group of your peers. Jimmy Lea: Yes. Jennifer Hulbert: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yes. So if you're listening to this and you are the shop that's at that 500,000 or 600,000, let's start that journey together. We can do this. We can do it together and make it happen for you that in four, three, four, five, six years you're having the same conversation with somebody else who's doing a podcast to talk about your success story, and it's gonna be similar to what Andy has. Andy, final question from me and then Jennifer, a question from you for Andy if you want to pipe in here. And in fact, I might have two. My first question is gonna say what advice would you give another shop owner who is thinking that there's gotta be a next level? Andy Severein: There absolutely is, and I can say from experience to figure out what that level or what your goal is, what do you want to achieve and how can you achieve that? It, it-- That's true to anything in life, but it's having the understanding or the understanding of what tools you can use to, to get yourself to that point. Once again, in my case, it was I wanna work my way out of a job, what does that look like? And but certainly doable, with some input, some coach. People, most shop owners that I've found are pretty close-minded, don't wanna be told what to do. You know- ... they're doing it great, don't tell me. And that's why I was at an auction earlier today for a shop that closed down because, they just choose to just do the same thing they always did, and at the end of the day, they got nothing left. No business and just a bunch of tools to sell Jimmy Lea: Wow ... Andy Severein: doesn't have to be that way. Doesn't have Jennifer Hulbert: to be Andy Severein: that way at all. No way. Nope. Jimmy Lea: No. No. Yeah. They're getting pennies on the dollars for those tools and assets. Jennifer. Jennifer Hulbert: I don't think I have a question for you, Andy. I, and you're a pretty humble guy, and I want you to really hear this, so thank you for being an industry leader, and thank you for setting the tone and the example of what success can really look like. And, I hope you're an inspiration to those who are watching and listening to this because you've done exactly my why. My why is to help elevate individual shop owners, and because of your attention and intention to the information that we've been discussing you've climbed to that level. So I want you to really hear that you are an industry leader, and I thank you for being here, and thank you for being a part of the institute. Andy Severein: Yeah. Thank you. That means a lot to me. I certainly don't see myself that way. I I still hear Parker Branch telling me maybe two years ago, "With a few changes, you'll pass me." I'm like, "Yeah, whatever" Jennifer Hulbert: You're getting close Andy Severein: You are Jimmy Lea: getting close, yeah. Andy Severein: Yep. By the end of 2027 when shop number two kicks in, watch out, Parker. Jimmy Lea: You'll join him in that million dollar net club. Yeah. Andy Severein: That's the plan. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's the plan. Yep. Yep. All right. One final question coming from Tanika and then a final question from me. Did you get any pushback from your technicians, the technicians you acquired implementing a DVI program, changing their process, procedure, moving their cheese? Andy Severein: Honestly, if you're asking about the shop we just bought- No? ... not a whole lot because they knew that their leadership was terrible. They knew that there was better way to do things. They're a neighboring shop. They saw our parking lot full of cars all the time and their parking lot empty, right? So- Jimmy Lea: Ouch. Yeah ... Andy Severein: that was, for them to be shown How we do it. They understood right away that it worked. They knew that. So it's, it is it's been... Certainly has its challenges, but it hasn't been hard at all. Teaching them the processes has really been the hardest thing, but the understanding, the knowledge of it the knowledge of, the why we're doing it I don't wanna say it's one of the easier parts of taking over that business, but I think it has been. Jimmy Lea: It kinda sounds like it. It sounds like they were definitely primed and ready for you to step in there and take over. Andy Severein: They were all really hungry, yeah. They knew that our leadership was bad. I don't know why they didn't all quit and walk Jimmy Lea: out. Yeah. No, congrats, man. That's awesome. All right, last and final question. Years from now, years down the road, don't know what that number is w- what do you want people to say about your shop, about your team, and about the owner who built it all? Andy Severein: Boy, I, I hope it's, I hope it's what our goal's always been, and that's that we are just awesome people, trustworthy give back to the community, the same things we've always been. I I hope that can be our legacy here. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. For sure. I hope so as well 'cause you are awesome people. Andy Severein: Yeah. Thank you. Yes, Jimmy Lea: they are. Andy Severein: You guys are too, so that means a lot. Jimmy Lea: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for everybody who's listening. If any of this has sounded interesting or information that you wanna pursue even further, get out your cellphone 'cause as soon as we go to credits, there is a QR code. Let's meet. Let's talk. Let's sit down and review your business. What can we do to help you? Our goal, our core, is to help build a better business for you to... which results in a better life for you, which our intention is to build a better industry. So we are all about building a better business, a better life, and a better industry. With that, my name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Andy. Really appreciate you guys being here. Andy Severein: Yep. Thank you. Jennifer Hulbert: Thank you.

The Secrets To A Quarter Million Dollars With Your Phone Calls | EP3 | Shop Fix Academy Podcast

$240,000 should be the baseline for a service advisor, but instead it seems like a dream to many shop owners. In this episode Berg and Guy investigate the phone calls that drive your business and how to change your front counter to actually bring in profit. They dive into the systems that will protect your liability, basic objection handling that will save your $8,000 tickets and how properly training one advisor can generate over a quarter million dollars for your shop!Get the structure and clarity your shop has been missing with Shop Fix LITE. https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-lite?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-lite&utm_content=cta-textlinkLearn the systems top shop owners use to consistently increase profit and build stronger teams at Shop Hackers Conference. https://shophackersconference.com/?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shophackers2026&utm_content=cta-textlinkExplore Shop Fix Academy Events led by operators who have solved the same profit, leadership, and operational challenges you’re facing now. https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta-textlink

Episode 275 - Trying To Elevate Automotive Training with Trevor Schlientz of Autonerdz

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, the conversation focused on the evolution of diagnostics in the automotive industry and the transition from technician to business owner. One concept discussed was the value and limitations of certifications such as ASE, with a candid look at how credentialing and industry standards affect technician growth. A key theme that emerged was the importance of community-based training and support, emphasizing how shop owners and technicians can elevate industry standards by hosting and attending collaborative training events.00:00 Identifying and fixing a valve issue08:12 Early influence of my dad14:32 Debating test competency methods17:00 Discussing ADOS legislation requirements24:41 Criticizing school accreditation practices29:29 Continuous education in auto care36:00 Community troubleshooting and collaboration38:59 Getting support for Pico tools46:38 Getting help from friends52:22 Building community through hosting53:43 Collaborating with suppliers for training01:01:59 Advantages of live streaming01:08:14 Marketing strategy for 202601:14:30 Improving industry skills through content01:15:01 Getting started with the scope

How to Sell Your Auto Repair Shop for Maximum Value [THA 491]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> The auto repair industry is facing a "Silver Tsunami" as thousands of shop owners approach retirement age. The challenge isn't simply selling a business; it's maximizing its value and creating a successful transition that benefits employees, customers, and future owners. In this episode, host Carm Capriotto welcomes shop owner and business coach Aaron Woods and Ryan Bushman, a recent shop owner seller, for a candid discussion on exit planning, business valuation, financial preparation, and the leadership mindset required to build a shop that can thrive without its founder. What You'll Learn Why every shop owner needs an exit strategy, even if retirement feels years away.How to transition from being the daily "hero" of the business to becoming a strategic guide.The key factors that influence shop valuation and why buyer risk impacts sale price.How creating a turnkey operation can significantly increase a business's market value.The importance of clean financial statements and separating personal expenses from business expenses.What "add-backs" are and how they can reveal the true profitability of your shop.Why investments in team development and training may strengthen valuation discussions.How defining your retirement goals helps determine the financial target your business must achieve.The value of coaches, peer groups, and industry-specific advisors during exit planning.Why finding an automotive-savvy accountant should be a priority for owners considering a future sale. The best business exits don't happen by accident. Owners who begin preparing years in advance can reduce buyer risk, increase profitability, strengthen leadership teams, and ultimately maximize their company's value. Whether retirement is five years away or fifteen, the time to start building a business that operates independently of you is now. A successful exit begins with intentional planning, disciplined financial management, and a clear vision for life after ownership. Ryan Bushman, Business Coach, Institute for Automotive Business Excellence Aaron Woods, CEO X-tra Mile Auto Care, Stillwater, OK, Business Coach, Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. Listen to Aaron’s previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:<a...

Ep 103 - Coaching Call #18 | The BIGGEST Mistake Shop Owners Make

Keep shop management, payments, marketing (all the things) all in one place with Tekmetric. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Click HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing has made my life SOOO much simpler, AND they've helped keep the phone ringing. Do you need these two things too? Learn more HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2027 is coming up in February and NOW is the time to sign up. It's happening in Vegas February 4-6 and it will be the best 3 days of your shops year when you attend. Learn now HEREIn this episode, Mike and Matt talk about how to find and commit to a core operational identity—rather than constantly chasing new ideas or industry trends. True success comes from consistent execution of a strategy you believe in. You will NEVER underestimate the value of training, coaching, and leveraging proven systems like EOS or similar frameworks to help owners and employees gain clarity, stay accountable, and ultimately grow a sustainable, profitable business.Timestamps:00:00 Shop Owner Myths: $200 an Hour and the Truth about Starting Out02:19 Celebrating Good Months04:11 Best Month Yet—Sales Up, Staff Changes & a New Advisor06:40 Fixing What Was Broken: Process, Accountability & a Data-Driven Turnaround07:54 ARO Jumps by 20%—Here’s How They Did It08:27 DVI Process Overhaul: Getting Real Numbers and Customer Buy-In10:12 Tech Average Quotes—Setting and Hitting Profitable Targets11:08 Maintenance Sales Struggles & Industry-Wide Challenges12:23 Next Steps: Boosting Closing Ratios and Ongoing Advisor Training13:09 Sales Presentation, Confidence & Learning to Overcome Objections14:34 Regional Training Events: Why Travel Matters & Team Building15:07 Bridging the Owner-Employee Gap: Training Techs & Advisors for Buy-In17:20 Why Private Equity Buys Shops—Math, Mindset & Community Impact20:19 Winning as an Independent: Local Presence, Team Culture, and Staff Retention21:48 Training Takeaways: Eye-Opening Insights for Non-Owners23:14 P&L and Labor Rate Workshops—Should Your Team Bring Their Books?24:32 Shop Pay Plans & Real Labor Cost Realities26:22 $350,000 Techs: The Truth Behind the Numbers & What’s Possible in Your Market28:19 Pay, Value, and Raising Rates: What Customers Need to See30:30 McDonald’s Drive-Thru vs. Customer Perception: Value & Expectations31:33 Bringing Training In-House: Hosting Courses for Your Shop and Community34:30 EOS, Traction, Rocket Fuel: Finding a System that Clicks36:10 Visionary vs. Integrator: Why Every Shop Owner Should Read These Books38:45 Team Structure, Core Genius, and the Power of Discipline41:08 Identity Crisis? Finding (and Loving) Your Shop’s Unique Advantage43:53 Don’t Change the Recipe—Simplicity and Full Commitment Win46:43 Basketball Offense & Building the Right Team for YOUR System48:46 Discipline, Focus & How Elite Shop Owners Set Themselves Apart51:21 Quality Management Systems: Lessons from Manufacturing52:15 Finding the Right Coach & System—Any Structure Beats None53:46 Elon Musk Clarity: Vision, Discipline, and Blocking Out the Noise

Ep 160: Hiring for Culture Changes Everything with Stacey Black and Ethan Whidden

The Secret to Thriving in the Automotive Industry | Justin Allen - Ep 22

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes and Ash Kaplan are joined by Justin Allen, Regional Training Representative for Hunter Engineering Company. Justin shares how creating safe and welcoming spaces—like women’s only alignment classes and future Spanish-speaking courses—empowers underrepresented groups in the automotive industry. The conversation dives into the importance of authentic networking, both online and at in-person events, as the true driver for confidence and belonging.Timestamps:00:00 – Finding comfort and sharing the lonely seasons02:34 – Creating inclusive, confidence-building training spaces03:36 – Why “women’s only” (or any specialty) classes matter05:47 – How community happens & why it’s sometimes needed06:39 – Expanding representation: plans for Spanish-speaking classes08:20 – The impact of generosity, authenticity, and industry encouragement09:02 – When to dial back or shine bright with your personality10:19 – Meeting people where they are—connection over performance12:56 – Owning your style & standing strong, even in a sea of jeans14:13 – Loneliness, the internet, and plugging into shop community15:52 – Does teaching/training fill you up or wear you out?17:01 – Local industry events: why independent owners need wider connections18:42 – How past and present approaches to networking differ20:10 – Personality as marketing and the art of standing out22:17 – The magic of turning a group of strangers into a true learning team24:06 – Surprises in the journey from sales to teaching25:08 – Why you never really “finish training”25:41 – Getting better on camera: simple tips for real engagement28:19 – The importance of eye contact in video and making viewers feel seen31:11 – Editing, authenticity, and growing your digital voice32:00 – Tech gadgets: meta glasses & bringing innovation to the bay33:52 – Taking pictures that help your shop shine on social36:44 – The power of networking events, large and small39:17 – Trade shows, podcasts, and the “chosen family” in auto42:04 – Passing on the value of community to the next generation46:14 – Why connection beats Kumbaya: realness at shop gatherings48:17 – Embracing the power of welcoming the “new kid”52:00 – Downshift moment: Loneliness, divorce, and finding yourself again54:36 – Advice for those struggling: “You are not alone” & get plugged in57:14 – Online groups, resources, and making your first connection58:17 – Ready to plug in? Where to connect with Justin Allen

From $2,600 to $260,000: Key-to-Key Transformations - Bonus Zoom Episode 10

Glenn Piccolo and guests debrief an action-packed weekend in Houston covering Key-to-Key, Courtside and the Back Office Blueprint, sharing emotional success stories of shops that dramatically increased revenue and profit using Todd Hayes’ proven concept. They highlight hands-on VIP Rack Attack days, back-office systems, Todd Math, AI and leadership classes, and practical takeaways—saying “yes” on the phone, daily Take Fives, strong visuals, and consistent implementation—to help shops scale profit and build lasting value.   AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

Ep 159: The Leadership Test Every Owner Faces with Dan Thieken and Ted Cooke

Dealership or Independent Shop: Which Is Better? | Eric Schoenberger

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff Compton sits down with Kansas technician Eric Schoenberger of Holt Motor Company. Having grown up around Chrysler dealerships alongside his father, a veteran drivability and transmission specialist, Eric shares his experiences in dealer life and why he ultimately transitioned to the independent repair world. The conversation explores flat-rate frustrations, warranty and recall work, shop politics, diagnostic strategies, transmission repairs, evolving technology, and the value of ongoing training. Eric also discusses how independent shops offer less stress, and a different approach to customer service and technician growth.Timestamps: 00:00 Podcast Welcome and Holiday 00:45 Kansas Guest and Vision Talk 01:30 Shop Intro and Dealer Roots 06:03 Family Influence and Career Path 08:12 Flat Rate and Recall Frustrations 17:25 Favorite Dealer Work and Transmissions 23:03 PT Cruiser Love-Hate Jobs 25:35 Diagnostics and Techline Support 27:49 Dealer Life and Shop Politics 32:37 Misfires, Burnt Valves, and Borescopes 36:31 Pentastar Problems and Tips 41:26 Diesel Disasters 44:04 Recall Work Realities 49:21 Hybrid Battery Discussion 52:37 Leaving the Dealer World 55:47 Advisors, DVI, and Communication 01:01:38 Training Great Advisors 01:08:35 Transmission Service Debate 01:14:38 Moving to Independent Shops 01:16:27 Learning Through Service Information 01:18:46 Oddball Repairs and Old Mopars 01:27:05 Caravan Rear A/C Repairs 01:33:05 Training Events and Mentors 01:38:49 Shop Culture and Dispatching 01:40:44 A/C Diagnostics and Leak Testing 01:47:37 Parts Support Challenges 01:54:02 Technician Pay and Flat Rate 01:56:23 Gravy Work vs. Diagnostics 02:02:27 Independent Shop Mindset 02:12:28 Training and Networking 02:20:06 Final Thanks and Wrap Up Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Burnout Is Killing Great Leaders | Josh Parnell - Ep 21

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes and Josh Parnell talk about probably the biggest buzz word used on this podcast: leadership. They dig into the importance of setting boundaries to avoid burnout and ensure you're not just giving your family or team your "leftovers." The conversation dives deep on the value of building authentic connections with your team—way beyond just numbers and KPIs. They also tackle the crucial yet rarely discussed topic of mental health challenges in the automotive industry, urging owners and leaders to find support and pour back into themselvesTimestamps:00:00 Building vision and letting your team take ownership01:20 Making the leap: What brought you to limitless leadership?03:07 The three C’s: Capability, competence, confidence04:11 Living as an introvert in an extrovert’s industry05:05 Refilling your cup—avoiding burnout in leadership06:28 Bringing your best self home: Boundaries and family08:16 Why “pouring from an empty cup” hits harder than you think09:20 The reality behind the social media success story11:10 Blended families, entrepreneurship, and real-life challenges12:18 Hiring people smarter than you—trusting your team13:03 Casting clear vision: When your team expands your mission16:11 Giving people their flowers—impacting lives beyond the business18:46 Finding your “why” as kids grow up and business evolves21:00 Leadership means more than paychecks: Investing in your people22:13 Connecting with employees on a personal level23:07 Toolbox talks and one-on-ones: Navigating tough conversations25:30 How leadership coaching turns intangibles into real results26:39 The discovery phase: Connection before KPIs28:01 Engagement is the missing link in most shops29:29 High emotions, low logic: Regulation and vulnerability32:04 Shop owners are leading by example (and it shows)32:35 Why every owner needs a coach34:03 Comparing playbooks: Continuous growth through coaching36:41 Mindset drives results: Why counseling and coaching matter38:09 The blue-to-black budget—allocating for personal growth39:14 Shop owner mental health: Let’s talk about suicide rates41:08 Emotional regulation: The pause-process-pivot strategy42:40 Creating a softer space for yourself and your team43:42 How to connect with Josh and limitless leadership45:34 How the community can step up—helping each other46:26 “It’s okay to not be okay”—Tanika’s open invitation

Ep 102 - Chris Gayne | If There's a Problem in Your Shop, It's Probably You

Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code Confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERE Make your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREIn this episode, Chris Gayne shares stories from his transition out of a military career and into shop ownership, including the accidental founding of Dale County Diesel. The conversation dives deep into the difference between running a transactional versus a relational business, emphasizing the value of building real connections with customers and staff. Timestamps:00:00 – Transactional vs Relational: What Kind of Shop Are You Running?02:31 – From Military Flight Instructor to Shop Owner: Chris’s Journey06:43 – Surviving a Helicopter Crash (& What It Teaches You about Mistakes)14:02 – Leadership in the Shop: Lessons from Army to Auto Bay19:26 – Why Good Techs Deserve the Right Work—and Right Culture25:09 – How to Handle the “Unfixable”—Being Honest With Your Customers32:04 – Flat Rate vs Teamwork: What Actually Works?37:01 – Confession Time: If There’s a Problem in My Shop, It’s Me44:44 – Hard Policies, Real People: Why Relational Beats Rigidity49:55 – When to Tell Customers: “It’s Time to Move On from This Truck”51:06 – Wrap Up: Honesty, Growth, and Call for Your Confessions

How a Purple Heart Veteran Became a 6-Shop Auto Repair Owner [RR 1097]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode What does it take to grow from a single auto repair shop to six locations in less than a decade? Host Carm Capriotto sits down with AJ DeBuono to discuss his journey from serving as a U.S. Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan to becoming a successful multi-shop operator. AJ shares the lessons learned through rapid growth, the acquisition strategy that has fueled his expansion, and how military discipline, financial discipline, and a commitment to people have shaped his leadership approach. Rather than buying struggling businesses and attempting turnarounds, AJ focuses on acquiring profitable shops with untapped potential. What You'll Learn How AJ leveraged SBA veteran loan programs to purchase and expand his first auto repair businessWhy he prefers acquiring profitable shops instead of distressed operationsThe key performance indicators he targets to quickly improve profitabilityHow military leadership principles influence his management style and business decisionsThe importance of creating career advancement opportunities through expansionLessons learned from growing too quickly and navigating financial stressHow AJ approaches shop transitions to minimize disruption for employees and customersWhy maintaining strong personal relationships with team members remains a priority despite operating multiple locations Growth is not simply about adding locations. It's about creating opportunities for your people, building systems that scale, and maintaining the discipline to make smart decisions when the pressure is highest. AJ DeBuono's story demonstrates that successful expansion comes from acquiring the right businesses, investing in your team, and staying focused on long-term value rather than short-term gains. AJ DeBuono, Diehl Auto Repair, Chicago, IL Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

I Traded A Truck To Build A $5M Shop | EP2 | Shop Fix Academy Podcast

Down to $1,100 in savings Coach Stan Andrewski and his wife made an all or nothing decision to buy a plane ticket and save his business. In this episode Stan explains how he went from bartering his tool truck for a failing auto shop, spending seven years working weekends and draining his 401(k), to hitting $5 Million with his business. Learn from his mistakes as he opens up on his first call with Shop Fix founder Aaron Stokes that gutted his ego, the 100-hour-a-week demand he was making of his techs that was quietly killing his shop and the core principles that brought him from being a great technician to a great business owner. Get the structure and clarity your shop has been missing with Shop Fix LITE. https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-lite?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-lite&utm_content=cta-textlinkLearn the systems top shop owners use to consistently increase profit and build stronger teams at Shop Hackers Conference. https://shophackersconference.com/?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shophackers2026&utm_content=cta-textlink Explore Shop Fix Academy Events led by operators who have solved the same profit, leadership, and operational challenges you’re facing now. https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta-textlink

Episode 274 - Can The Automotive Service Industry Be Saved? With Cecil Bullard and Wayne Marshall

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Cecil Bullard and Wayne Marshall discuss the challenges facing the automotive industry today. They examine the complexities and controversies surrounding technician licensing and certification, highlighting the need for industry-wide standards. The conversation also addresses the importance of financial literacy and measurable productivity in running a successful shop.00:00 Debating dealership licensing issues10:17 Balancing employee pay and motivation13:05 Building Employee Loyalty18:33 Improving employee wages and management23:01 Business fundamentals and financial ratios29:03 Planning an Exit Strategy35:00 Chris Enright on industry frustration41:01 Need for sophisticated testing46:14 Importance of unique selling proposition51:13 Importance of inclusivity and differentiation54:12 Challenges with membership relevance01:03:44 Young talent and enthusiasm01:04:15 Recruiting a young car enthusiast

Serve First, Lead Better — Lessons from Autoshop Ministries

Joe Adams and Autoshop Ministries' Devante Tidwell discuss how true purpose is rooted in service, not job titles. Using 1 Peter 4:10 and real shop examples, they explore leading by serving employees and customers, stewarding gifts, and creating lasting impact. Listeners receive practical challenges to serve others, improve morale, and use small acts of care to make a big difference in their teams and communities.   AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

Why Auto Repair Specialists Leave Our Industry (And How Shop Owners Can Keep Them) [THA 490]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Why do talented automotive technicians leave the automotive industry, and what can shop owners do to keep them? Host Carm Capriotto is joined by Technical Specialist Matt Fanslow and Technician Find CEO Chris Lawson to explore what it takes to attract, hire, and retain top talent in today's automotive repair industry. The conversation examines industry professionalism, workplace culture, compensation, employee engagement, and proactive recruiting strategies that help shops become destinations for exceptional technicians. What You'll Learn Why elevating the image of automotive professionals is critical to attracting the next generation of talentThe three primary reasons technicians leave shops: lack of respect, limited growth opportunities, and compensation concernsHow financial transparency can build trust, ownership, and a stronger team cultureThe difference between a shop's "official game" and its "shadow game," and why understanding both mattersPractical ways to gather meaningful employee feedback and turn ideas into actionHow leaders can remove obstacles that prevent technicians from finding joy and fulfillment in their workWhy relationships with tool truck drivers can become a valuable recruiting resourceHow a shop's appearance and reputation can influence whether top candidates choose to work there Finding and keeping great technicians requires more than competitive pay. Shops that create a culture of respect, provide clear growth opportunities, communicate openly, and actively remove workplace frustrations are far more likely to attract and retain top performers. The most successful shop owners don't wait for talent to find them, they intentionally build workplaces where skilled professionals want to stay and grow. Matt Fanslow, Riverside Automotive, Red Wing, MN, Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z Podcast: https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Chris Lawson, TechnicianFind.Com. Listen to Chris' other episodes HERE Love your shop? Stay, but stay ready. Auto techs join to level up, find good shops, and keep tabs on top indie jobs nationwide. Techs only. No BS. Independent Wrench Jobs: https://www.skool.com/independentwrenchjobs Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network:

Ep 101 - Matt Curry & Richard Tonetti | The Secret Behind an $40 Million Auto Repair Business

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!What does it take to build a high-performing automotive business that continues to grow while maintaining a strong culture?In this episode, Mike Allen sits down with Matt Curry and Richard Tonetti from Craftsman Auto Care to discuss the systems, leadership philosophies, and growth strategies that helped build one of the industry's most respected shop groups. Matt shares lessons learned from growing to 10 locations and $18 million in revenue, including the importance of culture, leadership, sales training, digital inspections, and customer reviews. Timestamps:00:00 The $1 Raise That Changed Everything01:14 Are 4-Day Workweeks Actually Hurting Your Business?03:41 Why “Money Motivated” Isn’t a Dirty Word06:46 From Tire Changer to VP: Growth Stories from the Shop Floor07:16 Matt’s Path: 10 Stores, $18 Million, and a Comeback09:13 The Secret Sauce: Buying Distressed Shops & Turning Them Around10:36 How to Hit $1,000 Average ROs (and Why Volume Per Bay Matters)11:02 The Turning Point: Digital Inspections & Sales Training13:29 Being the Best Shop Cheerleader—Even on Bad Days14:11 Making the Hard Work Fun (Yes, It’s Possible!)19:00 Sales Scripts, Objection Handling, and The “One More Thing” Rule20:05 How to Hire the Perfect Counter Person (It’s Not About Automotive Experience!)22:49 Culture vs. Corporate: Why Good Techs Never Leave25:15 Google Review Domination: Building Trust and Cutting Marketing Costs28:20 Spiffs, Friendly Competition, and Making Reviews a Shop Habit32:10 Small Gestures, Big Impact: The Stuffed Animal Touch35:13 Why Internal Competition Works—But Only with the Right Culture37:46 When Growth Kills Culture (And How to Avoid It)40:36 Can Independents Still Win? Opportunity in a Corporate, Tech-Heavy Landscape43:27 The Blueprint: Build Slow, Build Right, Stay Nimble45:17 Level Up: Giving Back and Training the Next Generation47:04 Growing Your Own Techs & Locking Down Quarter-Million Dollar Talent

The Hiring Mistake Shop Owners Keep Making | Sara Fraser & Chrisi Falco - Ep 20

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes sits down with Sara Fraser and Chrisi Falco from Auto Ignite Management (AIM) to talk all things hiring. Chrissy shares why finding the right fit is about making genuine connections—not just filling a seat. The conversation dives into the challenges of matching candidates and shops, the importance of clear communication (ditch the tech jargon!), and why letting go as a shop owner is crucial for real growth.Timestamps:00:00 Why working 50 cars a day is a no 01:00 Meet the AIM team: Industry roots, passion for matchmaking, and growing connections03:10 Are there really no techs? Why it’s about relationships, not shortages05:50 Should you keep a “bench” of techs? The ethics of recruiting & shop loyalty07:00 Why Chrisi refuses to work with just any shop—setting a high bar for culture08:30 What are you even offering? Shop owner introspection and culture checklists10:00 Women connecting in auto care: From awkward networking to authentic friendships12:15 Real talk on imposter syndrome and why even “superstars” get nervous14:35 Learning to follow up, build real connections & support the women in your network17:30 Teaching shop teams: Building trust (not confusion) with your customers19:00 Communicating repairs like a human—forget the tech jargon21:00 When the dealership totally misses your actual problem (and how to do better)24:00 Interview horror stories: “Honey, darling, babe”—and why culture fit matters27:00 Price matching, value selling, and the scary jump from dealership to independent31:00 Why coaching & confidence count more than the perfect resume34:00 Real interview answers that make (and break) a candidate38:00 Letting go: Why shop owners struggle to step back (and why you should!)41:30 Building a team that actually lets you leave—while your shop THRIVES45:00 You’ve earned your break, boss—embracing leadership, legacy, and life outside the bay49:00 AIM’s not just recruiters—they’re your matchmakers for growth

Ep 158: Stop Managing. Start Multiplying Leaders. | Shawn Gilfillan

Why Young People Aren't Choosing the Trades | Zeb Beard and Benjie Burris - Ep 19

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREYou can almost taste the cornbread listening to this episode!!! Boy oh boy, Benjie Burris and Zeb Beard on the same podcast for the first time ever??? Yes way. Today, Tonnika and the guys talk leadership, training, and the future of the trades. Benjie and Zeb reflect on their similar upbringings, sharing how old-school mentorship and tough love shaped their approach to running successful shops. The crew digs deep into why young people aren't entering the industry like they used to, pointing to a breakdown of family structure, lack of respect, and a missing "village" mentality.Timestamps:00:00 Why feelings and political correctness are overrated01:02 How Benjie & Zeb’s shop life and upbringings shaped their leadership05:32 Did they ever dream they’d get this far? Facing doubts and never dialing it back08:45 Biggest lessons learned—they’ve made every mistake so you don’t have to12:00 How screwing up (and getting up again) builds better techs15:04 Tough love truth: The best AND worst thing about this business is people18:05 Coaching up a new generation—pushing young techs out of their comfort zones25:00 Why there aren’t enough young people in the trades (and what’s REALLY to blame)31:40 “It Takes a Village”—what happened to respect and community?35:00 Petting vs. pounding: Can you train techs if you’re too soft?40:03 Whose responsibility is it when things go wrong in the shop?44:00 Why shop owners bear ALL the risk and how that shapes leadership47:00 Investing in real training—who’s actually willing to learn?52:00 Not all shop owners are created equal (and why some are holding you back)55:00 Independents vs. dealerships: what the next-gen needs to know58:15 Level up or get out—finding and keeping the hungry ones1:03:00 Final tough love: Stay real and keep growing—this industry needs YOU

Ep 100 - Andrew Fischer | Why Most Technicians Shouldn't Own a Shop

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREIf you're like me and aren't good at marketing, don't do it on your own. Let the experts handle it. Touch HERE for more on Turnkey Marketing.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERE When I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!This episode is Mikeless - just how we like it. HA! Today Bryan rides solo at TOOLS 2026 and talks dynamics between technicians and service advisors Andrew Fischer. They bring up the importance of fundamentals and communication—technicians often overlook basic testing but expect to dive into advanced diagnostics, leading to costly mistakes and frustration. They also talk about ego and misunderstanding: both between team members in the shop and toward customers, highlighting how crucial it is to clearly explain repairs and processes, not just rely on expertise. Timestamps:00:00 The real hardest job in the shop: service advisor confessions03:08 Training struggles, being away from family, and the reality of evening classes05:02 Why owners MUST vet what you’re paying for in auto training07:11 Technicians skipping fundamentals—and how it comes back to bite your shop10:20 Ego, ignorance, and the "alphabet soup" of tech skill levels13:13 Fast techs vs fixed cars: the hidden cost of comebacks and efficiency16:19 Communicating diagnostics: where most techs screw up (and how AI helps)19:06 Why the front counter is pure chaos—and techs can’t handle customers21:13 Explaining diagnoses in a way anyone can understand (with help from AI)25:26 The service advisor’s secret: what customers REALLY want to know28:12 The "zip code" analogy for why testing matters30:28 Shops that charge for time vs selling fixed vehicles—who really wins?32:40 Real-life story: four shops, still not fixed (and how a dead battery fooled them all)34:35 What to do when you just can’t fix the car (real talk and lessons learned)41:33 The problem with technician forums & why the smartest avoid them44:28 Why most technicians will never be ready for business ownership47:46 Full circle: gratitude, getting humbled, and growing as a leader50:02 What every technician NEEDS to understand before running a shop

Why Some Technicians Are Leaving Flat Rate | Daniel Whitey

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this Jaded Mechanic Podcast episode, Jeff sits down with Canadian technician Daniel Whitey to discuss his journey through the automotive trade. Daniel shares how a Chrysler co-op program at Centennial College led to an apprenticeship, dealership experience, and eventually a move into fleet maintenance. They discuss the realities of flat rate pay, mentorship, shop culture, tool investments, diagnostics, and why Daniel ultimately chose the stability of a straight-time fleet position. The conversation also explores technician mental health, career development, and advice for new technicians entering the industry.Timestamps 00:00 Welcome  00:51 Meet Daniel Whitey 03:48 Career Origins and Licensing 09:09 Centennial Chrysler Co-op 10:58 Chrysler Dealer Experience 21:30 Mentorship and Flat Rate Life 35:12 Diagnostic War Stories 42:04 Hybrids and EV Discussion 44:15 Leaving Chrysler 50:46 Transition to Hyundai 56:45 Hyundai Challenges 01:01:34 Fleet Shop Life and Benefits 01:08:38 Daily Fleet Pressures 01:18:53 Leaving Dealerships Gracefully 01:21:11 Saturday Flat Rate Grind 01:25:35 Recall Day Stories 01:35:46 Advice for New Technicians 01:46:44 Licensing and Competency 01:52:37 Mental Health and Closing Thoughts Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

2026 Automotive Training Trends Every Professional Shop Owner Needs to Know [RR 1096]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode How are automotive technicians learning today, and who is investing in their future? Matt Shepanek, President of the ASE Training Managers Council (ATMC), discusses the findings of the 2026 ATMC Benchmark Survey. The survey offers valuable insight into technician education, training preferences, emerging technologies, and the industry's commitment to continuous learning. The conversation highlights significant differences between dealerships and independent repair shops, reveals what technicians most want to learn, and reinforces why ongoing professional development remains essential in an era of rapidly advancing vehicle technology. What You'll Learn How dealerships continue to lead the way in training investment, paying for technician education 85% of the time, while many independent technicians still share the cost or pay out of pocket.Why Hybrid/EV systems and Electrical/Electronics training top the list of requested subjects as vehicle technology continues to evolve.What the survey reveals about technician learning preferences and why hands-on, instructor-led training remains the gold standard despite the growth of online education.The wide gap in annual training hours, from technicians receiving no structured education to others completing more than 56 hours each year.Why continuous learning has become a business necessity, not an option, for shops hoping to remain competitive and profitable. The 2026 ATMC Benchmark Survey reinforces a simple truth: the future belongs to technicians and shops that embrace lifelong learning. As vehicles become increasingly dependent on advanced electrical systems, software, hybrid technology, and diagnostics, professional development is no longer a luxury. Shops that invest in training, provide access to relevant education, and foster a culture of continuous improvement will be better positioned to attract talent, improve performance, and thrive in a rapidly changing automotive landscape. Download the 2026 ATMC Benchmark Survey: https://bit.ly/4aOaigM Matt Shepanek, President, ASE Training Managers Council (ATMC) Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

I Netted $100K In A Month AFTER I Got Stolen From | EP1 | Shop Fix Academy Podcast

His manager stole from him, his entire staff left and he STILL made $100k profit in one month. In this first episode of the Shop Fix Academy podcast, Coach Jay Huh breaks down the one phone call that pushed him to shut down a shop, and how that execution mindset became the engine that grew his $1k a month operation into a six figure machine. Hear the hard conversations, the make or break moments, and the DECISIONS that built him into the auto repair leader he is today.Get the structure and clarity your shop has been missing with Shop Fix LITE. https://shopfixacademy.com/shop-fix-lite?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=join-lite&utm_content=cta-textlinkLearn the systems top shop owners use to consistently increase profit and build stronger teams at Shop Hackers Conference. https://shophackersconference.com/?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=shophackers2026&utm_content=cta-textlinkExplore Shop Fix Academy Events led by operators who have solved the same profit, leadership, and operational challenges you’re facing now. https://shopfixacademy.com/upcoming-events?utm_source=sfapodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sfa-events-2026&utm_content=cta-textlink

Episode 273 - Learning from Mistakes and Building Stronger Businesses With Tara Topel

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Tara Topel to dig into the challenges facing shop owners and the broader automotive industry. They examine the importance of building businesses that can run independently of their owners, emphasizing the need for processes, standards, and effective delegation. The conversation also highlights a lack of engagement with valuable industry resources, such as the Auto Care Association, underscoring the need for greater awareness and participation among shop owners. Finally, they discuss the shifting landscape of automotive technology—from EVs to ADAS calibrations—and the risks and responsibilities that come with staying current.00:00 Handling online criticism07:36 Balancing business and family time11:22 Trading our souls for convenience18:10 Preparing for business contingencies26:12 Joining a National Auto Association30:40 Helping People Who Want Change32:37 Importance of labor in auto shops40:45 ADAS calibration cost concerns46:05 ADAS system calibration advice48:59 Pilot and maintenance disagreement56:20 Traffic control and roundabouts59:47 Distracted driving habits

Auto Shop Ministries Episode 1: Launching Faith-Driven Leadership in the Shop

Episode one of Auto Shop Ministries introduces Devante Tidwell as chaplain and outlines a weekly, faith-based series for shop leaders.  This episode focuses on how trust scales: being faithful in small tasks signals readiness for bigger responsibilities, the importance of strong processes alongside competence, and practical tools like journaling and consistent evaluation to make better hiring and promotion decisions. AutoshopAnswers.com Auto-Shop-Media.com

208 - A Technician Crisis or a Productivity Problem? Ask Me Anything with Cecil and David

208 - A Technician Crisis or a Productivity Problem? Ask Me Anything with Cecil and David June 10, 2026 - 00:55:43 Show Summary: Cecil Bullard and David Roman discuss whether the industry's biggest challenge is finding technicians or improving productivity. They explore why shop owners often keep struggling employees too long and how clear expectations make difficult staffing decisions easier. The conversation highlights the importance of job descriptions accountability and documented processes. They also explain how poor structure lowers shop value and limits growth. The discussion closes with a look at pricing strategies and why shop owners must stop blaming rising costs instead of adjusting their margins.   Host(s): David Roman, Shop Owner Done With Care Auto and Changing the Industry Podcast Cecil Bullard, Founder of The Institute   Show Highlights: [00:01:03] – Letting the wrong employee stay hurts the whole team. [00:05:22] – Every employee impacts the success of many families. [00:08:15] – Winning requires the right people in every role. [00:12:14] – Hire carefully and accountability problems become less common. [00:17:10] – AI makes creating job descriptions easier than ever. [00:20:11] – Structured businesses hold greater value and survive longer. [00:24:03] – Poor productivity and margins cost owners millions. [00:30:32] – Employees need coaching before owners assume resistance. [00:37:46] – New habits require daily follow up and accountability. [00:47:13] – Rising costs require pricing changes not excuses.     In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.   👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Xrs_YGYDAic   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript:   A Technician Crisis or a Productivity Problem Ask Me Anything with Cecil and David Cecil Bullard: Welcome. My name is Cecil Bullard. Welcome to the Institute Ask Me Anything. Today you get to ask me and David Roman from Changing the Industry podcast, a f- good friend of mine. Hey, David. How are you today? David Roman: This is so professional. I'm not used to this. Cecil Bullard: Oh, come on now. Wait a minute, brother. David Roman: I do the production work on my podcast. Trust me, this is professional. I just slap the stuff up on the internet and say, "Go." Cecil Bullard: There you go. I don't know. I'm a nut, so I'm a- ... I'm a perfectionist and- Yeah ... in fact, my hair is bothering me, right? And David Roman: just cut it all off. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. You'll like it. Just cut it all off. What's what's cooking with you, brother? What's what do you got for us today? I know we got some people that will be asking questions and all of that. And David Roman: you- Yeah. I've got an interesting question I- I'd like your opinion on, and this is a discussion Lucas and I have had in the past. In our minds, you, as you start to scale, you become more disconnected with the business on a personal level, and it becomes a business. I've... and this is specifically with your staff, where when the shop is small and maybe there's three employees, maybe four employees, you're all friends. You kinda hang out, you have lunch together. It's a whole thing, right? But as you start to grow the business and you've gotta start letting people go, the weak links or people that are causing problem or people that have just run their course in the business and they can no longer keep up with what you're demanding or what you need for the business to continue to succeed, you have to start letting people go. And that has and this question came up in the, in, in our Facebook group, where the person was having trouble finding the mindset and the wherewithal to let the person go that needed to be let go. And he just, he's "Man I'm just too c- too connected to the person. I don't know what to do. How do you disconnect that?" And he just, he felt bad, and he knew that when the time came, he wasn't gonna be able to pull the trigger. And I see this Incredibly detrimental to businesses in general. You see too many businesses that you walk into and you immediately identify that person's gotta go. That person is causing all this trouble here. They are binding up production. They're questioning everything you do. They're undermining your authority. They don't allow you to implement anything new because they wanna go immediately back to their old ways, and they wanna kinda hide in the weeds a- and hide in the chaos is what we call it, right? Yeah. There's chaos going on in the shop, and they just wanna hide in the chaos and just kinda cruise and collect their paycheck. And they don't let them go because they're like, "Oh, they've been with me for 15, 20 years. I can't let them go." H- how do you make that mindset shift? What have you seen? What have you seen work at other shops? How do you kinda make that change? And how have you done it within just the institute itself? Cecil Bullard: It's never easy to terminate somebody, especially someone that you may have been working with for a very long time. And there, there needs to be some loyalty to your people, right? Yeah. You can't just like, "Oh, you screwed up, so now you're gone." And I think that in mo- for me, it's been a difficult change. I, I think a lot of people think I'm a pretty cold-hearted SOB, so for me to fire somebody, no big deal. But I always keep people too long. I always have too much hope all of that. For me, I think we talk about a vision for the business. We talk about your vision statement, your mission statement, those kind of things. I think the more you clarify the rules and the roles of the job I would I might sit down with with you, David, and I might say, "What's the org chart looks like? What does this business look like, say, five years from now? What do you want out of your life," right? And you say to me Cecil, here's how that looks." And the organizational chart creates structure, right? Who answers to who. But it also, if you do it right, it can create description, job description. What do I need this person in this role to do, right? And so the more you clarify, the more the people that can't or won't get the job done will stand out, all right? And I think that I have to look at my business differently. So let's say that you and I we're buddies and we're gonna start a shop. And by the way, I'm gonna be the sales guy. You can be the tech 'cause I'm not a tech not now anymore. And I'm still pretty good at selling stuff, so- I David Roman: rebuild car, by the way. It'll be a terrible shop. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. So you don't fix cars either. We're gonna have to hire somebody. But let's say that we do that, right? And so we're best buds, and we go along for a couple of years, and I'm not getting what I need or want out of my life, right? I didn't start the institute to pay the bills, right? If I had started the institute to pay the bills, I would've worked for somebody else, right? Yeah. I started the institute to do something special in the world that I live in and to try to control my future and to create my future, and a future for my family and the families of the people I work with. So we have to start thinking differently, two years from now, we've got three techs, we've got a service advisor and you and I, and I'm not responsible for just Cecil or just Cecil and Dave. Now I'm responsible for, I don't know, 25 people, because everybody that works for me has a family, right? Yeah. And if I allow one person in the company or even two people in the company to hold the company back Then everybody gets penalized. This is a, an ecosystem. When the ecosystem gets screwed up, everybody suffers, okay? And it's one thing for me to say I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold onto David even though he's a pain in the ass, and even though he won't change and even though he costs me money and gives me aggravation because, I've got this loyalty thing and I like David and I'm gonna hold onto him." I can do that when it's just you and me, right? Because I'm only affecting me and my family, right? And I can make that decision. But, at the institute we've got 30, I don't know, 34 employees now and that only counts the institute. That doesn't count other companies that we now have brought into the institute, so we're probably closer to 60 or 70. And those are 60 or 70 families- David Roman: Yeah ... Cecil Bullard: that I have to affect. So if I have somebody in here that's fighting the, whatever, not doing their job correctly. Plus, I've created this structure in the organization, remember, because I don't wanna be the only person that's gonna draw... pull the hammer, right? I think you have to understand that and I think this is one of my, kinda one of my things. I wanna win, right? And in fact, I'm so mentally ill that I will do, l- I don't really wanna win, I just don't wanna lose. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And so I will do almost anything it takes to win. And I have to watch that, because that sometimes can push me over the edge, right? And so I have to control that part- And I have to, for, so for me, if I'm gonna win, I can't have people in the organization that can't or won't do their job- Yeah ... or that are fighting the organization. Think I used this morning with one of my clients. I said think if you were building a, you wanted to win the Super Bowl, and you're building a championship football team, and you had a receiver that couldn't catch." Yeah. Okay? What would you do with that guy? Yeah. Would you keep him on your team 'cause he's a nice guy, and, he always shows up to practice, he's early to practice, and he practices really hard? He just can't catch the ball, right? It's not his fault. He's a nice guy, right? Would you keep him? David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And the answer's no, because y- you could never win the Super Bowl. You won't. And while that might seem harsh, my- personally, I don't believe it's harsh. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: I had a... I took over this company that was failing miserably, and for the first, I don't know, eight, nine months I worked 80 hours a week. I interviewed people. I sold 1.9 million annually at the service counter by myself. I ordered parts. I did a bunch of stuff. And I was away from my family for all that, so my family suffered for that time. And so I hire this guy. We'll call him Mike. A nice guy. Really nice guy. He became my right ar- arm guy. He became the guy that when I decided I'm gonna take Mondays off, he was there Monday. If there was a unhappy customer, he took care of the unhappy customer. And so we're in this thing two and a half, three years, and he's my right arm guy, and he's allowing me to go spend time with my family. Holy smokes. Yeah. And all of a sudden, he is the most sour, rotten guy. "This effing company," and, "This it's the same effing crap every single effing day," and blah, blah, blah, and, "I hate this effing job." And, about two weeks of this, and I pull him in my office and I said, "Dude, I'm gonna terminate you." I said, "It's not that you're not, quote-unquote, doing your job, but you are so unhappy and you're so miserable, you're dragging all of us with you- Yeah ... and our customers with you. And I can't ha- " And I terminated him, right? And about two years later, he... I saw him somewhere and he came up and he said, "I just wanna thank you for firing me." David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And you're like wait a minute," that was a hard thing to do. You were my right arm guy. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And he said, "No, I needed something else." "And I went somewhere else and I found something that made me happy. The Institu- It wasn't the Institute at the time, it was Larry's, but Larry's wasn't making me happy. I couldn't- Yeah ... be happy," right? "And you recognized that, and you did the hard thing and you terminated me." David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: I, I- I think that business, the, what's different between, say, corporate business and, small business- ... right? Little family-run business. We all know each other. Kinda in corporate I probably do, too. The problem with corporate is corporate has a very distinct reason for being there. Yeah. It's about profit, and if you don't make profit- It's well de- David Roman: well defined. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. A- and if you don't make profit, then the investors leave, and you don't have a company. Yeah. It's that easy, right? And so it's very easy, and they also are much more structured. So incorporation, in a corporate, you've got the manual, you've got your, your process manual, you've got the company a man- manual, you've got the safety manual. ... You got your procedures, and if you screw that up and the profits disappear from the company, you're fired. That's it, right? Yeah. There's not... Th- there wouldn't be a manager because if the manager didn't fire you, if your direct manager didn't fire you, the guy above him would. Yeah. And he'd also fire the manager, David Roman: right? Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And so there's no... but we as owners of small businesses, we're much more compassionate, and we put up with it a lot longer. Yeah. I would also say that in a, in corporate, because you know there's consequence and you know that consequence is, it's going to happen, that you're much more likely to handle it sooner rather than later. Sometimes. So what happens... Y- yeah. In small business- Nope ... a lot of times we watch somebody go downhill, and we watch them go downhill, and it's only after we've kinda got the courage up to have the conversation, that could be six months from now- David Roman: Yeah Cecil Bullard: that we have the conversation, and by then we're probably angry, and if we're angry, we're not doing the right things. David Roman: No, we're not rational. Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: Yeah. I've seen, I, we just had somebody on the podcast, and the guy i- is doing extremely well. He's just killing it. He's super young, and he's he just blurted out, he's I fire them as fast as I hire them." And I go hold on now. You're just finding more people and you're just cycling through?" He's "Yeah, I just cycle through them until I find the right person." And it goes back to the phrase you hire slow, you fire fast. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: But the hiring slow si- sometimes gets glazed over. If you're finding the right people and you're taking the time to find the right people, and then just as you stated earlier, you're putting them into an organization that is well-defined in their role, in the organizational chart, the likelihood that you're gonna have somebody that you're gonna have to fire is going to go way down. I don't fire a lot of people. I haven't had to fire a lot of people, and the ones that I've had to fire is for a reason. But- Cecil Bullard: If you create accountability and- David Roman: Exactly. But that, that- And if you Cecil Bullard: manage ... David Roman: that assumes that you've got well-defined roles, job description- And that's- everybody knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing because at that point you can then hold them accountable and go, "Hey, this is what we do. We do A, B, and C. You're not doing A or B or C, whatever it happens to be. We need to either fix this or you can't be in the organization." Cecil Bullard: And, a- and in what business can you go to work and say to your boss, "No, I'm not gonna do what you asked me"? David Roman: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Cecil Bullard: The o- the automotive industry, I'm sure a lot of small businesses, who knows, maybe the local bowling alley the guy that's supposed to be, spraying the disinfectant in the shoes and handing you shoes, maybe he's not doing his job right and nobody is catching it. But in, in- almost any world, if your boss asks you to do... I was when I've had an employee that won't do what I need them to do, and f- and I'm sure that we've discussed it, I'm sure they understand what it is, but they still refuse, I always ask them, "Is it illegal, immoral, or unethical?" And they're like no it's none of those. I just don't wanna do it." Okay. That's called gross insubordination, and that's means for termination. Yeah. That's in your employee manual, right? And if you read your employee manual, you understand that when the boss asks you to do something, if it isn't illegal, immoral, or unethical, then that's what you're supposed to do. I could change your whole job description. I could go, "Hey, David, from now on, you're not gonna be talking to anybody on these dang webinars," blah, blah, blah. If I'm the boss I could do that, and you could be really upset about that, but it's not illegal, it's not immoral, it's not unethical so what? Yeah. And then you have the choice to say, "I don't wanna be in that job anymore," right? I- Yeah. You changed my job to a place where I don't wanna... It's not what I wanna do. Yeah. And that's fine. But because we know people, because we're intimately involved with them, we know their lives. My our top admin person is in Ireland right now getting married, along with most of our admin staff. And and you're like, we know these people. We know their lives. We know their husbands, their wives, their kids. They've been to the barbecue, et cetera. I think the way that I look at it is I owe it to the company and to the people we serve. So I've had the opportunity to change- Probably anywhere from 4 to 10,000 lives for the better- in most cases. I, at least I hope so, right? And if I didn't terminate unhealthy people out of the organization- Yeah ... I would've changed a lot less lives. Yeah. I would've helped a lot less people, right? And so I, I look at it differently, and it still takes me too long, and it's still painful to let someone go. David Roman: Yeah. And th- this brings up another question that somebody had had popped up in, in one of the Facebook groups, and that ha- has to do with job descriptions. And just pertaining to the conversation we were just having, if the, if you're not outlining the job for the person, they will invent something for themselves. Cecil Bullard: Yep. David Roman: And then the minute you ask them to do something that in their mind they've created this job description, "This is what I do," it's okay, since I didn't define it, I guess you defined it for yourself. Now I'm asking you to do something that's not within that purview. You're gonna get upset, and then all of a sudden the the hostility starts because now they're slighted that, "Hey we didn't discuss this. Why are you asking me to do this? That's outside of my job description." I don't have a job description written out for you. You invented it for yourself. But This was somebody that needed a something on paper, and I said, "Look, at the very least, you can always start with technician fix the car." Cecil Bullard: Yeah, fix the car. Just David Roman: start Cecil Bullard: with- It should, frankly, right? David Roman: Yeah. Be- I'm telling you, these shop owners- ... they get in their heads about job descriptions and standard operating procedures, and they just overcomplicate it, and they're like I gotta have this outline, and it's gotta look like corporate," like you were saying, the HR manual, and this, that, and the other. You don't need to have all that. Just start with the very basics. Like- Cecil Bullard: But the funny thing is today, first of all, from the institute, if you want a job description, we got job descriptions. I- if you're a client, certainly you have access to all of that. But I would almost tell you that I have posted job descriptions, all kinds of things online- 50 times, yeah. And it... Right now, if you were to Google or use AI and say, "I need a job description for a technician that does XYZ," and you were to just basically define it, it would come up with a pretty dang decent job description for you. And you can- ... David Roman: adjust from there. Cecil Bullard: Yeah, and then you can make adjustments. It's AI, and a lot of us are afraid of AI in our industry, and a lot of us don't really understand what AI is or, some of us think it's gonna, it's gonna decide to destroy us, Skynet and all of that. It's coming David Roman: up. Cecil Bullard: But you never know. Skynet launching David Roman: the missiles or Cecil Bullard: coming to town. Any minute, right? But I think I don't even have to use AI. I can go online and say, "Can I have a job description for a technician?" And Google's gonna give me five different job descriptions. Yeah. And I can go through and pick and choose the pieces that fit my job descriptions. It is... It's not 25 years ago where you might if you went to Google and said I don't know if Google's 25 years old, it's probably about 25. I had- It's almost there ... an opportunity to buy Google stock way back then, which I did not do otherwise. But- David Roman: We wouldn't Cecil Bullard: be talking right now. But no, we would... Maybe not the same conversation. We'd be on a boat. But yeah. But if I... 25 years ago if I said, "Give me a job description," it would've went "I'm sorry. W- what? Huh?" And probably for the last 10 years, I could've went on and got a job description if I really wanted to get a job description. The other problem we have, I think just as an industry, is that we're so busy Just trying to do the job of keep the cars going through and keep the customer happy, that we forget that we need to organize and structure the business in order to ultimately be successful, right? Yeah. There are so many guys that are my age and older that are having to get out of the business for health issues that they haven't structured their business, so there's no- nothing to sell, right? It's solely based on whether or not you made any money, and if you didn't make enough, then it isn't, it has no value. And it's a real shame to watch guys in their, late 60s, mid sev- to mid-70s when they realize, "I'm gonna have to retire and all I'm really gonna have is the little bit of money I saved and my Social Security, if it exists, and I'm not gonna get, really get anything out of this company that I r- I ran for the last 45 years." David Roman: Or they're delusional and they think that thing's worth a quarter million doll- And it's dude- Cecil Bullard: Yeah, and they're David Roman: never gonna get it ... you're doing $30,000 a month and you're not even profitable. What? Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And they're ne- and they're never gonna get it. I mean- ... and, a-again, the more you st- you know with I know a lot of people are not happy with the thought of venture capital coming in and all that, but they're here. And the more you structure your business, the more you pull yourself out of the day-to-day roles in the business, the more your business becomes worth. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Whether you sell it to venture capital or you sell it to your service advisor or someone else who's looking to build their bench, right? Or their their platform. It's it... The game has changed a lot, unfortunately. I was do- a bunch of statistical data we did last week for this big meeting that we were having I think a 127,000 shops out of about 260 are just gonna close in the next five years. David Roman: Yeah. ' Cecil Bullard: Cause there's no, there's nothing there. There's no value. And there might be another 100,000 that will open and start, yeah. But a bunch of guys are just gonna disappear and fade away because they didn't structure, they didn't You know, build job descriptions and flow charts and, Biggest issue in the industry in my opinion is that we really don't fully understand our business, and therefore we don't really run our business in a financially prosperous way. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: Not having those steps outlined... And I, a- about my shop. I'm not- Yeah ... in my shop at all, ever. Yeah. I don't go down. I avoid it. I go to the dumpster once a month and dump stuff out of my house that I need to throw away. And that's it. I just Cecil Bullard: did that this weekend, man. Dumpster's full. David Roman: Yeah. And but the reason why that's been possible, and it- not that I'm maximizing profitability or to the nth degree and tweaking this, that, and the other, but we at least got the blocking tackling down. Yeah. A- and it's automated to the, to a certain point that the manager can talk to anybody that they bring in and say, "This is where we hang the keys. This is where the car goes. This is where we hang the keys for the next car." "This is how we estimate." "This is how we dispatch the work." "This is how we price." "This is how we do the estimate." Yeah. Yeah. "This is how we..." Everything's automated on the shop management side. Y- so just whatever the price is, that's the price. This is how we outline the repairs. Everything is just set up in a specific fashion that it can be tra- it's trainable. They can go onto somebody else brand new... And I brought in two people in the last six months, a tech and somebody to help up front so I don't have to be there at all. And they have, they've been able to get trained on the processes where w- I just had a conversation with somebody, and they were saying that they had brought in this tech. This guy is just hurting for techs, just dying to get techs. Finally gets somebody to bite, and he's probably throwing huge money out there because he finally, he got somebody- I know. Yeah ... and they actually moved their box into the shop. So the money was there. Within two hours, the guy was gone. Two hours, Zola, it took for the guy go, "This isn't gonna work. I gotta go." " Cecil Bullard: I can't make this work." David Roman: Yeah. Yeah. And I guarantee he walked in and he's he was just handed a clipboard, and he's "Hey, fix that car." And he's li- looking at the clipboard, and there's some scribbles on it, and it, there's no process. Where do the keys go? Where are my parts? What work needs to be done? How many hours am I getting paid for? Like, all of these very basic things that need to be outlined haven't been outlined, and the, they're, everybody's just kinda shooting from the hip. 25 years later, they're trying to get rid of the business, and they're like What do you want me to sell here? There's nothing to sell. There's no processes, there's nothing. You're in the business every single day shooting from the hip. Yeah, you can't- You remove yourself from the business, like what do you do? Cecil Bullard: And you're also costing yourself, probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars over the 40 years that you run the business. Absolutely. Because you're not maximizing, your business. I had a new client it actually wasn't one of my clients, but I often am involved in new client meetings with some of our coaches and- so we have a new client come on board, and their parts margin's off by 14%. And you're like, "Oh, that's 50 grand," right? And then you look at their productivity's at about 55%. And you're like, "Oh, there's 200,000." And so think about that. If you can clean up your margins and your productivity and, put another, say, $200,000 a year into your profit, at over 40 years let's say you s- you saved f- 25% of that. You put 25 grand away every year for 40 years, what would you have, right? Yeah. It's... I- you'd have what, $10 million? Yeah ... maybe 20 because of the interest stuff. A- and so you're not just creating frustration for the people around you, you're not just reducing value in, say, your business, but you're potentially costing your family millions of dollars worth of revenue that you could have just even if you just ran your business smartly and saved a little bit on the- Yeah on the way. And it's unfortunate to see that because those are the same guys. We do a lot of I don't know, we do a lot of... I don't call it marketing, but we do a lot of meetings and stuff. And so we bring in people, we do this leadership intensive meeting, and we bring in shop owners. And a shop owner'll come in and he'll bring his two or three kids in. So we've got a, a 25-year-old a 23-year-old, and a 19-year-old, and they're all there, and they wanna have nothing to do with Dad's business. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Nothing. They don't wanna be involved because they watched their dad work 80 hours a week and struggle to pay the bills and all of a sudden- Stressed out David Roman: of his mind. Cecil Bullard: Yeah ... yeah, and all of a sudden, they're now at an age where they could participate and Dad would maybe like them to participate, but they're not interested at all. Because they don't see any future for themselves in it. We didn't show them a future 'cause we didn't even create a future for ourselves. And to me, that's- that's kinda a l- that's a little criminal. So i- it would go back to, Cecil, how do you terminate somebody that's been with you for seven years that, has-- When you started the business, they were an essential part, and they've kinda worked themselves out of that, their attitude or even what they do, or they haven't kept up on their education or whatever. How do you terminate? Because 15 years from now when my kids are 25, 30, I want them in the business with me. I don't want them, I don't want them going out to do something else with somebody else. Yeah. One of the greatest joys of my life today is being able to work with one of my children, day to day. Yeah. And my second greatest joy is having all of my family near me and having good relationships with all of my family. Yesterday- Yeah ... it was it was my birthday. Don't, please don't do anything or don't send me any more happy birthdays. But- But I was able to have my family with me. And just have a, a nice evening. And the f- the cool thing is the dad is to sit back and watch the kids interact with each other and have good interactions, right? Of they tease each other, give each other crap, but it's all in fun. And, that's... A- and part of that's because I didn't... 'Cause when I was home, I tried to be home 'cause I wanted to have those relationships, and when I was at work, I tried to be at work because I knew that I needed, when I'm at work, I need to be at work so that I can have the home time that I need, right? David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Whoever might be listening to us, if you do have questions, we certainly would be more than happy if you'll put them in the comments to answer any of those questions. So- It's gotta be a David Roman: good question, otherwise I won't ask it. Cecil Bullard: Yeah, crappy question, we're not gonna- David Roman: Crappy questions are Cecil Bullard: ignored. No. No crappy quest- So how do you fire somebody? How do you actually terminate somebody? That might be, a good question. Yeah. First of all, you do not go into long, lengthy explanations about what they didn't do right. You're just opening yourself up for argument, pain, and I always just tell people, we've made a decision. We're going to be letting you go." Yeah. That's it. Yeah. And and, Now if, David Roman: In my state, if you don't have good documentation- Yeah ... it turns into now you're fighting them for unemployment benefits and this, that, and the other. In every state. Yeah. And th- and this is... if the person needs to just go, they just need to go and just pay up. It's whatever. Yeah, I don't care about unemployment. Cecil Bullard: And David Roman: we're having that Cecil Bullard: assist-- Yeah. I never cared about unemployment and I never used- David Roman: They raked me over the coals- I used that- in Kansas, let me tell you. Yeah. I never used that- If somebody actually dips into it. Cecil Bullard: Yeah, I never used that as a decision about hiring or terminating. If I need to terminate you and I end up paying unemployment, it's part of the game. Yeah. David Roman: But I will say that if you specifically have a job description You've got something outlined and they are violating whatever it is that you've got in writing with their- Yeah signature acknowledgement that they know that this is what's there, and you know that, hey, this is now going down this path. And it really for me, it's ... I'm looking at it two or three steps down. If I can sit down and coach this person and have conversation and go, "Hey, you're not doing this. I need you to pivot," then I'm gonna have that conversation, and it's not gonna get written down. However, if I see them going down this path that, hey, this is not salvageable, I need to let this person go, the first violation is a write-up. Got you. "Hey, you didn't do this. Here's your write-up." Usually they go on their own, but if they don't, it's just three write-ups and then boom, they're gone. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: And- And then that's it. And then the minute- But- ... that the state sends me that letter- Yeah ... here's the write-ups. Boom boom. There you go. Fax it over. Done. Cecil Bullard: And, and- David Roman: I'm not paying squat. And Cecil Bullard: so I wanna make it real clear for anyone that's listening, you need to understand your state's HR laws because- Yeah. ... You need a, an HR professional in your state because each state has different rules about that. Yeah. And in Calif- I know California and Utah really well 'cause I've run businesses in both. I actually know New Jersey now pretty well. W- that's another long story- ... which we won't get into but I'll also tell you I'll never have an employee from New Jersey again. The rules are just too complicated. In California, I have to write you up three times for the same thing. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And I have to put deadlines in your write-ups I need, in two weeks I need improvement here, and this is the improvement I need to see, so that it's not ambiguous. Yeah. And you can't be ambiguous. It'll get you in trouble. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: It looks like we have a question- We have a David Roman: question, yeah, Cecil Bullard: from Adam ... that someone's gonna ask there. David Roman: Says, "I'm interested to know if you have a limit to explaining a procedure to an employee. I've had to tell one of my advisors to go over inspections at pickup, and he keeps m- he keeps missing it. What should I do?" Cecil Bullard: I... For me I have a rule, and my rule is when I determine that there is no more hope, I terminate the employee. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: So I don't I don't have somebody and I don't have a three times. Okay, I'm gonna explain it three times, and if you don't get it in three times you're done. I don't have that rule. As long as I, I believe that you can get it if I help you or someone else helps you, then I'm gonna keep you and keep working with you. David Roman: Yep. Cecil Bullard: Usually for me, maybe the fifth time is the time where I go, "They're just never gonna get it." The minute, the second I go, "They're never gonna get it," I terminate. I'm... And I don't keep people on because I've watched time and time again where someone said I'll fire him on Friday or next week," and they hurt their back or they- Yeah. Oh, yeah ... they tore their shoulder or they- ... dropped the wheel on their foot and broke their foot or- Yeah ... it just happens. This thing happens. And all of a sudden I've got an employee for life, or at least for the next year- ... that that I'm gonna end up paying for who I knew couldn't and wouldn't do the job. When you- Yeah There is a point and I gotta tell you, being the, like the director I am the direct guy, like I'm gonna sit down with somebody and say, "I've explained this to you four times and you're still not doing it. Why aren't you doing it?" David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Because it's almost never, "I don't understand it. I don't know how to do it." It's either you didn't- If it is David Roman: a competency thing- Yeah ... what were you doing during the interview process that you couldn't identify that this person- That I- ... can't read or write? Cecil Bullard: Can't... Yeah. . Yeah. Did you have them? I have them write out a paragraph and, and- ... on their own. Like the wife can't do it or the husband can't do it for the wife. Yeah. And like you have to write a paragraph on your own and what was your interview process like? You may have somebody that i- in most cases, I would tell you it's probably somebody that has... It's like the, "I don't wanna do it." David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: The... I had an employee that I decided we were gonna announce sales over the intercom. "Hey, Bob, we sold all the work on that blue Honda. It's due Wednesday at 5:00." And so I brought two of my employees in, and both great employees, and I said "Here's what we're gonna do, and what do you guys think about that?" And they were all like, "Yeah, okay, fine." So you want us to do it, we'll do it," right? And so I watched, and my one guy did, the other guy didn't. And I brought the other guy in five, five weeks and I said, in, in five days, and I said, "Hey, remember that conversation we had five days ago about announcing things?" "Oh, yeah." I said I've watched. You haven't announced anything. What's up?" "Oh, it's stupid." Yeah. "Oh, okay. That's fair. It's okay." I said "What part of it is illegal, immoral, or uneth- unethical?" And he went none of it." I said, "Okay, so now you're putting me in a weird position because I'm your boss. I've asked you to do something that's not illegal, immoral, or unethical, and you're telling me no or you're just not gonna do it. So you're being passive-aggressive. You told me you would, but now you're not." Yeah. "That's passive-aggre- can't have passive-aggressive people in the company," blah, blah, blah. Okay, I'll do it," right? And he goes out and I watch another week and he doesn't announce anything. So I went to our HR cabinet, I got out a resignation form, I filled it out for him, gross insubordination. Brought him in my office. I said, "Remember the meeting we had five days ago about the meeting we had five days prior about announcing things?" "Yeah." I said, "You're still not announcing things." He goes, "Yeah, I know. It's stupid." I said, "Okay, that's fine. I just need you to sign this-" David Roman: Yeah . "... Cecil Bullard: and and we'll be walking you out of the building." And he went I don't wanna quit my job." I said you already have." Yeah. "You're not doing what I asked you to do." And so what are you telling all the other employees that I have, right? What are you telling everybody else? You David Roman: can pick and choose what you wanna do. Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. See, whatever Cecil says doesn't matter. Yeah. I can't have that, right? It's it's no way to run a successful company. David Roman: Here's a follow-up to this. Is this one of those things in California where you need to have multiple write-ups before you're able to fire them? Three, I can just check our HR laws, as you said as well, good old California. Yeah, so- Cecil Bullard: Yeah ... David Roman: check your HR laws. Be very specific about what it is. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: Consult an attorney. Cecil Bullard: But David Roman: if you have- I have one of Cecil Bullard: those- If you have an employee manual and they're doing gross insubordination, let's say that you had a, I don't know, you had a cell phone policy that was like, "No cell phones while you're working on cars." That's a safety issue. If someone violates that in certain states, I believe California, that's gross insubordination. That is terms for immediate dismissal if it's spelled out that way in your employee manual, and I don't have- It's a safety concern ... to go through all the BS, right? Yeah. There are things that wouldn't fall under that, and you just have to, you have to look in your state, Yeah ... and have... I really recommend, and we don't understand as shop owners what our liability is. We work on... I got a I was talking to these new clients, and they're basically a general repair shop, but they're like we got our Toyota, Honda price. If we're working on a Maserati, should our price be different?" I said, "You're working on Maserati?" I said- Oh my God, right? The problem is if one of my guys backs a Toyota into the rack, it's gonna cost me a couple of grand. One of the guys backs a Maserati into the rack, it's gonna cost me $40,000 to fix it, right? Yeah. And we don't understand the liability that we create for ourselves sometimes in this business. And so I recommend that everybody, whatever state you're in, that you have an HR professional in that state that can give you the proper advice so you don't get yourself in trouble because- And a David Roman: lot of times, like my insurance company will provide- Yeah some assistance- Yeah ... with like manuals and things like that so you don't get yourself in trouble, because they're trying to limit their liability risks a- as well. And also- Cecil Bullard: Assuming that you have that kind of insurance, and everybody should. David Roman: Yeah, every, yeah. If your insurance company isn't offering that, you need to question whether you have the correct insurance company or if you have enough insurance coverage. Cecil Bullard: Yeah. David Roman: That's an issue as well. But specifically dealing with this employee you need to find out whether this is a competency thing or a compliance thing. If it's just that they don't wanna do it because they're uncomfortable, that's probably what it is. They're just uncomfortable bringing it up. Okay, that's a training opportunity, and you need to think back, "Why did I even hire this person, or why do I have th- what value do they bring to the table?" And if the value is more than what you're paying them, obviously, then it's a net benefit to the company, but you need to try to keep them and go, "Okay, let me give you the verbiage, and then you change it up to whatever best fits you, but this is the verbiage you should be using in order to bring the thing up," because maybe they're uncomfortable bringing the inspection up at after or at pickup. If it's just "No, I think it's dumb," then like you're saying, at this point, it's okay now we have a problem. Cecil Bullard: You're also, there's a question of habit. So my habit is to say, "Thank you very much," hand them their keys after I took their money, and now I, now my boss wants me to add this referral process, okay? And I'm not thinking that. For the last five years, I've just handed them the keys and said thank you, right? And so when y- whenever you're gonna introduce a new habit into your mix, a new thing, you need 60 days, and you need 60 days of daily QC, quality control. Yeah. You have to... You literally have to look- Over the employee's shoulder, make sure that they're doing it. And usually you're in 30, 35 days if you've got good QC. You've created the new habit, and now it's the norm and not- Yeah ... the old thing. Often you have an employee that you have asked to do things, but they don't exactly understand how to do it. And you have not really shown them how to do it. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: And so therefore they don't know how to do it, and then they don't do it, and you go, "Why won't you do it?" And so I just wanna make sure that I'm... My wife tells me I'm a horrible communicator. I'm always... It's no, that's not what you said." I went to pick her up this weekend and I, I texted her, I, "I'm gonna be there at 2:30," and the night before we talked and then I said, "Somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00. We'll text tomorrow and we'll figure out, and I'll come get you." And so at about 2:10 I text her, "Hey, I'm gonna be there at 2:30." And she goes I'm already outside." And so I'm a terrible communicator. I don't communicate clearly, obviously, right? And so my assumption when I have someone that doesn't do what we've talked about, that I didn't communicate it well enough. And then my assumption the second time is that they don't really understand it, they don't really know how to do it, 'cause if they did, they'd probably be doing it. Yeah. And so I'm gonna go through that two, three, four times to make sure that I've taught them properly, that they actually know how to do it. I'm gonna sign them off on it, because I'm gonna watch them do it- Yeah ... the way it needs to be done. And then if they still won't do it past then I have a compliance problem, not a competence problem. David Roman: Yeah. And I think we fall into a trap ourselves where we communicate the way we would want it communicated to us, and these are completely different people. I'm a five percenter, like I... And I'm a high D. Like just tell me what the- Yeah, how much, how many people are like you and me, right? Exactly. Tell me- Cecil Bullard: There are like David Roman: five of them ... what the end goal is. What is it that you wanted to accomplish? And I'll make it happen. Yeah. I don't need the steps, I don't need you- Yeah ... to break it down. But most people aren't like that. And I had a manager that I worked under for years, and he used to tell me, "Break it down into the ridiculous." For some of these people, you need to break it down into the ridiculous, because if you don't- Pretend I'm a Cecil Bullard: third grader. David Roman: Y- yeah, if you don't do that, you're not gonna get the outcome that you want. You have a very specific outcome that you want accomplished, and these people just don't know the steps. They can't make the steps up themselves, or they're afraid to because they don't wanna mess up, so they just don't do anything. They freeze, right? So break it down to the ridiculous, step by step. Step one, do this. Step two, step this. And if you do that, then you will ensure the outcome that you want. And that might be all that's happening here is this person just needs to Give the person the verbiage, and then like you're saying, 60 days of, "I'm behi-" If you actually want it to happen, don't assume that the other, the, this advisor's gonna work like the other one. The other one was obviously was just like, "Hey, make this happen." Made it happen. But this one is not gonna be like that. It's gonna be, "I'm gonna stand behind you. We're gonna maybe step through this. What do you say next? Hand it, hand them the inspection," whatever the process happens to be. But you have to go step by step, and it's gonna be a little bit of work for you which I've tried to avoid. That's why I have a manager. Just give it to the manager- Yeah ... and go, "Hey, make this happen." Cecil Bullard: Make this happen, right? Yeah. I wanna make sure that every person that leaves has gone through the referral process and been asked for referrals, and scheduled for their next appointment. And I, it blows my mind because I just have these owners who tell me we can't, I can't get my people to do it. I can't I can't get..." And I'm like, "you... Yes, you can. I've seen it happen. It does work." Yeah. It's not impossible. David Roman: Yeah. " Cecil Bullard: Oh, no, this is impossible," "people won't schedule an appointment." Oh, if you ask them, if you tell them, they will, believe it or not, 'cause I've done it. And yeah I think that in most cases that we make a lot of assumptions, and we don't break it down into the pieces. And when we, whenever we make assumptions, we get ourselves in trouble, David Roman: right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Cecil Bullard: Absolutely. Absolutely. We still have about 10 minutes here. Yeah, if, so if anyone's online and they wanna ask a question you got me and David both here. If not, David, what what other questions have come up on the podcast recently? David Roman: They we've had one that, that has been setting me off. And this isn't... Now this has come up in the Facebook group, but then I've seen this in other industries, and it's been about parts pricing. So there's a bunch of stuff going on in the Middle East, this, that, and the other, and there are announcements coming out saying that, "Hey, the price of synthetic oil is going to skyrocket because it's just not gonna be available." It Cecil Bullard: has. Yeah. David Roman: The... Yeah. And so everybody's freaking out, going what are you gonna do?" And then I just saw a story the other day about a, i've seen two. We had a barbecue place here in Kansas City shut down, and the guy didn't blame his marketing. The guy didn't say, "Hey, my marketing sucks. I have great barbecue but nobody shows up at my door because I'm not telling anybody about it, and I'm in a terrible location, and it's really hard to get into my building," and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. None of those things. What did he blame? The price of beef. He said, "Man these beef prices are just out of control, and my margins are just getting tighter and tighter," and this, that, and the other. And then I saw another place in Texas, same line. "Oh, these beef prices are just out of control," this, that. And apparently, the beef prices wholesale haven't changed in the last two to three years. They're the exact same. They haven't gone up. They went up, but it was, like, two or three years ago they spiked, and then they've just been flat. And so these pla- these places and these shop owners are freaking out about cost of goods sold. Cost of goods sold are irrelevant to me because I just mark it up and sell it. That- I'm not paying for it. I've- My customer pays for it. I just mark it up- I've had- ... and sell it. Cecil Bullard: I've had- The David Roman: price is what I... It is what it is. Cecil Bullard: I've had people tell me recently, I don't know how to charge for oil because the price of oil has gone up so drama- three times what it was. And I'm like- It's okay ... how were you charging before, right? We were using a matrix or we had a lower price, right? You might have a lower price in. And all of a sudden they don't know how to price oil. If it costs me a dollar and I'm selling it for three if it costs me $3, I'm probably gonna sell it for nine. Yeah. It's not hard. To me, it's not hard at all. But I'm... I don't wanna close my doors because the price of beef went up. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Okay? I went over to McDonald's yesterday. I don't ever eat at McDonald's, but I got a dollar cheeseburger. I think it was, like, a buck 89. I was... Wait a minute. That's on the do- that's a dollar... it's a buck 89. Get a dollar- Yeah. It, the- ... dollar things aren't anymore. Dollar- The price of beef went up. McDonald's raised their prices. Holy crap. Are we really not smart enough? We're buying groceries. We're buy- we're getting gas. I went and got gas. It was $4.63. And do you think the people that sell us gas haven't raised their prices because the price of oil has gone up? Yeah. I mean- David Roman: It's the craziest mindset. I have no idea where these people are, like... are you nuts? It's... I can understand- He- ... the a bottom-of-the-line expense. "Hey, my insurance tripled. Okay, I'm gonna have to raise my prices because I need this percentage on my P&L to stay about the same, so this is gonna cost more up the top here." But a cost of goods sold? Like- Cecil Bullard: Yeah ... David Roman: the pri- whatever I buy it for, you just mark it up and you sell it. So whatever the price comes in at, it's like- Cecil Bullard: Who David Roman: cares? I'm sorry. And then if the customer says anything, you just, you blame something in the Middle East. You blame Saudi Ara- Cecil Bullard: You blame Iran. Yeah. You blame Trump. You, you- David Roman: Yeah. Just blame something that- I'm sorry ... you have no control over ... it had nothing to do with it ... because you don't. Yeah. I don't have any control of what they sell it to me for. Yeah. And neither do they because I still have to make my margins on it. So yeah, you don't blame the beef price. And what's insane is the, this guy in Kansas City that had to close his barbecue place The minute he got featured in In- he was on Instagram as one of those small business... He cleans windows, but he features these small businesses when he close, when he goes to clean their windows, and he wears the AI glasses, and he does this whole thing. It's a nice, it's a nice channel. It's all Kansas City businesses. The minute he was featured on this massive Instagram channel, he sold out of food every day for, from that point on until he closed his doors. For the next two weeks, he was... By 6:00, he was completely- So what if he raised his Cecil Bullard: price like $2 a pound or whatever? David Roman: If he had just raised his prices- Cecil Bullard: He'd still David Roman: be in business, right? Or he- Yeah ... I'm like, he didn't go, "Hey, if I just had better marketing. If I just had be- Yeah ... because these people found me, they'll probably come back." And it's w- it's insane to me. And he doesn't go "Hey, just a mile down the road is a barbecue place with a line out the door." Cecil Bullard: Yeah. " David Roman: They're paying the same price I'm paying for the beef. So you're done. You can't tell me these shops that are making three, four, five million, these shops that are expanding, they're hiring people, they're paying the same price as you for this oil. What are they doing?" Oh, they're marking it up. They're marking it up. Something, man. Yeah, they're marking Cecil Bullard: it up David Roman: because we're not nuts. Who the hell cares what you're buying it for? Yeah. You gotta... These... We gotta get out of this mindset. I have no idea. Cogs Cecil Bullard: of special- That's, it's the $29.99 oil change mindset. It's the, I have to have this loss leader that, that puts me out of business that gets people in my shop. And it makes me mad. I won't mention names, but we keep this myth alive because it gets us hits. David Roman: Yeah. Cecil Bullard: Because it gets us attention, right? I'm sorry. It's putting shops out of business. It's putting families at risk. It's... y- Your customers will pay what they believe there's value in, and they will not fight or argue about it. You and I both know that. Probably most of the people that li- will listen to this already know that. So if the oil price goes up, the price of the oil service goes up. It, i- it's what it is. If they raise coolant prices... I remember when you could buy coolant for two bucks a gallon. You're sure as hell not buying it for two bucks a gallon now. We used to sell it for six. Yeah. And and now, I don't know, 20 bucks a gallon or something. And so I'm not selling it for six. David Roman: It's oil right now. Yeah. But I'm just... it's... But two or three years ago it was freaking, Cecil Bullard: we David Roman: went through the- ... R1234yf. Yeah, we went through the whole- "What's everybody doing about 1234yf? I just don't understand. Blah, blah, blah." It's dude what Cecil Bullard: are you talking David Roman: about? Freon. Cecil Bullard: Freon back in the day. Just... Freon. Yeah, it just... Yeah. I... We were selling Freon for two bucks a pound when it was R12, and within three months it was $60 a pound. It, 'cause our cost went up dramatically and so the customer paid 60 bucks a pound. David Roman: And we're- And not only that the machines, the 1234yf machines- Yeah ... are so incredibly slow. Yeah. So it takes three times the amount of time that the old- They used to- ... 134a systems, you used to hit a couple buttons and it would zap through the service and then you're in and out. Where this one takes so much longer. So yeah, guess what? My refrigerant service, if you've got 1234yf and I have a specific line- Costs more money ... that we run performance testing, it's triple the price of the standard w- 134a system. And when they ask, you go, "Why is it so much?" It's 'cause you have 1234yf. You have the new refrigerant. Every car is gonna have the new refrigerant now. Yeah. So guess what? Every car is gonna have to be dealing with this. And I just wanna point this out. Lance makes a comment emotional discounting. The customer will walk in with a $10 Starbucks coffee. It... They will co- come in and complain about your price with their $10 Starbucks coffee. It's it's even worse than that, and I was telling this to Lucas. Da- DoorDash just reported profit reve- or record revenue- ... and profitability. DoorDash. They'll Cecil Bullard: pay for DoorDash. They'll pay $18 to get David Roman: a hamburger delivered. $18 for that $1.89 hamburger. To get that hamburger delivered to their- $18 because they want it at their door. While they're complaining about auto repair But then they complain about my $80 oil change. Yeah. No, no thanks. Get out of here. Cecil Bullard: No, thanks. David Roman: Nah. Just, just- People got money is all I'm saying ... and- People got money. You just gotta- And if the s- ... charge what you gotta charge. Yeah. Don't worry about it. And if we- They'll find a way to pay for it ... Cecil Bullard: if we at shops understood what our value is and what our liability is, we'd be charging more than we're charging now. Yeah. Yeah. Which is not... we don't have time for that discussion. In fact, we're gonna have to wrap it up. I guess we're getting to the end of this. Yeah. And we have important lives and other things to do. We'll have another one of these coming up in a few weeks. And David, thank you very much for being here, and thanks for your- Great conversation. I appreciate it ... questions and comments. Yeah. And you know I love you, brother, so- Yeah. You too ... take care, all right? David Roman: All right.

Bonus Crossover Episode: Todd Hayes on the Howie Carr Show

In a special crossover episode, our very own Todd Hayes guest stars on the Howie Carr show, and explains how Auto Shop Answers teaches auto shops and service businesses "auto hospitality"—turning technicians into profitable business owners through customer service, operations, recruiting, and technology. The episode covers real results from attendees, how private equity partnerships can de-risk owners’ portfolios, and Houston Boston Partnership strategies to acquiring and scaling shops. To join, visit AutoShopAnswers.com.   https://auto-shop-media.com/

Ep 157: Great Culture Doesn't Happen by Accident with Sam Freeman and Amber Wright

How to Build a Team That Doesn't Need You Every Minute | Brandon Steckler - Ep 17

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes and Brandon Steckler talk leadership, technician training, and the messy but beautiful journey of managing a team. They bring up the challenges techs face when moving into ownership and leadership roles, the importance of building standard operating procedures to turn mistakes into teachable moments, and why raising up the next generation means focusing less on judgment and more on mentorship.Timestamps:00:00 – Balancing helping vs. enabling: How to stop being a crutch for your team01:32 – Early career: From dealership routine to independent challenges03:02 – Rapid growth, confidence, and being humbled by new experiences04:32 – The importance of mentorship and finding your “Jim Morton”07:00 – Becoming the teacher: Facing nerves and winning over your peers08:22 – Explaining things differently: The power of analogies in learning09:40 – Training new techs: Building a shop “bootcamp” for growth10:54 – Managing personalities: From future prodigies to lovable pains13:11 – Why investing in young staff pays off (despite the daily chaos)14:52 – Hard truths about leadership and letting go of micromanagement15:49 – Turning losses into SOPs: Learning from mistakes as a team17:01 – The importance of asking instead of always answering17:58 – Becoming a student again: Leveraging Audible and ongoing learning20:26 – Redefining shop culture for Gen Z techs22:55 – “Raising” techs vs. just hiring: Creating a rewarding path23:55 – Progression, promotion, and transferable skills for your team25:05 – Why today’s tech workforce is lost, not lazy28:24 – Finding purpose in mentorship and building shop legacy31:00 – On the road, new classes, and giving back to the industry33:55 – Building a leadership blueprint—with a little tough love

From Tech to Service Advisor: Training, & Shop Leadership with Cody Kirkessner

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HERERecorded at Tools in Hershey, PA, Jeff Compton features Cody Kirkenester of Fadely’s Auto Masters. After 15 years as a technician and shop foreman, Cody transitioned into the service advisor and shop manager role. He shares his journey into the automotive industry, the training culture that helped shape his career, and a memorable diagnostic breakthrough using a lab scope. Cody also discusses mentoring technicians, managing customer relationships, parts quality challenges, AI in the shop, and one of his fears.Timestamps 00:00 Meet Cody Kirkenester 00:56 From Tech to Advisor 02:27 Early Car Obsession 04:25 School and First Shops 07:40 Joining Faidley’s Auto 08:33 Training Culture 12:31 Diagnostic Breakthrough 15:08 Corvettes and Specialty Cars 20:16 Team Development and Mentoring 28:09 Moving Into Management 38:45 Challenges of Being a Service Advisor 47:51 Parts Quality Issues 51:43 Recruiting Young Talent 55:55 Scopes and AI Tools 58:44 Succession Planning 01:01:20 Legacy and Leadership 01:07:41 Wrap Up and Next Steps Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Anyone Can Teach, But Not Everyone Can Educate: Lessons from 30 Years in Automotive Training [RR 1095]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Carm Capriotto sits down with Todd Fortier, retiring automotive professor and program coordinator from Illinois Central College, to discuss a lesson learned over three decades in education: anyone can teach, but becoming a true educator requires purpose, empathy, and continuous growth. Todd shares how his passion for education was sparked by helping students experience those breakthrough "lightbulb moments" and why the ultimate goal of teaching is not simply delivering information, but ensuring meaningful knowledge transfer. As he prepares for retirement, Todd reflects on the challenges facing automotive education and his mission to help develop the next generation of industry instructors. What You'll Learn Why technical expertise alone doesn't make someone an effective instructorHow educators can improve knowledge transfer and student engagementTodd's "Three C's" framework: Concern, Cause, and CorrectionWhy connection, empathy, and vulnerability are critical teaching toolsHow to identify the root causes behind student disengagementThe importance of recognizing the personal challenges students bring into the classroomWhy many students leave training programs early and how educators can help retain themHow trainers and mentors can evolve into true educatorsThe soft skills needed to successfully connect with today's students and technicians The best educators do more than share information, they build relationships. Todd Fortier's career demonstrates that teaching is most effective when instructors combine technical knowledge with empathy, curiosity, and genuine human connection. As the automotive industry works to address technician shortages and workforce development challenges, creating better educators may be one of the most important investments the industry can make. Todd Fortier, Professor/Program Coordinator, Illinois Central College, ToddFortier@techtoteacher.com Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collectionsBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Episode 272 - Mentoring the Next Generation of Techs with Luke Murray and Charles Burke of Worldpac

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood and David Roman are joined by Charles Burke and Luke Murray from the Worldpac Training Institute. The conversation focuses on the importance of mentorship and structured apprenticeship programs in the automotive industry, the challenges of reaching and engaging more shop owners with effective training and business resources, and the personal impact of mentorship—both in the industry and in personal life.00:00 Transitioning from technical to business training05:42 Grounded from flying career09:44 Choosing movies before streaming12:41 Becoming a BMW instructor14:04 Focus on mentor training18:43 Mentorship and training apprentices19:46 Creating a custom apprenticeship program23:10 The importance of effective mentorship28:29 Building ASTA through community sharing31:50 Explaining profit margins simplistically33:25 Helping others with industry insights38:01 Funny story about Chris Chesney39:21 Spreading the word about free training42:11 Passion-driven learning benefits

Ep 97 - Tektonic 2026 Coaches Panel | Flat Rate, Technician Shortage, Performance Based Pay

Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code Confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERE Make your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREThis episode was recorded at Tektonic 2026. Thank you to Tekmetric for allowing us to use this recording for an episode. Want to go to Tektonic 2027? Register HEREToday, Mike Allen leads a lively panel of coaches as they tackle some of the auto repair industry's most daunting topics. Things like flat rate and how compensation models impact recruitment, motivation, and shop culture. They also confront the persistent undervaluing of the industry, pointing out the urgent need for better marketing and self-regulation if auto repair is to attract the next generation. Plus, the coaches don’t hold back as they discuss private equity’s growing influence—offering straight talk on exit strategies, business legacy, and the real impact on teams left behind. Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HEREMake your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HEREFor years I thought I could handle the hiring process on my own. But, after far too many bad hires, it was clear I needed help. Promotive came through for me with a rock star hire in just a few days and I couldn't be happier. Swallow your pride and bring in Promotive for that open position you have at your shop today. You can thank me later. Learn more HEREAI for Shop Owners: Open the Hood of the Future is happening June 12-13 at Carfix in Raleigh, NC. Use AI to your advantage! Register HERETimestamps:00:00 Why is the auto industry undervalued? The real story behind pay and standards01:06 Flat rate pay: Is it tradition, incentive, or what’s driving the “tech shortage”?02:44 Hourly vs. flat rate vs. blended: Can we finally pay techs what they’re worth?04:06 What performance-based pay REALLY looks like in the real world07:03 Is there even a tech shortage, or just a leadership and culture failure?09:09 Recruiting top techs: Why should someone work for YOUR shop?11:05 Employees want more than money—how culture and environment win12:33 Why we can’t afford to be “broke” shop owners (& why most of us are)13:28 Are we destroying our own value? Party clowns vs. techs and the marketing gap15:56 Leadership confession: We got into cars, NOT for people, and it’s catching up16:26 How to reach the next generation of automotive stars17:17 One shop’s youth welding program that sparks real careers18:06 Why trades like welding are beating automotive for young talent20:03 How do we market the industry and reach parents, not just students?23:39 Got Milk? Why we need a national campaign to sell the value of this business24:53 Raising your labor rate: Genius or a recipe for backlash if you don’t raise value28:28 What customers are REALLY paying for—and how service changes the game30:13 Making your shop irresistible: Clean, beautiful, equipped, and worth the price31:42 You don’t need to wait to raise value—start by fixing your shop now34:36 Relationships and trust: The foundation for customer and team loyalty36:24 The biggest profit leak no one talks about: productivity loss39:35 Private equity: Golden parachute or community killer for auto shops?41:54 What’s your exit plan? How to think years ahead (and why it matters)45:45 Should coaches own shops? The truth about what makes a great coach51:39 Leadership, engagement, and communication: The four pillars of high-performing teams55:54 AI, DVI, and service advisors: The NEXT revolution in customer experience58:04 Why hospitality always wins—technology tools are only part of the story

207 - You Can't Wrench and Run the Business Forever: A Shop Owners Turning Point

207 - You Can't Wrench and Run the Business Forever: A Shop Owners Turning Point June 3rd, 2026 - 00:49:01 Show Summary: Nathan Geransky shares his journey from running an automotive shop on his acreage to moving into a commercial location. Years of long hours and limited financial insight pushed him to seek coaching and change how he operated the business. By improving labor rates margins and systems he built financial stability and stepped away from turning wrenches full time. He discusses leadership team development and preparing the business for future growth. His story shows what happens when a technician learns to become a true business owner.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development   Guest(s): Nathan Geransky, Owner, Nathan’s Garage Ltd.   Show Highlights: [00:01:00] – Nathan launched his shop from a building on his property. [00:02:00] – Customers arrived at all hours because he worked from home. [00:04:00] – Hiring help revealed lost revenue hidden in daily operations. [00:05:00] – Running a business required skills beyond repairing vehicles. [00:08:00] – A labor rate increase improved profits without customer pushback. [00:11:00] – Coaching helped build a $100,000 operating reserve in months. [00:16:00] – Better margins and scheduling changed his approach to ownership. [00:20:00] – The new location increased visibility and attracted new customers. [00:26:00] – Personal thank you cards strengthened customer relationships. [00:38:00] – Nathan is preparing the next generation to lead the business.     In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5G4i75jw-no   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Welcome, Nathan. It is good to have you here with me. Good morning. Nathan Geransky: Thank you. Big introduction. For a little Jimmy Lea: guy. Yeah, man. You've done a lot over the last little bit. You've really spread your wings and gone the distance. It's amazing to hear the growth. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, it's been a journey for sure. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How long have you been with the institute? How long you been with coaching and training? Nathan Geransky: Just about a year now. Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats, bro. Nathan Geransky: About a year. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That is awesome. All right. Let's go back in time, Nathan. Let's talk about the past. How did you get into the automotive industry, the automotive aftermarket? Nathan Geransky: So I was I was working in another shop and they kinda... It got slow there, so I went to- I've always been an automotive guy, so I've worked at Ford for many years and been doing it all my life. Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Nathan Geransky: so this other shop I was working at, they kinda got slow, kinda lost my job, and I had an acreage and a shop there, so figured start, I'll work at home until I find a job. So I looked around a few times. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nathan Geransky: No jobs, and started on my own. Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. So this is the residential cul-de-sac you were in. You had an acre. You had a- That's right ... shop on the- Nathan Geransky: Yeah ... Jimmy Lea: w- like a two bay or a three bay? What did you have there at- It was a- ... Nathan Geransky: the Jimmy Lea: back of the house? ... Nathan Geransky: a 30 by 60 shop. It's on three acres. Oh. So it was on acreage. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: So fairly big shop. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, that is a big shop. And so you're working from home. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Tell me about that challenge. Nathan Geransky: So right at first it was figuring out what parts and everything. So I'd work in the morning, figure the cars out, go get the parts all afternoon, work till 10:00 o'clock at night, puttin' the cars back together. Oh Jimmy Lea: my gosh. And a lot of us work remote, so we're able to work from home. Yeah. Me being one of them. Yeah. Now you're working from home. Were there any challenges you faced by having your garage in the backyard? Nathan Geransky: Customers, they're like, "Oh, you're here," so they come any time of day, like drop off a car at 10:00 o'clock at night, or they'll expect payments. Like they'll come out at 7:00 o'clock and run your payment through, right? Or whatever, but- 24-hour garage. Jimmy Lea: It's true, because you were there. You were available. They're coming directly to you. Yeah. They thought, "Oh, no, he lives here. Yeah, no, I can come any time." Yeah. Oh my gosh. So how long did you operate out of the backyard? Nathan Geransky: Just until a month ago now, when we moved to the new shop. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. How many years were you operating from the house? Nathan Geransky: Seven years. Jimmy Lea: Seven years, wow. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Your neighbors must have loved you. Nathan Geransky: They did, except for one guy. Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. So how many bays did you have in your garage, 30 by 60? Nathan Geransky: Two bays. I had a wheel alignment hoist, which I'm still using, and another two post hoist. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Okay. Nathan Geransky: S- other side, Jimmy Lea: nice. Side by side. Oh, wow. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Wow. And w- you went from... So were you parking car... you say you had three acres. Three acres is huge. Yeah. It's a lot to- That's a lot of- Nathan Geransky: Yeah ... l- Jimmy Lea: lot of property. And- Were you parking cars all over your backyard? Nathan Geransky: Yeah. And then, so I had at one point in time probably 30 cars waiting there. Oh my gosh. And then the county came- ... "Hey, you got too many cars." So I learned how to schedule slowly. 'Cause people drop it off, says, "Get to it when you can," so I did, and then ended up being a pile of cars. Yeah. Before you know it, it goes from one car that's waiting to seven to 19 to- Yeah ... 30. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Nice. Packed double rows. Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. So what were some of those biggest challenges you were facing as a shop owner working out of your house, working out of your backyard? Jimmy Lea: So I- What were some of the biggest challenges? Nathan Geransky: Parts and I guess mechanics. So I hired Noah, my son, for do administration because he was, Actually, I hired my other son first, Justin. He's a journeyman, so I needed more help there, so me and him worked together about a year or so, and then hired Noah because when parts, when customers come back for repairs and they're like, "Oh, we put this part on for warranty, but we didn't ever charge for it." So we're like, "Okay we are charging you this time." So hired Noah to... His wages paid for all his parts we missed putting on vehicles or building out vehicles. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah, he caught everything. It's- But just even catching that paid for his wages. That's amazing. Oh, for Nathan Geransky: sure. Yeah. So we're l- in a losing battle, right? Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. No, yeah. Yeah. And what about all the core returns? If you're not getting credit for the returns. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, that too. Yeah. We probably lost a lot there too, yeah. But- Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no. But now you're, you've captured it. Nathan Geransky: Swapped around. Yeah, you bet. Jimmy Lea: Oh, man. So what's one of the biggest, And not, maybe not the biggest, but what's one of the hardest parts about going from being a technician in the business to being the owner and working on the business? Nathan Geransky: Ha- I guess challenging because I can fix vehicles Jimmy Lea: Yeah ... Nathan Geransky: but to run it, like I've never ran a a business, I guess business-minded, but not, never went to school for anything, so you always struggle and worry what, Yeah, it's a challenge for sure. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. It's easy working on cars. It's harder- Yeah ... it's a different skill set to work on your business, right? Nathan Geransky: Yeah, definitely. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, man. So what was w- what was one of those challenges that you faced in making the transition? What was one of those skills you had to learn from being a technician and turning a wrench to being an owner and sit in front of a keyboard? Nathan Geransky: I'm still learning. So biggest thing is working for my business or working on my business, not in my business. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: Mentally challenging, still work in progress, but we've come quite a ways. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Yeah. That is true. That is true. Nathan Geransky: Maybe not Jimmy Lea: answering the question fully, but- And there are different seasons. No, you totally did. Okay. Yeah. There's different seasons that we operate in. So y- there was a season where you had to be the technician, there was a season where you had to be the technician and the owner, and as you- Yeah built up your business, you were able to take those steps to become the true full-time business owner. How often are you turning a wrench these days? Nathan Geransky: So now s- since we moved to the new shop I haven't done anything in the wrench. Oh. So I left my toolbox at the other shop. Did you leave your toolbox at Jimmy Lea: home? Nathan Geransky: Yeah. So Jess was like, "You're not bringing your toolbox to the new shop." So it's there. Out of the Jimmy Lea: way. Nathan Geransky: So it's mentally, The other day I was trying to find, get something and I told the o- all the guys to lock their boxes up. So on a Saturday I came in here, I had no tools. Yeah. What- Jimmy Lea: So I was like, "I can't do anything." No. Yeah. Of course you couldn't. No, you, you c- if you wanna work on your own cars, go back to your, Yeah, go back to my old job. Yeah ... go back to the house. Nathan Geransky: That's what happened. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's funny. That's funny. All right. Y- switching f- from technician to an owner, a different skill set. Y- you've a very technically trained, cars spoke to you. You're making that transition to business owner. What was one of the hardest things for you to adjust at first? Was it you raising prices, managing people, or trusting your financials? Nathan Geransky: Probably a combination of all of those. You're you're managing people, not too much that. I guess you're Yeah, just a little bit of everything Just a bit Jimmy Lea: of Nathan Geransky: financials? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, it's a bit of everything. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, for sure. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And all right- How you're figuring it all out ... so digging into each one of these I have a question for you about raising your prices, because you were at a certain rate and you raised it by $30 an hour. Talk, talk to me about that. Yeah. Riff on that for a minute. Nathan Geransky: Through my coaching through Chad we're, He was saying, "You need to raise your labor rate or you need to give Justin a lot lower wage, otherwise..." And he's "I don't think he'll stick around for that because even though he's your son." So yeah, I raised my rate like 30 bucks. I was worried about customers because you think maybe they can't afford it." And, but then you realize they're coming back from holidays, and I'm not going on holidays. So you raise it up, and surprisingly nobody batted an eye. They didn't even question the labor rate, nothing. Over a couple more times they came over "Oh, your rate went up." I said, "Yeah, it went up to the amount." And yeah, it was crazy. I was... That was the biggest surprise, Jimmy Lea: yeah. Isn't that amazing? Nathan Geransky: People didn't care. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. They didn't care. So all the fear was where? It was inside your own head. Nathan Geransky: It was in me, yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. But and the beauty of that is you analyzed the business. You looked at your business, you looked at your expenses, you looked at your overhead, you looked at all of what it cost you to run your business, raised it by $30 an hour to cover the business so that you- Yeah could have the life that you needed, and Noah and Justin, and is there anybody else on the team? Don't you have a few more people? There's Nathan Geransky: two others. Yeah, Dawson and Arthur. Jimmy Lea: Dawson and Arthur. Yeah. So you raised your labor rate so that as a business you could survive, as a business you could provide- for not just yourself, but for the- No ... entire team. And that's essential. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That's so important. So what made you decide to reach out to the institute? Nathan Geransky: So we're, They had phoned before, Michael had phoned before, and I was like I think we're doing pretty good in the business, and we're all... We've been doing it for seven years, and how hard can it be, right?" Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. And then last year we're, About about this time last year we're like, "This is getting... We're making money, but we don't have any money." So we're like, "Okay, we need to figure this out." So that's when I reached out to the institute and got a plan and went from there, and it's been amazing. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. That's good. And we'll give a shout-out to Michael Wiltrout. In the past, he has been a partner and owner of four different shops in the Arizona- Okay ... area. And so w- y- you connected with the right guy at the right time, and I'm sure that you guys had some phenomenal conversations talking about your shop, your business, what you were doing. A- and he's got the chops. He's been there. He's done that. Yeah. He can talk to what you're going through and what you're doing. So I'm sure a lot of that- Great guy ... resonated real strong with you. So when you connected with Chad, what were you hoping that coaching with Chad would help fix? Nathan Geransky: Just how to run my business correctly and be more financially s- secure, and- That's Jimmy Lea: important. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. That's, yeah, that's very important. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So h- how long did it take you? What was that realization of, "Oh my gosh, I, I think this is actually working. I think I can see that we're, we have money. We have money- Nathan Geransky: yeah ... Jimmy Lea: not just on the books, but we have money." What was that point for you? What did that look like? Nathan Geransky: So when we started with it, it was I think I've said this before even, but so our books were, they were okay, whatever, but we had we had no money in the bank and like we were struggling along. And then within about four or five months we had, with adjusting our margins and everything and increasing the labor rate, we put $100,000 in the bank for operating. Jimmy Lea: Holy cow. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. So it went up quickly and it was, yeah, amazing Jimmy Lea: That is Nathan Geransky: awesome Before I was happy, I'd... Before I'd had 20,000 in the bank, I was like, "Oh, we're doing good." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, yeah. That first month when you have 20,000, it's like an eye-opening, "Oh my gosh this is working." Yeah. And then you look up- Yeah ... two months later and you're like, "Oh my gosh, we have 100,000." Nathan Geransky: Yeah. That was crazy. Jimmy Lea: That is cool. Congratulations- Yeah ... bro. That is very cool. Talking about the moving of your business, John Beasley is totally commiserating with you or loving on you in that residential area. He started in residential as well many moons ago. Had people showing up eh, on days when he was closed and walking around his house. Nathan Geransky: Oh, yeah. Jimmy Lea: And John, y- clearly they had to be on the outside of the house, right? There's nobody coming inside your house. No, nobody. Even though they think that's your office. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. No, my office was always in the shop, so nobody ever came in the house, but. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, that's wild. Wife Nathan Geransky: was like, "Who's here now?" I was like, "Oh, just another customer dropping off in the evenings or Sunday afternoons." And we have company over "Oh, that's a customer coming again." Jimmy Lea: Yeah. We should be happy Nathan Geransky: now. Which Jimmy Lea: we love. Yeah, no, Nathan Geransky: it's good. Jimmy Lea: I love being able to drop off late at night. Yeah, Nathan Geransky: for sure ... Jimmy Lea: John says, "Yeah, it was just a duplex, much smaller scale." John, I feel you on that. I- Yeah ... I love dropping mine off late at night. And the key box, oh my gosh, I love the key box. I love filling out that- little envelope putting it in the box because I... There was a period of about four or five years, Nathan, that I don't even think I saw my, the shop owner or even any of the staff, 'cause I would drop it off late at night. Yeah. And they would do the work and, Yeah ... I would pay over the phone and- Yeah pick it up two, three days later, late at night- Yeah ... or something like that. And, Yeah ... in a residential- I've had that Nathan Geransky: before too, yeah ... oh my gosh. Couple customers didn't even know who they dropped off, Jimmy Lea: like- But in residential, that could be a nightmare. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That could be a nightmare. Here you are, 10 o'clock at night you're laying down in bed. You- it's bedtime and you got people dropping off their car. Nathan Geransky: They just put the keys on the floor mat and go. Like- ... we were on acreage, so it was pretty safe. That's what they did Jimmy Lea: yeah. So what was one of those first things that, Working with Chad, what was one of those first things that he challenged you to change in your business? Nathan Geransky: I think the first thing was labor rate. Really? Yeah. Okay. And he did that because he could see that the business just needed a bump in the labor rate- Yeah, for sure. Yeah ... and he knew that Justin needed to make some more money. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. When you raised your labor rate, what were you expecting to happen? Nathan Geransky: I thought we'd be slower. Maybe our customers would complain about it or they'd ask questions on the bill, right? "How come there's so much more money?" or whatever. But when Chad explained it to me, you raise your labor rate up, and you have... say you have a two-hour job You're only going up a few dollars or an hour job, right? Yeah. Top 50 bucks. So people sorry, people probably don't even hardly notice a little bit, like $30 is quite a bit, but they're not gonna question too much. And when you get the big jobs, like eight, 10 hour jobs, they're like, "Okay." And then they kinda realize it's a bit higher. But the just day-to-day jobs, people didn't seem to care too much. Jimmy Lea: No. And add to the bo- it added to the bottom line in a hurry, right? Oh, yeah. Which is- Big time ... Nathan Geransky: great. Yeah. S- Jimmy Lea: so le- let's use some fake numbers, but, Sure ... somewhat real. If we're talking about a two-hour repair order, let's say that's around $600. Does that sound about right? Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: So at a $600, your increase made it $660. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. So $60, right? Yeah Jimmy Lea: That's a nuisance increase in my book. Yeah ... it's just a, "Oh, okay. Yeah, everything's going up." Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Shoot. Have you seen hotel rooms now? Nathan Geransky: No, I know. Jimmy Lea: I agree with you. Even Motel 6 is 150 bucks a night. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: All your Hiltons and Marriotts are over 300 a night. It's... Ah, man. I know it's ridiculous. So how has the institute and how has Chad helped you move from reacting to problems to managing the business more intentionally? Nathan Geransky: Through, your parts and margins, we've learned about, more about that, and scheduling. It's helped a lot with sched- scheduling. And just revamped everything from being a mechanic point of view to a owner point of view. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Isn't that wild? Y- and all those days you worked at the other shop, and you're working on Fords, and you're thinking, "Oh, this owner, he's putting all this money in his pocket. Oh, he needs to get more cars in here." "I could work on more cars." Now you're on- Yeah ... this side. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Now you're the owner. Now you're the one that has to put more cars in the bays and- Nathan Geransky: yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So how important is that for your team to understand the financials of the business as well? Do you have a different perspective on that now that you've been Nathan Geransky: on- ... the Jimmy Lea: other side, and now Nathan Geransky: you're the owner now? So I think the team has some- somewhat... i've shared my financials with them, and they're like, "Oh, we're doing good." I said this is why we're doing good, because we're... We have our labor rate's better, our mar- margins are better, and this is why as you go through your jobs, you need to make sure you're writing everything down and your stories are correct so we can bill correctly. And it all results to you getting more money at the end of the day." So a teamwork, and that's how I've always addressed it. So everybody works together, and everybody makes money. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nathan Geransky: It's not all about me making money. It's about everybody making money, Jimmy Lea: yes. It's important we all Nathan Geransky: make money. No, and everybody to be successful. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, 100%. 100%. Yeah. So do you feel like you look at your team differently now than you did a year ago? Nathan Geransky: Yeah, probably. Yeah. And do you feel like your team is looking at you differently than they did a year ago? Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But... and d- what do you, what would you attribute that shift and change to i- in yourself? Just learning more about business and through coaching and- yeah, it's- Jimmy Lea: and Nathan Geransky: leadership all, all together. Leadership, Jimmy Lea: yes. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: It just sounds like you have grown so much tremendously in your role as a leader here at the shop. I would say that your team is looking at you more as a leader than they ever have before. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, they have. Yeah, they are. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Congratulations on that. And that's a big transformation for you to make and to grow. How have you changed? How ha- how do you view yourself today versus what you, who you were a year ago? Nathan Geransky: It's a hard challenge or hard vision, I see myself more as a manager now or owner-operator, right? And like I'm in charge of a big, like a big business now, right? So it feels like a big business. Yeah, so it's been mentally challenging, and you're figuring out where I st- I- where my role is, right? Or how I manage people and everything else. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It's a big change that you go through, and Chad's giving you a shout-out here. That Nathan is humble. He's becoming involved with BNI and NAPA AutoPro, becoming a spokesperson for the industry. Thank you for doing that, Nathan. That's from Chad, your coach, so he- Yeah ... he knows who you are as well. Oh, thank you. Yeah, Nathan Geransky: for sure. Jimmy Lea: So you've now- And- ... moved into a n- oh, sorry, go ahead. Nathan Geransky: I said he's been an amazing coach. Yeah, I've always, every time I talk about business or whatever, I said, "Yeah, I got this great coach, Chad." He's I bring him up all the time. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Spread the word. We need more shops- Oh, yeah, Nathan Geransky: I do. Yeah. For sure. Jimmy Lea: Chad needs more shops to coach. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: He'd love it. Bring it on. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Bring it on. Nathan Geransky: Tell everybody, you, everybody needs a coach. Jimmy Lea: Everybody needs a... that's so true. Yeah. That is so true. Everybody needs a coach. Everybody needs someone to hold them accountable and inspire them towards r- achieving their goals. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's good. So you've just recently moved into the new location. Did you say a month and a half now? Nathan Geransky: It'd be a month. This week is a month. Jimmy Lea: This week is a month. Oh, congratulations. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Oh, thank you. Jimmy Lea: What has surprised you most about moving into this new location? Nathan Geransky: The amount of, So my customers that have been with me for years they're happier now because I'm on the main road. They don't have to drive three kilometers off the highway to go to my acreage. Oh, that's right. They said- ... "You're actually closer," so I didn't realize that. I'm probably five minutes closer to Sherwood Park, which is the next big town or city here. So- Nice ... overall it's been really surprisingly, everyone's happier Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nathan Geransky: A- and so- A lot more drop-ins off the highway too, 'cause it's more visible. Jimmy Lea: That's what I was just gonna ask. Yeah. What about your walk-ins? What, how, what are you seeing there? Walk-ins, probably about Nathan Geransky: 10 new customers from last month. People walk in- Jimmy Lea: 10 in one month? Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: How does that change the energy or the culture of the company? How does that change the energy inside your business? Nathan Geransky: It didn't change too much, just that we're now, we're... I guess we're more surprised that, or happily surprised, that people are coming in and noticing us. "Oh, where do you guys come from?" "We've been looking for a mechanic for a long time," some of them said, right? Or whatever. I was just... I've been in business eight, over eight years, and now I moved here, and they're like, "Okay, good." So couple of new guys have come in and got their stuff checked out, and yeah, so it's been good. Jimmy Lea: That is good. That's awesome. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And they would've never found you back in that residential cul-de-sac, so thank Nathan Geransky: heavens you- No, unless you... Yeah. So a lot of it was word of mouth before, so I've never really advertised or never cared to advertise 'cause I was so busy. Just word of mouth, and everybody's coming that way, right? Tell their friends. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. And word of mouth is powerful. That is very good. Yeah. That's great. And that's how it's been Nathan Geransky: great till now, Jimmy Lea: and now it's gonna become exponentially even more great. And speaking of marketing you... We have a marketing for automotive repair shops, we call it MARS, here at headquarters in October. Nathan Geransky: Okay. Jimmy Lea: You should really look at coming down to our marketing intensive. It's three-day intensive, talking all about marketing. So it's gonna be amazing. What is this? What was the finance like switching to the shop? Was it a fairly clean transition or was it bad requiring loans and such? Oh, this is from Nathan Garcia. Oh my gosh, Nathan Garcia. I thought Nathan, you, I thought you typed that in there. I was Nathan Geransky: like, " Jimmy Lea: What the heck is he saying?" What's going on here? So Nathan Garcia's, he's asking what was the financial... What was the finance like switching to the shop? Oh, from switching from the home business to the- Yeah ... the shop business, the brick and mortar. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. It was relatively painless because I had money in the bank. Jimmy Lea: So all my- Wait, so you... This is when you had 100,000 in the bank or what? Yeah. I mean- Nathan Geransky: Yeah. That's Jimmy Lea: right ... so you had to fund the whole mer- move? Nathan Geransky: Yeah. So I renovated this place. I probably put probably 40,000 or 30,000 into renovations, rewiring everything, and because it was just a lawnmower repair shop before. So I moved walls, built mezzanines, put voids in rewired everything. Yeah, so now we're down to minimal funds again, but I didn't have to borrow anything. We're all- Oh, yeah ... all our books are paid up. Everything's good just because I had money in the bank. Otherwise- Jimmy Lea: Dude ... Nathan Geransky: I couldn't have done this move. Jimmy Lea: That's Nathan Geransky: awesome. I'd have been out of- Congratulations I'd have been, I'd have been looking for a job. Jimmy Lea: And so would've Justin, and Devon, and- Nathan Geransky: Yeah ... Jimmy Lea: noah and- The Nathan Geransky: other Jimmy Lea: five Nathan Geransky: other guys. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Oh, you guys all would've been looking. Yeah, 'cause the county shut you down in being in that residential area, right? They're like- Yeah. They- We're not gonna renew your license anymore." That's right. So they said, "Look for a new shop, and when you do, then we'll worry about your license then." So they kinda held it in limbo. Wow. I'm glad you got in there. I'm glad that you've- Yeah ... seen success there. And you've made 100,000 before, so you'll do it again. Nathan Geransky: Do it again. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And congrats- Nathan Geransky: easier now because we have systems in place. Well- We can- Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And what does the shop look like today? How many bays are you at? How many lifts? What does that look like for you today? Nathan Geransky: So we have three bays, three lifts in our new shop here, and we could use the old shop for, like I have a wheel align machine. I do ADAS calibrations and everything. So do all that over at the old shop, so we're kinda running both shops. So I guess moving from a two-bay shop to a five-bay shop now combined. So it's been pretty amazing. Jimmy Lea: That is very Nathan Geransky: cool And yesterday we're like, "We could use four more bays 'cause we have so many customers." Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh, yeah. Now, so now you need to be a seven-bay shop. Nathan Geransky: Now we need to be a seven-bay shop, yeah. Jimmy Lea: Under brick and mortar, and then still have the- Yeah ... two at the house if you need them. That's the overflow. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. Congrats. So w- are you expanding? Are you gonna grow? Are you gonna take the businesses next door? What what does that Nathan Geransky: look like? So the next door, there's a body shop next door which owns this whole building. So my building's a 50 by 50 shop. So 30 by 50 is the shop side, then we have a mezzanine and office space on the other side of it, Jimmy Lea: okay. So you can't take any more space. You're pretty well Nathan Geransky: landlocked. No, I cannot here, yeah, landlocked, unless I buy land beside me, which, another guy has it, I could buy from him, but it's got lots of environmental problems, Jimmy Lea: oh. Nathan Geransky: Maybe in the future, see how it goes. Jimmy Lea: Okay. Keep your eyes open. You m- might find another shop- Nathan Geransky: Yeah ... Jimmy Lea: somewhere in the area. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That would be good. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, my next shop would be at least five, 10-bay shop if I'm going again, Jimmy Lea: oh yeah, for sure. For sure. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. See how this works Jimmy Lea: out- so I- ... and go from there ... I read in your notes something interesting that you're doing in sending out handwritten thank you cards. Yes ... what inspired that? Nathan Geransky: So we're trying to be different in our shop, like community-based, right? And we're like... So we have, So all of our work orders are in a folder. They have Nathan's Garage folder all done up in our deckling and everything. And so every work order, people are surpri- like when your work order is done, we're not just giving you paper, we're giving you a folder and being professional. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Nathan Geransky: And so these, Like a postcard, we got a... There was a sale on postcards. We were like, "Hey, we should put this in there." And Napa, we had Napa brand it at all, so for our... If you like, for our warranty or "Did you know that your vehicle has three years, 60,000 kilometer warranty since it got repaired here?" And on the back of the cards, we write a note of thank you for whatever they came in for, your oil change or your diagnostics or tire changeover. So my wife writes them all out for me, and I sign them and we mail them out. Oh, wow. A few customers that come in, it's like, "We got mail." Where like they're all excited to get mail, and they're like, "Oh, it's from Nathan's Garage." They're like, "You guys are pretty awesome." Jimmy Lea: But That Nathan Geransky: is Jimmy Lea: awesome. That's good ... Nathan Geransky: I knew it'd be a good result, but I wasn't expecting maybe that good. But our people- Nice ... were excited about that, Jimmy Lea: oh, that's very cool. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: That's very cool. I'm glad that they're responding well and Nathan Geransky: enjoying it. They put it on their fridge and everybody sees it when they come in the house. Jimmy Lea: Hey, there you go. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. I... You talk about it, it was better than you expected. What's something that you have implemented, besides the postcards that you didn't think would make a big difference and it turns out that it did? Nathan Geransky: The postcards and I guess the envelopes or they are folders. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: People like, they're always happy to get... one guy was so ecstatic about g- getting a folder. That's what started this, 'cause we gave him a black folder at first and put his stuff in there, and he's "Oh, a folder." He's "We don't get these." So ha. So I'm, I made a whole bunch, like 500 folders and with our branded on there handed to all the customers, and people are always surprised and happy. You f- hand them a folder and your keys, and they're like, "Oh, this is professional." And they're always good results in that. And they're like, "Okay, this is not just a backyard garage or an ordinary garage," right? 'Cause we started at the other place already. Yeah. So now the new place, everybody's "Okay, this is..." I think that's a- It's Jimmy Lea: legit. Nathan Geransky: Yeah, it's legit. Yeah, for sure. Jimmy Lea: Oh, good for you. In Canada they have a little bit different program with NAPA. I- in the United States you're NAPA AutoCare, and in Canada you can be an AutoCare, but then there's the next level, which is AutoPro. NAPA Nathan Geransky: AutoPro, yeah. Are Jimmy Lea: you guys an AutoPro? Nathan Geransky: We are AutoPro now, yeah. So as of January we're at AutoPro. Jimmy Lea: Congrats. Nathan Geransky: So that's been great. Yeah, so they... All their war- labor w- and parts and everything parts and labor, three years, 60,000 nationwide And they'll... If you're waiting for your part, they'll put you in a hotel, they'll pay for your towing- Jimmy Lea: Oh my Nathan Geransky: gosh ... everything else, wow. Yeah. Yeah, Jimmy Lea: that's that worry-free guarantee. Nathan Geransky: Worry-free guarantee, yeah. And for the new vehicles, there's 10 year, 100,000... 10 year, 400,000 catastrophic failure, up to $5,000. Wow. Which is a pretty phenomenal new car warranty. Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: A- and when you say new car warranty, like new to your shop or brand new 2026? What are you talking about? Nathan Geransky: New under 40,000 kilometers. Like brand new. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: Under 40,000. They have to register through you. We're supposed to do most of their oil changes, all their maintenance. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: And then if they do that, then they they get the warranty. Jimmy Lea: And did you say up to 400,000 kilometers? Nathan Geransky: Yeah, 10 year, 400,000, which is phenomenal. Holy Jimmy Lea: mackerel. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. If your transmission blows up or your motor blows up at 300,000 they'll reimburse you up to 500... Five, $5,000. $5,000? Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Oh my Nathan Geransky: gosh. Which is better than nothing. Jimmy Lea: Bro that's amazing. Yeah. That's awesome. Congratulations. I'm glad you're- Yeah ... with NAPA and NAPA Auto Pro program. They- Yeah ... they have a great program. They're gonna do you very well. Very cool. Yeah, Nathan Geransky: no, I'm pretty excited about it. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Let's talk about, It feels like I've been Nathan Geransky: starting my business all over again. Jimmy Lea: Yeah, right? Yeah. All the excitement and the energy- yeah ... that, that instills. Yeah. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Talking about you and Noah Noah's your son. He's working the front counter. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: D- how closely do you and Noah work together on your financials? Nathan Geransky: Very close, like daily So we're working it out Did you guys work with Dani on Jimmy Lea: your- Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Wow. Nathan Geransky: So we went from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online with our bookkeeper, and then so Noah kinda took over that, and we're kinda working back and forth trying to figure it all out 'cause I used to like for financials was like, "I don't wanna deal with this. Give it to the bookkeeper. Deal with it. She can deal with the accountant. I'm gonna fix cars." But realizing it's, how important it actually is, and that's what it's all about. So we need to dig into it and figure it out. I need to figure it out, which I have. Yeah. It's come a long ways, for sure. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, I, and I'll bet there's a lot of technicians out there right now that are like, "Oh my gosh, I don't wanna do the books. This is something they hate to do." That's exactly what Nathan Geransky: I didn't wanna do. Yeah. Sure. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. They, maybe they come in on a Saturday morning for a couple of hours trying to get it done. They're trying to do- Yeah ... the full week's worth of stuff. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It sounds like what you're saying is it's better to have a person who's able to do it for you if you're not the one to do it. Absolutely. Yeah. But even then, you need to have your fingers in that cookie jar. You still have to Nathan Geransky: get involved. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: You still gotta Nathan Geransky: be involved. Which that's my where I'm going now is where we always need to be involved with that. That's what I'm learning. So that's part of the- Yeah ... manager role that I'm learning to do. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's the big nemesis that you're facing. It's the big- Yeah elephant in the room. Yeah. And how do you eat an elephant? It's one bite at a time. So now you're doing it. You're in there. Yeah. You're doing- Yeah ... the steps you need to take to get to that point where you can be the manager you need to be and the owner you need to be, the owner that your business demands. And that's so important. Yeah. And you recently joined BNI. I was a member of BNI for oh, two and a half, three years when I had a landscaping, house cleaning- Okay ... handyman business. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: What have you discovered so far with BNI? Nathan Geransky: I think it's the next step. I just recently joined got inaugurated or whatever the other day, like joined their group, right? Yeah. Passed all their, You bas- have to apply for it and make sure the right fit for your chapter. So I passed all that. So yeah, I just started. I think it's a good next step for my business to become more manager mentality, and looking working for my business or on my business, I should say. So yeah, I think it's a... That's why I joined it 'cause I feel it's the next best step, and referrals, and they give you more business, at the end of it. And more- Yeah ... helping make a community out of it, so which is great. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah, you will. You'll discover quite a bit of community out of it. Yeah. What I discovered is the more I was able to come in and give, to give knowledge- Definitely, yeah ... to give information, to give understanding, to give tips and tricks and reasons why, and this is for automotive you would say, "Th- this is what a timing belt is. This is what it does, and this is why it's important for you to go to a certified, a trained, certified automotive repair shop. And by the way, that's who we are. We, this is what we do." Yeah. So for those of you who don't understand BNI, they only allow one company, one business from one vertical into the chapter. Yeah. So Nathan will be the only automotive repair guy, person in the, in that chapter. They could have a collision person. They could have a quick lube person maybe. That might be a little bit Nathan Geransky: too close. No, I think it's all automotive is different. Collision would be, yeah, they would have a collision person. They have all your lawyers and financial people and bankers and- Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yeah ... Nathan Geransky: everything is... There's 34 people in that group, so it's a pretty big- Oh, it's a big group Chapter. Yeah, a very big chapter. They've already done over a million in referred business already this year. Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Nathan Geransky: So it's a- That's phenomenal ... quite a a healthy group to be into. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Nathan Geransky: And yeah, their motto is "Givers gain," so you wanna give as much as your information, like you were saying, help them understand what their car needs, right? Jimmy Lea: Yep. Nathan Geransky: Or what's their tips of- And maintenance, big maintenance stuff, Jimmy Lea: oh, yeah. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. So I think it's gonna be good. Jimmy Lea: It's gonna be really good. Nicole's giving a shout-out here as well for BNI. It's a wonderful for their shop. And Nicole, glad you're in BNI. Congratulations, that's awesome. Yeah. One of the things that I would love to see auto repair help educate the industry is a lot of people think, "Oh, my manual says I can go 17,000 miles before I change the oil. My manual tells me I can go 10,000 miles. My manual tells me I can go 9,500 miles before I need to service the oil." That's not true. Nathan Geransky: Because so if you look in your manual too, it'll say extreme circumstances or extreme duty, which is most of our cars, especially in Canada, you have such extreme hot, cold, and everything else. You... So basically our cars are running extreme duty all the time. Jimmy Lea: All the time. Nathan Geransky: So your maintenance is a quar- like probably half of what it should be per- Jimmy Lea: Yes ... Nathan Geransky: less time- Yes ... to say, less kilometers. Jimmy Lea: Yes. Oh, for sure. My- Yeah ... my father taught me to treat my F-150, my truck, and this is the way he treated his Ford F-150. He says, "I treat it like a Honda. Every 5,000 miles I go and get it an oil change, and it's always synthetic." Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Never conventional. He was always synthetic. I did that, and I drove that truck 225,000 miles. I sold it, and to this day I really wish I still had that truck. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: It was a great truck. And man, it just kept running and running. Yeah. So yeah, the more you can help educate the industry- ... not even just the industry, but the public. The more you can help- Yeah ... educate the public as to what they need to do with their vehicles, the better it's gonna be for- Oh, absolutely. Yeah ... Nathan Geransky: for you and for repairs Jimmy Lea: too. Nathan Geransky: And that's what joining BNI, that's my goal is to help people. People are like, "I just turn the key and drive." It's you need to do more than that. Yes. Go to Quick Lube, but that doesn't do you good. What about your transmission oil or brake fluid or all this other stuff people don't think about? Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, it's- They Nathan Geransky: forgot about all those, right? Jimmy Lea: It's not the... Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So you talk about the extremes where you are in the hot and cold. Yeah. I grew up in Las Vegas. I... That was extreme hot. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: We had extreme hots. A- in fact, I would change my radiator fluid at the beginning of summer and at the end of summer because there were- Okay ... many days that we would be up there in the 110, 115 degrees, which is in the 40, 42 Celsius. Nathan Geransky: Oh. Jimmy Lea: Maybe 46 degrees Celsius. It's very hot, and I knew that radiator fluid, it probably didn't need to be done twice a year, but I did it twice a year. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Are you calculating Fahrenheit or Celsius? Sorry. Nathan Geransky: No, I'm my battery's running out. Jimmy Lea: Oh, no. Get it plugged in quick. Nathan Geransky: I'm trying. Jimmy Lea: So- ... let's talk about the future of where you're going here, Nathan, as we come in to land this plane. What does the future look like for you? Here you are a month and a half in your new location. You already need another four bays. What does the future look like for Nathan and Nathan's Garage? Nathan Geransky: Future would be, like I guess my sons would take over, Justin and Noah. And I would be more off-site, is my next plan, to be train them, which is Noah's. I'm training Noah already, or we're working together. And then Justin would be more of a leadership role. So yeah, just more, just progress along, see how it goes Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it Yeah The future is bright. It is definitely- Yeah ... bright. A lot of things happening there. So what would you say to a shop owner a- as we talk about things and go into landing this plane? What would you say to other shop owners that are on the fence about them getting coaching and training? Nathan Geransky: Coaching and training, it would be, It's changed my life, changed my business life for sure. More realizing that you need coaching is, unless you went to business school and you learned all that stuff already and then you became a mechanic. But I think from mechanic to being owner, I think now that I've done it, it's it's a no-brainer. You need to do it. And the correct coaching- Yeah ... like the guy that fits with you, right? Your, like with Chad with, he owns a shop too where you can relate. Not like some people are very schooled knowledge, right? Or like educated, which is good, but you need to be also down to earth terms, I guess you call it. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. You gotta have boots on the ground But yeah, so it's a- you've gotta be- That's right experienced it. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So l- everyone needs coaching, and you've gotta find- I would say- ... the right coach. Nathan Geransky: That's correct. Jimmy Lea: So how do you judge that right coach, Nathan? What would you give advice to let's say Nicole or Nathan or John? What would, w- advice would you give them as they're looking for a coach? Nathan Geransky: I don't know. I guess I don't know any other coaching, but sorry. This is, It's been a good fit with Chad, and yeah, it's worked out well. So I'm not sure. I've never experienced any other coaching companies or anything, but from what I've gathered and all the reviews or suggestions from the institute has been great. I think- That's awesome ... that'd be the way to go for sure. Yeah. Thank you. I'm glad you hit a grand slam here at your first go. You didn't know any other coaching companies. Yeah. I'm glad that you teamed up with us. I'm glad we were able to lock arms with you and help you navigate this industry as a business owner. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 'Cause there are a lot of other coaching and training companies, and you gotta evaluate. Would that be a match? Would that be a fit? If everything is a party we don't need to pay for our friends. No. Yeah. If everything is a joke then no, that's not what we're here for. Yeah. If everything I'm doing is not increasing my business, then you need to look at a different coaching and training company. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: And yeah I'm so glad that you found the institute when you did so that we could do the things that we've done together. Yeah ... and Chad has been a major force in driving that forward. But he's clearly and still a backup singer to you, Nathan. You are the star here. You are the star, and you have done a tremendous job. Congratulations. In fact, Yeah ... chad gave you a shout-out here a minute ago. Nathan is humble. He's becoming involved with BNI and NAPA and becoming a spokesperson for the industry, so congratulations to you, Nathan. Nathan Geransky: Oh, thank you. Jimmy Lea: A lot of people are seeing what you're doing, and- ... and it shows. It's awesome. All right, last and final question here, Nathan. What are you most excited about right now? Nathan Geransky: Just moving forward and getting fit into our new location. Just progressing, it's keep on going. Keep growing- Jimmy Lea: Progressing, building, growing Nathan Geransky: yeah, building. You learn every day, and I'm, I keep learning. It's if I'm not learning, you're not living. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Amen. Amen, brother. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Congratulations to you, Nathan. Thank you so much. Pleasure. Thank you for spending the time with me to talk about your journey and that you're experiencing. And for those of you who are listening, if your story sounds familiar to Nathan's and this is something you wanna look at, the institute, when we sign off here, there's gonna be a QR code. So get your smartphone out, get the, get ready to scan this code. We can sit down and have a conversation and see if the institute is a fit for you. There are many who- Yeah ... come to the institute and wanna make the changes, but at the end of the day, if you don't make the changes, if you don't do the work, there is no magic bullet. There is no silver bullet that's gonna make things happen. You've gotta do what Nathan did. You've gotta sit down and stick to it and go forward and make stuff happen. So Nathan- Even at first too- ... thank you Nathan Geransky: so much for joining. So- Jimmy Lea: Go ahead. Nathan Geransky: Even at first too it was like I couldn't afford the coaching. It was like, or I thought, right? But now it's like I can't afford not to, so that's where we've come to. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? And Nathan, to your point, I'll bet there's many out there that feel the exact same way. "Oh my gosh- Yeah ... I just really can't afford to do it. I can't afford to do it." And then when they do it, they're like, "Oh my gosh, why didn't I do this sooner?" Nathan Geransky: Should've done it years Jimmy Lea: ago. "I should've done this- Yeah ... years ago." Yeah. "A year ago, two years ago-" Yeah. "... three years ago." Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Congratulations. And I hear that your future is bright. In fact, it's so bright I brought my shades for you. There you Nathan Geransky: go. Jimmy Lea: Nathan, your future is bright. This is gonna be awesome. I'm so excited for you. And for everybody who's listening I love this industry. I love what we're doing. As we lock arms together, we're gonna make a big difference in the world and in the industry. So Nathan, to you, thank you very much. You're welcome. And to you listening, my friend, thank you very much. Any final words, Nathan? Nathan Geransky: Just keep on going. Jimmy Lea: Keep on going. Hey, there's a little fish that kept saying that as well. "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." You're awesome. Thank you very much, brother. Nathan Geransky: Yeah. Jimmy Lea: Take care. Look forward to talking to you soon. Everybody listening, grab out your smartphones, scan this QR code. Let's get together. Let's take those next steps in your business journey to become the shop and the business and the owner that your business demands. And with that, my name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you.

Why Most Shop Owners Stay Stuck | Jimmy Lea - Ep 16

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes Downshifts with Jimmy Lea, Vice President of Business Development at The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, to talk about the real journey of becoming a successful shop owner. Jimmy breaks down the importance of bringing value whether you’re on stage speaking or working with your team at the shop. He shares how coaching can transform not just your business but your life, giving practical advice on moving from chaos to control and learning to delegate effectively.Timestamps:00:00 Bringing Value vs Chasing the Spotlight – The Key to Longevity02:13 The Recharge Routine: Thriving as an Industry Extrovert04:04 Honing Your Craft: Speaking, Coaching, and Constant Growth06:03 Connecting with Your Audience: The Secret Sauce of Great Presenters07:45 Daily Mindset Practices for Owners & Leaders09:09 Jimmy's Journey from Call Tracking to Industry Rockstar13:43 Nailing Your Niche: How to Stand Out & Grow in the Automotive Space16:18 Why Shop Owners, Service Advisors, and Trainers All Need to Bring Value21:28 The Power of Coaching: Why You Can’t Afford To Go It Alone26:06 Technician to Owner: The Real Phases of Shop Leadership30:25 From Chaos to Control: The Blueprint for Scaling & Letting Go34:52 Delegation and Team Building – Getting Out of Your Own Way35:10 The Real Payoff: How Coaching Impacted Tonnika Haynes’ Team and Life40:06 Raising Labor Rates, Elevating the Industry & Gaining Community Respect43:00 Trade Schools, Teen Techs, and Changing Perceptions51:10 Shop Lessons vs College Degrees – Real-World Business Smarts58:07 Final Takeaways: Coaching, Mindset, and Rethinking What “Success” Looks Like

Why Shops Lose Technicians Overnight | Lisa Coyle and Kat Ayers from Promotive

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff Compton talks with Promotive’s Lisa Coyle and Kat Ayers about what’s changing in technician hiring, including their AI virtual recruiter and how it helps shops with consistency, speed-to-lead, and 24/7 candidate screening. They discuss common hiring bias, why resumes often don’t reflect real skill, how to interpret job hopping, and why following application instructions matters. The episode also covers shop culture and leadership as key retention drivers, how slow follow-up hurts candidate experience, and what Promotive is building next—expanded platform features, more automation, and plans to move into the Canadian market.Timestamps:0:00 Podcast Kickoff00:28 Fishing and Seafood Talk03:10 Bass Tournaments and Hockey06:30 What’s New at Promotive08:06 AI Recruiting Benefits11:13 Bias and Hiring Fairness20:03 Resume Gaps and Progress22:58 Following Instructions Matters24:43 Job Hopping Explained29:56 Walk-In Resumes vs Process34:35 Call Screen Limits36:23 Tagging Resumes For Future37:59 Techs Becoming Advisors42:56 Trade Shows And Outreach48:26 Cold Calls And Data52:42 Industry Negativity And AI01:00:20 Robots Costs And Culture01:06:41 Leadership Questions And Nepotism01:10:20 Multi Interview Triangulation01:12:13 Candidate Experience Matters01:16:11 Rehiring and Keeping Benches01:21:27 Job Searching Is Normal01:24:41 Legacy Over Resentment01:29:13 Plan B and Hard Questions01:32:02 What Have You Done Today01:34:14 Promotive Roadmap and Events01:37:18 Canada Expansion and Languages01:39:44 Hockey Talk and Show Circuit01:44:35 Final Thanks and Wrap Up Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 96 - Jesse Jackson | The Truth About Selling Your Shop to Private Equity

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Jesse Jackson is the CEO of Mango Automotive and knows a thing or two about scaling an auto repair business. Mainly because she scaled to 8 Figures in 3 Years. Yeah. Pretty good. She tells Mike why it's important to her to help shop owners retire comfortably, the realities of private equity buyouts, and innovative solutions like the new co-op model aimed at giving small shop owners a fairer shot at big multiples.Email Jesse - jesse@mangoautomotive.comTimestamps:00:00 Why the gap between private equity & shop owner deals matters01:01 The surprising drag bar origin of the podcast logo02:14 Jessee’s family business journey: three generations, tough choices03:29 Why Jessee hated the shop as a kid…and college “studies”04:21 Why teaching wasn’t in the cards—parenting, patience, and expectations05:57 Public vs. private school and family debates about education07:06 Trades, college alternatives & raising hands-on kids08:33 Kids figuring out life—boomerangs and avoiding $100k mistakes10:06 Official intros: Mike Allen, mother of seven, owner of eight shops10:35 Mike’s unconventional leap from environmental engineer to automotive mogul11:46 Growth secrets: from 0 to $17M in four years13:10 The ultimate session: “Growing from zero to eight figures”14:41 Acquiring shops: The stories, motivations, and the human side16:35 Shop owners and retirement dreams—how Mango is changing the game19:11 The “1 to 3 out of 100” rule—finding shops worth acquiring20:05 The evolution of Mango’s team and Jesse’s focus on marketing & acquisitions22:45 Which shops do they buy? Turnarounds vs. high performers23:10 Shattering revenue records—and a little friendly competition24:32 Can the next gen kids take over? Mike’s family talks legacy26:08 The 30-by-2030 vision: getting rolled up with equity27:01 Why the current system feels broken—and how the Mango co-op could fix it29:35 Jessee’s TechMetric ad break – Shop life made simple31:09 The real question: Is selling to PE a betrayal or a smart exit?32:06 Getting honest: Life, legacy & why helping owners matters34:43 How the Mango co-op actually works—details & process36:44 What’s next? Growth, challenges & why five years feels like a lifetime39:00 Favorite markets, new territory, and expansion goals40:29 The thrill of the shop game—and the hunt for the next big thing41:44 Want to sell your shop or join the co-op?

Stop Hiring in Panic Mode: Build a Recruiting Pipeline for Your Shop [RR 1094]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Host Carm Capriotto welcomes Chris Lawson, founder of Technician Find, to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing independent auto repair shops today: finding and keeping great technicians. Chris explains why many shop owners fall into what he calls "fire alarm syndrome," waiting until a technician leaves before starting the hiring process. That reactive approach often leads to rushed decisions, poor hires, and ongoing turnover. Instead, he advocates for an "Always Be Recruiting" mindset, where shops continuously build relationships with potential candidates long before they have an opening. The conversation explores practical strategies for becoming a destination workplace, creating a recruiting pipeline, and building a culture that attracts top talent in a competitive market. What You'll Learn Why reactive hiring creates costly staffing problemsHow to build a bench of pre-qualified technicians before you need themWhy becoming "10-mile famous" can help attract both technicians and customersHow culture-focused marketing can outperform traditional help-wanted adsThe three things technicians value most: respect, growth, and compensationWhy sign-on bonuses often fail and how to structure them more effectivelyPractical ways to engage passive candidates who are not actively job huntingResources available through Chris Lawson's free online community for shop owners The best time to recruit a technician is before you need one. Shops that continuously market their culture, build relationships with local talent, and maintain a pipeline of qualified candidates are better positioned to grow, avoid staffing emergencies, and create a workplace where top technicians want to stay. Recruiting is no longer an occasional task. It is an ongoing business strategy. Chris Lawson, TechnicianFind.Com Love your shop? Stay, but stay ready. Auto techs join to level up, find good shops, and keep tabs on top indie jobs nationwide. Techs only. No BS. Independent Wrench Jobs: https://www.skool.com/independentwrenchjobs Finding Technicians Part 1- Chris Lawson [RR 803]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e803/ Finding Technicians Part 2 – Chris Lawson [RR 816]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e816/ Technician Attraction Blueprint [RR 921]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e921/ Attract, Develop, and Retain Top Automotive Talent [CC 113]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/cc113/ Beyond Babysitters: Developing Strong Managers and Financial Transparency [RR 1076]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e1076/ Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm &nbsp; The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ <span...

Episode 271 - Training New Technicians and Building a Lasting Automotive Business With Charles Mitchell

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, listeners hear the story of a small-shop owner’s journey to purchase and grow TenPin Motors in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The conversation focused on the challenges of transitioning from technician to owner, including finding and training quality staff. A key theme that emerged was the importance of building lasting customer relationships and delivering a superior client experience to stand out in a competitive market. The discussion also explored the realities and concerns of scaling to multiple locations, highlighting industry trends toward consolidation and the difficulty of maintaining quality and culture as shops grow.00:00 Buying the dealership08:21 Discussing small town expansion plans14:49 Transitioning from technician to business management16:35 Realizing the need to plan22:32 Creating a welcoming atmosphere27:13 Adjusting Services After Technician Left35:03 Focusing on customer care in auto shops40:14 Upgrading marketing and customer service45:41 Increasing Profit While Managing Costs49:17 Planning Future Business Growth53:24 Concerns about expanding quality01:00:47 Fostering positive industry growth

When Personal Stress Walks Into the Shop: How Leaders Protect Performance [THA 487]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode Are you tired of telling your staff to “leave their problems at the door”? The reality is, what happens outside the shop often follows employees into the bays, the service counter, and every customer interaction throughout the day. Financial pressure, family struggles, burnout, stress, and emotional fatigue all impact confidence, communication, productivity, and sales performance, whether leaders recognize it or not. In this insightful episode, Rena Rennebohm, CEO of Empowered Advisor, and service advisor coach and shop owner Rachel Spencer, challenge the old-school mindset of “leave your problems at the door” and explore what modern leadership really looks like in high-performing repair shops. The strongest shops aren’t built only on process and productivity; they’re built on leaders who understand people. *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-turn-id-container="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> What You’ll Learn How personal stress impacts sales performance and customer communicationWhy technician morale directly affects advisor confidence and trustThe connection between emotional stability and shop productivityHow great leaders identify performance struggles before KPIs declineWhy empathy and accountability must work togetherThe importance of daily check-ins and emotional awarenessHow negativity spreads through shop culture and how leaders can stop itWhy “soft skills” have become essential leadership skills in auto repair When employees feel supported, understood, and valued, communication improves, confidence grows, and performance follows. This episode offers practical insights for shop owners and managers who want to protect team performance, strengthen culture, and lead more effectively in today’s high-pressure auto repair environment. Rena Rennebohm, CEO and Creator of Empowered Advisor. Rena’s previous episodes HERE. Rachel Spencer, Spencer’s Auto Repair, Krum, TX. Rachel's previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew...

Why Most Shop Owners Never Become Millionaires

Todd Hayes and Glenn Piccolo debrief a powerful weekend of training—covering Courtside, Key2Key's first Vegas event—sharing how auto hospitality, take-fives, and relentless phone skills drove record weekends and consistent growth. They discuss practical strategies for opening weekends, improving close rates, recruiting top techs, using AI and video tools, and preparing for private equity to scale service businesses. https://youtu.be/3Ob32qawL5Y autoshopanswers.com auto-shop-media.com

Ep 154: Turn Your Tragedy Into Limitless Leadership with JeanAnn SaintGrace

Boobs, Business & Building Culture That Lasts | Benjie Burris & Callie Johnson - Ep 15

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this crossover episode, Tonnika Haynes partners with Mike Allen and Confessions of a Shop Owner for a special preview of the upcoming ASTA Expo in Raleigh, NC this September. Together, they’re joined by ASTA Board Member and shop owner Benjie Burris, along with his daughter Callie Johnson, ASTA’s new Membership & Events Manager, to break down what makes the Expo such a standout event and how strong shop culture creates lasting success—both in business and beyond.The conversation explores the importance of showing up for your local community, building real and authentic relationships, and how consistent involvement and giving back have fueled long-term growth and meaningful connections. They also share firsthand experiences from past ASTA Expos, highlighting the unique, inclusive atmosphere and the way real conversations at the event can shape both careers and lives.And yes—you’ll also hear the story of how Benjie met his wife. Let’s just say it’s one of those stories you won’t see coming.Learn more about the ASTA Expo and how you can be there HERETimestamps:00:00 The funniest icebreaker ever (yes, fake boobs are involved)00:53 Live from Fueling Connections 2026 – ASTA at UTI Mooresville02:22 Audio chaos: Why your own tools matter (and how NOT to record a podcast)04:10 The rise of Downshift and the weirdness of being told “I listen to your podcast!”05:03 Social media hacks: Engagement, trolls, and managing the comment chaos09:19 A blueprint for a family-run business culture that actually works10:29 Turning community support into real shop growth (and why service matters)13:42 Small steps, big progress: Building a shop “patch by patch”14:42 The real reason community work succeeds (hint: It can’t be faked)18:25 Real talk on supporting schools, teachers, and being boots-on-the-ground22:22 Dealing with “big city” demands and setting shop boundaries23:46 ASTA’s new Membership & Events Manager shares social media tips26:53 The ASTA Expo: Networking, parties, and the least clicky vibe in the industry28:29 Conversations that change careers—and lives30:46 Competitors or community? Why ASTA shops help each other32:07 Going from local to international—how ASTA keeps its family feel36:04 Must-attend classes, what’s next for ASTA, and seriously, don’t miss the hospitality suite

Burn the Boats: AJ Nealey’s Multi-Unit Breakthrough - Bonus Zoom Episode 6

Glenn Piccolo interviews AJ Nealey about his journey from a one-bay garage to a five-store multi-unit operator in Maryland. AJ shares how Key to Key training, Rack Attack tactics, strict hiring standards, and fraud-prevention controls transformed his business, helped him stop tolerating mediocrity, and drove rapid improvement. The episode covers practical takeaways for shop owners: implement core fundamentals every day, recruit and retain A-players, use accounting controls to stop theft, and lead from the front with relentless execution to scale successfully.

Ep 153: Redefining Men’s Leadership in the 21st Century with Andrew O'Brien

Ep 94 - Coaching Call #17 | The Secret to a "Perfect" Day at the Shop

Keep shop management, payments, marketing (all the things) all in one place with Tekmetric. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Click HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing has made my life SOOO much simpler, AND they've helped keep the phone ringing. Do you need these two things too? Learn more HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2027 is coming up in February and NOW is the time to sign up. It's happening in Vegas February 4-6 and it will be the best 3 days of your shops year when you attend. Learn now HEREIn this episode, Mike and Matt talk about daily shop performance and the importance of defining what a "perfect day" looks like for the team. One concept Matt brought up was the need to move away from subjective evaluations and instead implement objective, binary metrics—like technician hours worked, appointments attended, and gross profit targets—for more effective management. One trick for shop owners is to use actionable mid-day check-ins to quickly identify and respond to potential issues, raising the floor on performance rather than merely chasing bigger highs. Timestamps:00:00 Setting the Standard: Defining a "Perfect Day" in Shop Management01:46 Upcoming AI Training Class: Why Early Adoption Means Opportunity04:13 Building the Event Calendar: Fall Shows, Course Selection & Hospitality Suite05:47 April Recap: Revenue, Profit, and Running a Leaner Team07:27 Unlocking the Numbers: ARO, Close Ratio & Tech Metric Deep Dive08:10 The DVI Dilemma: Why Process Slippage Hurts Your Bottom Line10:06 Only One-Third of Customers See Your DVI?! Here's Why That Matters12:06 Triggers for Action: When to Audit and How to Respond13:01 The "Perfect Day Plan" and Real-World Contingencies15:47 Scorecarding the Day: Checks at 10AM, 2PM, and Raising the Floor18:00 Subjective vs. Objective Reporting: What REALLY Tells the Story21:25 The Problem with Overreporting & What Data Actually Matters23:21 Real-World Action Plans: Handling Cancellations, No-Shows & Dead Days25:21 VIP Customers, Deferred Work, and Making Today Count27:01 Maximizing Opportunity: Not All Cars (or Customers) Are Equal28:35 Do You Exclude State Inspections From Your Numbers? The Truth Behind the Data30:03 Stepping Beyond Express Lube: Changing What Business You’re In32:01 Retention Rates & Why That Second Visit is GOLD35:10 Turning State Inspections into Repeat Business: The REAL Strategy40:14 Role Playing, AI in Training, and How Owners Stay Sharp42:22 Overcoming Price Objections: Getting Down to What Matters Most44:10 Fly With the Eagles & Masters Training: What’s Coming Next47:47 Hosting at ASTA Expo: Deep Dive, Hot Topics & Real Owner Conversation

From Guesswork to Process: Modern Diagnostic Strategies for Auto Repair Shops [RR 1093]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Recorded live at the 2026 TST Big Event, Carm Capriotto sits down with automotive trainer Ken Zanders to discuss the importance of ongoing technical education, building efficient diagnostic processes, and adapting to rapidly evolving vehicle technology. Ken explains why too many shops still rely on a chaotic “grocery list” approach to repairs and how a structured diagnostic strategy can dramatically improve technician efficiency, profitability, and customer trust. What You’ll Learn Why inefficient diagnostic habits directly reduce technician productivity, shop profitability, and overall earning potential.The importance of following a structured diagnostic workflow instead of guessing and replacing parts.How electronic relative compression testing with a lab scope and amperage probe can reduce diagnostic time from hours to minutes.How modern vehicle technologies like GM’s Vehicle Intelligence Platform (VIP) and Over-The-Air (OTA) updates are changing diagnostics and repair procedures.Why continuous education is no longer optional for automotive professionals working on today’s advanced vehicle systems. The biggest takeaway from this episode is that repair shops cannot afford to operate in constant chaos and guesswork. A reactive “grocery list” approach to diagnostics leads to wasted time, unnecessary parts replacement, lower profits, and poor customer outcomes. To succeed in today’s increasingly complex automotive industry, shop owners must create a year-round training strategy that helps technicians diagnose efficiently, think critically, and continuously improve their skills. Structured processes, modern testing methods, and ongoing education are no longer advantages; they are necessities for survival and growth. TST Big Event: https://tstseminars.org/ Ken Zanders, Dorman Training Don’t Base Your Success On Probability – Ken Zanders [RR 822]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e822/ Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm &nbsp; The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a...

Episode 270 - Overcoming Shop Owner Struggles: Hiring, Training, and Shop Management With Shaun Tipton

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood is joined by Shaun Tipton, who shares his 28-year journey from technician to shop owner. Shaun Tipton discusses the common pitfalls technicians face when transitioning to ownership, emphasizing the importance of understanding financials and setting fair labor rates. The conversation also highlights the critical role of workplace culture and effective leadership in building a successful, ethical shop.00:00 Advice for aspiring shop owners09:04 Understanding fair pricing for clients13:46 Recognizing the need for help15:51 Red flags in job histories24:19 Fair employee compensation discussion30:04 Balancing personal values and money32:43 Flaws in metro coaching models40:49 Switching to a single software system43:49 Benefits of using Shop-Ware48:09 Focusing on personal interests53:42 Importance of leadership in ownership59:46 Long-term life planning advice

Failing at Retirement: Building Eight Shops in Eight Years [THA 486]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-turn-id-container="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Carm Capriotto talks with Matt Curry and Judy Curry of Craftsman's Auto Care about building one of the automotive industry’s most respected multi-shop operations twice. After growing Curry’s Auto Service to 10 locations and retiring in 2013, the Currys returned to the industry with a new vision, launching eight Craftsman’s Auto Care locations in eight years. Matt shares his role as the visionary leader driving momentum and ideas, while Judy explains how operational discipline, marketing, and customer experience keep the business grounded and scalable. The conversation explores their “5 Ps” philosophy: People, Policies, Processes, Procedures, and Profits, along with their commitment to employee development, strong culture, customer transparency, and community involvement. The Currys also discuss how Digital Vehicle Inspections and an intentional customer experience helped them earn nearly 10,000 five-star Google reviews. What You’ll Learn How Matt and Judy Curry scaled multiple successful shop operationsWhy leadership balance and “staying in your lane” mattersThe “5 Ps” framework for building a strong shop cultureHow employee investment drives long-term successWhy transparency and DVIs build customer trustHow culture and customer experience fuel growth and retention Sustainable growth in automotive repair comes from more than technical expertise. It requires intentional leadership, strong systems, a healthy culture, and a commitment to both employees and customers. Matt and Judy Curry, Craftsman Auto Care, 8 locations, Virginia Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: ...

Build Your Shop, but Don’t Forget to Build a Life | Greg Buckley - Ep 14

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika and Greg Buckley talk about about the challenges and rewards of running a family business in the automotive industry. Greg shares how health struggles led to a period of self-reflection and stepping back from day-to-day shop operations, only to discover the importance of finding new purpose through nonprofit work. Tonnika also reflects on the influence of her entrepreneurial family and emphasizes the value of building strong, empowered teams—both in the shop and beyond.Timestamps:00:00 Why wait to live? Enjoying life before retirement03:05 Getting hands-off with the shop – and how that backfired04:16 Health scares, stepping back, and losing your sense of mattering06:33 Rediscovering purpose through nonprofit work08:00 The powerful impact of giving back: Charity, YMCA, Autism Delaware11:07 Letting go as a parent and a shop leader – joy and heartbreak13:10 How real leadership boosts your shop’s KPIs14:11 Building a winning team by putting people in the right positions15:04 Why Grandma was the ultimate motivational coach17:16 Family hustle: Lessons from generations of business legacy20:05 Getting fired by your own family (and other shop stories!)24:31 When growth brings new problems (and how to solve them)26:02 The fine line between great service and setting boundaries with customers29:32 The heartbreak and lessons of closing the family shop31:42 Wild shop promos: Parties, hot dog carts, and building community33:56 The secret: Leading with empathy, not the iron fist35:28 Making work really work for your team (4-day weeks & real life outside the shop)36:33 Empowering your team to thrive and need you less38:08 Rebuilding your social circle and connections in the digital age42:15 The importance of “entering the room” even when you doubt yourself46:07 Why representation matters in the industry and mentoring the next generation48:58 Playing the long game: Using your voice for good55:52 Finding your passion outside the shop – and how to get started59:05 How to finish strong – and live out loud, guns blazing

206 - Part 2: Using AI in Your Shop to Increase Performance

206 - Part 2: Using AI in Your Shop to Increase Performance May 20th, 2026 - 00:56:24 Show Summary: John Seitzer returns to break down how automotive shops can use agentic AI to improve efficiency and save time. He explains the difference between basic AI tools and systems that can actively perform work inside your computer. The conversation covers organizing files, creating customer drop off envelopes, building social media campaigns, and automating repetitive tasks using skills and projects. John also explains the importance of oversight and why AI still needs human direction. Shop owners will walk away with practical examples they can start applying immediately.   Host(s): Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development   Guest(s): Jonathan Seitzer, Owner, Dempsey’s Service Center   Show Highlights: [00:00:36] – AI tools are spreading fast across automotive repair shops [00:03:28] – John explains the three ways he uses AI daily [00:05:07] – Agentic AI gives AI systems arms and legs to work [00:06:20] – AI projects require time money and constant supervision [00:10:42] – Claude organizes an entire messy downloads folder automatically [00:16:11] – Shops can redesign drop off envelopes using AI tools [00:21:12] – QR code envelopes reduce overnight key drop confusion [00:24:05] – AI creates social media campaigns with branded shop content [00:28:27] – Skills automate repeatable daily tasks inside Claude [00:43:48] – AI works like an eager intern and still needs oversight     In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode. 👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bAchtVE0Klo   Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!   Links & Resources:  Want to learn more? Click Here Want a complimentary business health report? Click Here See The Institute's events list: Click Here Want access to our online classes? Click Here ________________________________________ Episode Transcript Disclaimer This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.   Episode Transcript: Jimmy Lea: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, my friends. It is good to see you again this day. Glad that we're able to join together and have this conversation. AI is taking over. No, not really taking over, but good night, it is spreading like wildfire. We gonna have a great conversation here today. This is part two of our conversation with John. This is gonna be awesome. But before we get into that conversation, I want you to understand, this is an interactive conversation between you and me and John. So to make sure everybody knows how to put in the comments into the comment section, we're live streaming on YouTube and Facebook and StreamYard, so I wanna make sure you know how to put in those comments. Go into the comment section, type in your shop name, your city and state. We'll give you a shout-out here for everybody that's on the live event. Get in there and get it done quickly 'cause it goes fast. It goes fast. So let us know where you are joining us from today. A La Part Deluxe. A La Part Deluxe. Tom, what is A La Part Deluxe? Is that the name of your shar- shop? That's awesome. And John's joining us from the surface of the sun. Oh, you're so funny, John. John is our guest that's joining us today. So those of you who are with us live, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your support. I, I hope we provide for you some awesome information. Sid joining from German Tech Motorworks in Louisville, Kentucky. Glad you are here, Sid. So glad you're here. In fact, we're gonna be in an event in Kentucky, hopefully in September, October, something like that. More details to come later. Go to our website, wearetheinstitute.com/events. You can see all of the events that are there and ready for you to come and join us as we travel all across North America, bringing valuable information to you as shop owners. Oh, and Peggy Belt, High Street Auto Repair, Jefferson City, Missouri. Peggy, so glad you are here. Thank you very much. Glad you are here. All right, let's jump into this. We're talking to John from the surface of the sun about artificial intelligence, and specifically today, we're gonna jump into that closed loop learning AI system of Claude. Is that your favorite to work on, John? Or- Jon Seitzer: Yeah, it's mine of choice for right now. When it comes to agentic AI, Claude is my agent of choice. In-browser it tends to be Gemini, but that's 'cause I'm a Chrome user. Jimmy Lea: Yes. Now I've been an, a recent adapter of Gemini in all things that I'm doing in Chrome and in email 'cause I have a Gmail account. And then Claude is my nemesis. I've been on it now for two months, and I tell you, I wanna just throttle it because I'm running out of credits way too fast. Jon Seitzer: That's, so that's interesting. I- I'd be interested to see what you're doing. We'll- ... I'll get into that in just a few slides here about what goes into agentic AI and how- Yeah ... it's different from some of the stuff we talked about in the last one. Jimmy Lea: Oh, this is gonna be awesome. I'm super excited. John, the floor is yours, brother. I'm so excited to sit at your feet and learn. Let's get into this. Jon Seitzer: Awesome. Welcome back to those of you who made the first one, and welcome to those of you just tuning in. My name's John Seitzler, owner of Dempsey Service Center here in Newark, Delaware. Prior to this, though, I spent 15 years on Wall Street working in technology and specifically delivering AI products as far back as 2019 back when it was just called machine learning. So I'm gonna put up my presentation, and we'll talk about today's topic which is agentic AI, which is just one of the last things I did before I became a shop owner, was introducing an agentic AI product into the market back where I used to work. All right. So quick recap. There are three ways I use AI, and it is rent it, I feed it, and I put it to work. Rent it is when I use AI in the tools I already pay for, like the AI in QuickBooks, in Microsoft Excel, in my shop management tool. That's AI you basically get with your subscription. And it is the easiest way to use AI, and it delivers some of the best quality of life wins. Number two is feed it. Take your tools that generate data, put that data into your large language model of choice, be it Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude or an open source model if you're really into this kind of stuff. And then look for insights. What can AI tell you? What can what can you learn from something that can get through the data quickly that might have taken you a long time and a lot of elbow grease analysis to figure out? And we did a few example of those around revenue insights. Today we're gonna talk about the third one. This is putting your AI to work. So put it to work. This is agentic AI. So we, you hear a lot of different terminologies and terms thrown out, and I'll do what I can to explain to some of these. If you think of AI or an LLM, think of that like the brain. An agent or an agentic harness is giving that brain arms and legs. It's instead of you bringing stuff and loading it into your eye, your AI, it is sending your AI out to data with a job to do and giving it the space to do that job. So it is... it's AI that works for you. It works on your computer, in your files, in your applications, which brings a certain level of risk. So there's a, there's a few steps you're gonna wanna take when you're starting to run these things just to... You don't wanna let an AI go running buck wild on your computer. Today is going to be mostly a live demo. I'm gonna run through a few different scenarios, some things I've done to use AI to improve things at my shop. And as I said last time, AI is not deterministic. Deterministic is if I do A, B happens, like flipping a switch for your light. The switch- the light goes on, the light goes off. It happens every time. AI is probabilistic. And what do I mean by probabilistic? Probabilistic is if Jimmy was to say, "Hey, John," I could say, "Hi" or, "Hey, Jimmy," or, "Hey, what's up?" That's probabilistic. There is no set response to a greeting. And you can actually do this with your AI to prove this. Go into ChatGPT and just type hi and see what it says, and then open a new one and do it again and see what it says. My guess is you're not gonna get two of the same responses. Let's do a few reality checks before we really get into this because these are very important things to understand. This tier of putting your agent to work, it is going to cost you. It is going to cost you in money and it is going to cost you in time. Why? Because in many cases you are accessing tools that are third-party tools that are not built inside of your agent, so probably these extra tools come with some level of a subscription and it is also going to cost you in time. N- you don't know it when you're doing this, but what we're doing when we're interacting with things like Claude Code and Claude Cowork is you're following many of the same processes a software engineer follows. You're building a folder on your computer and you're pointing your tool at it and you're working inside of your folder. That's how every computer application you use gets started. It starts as a project on a software engineer's laptop somewhere and this is no different. This is just a little more user-friendly version of it than my old software engineers used to have to do. So understand This isn't something where you just set, forget, and off it goes and life is easier. Especially at the start, you're going to have to put in the time, you're going to have to put in the work, you're going to have to babysit it a lot, and you're gonna have to be ready to spend a little bit of money to, to get moving. But once things are moving you'd be shocked at how how fast the efficiency gains start to stand up to s- stack up for you. Other thing to understand, this is what I use. And this might be important as well. First off, my computer is a MacBook, so I am... When you see all this, I am working on a Mac. A lot of developers work on Macs and when it comes to some of these programs like ChatGPT and Claude their desktop applications, Cowork and ChatGPT has its own desktop tool, they came out on the Mac first. I'm guessing that is because most of their developers are Macintosh. I know Claude Cowork has a Windows app now. I haven't used it but be aware that probably when new features are released, they're going to release for the Mac first and then flow to Windows. My LLM of choice is Claude, and my agent harness is Claude Cowork or Claude Code. I say agent harness 'cause this is literally a thing you're going to download onto your computer. It's a computer program. Claude Code, Claude Cowork. I believe OpenAI's is called Codex. Or there is a thing I think called the ChatGPT app. So this is a, these are apps that work on your machine. And then as always, if you have any questions or are looking for any type of support feel free, you can find me on Facebook or LinkedIn, you can send me an email. I'm always happy to chat AI with folks as we or as you start to learn these tools. But that said, that's my little spiel. We now have a little bit of time to work off on our demo. Let's start here. Like I said, the... This is my desktop. It's my MacBook Pro, one of my monitors. I- the first thing you should do when you're doing one of these tools, and real quick... Not that. This is the tool. This is Claude Cowork or Claude Code. This is the desktop app that I download to interact with Claude, and you'll see it's got three different modes. Chat, so if I do this, right? This is just what, like what it looks like on the on the website. You can chat with it. CoWork is where you start to use this to work in a place on your machine. And then Claude Code is the more advanced version of this. So today, we're primarily gonna be working in CoWork. Now, when you set up CoWork and you download this onto your machine and it is the same with any type of agent harness that you would get from OpenAI or anywhere else, you want to sequester it. This thing can, if you gave it full access to your machine, right? It's gonna tell you to... If you wanna work in a folder. If I was to do this and just give it access to my entire computer it... I could do that. I could let it go wherever. But understand, this thing is going to work in your computer the same way you do. That means it can delete files. That means it can change things. So what you want to do, and what I do anytime I set one of these up, is I set up a folder and I limit Claude to that folder. This is where you can work, and if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna have it do anything, I'm gonna make sure all of the things it needs to do its job are here, and it can go nowhere else, so it can't delete anything else on my computer. In this case I've set up a special one just for this this demo today. But let's work outside of it for just a moment, and let me show you what I mean by when I say your compu- this thing works on your computer and does stuff on your computer. I bet you this is a problem every single person on this call has. This is my downloads folder. This is every single thing, like when I'm browsing online and I have to download something, it all comes here, and there's a zillion things in it, and it's disorganized, and it's hard to find stuff, and I'm usually searching something. So let's make the first thing we ask Claude to do, and this is something any of you can do, pop in here and go "My downloads folder is really disorganized. Can you organize it for me?" And here we go. And it's gonna start to think, and now you can see it's gonna start running through here and, yep, it's gonna look at it, and then it's gonna start asking me questions about how I think it should be organized. 130 items. Shockingly, documents for my my shop. And it's gonna start asking quest- So how do I want th- it? So Claude is really good at doing this, asking you what you want. Let's go by category. If there are duplicates, put duplicates in their own. Put them in the categories, and off it goes. And it's gonna think for a little bit. And you may actually be able to see If we do this, downloads. Not yet, so it's gonna start thinking, but pretty quick here you're gonna start to see this folder change. Now again, all of you have a downloads folder on your computer. Any one of you can do something like this, and this is just to show exactly what it's doing. I'm letting it work in my computer. Here back in Claude World you can see it's running a bunch of commands and continuing to think. Thinking, thinking, thinking. And again as Jimmy said earlier if you have questions, if you're if you're running into any issues or if there's anything I can explain a little bit bre- better. Yes, Jimmy? Jimmy Lea: Okay, so question. First of all, rookie, only 130 in your downloads folder? Oh my gosh. Jon Seitzer: I, I- I have- ... organized it. It's- Oh ... my downloads folder's been organized for months. I disorganized it for this webinar. Jimmy Lea: Thank you for doing that. I feel much better now. All right to my next question. You're organizing your downloads. It's going by categories. I got that. Is it... Are you also giving it the ability to rename? It's not gonna rename it, is it? Or can it? Jon Seitzer: It could if I told it to. Oh, gosh. Okay. I've done that with, So every day I have a stack of parts invoices, and the parts guy leaves me a piece of paper. Every day I take all of those parts invoices, I scan them they go into a folder in my Google Drive, and then once a month I will send Claude in there and say, "Look at every single one of these, and title, and give them this naming convention." So it's like parts invoice, date, month, day, year. Huh. Jimmy Lea: And it'll grab the month, day, year off of the invoice number in that way? It'll, yeah, Jon Seitzer: It'll read the invoices. 'Cause, because I do it every day, the invoices are typically the date on them is all the same anyway. Yep. And yeah, it'll, It just, it does it for me. But it'll, it does what you ask. The only thing I asked it to do was organize the folder. Yeah. So all that's going to organize the folder, and it's gonna follow the, these three rules we set as it was asking me the questions. Jimmy Lea: Okay. So I really need your help on this download thing, because I have way o- way more than 130. Jon Seitzer: That's the beauty of AI. Yeah. It doesn't care how many you've got. Yeah. Jimmy Lea: All right. All right, brother. Jon Seitzer: All right. So as this is as this is working, we can potentially jump into another- One of our demos here, and I think this was a mistake I made. I'm using way more model than is necessary, so this thing's thinking really hard about how to do a really easy task. All so let's do a fun one. Who here has... Tell- in the chat, tell me if you recognize this, if you have one of these but with your shop on it. This is a nine by six drop-off envelope that I that we keep in front of the shop. A customer has to fill out all of this stuff, write what they want, sign it, throw the keys in, throw it through the throw it into the drop-off slot. And then in the morning we come in, open the envelopes, get cars checked in. Now, I hope this isn't unique to me, because I have lots of customers that see all of this stuff that we're asking them to fill out and read and go, "No." And then they just throw their keys in the box, and we get to go on a bit of a hunt every morning to match keys to cars for overnight drop-offs. So I thought to myself, I bet you there's a better way to present this information to customers, especially because I use Auto Ops, like I'm sure many folks out there do, and Auto Ops gives you QR codes that allow customers to do this do the booking and check-in from their phone. So let's see if we can't come up with a better envelope than this one. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna go into Cowork. I am going to pick a different folder, right? So I'm gonna go Desktop, Demo, Drop Off Envelope. So now I'm telling it, "This is where I want you to work. This is where all the things I want you, Claude, to start to think about are," and I'm gonna tell it that folder. I'm gonna tell it's allowed to make changes to the things in that folder, and then I'm gonna give it I'm gonna tell it what I'm trying to do. And I've got a... if you weren't on the last one, I have a tool that allows me to just talk into my computer, and it types for me. That way you guys don't have to watch me hunt and peck and misspell things. In this folder, you'll find a picture of my customer's drop-off envelope. I want to come up with a better way to have customers give this information to me, and I want to utilize the QR code that I've also put in the folder- so they can, instead of having to fill anything out, they can simply put their keys in the folder scan the QR code with their phone, and then book their service through their phone so they're not standing outside in a cold parking lot trying to fill out an envelope in the dark. Can you read the envelope and then suggest an alternative that incorporates the important data elements of the envelope, but also has the QR code featured prominently and gives customers the choice of either using the QR code or filling out the envelope before they put their keys in it and put it into our car drop-off? So this is what I've done. I've given it exactly the tools that I want it to use. I've told it where all of the information is, and now we put it to work. So it's gonna start thinking. Meanwhile, our downloads folder has been organized. Oh, it found 195 items organized into 10 topics folders. Let's see. There we go. Downloads organized, right? Personal stuff duplicates, miscellaneous. We got stuff from vendors and, in X number of minutes everything is set and ready to go. Meanwhile... All right, so it's looking at the folder. It's looking at the QR code. It's recognized what it is. And also if we look back into the folder, so this is where I talk about some work you have to do, at the start, right? When it comes to this AI demo, I needed to make sure there was a folder for it, and everything I wanted to use was in the folder. So in this case, I had the QR code, I had the logo and then I also have my the picture of the envelope from before. We're gonna have a couple of questions. This is a nine by six envelope. I'm gonna say tighten the wording on the legal thing. Let's just go one color because I only have a black and white printer, and now it's going to think. And then at the end of this, what it should output to is a Word document that I could that would end with me being able to buy, at a much cheaper price by the way, a 9x6 envelope that I can then just stick on my printer and as needed, print out car drop-off forms. And while it thinks I'll say I know this is going to work because these are what our envelope forms look like now, right? We've got this, we've got our QR code, we've got all the important details if the customer wants to fill everything out, and a place for them to sign. And this is something we've been using for a while, and I have had all sorts of success and a lot less wild goose chases of me walking around the parking lot beeping a key trying to play match the car. Which is good, especially because, you think, "Okay, how bad is the problem or how bad is that as a problem really?" If you have a lot of fleet customers that have a lot of Ford Express transit vans, you know- They all look the same ... I have two, I have one customer that has two of the exact same kind of vans having two of the exact same kind of surface with two of the exact same key chains on the van 'cause they're corporate vans. Jimmy Lea: That's wild. Okay, so I have a question for you. And I know you're using Claude. Why do you prefer Claude over, say a ChatGPT? Jon Seitzer: So Claude came out with their the CoWork- ... program first. So what Claude first came to market with was something called Code, which is this, which- Super advanced su- it is, yeah. Really the irony here is CoWork is just Claude Code with a fancy UI to make it a little more user friendly. They do- Okay ... they both do exactly the same things, and I, honestly, once you start to get more familiar with Claude Code or CoWork and are more comfortable with it- Yeah switching over to Code is not, it's not a hard thing. Huh. Now it's totally different than Claude... There's two different types of Claude Code. There's Claude Code in the app, right? So they just put this in. It us- this used to just be chat and CoWork. Code used to live here in the terminal. Oh, God. And that was where it was very, you had to this was, you had to learn special commands to find your folder path names, do all this stuff. Yeah. Now we can use Claude Code inside of here, we can get all the benefits of it. But CoWork is just, it's a little more user friendly. You get things like this. Your pro- your, your progress tells you all the things it's doing- ... any additional context. All of the things as it's as it's kinda like working through it. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Very cool. Jon Seitzer: T-, so while we're doing that, how about we jump to get another demo started? So we're gonna go back to the desktop, back to the demo. Okay, let's do a fun one. All right. Social media post. Now I wrote that I was coming from the surface of the sun. Those of you ear- here on the East Coast agree with me, it's been very hot over the last several days. Let's say I've decided I want to run a special to try and juice some AC job sales and I'm going to promote it on social media and I'm gonna use a, an adorable picture of my dog. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna go to Death AI demo. So I'm telling Claude again, we're selecting our folder, right? Social media post. All right. Always allow. So this, so you know, so this is the image I'm going to use. Inside here I've got a folder called agent output. I'm gonna tell Claude to put anything it creates here. And then I've got this, which is my brand assets folder. Because we're working in social media, I'm, want to make sure Claude is writing in the voice I tell it to, so I'm also giving it a number of our brand assets and letting it have access to those in the event it decides it, it wants to use that. The next step this is where we talked about earlier, talking about extra spend when it comes to this stuff. So we're not just gonna have Claude generate an image, 'cause Claude can't. Claude doesn't actually generate images. ChatGPT and Gemini both have that feature. Claude is pretty much text only right now. So we're going to, we're gonna connect a couple of different tools to this. We're going to probably use Canva for it to take the picture of my dog and modify it, and then we'll use a tool called Blotato to schedule it to do the social media post. But let's start by telling Claude what we're trying to do. I want to increase some AC check sales at my auto shop, and I want to run a special promoting AC services on my Instagram. I want this to be a lighthearted and fun Instagram post, so what I'd like you to do is take the picture that I have in this folder of my dogs- And I would like you to take that picture and add a cartoon thought bubble with an ice cream cone in it. Once the picture is created, I want to post that to Instagram, scheduling it to run on Friday of this week, and the text copy in the Instagram post should read something like, "We know it's hot, and we want to encourage everyone to get their AC checked by offering a cool treat. Schedule an AC check between now and Friday, and you'll get a $20 gift card to our favorite ice cream shop, Dempsey's Ice Cream, in Newark, Delaware." Ask any questions that you need before starting, and put all of your outputs in the agent output folder in the social media post folder. All right. So this one's gonna probably take a few, but it's a pretty complex thing. I'm telling it I want it to create a picture, to post that picture to Instagram, and to use all the relevant the relevant copy, hashtags, all that stuff. So we sh- I still have to run through that. All Jimmy Lea: right. So while this is processing, did you hit the button? Are we going? Not yet. Not yet, okay. I was Jon Seitzer: gonna add something to the thing real quick. Jimmy Lea: Okay. Jon Seitzer: You add. Oops. Make sure you follow the brand voice guidelines in the Instagram post. All right, and away we go. Jimmy Lea: Okay, and the wheels are turning. Okay, so here's a question coming in from from Sheila Costa with Marin Auto out in Fairfax, California. I know Claude Work is super powerful, and I've been experimenting with it a little. Time may not be enough, but I wanna talk about how skills work in a practical way in our shops. Or do we need a part three to do that, John? We don't Jon Seitzer: need a part three to do that. I can quickly go through skills. So Claude has two different things, projects, here, and skills. And skills you can see customized here in the customize bank. So skills are they are... If you have a task you do a lot and it always follows the same step, creating a skill in Claude Cowork is a great way to give Claude the ability to go and run that skill without having to tell it every single time, "Do this." Now for those of you who were in the last chat, I talked about how I have a number of newsletters that get turned into a podcast for me every single day. Well- To do that, I created a skill called Daily Brief. The skill will load here, but basically what you wind up doing is you create a set of product project instructions for the skill and then it loads in here. And then if I was to go back into Cowork and do a new task, Please create my afternoon brief. And it'll start doing that for me too. So that is a skill. Skill is a repeatable task that you can teach to Claude, and it will give you the ability to run that task in a simple set of words. In this case, anytime I say, "Please create a daily brief, brief me," it, it picks up the context, and it starts to spit out the skills. And now what it's going to start doing is it's gonna go into my email, it's gonna look for my newsletters folder, it's gonna read all the newsletters, and then it's gonna spit out basically a script that I'll load into a different tool. Jimmy Lea: How does it know to go into your emails to get all the email? Jon Seitzer: It's in the sc- it's in the skill. So the- So you Jimmy Lea: taught it to do that from the beginning? Jon Seitzer: Yes. When you're setting up Claude, we start talking about the connectors right here in the customized menu. Yeah. So you can see these are all the things I have Claude connected to. So in this case, it's connected to my Gmail. So I've got another skill that I run in the mornings called Check In, and it will check... it'll go through my emails, it'll tell it'll try and, it'll try and rag state them for me. "Okay, here's important with action items. Here's something you might not have to worry about. Here's spam or something you don't have to worry about." I've also got a task list it reads the emails, and I can move things onto and off of my task list and things like that, just to try and, again, buy back minutes, right? I've got X number of minutes of the day. If something can summarize my email and tell me what's important and I don't have to sift through 30 of them, that's how we go. Jimmy Lea: Okay. Jon Seitzer: So when we talked about, earlier when I said that, there are a number of it costs money, right? I use because we're also a Fisher snowplow distributor- Yeah ... I use a tool called Apollo to help me keep on top of people in the area, businesses, that might be good snowplow sales customers, right? Landscapers that offer snow removal service school districts, government entities. So I'm, so Apollo lets me look for people with certain job titles in my specific area. I use Canva here. We should actually go back and see- How some of our projects are doing. So the newsletter, so here you go. All right, how- let's see what it came up with for our drop off envelope. So not exact- so it's not exactly what I would like, right? So it basically did a nine by six, but it would have me printing on both sides of the envelope. In this case, probably I didn't do a good enough job in, in prompting it. I can ask it. So here's what I'll do. I like the style, but can you modify it so that it is only on one side of the envelope, since I can't print on both sides of an envelope, and so it's in portrait instead of landscape? If you need to lose some of the legal disclaimer or data elements, then I'm okay with getting rid of some of them if it... to make everything fit. So we're gonna go back to there. All right, here we go. Oh this wants a list of things to do. Dog picture, agent output. So it this, when we talked about last thing about memory, right? It remembers that a chocolate lab is our mascot. So it's thinking. So I'm just, I'm gonna... Typically I can just say yes. Yes, use this photo. I didn't mean to say dogs. It should have only been a singular dog. I'm gonna say 5:00 PM, because I'm not actually gonna post this, because I'm not actually going to. Call the shop. Polish it to the brand voice. All right, and it's gonna get back to work. Meanwhile it's mad 'cause the newsletters are large. Still thinking. One face portrait. Yep, so we're gonna try again, and then we're going caption. And it's thinking again. Now, now, You can see we're running three pretty process-heavy things at the same time, and I could run as many of these, a- as I can do. But worth mentioning, again, I'm on a specific plan. This is the max plan. And this is costing me in usage. So let's see where we are. So this current session, I'm at about 10% of my usage. So I think- Jimmy Lea: How are you not running out of tokens? ' Jon Seitzer: Cause I spend a lot of money on tokens. Okay. So there are a few different there are a few different plans when it comes to Claude. There is the 20 d- there's a free plan, obviously. There's a $20 a month plan that has a certain amount of usage. There's, I believe, then $100 a month plan, and then there's a $200 a month plan. Because I do coding and stuff in my spare time, and I'm building other stuff, it just makes the most sense for me to spend the $200 a month. But to everybody on the call, I spend $200 a month on Claude because I get $200 worth of value, from Claude. N- there, in no circumstances should you be doing that if the, you're gonna use it once or twice a week or a few different times a month to try and do some extra stuff. I always say start at the lowest tier you can and see where you hit your limits. Yeah. And if you're hitting the limits, jump up one tier and go until you hit that limit. Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. I really want you to look at what I'm doing, 'cause I'm running out of tokens every time I run a cycle. It runs out within two, two and a half hours, and I have to wait- Oh, yeah ... for another two- Yeah ... two and a half hours for it to kick back in and keep going again. So- All right. So here's what we're doing. We'll have to talk. I'm gonna take you up. I'm gonna take you up on that half-hour conversation. Jon Seitzer: It is here, and I am here for you. But, hey, look at this. Ooh, I actually like this one more than I like the one that I came up with the first time. So here we are, a 9x6 envelope. Nice. People can scan. They can give that. And then yeah. So again, what did I... What do I get out of this? One, I can buy envelopes and print them. Yeah. The envelopes that I print are, they're my envelopes with my logo and my QR code, and I'm not beholden to a printing company that is gonna charge me, several hundred dollars to custom print- Custom print me an envelope when the only thing they're doing is putting my shop's name on it, and everything else is ex- the exact same every other shop gets. So this is something that now has made my shop unique. Jimmy Lea: John, that's awesome. And I do agree. I like this envelope. This looks very good. It's easily usable, something that everybody can jump in and start using. Still thinking on that. Is that the skills running, or which one did you jump into? Jon Seitzer: Oh, so this is... So this, now what it's doing so now it's going into, So this is multiple tasks, right? So now I'm guessing it's going into Canva. It's looking at my brand. Save to my a- so here we go, it just finished my picture. Okay, so this is the o- AI will also check your work, so when you're doing a f- if you're doing something fun like a cool webinar for all of your new shop friends, if you, and you say something contradictory like you're gonna run a special from today to Friday, but you're not gonna post about it till Friday- AI's gonna call you out about it. Are you Jimmy Lea: sure Jon Seitzer: you wanna run it till Friday? Yeah, you know what? We'll run it till next Friday. AI doesn't need to know. But- Yeah ... we can jump into the thing. So here's our envelope. AI demo. We're doing the social media post, agent output. What do we got? Oh, that's really good. I like that. Oh, that's really good. I don't know if it's gonna fit on Instagram, but, we'll see. And now off it will run through Friday. Caption now. Saving it to the agent output folder. So now y- again we're chaining a number. You can see here, right? We're running through a number of different a number of different tasks. So it's now done that. It's written the Instagram. Here's the c- promo caption. "It's heating up in Newark, and somebody at the shop already has summer on the brain. We know nobody loves thinking about car care when the weather is this nice, so we figured we'd make it worth your while with a cool treat. Bring your vehicle in for an AC check now between Friday, May 29th. We'll send you home with a $20 gift card to one of our favorite shops in town, Dempsey's Ice Cream," which does not exist. A quick check. So there we go, and now we've got... now I've got this, and now it's going to go into my other tool, Blotato, which manages my social media for me and does all of my, it does all of my scheduling, right? So for me it's important obviously having a social presence is important. I don't have a lot of time so what I do every month is I build a calendar of, what I want posted to Facebook, posted to Instagram. I then have the AI go out and generate based on the calendar, and then it schedules the posts for me via this tool called Blotato. Oh, still doing this. Ooh, boy. Yeah, the afternoon brief is still running It's a big Jimmy Lea: day. Big news day. Jon Seitzer: It is. This is another... So this is also, this is a danger of AI and especially working in Claude, which tends to push a lot of updates. So this never used to take this long. When it came to my daily brief, it would just run, summarize, create the script, and Claude pushed an update a couple of days ago, and suddenly suddenly every AC run is a fight. But yep, so here's my here's my folder, right? So it's my daily brief. It's written to all of the things, starting with politics, economy markets, and basketball stuff 'cause I'm a big NBA guy. But yeah, now it's in here. Now it's in there in a folder. And what I would do is I would drag and drop it into a different tool that I use, and it would spit out a podcast wr- that for me to listen to on the drive home. But that's- Oh, I love it ... but that's the skill thing, right? The steps are always the same. Go to my email, go to a specific folder in my email, read every newsletter in the folder, summarize it following this script or f- this script architecture, spit out the, create a text file because the tool only takes text files, and it's the same thing every time. So that's the perfect type of thing f- that running a s- or doing a skill would help you with 'cause it's the same thing every time. Create a skill, and now you don't have to give it all those steps every single time. You can just say, "Create my brief," and off it goes. So there's- Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Let's see. Blotato's upload. I can't push the image. Oh, no. Okay, so here's where... So every now and then we're gonna run into an issue. In this case, Blotato would probably prefer I use their tool to generate a picture of a dog thinking about an ice cream cone. It doesn't want me to push my own image. We'll see if we'll see if it can figure out a way around it. Yep, it's gonna use a different one than I use, potentially, Cloudinary. But yeah, we'll continue to let that think, and what's our next demo? W- while we do this, Jimmy, are there any other questions that anyone has I can answer for them? No, Jimmy Lea: man, a- and I agr- I appreciate you saying that. If there are questions, type them into the comments box. Let's ask John. Sheila, you had some great questions there about skills and projects and what's the difference between the two and how can we utilize them in the shop. I, this is a s- fabulous way of using AI technology. And the, what so I just recently went to an AI- conference, an AI trade show, and it was huge. It was amazing. And in this they were saying, "Oh just let AI do it. Just let AI do it." No. Nay. Oh. There's a caution here. There has to be human interaction. There has to be human oversight. 'Cause if you just let AI do it, there are errors. It's gonna make mistakes. And like any good employee, you've gotta monitor and make sure that they're giving you and doing the right things for your business, for your outcomes, for whatever it is that you're trying to develop or do. Th- those prompts that you're giving it, it's g- that's where the magic happens. Jon Seitzer: It is, and let me build on that by saying, so when at my last job, I worked with a gentleman named Han Lee. He's absolutely brilliant. And he was a manager of our software engineering team, and this is a couple years ago as these AI agents are really starting to move into the mainstream. And they started with coding agents, so agents designed to help software engineers write code. I sat in with Han as he was giving a presentation to his software engineering team about how to use some of these agents. And this agent, which was, I believe, GitHub's agent, the whole point of it is to help your software engineers write code, 'cause they have to write a lot of code. But and he was using it to... When you're a software engineer, you write code, and then you have to test your code. So you, not only do you write your code, you write tests for how to test your code. They're called unit tests. So he was showing the the software engineers how to use the AI to write your unit tests, 'cause that's one of the most kind of mind-numbing parts of being a software engineer. You're not writing cool code. You're writing unit tests for the code you already wrote. And so he was showing them how to do that, and, y- just like this, right? It's chewing through all these unit tests and spitting them out. And one of the software engineers on the team went, "Wow, it's like having a, my own intern." And with immediately Jimmy shoots back, "Yes, and it's about as dumb as an intern." Meaning and that's like- You gotta check the work ... check the work. Yes. The AI it's eager like an intern too. It's eager and helpful, and it wants to do the best job it can. But oh boy, does sometimes it... i- in the last webinar we did, right? Yeah. It wanted to know what my Mustang's mileage was, and it just didn't have it, so it decided 224,000 miles seemed like a good number. Yeah. And that's what it told us. "Oh, this M- Mustang has 224,000 miles on it." So yeah just give it to AI? N- no. But give it to AI and double-check it and babysit it and give it the right instructions and stuff like that? Man, it's great. It's the envelope itself, right? The envelope- That's a really cool envelope and, it's a dumb thing to be excited about, but, hey, I have a unique envelope. And I didn't have to think about everything it would take you to do to build that envelope. Oh, it- Who wants to learn how to use Photoshop? Jimmy Lea: It would've taken me hours, John. I'm gonna be quite honest. Three to four hours for me to create that envelope. The layout, make sure it's lined up, make sure it works, make sure it has all the information in all the spots. I... Two to three hours. Probably four because I really don't know Photoshop at all. Yeah. And yeah, you were able to create that really quickly. Jon Seitzer: Let's do another one here. Okay, so- Jimmy Lea: It looks like this might be our last one that we're gonna be able to do today. Oh, Jon Seitzer: whoa, you're right. It's actually... So yeah, let's... 'Cause this one would take a bunch of time as well. So yeah, this is still gonna run. I have no idea what's, what it's going to do. But I guess the next piece I would let everybody know is when you're using something like this, when you're using connectors, hitting this will allow you to browse, and you can look for the various tools you use to see if they have connectors into Claude Code that would allow you to connect your t- your tool the same way I've connected Gmail, my calendar Asana, and some of my other services. Here you can see, right? I can pull a P&L out of QuickBooks. I can... The the, What was it? The presentation you saw at the start of this that I've done for two things now, that was created in Canva talking to Claude. Nice. Nice ... feel free to, to explore this. I would also recommend, A lot of my learning in Cowork has been off of a YouTube channel by a gentleman named Elliot Prince. It's not one-to-one 'cause he's a software consultant and he's not a shop owner, but for a good explainer of things like skills and projects and the difference between chat and code in Cowork and how to get everything set up that's really good. It's free. He's not trying to sell you anything. If you want extra stuff on YouTube, there's a lot there. Yeah. Just try to avoid the hype masters on YouTube and find people that are grounded, and you can get a lot of value out of this. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Yeah I totally agree. I've been on and watched a few of Elliot Prince's things, and he's pretty dang good. Sheila agrees as well. So here's Sheila's final question here we got coming in. "We use Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT-" Inter-calculated? Depending on the task we're doing. We audit our invoices and calls weekly and determine alignment with our SOPs. Gemini works for us 'cause it is the browser and it can read what's happening in the background of Shopware, like the logs and when the tech received the RO, when he sent it back to the service advisors, et cetera. Is Claude Chrome extension able to do the same thing? Do you know? Jon Seitzer: I don't know. I use... So I use Claude Chrome to help me navigate all data. So when I'm in all data, I'll log into the vehicle, like I'll type in the VIN, and then I'll say something like, "What is the labor time for plugs and coils for this thing?" And Claude code will click around. I haven't used it in that way, so I don't know. I would say the best way to do it is to experiment. The difference between Claude and Gemini that I've found is that Claude tends to create a plan, ask for your approval of the plan, and then it... Claude tries to click around the site for you, versus Gemini, which tends to just read, summarize, and send information back to you. Jimmy Lea: Nice. So you appreciate the plan. "Yes, let's execute the plan," where Gemini just says, "Okay, here's your answer." And you're like yeah, close, but not exactly what I was looking for." Yeah. Jon Seitzer: So like when it... the all data example, right? Yeah. All data, to get to, to get from just having entered a VIN to plugs and coils, all, like the mouse has to move and things have to be clicked. I haven't seen Gemini move your mouse for you yet. I think it's coming, but Claude and Chrome will actually click to different sites to try and get you to the spot. Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. Very cool. Very cool. John, wonderful information. So valuable. Thank you so much. I'll be reaching out. We're gonna have a conversation. I'll be here. Bye. But I, I hope Jon Seitzer: that was valuable for everybody. I really do. Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah, John, this is awesome. And you've got a gorgeous pet, fur baby there. Oh, she's- Is she in the office? Yes. Oh, nice. Oh, no, I don't have enough cord. No. Yeah, can't see her today. Maybe next time. John, thank you so much, man. That's just so valuable. AI is definitely not a fad. It's definitely not going away. It's something that we need to adopt and adapt to and learn how to use it. It's a powerful tool if it's used right. Yes. Just as a hammer is a powerful tool, a 10 millimeter socket is a powerful tool if it's used right. Definitely. So dude, that's, this is awesome. Thank you very much, John. Really appreciate it Jon Seitzer: Thank you. Really appreciate it. And again, all of you, if you need me LinkedIn or Facebook, I'm happy to help anybody that's run into any issues or wants to bounce an idea around. Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Hey, and my name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. This is valuable information you're getting today. This is the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more that we're able to do. Please go check out our website at wearetheinstitute.com. Click into the Auto Academy. This is an online learning m- system, helps you to discover more, become better. There's tons of different videos that we have available on there. Our YouTube channel has a lot of information on there as well. Check it out. Check it out, our events page as well, all the next up-and-coming webinars we're doing, as well as all of the trade shows and conferences that we're gonna be attending. It's all there on our events page. Look forward to seeing you at the next trade show. Look forward to seeing you at the next webinar. And together we're gonna lock arms so nobody gets left behind. Thank you very much, everybody. Talk to you soon.

Ep 152: She Grew from Zero to Eight Shops in Four Years?? | Jesse Jackson

Derek Amodio Was a Chef but Now He’s a Technician?

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff chats with Derek Amodio about his unique path back into the automotive industry after spending years working as a chef. Derek opens up about making the switch from the kitchen to the shop, the challenges of moving from hourly pay to flat rate at a Chrysler dealership, and why having the right culture and mentorship around you matters so much. They also talk about keeping up with changing automotive technology, the importance of ongoing training, and how a supportive team can make all the difference for techs getting started or finding their way back into the industry.Timestamps:00:00 Weather and tire myth discussion09:24 Getting hired at FedEx12:32 Choosing a dealership career path20:12 Using memory notebooks26:33 Challenges of incentivized pay systems28:41 Discussing job training and challenges33:37 Tech training and helpful tips42:17 Balancing work hours and breaks45:59 Installing car seats on Saturdays50:56 Thinking about future innovations54:38 Tesla maintenance issues59:28 Driving a yellow SRT8 Challenger01:04:11 Mechanics sharing car repair challenges01:12:19 Teamwork and helping each other01:18:12 Discussing technician pay plans01:21:48 Chrysler heater core issue workaround01:25:34 Supportive service manager01:33:29 Supporting each other in tough times Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 92 - Mike Allen and Bryan Pollock | Should Advisors Be On Flat Rate?!?

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!In this episode, Bryan Pollock and Mike Allen take a shot at service advisors. Well...not out of hate, out of a comp on how we treat technicians. Why can shop owners treat techs a certain way, but when they approach advisors with a similar stance, it's the end of the world? Something to chew on. They also dissect the myth that more advisors are always the answer, showing how deep-dive analysis can reveal wasted hours and productivity bottlenecks. And of course, they have some spicy, unfiltered fun, taking swings at industry sacred cows like the “300% rule” and sharing why making your own AI tools (and adopting top-tier shop software like Tekmetric) can boost both sanity and profits.Timestamps:00:00 Kicking off with a classic: Service advisors and efficiency “WTF” moments03:44 Are podcasts ruled by ADHD? (Spoiler: Absolutely)04:36 Lessons from Becky Witt & Hunt Demarest07:13 Techs-to-advisor ratios and what shops get wrong08:52 Where does the advisor’s time really go? Company-wide honesty hour10:07 The “unaccounted for” hours—every shop’s dirty secret12:24 Why mental gear-shifting kills productivity (and everyone’s guilty)14:07 Investing big in software and still doing things “the old way”16:07 Bridging the front-to-back gap: Should advisors have to see every repair?19:31 Switching to Tekmetric: Will Bryan ever actually do it?22:59 Real shop, real talk: One tech per bay and the volume game27:20 Training, conferences, and why small events can outshine the big names29:31 Free diagnostics, efficiency, and why some shops should re-think their value31:35 Can great techs break the rules? The real value of experience34:08 Should customers pay for your learning curve?38:38 Average effort = average pay (and why that’s actually okay)40:49 Diagnostic rates, shop profitability, and the marketing money trap42:45 Getting left behind: AI, chatbots, and the future of shop work43:09 Upcoming class: Build your own AI shop agent & get your hoodie!48:53 Final confessions, hoodie reveals, and a not-so-subtle jab at 300% stores

Bill Lewandowski: Speed of the Leader is the Speed of the Pack - Bonus Zoom Episode 5

Glenn Piccolo interviews "Bay One" Bill Lewandowski about his five-year journey from sweeping floors to becoming a top managing partner at True Automotive. They discuss lessons from Courtside and Key2Key, the power of process, and the math behind growing revenue. Bill shares practical takeaways on recruiting, running effective inspections, increasing ticket averages through maintenance sales, accountability partners, and how consistent practice and leadership drive steady growth.

Episode 269 - Lessons Learned From Custom Car Builds and Business Ownership With Sunny Massera

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood and David Roman are joined by Sunny Massera, a custom car and truck builder from Oregon. Sunny Massera shares the hard lessons he learned from business ownership, including the importance of choosing the right business partner and the unexpected realities of running a shop versus working for someone else. The conversation also covers the challenges of building custom and performance vehicles—from managing customer expectations to dealing with unreliable aftermarket parts.00:00 Moving between New Mexico and California04:19 From flat rate to custom cars07:30 Realizing business complexities09:46 Deciding not to work alone13:05 Getting hired at second Bronco shop16:22 Discussing how to fund a startup20:36 Partner's role in business growth23:18 Revamping old Broncos28:11 Understanding the engine issue31:14 Working at custom car shops33:21 Learning through hands-on projects36:45 Test driving vehicles before ordering40:00 Restoring a 59 Ranchero41:33 Future of classic car market46:46 Challenges finding car parts50:09 Troubleshooting transmission issues53:35 Fixing ongoing installation issues56:10 Tuning engine installations59:15 Advice for young professionals

The Rise of the Specialist: Redefining Automotive Professionalism [THA 485]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-turn-id-container="request-WEB:8a36a74e-94b9-45d2-82f2-3a0e09cdfefe-1" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Host Carm Capriotto is joined by shop owners Craig Noel, Brett Beachler, and Tom Palermo for an important discussion on how “The Rise of the Specialist” is moving from idea to implementation inside automotive repair shops across the industry. Written by Carm Capriotto, “The Rise of the Specialist” is a growing movement and declaration designed to elevate the language, image, professionalism, and culture of the automotive service industry. In this episode, the panel shares how they are actively implementing “The Rise” within their own businesses, from changing terminology and redefining job titles to elevating customer communication, shop presentation, and team culture. The conversation highlights the real-world challenges and successes of shifting away from outdated labels like “mechanic,” “wrench,” and “technician” and embracing the more professional and accurate title of “specialist.” Carm explains that this movement is more than a branding exercise; it is a professional evolution aimed at helping the industry better reflect the expertise required to service today’s highly advanced vehicles. Modern automotive professionals are diagnosticians, calibration experts, technology specialists, and problem-solvers operating in one of the most sophisticated skilled professions today. Throughout the discussion, the shop owners explain how adopting the language and principles of “The Rise” has strengthened team pride, improved customer trust, and helped create a more professional identity within their organizations. The panel also explores how service advisors play a key role in communicating the value of diagnostics, testing, and specialist-level expertise to clients in a way that builds understanding and confidence. The episode draws powerful comparisons to professions like medicine and culinary arts, emphasizing that automotive specialists deserve the same respect given to highly trained experts in other industries. Just as chefs and medical specialists earn recognition through mastery and continuous education, today’s automotive professionals must also be seen as specialists whose expertise protects the safety and reliability of every vehicle entrusted to them. “The Rise of the Specialist” has already gained momentum throughout the industry. Carm’s signature keynote, The Rise of the Specialist, has been delivered to influential audiences across North America, including the ASE Board of Governors, Ford Motor Company, and hundreds of forward-thinking automotive professionals. What You’ll Learn Why “The Rise of the Specialist” was created and what it representsHow shop owners are implementing “The Rise” in their businessesWhy the industry must move beyond outdated titles like “technician” and “mechanic”How language shapes customer perception, professionalism, and team cultureThe role service advisors play in explaining specialist-level diagnostics and repairsHow hospitality, presentation, and communication strengthen customer trustWhy this movement can help attract the next generation of automotive professionals This episode demonstrates that “The Rise of the Specialist” is no longer just a concept; it is becoming a real cultural shift within the automotive industry. By adopting language that reflects expertise, elevating professionalism throughout the customer experience, and embracing the identity of the specialist, shop owners are helping reshape how the industry sees itself and how the world sees it. Download 'The Rise of the Specialist': https://remarkableresults.biz/rise Craig Noel, <a...

We’re Not in Business to Lose Money

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin sits down with Anthony Rendino from A/R Customs and Collision to talk about the reality of running an independent body shop in today’s insurance-driven world. This conversation goes deep into what most...

Ep 151: The 4-Day Workweek Changed Their Lives | Erich and Lola Schmidt

Ep 150: Embracing Change in Family Business Leadership | Bill Haas and Sara Fraser

Christopher Clingerman Compares Fleet Life to the Dealership

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff talks with Christopher Clingerman, a fleet mechanic out of Rochester, New York. Christopher shares how he went from working on tractor trailers to maintaining school buses, and what surprised him most about the switch from dealership life to fleet work. They get into the day-to-day challenges techs deal with, from bad parts and misdiagnosed vehicles to the importance of training and having a shop culture that actually supports its people.Timestamps:00:00 Working at Hyundai dealership11:46 Frustrations with car dealership service26:28 Routine vehicle inspections37:40 Using vegetable oil in hydraulics42:50 Modified trucks and safety issues56:41 Concerns with turbocharged engines01:09:59 Laid back work environment01:19:22 Training opportunities during work hours01:25:33 Changes in welding education01:37:39 Brian's electrical skills explained01:46:34 Working on vehicle repairs01:57:40 Using real tools to teach skills02:10:56 Comparing tire brands and costs02:18:54 Open door for venting support Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 90 - Aniz Lavji | This Shop Owner Saw 50% Growth!?

Keep shop management, payments, marketing (all the things) all in one place with Tekmetric. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Click HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing has made my life SOOO much simpler, AND they've helped keep the phone ringing. Do you need these two things too? Learn more HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2027 is coming up in February and NOW is the time to sign up. It's happening in Vegas February 4-6 and it will be the best 3 days of your shops year when you attend. Learn now HEREAniz Lavji is a Canadian shop owner and new podcaster! Today, he and Mike reflect on Aniz's growth over the last year and how attending his first trade show (ASTA Expo) sparked a major shift in both mindset and operations, especially after adopting Tekmetric (the best software ever, obviously). They also talk about the explosive role AI is already playing in shop management, the importance of shop culture and community, and how Aniz plans to continue growing this year. Timestamps: 00:00 There MUST Be a Day Limit onLoaner cars01:14 First trade show jitters, family stress, & Niagara Falls survival09:25 Building heart-centered shop culture & supporting your community13:04 Miata confessions, advisors, and the subculture of small cars14:03 QuickBooks to Tekmetric: The leap that sparked 50% growth22:07 Shop struggles: 454 cars in one month & tech shortages23:12 Planning for the future, hiring advisors, and stepping back24:47 Will AI take over? Balancing efficiency and human connection25:24 Loaner car policies: Leadership, responsibility, and big lessons30:15 North Carolina vs. Ontario: Shop culture & competitive spirit33:04 Trade association impact, collaboration, and ethical business38:45 Go-kart racing, trophies, and shop owner bragging rights40:44 Rage bait, social media, and “winning” on YouTube

EP27: His Life Wouldn't Change Until His Name Was On The Building. With Andrew Dominguez Of Asher Auto Group

Welcome To ShopSoup Podcast. On Episode 27, I sit down with Andrew Dominguez of Asher Auto Group that includes Asher Automotive and DTX Automotive. Two dynamic shops that are a result of Andrews determination to provide growth and opportunities for his team members.SUMMARYIn this inspiring interview, Andrew Dominguez shares his journey from a young dealership employee to successful auto shop owner. He discusses overcoming challenges, building trust with customers, leadership, and strategic growth in the auto industry.KEYWORDSauto industry, entrepreneurship, leadership, business growth, customer trust, auto repair, dealership, small business, success storyKEY TOPICSAndrew's early start in auto industryBuilding customer trust and loyaltyLeadership and team developmentScaling multiple auto repair locationsSOUND BITES"People buy from those they trust""Uniform service is a leadership issue""Success is about giving value to others"CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction to Andrew Dominguez's Journey02:47 Early Career and Lessons Learned05:25 Transitioning to a Bigger Dealership08:34 Climbing the Ranks and Facing Challenges11:30 Desire for Independence and Entrepreneurship14:05 Building Relationships and Customer Trust17:00 The Decision to Start His Own Business19:48 Navigating Challenges and Building a Brand22:41 Personal Life and Support System28:04 The Impact of Tough Love30:45 Lessons from Loss and Leadership32:47 Taking Risks for Growth35:50 Navigating Partnerships and Challenges38:40 Building a Team and Expanding Opportunities40:33 The Role of Coaching in Business Success44:31 Learning from Mistakes and Adjusting Strategies48:13 Understanding Business Dynamics and Financing49:58 The Old vs. New Business Mindset52:18 Empowering the Next Generation of Technicians53:16 The Importance of Transparency in Leadership55:46 Balancing Family and Business Life58:39 Finding Hobbies and Personal Time59:57 Navigating Work-Life Integration01:04:38 The Evolving Nature of Success01:07:18 Future Aspirations and Growth StrategiesRESOURCESAuto Service Leaders Conference 2026 - https://theaslconference.comAuto Service Leaders - https://autoserviceleaders.comAndrew Dominguez's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdominguezAsher Automotive - https://asherautorepair.com/DTX Automotive - https://dtxautomotive.com/Guest LinksLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdominguez

Amy Bartel on 7-Day Shops, Hospitality Hires, and the Fraud-Fighting Formula - Bonus Zoom Episode 4

In this episode Glenn Piccolo interviews Amy Bartel about returning to the family auto business, rebuilding finances, and scaling performance through recruiting, culture, and seven-day operations. Amy shares recruiting strategies (especially hiring restaurant talent), lessons from fraud and accounting training, and more. They also discuss the impact of hands-on trainings like Key2Key, Courtside, and VIP Rack Attack Day, the importance of accountability partners, and practical tips for creating a high-performing team that delivers hospitality-driven service and sustainable growth.

Episode 268 - Mastering Shop Management and Technician Relations in Today’s Auto Industry

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Austin joins the Changing The Industry Podcast to discuss his journey from dealership technician to shop owner in South Carolina. Austin shares the challenges of buying a shop as a young technician, including navigating the SBA loan acquisition process and building a reliable team after early hiring struggles. The conversation covers practical strategies for technician management and compensation, as well as the importance of professional bookkeeping and mentorship as a shop grows.00:00 Navigating industry-exclusive groups08:31 Hiring the first technician13:09 Starting the podcast idea20:25 Cost transparency with manufacturers23:02 ETI's role in tool manufacturing27:38 Managing car programming and updates34:15 Car's auto-braking false alarms39:15 Quick and safe control arm repair44:53 Building a strong technician team52:07 Technician attendance and bonus policy55:11 Dealing with difficult coworkers58:51 Growing with business mentors01:05:03 Evaluating business coach effectiveness01:12:50 Importance of clean financial records01:14:53 Wanting a strict accountant

Why ADAS Calibrations Are Being Ignored in Auto Repair Shops [THA 484]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at the 2026 TST Big Event, host Carm Capriato sits down with shop owners and industry trainers Keith and Liz Perkins for a candid conversation about the evolving future of automotive repair. From the growing demand for private, hands-on training to the dangerous misconceptions surrounding vehicle calibrations, Keith and Liz share hard-earned insights from the front lines of the industry. They also pull back the curtain on how they successfully balance multiple businesses, a family farm, and life as entrepreneurial partners, all while staying deeply committed to technician development and industry advancement. What You’ll Learn: Why more shop owners are bringing trainers directly into their facilities for personalized, hands-on educationHow the flat-rate pay system can unintentionally discourage accurate diagnostics and proper repairsThe critical importance of vehicle calibrations and why skipping them creates major safety concernsA real-world story of how Keith and Liz challenged a dealership that failed to properly calibrate a vehicle after repairsHow Keith’s mobile diagnostics team operates as the “Navy SEALs” of the automotive industry, tackling the most complex repair challengesThe productivity systems, AI tools, and organizational habits that Keith and Liz use to manage multiple businesses and family responsibilitiesTheir perspective on partnership, marriage, and entrepreneurship, including why success is rarely a perfect 50/50 splitUpdates from the NASTF board, including a new mobile app designed to simplify D1 security processes This episode is a powerful reminder that professionalism in the automotive industry extends far beyond fixing vehicles. It requires continuous education, accountability, clear communication, and a commitment to doing the job correctly, even when it’s difficult or inconvenient. Keith and Liz Perkins demonstrate how technical excellence, strong systems, and true partnership can create lasting impact both inside and outside the shop. TST Big Event: https://tstseminars.org/ Liz and Keith Perkins, Previous episode HERE. L1 Automotive: https://www.l1diagnostics.com/ L1 Automotive Training: https://l1training.com/ Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-15" data-testid="conversation-turn-32" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: ...

Chaos Starts In The Shop When Communication Stops

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin breaks down one of the biggest reasons shops create their own chaos… poor communication and broken expectations. Most customers can handle bad news. What they can’t handle is silence, vague answers,...

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

Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code Confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERE Make your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERESam Freeman is the Partner Manager with Promotive Ethan Whidden is a Sales Representative. Today, they share with Mike what they've learned about the challenges of recruiting in the automotive repair industry. They discuss the unrealistic expectations shop owners often have when looking for that elusive “A tech” and why most owners should reconsider what they truly need in their shops. The conversation covers the importance of clear communication—both when hiring and when working with vendors—and the need for accountability on both sides of the hiring process.Timestamps:00:00 - The reality of open bays & shop hopping01:14 - Walking the trade show floor & exhibitor life03:23 - Ethan Whidden on joining Promotive, shop culture, and genuine conversation07:27 - Mike Allen confesses: why he hesitated to use Promotive08:45 - Effort vs. results in recruiting—Matt Lofton’s tough love09:01 - Why most shops think they need A-techs (and why they’re wrong)14:47 - Defining technician levels (and what “A-tech” really means)17:26 - Expectations vs. reality: shops, techs, and unicorn hires18:09 - The shop owner who took “unrealistic” to new levels19:31 - Diagnosing your real hiring needs20:01 - Chaos coordinators & fixing the front office21:02 - You don’t need a unicorn—you need to be a better owner24:01 - Shop competition: Mario Kart, go-karts, and Monopoly battles27:02 - Epic neighborhood parties and community building33:06 - Localized guerrilla recruiting vs. Promotive (can you DIY?)34:03 - Why shop owners make terrible customers for vendors35:09 - Communication, unspoken expectations, and messy outcomes37:58 - Candidate screening, accountability, and whose fault is it, really?41:41 - Hiring stories: ghosting, no-shows & offers used as leverage51:14 - Why techs really leave—(hint: it’s not always money)01:00:05 - What you SHOULD pay your B-techs and A-techs in 202601:06:09 - Boasting moms, cheer championships, and motivation01:11:08 - Code yellow, code red: shop bathroom confessions

Why Busy Doesn’t Mean Profitable in Auto Repair | Mike Allen and Jim Cokonis - Ep 12

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika Haynes, Mike Allen, and Jim Cokonis get real about what it actually takes to build a successful shop without letting the wheels fall off behind the scenes. They break down the danger of stepping away too soon, why empowering your team doesn’t mean checking out, and the numbers every shop owner needs to quit avoiding — labor rates, parts profit, and KPIs that actually matter. This episode is all about leadership, accountability, and building a shop that works because of you… not only when you’re in it.Timestamps: 00:00 — The $100k/month trap: why you need to be IN your shop01:08 — Free Diag for customer acquisition: smart or crazy?03:39 — Leadership styles, micromanagement, and setting your people up for success06:05 — Don’t let KPIs kill your culture08:19 — Giving up micromanaging — but not management itself10:22 — Echo chambers, business focus, and the dangers of stepping back too far12:56 — Toyota Kaizen, process improvements, and empowering your team16:00 — Debunking old-school shop management myths18:03 — Changing workforce motivations: is it really different now?20:26 — Owners chasing absentee dreams before putting in the work22:59 — “Sweep your floor”: hard truths about focusing on your own shop25:51 — Decoding parts profit, labor rates, and the future of shop profitability29:21 — Why effective labor rate actually matters31:08 — Real math for shop owners: hitting your numbers34:39 — Charging for diagnostics: what actually works?38:32 — Selling top-tier service through education, not pressure41:00 — Extreme ownership, replicating leaders, and building scalable success44:27 — Lessons from Toyota: process beats shortcuts46:14 — Can you really teach empathy, sales, and service skills?48:37 — The “I am the problem” moment for every shop owner51:16 — Scaling up: letting go of direct customer ties53:18 — Training, leadership, and the myth of instant success56:36 — Hard-won lessons from promoting the wrong people

Ep 149: Mastering Servant Leadership with John Firm and Rick White

ADAS and Electric Vehicles Are Changing Auto Repair | Marco Palumbo

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Marco Palumbo shares his journey from technician to owner of Maxim Tire and Muffler in Winnipeg. He discusses the challenges of adapting to new automotive technologies, such as ADAS and electric vehicles, and the investments required in equipment, training, and staff. Marco also emphasizes the value of transparent customer service and community reputation, demonstrating how taking care of customers builds long-term loyalty and success.Timestamps:00:00 Meeting Mark and first impressions05:28 Importance of mentoring in shops12:13 Success with TikTok marketing17:38 Discussing car calibration and trust21:54 Unexpected car repair costs29:15 Dealerships vs. aftermarket dynamics34:45 Engaging waiting customers in showroom42:20 Oxygen sensor issues and specialization45:49 Tesla service challenges in smaller cities52:46 Celebrating Mark's impact56:16 Challenges with tech skills and training58:56 Managing training logistics01:04:09 Troubleshooting car electrical issues01:10:47 Managing customer service expectations01:16:04 Challenges with car part repairs01:24:28 Facing time management challenges01:28:24 Advocating for customer transparency01:34:09 Unresolved car maintenance issues01:37:26 Customer requests and shop policy01:42:08 Charging for technical auto repairs01:47:39 Recognizing Marco's passion and impact Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 88 - Ashley Butler & Rochelle Gotsdiner | Scale Your Repair Shop by Doing This

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Today, Ashley Butler and Rochelle Gotsdiner join Mike Allen to break down how to scale your repair shop through strong processes. Ashley shares how clear communication and consistent customer updates can set your shop apart—because most of your competitors get it wrong daily. They also chat about how embracing AI and innovative training methods can solve the industry’s notorious people problem and unlock serious growth.Timestamps: 00:00 Why “saying yes” matters and how to stop losing business03:56 Ashley Butler introduces her shop story and scaling to 14 stores04:46 How Ashley Butler structures her week for maximum impact08:42 Succession planning, family business, and running on “auto-pilot”10:18 The secrets to working with your spouse without disaster12:05 Turning crisis into opportunity: Creating a top-tier training center14:51 On a mission for talent: Training novices into flat-rate techs15:56 Why community involvement and university ties pay off18:18 Maximizing space, remodeling battles, and why your waiting room matters20:39 The “speed” advantage: Serving customers before they even ask27:31 Game-changing customer communication habits—so the phone never rings at 3pm32:22 Trust, integrity, and what it really takes to keep your reputation bulletproof35:14 Shop processes, procedures, and how competitors make you look good35:59 Integrating AI into shop training and HR: first steps and big potential41:10 How anyone can build custom AI tools for their shop43:35 Private equity, big chains, and why it’s opportunity (not threat!) for indies46:11 Guerrilla recruiting: real-world tactics for poaching top techs and advisors49:57 Shop owner black belt: Using networks and timing to score the best deals51:26 Why perfect policies don’t exist (and that’s okay!)

From $135K to $600K: J.J. Mont’s Auto Hospitality Breakthrough - Bonus Zoom Episode 3

J.J. Mont joins Glenn Piccolo to share his journey from a struggling shop to a high-performing auto hospitality business using Todd Hayes’ model. He covers how a single mindset shift — “saying yes on the phone” — recruiting top techs, shop upgrades, and outsourced callbacks drove predictable growth. Listen as J.J. explains the practical steps, key wins, and team changes that helped his store scale to record months and build a culture of service and growth.

Episode 267 - Building and Scaling Auto Shops: Culture, Challenges, and the Drive to Grow With Arun Coumar

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Arun Coumar joins Lucas Underwood and David Roman to discuss the challenges and rewards of multi-shop ownership. Arun highlights the critical role of shop culture and management in shop performance, emphasizing how the right team can make or break operations. The conversation also dives into the evolving automotive industry landscape, touching on consolidation trends and the necessity for adaptability in both business structure and mindset.00:00 Implementing an alternative work week schedule10:26 Considering leaving a job13:46 Realizing success isn't easy19:57 Logging mileage for efficiency26:01 Focus on local expansion first29:37 Considering sole ownership vs. growth33:54 Finding purpose after life challenges42:44 Creating and defining meaning45:40 Talking about single life challenges53:06 Choosing your life's challenges58:51 Challenges in the parts distribution industry01:00:58 Discussing future market changes

Turn Your Parts Spend Into Team Rewards with the NAPA Team Tool Rebate [THA 483]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at the VISION 2026, host Carm Capriotto sits down with shop owner Pete McNeil and NAPA Auto Care leaders Jason Rainey and Lauren Briggs to break down the impact of the NAPA Team Tool Rebate program. Listen to a powerful real-world example of how the program can energize a team, strengthen culture, and reward performance in meaningful ways. What You’ll Learn How the NAPA Team Tool Rebate program helps offset the high cost of technician tools while building a stronger shop cultureHow Pete McNeil turned a $13,000 rebate into a memorable, morale-boosting experienceWhy the shift from “tech tool rebate” to “team tool rebate” gives owners flexibility to reward the entire team, not just techniciansCreative ways shops can use rebate funds, from individual tool purchases to shared equipment, and even community support like vocational schoolsHow the program aligns the front and back of the shop, encouraging team-wide support of purchasing decisionsWhat’s ahead for the program, including improved tracking, communication, and enhanced buying power through supplier partnerships The NAPA Team Tool Rebate program is more than a financial incentive; it’s a strategic tool for building culture, driving alignment, and showing appreciation in a tangible way. When used intentionally, as demonstrated by Pete McNeil, it can transform routine business spending into a powerful investment in people, boosting morale, loyalty, and long-term shop success. VISION Hi-Tech Training and Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Pete McNeil, McNeil’s Auto Care, Sandy and Riverton, UT. Pete’s previous episodes HERE Lauren Briggs, Sales & Marketing Director. NAPA Auto Care. Lauren’s previous episodes HERE Jason Rainey, Vice President NAPA Auto Care. Jason’s previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-15" data-testid="conversation-turn-32" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the...

Ep 148: AVTECC Can Be the Change This Industry Needs with Dave Macholz

How to Build a Repair Shop From the Ground Up | Jennifer Hulbert - Ep 11

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika welcomes Jennifer Hulbert from the Institute of Automotive Business Excellence and Service Plus Automotive. Jennifer shares her own journey taking over her family shop, highlighting the challenges of building the right team and embracing real leadership. They bust the myth that coaching is a cookie-cutter scam, stressing that true culture and accountability transform both the owner and the team.Timestamps:01:00 – Meet Jennifer: From HR to Shop Owner to Coach05:00 – Building a Shop From the Ground Up (And Surviving Dad’s Retirement)10:35 – Numbers Don’t Lie: Why Financials Matter More Than “Hustle”14:38 – Team Culture That Actually Works (And How To Build Yours)16:30 – Monday Meetings, Leadership Classes, and Real-Life Accountability21:00 – Surviving Economic Downturns & Military Community Challenges25:25 – The Real Talk on Hiring, Firing, and Growing a Rock-Solid Team28:30 – The Truth About Working ON vs IN Your Business31:45 – Letting Go: How to Hand Off Roles and Still Win33:35 – Investing in Staff: Training, Trust, and Those “AHA” Moments36:35 – Employee vs. Team Member: Spotting the Difference39:00 – Profit’s Not a Dirty Word—And Why Your Shop Needs It41:10 – Feeling Stuck as a Shop Owner? Step-By-Step on Moving Forward43:50 – Why You Should Stop Chasing “Bottom Feeders” and Stand Your Ground47:00 – Why Jennifer’s Hopeful for the Future of Auto Repair49:30 – Growth Hurts (But It’s Worth It): Unfiltered Conversation for Shop Owners52:24 – How to Get Connected With The Institute and Take Your Next Step

Hire Like a Pro: The First 5 Seconds That Reveal A-Players

Joe Adams and Glenn Piccolo break down a no-nonsense interview playbook for auto shops: why first impressions and rapid rapport matter, how to use targeted pre-interview questions to spot commitment, and what distinguishes A-players from B and C-players. They cover working interviews and onboarding, technician vs. front-of-house hiring, extracting referrals, and the case for paying top talent what they’re worth. It's all about culture, accountability, and building a winning team that drives immediate results. This is just one part of the life-changing Key to Key to Callbacks concept - sign up for the next class at www.autoshopanswers.com/ or call 925-980-8012 right now.

Ep 147: Scale Your Business with Culture | Eric Svedberg

Ep 87 - Coaching Call #16 | Maximize Repair Orders with Prebuilt Tickets

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREIf you're like me and aren't good at marketing, don't do it on your own. Let the experts handle it. Touch HERE for more on Turnkey Marketing.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERE When I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!In this episode, Matt Lofton and Mike Allen talk through Mike's shop's performance in March. Matt talks about the importance of pre-building estimates and leveraging tools like Detect Auto to maximize tech average quote and streamline workflow. Mat also shares his approach to combating misleading "vanity flush" services in the market, emphasizing transparent communication with customers.Timestamps: 00:00 – The “Vanity Flush” Confession: Why $99 Services Aren’t What You Think02:24 – eBay Hero Cards, Shop Swag, and Why Autographs Still Matter04:14 – Record First Quarter, March Recap, and Looking Ahead05:50 – Fly With the Eagles Recap: What High Performers are Learning08:52 – DIY Shop AI: How to Create Your Own AI Agents and Save Big12:03 – Struggling with Close Rates? Blame (or Bless) Your Advisor14:09 – Prebuilding Estimates for Maximum Tech ARO16:13 – Setting Up Customers: Deferred Work, Maintenance, and Upsells17:33 – BG Programs, Fluid Service Sales, and Overcoming Industry Myths20:01 – How Corporate Store Pricing Drives Shortcuts (and Dirty Tricks)23:05 – Value-Add vs. Price-Only: The Ruth’s Chris Cheeseburger Analogy24:49 – How to Fill Tomorrow’s Bays with Opportunity, Not Just Oil Changes28:16 – The Pit Stop Program: Getting Customers Back 4x Fast30:48 – The Loyalty Cliff: Retaining vs. Losing First-Time Customers33:12 – Risky Repairs and the Real Cost of Saying “Yes”39:45 – Ritz Carlton vs. Motel 6: Finding Your Shop’s Sweet Spot43:04 – Social Media “Rage Bait”: Marketing Tactics and Lessons Learned44:58 – Worry About Your Own Shop! Why Community Trumps Competition48:21 – Peer Groups and Getting Ahead—Why You Shouldn’t Go It Alone

Dealer Plate Guy Compares Dealer Pricing with the Aftermarket

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff sits down with Dealer Plate Guy (Austin Conroy), who has a HUGE following on social media. Austin shares his unconventional career path from sales to service manager, emphasizing the importance of building customer and employee relationships in the dealership environment. They also talk about the most common misconceptions about dealership pricing compared to independent shops and the crucial role of technician career development and mentorship programs in addressing the ongoing technician shortage.Timestamps:00:00 International Connections: Jeff & Dealer Plate Guy Meet02:05 Growing Up Near Purdue & Serving College Town Clients03:17 From Car Sales to Multi-Store Manager: Austin’s Journey05:00 First Day as Service Manager: No Wrenching Background Needed07:10 COVID Resets the Department – Building New Structures08:53 Why Techs Should Talk To Customers (and Break Out of the Funk)10:10 Handling Difficult Customers & Flipping the Script13:36 The Unseen Cost of Long Test Drives & Flat Rate Frustrations16:28 Why Relationships Matter: Dealer vs. Independent Shop Service18:31 Career-Oriented Advisors & Building Repeat Business20:44 Managing Pay, Hours, & Mentality in Service Departments24:01 Changing Flat Rate Times: Pushback & Tracking Results29:12 Dealer vs. Aftermarket Parts Pricing: The Real Story33:43 Should Dealers Offer Aftermarket Parts? Educating Customers35:16 The Independent Shop Advantage in “Impossible” Diagnostics38:41 The 20-Minute Battery Draw: Stories From the Bay42:58 Why Dealers Still Need Flat Rate—With Real Solutions44:38 Feeding Your Best Techs: Who Should Get The Gravy Work?46:56 The Reality of Used Car Work, PDI, and Technician Dispatch49:28 Overpromising Service Times: Collision vs. Dealer Mentality52:16 Developing the Tech Career Path: Retaining Talent57:06 Mapping Out Progression Steps & Regular 1-on-1s With Techs1:02:45 Multi-Point Inspections: Making Video Pay Off1:09:29 How Social Media Skits Are Changing Dealerships1:13:42 Bridging the Advisor & Tech Divide: Cross-Training Works1:17:04 Beyond Money: Finding the Right Role for Each Employee1:20:17 The Real Fix for the Technician Shortage1:24:05 Apprenticeship, Dealer Responsibility & Recruitment1:28:47 Final Thoughts & Where to Find Dealer Plate Guy Online Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Detective Mind Mapping: A Forensic Approach to Automotive Diagnostics [RR 1089]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Recorded live at the TST Big Event 2026, host Carm Capriotto sits down with Andrew Fischer, shop manager at Cergizan's Auto and Truck Repair in Northwest Indiana, and an industry trainer. Andrew shares his disciplined, process-driven approach to diagnostics, his passion for technician development, and why shop culture plays a defining role in long-term success. From daily habits to big-picture philosophy, this conversation is a roadmap for building more confident, capable technicians. What You’ll Learn: Why committing to at least 40 hours of continuous education each year can dramatically reduce comebacks and improve shop performanceHow to build learning into daily routines: whether through short practice sessions, webinars, or online training resourcesThe power of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and why “going rogue” in diagnostics leads to inefficiencyHow Andrew’s “detective mind mapping” technique helps technicians visually organize problems and accelerate accurate diagnosesWhy revisiting foundational knowledge is critical and how ego often prevents technicians from mastering the basicsHow embracing failure strengthens diagnostic ability and builds real-world expertiseThe importance of capturing and studying “known good” vehicle data to improve accuracy on future repairs Great diagnostics is about discipline, process, and constant learning. Shops that invest in their people, reinforce foundational skills, and create a culture where failure fuels growth will not only solve problems faster but build stronger, more resilient teams. TST Big Event: https://tstseminars.org/ Andrew Fischer, Cergizan's Auto and Truck Repair, Burns Harbor, IN. Fischer Automotive Consulting and Training Services: factsautomotive@gmail.com Photography by Joe Manna Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Zwith Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numberswith Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/The Auto Repair Marketing Podcastwith Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/The Weekly Blitzwith Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/Speak Up! Effective Communicationwith Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

How One Weekend Can Rewrite Your Shop's Future - Bonus Zoom Episode 2

Glenn Piccolo with Adams Automotive hosts this bonus Master Tech to Millionaire episode presented by Autoshop Answers, recapping an electrifying weekend in Houston featuring Key to Key, Courtside, and VIP Rack Attack sessions. Industry Leaders from around the country discuss Todd Hayes’ perfected business model, the power of consistent implementation (morning Take Fives), simple high-impact steps — say yes on the phone, professional pictures/videos — and how relentless training drives predictable growth. Practical next steps, real success stories, and program details (Key to Key, Courtside, AI Academy, VIP Rack Attack) are shared to help shop owners start implementing and transform their business.

Episode 266 - Building Shop Efficiency and Team Culture with Greg Miller of Figs Auto Repair

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, David and Greg dive into the realities of shop ownership, growth, and staffing challenges in the auto repair industry. Greg shares his journey from IT business owner to owner of Figs Auto Repair in Charlotte, highlighting the importance of adapting processes for efficiency and using tools like Shop-Ware. The conversation also covers practical hiring lessons, including the need to hire and fire quickly and the value of connecting technicians with the broader industry through training events to improve retention.00:00 Blood draw complications05:28 Comparing safety of substances13:13 Navigating traffic delays18:35 Challenges with new hires24:24 Handling tough diagnostic jobs29:03 Adjusting pay for evaluation tasks36:10 Discussing car repair estimates40:51 Learning from industry veterans41:52 Community engagement in North Carolina49:25 Improving employee efficiency52:56 Customer communication and follow-ups01:02:58 Cooking steak tableside01:04:43 Discussing conference networking opportunities01:10:37 Networking and local support connections

The Dealer Alternative Advantage in Today’s Auto Repair Industry [THA 482]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode, host Carm Capriotto sits down with Larry and Kara Rose of Larry’s Automotive in Newburgh, Indiana, to celebrate their recognition as the NAPA 2025 Auto Care Center of the Year. Their story is more than an award; it’s a roadmap for building a sustainable, family-driven business through discipline, culture, and long-term vision. What You’ll Learn How Larry turned a driveway side hustle into a scalable businessWhy Kara’s systems and structure were key to growthA clear, intentional plan for family successionHow strong culture outweighs individual talentThe impact of daily training and continuous learningWhy service advisors are critical to customer trustGrowth strategies like “dealer alternative” positioning and coaching Building a lasting shop requires more than technical skill; it takes structure, culture, and a long-term vision for people and growth. Larry and Kara Rose, Larry’s Automotive, Newburgh, IN Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriottoFollow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmastersJoin Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insiderAll books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/booksOur Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroomBuy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carmSpecial episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Zwith Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/Business by the Numberswith Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/<a href="https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/"...

EP25: Will AI Eliminate Jobs Or Enhance Them? A Review Of A Michael Stelzner Interview

Welcome to ShopSoup Podcast! Download and listen to our show on Apple, Google, Spotify and all other favorite streams.n this episode, I have a recap of not just the Tektonic event in Houston, but I listened and watched Michael Stelzner talk about the impact that AI will have on the future work force. Will copywriters become extinct? Will Service Advisors go the way of the dial phone? You might find it surprising to hear.SummaryGreg Buckley discusses the recent Tech Tonic event, the impact of AI on the automotive industry, and the future of technology in business. Insights include AI's role in efficiency, job evolution, and industry innovation.Key TopicsAI's impact on automotive industryEfficiency and automation in shopsIndustry evolution and future trendsTakeawaysAI will significantly improve shop efficiency and profitability.Automation can free up staff to focus on customer relationships.Industry leaders are embracing AI as a tool for growth, not a threat.Change is constant; adapting to new technology is essential.Transparency about AI use can enhance customer trust.Sound bites"Welcome to Shop Soup, a unique episode.""I'm excited about AI's role in our future.""Change is constant; we must adapt."Chapters00:00 Tech Tonic: A Premier Event Recap04:50 Embracing AI in the Automotive Industry10:08 AI's Impact on Job Efficiency and Relationships20:17 Navigating the Future of AI in BusinessResourcesTech Tonic 2023 Event - https://www.tekmetric.comMichael Stelzner - Social Media Examiner - https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/michael-stelzner/

Jeff Compton Tells All - A Real Look At His Industry Impact | Jeff Compton - Ep 10

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Jeff Compton, Tonnika and Ash dig into what's been going on lately on social media because of Jeff's podcast the Jaded Mechanic. Jeff opens up on how highlight reels from his podcast can be misunderstood by technicians, stressing the importance of listening to the full message and always communicating openly within the shop. Together, they tackle the problem of toxic employees, with everyone agreeing that sometimes letting go—even when it hurts production—is essential for a healthy team.Timestamps: 00:48 Blind date confessions and why Jeff can’t stop talking02:10 Social media spotlight: When highlight reels create havoc at work03:38 Are podcasts causing techs to “hold the shop hostage”?05:10 What Jeff really tells techs: Not just “quit”—have the conversation07:14 Why bad shop culture crushes accountability (on both sides)10:34 Does Jeff feel responsible for how techs interpret the show?13:09 The truth about good shops: If your team is great, the podcast isn’t your problem14:49 Who Jeff used to be—a “problem tech” story you can’t miss17:45 Holding on to toxic employees: When to cut bait (for real)18:39 Empty bays vs. empty culture: What happens when you finally fire the wrong person21:14 Are you hiring for desperation, or for the long haul?24:25 When lack of information/tools costs EVERY shop time and money26:52 How shop environments drive young techs out—can we fix it?30:12 “Industry uncles and aunties”—our responsibility to the next generation32:08 The real risk: Shop culture, tech mental health, and suicide in the industry33:35 Get real: Who Jeff was, and who he doesn’t want YOU to become36:07 Can “star players” and teamwork mix on the shop floor?43:43 Why guarded leaders struggle—and how to break the cycle48:31 Don’t ask for validation—ask for REAL answers in shop groups52:00 Why we HAVE to keep having these tough conversations1:02:03 Why Jeff is not “causing a technician war”—and how to really connect1:10:52 Ending the division—accountability for both owners and techs1:12:49 Leadership is loving your industry and aiming for 1% better, every day1:20:37 Final thoughts: Building a softer, better industry for the future

Ep 146: Why You MUST Embrace Change as a Leader | Charlie Burke and Luke Murray

You Don’t Know What You’re Worth (Until You’re Wrong) | Jeremiah Hiatt

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff talks with Jeremiah Hiatt, a mobile mechanic from Montana, about his shift from ranch work to running his own ag repair business. They get into imposter syndrome, pricing your work, balancing family life, and the real challenges of modern diagnostics, plus solid advice for techs thinking about going out on their own.Timestamps:05:48 Fixing farm equipment for neighbors12:26 Issues with new technology durability17:09 Importance of equipment maintenance26:33 Discussing work-life balance27:32 Balancing career and family goals34:01 Dealing with software updates41:33 Appreciating Harbor Freight Tools44:40 Diagnosing and fixing the computer52:56 Hydraulic equipment repair experience55:20 Deciding on vehicle investments01:03:24 Challenges in car maintenance01:07:46 Discussing automotive customer communication01:10:18 Deciding between repair options01:17:47 Discussing truck emission problems01:23:06 Limitations on job responsibilities01:27:53 Discussing changes in tech industry01:35:40 The evolution of diagnostic skills01:39:19 Diagnosing a car engine misfire01:47:18 Ideal work-life balance fantasy01:48:20 Finding balance and unplugging Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 86 - Lucas Underwood and Tonnika Haynes | Did We Accomplish Anything Here??

Keep shop management, payments, marketing (all the things) all in one place with Tekmetric. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Click HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing has made my life SOOO much simpler, AND they've helped keep the phone ringing. Do you need these two things too? Learn more HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Elite Worldwide's Ignite 2027 is coming up in February and NOW is the time to sign up. It's happening in Vegas February 4-6 and it will be the best 3 days of your shops year when you attend. Learn now HEREThis one was fun - put three popular podcasts in a room for an hour, and you never know what will happen...THIS WAS NO EXCEPTION Today, Lucas Underwood, Mike Allen, and Tonnika Haynes open up about the real challenges of shop ownership, podcasting, and share some crazy stories along the way.They dive deep into the difficulties of managing growth and the importance of setting boundaries—especially when it comes to family businesses and succession planning. Timestamps:00:00 Lucas and Mike Make it Awkward01:42 The infamous Benji story and awkward work gaffes02:46 How Tonnika went from outsider to industry board member04:31 Reflecting on diversity, intimidation, and leadership in the industry06:36 Board politics, cleaning up after the "old guard," and learning the ropes08:01 Confessions about podcasting: growth, ego boosts, and business neglect09:37 On loving people (to a fault), hiring headaches, and why feelings can't run a business12:10 Tough lessons learned: leadership critiques gone wrong14:05 Reeling back commitments to avoid burnout and family drama16:45 Discussions about business hours, staff, and shifting industry cultures19:03 Why every shop is different and one-size-fits-all advice doesn't work20:13 Coaching, cult-followings, and why shop owners get fiercely loyal22:44 The weight of influence: why podcasters and coaches impact real lives24:31 When business coaching turns into a fraternity (and how to break free)26:20 The coaching gold rush: who's really helping, who's just cashing in28:33 Podcast production goes legit—systems, processes, SOPs34:25 Therapy time: handshake deals, business agreements, and life after podcasts36:32 Family business confessions—succession nightmares, buyout basics, and trust-but-verify50:43 Lessons learned the hard way—and why you’ll survive51:33 Practical advice: documentation, buy-outs, and avoiding family business disasters

Episode 265 - Modern Pay Plans and Efficiency Tips To Fix The Tech Shortage With Eric Svedberg

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Eric Svedberg of European Autowerks. Eric shares his journey from starting in the gas station business at 16 to owning and growing a successful automotive shop. The conversation dives deep into the persistent technician shortage, with Eric outlining the challenges in attracting and retaining skilled talent and the evolving pay structures needed to stay competitive. The hosts and Eric also explore strategies for fair compensation, diagnostic testing systems, and the importance of shop culture and communication in bridging the divide between owners and technicians.00:00 Starting at a gas station job04:49 Rebranding to Automotive Specialists09:29 Mac and cheese cart setup11:26 Bellman warns about minibar sensor15:40 Salary expectations for auto techs18:05 Explaining the three-level system21:04 Handling customer pushback25:35 Technician pay discussions26:54 Negotiating a technician's pay raise30:33 Paying employees more than expected34:26 Explaining the production bonus system37:27 Growing demand for skilled technicians41:53 Ensuring seamless parts distribution44:01 Discussing social media dynamics48:42 Dealing with unreliable workers52:06 Understanding different industry perspectives55:27 Dealing with technician issues56:07 Discussing employee accountability

[Special Audio Only Episode] Leadership vs. Management: The Truth Nobody Told You | Michael Smith - Episode 9

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Tonnika welcomes Michael Smith of The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence to talk about what it really takes to build a high-performing, people-first shop. Michael explains why genuine motivation can't be created by bonuses or external pressure—real motivation has to come from within. Tonnika brings up what she's learned about the differences between micromanagement and true leadership, opening up about the importance of self-awareness and the hard work of personal growth. Timestamps:00:00 – Why Real Motivation Comes from Within02:20 – What’s Your Shop Actually Worth? Legacy, Acquisitions & Selling05:08 – Why Shop Owners HATE Talking About the Big Picture07:37 – Leadership vs. Management: The Truth Nobody Told You10:06 – Facing Your Shadows: How Self-Awareness Changes Everything13:00 – Not Just Cars: Building a People-First Shop16:11 – Reverse Engineering Legacy: Starting with the End in Mind18:55 – Planning Your Future vs. Living Day to Day22:11 – The Secret Sauce of High-Performance Teams23:44 – Motivation, Bonuses & What Really Drives Great Work25:48 – The Power of Recognition vs. More Money29:12 – Breaking Through Old Industry Mindsets34:03 – Developing People First for Real Business Results37:18 – Little Things You Can Do Now (That Change Everything)42:00 – Resilience, Grit & The End of Imposter Syndrome46:43 – The Science of Growth: Transcendence & Asking Bigger Questions49:23 – Growth Means Getting Uncomfortable (And Why You Should Try)55:10 – How to Break Your Own Ceilings & Why It’s So Worth It59:48 – Recap: The Real Meaning of Leadership in Your Shop

Meet Paige: The Auto Repair Industry’s First 24/7 AI Recruiter [THA 481]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at the VISION 2026, this episode of Remarkable Results Radio features host Carm Capriotto in conversation with Lisa Coyle, Co-founder and CEO of Promotive, and Stacey Black, Account Manager at Promotive. Together, they unpack one of the most urgent challenges facing the automotive repair industry today: how to attract, hire, and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving market. What the Episode Covers: The “Ghosting” Problem in Hiring: Why candidates are applying to 15-20 shops at onceHow speed of response determines who wins the hireThe growing impact of declining soft skills like communication and accountability The Role of Shop Culture in Retention Why culture must be intentional, not assumedSimple, low-cost ways to build connection and loyaltyIdeas like celebrating milestones, supporting families, and investing in trainingHow strong culture reduces turnover and attracts better talent Introducing “Paige” The Industry's First AI-Powered Recruiting Promotive’s virtual recruiter designed for the automotive industryInstantly engages candidates via text after they applyConducts a guided, conversational pre-screening interviewCaptures key data: experience, commute, current benefits, and pay expectations A Live Demo of AI in Action Carm roleplays as a technician to demonstrate Paige’s capabilitiesShows how natural, fast, and effective the process is The 24/7 Hiring Advantage Why candidates often apply after hours, and how Paige captures them in that momentReal-world success, including dozens of completed interviews over a holiday weekendFaster engagement leads to fewer drop-offs and better-qualified candidates Hiring today requires more than posting a job and waiting. The shops that succeed are the ones that move quickly, communicate clearly, and create a culture people want to be part of. By combining intentional leadership with innovative tools like AI recruiting, you can reduce friction in the hiring process, improve retention, and ultimately build a stronger, more committed team. *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-15" data-testid="conversation-turn-32" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> VISION Hi-Tech Training and Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Promotive has over 40 years of recruiting and automotive experience. If you need qualified technicians and service advisors and want to offload the heavy lifting, visit https://gopromotive.com/ Lisa Coyle and Stacey Black, https://gopromotive.com/  Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at <a href="https://www.todaysclass.com/" target="_blank"...

Stop Guessing & Start Controlling: Budget vs P & L

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin takes the conversation beyond just understanding your numbers and gets into what actually separates profitable shops from the ones constantly feeling the squeeze. Most shop owners look at their P&amp;L...

Ep 145: Lead By Letting Go? | Connor Tracy

Women Are Impacting Auto Repair! | Coralee Zueff - Episode 8

Consistency is key - heard that! But, consistency is HARD. That's why I gave up on trying and let the experts handle it. Detect Auto. Let them clean up your estimating process and raise your ARO - like they did for me! CLICK HERE TO BOOK A DEMOAnybody can run a shop. Building one that lasts? That's a whole different story. If you're ready to build smarter systems and a better experience for your team and customers, check out Tekmetric HEREIn this episode, Coralee Zueff joins Tonnika Haynes and Ash Kaplan to share her journey in the automotive industry, reflecting on how her passion for racing and cars led her from technician to acclaimed author and trainer. Their conversation highlights the importance of building genuine customer relationships at the service counter, with Tonnika and Ash emphasizing how personal connection and communication drive trust and success far beyond KPIs. Find more about Coralee's book here00:00 – Why it’s RARE for everything to run perfectly in the shop01:00 – North Carolina cold vs. Canadian “lost snow”03:02 – Meet Coralee: 24 years in the automotive game04:13 – From car enthusiast teen to Red Seal technician07:03 – Writing the next resource for women in the trades08:22 – Why stories matter for the next generation of women10:07 – The power of mentorship and finding your “Automotive Auntie”12:21 – Advice for your younger self: embrace the winding road14:00 – Passion for hands-on work and leadership lessons from water parks16:00 – The reality and value of remote estimating17:36 – Building powerhouse teams: train from scratch or hire experience?19:27 – How service advisors from all backgrounds are raising the bar21:32 – Training tips: one successful thing at a time23:09 – Canadian in Texas: adventures at the Texas Two Step28:36 – Finding community as a woman in a male-dominated industry33:22 – No makeup, no judgment: the power of women’s retreats35:36 – Autocross, drifting, and motorcycles—track life confessions39:41 – Shop race cars and the benefits of getting employees out racing40:13 – All-girls high school racing teams and changing the pipeline41:43 – Will AI take our jobs? Not if people still need people44:11 – How spending just 15 more minutes with each customer pays off46:33 – Frontline service tips: name recognition and building trust49:01 – Why the best advisors might be bartenders51:21 – Setting expectations: the art of handling upset customers54:03 – Downshift: Slow down for more meaningful growth55:10 – Coralee on learning to say NO – and loving it58:03 – Take an extra day, enjoy the journey59:09 – Where to find Coralee’s books and training

Ep 144: How to Lead the Younger Generation with Eddie Campbell

Fleet Work vs Auto Repair and Why Mental Health Needs More Attention | Riley Spence

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff sits down with Riley Spence to talk about his move from the dealership world to working on a fleet for a construction company out in remote Labrador. Riley shares what it’s really like dealing with tough northern conditions, from tracking down parts to handling low-quality fuel. They also speak on mental health, the importance of having a strong community in the industry, and why continuing to learn and connect with others matters so much as a technician.Timestamps:00:00 Getting a second chance09:54 Managing equipment in dusty conditions12:40 Issues with quick lube services20:20 Dealing with self-doubt and burnout23:22 Challenges of being an apprentice27:34 Managing tough diagnostic situations36:13 Reflecting on career burnout37:37 Why I avoid working at dealerships45:19 Learning from skilled coworkers49:50 Reality of heavy equipment trades55:32 Pursuing skills over big money01:03:27 Outdated info in truck systems01:05:47 Fleet maintenance and master switches01:10:14 Frustrations with car parts stores01:15:45 Auto repair process improvements01:20:11 Discussing challenges in key programming01:29:34 Meeting online friends in person01:31:01 Managing questions during courses01:36:20 Advice on understanding older people Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Your Shop Might Need Marriage Counseling: Fixing Communication in Auto Repair [RR 1087]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode Recorded live at VISION 2026, host Carm Capriotto and Matt Fanslow explore how lessons from marriage counseling can improve communication in auto repair shops. The core discussion centers on Matt’s article for NAPA Auto Care's Insight Magazine, “Your Shop Might Need Marriage Counseling,” and the industry’s gap in soft skills. His central argument is simple: most automotive professionals were never taught effective communication or soft skills. In the past, shop culture often relied on public criticism or shame to correct mistakes. Today, that approach backfires, especially for younger technicians, who are more likely to disengage or “quietly quit” in that kind of environment. Matt proposes a different approach: applying communication techniques commonly used in therapy to everyday shop interactions. Drawing from the Gottman Institute, Matt outlines common communication pitfalls: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling, and how they show up daily in shop environments. Key solutions include: Validating feelings, especially with anxious customersCoaching without shame, addressing mistakes privately with supportSeeking outside perspective, using coaches or therapists to uncover blind spots Finally, both Carm and Matt challenge the stigma around seeking outside help. They encourage shop leaders to work with coaches, counselors, or therapists to uncover blind spots and improve their leadership approach. Far from being a weakness, asking for help is framed as a sign of strength and self-awareness. The goal isn’t to turn shops into therapy sessions; it’s to make small, intentional changes in how people communicate every day. The payoff? Fewer emotional blowups, stronger team culture, and customers who feel safe, heard, and respected. Download Matt Fanslow's Full Article: https://remarkableresults.biz/download/45724/?tmstv=1775829579 VISION Hi-Tech Training and Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Matt Fanslow, Riverside Automotive, Red Wing, MN, Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z Podcast: https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Photography by Joe Manna Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm

Episode 264 - The Value of Diagnostics, Hands-On Classes, & Finding Happiness With Tim Iezzi & Ira Waldman

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood and David Roman are joined by Ira Waldman and Tim Iezzi, who share their experiences with technical training and diagnostics in the automotive industry. Ira Waldman explains the value of comprehensive accident investigations and how data pulled from vehicles is increasingly crucial for liability and repairs. Tim Iezzi and Ira Waldman detail their hands-on training classes, emphasizing the importance of practicing with equipment to build real skills. Throughout the conversation, the group discusses challenges facing trainers—including undervaluation and barriers to fair compensation—while reflecting on what true success looks like in the industry.00:00 Consulting work and accident investigations04:58 Calibration data and liability concerns08:48 Lab scope training launch11:32 Practicing lab scope basics15:25 Common mistakes using scopes19:03 Importance of planning and tools20:10 Teaching procedural oil change steps24:46 Improving technician education27:00 Training value and budget changes32:48 Challenges faced by fitness trainers36:16 Launching the training company39:46 Impact of low-cost car markets41:29 Covid’s impact on auto repairs47:30 Troubleshooting equipment issues50:25 Defining personal success52:21 Interviewing successful people54:28 Thanking the audience

How to Get Unstuck When Your Auto Repair Business Stops Growing [THA 480]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-(--header-height)" dir="auto" data-turn-id="0e35c993-ad2d-4e51-96b6-080ca2e8cdd2" data-testid="conversation-turn-3" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="user">*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-(--header-height)" dir="auto" data-turn-id="2bbbdb6c-d025-4cb7-90c5-c8b790caf679" data-testid="conversation-turn-23" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="user">*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:49a777bf-d263-4496-bf0b-2eb3a46ac96a-11" data-testid="conversation-turn-24" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode of the Town Hall Academy, host Carm Capriotto is joined by Matt Wagg and Shiju Thomas to tackle a common challenge in the automotive repair industry: getting “unstuck.” The conversation focuses on breaking through growth plateaus by sharpening leadership, building a meaningful culture, and committing to continuous employee development. Leadership & Accountability Growth stalls when tenure is valued over performanceNot every team member will grow with the businessLeaders must make tough calls and avoid carrying “dead weight.”Practice radical candor: honest conversations build trustSelf-awareness is critical; seek outside accountability (coaches/peers) Culture & Development Culture must be intentional and tangible, not just social eventsBuilt through aligned hiring and shared valuesReinforced with tools like assessments, training, and team learningContinuous education prepares teams for evolving vehicle technologyA learning culture attracts higher-level talent Embracing Being “Stuck” Feeling stuck often signals ambition and growthIndicates you’re pushing into new challengesClear personal and business goals provide directionWithout clarity, the business risks drifting without purpose Ultimately, getting unstuck isn’t about quick fixes; it’s about honest reflection, intentional leadership, and a commitment to growth. The shops that move forward are led by people willing to have the hard conversations, invest in their teams, and take ownership of what needs to change. If you’re feeling stuck, take it as a signal, not a setback, and use it as the catalyst to refocus, realign, and lead your business to the next level. Matt Wagg, Accelerated Diagnostics and Automotive, Bennington, NE. Matt’s previous episodes HERE Shiju Thomas, Hotchkiss Auto Repair, Denver, CO. Shiju's previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto"...

EP24: Family Business. It's Pretty Ugly. It's Pretty Beautiful. It's All In The Mirror You Look Into

Welcome to another episode of ShopSoup. This week we cover just some commentary on operating a family business and how one might exit away from it. Sell it to the next generation? Give it away? Simply close it up? Or, do you go the Private Equity route? Many paths to consider.Greg Buckley shares insights on family business legacy, strategic planning, and leadership in the automotive industry, emphasizing the importance of purpose, succession planning, and continuous learning.KEY WORDSfamily business, automotive industry, leadership, legacy, succession planning, strategic growth, mentorship, business exit strategiesKEY TOPICSFamily business legacy and succession planningLeadership and team development in small businessesStrategic growth and diversification in automotive industrySOUND BITES"Knowing your exit strategy is crucial.""Say no more often to focus on your goals.""Put your team in a position to succeed."CHAPTERS00:00 Welcome to Tectonic: A Family Business Perspective02:24 The Importance of Planning for Business Exit05:15 Mentorship and Team Success in Family Businesses07:46 Navigating Family Dynamics in Business10:16 Legacy and Future of Family Businesses12:44 Curiosity and Continuous Learning in Business

Before I Was the Boss Lady, I Was His Little Girl | William Brown and Ash Kaplan - Episode 7

Today, we welcome the man who started it all....William Brown, my daddio. It took some convincing to get him to open up, but I just HAD to let you meet him! Together with Ash Kaplan, we talk about how my dad didn't just build a shop, but and a legacy. He shares hard-earned wisdom from decades in the business, including how sacrifice and a refusal to quit paved the way for long-term success. Timestamps:00:00 Pricing for Profitability: Why YOUR benchmarks matter01:22 The Brown Effect: William Browns shop owner origin story05:10 From $3,000 Loans to $1.8 Million Shops—The Long Game07:35 Childhood Lessons Learned in the Shop09:02 “Excuses ain’t nothing but a made up lie”—Quitting in the Dip12:17 Making Hard Financial Choices (Do you need the Escalade?)16:28 When Is It OK to Treat Yourself? Dad’s Rules on Wealth18:57 Six Months in the Bank: Protecting Team and Family20:53 Work-Life “Balance”—What it Really Takes24:00 If Your Labor Rate Isn’t THEIR Business—Why Benchmarks are Personal28:38 “Pass the Baton”: Building Teams, Letting Go, and Growth37:40 Leadership vs. Boss: Why Pouring Into Your People Matters42:50 Firing, Hiring, and Being Held Hostage in Your Own Business47:10 When You Outgrow Your Shop (and Why that’s a Win!)56:25 Would You Do It Again?

Kaleb Nimz on How Auto Hospitality Transformed 98 Shops

Todd Hayes sits down with Kaleb Nimz, president of Grimaud Enterprises, to discuss how Precision Tune transformed its culture and performance across 98 locations using Key2Key and Courtside training. They cover leadership in the trenches, shop cleanliness, automotive hospitality, recruiting, and practical shop stories — including a memorable pit visit and record months for stores that embraced the process. Kaleb also explains how technology and accounting-first discipline support growth, the importance of daily Take Fives and phone skills, and how a faith-driven, people-first approach helped roll out consistent processes that boost sales, close rates, and team morale.

Ep 143: Proving Yourself vs. Improving Yourself with Levi OBryan

Why Technicians Are Leaving the Industry | Adam Matz

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is join by Adam Matz to discuss challenges facing dealership mechanics today. They talk about stagnant wages, rising labor rates, and management practices that impact technician morale and retention. The conversation also brings up the growing technician shortage and the need for better support and fair compensation to sustain the industry.Timestamps:09:42 Starting in the car industry11:42 Challenges with car repairs20:53 Training and mentoring younger workers27:00 Challenges with customer feedback31:44 Talking about car audio setups36:44 Warranty pay limits for repairs42:57 How mechanics are paid44:26 Mentoring young mechanics and mistakes52:25 Feeling undervalued at work55:47 Generational views on mental health59:39 Keeping technicians happy01:07:38 Challenges of modern living01:13:47 Struggles of young adulthood01:20:13 Building trust with employees01:23:10 Frustrations with dealership management01:27:47 Challenges in fair technician pay01:36:00 The value of trade education01:38:05 Challenges in industry and workforce01:44:04 Dealing with toxic employees Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 84 - Keith Perkins and Seth Thorson | Will AI Replace Technicians?

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Seth Thorson and Keith Perkins own shops and are both on the NASTF board. Today, they talk about AI and how shop owners can leverage Chat GPTs and Chrome extensions to streamline operations and keep their customer data protected. Keith weighs in on the future of technician roles, pointing out that while robotics and AI may eventually change the landscape, hands-on skills and adaptability will be critical for years to come.Timestamps: 00:00 Techs replaced by AI?06:25 AI and data ownership09:41 Learning the GTP foundation10:18 Teaching effective coding practices13:15 Teaching basic and premium features17:19 Using AI to access online data20:20 Circuit City vs. Best Buy insights25:37 Son considering trade school program31:28 Starting with the basics35:48 Putting in extra effort37:22 Learning through hard work42:59 Michael Brody-Waite's leadership approach43:38 Seth's class for shop owners49:18 Concerns about AI and human thinking51:12 NAPA's augmented reality training53:32 Balancing textbook learning and hands-on56:37 Mike's 90-day check-in

The “Monster” in Your Head Is Costing Your Shop Money [RR 1086]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode of Coffee with Carm and a Coach, host Carm Capriotto sits down with Greg Bunch, business coach and Founder at Transformers Institute and owner of Aspen Auto Clinic, to unpack the mindset barriers that quietly limit leadership and growth in auto repair. At the center of the conversation is the “monster” voice that is wired for survival, not success. While it once kept us safe, today it often holds leaders and advisors back from difficult but necessary actions: addressing underperformance, having honest conversations, or confidently recommending needed work. Left unchecked, that fear can cost shops hundreds of thousands, even millions, in missed opportunities. Greg shares five foundational pillars for effective leadership: Wisdom: Surrounding yourself with the right voices and guidanceKnowledge: Understanding your numbers and facts without emotionUnderstanding: Knowing what those numbers actually mean in your businessDiligence: Doing what needs to be done, even when it’s uncomfortableRight Choices: Staying aligned with your values, no matter the pressure Together, Carm and Greg explore how business is ultimately an emotional math problem, a constant balance between data-driven decisions and the human side of leadership. They also challenge listeners to become perpetual students, actively seek honest feedback, and confront the habits that hold them back. The episode wraps with a powerful reminder: long-term success comes from “slow dimes,” not “fast nickels.” Doing the job right, every time, builds trust, safety, and sustainable profitability. Greg Bunch, Aspen Auto Clinic, Transformers Institute. Listen to Greg’s previous episodes HERE. https://transformersinstitute.com/ Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; <img

Episode 263 - Overcoming Addiction and Trying To Find Purpose in the Automotive Industry With Cole Tanner

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Cole Tanner, a veteran technician, who shares his journey through family business transitions, personal struggles, and the realities of working in the automotive industry. Cole opens up about overcoming addiction and trauma, emphasizing the importance of honest conversations about mental health in the trades. The group discusses technician frustrations regarding compensation, shop inefficiencies, and the vital need for support structures within the industry.00:00 Frustrating restaurant wait experience06:25 Growing up with my parents08:11 Discussing childhood challenges12:51 Breaking cycles of family trauma16:25 Losing friends to addiction19:34 Discussing compensation challenges22:25 Consistent vs erratic performance26:35 Running an efficient repair shop27:42 Technicians disconnected from inspection value33:12 End-of-month sales pressure36:27 Improving communication and accountability37:58 Discussing future plans and concerns41:13 Finding balance and past experiences46:02 Struggles with drinking habits47:53 Hitting rock bottom moments50:40 The dangers of addiction53:47 Pushing for constant improvement56:52 Taking responsibility after prison

Ep 142: How People-First Leadership Drives Shop Performance with Chris Cloutier

Ep 141: Why You Should Give a $#!+” with Frank Ziede

Can the Technician Shortage Be Fixed?? | Josh Fowler

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is joined by Josh Fowler, a shop foreman at a Chrysler dealership in Adams, New York. Josh talks about how tough it’s been to find good technicians, especially with changing job trends and not much local talent to pull from. He and Jeff swap ideas on how to bring people in and keep them around, like offering signing bonuses and bumping pay as techs level up their training.Timestamps:00:00 Fuccillo's influence and radio presence08:58 Discussing repair workflow challenges12:30 Using signing bonuses to attract talent19:20 Exploring high school co-op opportunities23:42 Employee training and probation process30:55 Addressing incentive structures for young workers32:53 Developing mentorship and skill-building plans41:36 Building confidence through experience45:55 Developing practical mechanical expertise52:37 Addressing car maintenance and trade-in options54:57 Challenges driving service advisors to leave01:00:16 Technician networking and collaboration01:05:01 Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing01:10:26 Evaluating roles in auto repair01:20:02 Selecting appropriate diagnostic tools01:21:23 Addressing wages in the auto industry01:26:20 Addressing technician problem-solving skills Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 83 - Hunt Demarest | How to Actually Make Money in Auto Repair

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREIf you're like me and aren't good at marketing, don't do it on your own. Let the experts handle it. Touch HERE for more on Turnkey Marketing.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERE When I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Hunt Demarest is a CPA with Paar, Melis, and Associates. Today, he joins Mike to talk shop financials, tax credits, and private equity. Hunt breaks down why consistent improvement—just 3% better each quarter—is more sustainable than chasing explosive growth. He offers a candid warning about risky investments, sharing his own hard lesson with a too-good-to-be-true real estate scheme. Finally, Hunt dives into the rise of private equity buying up repair shops, explaining how that's driving up valuations and changing the market for owners looking to sell. Timestamps:00:00 Incremental improvement beats unrealistic growth—why 3% better every quarter wins01:10 Teaching personal finance at Vision 2026 (and why accountants don’t read your Social Security statements)02:07 The truth about R&D tax credits and audit nightmares03:44 What you must ask before taking any credit—defending yourself at audit time05:03 Hunt’s background: how he got into auto repair accounting08:08 Will AI replace your bookkeeper or CPA? Real talk, not hype10:32 Why shop owners need to understand financial statements & what current ratio means for your cash12:18 Managing AR, cash flow, and the case for paying vendors weekly14:43 Shop profitability: 8 months out of 12 is the norm, not the exception15:43 Trends: The scale and extremes of shop margins have changed MASSIVELY17:21 Labor rates at $386/hr and what actually drives profit18:54 The 20% net profit “gold standard”—and who really gets there19:34 Why comparing owner compensation plus net income tells the real story21:26 What’s the average net profit for shops? (Spoiler: it’s better than you think)22:15 Beware public “industry average” surveys—actual profits vs. reported tax returns23:01 Why working with an industry-specialized CPA beats a generic accountant every time24:14 The inner circle: who should be on your financial “advisory board”25:00 The most common (and WRONG) beliefs about shop accounting29:53 Hunt’s biggest personal mistake: the $25k investment gone wrong (and what to learn from it)32:10 Private equity: what’s happening, who’s buying, and what it means for YOUR exit36:10 Should you sell now? How PE offers stack up vs. passing to family37:06 Why PE doesn’t care about your P&L—sometimes it’s all about your customer count38:02 Final thoughts, lessons learned, and why even the pros get it wrong sometimes

Stop Leaving Money on the Table: How to Master Your Shop Management System [RR 1085]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at VISION 2026, host Carm Capriotto speaks with Evis Husejnovic of NAPA TRACS about how shops can boost profitability and customer service by better using their shop management systems. Husejnovic highlights that most owners use only 10–15% of their software, often missing key tools for managing operations. NAPA TRACS addresses this with hands-on support, user groups, and daily training. The conversation also emphasizes a “treatment plan” approach to digital vehicle inspections, helping shops increase revenue through thorough, preventative maintenance rather than higher car counts. While technology has rapidly evolved, Husejnovic reinforces that auto repair remains a relationship-driven, “handshake” business, and shares how NAPA TRACS is helping train future technicians through partnerships with technical schools. VISION Hi-Tech Training & Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Evis Husejnovic, Regional Sales Manager, NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ - Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Episode 262 - When Generations Collide - Growing an Auto Shop with Family Values With Matt Clarke

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Matt Clarke of Clark Automotive. Matt shares his journey back to his family's auto repair business, emphasizing the importance of refining operations and focusing on delivering high-quality service rather than chasing high car counts. The group discusses the evolving role of business coaching and training, including the value of accountability partners and the need to adapt to new technology in the industry.00:00 Trade Show Costs Are Ridiculous03:47 Union Inefficiency and Consequences09:13 "Prioritizing Quality Over Quantity"11:58 "Evolving Business Learning Challenges"14:35 "Epiphany in Management Training"18:14 "Refining Craft, Scaling Doubts"22:03 Choosing the Right Coach24:48 "Struggling with Accountability"28:06 "Unexpected Family Connections"33:15 "AI-Generated Estimate Dispute"37:26 "Balancing AI and Personal Touch"39:32 "Fitness, Gear, AI, and Darkness"44:37 "Unfiltered Critique of a Guru"45:20 "Mastery vs. Fake Expertise"48:44 "Adapting Teaching to Audience"54:39 "EV Market Resistance Analyzed"56:42 "Building Growth and Connections"58:38 "Vespa Culture: New York Only"

Smart Glasses in the Shop: Inside NAPA Autotech’s XcceleratoR Training [THA 478]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-(--header-height)" dir="auto" data-turn-id="0e35c993-ad2d-4e51-96b6-080ca2e8cdd2" data-testid="conversation-turn-3" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="user">*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at VISION 2026, host Carm Capriotto sits down with Matt Crumpton, Director of Program Development at NAPA Auto Care, and Robin Cowie, Creative Technologist, to explore the official rollout of NAPA’s Extended Reality (XR) training program. The conversation centers around solving some of the industry’s biggest challenges: the ongoing technician shortage, the high cost of tools for new hires, and the need to get technicians productive and billable faster. By leveraging immersive technology that feels familiar to younger generations, NAPA is creating a pathway for new technicians to build skills and confidence in a low-risk, high-impact learning environment. The XR ecosystem is built around three core technologies. Virtual Reality (VR) delivers immersive, point-of-view training with over 50 lessons focused on essential shop skills, reinforcing the idea that “brakes pay bills.” Using a structured “teach five, test five” approach, technicians develop muscle memory before ever working on a live vehicle. Mixed Reality (MR) bridges the gap between virtual and physical by combining real tools with guided digital overlays, allowing for hands-on practice with built-in support. Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses bring the technology directly into the service bay, giving technicians instant, voice-activated access to critical information like torque specs, keeping them focused on the vehicle and saving valuable time on every job. Looking ahead, the platform continues to evolve. Future integrations are expected to include shop management systems, Identifix, and digital vehicle inspections, enabling fully hands-free workflows and even customer-facing video communication directly from the bay. After successful testing with early adopters, NAPA officially announced at VISION 2026 that its XR training packages are now available for general purchase, offering shops a powerful new way to train, support, and retain the next generation of technicians. https://napaxccelerator.com/ VISION Hi-Tech Training & Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Matt Crumpton, Director of Program Development, NAPA Auto Care Robin Cowie, Creative Technologist, AI, VR, AR, Content Producer/Director. https://skillmaker.ai/ Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RResultsBiz - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/...

EP22: How His Broken Down Cavalier Lead To His Success. With Guest Shop Owner Nate Winston

Welcome to the ShopSoup Podcast! This week we welcome Nate Winston, solo shop owner of Winston's Complete Auto Care in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Nate's began on the side of the road when his Cavalier broke down due to a failed alternator. Since then, he has survived multiple headwinds over the course of twenty years to finally have a complete place of his own.In this episode, Nate Winston shares his journey from a self-taught mechanic to a successful shop owner, navigating partnership challenges, specializing in Japanese cars, and balancing family life with business growth. Gain insights into industry trends, effective hiring practices, and maintaining shop excellence.auto repair, shop ownership, industry trends, hiring, Japanese cars, business growth, work-life balanceKey TopicsShop ownership journeyPartnership challenges and resolutionsIndustry trends and future outlookSpecialization in Japanese carsWork-life balance and family prioritiesIndustry specializationWork-life balanceEffective hiring processSound bites"He was my retirement plan""They sent me six dollars""Working and moving on with my life"Chapters00:00 Introduction and Background02:45 Navigating Business Partnerships05:37 The Journey into Automotive Repair08:08 Training and Specialization in the Industry10:55 Family Life and Work-Life Balance14:50 Personal Experiences with Car Theft20:18 Future Plans and Aspirations20:22 Building the Business: Hiring and Growth24:01 Creating a Clean and Efficient Shop26:38 Balancing Work and Family Life29:33 Navigating the Future of the Automotive IndustryResourcesShop Soup Podcast - https://www.shopsoup.fmConig Wall Art - https://www.conig.comElite Training Events - https://www.eliteworldwide.comPromotive Industry Service - https://www.promotive.com

Ep 140: Why Daily Feedback is Valuable with David Boyd

We Need to Call Training "Continuing Education" | Bret T. Fadley

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsorsNeed to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is joined by Bret T. Fadley to discuss the upcoming TOOLS training event in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Bret talks about why it’s so important to keep learning and stay connected in the automotive world, and how events like this help you build strong relationships that benefit both you and your shop. Jeff also shares some of his past experiences, highlighting the super welcoming vibe at TOOLS and how these events leave you with fresh ideas and a boost of confidence heading back into your business.Timestamps:00:00 "Reflecting on TOOLS Event Vibes"08:32 Albert's Process and Event Bonds13:57 "Diagnosing Cylinder 2 Misfire"20:12 "Connecting Friends and Mentors"26:54 "TOOLS: Intimate, High-Quality Training"29:52 Networking Drives Automotive Inspiration34:11 "Canadian Caravan to Tools Event"38:56 "Casual Meet and Greet"48:46 "Enhancing Team Communication Skills"59:03 "Dealer Techs and Industry Perspectives" Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Is Your Shop the Problem? Hard Truths from the Voice of the Technician Survey Results [RR 1084]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> Host Carm Capriotto speaks with Jay Goninen, co-founder and president of WrenchWay, about insights from the 2026 Voice of the Technician Survey and what it reveals about the state of the automotive workforce. Jay encourages shop owners to download the free report to uncover blind spots and start meaningful conversations with their teams. The data show that technicians strongly prefer a four-day, 10-hour workweek with no weekends, along with proper equipment, paid vacation, retirement benefits, and paid training. While dealership technicians made up a larger share of respondents, independents stood out in workplace culture. 63% of independent technicians would recommend their shop to a friend, compared to 36% at dealerships, though dealerships scored higher in providing paid training. Across both groups, technicians favor an hourly wage plus bonus structure, which many feel better supports diagnosticians than traditional flat-rate systems. The discussion also highlights a troubling trend: the industry’s Net Promoter Score dropped to -60 in 2026, signaling that many technicians would not recommend the profession to others. To strengthen the talent pipeline, Jay discusses ASE Connects, a new initiative aimed at connecting shops with high school and technical school automotive programs to support them through mentorship, advisory roles, and community engagement. Carm also advocates elevating the profession by shifting the language from “mechanic” or “technician” to “specialist,” emphasizing the expertise required to work on today’s vehicles. Overall, the episode serves as a wake-up call for shop owners to use the survey insights to evaluate their culture, communication, and work environments, and to become employers technicians are proud to recommend. https://wrenchway.com/resources/2026-voice-of-technician-survey-report/ Jay Goninen, Co-Founder and President, WrenchWay Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ - Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;...

Remembering Aaron - The Best Moments of Success Leaves Clues

Today’s episode is a Berg and Jay sit down to reflect on some of the most impactful moments from the Success Leaves Clues podcast with Aaron Stokes. Together, we revisit the conversations, the wisdom, and the heart Aaron poured into so many people. His ability to encourage, challenge, and lead—always given freely, as he liked to say, at 0%—left a lasting mark on everyone he encountered.Aaron’s consistent care for shop owners and his passion for helping others succeed is evident throughout these clips. Over the past couple of years, we’ve had the privilege of speaking with incredible people, and this episode highlights some of those unforgettable moments.We invite you to sit back, reflect, and relive some of the very best of Success Leaves Clues.As we share this episode, we also want to let you know that the podcast will be taking a short break as we prepare for a relaunch—bringing you even more guests, deeper conversations, and content designed to challenge and inspire you to make a difference in your life.Stay tuned for what’s next, and thank you for being part of this journey with us.

Episode 261 - Navigating Grief, Taxes, and Machine Shop Dreams in the Auto Repair Industry With David Veldman

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by David Veldman, who shares his personal journey coping with the recent loss of his father and its impact on his direction and motivation in the automotive repair business. The conversation explores how major life events, such as grief or health struggles, can affect business owners, especially those without strong support systems or sustainable operations. David Roman provides a contrasting perspective, emphasizing the importance of shifting focus toward the next generation and building a business that can survive without constant owner involvement.00:00 "Grieving Without a Rudder"10:05 "Finding Aim Through Adversity"12:08 "Finding Direction and Motivation"17:14 "Dad's Varied Career Path"24:37 Machine Shop Succession Challenges30:13 "The Box That Changed Me"34:50 Efficient Flywheel Machining Strategy39:58 "Importance of Knowledge and Processes"47:09 "Pay Taxes Like an Employee"51:14 "Tax Payment Delays Explained"57:40 "Sad Start, Weird Ending"01:03:03 Lakeside Anniversary Offer01:04:49 "Possible Marijuana Overdose"

EP21: To Rise To A Level 10 You Must Dig Deep. With Guest Industry Coach Dave Schedin

Welcome To ShopSoup Podcast. I'm your host Greg Buckley, a multi-shop owner in Delaware that has seen, heard and experienced in being part of a 3 generation automotive repair shop.This weeks guest is Dave Schedin (pronouced, Shi-deen) of Computrek Systems, a coaching and consulting firm out of Spokane, Washington. Dave and I discuss the importance of personal development for the shop owner and it impacts the success of their business.In this engaging conversation, Dave Schedin shares his journey from automotive technician to coach, emphasizing the importance of personal development, purpose, and mindset in transforming auto repair shops. Discover practical strategies for leadership, team building, and creating a legacy that lasts beyond the business. keywordsauto repair, personal development, leadership, coaching, business growth, mindset, industry transformation key topicsPersonal development and self-awareness in businessThe importance of purpose and legacy in leadershipStrategies for team building and technician trainingOvercoming scarcity mindset and embracing abundanceThe role of mindset and emotional intelligence in industry success"Addressing the root pain points in shops""Profit is a map, not the destination""Growth happens outside the comfort zone"Chapters00:00 Introduction to Coaching and Personal Journey02:46 The Role of Psychology in Coaching05:34 Transformational Coaching vs. Behavior Modification08:23 Self-Awareness and Personal Development11:07 Addressing Pain Points in the Automotive Industry13:38 Defining Purpose and Legacy in Business16:36 The Importance of Continuous Growth19:39 Challenges Faced by Service Advisors22:25 Creating a Supportive Environment for Advisors25:20 The Infinite Game of Business27:58 Aging and Its Impact on Business Perspective30:34 Legacy and Long-Term Vision37:44 Taking Responsibility for Personal Growth38:10 Facing Life's Challenges39:47 Transformative Leadership and Self-Awareness42:19 The Journey of Personal Development47:13 Instilling Personal Development in Employees50:34 The Power of Self-Awareness56:19 Finding Joy in Business57:58 Transforming the Automotive Industry resourcesLeadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute - https://www.arbinger.com/resources/books/leadership-and-self-deception/Anatomy of Peace by Arbinger Institute - https://www.arbinger.com/resources/books/anatomy-of-peace/ guest linksWebsite - https://computreksystems.com/

General Service Technician Academy: Building Educational Foundation For Tomorrow’s Careers [THA 477]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-(--header-height)" dir="auto" data-turn-id="0e35c993-ad2d-4e51-96b6-080ca2e8cdd2" data-testid="conversation-turn-3" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="user">*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:8e59eec7-a235-4fa3-a072-956fea3fe478-7" data-testid="conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> Recorded live at VISION 2026, this episode highlights the General Service Technician Academy (GSTA), a two-day training program offered at VISION designed to build strong foundational skills for early-career automotive technicians. Host Carm Capriotto speaks with industry leader and shop owner Travis Troy and two young technicians who completed the program about how mentorship and structured training are shaping their careers. The discussion emphasizes that great technicians are distinguished not by advanced tools alone, but by how well they execute fundamental skills. The GSTA curriculum covers essential, practical topics including OSHA training, lift safety, fluids and oil, tire safety and repair, alignments, thermal management (A/C), and hands-on electrical training. The academy addresses a critical training gap in the industry through a hands-on learning model that encourages participants to learn it, practice it, and teach it, reinforcing both understanding and communication. Mentorship plays a key role in guiding young technicians who often face unclear career paths and discouraging workplace experiences, helping them build confidence, opportunity, and long-term direction. Ultimately, the conversation reinforces a culture of continuous learning, highlighting that both new and experienced technicians benefit from revisiting the fundamentals to maintain safety, productivity, and professional growth in an increasingly high-tech automotive industry. VISION Hi-Tech Training & Expo: https://visionkc.com/ Travis Troy, Honest Wrenches, Akeny and Des Moines, IA. Listen to Travis’ other episodes HERE Kreon Golden, All Star Automotive, Columbia, MO Jose Franssen, Skalackys Auto Repair, Fargo, ND Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RResultsBiz - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - <a...

They Ignored the Trades...Now They Have to Pay for It

Everybody keeps talking about the technician shortage like it just showed up out of nowhere. It didn’t. We built it. For the last 30 years, we told kids not to go into the trades. We stripped hands on training out of schools. We pushed college as the...

Ep 139: Hard Times are Meant to Grow You with Josiah Martin

Lower Car Count = More Money?? | Rick White - Episode 4

In this episode, Tonnika has on Rick White, president of 180 Biz. Rick explains why the best shop owners know when to slow down and reassess, not just push harder, and shares lessons on business leadership and the importance of being coachable. Tonnika opens up about her own journey letting go of micromanagement and learning to value her team.Timestamps:00:00 – Why discounts hurt more than you think (the “Disney World” account)02:04 – The real story behind “downshifting” and slowing down to speed up03:19 – Shop owner myths: Free time and business ownership realities06:20 – Social media vs. reality: What new shop owners miss08:01 – Coaching, DiSC personalities, and being (un)coachable10:07 – Rick’s intake process: When do you “fire” a coaching client?12:25 – Absentee ownership myth & staying connected to the shop17:06 – Growing leaders and letting go—real talk for micromanagers19:18 – “Embrace the suck”: Why bad weeks make you better22:00 – The Disney World savings hack: Stop robbing your kids!23:52 – The high cost of devaluing yourself26:55 – Making the numbers work: From $100 ARO to $850+29:12 – Responding to “You’re too expensive”—the mindset shift36:09 – Profit, not just sales: The truth about hitting $1 million42:00 – Working with family: Guardrails with kids in the shop47:09 – Learning to ask for (and receive) help49:13 – Rick’s Just One Thing: Value yourself, be a lifelong learner, and make an impact

Ep 138: How Daily Actions Shape Tomorrow’s Results with Al and Alex Oramas

The Impact of ADAS on Auto Repair | Eric Pagliughi from Launch Tech USA

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is joined by Eric Pagliughi, Senior Vice President of Launch Tech USA. Eric talks about his journey from shop owner and distributor to leading product development at Launch Tech USA, emphasizing the importance of direct technician feedback in tool innovation. They speak on the company's commitment to quick software updates based on user input, navigating the challenges of manufacturer security requirements, and building strong industry relationships to increase access to OE information.Timestamps:00:00 "Journey from Mechanic to Dealer"10:03 "Global Silos and Business Growth"13:38 "Right Tools, Right Market"19:14 Tech Efficiency and OE Challenges22:48 "Responsibility in Automotive Ethics"30:39 Evolving Automotive Data Accessibility35:41 "Cloud-Dependent Vehicle Repairs Emerge"41:17 Dealership Security Concerns and Limitations43:55 "Industry Costs and Responsibility"53:29 "Building Relationships Through Innovation"57:29 "Streamlined Updates with Tech Tips"01:04:05 ADAS Impact on Auto Repairs01:05:34 ADAS Calibration and Liability Risks01:11:22 "Commitment to Craft and Community"01:18:50 "Space-Saving Touchless Alignment Solution"01:25:04 Empowering Technicians Through Innovation Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

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

Tekmetric opened my eyes to just how much a good SMS will do for a shop. Their software is top of the line, and with them, so is my shop. Try them for yourself HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code Confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HEREMy marketing before and after signing up with Turnkey Marketing is pretty scary. In a good way. Get your marketing right today HERETired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERE Make your techs happier with Detect Auto. They'll stop getting "check noise" or "check vibration" from advisors with the customer concern tool. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Book a demo HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HERETravis May and Mike Martin are shop owners who coach with Elite Worldwide. Matt Lofton, as many of you know, is the Director of Coaching for Elite (and my personal coach/therapist). Today, we all talk about how having coaches through Elite have literally changed our lives and helped us in ways we may never be able to truly explain.Timestamps:00:00 Falling in love with your own success: Absentee ownership pitfalls01:08 Meet the guests: Legacies, buyouts, and shop owner backgrounds05:21 The journey to Elite: Why top shop owners chose coaching06:30 Humbling lessons—how the Elite Master Service Advisor program changes everything10:09 Accountability, habit-building, and real growth with ongoing coaching12:17 2025 Recap: Big wins, tough months, and lessons learned14:31 The owner’s struggle: Profit discipline & staying out of “the cookie jar”16:02 Finally closing the building deal: How perseverance pays off17:19 Navigating post-pandemic reality: The “sugar rush” is over18:46 Big goals for 2026: Celebrating wins—and moving forward20:40 The power of taking action: Why implementation beats excuses23:45 Personal growth, team impact, and communicating with your staff24:32 Best event takeaways: Coffee Bean Analogy & daily goal setting28:15 Why community events and peer networks make all the difference33:11 Biggest struggles today: Generational gaps & trusting your process38:55 Parting wisdom: If you don’t have a coach, get one!

Own the Technician Shortage: How One Shop Owner is Transforming Industry Recruitment [RR 1083]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode, Carm Capriotto speaks with Chris Machado, founder of XGen Academy, about a bold new approach to solving the automotive technician shortage. Machado has developed an intensive 16-week training program that blends virtual reality simulations, classroom learning, and hands-on shop experience to accelerate the development of new technicians. At the core of the academy’s philosophy is the “reverse funnel,” which attracts a wide pool of young talent and progressively refines their skills toward professional mastery. The program goes beyond technical instruction. Through its “Reality Hub,” students also learn essential life and workplace skills, including financial literacy, professionalism, and ethics. By modernizing the training experience and making automotive careers more appealing to younger generations, Machado aims to build a scalable model that can be replicated nationwide, offering a proactive, high-tech solution for developing the industry’s next generation of technicians. XGen Academy: https://xgened.email/ Chris Machado, Circle M Tire & Auto and Circle M Truck Repair Bakersfield, CA. Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ - Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

The Affordability Myth in Auto Repair: Rethinking How Service Advisors Present Repairs [THA 476]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode "I think the push back is more in our head than it is in the pocketbook." In this episode, host Carm Capriotto talks with Andy Fiffick and Chris Letendre about the perceived affordability crisis in auto repair. Both guests challenge the idea that customers can’t afford repairs, suggesting that price resistance often stems from the service advisor's mindset rather than customer reality. The discussion highlights practical strategies for improving repair approvals, including repackaging repairs with different parts or warranty options, presenting financing as “payment option plans,” and avoiding the “Sophomore Jinx,” where advisors begin to pre-judge what customers can afford. They also address the “maintenance-free” myth promoted by automakers and encourage shops to proactively educate customers with long-term maintenance planning. Ultimately, the episode reinforces a key truth: auto repair is a relationship business. When shops build trust and focus on helping people, price objections become far less common. Andy Fiffick, CEO Rad Air, Listen to Andy’s other episodes HERE Chris Letendre, American Pride Automotive Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RResultsBiz - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ - Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm &nbsp; &nbsp;

The System Said He’d Never Amount to Much...They Were Wrong

Most people know Kevin Brown as the guy who tells it like it is. The shop owner. The operator. The guy calling out the chaos, the excuses, and the bad decisions that quietly kill shops. But this episode is different. This is the beginning of the...

Ep 137: From Technician Shortages to Thriving Teams with Jimmy Alauria

Why Forward-Thinking in Auto Repair is Critical | JeanAnn SaintGrace

Like the show? Show your support by using our sponsors.   Need to update your shop systems and software? Try Tekmetric HERELaunch your tool game to the next level with Launch Tech USA! HEREIn this episode, Jeff is joined by JeanAnn SaintGrace, host of the BRAND NEW podcast in the Changing the Industry Network "Shop Talk Her Way". She's also an automotive shop coach and former shop owner. JeanAnn shares her journey from accidental shop ownership to building a business focused on profitability, people, and succession planning. Together, they discuss the importance of protecting technicians' pay and treating them like "racehorses," strategies for consistent profit to secure employee futures, and the emotional realities behind leadership and preparing for unexpected life events.Click here to listen to JeanAnn's podcast "Shop Talk Her Way"Timestamps:00:00 "Envying the Natural Puzzle Guys"19:50 "Managing Reputation in Business"25:14 Husband-Wife Power Dynamics in Business32:37 Technician Dynamics and Customer Communication41:43 "Survival Mode and Unequal Pay"57:25 "Challenges of Running a Shop"01:03:40 "Challenges of Transparency in Sales"01:14:02 "Proof Her Method Works"01:29:25 "Have a Plan for Uncertainty"01:42:32 Work-Life Balance Perspectives01:49:59 "Finding Purpose Through Positivity"01:58:19 "Resilience, Connection, and Legacy" Follow/Subscribe to the show on social media! TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffcompton7YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJadedMechanicFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091347564232

Ep 80 - Ash Kaplan | I Learn About Golden Hour Garage

Tekmetric transformed my shop. Plain and simple. Want that for yours? Touch HEREASTA is coming up September 24-26 in Raleigh. Be there or be square, dog! Register now and use code confess25 for $25.00 off your registration. Sign up HERETurnkey Marketing takes the stress of doing something I'm not good at off my plate. And gives it to someone who is. Click HERE for more.Tired of your shop’s social media looking like every other repair shop on the internet? Stand out with 47 Consulting. Learn more HERESend your service advisor to hands down the BEST service advisor training in the industry (even other coaching companies agree). It's Elite Worldwide's Masters Program. The next one is happening in Dallas Texas, September 10-12. Learn more HEREWhen I used the maintenance tool for the fist time with Detect Auto, my mind was blown. My advisors had the same reaction - and then SO MUCH MORE TIME. Learn more about Detect Auto and book a free demo now!Ash Kaplan is first and formost a friend of the show. Secondly, she's the founder of Golden Hour Garage. Today, Mike learns all about Ash and the new adventure of buisness owernship she's on. Ash Kaplan shares her vision for Golden Hour Garage, focusing on optimizing efficiency for shops through remote estimate building, warranty processing, and innovative advisor training. The conversation also highlights the importance of building meaningful customer relationships, as well as the value of attending industry events like the ASTA Expo for personal and professional growth.Learn more about Golden Hour Garage HERE Timestamps:00:00 "Ignite 2026 Wrap-Up Reflection"05:28 "Golden Hour Garage Vision"09:25 Intentional Onboarding and Quality Control12:14 "Warranty Costs vs Estimate Service"14:21 "Streamlined Warranty Estimate Solutions"17:58 "Empowering Shops Through Connections"21:23 "Optimizing Processes for Transparency"25:46 "Adapting for Growth in Business"27:27 Struggling to Sustain Employee Growth30:18 Do You Use a Bidet?35:51 "Free Beer Disappointment"38:18 Customized Pricing Approach Explained41:48 "Life-Changing ASTA Experience"42:42 "Red String Connections"48:06 Maximize Networking at Trade Shows49:28 "Breaking Isolation in the Industry"54:24 "AI Phone Systems Discussion"

Stop Winging Human Resources in Your Auto Repair Shop [RR 1082]

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:b7123d23-4a4b-4700-b41f-68ea2bc61414-0" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> In this episode, host Carm Capriotto sits down with Lola Schmidt, COO of Schmidt Auto Care, to discuss how independent auto repair shops can professionalize their human resources and management systems. Lola outlines a deliberate, multi-step hiring process built to eliminate desperate decisions and reduce candidate ghosting. It begins with a focused 5-10 minute phone screen designed to evaluate attitude, communication skills, and professionalism before investing time in in-person interviews. Once hired, new team members go through a structured two-week onboarding experience that intentionally integrates them into the shop’s culture and operations, complete with personalized touches and cross-training across the team. To establish clarity and transparency, Lola shares her “no gatekeeping” philosophy: providing candidates with a legally reviewed employee handbook before a formal offer is made. She also explains how to handle HR documentation and unemployment claims using a “no feelings, just facts” approach, relying on accurate records, clear timelines, and policies tied directly to the signed handbook. The result? Intentional systems that protect the culture, the employees, and the long-term health of the business. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to build a structured hiring process that prevents reactive decisionsWhy a short phone screen reduces ghosting and wasted timeHow to hire for attitude and cultural fit firstWhat an effective two-week onboarding plan looks likeWhy a legally reviewed employee handbook is essentialHow to document HR issues clearly and objectively The Everyday Educator: How Leaders Reinforce Learning [THA 458]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/a458/  4 Day Work Week and Our Own App [AW 146]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/aw146/ Lauralee/Lola Schmidt, Schmidt Auto Care, Springboro, OH Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ - Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ - Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider - All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books - Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom - Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm - Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections - The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ - Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ - Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ - Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ - The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ - The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/ - Speak Up! Effective Communication with Craig O'Neill: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills when Speaking to Audiences of Any Size. https://craigoneill.captivate.fm <img class=" wp-image-40058 alignleft" src="https://remarkableresults.biz/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/NAPA-Call-to-Action-Graphic-v3-1-1.png" alt="" width="720"...

EP 19: Can The Industry's Past Be It's Future? With Todd Hayes Of AutoShopAnswers

Welcome to SoupRadio Podcast. I'm your host Greg Buckley, a 60 year old, multi-automotive repair shop owner in Delaware. Today's guest is Todd Hayes, a highly successful entrepreneur that is bring back customer service to the automotive aftermarket in a HUGE way. He is the COO of Adams Automotive in Houston along with the CEO of his private equity firm, Houston, Boston Partnership.In this engaging interview, Todd Hayes shares his journey from a young entrepreneur to a successful automotive industry leader. He emphasizes the importance of discipline, exceptional customer service, and innovative business strategies that have transformed his businesses and impacted lives. In this engaging conversation, industry veterans Todd Hayes and Greg Buckley share insights on transforming the auto repair industry through customer service, technology, and efficient business models. They discuss the importance of industry roots, leveraging AI, and building a culture of excellence to achieve sustainable growth and wealth.Keywords For The Showauto industry, customer service, business growth, discipline, automotive success, legacy business, private equity, auto hospitality auto repair, customer service, AI, business efficiency, industry transformation, auto hospitality, private equity, technician recruitmentKey Topics In The ShowDiscipline in business and healthCustomer service as a differentiatorLegacy building and business growth Industry roots and customer service excellenceLeveraging AI for customer relationshipsBuilding a high-performance auto repair businessKey PointsCustomer-Centric ModelEfficiency FrameworkAuto Hospitality ModelPractical Tips To Build The Client RelationshipImplement AI tools for customer profilingTrain staff on customer service excellenceAdopt the Ritz Carlton auto hospitality standards"Customer service is the key to industry success.""Building a team that respects each other is essential.""Focus on the customer, and success will follow."Chapters00:00 Introduction and Personal Connection01:48 Health Journey and Resilience03:42 Discipline in Life and Business07:25 Early Career and Business Foundations11:29 Customer Service and Industry Changes17:10 Legacy and Community Focus24:19 Transforming Auto Shops into Customer-Centric Businesses28:38 The Journey of Entrepreneurship and Family Values32:27 Changing Lives Through Business and Community37:16 Innovative Customer Service Strategies in Auto Repair44:06 De-risking Business Portfolios and Growth Strategies50:11 The Importance of Communication and Customer Relationships01:00:18 Revisiting Business Fundamentals01:01:12 The Evolution of Business Models01:01:49 Harnessing Technology for Customer Engagement01:02:58 Building Relationships Through AI01:04:24 Efficiency in Service Delivery01:06:27 The Importance of Customer Experience01:08:16 The Role of Team Dynamics in Business01:12:24 Customer Service as a Core Value01:14:10 The Need for Respect in the Workplace01:16:13 Choosing the Right Business Model01:18:50 The Importance of Cleanliness and Presentation01:23:28 The Future of Private Equity in Business01:31:42 The Importance of Winning in Sports and Business01:33:11 Running a Business Like a Pro Football Team01:35:56 Discipline and Professionalism in the Workplace01:37:51 Navigating Industry Events and Networking01:39:40 Customer Service as the Core of Business Success01:43:02 Honoring Mentorship and Industry Relationships resourcesAuto Shop Answers - https://autoshopanswers.comTodd Hayes on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/todd-hayesAI Development by Michael Floyd - https://aidev.comAuto Shop Answers - https://autoshopanswers.comAdam Coffey's Private Equity Books - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Adam+CoffeyTechMetric - https://techmetric.comBryce's Auto Service Event - https://theaslconference.com guest linksLinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/todd-hayesLinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/greg-buckley

Ep 91: Turn Failure into Success with Jimmy Lea