The Institute’s Leading Edge Podcast

181- Tech at a dealership to owning two shops. William Bowe Shares his journey to ownership.

181 -Tech at a dealership to owning two shops. William Bowe Shares his journey to ownership.
December 09, 2025 - 00:32:16
 
Show Summary:
William Bowe shares how he went from tinkering with his grandfather to earning his Red Seal and owning two shops in Canada: Bruno Automotive and CG Motorsports. He walks through buying a business during COVID, learning cash flow the hard way, and working two jobs to keep things stable. William explains his growth strategy: build a repeatable service model, then adapt it to different vehicle brands and customer bases by location. He also highlights why restoration work often comes down to emotion, and why understanding customer motivation matters. He closes by calling for a better public perception of the automotive industry as trusted problem-solvers.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
William Bowe, CG Motorsports / Bruno Automotive
Show Highlights:
[00:01:26] – William shares how working on cars with his grandfather sparked his interest in the automotive trade.
[00:02:26]  – He describes moving from tire shops into European dealerships and earning his Red Seal early.
[00:03:23]  – COVID forced a career crossroads between dealership life and independent shop ownership.
[00:04:13] – Buying a shop during the pandemic meant learning business ownership under intense pressure.
[00:06:12] – William explains why he worked two jobs for years to stabilize cash flow and reduce risk.
[00:09:24] – A gradual ownership transition at CG Motorsports created a smoother path to full control.
[00:14:12] – His advice for expansion centers on mastering one business model before scaling it.
[00:15:07] – He breaks down how the same service model supports different brands and customer bases.
[00:18:24] – A personal restoration project shows how emotion often outweighs logic in classic cars.
[00:27:27] – William shares his wish to improve public trust and perception of the automotive industry.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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 LeaHello, friends. This is Jimmy Lee with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. My guest today is William, and he is the owner of Bruno Automotive as well as KG Motorsports. Both up in Canada. William, how are you, brother?
William BoweGood, thanks. Yeah, just super busy in the time of year. It is, but. Yeah. Doing well.
Jimmy LeaYeah. I really appreciate you carving out some time. I know you are in heavy entire season right now. Your shop's up in Vancouver, Canada.
William BoweYeah. I mean, not so much tires for our clientele, but definitely lots of fluid services right now, a lot of winter inspections for road trips up to the ski mountains, that kind of thing. But, yeah, we're deep in the thick of it.
Jimmy LeaYeah. My son is a big, big mountain biker, and he is just jonesing for me to take him up to Whistler.
William BoweOh. Right on. Yeah, yeah. Which is a great place for that. I mean, also with the skiing and whatnot, but, Yeah.
Jimmy LeaKnow mountain biking.
William BoweYeah, exactly.
Jimmy LeaI'm like, oh, you lazy bum. All you want to do is the downhill stuff. Yeah, that's the good stuff, dad. Oh. Okay. Yes.
William BoweOf course, of course.
Jimmy LeaThat's good, that's good. Well, William, I'm excited to to find out about you and about your history and how you got into the automotive business. Take us all back to where it is that you started in the automotive industry.
William BoweYeah. So, I mean, I'll be honest, I never actually had any dreams of being in the automotive industry as a kid. I actually wanted to be in the police force. But, you know, there's this. I got my first car. I was tinkering on it with my grandfather and his, you know, one car, garage, basement kind of set up.
William BoweYeah. Back in the, grade ten or grade nine when I started. And it was just basic stuff I want to tinker on. Oh, I want to get different headlight bulbs. I want to do different wheels and stuff like that. And he being an old hot runner himself, he kind of showed me what he could show me. But I mean, the cars that he worked on, the last, newest one was like a 1975.
William BoweRight? So, I mean, my first car being like a 2000 Acura, was a bit of his wheelhouse, but you definitely taught me what you could. And I kind of just got really intrigued with learning more and learning more, and, and life kind of hit. And after high school, you kind of faced the decision to lock myself down to school or do I try and go and make some money?
William BoweAnd, I realized you could you can make decent money, being a technician. And I liked what I was doing, you know, tinkering. So when I turned into a career, police try to. And, yeah, it started off in tire shops and, you know, worked my way up. And then I got my first real gig at a dealership that was specialized in German performance here in Vancouver, right when I was a first year.
William BoweYeah. And then from there, I spent some time in a couple other European dealerships and, I was Red seal in my early 20s.
Jimmy LeaCongratulations.
William BoweYeah, yeah, yeah, I did it. You know, I had my fun dealership. I did, you know, learned everything I could with all the BMW factory training sets, rose focus and specialized in. And, then Covid hit, you know, fast forward to what? Yeah. Covid times and, you know, the dealerships went through a bit of a shake up being, you know, corporate structure and whatnot.
William BoweAnd I'll show you to another decision. Do I put myself in a situation where I'm just a number, or do I try and branch out on my own? And at that point in time, I showed a friend who was working at an independent shop in North Vancouver, and he approached me saying, hey, the owner wants to retire. Do you want to try this?
William BoweI was like, oh, okay, well, I've never done anything business related, but I can see how a shop should run, you know, to be efficient and have pride in one's work. So, okay, I took on that opportunity.
Jimmy LeaAre you're you're Tekken at the dealership and your buddy comes to you and says, hey, let's buy the shop.
William BoweYeah.
Jimmy LeaIs that what I do, sir? So you went from taking the dealership to shop ownership immediate?
William BoweYeah. Yeah. Trial by fire.
Jimmy LeaOh, yeah. Welcome to the deep end, William. Sink or swim. Here we go.
William BoweYeah, yeah. And I mean, like, sink or swim is the best way of putting it because, yeah, this was Covid. We just we literally just bought this business as the mask mandates were coming out and things were just opening up again. Right. So take two guys in there. We were mid 20s in the mid to late 20s, you know, don't know how to run a business really.
William BoweAnd now it's okay. Well you can run a business. But you know you got to make sure there's clean disinfected masks, gloves you know all that kind of stuff on top of like don't have too many people in the room and all those other silly rules that came out at that point in time. But we did it, you know.
William BoweYeah, yeah. So you here.
Jimmy LeaYou you bought it in March of 2020 or when things were opening at 21.
William BoweI think we, I think the conversations of us taking over the business were like, hey, September of 2019, things got serious. I want to see March, April ish. And then everything was all said and done that following September. Wow. Yeah. So like right in the thick of it. Right. And I remember, you know, even us being open, we'd have to talk to our staff and say, okay, well, only one of you can work today.
 
 
William BoweTwo of you can work that day. Just, you know, because there's so many mandates on various levels of staff at the time. Yeah. All the while I was still working at the dealership, too, so I'd, you know, help the shop work at the dealership because no one knew where the roll was going to go. Right? So I had to kind of hedge my bets and see how much you know, what I can save up in case things hit the fan again.
William BoweOh, but I mean, you had to do.
Jimmy LeaThe two jobs. How long were you still at the dealership and working as a business owner?
William BoweWell, up until four years ago. Yeah.
Jimmy LeaSo you had a solid one. Two years of working two jobs?
William BoweYeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah. So, I mean, like, obviously when you buy a business and you're new to it, you don't really understand how the cash flow of things work. You don't really understand the customer clientele yet. And how the flow of work kind of comes through the shop season, the season. So I told my business partner, hey, like, you can be the day to day guy and I'll still keep my, you know, my dealership job, but I'll help you in the background.
William BoweI'll do all the web, all the appointments, all the accounting, all the super not fun stuff like that. My off hours. Yeah. And, you know, I won't take as much from you, you know, so I'm not there every day. But I don't need to, because I'll be supplemented on the dealership side, and, it worked out well, you know, and then we got busy enough and other opportunities presented itself that I, I left the dealership and went out into, CG Motorsports as a, foreman manager.
William BoweAnd then I took this shop over two years ago now.
Jimmy LeaSo, congrats to you on the two shops you own, Bruno with a partner, and then you own CG Motorsports.
William BoweYes, sir. Yeah.
Jimmy LeaWow. Congratulations. That's awesome.
William BoweThank you, thank you. You know, I.
Jimmy LeaWant to go back a little bit in your history there. You give quite a bit of details there. Talking about working with your grandfather in the basement on the car. And you talk about grade nine. Grade ten. Canada has a pretty good apprentice program for the mechanic side of things. The technical side of things. Yeah.
William BoweYeah, definitely.
Jimmy LeaDid you go straight from high school into the tech school?
William BoweWell, no, I mean, it was I mean, being young and being into cars right after high school, I did, I would say waste some time, just working, you know?
Jimmy LeaYeah. Just work, just working.
William BoweJust working in the trade, working on my car. And then, you know, I kind of realized, like, I can't just, you know, screw around for the rest of my life. So I was like, okay, let's get into schooling, let's do the right steps. And, I'll be honest, it wasn't until I had the offer to go work at that European dealership.
William BoweThat just means a lot more seriously. Oh, wow. I thought, like, okay, there there can be a decent career in this, you know, working on the higher end cars. And I was very interested to see, like, you know, what they're capable of. And, you know, I kind of started off with really basic performance work at that shop, you know, like coilovers, lowering exhaust, that kind of stuff.
William BoweAnd that was extremely exciting for a guy who was, I guess, a first year apprentice.
Jimmy LeaYeah. Because most guys, they're doing lube oil filter brakes, brake pads, rotors.
William BoweYeah, yeah. And I did all that to, you know, in the, in my time in the tire shops. Right. Yeah. But it was that like that, you know, tip of the iceberg that I was exposed to of, like, kind of the fun stuff you can do with cars that really got me hooked. And then I was I was done after that.
William BoweI had to finish up the whole apprenticeship and stick it out, so.
Jimmy LeaOh, good for you. Congrats, man. So. So you went from the dealership, and owning Bruno's to being the foreman at KG. And how did that conversation happen that you go from, hey, I'm just shop foreman to, hey, man, I'd really like to buy you out.
William BoweWell, when I first went in there for my interview there, I was like, all right, here at TJ, I was I was floored, I was impressed. It was it was a beautiful, clean shop. It did all the kind of stuff that I like to do, you know, of European performance. And, Douglas, from my first remarks to the previous owners.
William BoweWow, this place is amazing. This is my dream. And, you know, kind of off the cuff. He said, well, you know, I'm going to retire one day, and if you're interested, maybe you can take it over, you know, in a very, like, jovial and passing way. But I, I definitely took that to heart. And I was like, yeah, let's do it right.
William BoweAnd we joked and laughed about it. But then as time went on and, you know, I, I guess I proved myself, we got to more talks and I fully started to like, take over most of the day to day operations stuff. You know, we got into more serious conversations. He said. Yeah. So my, my plan is to exit by this point in time, my life.
William BoweAnd, you know, if you're ready, you get first dibs at it and we'll go from there. And it worked out. So definitely wasn't a hostile takeover by any means. It was a very gradual and, you know, symbiotic kind of relationship to go about it.
Jimmy LeaYeah. Sounds like a friendly transfer of ownership from I was the shop foreman and now I'm the shop owner, and it sounds like that. Yeah.
William BoweI mean, it was it was definitely, a softer landing. The one I dealt with was Bruno. Right. Because, you know, when I spent quite a few years here learning the customer base, knowing how things go, and then when the change of hands happened, there was no. Oh, we don't know who you are. We can't trust you like people already knew me.
William BoweSo it was okay. And not saying the Bruno transition was rocky by any means because my business partner had been there day to day. Yeah, but the learning curve was a bit more because we didn't have as much of, you know, a finger on the pulse of the day to day operations, whereas I did with CG.
Jimmy LeaSo. Wow. It's fascinating. That's awesome. So now is, is CG closer to home for you, or is Bruno's closer to home for you?
William BoweOh, gosh. No, no. They're both, as far as I can get for my house. Almost. To be honest,
Jimmy LeaI've got really good friends in Surrey, so we've been up to white Rock and been to Moby Dick's and had fish and chips. And you are so far North Vancouver, I don't think. I think we may have passed through there, going to the national park, the rainforest, but I don't think I've been that far north more than once.
William BoweYeah. So, I mean, I originally lived in Langley, not too far from white Rock, South Langley, when, I took over CG but as of recently, I have moved out to Abbotsford, which is we have a little 40 acre farm out that way that we kind of run as a family hobby. So, I mean, if I had to give you two of the worst commutes to work, it'd be North Vancouver and Richmond, and I have both, so that's, good for me, but.
Jimmy LeaOh my goodness. Yeah. Go. On average, how long does it take you to go from, home office to business office?
William BoweWell, I mean, I do, I do say that, the commutes crap, but we start super early here. We're 7 a.m. start. Yeah. So, I mean, in the in the morning, like, average, it's 30 to 45 minutes. You know, if there's an accident, doesn't matter where you're coming from, you're in traffic. So I don't count those days.
William BoweBut, you know, 45 minutes is pretty average. And, Yeah. And coming home, you know, that's again hit or miss. Right now I'm getting home in like 30 minutes flat. So we know traffic after 5 or 6:00, which is nice, but, you know, I know I'm on borrowed time there, so.
Jimmy LeaOh, for sure, for sure that that's pretty cool. You're able to get back and forth that quick. My, my commute could be anywhere from 30 minutes to the home office to two hours. Yeah.
William BoweSo I, I will say like, last winter we had a nasty winter and the tunnel that we go through to get through the other side of the river here was closed. Yeah. And I think it was I left the shop 6 p.m. and I didn't get home.
Jimmy LeaTill.
William Bowe132 in the morning.
Jimmy LeaIn the market.
William BoweEverything. Yeah, everything was a mess. So it was like, you know, you spent three hours trying to get one way. Oh, now it's closed and you backtrack and go the other way and all that. That's close. And you just it was all over the place. So. Yeah, it wasn't fun. Yeah. Okay.
Jimmy LeaYou when you, when I don't even want a level that that's that's next level. So you own two shops. What kind of advice would you give? The men and women out there in the industry today that are looking to expand their base, they want to add a second, a third or fourth or fifth location. Here you are.
Jimmy LeaYou've got two. What advice would you give somebody who's considering to take on a second location?
William BoweYeah. I mean, like the most important thing I find is really understanding your model, right? Because, I mean, you have to understand your model really well, and then you put in the variables being the clientele base and the cars you're going to work on. Right? You know, where your parts come from doesn't change too much. How to do it narrow doesn't change too much.
William BoweWe really have to narrow down and be specific as to who you're selling to and what cars you're selling to. And if you're able to do that, then you can basically plop that model down in, you know, neighborhood A, B, C, D, you know, always churn out the same. Right?
Jimmy LeaAnd so for your business model, you're looking at it saying, okay, I'm a Euro shop. I work on Audi, BMW, Mercedes that this is my core business. I could take this same model and plop it down in A, B, C or D and we would have a successful business.
William BoweYeah, yeah. I mean like right now we have our two shops, right. So in North Vancouver, we are heavily focused on, Japanese and domestic. Right. I say 95% of everything out there is Japanese or domestic down here in Richmond, I have 100% European. And if I have to split that down a little bit more, I'd say 90% of BMW and 10% to everything else.
William BoweBut it's the same business model. It's the same, you know, parts suppliers, it's the same customer service, it's the same model. What you do things, you're just plugging and playing different, plugging and unplugging different brands and different customer styles. That's it. Right. So, I mean, I know if I took this business and I went out to, see Surrey, where you might know, right?
William BoweYeah, there definitely be European shops out there. Well, then. Okay, you just bring the whole model over and you figure out which customer base of cars is the most popular out there, or which ones you can connect with most and plug it in and off you go, right? If you can really nail down a good customer service model and really understand what you need to give to your customers for that to come back, it does not matter if they drive an Audi or a Lamborghini or a, you know, basic Honda.
William BowePeople want good service, right? It doesn't matter what they drive. You know what the exception is? Some people don't care. That's one deal. But, you know, most people just want good service.
Jimmy LeaKnow for sure. For sure. Well, and from your website, I would tell you that Bruno looks like it's got a lot of Euro mixed with some domestic because I'm seeing some classic cars and some, corvettes and some looks like a Nova.
William BoweYeah. Yes. I mean, like, our our specialty up there is the classic cars of both European and domestic. You know, we do have a couple of really good guys on staff. And that's why I say that's our specialty. It's not something we do every single day. But if a guy comes saying, I want to restore X, Y and Z, well, okay, let's go, let's take it on.
William BoweRight.
Jimmy LeaWe'll take a deposit of $30,000 and we'll let you know when that runs out.
William BoweYeah, I mean, that, that that should be a pretty healthy build for some cars, but that's kind of what happens. Yeah.
Jimmy LeaYeah, yeah. Oh I'm sure, I'm sure people bring you Swiss cheese and want it to be, showroom ready a garage queen.
William BoweOh, 100%.
Jimmy LeaOh, come on man.
William BoweYeah. And yeah. And I mean, like, you know, this is for the automotive industry. Everyone understands, like, you know, curtailing a customer's expectations. Sometimes, you know, they bring you a car that's basically one speed bump away from the wrecking yard and want you to make it concourse ready. Right. And you're like, oh, how do I break in the news?
William BoweI mean, we can do it. Anything can be done. If there's enough money and drive behind the person doing it, it can be done. Yeah, but you have to be honest and be like, I don't know if this is worth it. Like, maybe we should go find you that cleaner of a car to start off with. But, I'll be honest, there's been some customers and even actually myself, that have had so much emotional attachment to certain cars, they don't care if they gave you the concourse version for less than what they'll put into the rust bucket.
William BoweThey love the rust bucket, right? So they're going to go to the end of the earth for it. And I mean, I just mentioned like I'm definitely a glutton for punishment with that one because I'm currently restoring my grandfather's night, 1970 Mercury Meteor convertible. And, I have never spent so much money on a car in my life.
William BoweAnd it's a terrible decision.
Jimmy LeaYeah.
William BoweSo, of course, emotional attachment. Right?
Jimmy LeaLike terrible financial decision, but, highly emotional satisfaction.
William BoweOh, 100, 100%. Like, I mean, how many times can you say that? Oh, we lost our family heirloom of a car. And then I found it on a Facebook marketplace 15 years later.
Jimmy LeaLike, shut up. Is that.
William BoweWhat happened? Yeah. Oh, 100%. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and on Facebook Marketplace, just by chance, and, I asked the guy, can you open the glove box for me and just see what registration is in there? And sure enough, the registration was my grandfather still, so. Wow. Yeah. Pretty cool.
Jimmy LeaYeah. Yeah. Congratulations. You knew that you weren't walking away from that one.
William BoweNo. Oh, no. Exactly. But that's the kind of situation, right? Like, I mean, certain customers will definitely. They'll be right there beside you, like, I love this car. I want to see this car. And everyone else in the room will say, walk away, walk away. But when there's an emotional attachment to vehicles, you can't sometimes. Right?
Jimmy LeaNo, that's exactly right. And that's where you need to find out what is the customer's motivation. I, I heard of a client here quite recently that, she brought in it was a, not a Corvair karma Ghia, you know, a Karma Ghia convertible. And, you know how much to restore this vehicle? I want it, I want to be able to drive it.
Jimmy LeaAnd, the service advisor had the same idea, the same prospect, which was, hey, you know, let's talk about this car, because I really don't think it's worth it. Worth it? But they didn't say that. What they said was, you know, let's talk about this car. What does this car mean to you? Well, this is the car that my husband bought me when we were first married, and he recently passed away.
Jimmy LeaAnd I would like to restored because it reminds me of the love we had, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Beautiful love story. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Nope. Not a problem. It's going to be $25,000. Here's a check. Okay, tell me when it's ready. And four weeks later, six years later, it was ready to go.
William BoweYeah. And that's a that's that's actually quite a common theme. You know, like some people think that, these newer cars, they don't have any personality or they're just recyclable. I think that's extremely subjective. You know, I've, I've had some interesting, you know, BMW, BMW models come through where it's like the most basic of the basic of the basic, and you're like, you okay, you want to see this?
William BoweAnd yeah, sure enough, there's some story behind it. Like, yeah, this was the car I got when my son was born. And we have all these memories and the road trips like, oh, okay. Sure. We'll we'll save this base model three, two, three. No problem.
Jimmy LeaLike, yeah.
William BoweYeah I would, but I get it. You know.
Jimmy LeaBack when the windows were cranked and it wasn't a power window that that type of, basic, basic, basic.
William BoweWell, no, I'm talking like early 2000. It's like E46 generation. Yeah. Okay. Like really? Not really. Nothing too exciting about it. No run of the mill three series sedan. But, you know, if if it's got any emotional attachment, I'm there for it. We'll we'll help out. Sure.
Jimmy LeaOh, I love it, I love it. Yeah. Those emotional attachments go deep for many, many, many, many people. And I agree with you I think cars have personality. I name all my cars. They have personality for sure.
William BoweYeah, yeah. And I think that's like, you know why most people are in this trade and why most business owners and move industry wake up every morning as we're here to like connect with that customer and kind of bring back the dream, bring back the passion to your car, even if it's just your daily driver and you really don't like it here.
William BoweJust driving from A to B to get just to get there. Yeah, well, we should be making a smile a little bit when you accelerate or when you hit a corner. You should be a little bit of enjoyment, right? You shouldn't hate everything about your car.
Jimmy LeaSo yeah. So true. So true. Well, I'm glad that you are in the industry and I think a lot of us in the automotive industry, automotive aftermarket, we do this because of the immediate feedback, the immediate feel good we're here. We help people in their day to day commutes. We help people with those family vacations. We we get that immediate feedback that says, oh man, thank you so much.
Jimmy LeaYou saved this delivery. You saved this family vacation. You saved this commute. You saved grandpa's car.
William BoweYeah, yeah, I could do that. Yeah. I mean, like, I, I my wife's a nurse. And, sometimes we've gone to heated arguments in a in a nice way because I like to relate our industry to the healthcare industry like we are doctors for cars. That's what we are. Yes. Right. You know, every aspect of a car, you can relate to the human body.
William BoweSo, you know, doctors are here to make you safe, healthy and smile. We're doing the same for your car. You know, the car is an extension of a person in most cases, right? So, I mean, we care. We care as much as doctors, I think, you know, and to a certain degree, and, you know, whether it's making sure your son gets to school safe, making sure you get to work safe, you know, a fun family trip.
William BoweLike you said, it's important. And that's what we're here for, right? We're problem solvers.
Jimmy LeaYeah, yeah, we are problem solvers. You're exactly right. And that's so exciting. Well, so what's the future for you, William? What's the future for CG Motorsports? For Bruno's? What's what does it look like for you? What's the plan? The three year, five year, ten year plan for you, brother?
William BoweYeah. I mean, like I would say, the immediate three year plan is to we'll branch out at CG. You know, we are well known for, BMW repairs where, you know, we have a very strong, customer base and that and people trust us with those. Over the last couple of years, I have been, bringing on staff and, you know, resources to help cater to other European brands so we can build a foothold there.
William BoweAnd same thing goes for Bruno. Like, we do have a very strong classic car, customer base, which we would like to be offering a bit more to. Yeah. So, you know, we're we're just trying to position ourselves strategically to, you know, take over enough real estate to facilitate these extra customer bases because, you know, cars take up a lot of room.
William BoweAnd Vancouver real estate sucks for wanting room. So I think the next three years or so is just, you know, kind of branch out and make them make those different divisions of our company and then build up the specialized, clientele base and our specialized workforce to help cater to those segments of the market. Just as well as we do for the ones that we're well known for.
William BoweAnd it's like I said in the beginning, it's all based on that model, right? BMW model ten of ten figured it out. Okay, let's try Mercedes. Right. Okay. Ford trucks figured out ten out of ten. Okay. Let's try Chevy trucks. The same model. You're plugging in a different brand and different customer base and off you go. But you have to throw out the model with the different variables, right?
Jimmy LeaYep. Oh, I love it I love it I love what you're doing there. And I love that you're, looking to expand the kingdom too. That's that's very cool. And maybe one of these locations might be a little bit closer to the Home Office as well. Next to the hobby farm.
William BoweYeah. Yeah. We'll see. I mean, I kind of like having my work far away from my house because I can just turn off. Yeah, but yeah, that's part of my drive. I'm like, oh, it doesn't exist anymore.
Jimmy LeaUntil the 40 minute decompression.
William BoweYeah, yeah. But I, I'm a glutton for punishment. So I give out my cell to my customers sometimes, you know, good customers. I get along with that. Yeah. There's always the Sunday Sunday night. Oh check into like, what could it be. Oh I don't know anything like.
Jimmy LeaYeah. Right. Yeah. Anything from a loose gas cap to, Yeah. You're going to blow up your engines, so pull over.
William BoweYeah, 100%. But for some reason, they think we can just diagnose it over the phone, which. Yeah. Let's see. So super fun to do on a Sunday night, which is always seems to be.
Jimmy LeaNo. Yeah. Your answer needs to be don't do anything. I'm calling the tow truck now. You know what?
William BoweIf you said.
Jimmy LeaLet's have a conversation tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
William BoweFor sure.
Jimmy LeaWow. That's awesome. William. Well, if you were to have in your hands a magic wand and you could wish one wish. You can't wish for more wishes, William. But what is your wish? What would you wish for?
William BoweI guess if we're talking specifically the automotive industry, I would. I would love to see the, the the outward opinion of our industry change from you're just trying to scam you out of a quick dollar to there there to help me. That would be very nice. Not saying that so much our customer base, but just when you talk to people on the street or you hear people talk about technicians, the automotive world always negative, almost always negative, oh, they'll know what they're doing.
William BoweOh, they, you know, overcharged me. There's always something negative. You know, be nice. If we were thought of as, you know, problem solvers that we talked about. Yeah. Because I don't like I know multiple shop owners, I don't know a single guy in my kind of circle that I've ever heard of scamming someone who's not trying to help.
William BoweYou know, I think there was misinformation. There might be some bad apples, but you can't paint everyone with the same brush, right? Yeah, that'd be my wish. It's just to change the outlook opinion of our trade, right? Because I think there's a lot of really good people there that want to help. But it's hard sometimes when you're up, like facing an uphill battle of negativity, right?
Jimmy LeaYeah, I love it. I love, talking about elevating our image in the industry. And that's what you're talking about is, increasing our perceived value to the public 100%. Yeah. And we can do that. We will do that. Not that the, the health industry is by any means perfect because we know they're not. The difference between the automotive industry and the medical industry is a doctor will bury their mistakes, and we have to bring them back and fix it 100%.
William BoweYeah. Yeah, it's it's it's funny too. And like, you know, people don't put much value on it, but the amount of, like, you know, liability and safety that's in your technician's hands on a day to day basis is ridiculous. You know, it really.
Jimmy LeaIs. It's amazing. It's amazing. The responsibility you have. Yeah.
William BoweYeah. And so I mean, that's what I mean, like the amount of responsibility put on our techs and our staff every day. How can we all be bad this world would be, you know, trashed. You know what I mean? Like if every guy was scamming and not doing brake jobs or doing improper repairs or improper parts, how would the cars still be running?
Jimmy LeaWell, how would they stumble? They would never be able to stop us.
William BoweI mean, yeah, exactly. Running, stopping all of that. Right. So yeah, it's it's interesting kind of, way to look at things.
Jimmy LeaYeah, yeah. So true. Most important, number one important on a vehicle is, that we need it to go. And second most important is just as important as the first one is we have to make sure it stops 100%.
William BoweYeah.
Jimmy LeaWilliam. Congratulations on on, transitioning from the dealership into the independent world. What do you think of it? What's the difference in your mind between, a dealership and an independent world?
William BoweI mean, I honestly don't have anything too bad to say about the dealership world. Like, I learned a lot there that I only ever found in the independent world. Yeah. I think the one thing the dealerships are missing and they've probably lost track of is, you know, true customer service. Right? And I'm not I can't blame them.
William BoweI mean, they're usually large corporations with very large overhead and every dollar counts, right. So, I mean, the biggest positives for an independent shop is you have the ability to take the extra time to, to get to know your customer and treat them better than they have at the dealership. And that's what creates repeat clients. But then again, we can't answer every question for them.
William BoweWe're limited by tooling or by facilities, or we can't do recalls. That kind of stuff. Right. So definitely a place for both models in the industry. But I think, you know, dealerships need to work a little bit better on, their customer service in this day and world. But it's okay. No one's perfect. And who has room for improvement?
William BoweRight? From both sides of the coin.
Jimmy LeaYeah, yeah. For sure. Yeah. I would agree with you. I think those dealerships, they are big and they do a phenomenal job. And they've got, a big overhead. And I love the nimbleness, the ability of the smaller business to make decisions, make decisions quickly, move quickly, take care of customers and clients to a point where they become raving fans and they stay with us forever and ever and ever.
William BoweYeah, you know, 100% cool.
Jimmy LeaWilliam. Thank you very much, man. I appreciate the conversation. I appreciate talking with you today. Thank you so much.
William BoweYeah. Of course. So thank you.
 

180 - The Ownership Evolution: Systems, Coaching, and the Next Chapter for Northeast Motorworks

180 - The Ownership Evolution: Systems, Coaching, and the Next Chapter for Northeast Motorworks
December 17, 2025 - 00:48:05
 
Show Summary:
Wayne interviews Freddy and Lucas of Northeast Motor Repairs about launching their shop from scratch and overcoming early financial struggles. They explain how trust, communication, and coaching helped them correct underpricing, improve processes, and quickly boost profitability. The team shares how implementing a parts matrix, TechMetric, and structured systems transformed their workflow and customer experience. Freddy and Lucas highlight the value of mentorship, integrity, and learning from mistakes. They also discuss future goals, including scaling to multiple locations and building a business that runs without their daily presence.
 
Host(s)
Wayne Marshall, CEO & Industry Coach
Aldo Gomez, Industry Coach
 
Guests:
Freddy & Lucas, Owners of Northeast Motor Repairs
 
 
Show Highlights:
[00:00:00]  – Wayne introduces Freddy, Lucas, Aldo, and the Northeast Motor Repairs success story.[00:01:00] – Freddy explains transitioning from car sales to opening a repair shop together.[00:05:00] – Partners describe protecting their friendship through immediate, honest conflict resolution conversations.[00:08:00] – Early months bring negative balances, unpaid owners, and underpriced work on too many cars.[00:13:00]– Implementing a parts matrix and TechMetric boosts margins, efficiency, and professional presentation.[00:18:00] – Wayne celebrates record months, stronger gross profit, and steadily climbing performance metrics.[00:20:00] – Freddy emphasizes coaches and mentors as the fastest path to results.[00:25:00] – Owners share their dream of self-running shops and expanding to multiple locations.[00:30:00] – Advice to aspiring owners: prepare financially, expect trial-and-error, invest in guidance.[00:36:00] – Standing on integrity and thorough digital inspections wins trust and returning customers.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Wayne Marshall: Hello, this is Wayne Marshall, coach and CEO here at the Institute. I welcome you today as we have gathered to, uh, interview in this webinar, one of our existing customers, Northeast uh, motors Repair. Today we're. Freddy and Lucas joining us along with Aldo, who is one of our other coaches, and, uh, also helps with our APG program, our advisors performance group program, and, uh, have this opportunity to visit with these folks as to what they've been doing, the success they've been having.
Wayne Marshall: As to some of the things that have been going on is they have started this business from scratch just about 18, 19 months ago to where the success of what they're having today. So, gentlemen. Welcome, glad that you're here with us today. Uh, today I'm gonna start off with, uh, Freddy first. Freddy, I want you to gimme just a little bit of background, if you would, of what first drew you into this industry and why you do what you do.
Freddy: Sure thing. Yeah.
Wayne Marshall: Thanks for having
Freddy: us. So, um, I began selling cars with my father and I was always business minded, and that's actually what I studied in, uh, college. And what drew me into this was actually that we needed to get cars repaired to sell. And that's how I met Lucas. We started working together and, uh, finally reached a goal that we had collectively to open up a, a repair shop together.
Freddy: And actually the business here was so busy that we weren't actually able to repair any of the vehicles we had for sales. And we started making that transition over to to work here at Northeast Motor Repairs.
Wayne Marshall: If you would do me the honor, uh, for those that'll quickly find out, uh, Lucas is very fluent in Spanish and learning English, so we're gonna do part of this, uh, webinar today in Spanish. So. If you would ask that same
Aldo: Sure. Absolutely. So, uh.
Aldo: Excellent. So what, what, uh, what, uh, uh, Lucas has shared is that from his native country, is that, uh, fuel is not the greatest grade of fuel. So he started at a young age working on mainly Carre systems and such, and that's when he began learning to work on vehicles from the necessity of having subgrade fuel.
Aldo: And he met Freddy's, uh, Freddie Senior or Freddy's father. Years ago, and Freddie's senior or Freddie's father would call and ask, uh, Lucas for help every now and then. And it became more and more often. And Freddie Senior at one point said, well, you know, what's it gonna take for you to work with us full time?
Aldo: And uh, here we
Wayne Marshall: are. So, so question here, and I'll start with you, Freddy. Uh, what's been one of the biggest challenges, because as I've already asked, and we know, and for the, for our audience, you guys are not related. You're just your friends. Uh, and you know, in a lot of cases when we talk to people in this industry, you get brothers or cousins who come together.
Wayne Marshall: And sometimes in this case, friends, um, in the year and a half plus you guys have been working together, what's been some of the biggest challenges that you have faced to get this business going and started? And then, yeah, we'll jump over to Luke, uh, Lucas and his,
Freddy: yeah. So one of the things that, uh, we knew when we began a business is that, um, we're cognizant that many businesses can fail, especially being friends or.
Freddy: Brothers or anything related like that. Mm-hmm. So from the very beginning we, we really laid out that anything that we had come up, we would immediately address it. And we wouldn't let at any point there be a moment where there was something we had bubbling up inside. I think it was really important to let any of that stuff out immediately so that way we nipped it in the bud and we could continue moving forward.
Freddy: And actually, um, as we progress, there's less and less of those moments, but it was important to take care of the ones that. We're gonna begin from the very beginning, so that way it wouldn't evolve into anything and we could continue a successful, uh, business relationship.
Aldo: Fantastic. Okay.
Aldo: Okay, so Lucas's answer to, to the same question was that, um, that they had a, that Freddy and Lucas had established a long time ago. Foundational trust where mm-hmm if a situation, obstacle, an issue came up, that there was a hundred percent confidence and trust within the team that they could figure it out.
Aldo: And there's no reason that, uh, that we can't all tackle that problem.
Wayne Marshall: Yeah, I agree. You know, it's when you start any business, and especially when you start a business from scratch with partners, there's challenges. And if you can't have good, clear, concise collaboration and communication. You guys are, you are.
Wayne Marshall: It can just blow up and it can turn into a very disastrous, which nobody wants. I mean, obviously you did this not as a hobby, but to build it and create something that can become your career and something that has longevity and legacy to it based on past conversations that I know we've had. Um, so.
Wayne Marshall: Thinking about that and as we just talked about you guys coming together, share a little bit of, you know, 'cause there's a many of people that we work with that are starting their business or their service industry, business from scratch, and they're trying to build it up. What was one or two really big challenges or growing pains or hurdles, however you wanna look at it, that you had to overcome in those early days when you started up.
Freddy: Yeah, so we were definitely doing a lot of things wrong the first few months. The first few months we would be negative in the bank account every week and every month and many, many months. Lucas and I couldn't afford to pay ourselves anything. Um, we were definitely scraping through and a, a huge problem that we actually addressed early with, uh, the help of the institute was that, um.
Freddy: We were working on too many cars, so we were working on too many cars and still negative in the bank account. What we realized was that we were undercharging and undervaluing our worth, um, and that would really, ultimately, ultimately even lead to, you know, miscommunications with clients, uh, time crunches that we could not meet.
Freddy: And, uh, ultimately it was, it was hard for everybody, for us, and the clients included. Mm-hmm.
Wayne Marshall: What would you add to that, Lucas? I'll let, uh, Aldo help cover.
Aldo: Perfect. So
Lucas: the,
Aldo: uh, what Lucas has, has added to that is that, aside from the difficulties of overworking on cars and such was that, uh, they, there was no process yet on how to process customers from when they show up to when they leave. And they often felt like, uh, somewhat. A vote without a rudder. Right.
Aldo: Or, or lost on what, what to do with the customers. And since they've been introduced to the institute, we've been able to bring a lot more process and framework into the organization where, uh, we can figure out what the next step or we know what the next step is.
Wayne Marshall: Yeah. No, we, uh, I remember some of those first calls that we had and we're looking at. Everything that's going on, and I, I wanna tell a quick story because I love the story. Freddy and Lucas. Mm-hmm. Um, we had our very first call and you laid out and you were very transparent with the challenges. What was going on?
Wayne Marshall: You, you know, the money in the bank and XXY. I mean, we just went through it and I can remember we said, well, I know I told you right away. I said, if, if you do anything. Raise your rate and raise your rate right now because you are, you are right. You're undervaluing, I believe what you're doing and your services.
Wayne Marshall: So we talked and we left and uh, two weeks went by and we had our second phone call or second zoom call with you. And I remember you kept both, got on, you both had big smiles and I said, how's it going guys? Who were like, we got money in the bank, right? Because up until then it was a struggle. You didn't always have money in the bank.
Wayne Marshall: And all of a sudden it's like, yeah, we've gone two weeks, we've been busy, and today we've paid all our bills and we still have money in the bank. Right? And it's the simple things of knowing your numbers. Aldo preaches it. When he talks to the advisors program, we talk about it and his stuff. It's, you gotta know your numbers and you gotta know where you're going and what you're doing.
Wayne Marshall: So, um, yeah, it, it was, it brought a lot of joy to us to sit there and talk and see that, hey, we made a difference in the matter of two weeks, we moved the needle. But, you know, and I know that wasn't, that was only the beginning. There was a lot more we've done as we've been working through some of the things.
Wayne Marshall: What are some of the key items that you felt have done the most for you, besides just raising your rate, but what are some of the key items that have paid the biggest dividends or done the most for you as you've been building out and fixing or putting the processes in place?
Freddy: Yeah, so Lucas and I have actually been talking about this a lot lately, and there's, there's some things that we noticed from the very beginning that, um, was very helpful.
Freddy: So, um. We found the institute on, uh, U2. We noticed a, a podcast that spoke about a parts matrix. Mm-hmm. And as soon as we, we implemented that, that gave us results right away and we were able to, um, see the benefit of it. And that's actually what led us to subscribing and then joining this team. When we had our meetings, um, you suggested that we get a, uh, different software programs.
Freddy: So we ended up using Tech Metric that was able to consolidate and put a whole bunch of different, um, tools together that allowed us to save a ton of time. Uh, I remember focusing and I used to have to. Uh, use the parts matrix, but we'd have to use it, grab a calculator and put in every single number and every part number one by one and spend hours to create.
Freddy: Once inro, it would be ridiculous time wasted, but as soon as we implemented, uh, type metric, we would save hours and be able to help a lot more people and do a lot more things like I, uh, dbis where we'd be able to send inspection reports and things like that. It looks more professional, it looks way more professional, and because it is.
Aldo: Fantastic. So
Aldo: parts matrix.
Aldo: Fantastic. What a, what a what a great answer. And, uh, what a special team it is here based on, you know, what Lucas's response was. And Lucas is, uh, saying that he was a bit apprehensive about wanting to move forward on any kind of, not just training, but not knowing Sure. What move to make. And it, and Freddy really led the way in a very.
Aldo: Good form, like a true leader moving forward in that the, that uh, the in coupled up with the institute, then Freddy and the Institute, then Lucas now being able to trust Freddy, that they're gonna make the right move in the right direction. Uh, it's that Freddy has been, uh, spearhead. The move forward and getting and then enrolling with the institute, which has given Lucas some more confidence in, in what he probably would've not held back on.
Aldo: So that's huge.
Wayne Marshall: It is. Well, I've, I've, I've said it to both of you before. I mean, I couldn't be more proud of the success, uh, the growth. Just how you've approached from, not that you guys didn't approach it with a level of professionalism, but it's been a lot of fun to work together. And what makes it so much fun is that as we continue to move and look back.
Wayne Marshall: I mean they're, I mean it's like every month it's just up and up and up and up. The numbers just continue to improve. I know overall, operationally, just taking your average ro, it's up, your GP gross profit, it's up. Your parts margin, it's up. I mean, we can just keep going down the list. And what's so exciting is that as you see this, 'cause you guys are both in your twenties, you're young men and you've got so much in front of you.
Wayne Marshall: And I'm gonna ask this question, we'll talk a little bit about it, but you got so much in front of you of what you can do that it's thrilling, at least for myself. And I think although you too, I mean, we get to live vicariously through your success. So when you get excited, I get excited, right? That's what makes this so much fun and why I was looking forward to having this conversation with you.
Wayne Marshall: At the same time though, I think, you know, when I think of our audience and the people that do look in and listen and watch our webinars, there's always those nuggets because you know how hard it is to start a business. I don't care if you start in your twenties, thirties, forties, it's, it's hard.
Aldo: Mm-hmm.
Aldo: If
Wayne Marshall: there's one or two key pieces of advice that you would now give as you look back 18 months, what would it be?
Freddy: Man, that is a hard question, but there. There's something that I, I started actually telling people whenever, whenever anyone asks me, uh, any advice, I realized really quickly that you need a coach in any new area that you're gonna, um, adventure into the best way to get the results you want.
Freddy: And then some who would be to find someone to guide you through it. Someone who's already taken those steps and can skip so many failures or, or open your eyes to see that you would've never seen. Yeah. Think that. That's the number one thing for me is to find a coach. Anybody to help in there?
Wayne Marshall: Yeah. Well, a coach or you know, a mentor, you can call it because.
Wayne Marshall: I shared, I've shared many stories with both of you guys that, you know, early in my career I was very blessed to be able to meet some gentlemen and different people, uh, that took an interest in me to help me and mentor me, people I could reach out to and talk to. So when I was in my twenties and thirties and I was starting my careers, these people were invaluable.
Wayne Marshall: Now, sadly, because I was young and they were older, many have since passed away. So I always look at it as I've told you both. Now it's my turn. I'm now the older guy, so to speak, and I'm now the one who can help pay it forward for those who did it for me. So that's part of my thrill of working with both of you is seeing that I, you know, again, 'cause.
Wayne Marshall: I'm a little older than both of you, but it's something that I can now give back and I can see the difference. And you're right. Um, I know what it did for me. I know Aldo, you and I have talked, you had some great mentors and people early in your career who you've shared their names and the things they did for you to get you to where you are today.
Wayne Marshall: And there'll be a day, Freddy and Lucas, I challenge you. You're gonna have the opportunity to do it for somebody else. Absolutely. That'll be the challenge as you bring in that next young kid someday that wants to become tech or whatever in this industry, you're gonna be able to pay it forward to them also.
Wayne Marshall: But I'll let, sorry, I'll let Lupus talk a little bit now and I'd be curious what he would say on it.
Aldo: I we're gonna, we're gonna make it a little different. I'm gonna say if, if, if Lucas met Lucas from four years ago, what would Lucas say to to Lucas four years ago? Okay, so.
Lucas: Repair shop.
Aldo: Okay. Lucas said that if he were to meet Lucas four years ago, that uh, that he would say, you know, because you are a technician and you know how to work on vehicles, that doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to run a business. And, uh, do not, do not, uh, do not be, do not have any reservations about asking for help or some kind of coaching to help you learn about those things.
Aldo: There's nothing wrong with it.
Wayne Marshall: It's a, it's a humbling thing to be able to stop and realize I can't do and know everything. And it's not a sign of weakness if you gotta ask for help. To me, it's a sign of strength that you recognize. Where you can do something well and where you need to improve. And the better you do at recognizing those shortcomings.
Wayne Marshall: 'cause again, we don't know. We don't know at times. And until we get an opportunity to have some of those discussions and that interaction, that's how you grow and that's how you challenge yourself to step up. And it's no different what you guys both said about early on in the business. You know, if we're gonna have disagreements, we have this, we gotta be, we gotta make the commit to each other to have those hard conversations so we can build and grow and create something with that, I'd be curious, I'd like to hear a little bit more because you've shared, but let's expand.
Wayne Marshall: You've had good growth. You're doing real. You're obviously, 'cause you're still new and you're growing, but you're having the best year ever. You've had multiple record months because you just do better and better and better and better. Now we're starting to get ready to go into 26 and beyond. And I know you've shared a little bit in our conversations of what some of that looks like in top line revenue, which obviously trickles into other success of profitability.
Wayne Marshall: But let's look even before that. Where do you guys wanna really go bigger, more locations, acquiring, changing your services, expanding into other things. Talk a little bit about what that future now starts to look like.
Freddy: Yeah, so we definitely, we definitely dream a lot together and we have a lot of goals we wanna reach.
Freddy: Uh, we'd love to have more shops. We wanna be able to open a whole bunch. And even for this one here in particular, we are excited for the day that we don't have to be inside the building. We're excited to be able to, um, own a shop that can run itself, be able to employ the right people to give the, the.
Freddy: Right service to our customers and be able to trust that they'll be able to handle it and us be able to manage it from afar. That would be one of our ultimate goals. And then from there, being able to spend to more shops and, and, and just multiply that.
Aldo: Mm-hmm. So, Lucas is, is seconding on what Freddy said and that, that, uh, the idea, it sounds like the, the, a big goal is to have the shop running like a well willed machine, right? Where they don't have to be present and you get to work on the business rather than in the business and, uh, to look at other opportunities.
Wayne Marshall: It is gonna come. I, I have all the confidence. I think it's, it's just not a matter of if it's when, it's just a matter of some time, which is hard to sometimes be patient. As a young man, I've been, I had big goals and dreams. I was wanted a happen. Let's go, let's go. I wanted to get it done in the next month too.
Wayne Marshall: But some of these things do take time. Right. The biggest thing I guess I would say that I've recognized with is the foundation you're building. You know, if you're gonna take these next steps and move up to these other things, be it another location, the better the foundation of what you're building today and getting all the processes and the procedures and just what it takes to service the customer or the marketplace.
Wayne Marshall: It gets a lot easier to do number two, number three, number four. 'cause it's just more of the same. But if we build and we continue to build, I mean that's what I, we tell all of people who do scale. It's not, you know, it's not that hard. If we build the right foundation, then it's easy to start building on top of it and continue to, to grow it up there.
Wayne Marshall: Um. As you know, being a business owner is different, as you've already talked a little bit about, is much different than working in the business. Now you're having to work on the business. If you could give a piece of advice to a young entrepreneur or someone who's wanting to, maybe there's a tech listening today and they're thinking, I think I could do my own thing and do what you guys did.
Wayne Marshall: If you could give them some advice as a young person, as you guys are, what would that be?
Freddy: Oof. That's another, that's another really hard question. Um, ah, we actually had someone who, who did ask us a very similar question. Um, he needs, he needs to be prepared. Uh, there's, there's a lot coming. Um, and to be really honest, a lot of it is, is really financial.
Freddy: So I think there's a huge. Financial aspect that you have to be prepared for. And actually what I told him was that you, you're gonna wanna pay a coach so you or someone to mentor you, or a guide or anyone who's already been there. Um, because again, there's, there's so much that you don't know, that you don't know because there's just, just really is.
Freddy: And I think that that's a really important thing. I, I just echo what I said before that, that that's the number one thing.
Aldo: That's a great point. Lucas said that, uh, what he would advise a, a somebody is to be, uh, patient and to, uh, be ready to be prepared and not only prepared for what's to come as far as the work part of it, but uh, prepared for a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, trial and error. Meaning don't get discouraged. It happens to everybody.
Aldo: Everybody trips and falls. And to be okay with that and be patient, patient with what's happening and patient with yourself so that you don't get overwhelmed, it's good.
Wayne Marshall: No, it is good advice. 'cause it is. We are gonna make a mistake. We are gonna have some failure. Um, you know, it's, it's just an opportunity to learn, you know, it, the, the character building aspect of it is not so much always what happened.
Wayne Marshall: It's what we do next and what we choose to do next. And I know it's no different than the conversations we've had. The story you just shared, Freddy of, uh, we had a challenging customer and client. And didn't know if you're gonna be able to work together as you went forward. And you know, we discuss. But what was great is that you didn't deviate from your, your integrity, what you wanted to do, the ethics of how to run the business.
Wayne Marshall: And by standing on that and maintaining that foundational aspect, what happened? He left. But then it came back because you stood on the right grounds. And when you do things with the right intentions, you do it with that honor. As we've already talked, even though you'll have mistakes and things like this happen, what was that conversation like and what happened when he called you back up and he says, can we start at a fresh slate and let's just rebuild?
Wayne Marshall: Mm-hmm. Doing the right thing. It's, it's painful sometimes, but if you do it right and you do it with honor, and we had that whole conversation, how do you, you know, deal with a challenging customer? More times than not, you will end up on the right side of this. And that's the toughest lesson I had to learn as a young person.
Wayne Marshall: And I think it's really cool how much you've already learned at an age. I didn't know it yet. I learned some of what you're learning in my thirties. You guys are so far ahead of me, just think of where you're gonna be.
Freddy: But yeah, no, that, that was huge. We, that was really important and that it really was a, a testament that, um, if we do the right thing, we put the right foot forward.
Freddy: People will notice and people do really appreciate good work. If anyone, that's something else that that's, that's good advice. If you do good work, that people will notice and you'll get recognized for it. You just have to give it some time.
Aldo: It does.
Aldo: Same. See? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, yeah, they just, that, uh, that, um, through that Lucas is an agreement that through the, um, following, being, setting up guidelines and making sure that you don't deviate from your process and you have a good foundation of how you want the business to run that eventually, uh, the people that didn't fit in the picture in the beginning come back and now they wanna fit in the picture.
Wayne Marshall: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, they see it. So again, that's, I think that's really good advice that we've discussed. I know you've embraced it and it, I mean, I loved hearing the story when you shared to the guy left. He basically said he was never gonna come back. I said, you know what? That's a kind of business he had.
Wayne Marshall: You don't need it. But he did come back and he came back with a little bit more, uh. Respect or appreciation for what you stood for and what you're gonna do and deliver. So. I complimented you on it. First time I compliment you. Again, it's hard to do that when you're growing and you need, and you want every customer, you want all the business.
Wayne Marshall: But you've realized, just as you said early on, I think it's a really important statement to make for our audience to understand is, is that. You had a lot of cars at one time, but not all business is good business. Mm-hmm. And volume, why it looks good on paper at the end of the day doesn't necessarily make you money.
Wayne Marshall: No, it doesn't. So it's being smarter and being wiser of the type of business you get. And that's why I know one of the early things we talked about from an operational standpoint is have a good intake. You know, get the appointment, get the customer in everything that Aldo talks about from an advisor standpoint, you know, get a good intake, get the customer in, get the information, get an understanding now, gives you guys an opportunity to do a good inspection and, and come back with a nice deliverable.
Wayne Marshall: What their car needs and how to go about it, and how to build that relationship, which builds trust. You know, in this industry sometimes our, our industry isn't looked at very favorably that we can be, you know, a, a business that is not of the highest integrity. But that's what we wanna do. We wanna be, and it's something we talk about, you guys talk about already.
Wayne Marshall: We wanna be a company of character and we wanna be such that people trust and they see and they come to us because that's what's really gonna help grow and change that mindset of people as they do look at. What a repair shop does and how they treat people. You're not doing that. You're not doing it at all.
Wayne Marshall: So, um, we
Freddy: actually, we just had a conversation right, right before this call, and sorry to interrupt you. We just had a conversation with the client before this call. It's exactly what you said. Um, he mentioned it. What we delivered was far beyond what any other repair shop does. Uh, we. Sent videos, photos, inspection report of everything that we suggested that the, the customer get to keep his vehicle in tip top shape.
Freddy: Um, and it weren't twisting his arm or anything like that. It was a simple presentation so that he knew exactly what's going on in his vehicle and he appreciated that because he said that his family mechanic goes ahead and just repairs. What he thinks needs to be repaired, not what the client says. So what we really like to do is give the, the client the power, give them a chance to know what's going on.
Freddy: And really, it's a, it's a, it's a business to client relationship that we need to respect and, and really care for.
Wayne Marshall: So now, you know, and, and this, the time goes by quick as we're fast approaching, kind of getting a little closer to the end here. I'm curious. I know, uh. Personally, I know some things that you've shared, Freddy, I know you don't have any children at this point.
Wayne Marshall: Lucas does. Mm-hmm. Is there gonna be a second generation, other generation, and would that be a goal, an aspiration to uh, have your family engaged and more involved?
Aldo: Yeah. Lucas says that it, it's something that's crossed his mind. His son's only two years old, so there's a, there's a long ways between there and or here and then for now. Right. And that and that. Uh, but he definitely knows that there's gonna be a, a, uh, that the automotive industry is gonna live. As long as we know forever, right?
Aldo: Yes. And there'll always be some kind of employment or something there for,
Aldo: and Lucas says that his son also loves, uh, toy cars. So maybe it's, it's already, it's already, it is blood.
Aldo: That he
Lucas: loves to go
Aldo: play, uh, you know, cars out in the, out, out in the driveway and such.
Wayne Marshall: I know we, we laugh guys, but um, as you know, I've got, I only had daughters who are now married, but I got grandkids. I got a grandson. And at an earlier age, since I. On cars and have my own home shop and everything he loves.
Wayne Marshall: And, and this started at seven, eight years of age, I would let him take things apart that I knew I was never gonna put back together anyway, so I didn't care. But that's how you learn. And at a very young age. I mean, he was only eight years of age and I'm already putting him in my skid steer. I'm teaching him to do other things.
Wayne Marshall: Uh, he's now 12. He can drive a manual transmission, I mean, on their property. I'm not on the road do that, you know? But it is a cool, and it's a great industry and it can be very rewarding. So you never know. You might be two today.
Aldo: Yeah, but
Wayne Marshall: just wait. You'll be surprised when he is five and six and he goes, dad, I wanna tear that apart and see how it works.
Wayne Marshall: S I've let my grandson do it. It's coming. I've let my grandson do it already. That's how they learn. That's how I learn.
Aldo: If, if I may ask a question, we'll start with Lucas. Would that be okay? Yeah. Lucas.
Aldo: Perfect. So I asked Lucas what, uh, what his expectations were before they enrolled with the institute and what they were of the institute. And he said that realistically he never would've thought that he would, they would gain, they would cover so much ground so quickly, and that in the early part of the business, it seemed like a black hole.
Aldo: They could never get out of, and they were surviving month to month and month. So they've been, so, Lucas and I, I imagine Freddie too has been blown away by the amount of, uh, about, by the amount of change they've been able to make so quickly and in such a positive way. Hmm.
Wayne Marshall: Let, I'll give Freddie anything else you wanna add to that real quick or,
Freddy: yeah.
Freddy: So. Truthfully, the, the thing that I, I hoped for was profitability, and we got that, but there's way more, way more than that. What we got was so much growth, um, mental growth. We learned so much. And I told you Wayne, recently, I think on our last call that something that I've really gotten from you guys, and I've been talking with Lucas and our service advisor, Alicia, was that.
Freddy: The amount of discipline that I see, like radiating off of, of the both of you and how much it's affected the way that we wanna do things here. It's made us so much more productive, so much more motivated, and again, just disciplined and able to, to just get things done that need to get done.
Wayne Marshall: Thank you.
Wayne Marshall: Mm-hmm. It's very, and I, I know, uh, in our conversations that, and it's just how it happens. I mean, we've, we've talked about. So much and we get very. Uh, personal about your business, you know, your lives, all the things that are going on, because what you're doing and starting a business, it touches and affects everything.
Wayne Marshall: I mean, everything that you're doing and how you're doing it. Um, yes, it, it's very, and I said it earlier, it's very rewarding to be able to work with you guys to see the results and to see the growth of that you guys are both having on a personal and professional. Um. Yeah, I'm honored that, you know, even though we might talk a lot of business, both of you guys, we end up talking family.
Wayne Marshall: You've asked me other questions that go above and beyond, um, right. I guess that's what happens when you become an elder statesman, I guess is how you can look at it. So, uh, for that I say, Hey, I'm blessed to say thank you for those kind words, but it's exciting and I'm you bright, bright.
Wayne Marshall: Freddy as his or, uh, Lucas, excuse me, as his family grows, you know, you just have a newer baby that wasn't that many months ago. And now Freddy, you're gonna grow because you're soon gonna be getting married. And, uh, yes, and, and another exciting step in life. And it's great to be able to be part of that journey with you and all these different things that go on and, uh, yeah.
Wayne Marshall: We're just excited for and I'm, and it's been awesome to be able to do what we're doing even today. And because I know Lucas, your English is getting better and better and better, but it's been awesome to have, although we part of, and to be able to have these conversations in Spanish that we can truly all come together, work together, and make good things happen.
Wayne Marshall: So guys, I can't thank you enough for taking the almost one hour of your time outta your busy day because you're not a large shop and I know you guys are really hands on for your success and where you're going and, uh, yeah, this is exciting. So thank you very much and I thank the audience for being with us and, uh, attending and listening.
Wayne Marshall: Hopefully there are some nuggets here that can, uh, be helpful.
Freddy: Yeah, hope so. Thank you guys for everything. It's, it's been a pleasure to, to be on.
Wayne Marshall: Nope. Alright, friends, have a great time. Again. Good luck, good holidays, and we'll be talking a lot more soon. Thank you. Thank.

179 -Ask Me Anything: The State of the Industry and Private Equity’s Impact - Featuring Cecil Bullard & Michael Smith

179 -Ask Me Anything: The State of the Industry and Private Equity’s Impact - Featuring Cecil Bullard & Michael Smith
December 10, 2025 - 00:57:47
 
Show Summary:
Private equity and family offices are accelerating consolidation in automotive repair, and Cecil Bullard and Michael Smith explain what that means for shop owners. They break down valuation multiples by shop size, profit, and owner dependence, and why true scale commands higher returns. The conversation also covers shared corporate offices, cooperative style partnerships, and how structure and SOPs can reduce risk while improving consistency. They stress that pricing, labor rates, and leadership development are key to attracting talent and building an investable business. Operators who build teams and value propositions will thrive, while price focused shops will struggle or disappear in 2026.
 
Host(s):
Cecil Bullard, Founder of The Institute
 
Michael Smith, Chief Strategy Officer
 
Show Highlights:
 
[00:01:10] – Cecil opens the discussion on industry consolidation and growing interest from private equity and family offices.
[00:07:45] – Michael explains how shop size, owner involvement, and profit margins impact valuation multiples.
[00:15:30] – The realities of small-shop valuations and why tools and equipment add little resale value.
[00:23:40] – What it truly takes to reach higher multiples through scale, systems, and leadership teams.
[00:32:20] – Why private equity is struggling to find enough well-run, scalable automotive businesses.
[00:41:10] – The benefits and risks of shared corporate offices and co-op style shop groups.
[00:52:00] – A candid discussion on labor rates, pricing fear, and the industry’s undervaluation of its work.
[01:06:30] – Succession planning realities when selling to family members or key employees.
[01:20:15] – Looking ahead to 2026: why opportunity favors shops that build value, not just fix cars.
 
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.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Cecil Bullard: Good morning in some parts of the country, I think. Um, my name is Cecil Bullard. I am the founder of the Institute, uh, and I have with me today, uh, Michael Smith, who is our chief strategist. And, uh, I would also say, um, presenter, extraordinaire. Um, Michael, welcome. Thank you, sir. Uh, this is an ask me anything.
Cecil Bullard: So if you are online with us and you want to ask questions, please uh, um, put 'em in the comments and we will, uh, bring them in and do our best to get, uh, the answers. Um, today, I think, uh, I'd like to start us out. However, uh, kind of talking about this, um, this idea of the, the. Venture capitalists coming in and kind of taking over, uh, the industry.
Cecil Bullard: Consolidation is, is what we, we have, um, you know, Michael, I think you and I have known each other now about three years, three and a half years, and I think you're coming up on two years with the institute.
Michael Smith: Two, two
Cecil Bullard: and a
Michael Smith: half
Cecil Bullard: already. Can you believe it?
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. Oh, time flies when you're having fun, right?
Cecil Bullard: When you're having fun when you get younger every day. Um. Let's, let's go back to maybe two years ago and, and compare, uh, you know, venture capital is definitely coming in to the, to the industry. Uh, I probably have, uh, five or six, um, inquiries from mainly at this point, uh, what they call, what they call 'em, a family practice.
Cecil Bullard: Mm-hmm. Family, uh, family office, uh, four, uh. Potential purchase of the institute because they want to be in the vertical. Um, and they often talk about the vertical. Um, and then I also get, I don't know, probably somewhere between eight and 12, uh uh. Things from venture capital, uh, venture capital companies that are inquiries.
Cecil Bullard: In fact, I think I have a conversation tomorrow with one of them. Uh, you know, hey, we're in Canada and we're trying to consolidate up here in Canada, and uh, you know, we've kind of looked you up and we think you know a lot of stuff, so we'd like to talk to you. Um, often that leads to a, um. A quote unquote job opportunity on either on the board or as some kind of a, um, uh.
Cecil Bullard: Consultant to them, uh, you know, for the marketplace. So go back two years ago and, and, uh, think about, you know, where the industry, we thought the industry was going, where the industry is going, and then now look at it today. And, and tell me your thoughts on
Cecil Bullard: Sure.
Cecil Bullard: You know, on, on that.
Michael Smith: Yeah. It's very interesting and in fact, if you'll indulge me, I wanna back up about a decade just for the start if we can, and go back to the very first private equity guys that showed up, um, at the table.
Michael Smith: And they were, they had a vision. Knowing in this industry, we were headed in the direction of what 50, 60 other industry verticals have gone down. The first one's on the ground, maybe the one we all know best, is Sun Automotive out of Phoenix. Put a stake in the ground, decade ish ago, something in that neighborhood.
Michael Smith: Mm-hmm.
Cecil Bullard: 10, 12 years. Yeah.
Michael Smith: Yeah, something like that. And they bought a, you know, reasonably smallish local shop that was underway and had some local presence and, and started, and the idea was to add to, to, those are, those are called the, uh, the, the baseline or the, uh, the, the platform companies that you start with.
Michael Smith: And then they make investments from there. And the idea is to just add scale. Scale, uh, takes your multiple up on an exponential basis when you go to sell the business. So there's a game afoot where the mom and pops and I hesitate to call us that 'cause I don't want to offend anybody with that. But from an investment perspective, we are a mom and pop industry, meaning we're mostly small, mostly privately held, mostly owner operated.
Michael Smith: And then the idea is to come sweeping in, buy up some kind of a regional. Starting presence of five to 10 to 15 shops and then sell it to a bigger fish who then rolls up four or five of those and goes on. So that started decade ish ago with Sun. We knew it was coming. It's not a big surprise. Part of the reason I'm in this industry at this point was a decade ago, I got introduced to a three shop company that wanted to do something different.
Michael Smith: And so I kind of watched it coming. And so what happened was there was this great expectation that our industry was gonna roll up quickly. And it hasn't gone as quickly as we thought. And Cecil, now I'm gonna kind of jump into the next five to two years to kind of where we are today. Yeah, brother, go ahead.
Michael Smith: Yeah,
Cecil Bullard: before you, before you go there, I want to clarify a couple of things. Okay? Sure. So you talked about the multiple. And so if I have one shop. Uh, net, uh, 10 or 12%. Um, and I am involved in the business day to day, uh, and, uh, business isn't really growing much, et cetera. Mm-hmm. Uh, what's my multiple? Okay.
Cecil Bullard: And I know that I know that answer, but. You know? Yeah.
Michael Smith: Yeah. It depends on where your shop is. First of all. If you're in a geographic region where there's immediate distance, uh, geographic growth available for expansion is different than if you're rural. But let's just say you're in sort of the middle of all that.
Michael Smith: Um, you would get, maybe if it's, you know, I'm gonna say this, and this is part of what's surprised private equity in any industry vertical, you would imagine that may be the middle of the bell curve. Would be a seven to 8% profit margin. Maybe this 80th percentile would be a 12 to 15% profit margin in the top shops or top companies in that industry.
Michael Smith: Depending on the industry, if you're in the retail, groceries, margins aren't that high, but an industry like ours, in the trades that are profitable, you could expect a 25, 30% profit margin, top 10%. Ours is a harder business than that. So I'm, I'm, I'm gonna get to the answer to your question, the middle of the bell curve.
Michael Smith: So when I, I guess what I'm saying is when you're saying a 10 to 12% profit margin, you're not talking about a 50th percent company? No, that's on the, that's on the higher end. It's on the way higher end of our bell curve. And so when, my, my point is when they look in, the average shop will get a two and a half to two and three quarter ebitda.
Michael Smith: Or, um, let's, let's use net and EBITDA interchangeably. They are different numbers. EBITDA is a financial net number, which is more pure, if you will, but we use net. So let's talk nets, right? The average company at the top of our bell curve, halfway through the 235,000 companies, is a two to 3% profit margin.
Michael Smith: It's got two to three employees, and the owner doesn't take home a paycheck every day. So when we're talking about.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah, so I'm making, I'm making, you know, net 40, net 50, maybe net 60,000. I've got a 60, 80,000 paycheck with the truck and insurance and gas and whatever else I, I managed to bill for from myself.
Cecil Bullard: Um, you know, and, uh, and I'm gonna get a two, two and a half x maybe.
Michael Smith: You're gonna get, you get a two and a half X. And, and if you, and here's, here's what's gonna hold you back. Here's what's gonna be in your favor, that your nets are higher than normal. Here's what's not gonna hold you in favor, is the fact that you're still deep up to your neck in the business.
Michael Smith: And we have
Cecil Bullard: talked, yeah. Yep. And so I don't, I, I don't want to dig way, way deep here. I just want to kinda set the, set the stage. All right. So, so I've got a business that's doing let's say 650,000, two techs. By the way, that should be a million dollar, million, two business, two techs. But, but I know shops and I know that many shops are stuck in the 6 57 range with two techs in their shop.
Cecil Bullard: And, uh, my net is, uh. You know, three, four, 5%. I'm, I'm, I'm going to be lucky at that point to get a two and a half X, so you'll be lucky
Michael Smith: to get two and a half. Yes, sir.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. So I have this shop that, and then I think that my parts and my, and my, my tools, these, these tools that I've spent so much money on over my lifetime, et cetera, I, I'm thinking, well, geez, I've got two, $300,000 worth of tools at least, and right on.
Cecil Bullard: Accept, accept they're worth. 10 cents on the dollar in a, in a buy. Right? That's not where I get my, my value. All right? So that's, that's a And by the way, that's what we would call a small business, right? Yeah. Um, the mom and pop, right? Yep. And then, and then we move up to, let's, let's say that, uh, let, I'm doing 1,000,005, all right?
Cecil Bullard: And I'm net 10%, plus I, I get a salary out of the business and I'm kind of not. Um. That involved. I mean, I'm not like writing service every single day. I'm still helping the master tech when he can't figure something out. I'm still writing some of the tickets. I'm still involved with the, maybe we're, we're homegrown our financials, uh, you know, et cetera, and so now I'm gonna sell that business.
Cecil Bullard: Right? Yep. I'm still probably at the most of three x,
Michael Smith: three to three and a quarter. Here's the extra quarter. If you really aren't in the business and you really are working on it, meaning you can disappear for a week and nothing really substantially changes, if you have growth from revenue and profit on top of the three, you might get to a three and a quarter.
Michael Smith: They, you know, growth is a good thing in the investment business. You wanna buy a growing business, not a shrinking one. Quality of leadership, stability of team. If you have high turnover, if you have toxic people in leadership, if you've got a problem that an investor's gonna buy, you know, they may walk in and say, tell you what look like, love the numbers.
Michael Smith: I'll give you three and a quarter for the business contingent upon the due diligence study. And that's, it's a lot like,
Cecil Bullard: and when you're saying three and a quarter, we're not talking about three, $3,250,000. We're talking about 3.5 x of my net or EBITDA your net. Right. Right. Yeah. So, so now let one more step, we're gonna have a question here in a minute, but I love it.
Cecil Bullard: I, I just kind of wanna follow this for a second. Mm-hmm. Now, um, I've got a business doing say, 4 million. And we're net 20, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, I'm netting 20, I'm netting a million dollars or 800,000 out of this business. Uh, I'm not working in the business at all. Mm-hmm. Really? Uh, I'm managing my managers right.
Cecil Bullard: And, uh, and that's a, we're gonna call that one shop. It could be two two $2 million shops, but we'll call it one. And now I'm gonna sell that. Uh, uh, in the marketplace. What, what is the, you know, what's the X? We're we talking maybe four X?
Michael Smith: Maybe four. I'd say it'd be a real stretch to get to four, and again, this feels like real scale from our single shop perspective that we tend to run.
Michael Smith: Historically at the finance investment level, you're still very, very, very small. And those numbers are a lot better than what, see, so what we started with, they're a lot better, but they're not gonna scale you to higher multiples yet. So maybe three and a half, maybe three and three quarters. If you can demonstrate stability over time in these things.
Michael Smith: Getting the fours, I mean, maybe, maybe, right? If, if I
Cecil Bullard: wait for the, if everything's perfect to put the right plan together. If, if, if I wait long enough, et cetera, I may not have the, the runway to, to wait. Um, but absolutely that's still, by the way, that's still small business. It's still very small business period, right?
Cecil Bullard: Mm-hmm. So now, now, now I've got four locations and each location is doing say, $2 million. I'm doing eight, maybe 10 million. I'm still net 20. 22, 24. I'm not involved in that business. On a day-to-day basis. I have an area manager. I have managers in the stores, et cetera, et cetera, four. Four and a half x, five x that,
Michael Smith: no, I'd say four, four and a half would be the range you're looking at.
Michael Smith: And it feels like we're growing a lot and crawling slowly, and that is absolutely true.
Cecil Bullard: So one of the things, one of the things that I've, I've recognized is, is. We that I, I know some deals that have been done where there were 10 x, 12 x, uh, and some other opportunities in that, in the, in those deals, and I know you were involved in, in one of those.
Cecil Bullard: We're not gonna, like, we won't mention names and all of that stuff, but, but I don't see as many of those happening. As I thought I would see happening at this point in time,
Michael Smith: I think the private equity guys are not seeing, they are, uh, Cecil, there is a trillion and almost a half dollars of, of what they call a dry powder out there, a trillion and a half dollars in investors hands.
Michael Smith: And these are big investors all the way down to small that can't find projects. So, so let me just say, to start my comment, they're dying for us to have projects, but here's where we don't have them. We don't have scaled 10 plus location type companies, 20 locations, 40 locations, 60 locations that they can sink their teeth into and get into with a 10 to 12 to 13, maybe even a 15 times ebitda because we haven't built that kind of scale yet.
Michael Smith: And so the challenge, yeah, brother, go ahead. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Cecil Bullard: So one of the things that you did in, in what you did was you brought five smaller players together and created a 40 location ish, right. Right offering, which moved the X up considerably.
Michael Smith: Yeah. They immediately gained scale from each other by coming together into a group.
Michael Smith: Now, there's a downside to that too, is that the PE guys, the private equity investors are buying five different transactions in its. Single transaction, if that makes sense. So the complication of implementation is multiplied by five within a single project so that the multiples aren't as high as if you had a single company that brought 40, 50 locations to the table.
Michael Smith: Right. And so there's pros and cons to all of this. Yes, sir.
Cecil Bullard: And so what I, what I really kind of want to talk about here, and I, I still don't see the question. Maybe it's 'cause my glasses aren't, are, aren't good enough. But, but, um. If I'm a small business and I'm doing not a great job, um, I might be worth two x.
Cecil Bullard: Okay? 2.2, 2.4, right? If I'm a medium sized automotive shop, uh, million five, 2 million, uh, I might be worth three and a half x. Uh, if I'm a, uh, multi-location doing 10 million, I might be worth. Four and a half X and uh, I'd have to be a 40 to 50 or a combination where I brought in 40 or 50 shops with the right revenue in order to get an eight x, a 10 x and maybe even a 12 x.
Cecil Bullard: Okay? Yep. And so what I have not seen is these companies that, that are out there buying shops, like talk about Sun. They went crazy twice. Alright? They dumped a bunch of money. Uh, and then a few years later, they dumped a bunch more money into the Phoenix area. Bought up a few hundred shops in that area, and now they seem to be, uh.
Cecil Bullard: Not stalled, but certainly their growth is not, I think what they thought their growth was gonna be. Right. And there are fewer and fewer shops for them to buy. So I'm looking, uh, yesterday I got an an ad for a a four bay shop. I happen to know where it is. I happen to know who used to own it. But that shop is for sale for nickels.
Cecil Bullard: I mean, nickels, I could go buy it tomorrow. And that's, that, that's 'cause I got a couple of nickels and that's it. You know, if it was dimes, I'd be in trouble. Um, but nobody's buying it. Okay. Because it doesn't have any real value because it doesn't have the organization, the structure, the systems, the process, the, the, the clients.
Cecil Bullard: Right. And what I'm think, I'm, what I'm, what I'm thinking is happening in our industry is a separation of these are the good shops. These are the shops that are not so good. And even in that, I think the smart investor, uh, whether it's private equity or family office or whatever, they're not buying the not so good shops.
Cecil Bullard: No. Because they don't see a path through those shops to where they need, where they want to go.
Michael Smith: They're not buying. They're, yeah. Let me, and let me just build on something where we're talking about here. Suns, every private equity project would like to start with what? With this platform company in a geographic region.
Michael Smith: So region, right? So you'd like to have, yeah, so, so Phoenix, uh, Atlanta, whatever, 10, 20, 30 shops in a big city, and you buy that thing right up front and now you have a presence in the city so that you pay a big price for the owner, founder. Operators tend not to go away in those, they become partners in the private equity project at that point.
Michael Smith: They become
Cecil Bullard: private equity investors in their own lives.
Michael Smith: They do in their own companies, and they don't go away because here's the theory, that 30 shop system becomes the system that you then buy 10 shop systems until the market's empty. Then you buy five shop systems till the market's empty. Then you buy two shop systems and each of those, Cecil, back to our point, are getting less sophisticated, more work and implementation, A lot more upgrade needed to become.
Michael Smith: To the level of the private equity project. And so the scale, the value of those companies, your regional investment there is going down over time as you add scale and you're dumping that work and, and it's not a bad, in a bad way, it's an intentional way on the shoulders of the platform, people who are on the ground there.
Michael Smith: And so they may keep all the separate brands for a while of all the acquisitions, but over time the original brand on the ground will be rebranded there in the region or the private equity. Overall brand will be rebranded across the board. That's what's, those are the iterations that Sun went through.
Michael Smith: They would buy a 2030 shop system if they could find it in a region, and then they end up at some point buying onesies and twosies that aren't at the same level of their investments. But that's all that's left in a market. That's Yeah, that's the natural close. That's the
Cecil Bullard: drags, right? The
Michael Smith: drags are there.
Michael Smith: Well, yeah, and we don't even wanna call 'em that because it's just, it's just. Yeah. No, no, I'm with you and I'm, I'm not being critical of the word. It's a, there are, there are great shops that are, single shops that are run on a one-off basis, that are running consistent growth over time. Have a very strong team.
Michael Smith: The owner is sitting and maintaining a, a good leadership team that runs it for them. But,
Cecil Bullard: but you're still not gonna get a eight x outta that you, no, you're not. And those
Michael Smith: are few and far between. Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: Right. Yeah. Right.
Michael Smith: So no matter where you're. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cecil Bullard: I, I, I got this weird, like, uh, there's a, there's a trillion and a half dollars worth of powder in the gun, you know, and, and there's all these shops that are closing and or disappearing or being sold for the, for the littlest of money to the service advisor or the ex-partner or whatever.
Cecil Bullard: And, and I thought. I thought, you know, two years ago I thought, oh my gosh, uh, private equity's gonna come in and just suck those up, right? Um, uh, so, uh, gimme the incoming question. Uh, uh. What are your thoughts on sharing a corporate office with other like-minded shop owners? That, by the way, that's from isa, uh, Tola.
Cecil Bullard: I hope I got that right, uh, from pronunciation. And that is like the perfect, uh, the perfect question because that's what we have, uh, are working on, and that's what you've already accomplished. So I'll let you, I'll let. Answer that better than I. Yeah, that's,
Michael Smith: that's a great question and let me, let me run with it.
Michael Smith: The idea here is that if, if you have a, like as I mentioned before, if you have a single organization with a leadership team that's been in place long enough to prove that it's a real leadership team, which has then comes with it, a centralized corporate office, you have the best chance of getting the best multiple in the market that you're in.
Michael Smith: A step along the way, ISA or, or Issa, I'm not sure how you pronounce it, is what you're talking about. If you had other shops and you started to build a sort of a co-op of some of the things that you could share together, you're on track to potentially having. Uh, if you will, a co-op of shops that could go to market together.
Michael Smith: The co-op of shops is what we took to market with the project that I did. The best Deal those guys could have made, and we talked about it, was to have them become a single company with a single leadership group and a single set of, you know, down to the grinding level of SOPs, right? Doing it all the same way with single systems and all.
Michael Smith: That. Here's the risk you take though, and, and this is what we're here for, right? To look at the pros and the cons of this. The pros are you do that, you get your best outcome. The cons are what if by the time you're done building a couple things, bad can happen, right? Some of the partners that get into this don't do their.
Michael Smith: Their piece. Anybody in school remember doing team projects? Yeah. And some of the people didn't do any work at all and some people did a whole, all the rest of the work to get the grade. This is what you run up against, right? So here's the risk is that you put all that cost into building a single entity, then it doesn't function because you don't have control anymore.
Michael Smith: Huge issue in our is in businesses, you are the owner operator, you make all the decisions. And one of my first conversations with folks doing all this rollup stuff is you realize that when you make this transaction, you ain't the boss anymore. And they're like, what? And it's like, no, you don't have 51% of your company anymore.
Michael Smith: Now you have a committee. Now you have a board. Now you may have a controlling group that isn't you. Who's gonna tell you ultimately what you're gonna do, whether you like it or not. If push comes to shove and people are like, well, wait, I'm, I can't work for anybody else. I'm the master of my destiny. The reason I have this shop is 'cause I don't want to be a, you know, an employee.
Michael Smith: It's like, well, that's. Big mindset to get your head around. So back to the question, shared services are fantastic and shared services are a good first step toward kicking the tires on your, on your potential future business partners. Another thing to do is to have a peer group locally of your potential business partners, where you guys spend time building relationships with each other.
Michael Smith: Have it be a local peer group of very select people where you guys help each other improve each other's businesses. The background gain in that is that you're standardizing the way you do things by best practice over time. That gets you closer to being able to roll it up into a, into a roll up local, uh, single operation that you could sell to.
Michael Smith: Private equity for the multiple right scale gets you higher multiples in private equity. I also
Cecil Bullard: think, I also think you're driving. Um, performance. Um, because when you're comparing yourself against, you know, other like shops and you're saying, uh, you know, well, wait a minute. You raised your labor rate $25 an hour.
Cecil Bullard: I can raise my labor rate, and by the way, I'm gonna go 30 because I'm gonna be higher than you, blah, blah, blah. We see this happen like, uh, where there's a kind of a competitive nature to the group, uh, and a competitive nature, which, which does at least subtly have a tendency to drive result, right? Yep. Uh, other, other than I'm kind of in this world by myself.
Cecil Bullard: Um, and I, I've got my own blinders on because I don't know what I don't know.
Michael Smith: Now there's a danger. I wanna speak to a danger zone right here, which is the danger of having price and, uh, market conversations with, uh, companies that could be considered fixing. If you're not careful, and this is not dodging the rules, it's being aware of them, right?
Michael Smith: If you're in a pure group scattered across the country and you're comparing labor rates, it's a lot safer. Within an industry then if you have a concentration of people in the same town having the same conversation, you, I'm not saying you're, you're playing any games here with the law. I'm saying we don't.
Michael Smith: Right. We need to be aware
Cecil Bullard: of So you as, as a consultant. Okay. I, I have labor rate has been one of my big, um, things because, you know, um, uh, I took labor aid from 1980. Uh, where I was in Palm Springs, California, and I multiplied that times 3%, uh, every year until, I don't know, this year. And, um, the labor rate I would have today is about, it's real close to two 70.
Cecil Bullard: It's like 2 68 in change an hour. Mm-hmm. And yet the industry average, I think the last survey that was done was 1 28. Right. Right. So we're. At least probably 30, 35, maybe even 50% below where we really ought to be as an industry. And it's almost like we're afraid to have a labor rate conversation because we're afraid that somebody's listening and they're gonna say, you know, I'm, I raise my labor rate.
Cecil Bullard: You should probably raise yours, the, the whole industry. Can't, we can't build, we can't bring good techs in. We can't afford to pay them the, what they need to be paid. I'm getting these things from shops and he's, Hey, do you, what do you think? I'm gonna hire A-A-A-A-C Tech. I'm gonna pay that guy $22 an hour.
Cecil Bullard: My range is between 22 and 24. Well, well wait a minute. McDonald's is paying 27. Yep. So, so how am I gonna get a tech, you know, other than somebody that's either not very bright mm-hmm. Or somebody that just loves cars. Right. And, and they want to do it no matter what it takes. How are we gonna fill the gap if we can't pay a living wage to the people coming into our industry?
Cecil Bullard: Right. And we can't pay a living wage 'cause we don't charge enough to pay a living wage. Well, the guy down the street, you know, he's, he's only at a hundred bucks an hour and we got, uh, I, I was, um, I have a couple of storage units move the house. We put some stuff in storage and I'm moving outta one of the storage units this weekend.
Cecil Bullard: And, you know, I'm there most of the day. Saturday, on and off, like four or five times we made trips close the storage unit out. There's a guy. Working out of a storage unit, two units down, and he works on three cars that day. He's doing automotive service and repair out of a storage unit. Right. Mm-hmm. And I know that has not, there's Cecil's A DHD kicking in right here I am.
Cecil Bullard: Woo. Way. We're here. But, but I don't care, um, what your labor rate is. I just know that your labor rates that, that our labor rates have to go up in this industry. Or we are gonna have a lot of shops that are just gonna be gone.
Michael Smith: Well, and let me, let me lean into the backside of what you're saying too. I'm gonna take it to a strategic level.
Michael Smith: I believe I'm, I've been in this industry a decade at this point, after 35 years before that. You can't be that old. You can't be that old. I know. I'm actually older than you are. I don't tell anybody. Right. So, no, but I, but, but here's my point. We, um, I think we have a, a, a self-image issue in our industry.
Michael Smith: And I'm gonna say it straight up to everybody listening here. I, I wish you knew how much I think of you having grown up in 50 other industry verticals in the big consulting firms. When I work with my clients, the single shop folks, the triple shop folks in this industry, I tell y'all all the time, you guys are some of the best business people I've ever met in my life.
Michael Smith: And, and I get these looks across the table like, you're, you're joshing me, right? This is a joke. Is this a dad joke? That there's a punchline coming? It's like, no. This is a fact. The, the business we all run here is one of the most complicated businesses in the world that I've had my fingers on. Again, 50 60 industry verticals consideration.
Michael Smith: And I'm gonna tell you that when this, this, when you do this business, well you, I, I tell people all the time, you give me 10 top shop owners, I'll put 'em up against a sweet C-suite in any Fortune 100 company on a, on a competition basis, and we're gonna win. And you guys look back at me like I'm from another planet.
Michael Smith: I am telling you the truth. And I say that from the standpoint when we look at the marketplace and downgrade our thinking that, well, they couldn't possibly pay that much in the market. I'm, I'm telling you straight up, if your value proposition not competing on price. We had a microeconomic conversation.
Michael Smith: I would tell you every time, do not compete locally in your market on the basis of low price. Don't do it. There's only one winner in that game. It's the cheapest price and everybody playing that game's on your way out of the industry. What I will say is develop your value proposition so that you understand that what your customers get from you and the utility that you bring back to their life and turning their.
Michael Smith: Including their ROI on the repairs that you do, the return on investment, that you have a story to tell. And when you believe in your story, and Cecil, I'm backing you up now with labor rates, you're gonna realize we're not charging enough for the value that we bring back to the economy guys. Do you realize it?
Michael Smith: Without us, the economy ain't gonna function. We are the transportation baseline that keeps people going to work. It keeps kids going to soccer games. It keeps professionals in their trucks going to service other companies, et cetera. Without us, this economy grinds to a halt. Why do you think in COVID We were, we were called, you know, we were part of those, uh, essential, the exception.
Michael Smith: Yeah. We were essential companies that were allowed to keep functioning because. We're critical. So we gotta remember that, that we hold that, that, that status and, and place in our economies. And I want all of us to think more highly of ourselves. I'm just telling you, I meet owners day after day over and over who really question their skill and question kind of what they're worth in the market.
Michael Smith: And I'm saying, guys, we need a brand new way of thinking about this. And I, and I wanna encourage you here, if you can hear me, please hear me clearly, you're, you're as good as people get in the business world, I'm telling you right now. Now.
Cecil Bullard: So I have been coaching in this, in, I've been in the industry my entire adult life, right?
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. Actually, you could say I've been in the industry my entire life, but, you know, actively, uh, doing some job within this industry my entire adult life. And I've been in coaching for coming up on 25 years. Okay. And, and, um, my experience, my, my depth of knowledge, um, the guys that we have that are building value.
Cecil Bullard: Talking about value creating, value proposition, um, are able to charge more in their businesses. Mm-hmm. They're, they're attracting a better client. Um, so you know, there's that, uh, when you're talking to shop owners, there's, they're like, yeah, uh, I'd really like to work on Porsches. And you're like, oh, that's wonderful.
Cecil Bullard: If it's the first or second owner, when you get to the third owner or the fourth owner, you have somebody that bought a Porsche that can't afford to necessarily fix it. Those are not the best customers, right? No. And so the guys that are, are building this, this great value proposition and able to, to. You know, help their customers understand that value proposition are the ones that are most, uh, successful, most long-term successful.
Cecil Bullard: And they're the ones that are probably gonna walk away. With a five x, a six x, or maybe even a 10 x if they are putting themselves together with, you know, enough shops or enough shop owners to, to make it worth the, the while of the venture capital company, if that's who they're gonna sell to. Yeah. New,
Michael Smith: new question, incoming Cecil, let me have this one.
Michael Smith: Yep.
Cecil Bullard: Bring her in. Bring her in.
Michael Smith: It's, um, one of the, one of the things that, um, I, I have a group that I help understand what it takes to reinvest in your company like an investor. And what it means is instead of thinking like an owner operator, we think like an investor and think, how do we build value in our company that will be recognized by the marketplace?
Michael Smith: Marketplace? We're talking right now on the short list of many, many things that we consider and develop over time are two critical things, right? One of them is. Are you working in the business or are you working on the business? And if you are in the business, you're reducing the value of what you have because the minute you sell it, they have to replace you and your profit margins that you demonstrate.
Michael Smith: But trying to build your value around aren't gonna hold up in their hands 'cause they have to replace you. The second thing is, how do you do that? You have to have a leadership team and a team under them. That is rockstar enough to do this the way you would do it without you having to be there. And so you have to invest in your people.
Michael Smith: You gotta get toxicity outta your company. You have to have a strong team. And when you have that, then it leans into a third category, which is you can draw the loyal brand, ambassador customers, the best customers out of the market and into your hands that you can then sell that with your company too.
Michael Smith: The next owner, right? The next investor. It's investment perspective. Those three things are not typical in our industry. We are so technician centric. We're running a company like a machine. We get the cars in the front desk, we get 'em out the end of the day. We've done our job for the day. That is not building an investment grade company that is building an operating company that has fixing cars.
Michael Smith: Fixing cars. Can you believe it? Fixing, fixing cars
Cecil Bullard: is not what this is about. It's not what we do. I mean, ultimately cars have to be fixed. They do. But that is not what this is really all about. Right? Not if you want. To have, um, an easier life. Not if you want to, uh, make more money, if not, if you wanna support the people that are in your company.
Cecil Bullard: And I think it's almost always about building a team. Michael, uh, aorn, please give us the next question. Um, Blake, I know Blake, have you seen situations where an owner Yeah. Not involved in the day-to-day ops sells to his general manager or management team. Yeah. Lots of times. Um, but here's, here's what I see.
Cecil Bullard: Um, mostly I see it's not done well, it's not planned well, and it's kind of more of a last minute thing than a, you know, a five-year plan to make the best out of this because, um. Uh, too many owners are, are taking, you know, 10% down, or not all, not anything down because the, the service advisor, manager, whatever, has not built the money to come in and buy it, and then they're, um, they're taking payments on a business that actually wasn't really set up well.
Cecil Bullard: To run and be successful in the long run anyway. And, and so yes, I, I've been involved with several of those, um, one in one in Denver where, um, you know, we built a plan, I think at the time we had four shops and, uh, we built a plan with the general manager that if we got to seven shops, that he would actually own a certain percentage so that he could go to the bank, get the money to buy, you know, the, the principal out.
Cecil Bullard: And it went fantastically well. But it was a seven year. Plan. It wasn't a, oh, it's time for me to get out. I'm old, I'm tired, and now I'm gonna sell the, sell my business. And I'm looking around and who can I sell it to? Well, I've got a GM or a management team. Uh, and so that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. Blake, I don't know Blake, I'm gonna,
Michael Smith: no, I'm gonna join Cecil on this and say that your question is based on what I, my experience here in the decade have been hanging around.
Michael Smith: That's the way it's usually done, is that an owner will sell to what we call a key employee, general manager management team. If it's an MBO management buyout kind of a thing. That's the way it's mostly been done historically. The thing is, the gap I think that I see looking back, that I even see today is this idea of succession planning ahead of time and what Cecil was leaning into.
Michael Smith: And, and I'll, and I'll put it this way, like there's a, you know, the world that we exist in today ain't as cheap as it used to be, so let's be real. Right. What it takes to buy a business today and get an SBA loan and to be able to prove that you're gonna be able to pay this thing off. It's nice to sell to a key employee, but do you want to own or finance this over time?
Michael Smith: So let me, let me unpack this for a minute for us, okay? If you're gonna sell this over time to a key employee, don't you wanna make sure that they're as competent as pro possible to take it from you do at least as well as you did, if not better, in their hands, so that you assure that what you want out of the companies.
Michael Smith: Actually gonna come to you. I can't imagine anything worse than you thinking. You're retired three years from now. Your key employee is overwhelmed and tanks the business, and now you get your business back. Because they didn't pay you for it, right? You get it back. It's broken and out of retirement. Now you have to come back and rebuild it before you can sell it to the next person.
Michael Smith: Let me add to that one more consideration. The world that we live in is getting more complex overnight because of the stuff we started talking about today. The consolidators are here when they build scale around you in your town, and you're the one shop left that only is a single shop. They're buying their parts cheaper than you are.
Michael Smith: They're buying their oil cheaper than you are. They're recruiting cheaper than you are. They're marketing cheaper than you are. So you can say, look, I'm an old guy, old gal. I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm gonna sell it to my key employee. Traditional flow, get out of the way. I'll take 10% down. If they can afford it, I'll pay.
Michael Smith: Let them pay it out over a decade or two. You know what? Their life in the next 10 years is the one you're avoiding. They're not gonna get away from this stuff. We're at the edge of everything changing, and it's happening, starting to happen in a deeper sense. Now, if they inherit that from you without the skills to succeed in it, and you've owner financed it, there are lot more people gonna be getting broken companies back in the future than there were historically.
Michael Smith: Not scaring anybody, just saying, guys, this ain't the same world. The next 20 years is not gonna look anything like the last 20. In terms of what, what the dynamics are. So these are just all things to keep in mind as we're thinking about this.
Cecil Bullard: I think it's, I think it's pretty, to me it's, it's exceptionally interesting.
Cecil Bullard: Um, I, I, I, because you know, venture capital's not going away. The, the family office not going away. They want a piece of this buy and, and, and they're already. Three or four pretty healthy ones in the industry, uh, active. Some of them have hundreds and hundreds of shops at this point in time, and they wanna increase that and, you know, get their multiples and, and all of that.
Cecil Bullard: And so that, that's not gonna go away. And I'm not saying that it's not necessarily a good idea to sell to an employee. Or even a family member. But holy smokes, if they're not trained up, I mean, it's bad enough. I had somebody ask me the other day, I said, Cecil, if there's only one thing that you could train, uh, in the automotive industry, they couldn't do anything else.
Cecil Bullard: Just one thing. What would you do? And I said, I train 'em on their financials, their numbers, right? Um, just what should the shop make? What, what's, what's my gross profit? How should I pay my, you know, technicians, uh, et cetera, et cetera. Um, because. You can't make money, uh, or, uh, you, you can survive. And there's a lot of shops surviving, but there's also a lot of shops failing.
Cecil Bullard: And there are some shops that are soaring like Eagles and, and frankly, those are the shops that have really got their, they built their team, they have their systems in process. They understand what they have to do as far as, I have to charge this so that I can pay that so that I can cover this. And I think that the.
Cecil Bullard: I think the world is changing even more dramatically here, and I think faster. I'm reading a book, um, unreasonable Hospitality. Uh, I think every business owner, I don't care what industry you're in, ought to read that book because I think that sets us apart from everyone else in the, in the thing and where we were having an argument yesterday.
Cecil Bullard: Um. Amongst several of us. You were, um, kind of online, but I think you didn't get involved in much of that, but too bad. I like, are we, are we talking about, you know, price, uh, as one of the factors of, uh, I'm picking the shop. You know, based on price, are we talking about that value proposition, that hospitality, the way I feel, uh, when I'm involved with that particular business or shop?
Cecil Bullard: That's the thing that keeps people coming back to your business over and over consistently. Man, if we don't figure this out as an industry, I would say I think we're gonna lose 30 to 40% of the shops. Mm-hmm. In this industry in the next 10 years. I don't know, man. If somebody wants to bet me money, I prob, I would.
Cecil Bullard: I seriously consider putting money on that. Mm-hmm. From everything I've seen. All right. Next question, Michael.
Michael Smith: Yeah. Real quick, let me add a stat to this and keep the question up and let me add a stat to this if you guys can stay at tune. Just one second. Let's talk about our cousins in the collision business, right?
Michael Smith: 30 to 40% estimate of market share is in the hands of five giant companies in collision. 70% estimated net profit in the industry is in the hands of five companies. Imagine that the margin that they've taken from the small players, like we're talking about here in our industry, is in their hands. Now you're up against them.
Michael Smith: In terms of your ability to compete. So just this is real time. This is not the furniture business. This is car related. Right. This is the collision cousin that we have, and that's where they stand as an industry. So we ain't avoiding this. We're going there whether we like it or not. Just to finish, to, to put a bullet behind your point.
Michael Smith: Right. So,
Cecil Bullard: okay. Okay. So, so we got, we, this is not necessarily different if you ask me, but, uh, Corey Knight. Hey Corey. How you doing? Yep. Um, uh, once you combine with a central corporate. Office, I think that's supposed to be corporate. Um, are you then opening up to a liability for, for some other shop's malpractice.
Cecil Bullard: First of all, holy crap, we don't understand in this industry what our liability is. I don't know. I mean, of all the shop owners I know, and I know thousands and thousands of shop owners, right? I could name on two hands. The number of shop owners that understand their liability, the liability that we have is unbelievable.
Cecil Bullard: If you ask me, I don't know, frankly, and maybe Michael, you can help me out here. Um, I don't know that okay. Having a central corporate office changes anything or creates any additional liability. Uh, than what I, I might have and if I'm having cars come from other shops that are not done correctly, uh, or, or were not fixed right, or weren't diagnosed properly or whatever, I think if I document well where, where we started and where we're going, that I think my liability gets less and less and less.
Cecil Bullard: Right. And I don't know, Michael, what, what would you say about having a corporate office and creating liability? This is fantastic. This
Michael Smith: is a fantastic question and I'll, I'll say this about liability. Um, investors will look at risk management and this is the, that risk management simply in their terms, means managing.
Michael Smith: Future liabilities, right? The risk that's inherent in our businesses. We can be smart and manage the risk ourselves as much as we can. In other words, you control your quality inside your own company. If you put a corporate office down who provides services to you in the background, you can be insulated in your company by buying services on contract from a central corporate office that you build as a separate company under a, you know, it's different from you.
Michael Smith: Right. So Bob, who's your peer in buying services from the corporate service company does something stupid that doesn't roll through the service company to you, that's still gonna be Bob's problem. And it may be the service company's problem because they help them make a mistake, but that shouldn't necessarily roll over to you.
Michael Smith: A lot of this comes down to the legal structure that you build this under and who are your partners? And I'm gonna take it back just to the quality program. The reason. That things like SOPs exist in corporate groups is to standardize process so that you can avoid making dumb mistakes on an individual location basis and standardize.
Michael Smith: You know, I, I'll, I'll say this, right? When Mercedes makes a car, they drive it to the end of the, of the production line, and then they test it. And if something's broken on the car, that doesn't work right in, in the factory, they fix it and then they send it to the market. Toyota does the same thing, but when they find something that doesn't work right, they fix it and send it to the market, but they also go back down the production line, figure out where it got broken in the first place, fix how it got broken on the production line so it never gets broken again.
Michael Smith: Those are two different mentalities about how you run a quality program.
Cecil Bullard: Cecil, one of the, oh man. I, I just, we, we as an industry. Um, we as an industry don't ever fix the problem that created the problem. We don't have time. We're too busy trying to fix the car and get the car out to solve the, the, the problem.
Cecil Bullard: So to me, um, you know, that's, that's huge. And, and corporate structure is really, really important when you get past. Um. I think from the beginning you certainly don't wanna, don't wanna be a sole proprietor. Yep. And you don't want to have your property in the same business as you have your shop. And you know, you wanna probably have a corporate, uh, office that, that has a separate corporation 'cause you're creating layers of um, uh.
Cecil Bullard: You're not invincible, but it, every time there's a layer, it's more difficult for someone to come after you, uh, the, the CEO of the company, the board, you know, the, the, the shareholder, et cetera. And so I think structure matters a, a ton in, in fact, we've just spent, I don't know, six months and a lot of money with lawyers, uh, creating new structures so that we can kind of get to the next level with the institute.
Cecil Bullard: And, uh, I, I've, I have found it. Fascinating, um, uh, you know, the nuances and the tax advantages and, and all the other stuff that, that go along with that. I think it's pretty, it's, it's exciting to me. All right. Um, LA last question, I guess we must be getting towards the end. I'd like to wrap it up a little too.
Cecil Bullard: So, uh, Carrie, uh, Rivas, Carrie, um, uh, we hope to sell our shop to one of our three children who currently works in the business. If selling to him today, how would you determine the value of the business not including the building? Would that be three times net? Uh, no. Um, it, it, it wouldn't necessarily be, it's a wonderful question.
Cecil Bullard: Um, first of all, I wouldn't sell to him today unless I had had a plan. Three to five years ago that explained how that all works. Right. And so, um, here, here at the institute, uh, Kent, my son, who is a viable and, and valuable part of the company, uh, uh, we started planning, I don't know, we're probably four years into this maybe.
Cecil Bullard: Five and he now has some interest in the company. Uh, I think it'll be 20% at the end of this year. 'cause we're gonna hit our, uh, you know, one of those milestones that we put in play. Um, and so essentially we have set him up to be able to buy the business no matter what the X is. Right. And, and obviously in what we do, the X's are different than say an automotive shop.
Cecil Bullard: Um, and so there, there are so many factors that would say three x or four x or five x, uh, or, or one X, uh, uh, and those are the things that are gonna really play, I think, to the sale of the shop. And you might say to yourself, well, you know, this is my, this is my kid. I'm gonna give him or her, um, a discount.
Cecil Bullard: Fine. Great. Uh, but man, you, you, um. There's so much kind of involved with this. They work in the business. What do they do? Do they understand the business? Um, you know that coaching and training thing too, if you want them to be successful. Uh, stuff we talked about, uh, today, that, that idea of, um. Um, creating a team, uh, having the systems and processes, you know, moving your business forward.
Cecil Bullard: So your net is not 3%, your net is 12, uh, 15, 18, 22. Um, all of those things, uh, play in the, the real value of your shop, and I believe also whether or not it's going to be successful term, whether you're there or your son or your daughter's there. Or one of your top people's there, or you end up selling it to, you know, um, you know, Billy Bob consult, uh, uh, uh, management, uh, uh, whatever company.
Cecil Bullard: Um, can I,
Michael Smith: so I wanna add to this too.
Cecil Bullard: When you get done, I wanna add to this. I know where No, I'll be done. You, yeah. You add,
Michael Smith: yeah. Now let me, let me just say, this is a conversation I have a lot with owners beginning the conversation of, so, you know, how are we gonna get out of this in the optimized way? And regardless of who you sell it to, it's similar questions.
Michael Smith: You assuming you can sell your business for a profit. Capital gains profit in your life, how do you account? How do you set that up so that you pay the right amount of taxes, but that you minimize your tax liability? How do you set it up in a family situation, particularly with three kids like you mentioned, and it's a great question.
Michael Smith: What about the other two kids? Do they get a stake in the business, don't they? What's the stake? How do you transfer it? What's the tax implication to them versus you? One of the conversations I always have is start at the end, like, how much time do you have and how much do you need out of the business to retire?
Michael Smith: Parents. Then what are you selling to the kids in terms of the business and who's gonna take what stake and what, what's their outcome? I'll say this about trust as an example. Trusts are a great tool to use. You may or may not have one questioner, but for all of you out there, trusts aren't considered valid by the US government until they're over 12 months old.
Michael Smith: So you can't set up a trust and three months later sell your company to somebody and have it be covered and handled under the trust. It's so you've got some long-term planning to do is my point. So this, and we do this helping people with these kinds of conversations all the time. Don't do it by random, don't do it by chance, if you will.
Michael Smith: Put it, put some strategy thinking into it and have, again, Cecil mentioned it, have your kids be ready to take the business from you. One in terms of passion, but two, in terms of competency. Emotional setup, right? Maturity. Make sure that you hand it to 'em so they can succeed so that you're not handing them a problem.
Michael Smith: And again, th this is different for every company, but all, all I'm saying is I, some of us get tired, we get to the end of the road. I just wanna be out of this. I wanna sell it to family and be done with it. Please, please don't do it. Uh, uh, without really digging into some of the, the side details, it could be very impactful.
Michael Smith: What on anybody involved? Brother? Go ahead. Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: What you don't know can cost you and your kids. Millions, tens of thousands, hundreds, even millions of dollars.
Michael Smith: I'm,
Cecil Bullard: I need to make a, a, a a short comment here. We had a client that, um, uh, uh, owns two shops at the time and, uh, three kids who didn't want anything to do with the business.
Cecil Bullard: Okay. Watch dad work his butt off for years and for whatever reason, you know, either dad didn't manage him well or, or dad wasn't nice at work or, or you know, they thought dad worked too hard, whatever it was, they won't have anything to do with the business. We brought them to a leadership intensive.
Cecil Bullard: These kids are on fire. They want nothing more than to take this business over and grow this business because they've seen what the opportunity is and how to do it. And we've also worked with dad and mom on how do we help the kids do this and how do we need to deal with it? I'm not. Always the nicest guy to my kids.
Cecil Bullard: Um, they're the ones that I can be the hardest on and I'm probably gonna be the hardest on. And, you know, sometimes I need somebody to say, Hey Cecil, um, you know, maybe if you approached it this way and did it this way, it would be much better for your relationship with your kids and you'd come out much in a much better way.
Cecil Bullard: And I just think that's extremely value. I wanna spend just five minutes here. I know we're getting to the end. 2026. Uh, Michael, what, what do you think for shops? What do you think it looks like?
Michael Smith: Uh, 2026 for shops. You know, we have, we have, uh, geopolitical instability that we're settling through on the planet at this point.
Michael Smith: I'm not being political, I'm just saying in the bigger macro, it is what it is. It is what it is, and there are some people who are sort of holding back a little bit, making big, long-term decisions, waiting to see what the long-term looks like. And so let's just put that on the table. Number one. Number two.
Michael Smith: Um, economically we're stable at this point. Stock market's doing great. Investment funds are backed up and ready to invest. You know, I asked the private equity firms, how do you guys plan forward into uncertainty? And they said, well, it's not as complicated as you think. We don't do a bunch of modeling. We decide, we look back and we say, over the last hundred years, what are the trends that have been successful so far?
Michael Smith: And we're gonna tend to stay with them and some until something catastrophic or radical happens, and we have to change that strategy. So all the little side questions of, well, what if this happens? And what if that happens at the investment level? They're like, we're gonna assume it's largely gonna be the same and we're gonna go ahead and keep investing up to our eyeballs.
Michael Smith: For a hundred years, it's worked with all the world wars and all the changes that model works all the way through, right? So from that perspective, what does 26 look like? Money's waiting to be invested. We're aging out as the boomers. The boomers are at least two thirds of the owners in our industries, if not more.
Michael Smith: Many of the kids aren't fully prepared for succession yet. Your key leaders aren't as ready as succession ready as you might hope that they would be. So if you're getting out. Make sure you know the pathway out. There are private equity opportunities to sell into investment systems, to have a little more as an owner in your pocket when you're done, how do you handle the shop and the real estate in your two different hands?
Michael Smith: There are strategies for this. So Cecil 2026 is, you know, big, hairy, audacious goals. Think bigger than we tend to think. Get your teams and leaders ready to go big with you and look forward and, and, and plan for the options. Plan for the opportunities, and be more creative than we've been historically about what you could pull off.
Michael Smith: And I'm gonna say to you, there are support structures, and I'll brag on ours. We're doing stuff that I don't know anybody else that we compete with is doing, but we've been there, done that, and it's. Sales pitch. I'm just telling you, we can help you do stuff that isn't typical in this industry that can take you to different places.
Michael Smith: 'cause we know that's where the industry's going. And so what's 26? I'd kick some tires. I'd lift up rocks and look under 'em that I hadn't looked before. And if you're tired. Keep doing it and don't stop yet. Lift up those rocks and see what's under there and, and I'll finish with the kid story, right? We've got multiple clients where the kids, where, as Cecil said, leaning out the front door and all of a sudden they come and they learn this and they're all back in the front.
Michael Smith: They're not even leaning in, they're in and they're like, I'm gonna build a generational wealth business with my family that has a significant community. Employee customer impact. And we are gonna play this rollup game that's coming because it's number one much more interesting than fixing cars for us.
Michael Smith: The kids. The kids, right? And number two, that's where the industry's going anyway. So why shouldn't we as insiders with advantage be in that instead of seeding that opportunity to somebody else? And so I say that to all of us guys. It's a new world that's here. Whether we like it or not, it's here. So explore the options and see what.
Michael Smith: They look like for you. And then make an advised decision. Make a wise decision about where you want to go from 26 and beyond. Don't just be tired and walk out the front door and please don't ignore this stuff because you, what you don't know may end up costing you. I mean, more than an arm and a leg. You have no idea.
Michael Smith: What's on the table and
Cecil Bullard: I see 2026 as a, as a huge opportunity for those people that are thinking differently, that are learning things they don't know that are building great teams and creating value proposition and a business that. Uh, revolves around those things. And then I see 2026 is very difficult for those people that are, you know, driving price and, and driving their business based on price and fixing cars.
Cecil Bullard: Okay? Mm-hmm. As the, as the primary. I, I just gotta fix this car so I can get the money in the door, and, and I really still will say. That we're gonna lose a ton of shops. We've seen it this year. We've seen quite a few shops disappear. We're gonna see more and more disappear. They're just gonna close their doors because they didn't build value.
Cecil Bullard: They didn't get the, you know, create what they needed to do when they had the time, the energy and the life force in them to do it. So, alright, uh, we want to thank you for joining us. If you didn't get your question answered, you want to ask another question or whatever, please hit up info at we are the institute.com.
Cecil Bullard: There will also be a QR code as soon as they take, uh, our mugs off the screen. Uh, and, uh, if you'd like a, uh, uh, no. Risk, uh, business evaluation, no cost. Uh, we'd be more than happy to spend some time with you and, and answer your questions and, and go over those things. And so that QR code is gonna pop up here in just a second.
Cecil Bullard: Thank you. Uh, Michael Smith, one of my favorite people in the world. Uh, thank the rest of you for joining us today, and we look forward to seeing you again in a few weeks when we kind of do this thing one more time.
Michael Smith: Thanks everybody. Good to see you.

178 - How Running a Lee Myles Shop Gave Lance Lupi More Freedom Than 20 Years in Finance Ever Did

178 - How Running a Lee Myles Shop Gave Lance Lupi More Freedom Than 20 Years in Finance Ever Did
November 25, 2025 - 00:50:02
 
Show Summary:
Lance Lupi shares his unexpected journey from live sound engineering and financial services to running his family’s Lee Myles franchise in New Jersey. He explains how stepping into the shop during the height of COVID opened his eyes to the opportunity within the industry. Lance talks about the advantages of small-business ownership, the steep learning curve, and the value he places on his technicians. He discusses why he finally committed to coaching after five years and how it reshaped his vision for growth. The conversation explores leadership, culture, and the decisions needed to scale a shop built on integrity. Lance closes with his hopes for the industry and the future he wants to create for his team and his family.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Lance Lupi, Owner of Lee Myles Autocare + Transmissions
 
Show Highlights:
[00:03:24] – Lance recalls his winding path into automotive and why he never expected to own a shop.[00:07:53] – He explains how his father-in-law bought the franchise and what drew the family to the business.[00:09:57] – Lance describes entering the shop during COVID and realizing the industry’s long-term potential.[00:13:20] – He talks about the struggle to build SOPs and get team buy-in for consistent processes.[00:20:11] – Lance outlines his bay setup, the structure of the shop and the skill levels of his technicians.[00:28:05] – He shares how watching Cecil’s content sparked major improvements in margins and operations.[00:30:59] – Lance explains the moment he knew he needed coaching and why he chose the Institute.[00:33:12] – He admits he plateaued and needed expert guidance to move beyond being a one-man operation.[00:41:07] – Lance defines leadership as inspiring the team, listening well and being willing to work beside them.[00:44:19] – He shares his wish for the industry: remove those who don’t operate with honesty so the good shops can thrive.
 
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?
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello, my friends. Good to be with you again. This is Jimmy Lee with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge Podcast. My guest today is Lance Lupe. He's with Lee Miles, the franchise of automotive service and repairs. He is out of Haslet, New Jersey. Lance, welcome to the show.
Jimmy Lea: How you doing brother?
Lance Lupi: I'm doing great, Jimmy, how are you? Re great to see you, although a little disappointed in the attire. No, no flashy
Jimmy Lea: Jacket today. Alright, hold on. I'll get my jacket.
Jimmy Lea: You know, everybody's listening to this. They can't see anything. You gotta call me out like that.
Jimmy Lea: Hey Lance, we've seen each other at many different trade shows over the years. I'm thinking of tools. Super Saturday Asta. Yep. Yep. And I'm twice Asta. Twice asta, and I'm told we're not supposed to pronounce it Asta, because you're not supposed to pronounce acronyms. It's supposed to be a STA.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. You're welcome, Lorraine. Calling out Lorraine on that one. Yeah, we've seen you twice at Asta. I, and I think that they have done a phenomenal job with that conference, the new location. Oh man. Did you go this last year better,
Lance Lupi: better this year than la Great. Last year better and I wasn't there for the entire time last year.
Lance Lupi: I was there for the full event, but definitely a b Huge improvement. Yeah. Location and everything about it. The scope of it was tremendous.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. So you gotta go again. You gotta go. This next move, what is it? September? I think it's September. Mm-hmm. October.
Lance Lupi: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: Put it on your calendar. Save up your pennies and nickels and dimes.
Jimmy Lea: Whatever you gotta do to make sure you're there for that one. Have you been to Tools? You go into the tools one in Pennsylvania.
Lance Lupi: I went last year and then go into the one plan on going to the one next year. I've heard they've changing locations po possibly don't know if that's true or not. Yes, we're,
Jimmy Lea: it's gonna be at the Hershey.
Jimmy Lea: Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the Hershey Chocolate Factory, and it's inside of there. So you want to get on it quick? They've got rooms available. I believe the classes are gonna start to be available to register here pretty dang soon. It's in April.
Lance Lupi: Okay.
Jimmy Lea: Right after on the calendar.
Lance Lupi: Yes. Get it on the calendar.
Jimmy Lea: It's right after my wife's birthday, so we got that going for us.
Lance Lupi: Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Super excited. Hopefully she'll be there. Let's see. Yeah. Yeah, that would, it's gonna be right. So we're going on a cruise for her birthday and then this is gonna be right after her birthday, so we'd go straight from wherever we're cruising from directly to her.
Jimmy Lea: She Pennsylvania. Dude, that would be awesome. I'd love to introduce you to Rhonda. She's awesome and amazing. I met her last year at A STA. Well, well, there you go. There you go. That's right. She was there last year, not this past one, but a year ago, correct?
Lance Lupi: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That was awesome. Or
Lance Lupi: at least I didn't see her this year.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, you weren't there to see her this year. I went there
Lance Lupi: year last year.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, dude. No, that's awesome. So we've had a lot of conversations over the years of shops and process procedures and, advisors and needing technicians and franchisees and franchise fees and franchise support and everything you're doing.
Jimmy Lea: So, what I'd love to do here first, Lance, is to get into the history of how did you get into the automotive industry. Wow. So
Lance Lupi: great question. Long journey to get here. Long, long journey. I don't know how far you want me to go back.
Jimmy Lea: I've had some dudes start when they were two years old and they're holding the wrench for dad 'cause dad was working on the cars.
Jimmy Lea: So it, so, so not that
Lance Lupi: path. That was not the path at all. Oh. You know, I did do work on my own cars when I was younger. Started to drive oil changes, you know, break jobs, simple stuff like that. But nothing really beyond that. Learned a couple things from dad. Tremendous influence on my life all over the place, but.
Jimmy Lea: Was dad in the industry? Was he a technician? No. Was he a shop
Lance Lupi: owner? No.
Jimmy Lea: No. Just
Lance Lupi: he was a mechanical engineer.
Jimmy Lea: Mechanical,
Lance Lupi: In the driveway out of pure necessity. Correct, but a mechanical engineer by trade.
Jimmy Lea: Oh wow, okay. Very good.
Lance Lupi: Yeah, so nothing to do with that, but you know, he was a young man as well at one point he worked on his cars and, you know, a different time when he did more work on cars than you do now.
Lance Lupi: But in any event so, so that was really the extent of my automotive history and knowledge. Got into actually doing live sound. For five years for bands. I worked in clubs and, you know, did some small little tours with some people and things like that. And that went on for about five years. And during that time, I, you know, I still was in school, going to college, wasn't really sure the path yet.
Lance Lupi: Got out of that after about five years and ended up going into financial services. So, whoa. 20 years that you went from being a roadie to being a financial advisor? Not a roadie. I was not a roadie. Hold on, let's back up, Jimmy. I know that was
Jimmy Lea: my word.
Lance Lupi: I, I ran the front of house, the audio systems for the bands.
Lance Lupi: I was a house engineer at a club in as famous Asbury Park, if you've heard of Asbury Park, New Jersey. And that's where I spent the bulk of my time.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay. Doing
Lance Lupi: that.
Jimmy Lea: So you had a club, you weren't traveling on the road with the band.
Lance Lupi: Not, I think some little bands come to your, some little stuff with some different people.
Lance Lupi: Actually provided a PA system for Chubby Checker for a few gigs you know, in, in the northeast area for a couple days. And and then did some bands that I was friends with, things like that. We would travel a little bit, but primarily I was in one location. Okay. For the majority of that time.
Jimmy Lea: Alright, so were you the AV guy that would balance the sound or would you just blast the sound?
Lance Lupi: No, I wouldn't just blast the sound. That's not the objective. The objective is to make sure that everyone can hear everything the way that they want it to be heard the way that it sounded on the record or whatever it is.
Lance Lupi: So yeah, setting up the mics and, you know, doing sound checks and all those things and making sure the people can hear themselves on stage, making sure the fans could hear the. Stand out in the front of house and yeah, that was, oh, I love it. Five years of my life.
Jimmy Lea: Alright, from from, and that
Lance Lupi: shut down and then I decided that, you know, this is probably not what I want to do for the remainder of my life.
Lance Lupi: You know, it was fun, but giving up my weekends and all those things was not the greatest thing for me personally. For a lot of people it works. So, finished up school, got a degree in finance, and went into financial services for 20 years. Then I needed a change. Yeah. About five and a half years ago.
Jimmy Lea: My
Lance Lupi: in-laws
Jimmy Lea: go ahead. Five and a half years ago. I think we must have met shortly after you started your shop then,
Lance Lupi: so, so the shop, been in the family.
Jimmy Lea: Been in the family for 20 years. 20 years, yes. Okay, so it was your in-laws that
Lance Lupi: had
Jimmy Lea: it first.
Lance Lupi: Correct. They owned it. They bought it. My father-in-law loved cars.
Lance Lupi: He needed something to do. He felt that this was a great opportunity to combine work with his passion of cars.
Jimmy Lea: Okay? He didn't work on
Lance Lupi: cars. He just loved cars. Not that he didn't work on cars, but he wasn't a mechanic or anything like that. But he, he loved automobiles. Had a bunch of hot rods and all kinds of different classic cars and things like that.
Lance Lupi: So he felt that this would be a good way to, to combine both his passions of, you know, providing an income and working on cars.
Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. What do you know what steered him toward Lee Miles as the the franchise to follow?
Lance Lupi: It wasn't necessarily that it was just, this was something that was available.
Lance Lupi: It was proximity to the house. Was really. Great. You know, 10 minutes. Okay. Be being 10 minutes away. Great location. We're right on a main highway, you know, main artery in the area. So tons and tons of traffic that passes by the building every day. Love it. So, you know, just it was a fit for what he was looking for and what he was looking to do.
Jimmy Lea: It's like every bit of successful real estate location. Mm-hmm. Location,
Lance Lupi: Location. Absolutely. First of three else. Yeah. Yeah. So, about five and a half years ago, I needed some sort of change and he was kind of looking at the exit door a little bit and I said, well, why don't we why don't we see what we can do with this?
Lance Lupi: That was, you know, right at the heart of COVID. The heart of co. Right? The beginning. This was 2020. This was like, you know, right in the thick, right when we first really started to get into, you know, this was like June, July of that year. 2020.
Jimmy Lea: So this is past the two weeks?
Jimmy Lea: Two weeks. Two weeks. This is not just two months. Two months. Two months. This is the serious lockdown. Okay,
Lance Lupi: very good. Sorry. Yeah. The be the very beginning. Yep. Yeah. So pop and I said, well, let's see what happens. Okay. So, came in and started learning. 'cause I knew nothing, you know, I mean, I had been here before, obviously it's my father-in-law, it's right around the corner from me.
Lance Lupi: I've, you know, we, he his team worked on our personal vehicles, my wife and I, and so not as if I didn't have any exposure, but didn't really know how it worked.
Jimmy Lea: Right. Yes. Because it's different than financial services. Sure. I mean, it is business. So you have business acumen, but it's mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: It's its own unique leopard with its own unique spots.
Lance Lupi: Yes. But I did work in the operational side of financial services. I was responsible for budgeting for different departments, so. Able to leverage some of those types of things, SOPs. Right. You know, while I don't still don't really have them, I know about them.
Lance Lupi: I'm familiar with them. I've written them, I've supervised people, writing them and rewriting them. So, you know, there was a lot of things that either are or can be leveraged in this space that I take away from my old roles.
Jimmy Lea: Oh that's very cool. So you're starting to work on SOPs.
Lance Lupi: Starting is a long journey ahead.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So it's a five year journey so far, and it, you know, it's been well, so a lot of, go ahead. The great thing about SOPs is it's a document that never dies. It's a living document, you living breeding document to add and add and work with. It seems to be a subject, a topic that comes up in a lot of the podcasts that I've been doing here recently.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. And I think one of the most successful. Conversations I had, a gentleman was talking to his technicians and saying, Hey, look you guys are my beta. I am using you to see if what we're making, what we're creating is going to work. Is this gonna work? Is it gonna be good? Does it read right?
Jimmy Lea: Did I write it right? What did I leave out? What do we need to add? How can we improve these SOPs? And the brilliance of that process is getting their buy-in.
Jimmy Lea: I just thought it was brilliant. I totally geeked
Lance Lupi: out. Yeah. And that's an area where I, you know, I struggle with a little bit in the sense that the team that's here tremendously talent, tremendously fortunate to have the people working here that are working here.
Lance Lupi: They're not used to those types of things. And that change is a little hard and I try every day to challenge them and let them know that we need to be much more consistent than we already are.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. And that's how
Lance Lupi: we got, that's how we have to get there.
Jimmy Lea: That conversation was very recent with his name is Chris.
Jimmy Lea: Pete Zach and his shop is Matt's automotive, and in fact he's in New Jersey as well.
Lance Lupi: Oh really?
Jimmy Lea: Yes, he is in,
Jimmy Lea: I don't remember. Don't worry. Nevermind.
Lance Lupi: Small state. But it's a, but it's a big state.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, we have a lot of, we have
Lance Lupi: a ton of people here, so there's a lot of of.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No it, it was awesome. I just loved what Chris was talking about on that because it's so true that the buy-in the input the company culture mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: It becomes this is us, this is our program, this is how we do things. And it's when you get it down and you get it set up Lance, I think you're gonna love it. I think you're gonna let, no, absolutely. So what is your take here? The difference between the franchise world and the automotive world?
Lance Lupi: I don't know that I really have one because this is all I really know. And the reality is we kind of work very independently. So it's not as structured as what most people might think of when they think of a franchise agreement.
Jimmy Lea: I said franchise, you know what? And I was thinking financial, the, between the financial world and the automotive world.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I said, I did say franchise. You did pick that up. Yeah. And I apologize. Sure. I wanna know between your financial world and now in the automotive. Sure.
Lance Lupi: The differences.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Differences, similarities, challenges reward rewards.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. So you see what I'm wearing?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, got a hoodie on looking comfy.
Lance Lupi: Okay. So that's a lot different than a suit and tie. So
Jimmy Lea: yeah, you got,
Lance Lupi: there's definitely, you know, one advantage you know, I'm about seven minutes from my house versus, you know, an hour plus each direction. Plus a huge cost in commuting expenses. At the end of my that part of. Career. I was in the city.
Lance Lupi: I was taking the ferry into the city every morning to get to work and back to work. And that was, you know, if I told you the number of what I was spending every month on commuting and then the time, all that time back and forth, I mean, it's so much different, you know, so my stress level, while it probably should be greater, is actually less.
Jimmy Lea: Believe it. I believe it. I believe it in this role.
Lance Lupi: And I think that's partially because I'm in control.
Jimmy Lea: Yes.
Lance Lupi: Right. I'm not beholden to, to someone else. Other
Jimmy Lea: than the customer.
Lance Lupi: Other than the customer. But I mean, I control all that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Right. So, so that's something I'm empowered to do anything.
Lance Lupi: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Right.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. And I don't
Lance Lupi: have to, you know, take orders really from anybody else. But me.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, yeah, I drive that. And your commute is glorious.
Lance Lupi: My commute is glorious. I need to run home and, you know, the, until my daughter just left for college prior to that, her, you know, being here for high school for her was a tremendous benefit.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. She could just pop in and say, Hey, pops, how you doing?
Lance Lupi: Or if she needed something I needed, she forgot something at, you know, home, I could run it over to her or whatever. So, so that, that was a a huge win, you know, for the both of us.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's very cool. The,
Lance Lupi: The other side of that equation, well, the.
Lance Lupi: Not the same.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, it's not the same. But the re reduction and one of the things having to pay for the commute, that does help. That's true. Mm-hmm. And then you've also got the, the less stress factor that's gotta happen as well. Correct. So what does, but I'm trying to change all those things so that, that's why I'm here.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. So what does the what does it look like when you approach father-in-law and he's looking for the escapee, the escape, the exit door. Yeah. And he is ready to go out. What, how does that conversation go? And where do you settle on getting to a number?
Lance Lupi: Well, it was, you know, they were just like, listen, we're thinking about getting out of this. And I said, well, let's not do that just yet. Why don't we wait and see how things go? Okay, let me step in. Let me start learning. Let me see what we can do with this thing. I think even during that,
Lance Lupi: the unknown that was going on at that particular point in time, I would. I felt that there was a tremendous opportunity. I still feel there's a tremendous opportunity in this industry, right as I sit and you know, I would sit in front of my house. I live on not a main road, but not a back street or anything like that.
Lance Lupi: I have a high school, a couple doors down from me. I have a big neighborhood development across the street from me, and I would see all these cars passing by. Thinking every one of those cars needs four tires. Every one of those cars needs an oil change. Every one of those cars needs a boozy whats, or you know, a tuneup, a, you know, a radiator or whatever.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. They gotta drive forward. They need to, everyone house
Lance Lupi: across the street from me has 2, 3, 4 cars in their driveway.
Jimmy Lea: They all do. Yep. And some are garage queens, but some are the teenagers.
Jimmy Lea: Most
Lance Lupi: are not garage queens. Most car, most garages, including mine, do not contain cars.
Lance Lupi: They can contain the junk that you don't know where else to put it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh gosh yeah. No. And the
Lance Lupi: refrigerator and the freezer or whatever, and the work bench and things like that. But most. Most garages, at least here in New Jersey. Yeah. In my experience, do not contain vehicles.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's hilarious.
Jimmy Lea: That's hilarious. So you're working on cars. You go with the father-in-law and they, you said, Hey, let's not get out of this yet. Let me come down. And so you come down and you look at this and go, oh, you know what? I can see a future here. I think this is something we can take care of.
Jimmy Lea: Are you in the process of buying it off, buying it out, or did you pay it off in one fail swoop?
Lance Lupi: We're, that's still, you know, not worked out yet. Completely. Okay. It's still legally there.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Very good.
Lance Lupi: I'm just an employee right now.
Jimmy Lea: You're an employee. Wow. That is very cool. And my $17,000 lesson is get it in writing.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. And there you go.
Lance Lupi: Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: So what does the shop look
Lance Lupi: like today? What's the footprint? So the footprint is I've got four bays. Two to three are primarily in use. One is kind of just a backup, you know, 'cause it's smaller because of the, you know, one of my lifts is a big drive on lift, so there's a smaller lift in front of it, so that's not really used too much.
Lance Lupi: Okay. But it's there in, it's in reserve. I've got two technicians that are here. One has been with the business here for. Pretty much since it, since my in-laws took over the business. Shortly thereafter, he joined and been here ever since. Had he had a brief departure during COVID.
Jimmy Lea: He's
Lance Lupi: from Europe, and he reasons he decided that he felt that he needed to move back to his home country.
Lance Lupi: That was short lived. Fortunately, in the interim, I did hi, bring on another person to. Take on some of those responsibilities that, that he had there. And then my other, the other tech who's our builder, so we're Lee Miles is a transmission franchise, but we do full repair, but specialty and transmission.
Lance Lupi: And I do have a transmission builder, and that's my second tech. And he's primarily a builder, but he does full repair.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. Yeah. You know, those, and then
Lance Lupi: so when I, so just I had, so when the one person came back from Europe, I kept on the third person for a period of time. I was able to sustain the work, but I.
Lance Lupi: We're back to those two people. The 20 year person and the 10 year plus person. But the 10 year plus person has another 30 plus years behind them in experience, and the 20 year person has another 15 years of experience behind them. Oh, wow. Prior to being here.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So
Lance Lupi: I'm fortunate for the team that's here they're tremendously talented.
Lance Lupi: They're passionate about their work and. They want to solve the problem for the customer.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. That's very cool. Yeah, the, those men and women that work on transmissions, that's a thousand piece puzzle without a picture. You, oh my gosh. That's some skill.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. He's tremendously skilled.
Lance Lupi: He is very particular about how he works. Examines each and every component that comes outta there and goes back in and knows all those little tricks and things that I'm just amazed when I, you know, watch 'em. I don't watch 'em too often 'cause I don't want to disturb him. But
Jimmy Lea: yeah,
Lance Lupi: when he talks about it, when he, when we're writing up narratives for customer invoices and things like that, I'm just, you know, amazed at the level of detail and the knowledge.
Lance Lupi: Steps that he has.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. That's just fascinating. The to know the tolerances and the abilities of the different gears and the mechanisms and the the different chemistry of the parts and pieces to know which part is mm-hmm. Working best and which one's gonna wear out first.
Jimmy Lea: These guys that have been working on these transmissions for so long it's second nature for him, and that's so cool.
Lance Lupi: It's. And because of his skill. I actually work, one of my wholesale accounts is a classic car restoration company.
Lance Lupi: Oh, wow.
Lance Lupi: So we'll, do you know, I don't know, eight to 12 units a month outta these older vehicles that he grew up on.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. Yeah that's the car that he was working on. That's where he, when he was 15 years old, wanting to have a car to be able to drive to high school. That's what he was working on. Oh, that's awesome.
Lance Lupi: Exactly. So, so, it's great and it's, and it, you know, it allows me to have that extra piece of business that I wouldn't otherwise have if he wasn't in, in the building.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh, that's great. And my dad, way back in the day, he was 14, 15, 16. The neighbor had a 57 Chevy and it wasn't running. It needed a new transmission. My dad bought it for 10 or 20 bucks, bought the car, took a taxi to the pick apart, took the transmission out of another 57, took a taxi back to home.
Jimmy Lea: And installed it with the transmission on his lap. On his lap. Yeah. And he installed the transmission in the guy's driveway. Installed it. Started it up. He drove it
Lance Lupi: outta
Lance Lupi: there.
Jimmy Lea: Drove it out.
Lance Lupi: How about that? That's a great story. That is a great, oh my gosh.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. To take it. Taxi. I have a friend who has
Lance Lupi: one of those
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah.
Jimmy Lea: A 57. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's a beautiful car. It's a beautiful car. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. Well, you, it sounds like you've got a great footprint, a great program, a great company, a great culture. You've got some great guys that are there working with you, bringing this to the forward. Yeah. To the future.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do you have a service advisor or are you filling in on that position right now? I
Lance Lupi: am. That's why my hat looks the way it does, Jimmy.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So you've you're doing the day to day. You,
Lance Lupi: you are I'm doing everything. I do everything. I mean there if it's not fixing a car, it falls on my shoulders.
Lance Lupi: Wow. That's awesome. That's awesome. So it's not so awesome. That's kind of where, you know, why I am where I am.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and why I've
Lance Lupi: made some decisions that I've made recently to change that.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. And what are some of those decisions you've made recently that have. Are making a difference for you?
Jimmy Lea: What, what's going on?
Lance Lupi: Well, it's the fact that I decided that, you know, I am on board,
Jimmy Lea: on board with the institute That's correct. Coaching and training. Yeah. You, there's the things that you know, you know, and there's things you know, you don't know. And the most dangerous is the things you don't know that you don't know.
Jimmy Lea: That's correct. Oh, that's awesome. So why get on with coaching and training? Finally after five years?
Lance Lupi: Yeah, so when I first got when I first got into this pro, well, not first got into it about two years in or so, some person just walked in and said, Hey, I'm a mobile diagnostic person, and I program computers and things like that.
Lance Lupi: So. I struck up a little bit of a, you know, relationship with that person in the beginning and he, this was a person that had owned his own shop, owned his own towing business owned, you know, a bunch of businesses. It's been a technician for, you know, 20 or 30 years or whatever. Wow. It was a great resource.
Lance Lupi: He was close by and I don't know, we just kind of connected a little bit and during all those conversations. He mentioned this guy, he said, you know, you should probably watch some videos from this guy. I said, who? Cecil.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, Cecil Bullard. Yeah.
Lance Lupi: So I went, you know, I started, you know, I would sit outside or sit in the house or sometime and I'd pop on YouTube and I pull up this guy Cecil Bullard, and I started listening to him and, you know, tons of other people.
Lance Lupi: On there, you know, Lucas and David would have him on, or, you know, they, they would have conversations, their shop owners I would watch. And so I and I would watch and start learning about all these things and that's how I came to A STA, I wanna make sure I pronounce it correctly. So that's how I came to A STA.
Lance Lupi: They were having a conversation about it, Lucas and David. And I decided that, you know, let me head down. That's where, you know, you and I first connected and I started taking some of those things that, that Cecil was saying and I started applying them.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Parts, margins, right. Labor, right.
Lance Lupi: All these different things that, that I really didn't know. Emotion. My, my favorite phrase from him, emotional.
Jimmy Lea: Discounting. Yeah. Emotional discounting. That's selling outta your front pocket because you think, oh my gosh, this is such a big bill. It's just a bill. Yeah.
Lance Lupi: So, so I started applying a lot of those things and I was having conversations with people I was having.
Lance Lupi: I was having conversations with him and I mean with, you know, my friend. And then most recently I watched a video with a se, a webinar with him and Michael Smith.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh yeah. That asked me anything, webinars,
Lance Lupi: that was the aha moment kind of. I'm gonna pause.
Jimmy Lea: Okay?
Lance Lupi: Okay. Is that,
Jimmy Lea: yeah, let's pause you Take care of the customer,
Lance Lupi: okay?
Lance Lupi: Okay. Thanks Jimmy. Hold on. I am back
Jimmy Lea: to me. Okay. Hey, right on. So here's the beauty of what we're doing here and for everybody. Yeah, we can start over. Everybody that's listening, that will be a probably two or three second pause for a 15 minute conversation of Lance taking care of the customers. And that's why we're here is to take care of the customers.
Jimmy Lea: So Lance, I appreciate you doing that, brother.
Lance Lupi: Not a problem. I appreciate you, you being patient with me, Jimmy. So, so a few weeks ago I watched a video with Cecil and Michael Smith, and that was kind of the catalyst. I started thinking about where do I want to be in a couple years, what do I wanna do?
Lance Lupi: And if I decided at some point in the future that. If I wanted to exit, what would that look like? And what, no matter what I did here, what would really be the value of the business? Would it really be that what I needed to be in order to fulfill the goals that I have for myself? And lo and behold, I guess probably because of, you know, that I got a call from someone asking me more about it.
Lance Lupi: And, we started to, I started to really engage in that conversation and I finally just said, if I don't do this now I'm either not gonna do it or I'm not gonna do it when I need to do it, so I might as well just rip the bandaid off and let's go for it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh that's awesome, man. That, yeah.
Jimmy Lea: And that conversation was with Michael Wil Trout. And Michael Wil. Trout asked you some of those hard questions like he did. What's holding you back? Yep. Me. Yeah. What's the biggest challenge? You And I'm aware of that. Yeah. Yeah. What's the biggest challenge in front of you? That you can't overcome yourself and you need a team.
Jimmy Lea: You need a coach, you need a community. Uhhuh
Lance Lupi: Yeah. Every, everything is an obstacle for me right now, because as I said before I'm wearing all the hats in this place and it's. Getting harder and harder to do it, and I'm not able to provide consistently the level of service that I want to provide.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Not bad, but it's just not everything I want it to be, and nor is it everything that it should be.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. No, and that's good. And I think a lot of people have the wrong conception of what a coach is. Like, a lot of people say, well, I don't want to have another boss. And a coach is not your boss.
Jimmy Lea: A coach is like a caddy. A coach is there to help advise you, and guide you and steer you in the right direction and say, Hey, wait a second. I think you might be heading for a bad situation here. You might want to steer around this one. Or you have a roadblock or a mountain that you think is just insurmountable.
Jimmy Lea: You come to the coach and they've solved it for three other companies, three other businesses. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Or you're in a group environment. Yeah. Hey Lance, we've solved this five times. Here's five different solutions from five different markets and five different shop owners. Yeah. Now that mountain becomes a mole hill, you're able to step over it now.
Jimmy Lea: All right, man. Hey, let's just keep going. Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I've kind of plateaued, right? I, you know, my, my numbers, although they have improved, they haven't improved in total revenue, but the numbers underneath those have improved.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Because of the changes that I, the incremental changes that I have made from watching, you know.
Lance Lupi: Cecil and all the and lots of others. I mean, I can't just, you know, not the only one, but there's there, there's tons of good content out there. Yeah. And little nuggets in a lot of those podcasts that I watch or listen to where, you know, they say something and probably, maybe sometimes I think it's not even intentional.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Lance Lupi: Especially as you get further and further into to Lucas and David's podcast, they kind of, sometimes they stray a little bit, but sometimes there's just a good nugget. I listen to the end. They always say, no one listen to the end. I listen to the end.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. I listen to the end as well when I can get on their podcast.
Jimmy Lea: I yeah I love the conversations that people have. Their
Lance Lupi: banter back and forth is, I don't know how those two met, but their banter back and forth is pretty, pretty organic and. Fun and funny sometimes
Jimmy Lea: it, it really is, it's almost a situation where Lucas likes to, to poke the bear and then the bear erupts and he just sits back and giggles and watches the fireworks.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, shoot. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's pretty funny. And there's great information out there. We, there's a lot of information and there's a lot of noise. You wanna make sure that you subscribe to someone who has been there, done that to someone who has a proven track record that you want to emulate.
Jimmy Lea: And that's important. That's very important. Yeah. Sure. That you are listening to the right people.
Lance Lupi: And I felt that, you know, not just watching him, watching you, I mean, tons of webinars and things that I've, you know, been a part of that you were on that, you know, helped me polish some skills as well.
Lance Lupi: So, you know, Michael and Cecil and you, and it just felt like it was a good place to be and that I was gonna get the most out of it.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, I love it
Lance Lupi: from the institute.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. Welcome, welcome to the Family, man. We're excited to have you here with us.
Lance Lupi: So what is, I'm excited. I'm just, I'm my biggest you know, I'm nervous that I'm gonna let someone down.
Jimmy Lea: No. The only person you'd let down would be yourself. And that's the high expectations that we have of ourself, so.
Lance Lupi: Mm-hmm. Yeah,
Jimmy Lea: we're gonna set some high bars. And at that same time as you are reaching for these high bars that you think, there's no way, there's no way I can reach it. There's no way I'm gonna hit that.
Jimmy Lea: And then one day you do, and then you grab a hold of that bar, and now you pull yourself up and even higher. Sure. And in the process of the more you jump, the more you leap. The more you stretch yourself, the more you're gonna see, oh my gosh, look how far I've come. From where I was to where I am.
Jimmy Lea: So we're shooting for the moon. We're gonna fall in the stars, but eventually we're gonna hit that moon. We're gonna be there and we're gonna be there together, and that's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm
Lance Lupi: looking forward to it. Yeah, I've got a lot of things I need to achieve, so I need to get there.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Good, good. And we will get there together. So speaking of getting there, what is the next year's plan, the three year, the five year, the 10 year plan? What do you, what does that look like? Mm-hmm.
Lance Lupi: For you, brother? Well, that's a great question. I, you know, I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I'd love to grow the business, like I said as I mentioned earlier, there's, I see tremendous opportunity and growth in this space.
Lance Lupi: Whether that means growing this location where I'm at now, or moving a location or adding locations, I don't know, but I just think that with the right help, that there are no limits really.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's so true. But,
Lance Lupi: you know, I don't have any kind of concrete plan other than to just make sure that I achieve my goals, which is to grow the business, not have to be here as much as I can because it can run by itself.
Jimmy Lea: Love it
Lance Lupi: and, you know, be able to do some things and spend time with my family and help my daughter get through college and, you know, maybe have a place for her to land when she's done, who knows where, what that's gonna be, where she's gonna end up.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. I
Lance Lupi: don't know. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Where's she going to college?
Lance Lupi: Just TCU. Fort Worth, Texas Christian University.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. Okay. Very good. Big 12. We've got some good family down there in the automotive industry. Yeah. You know, John Firm. Buckaroo. Buckaroo, Bob. Okay. Bucking Buckaroo. Bob. That's his Facebook handle. It's John Firm, firm Automotive.
Jimmy Lea: He is 99% fleet work and 1%. Public work. Okay. Yeah. Super awesome guy. I'll have to look
Lance Lupi: him up when I'm down there.
Jimmy Lea: Do, look him up. A little bit outside of town in Allen, Texas. Is Craig Zale.
Lance Lupi: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: Craig's Car Care. Super awesome dude. Love his shop. Love him. He's doing great things.
Jimmy Lea: Finally got air conditioning for the shop and production has just shot straight through the room. Yeah, I'm especially in
Lance Lupi: Texas. Yeah, I'd love to do it here, especially Texas justify, especially in the summer, but.
Jimmy Lea: Well, it took him a few years to do it right? Because you gotta save up your money.
Jimmy Lea: You gotta save up your money. Money. Sure. There were like two or three times that he was ready to pull the trigger and waited a couple of days to do it. And you know, it's a good thing he did because some catastrophic, something happened and it just had to postpone that air conditioning for another year.
Jimmy Lea: So after you doing it a couple of years in a row, he finally has the air conditioning in. Man, I, I think the techs just absolutely love it.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. I'm giving 'em a I'm giving him an upgrade this weekend.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. What, oh, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving weekend. What are you doing? What's the upgrade?
Jimmy Lea: No, I mean,
Lance Lupi: I'm good. No I'm installing a work saver. This weekend I'm having on two of my garage doors, I'm gonna have, openers installed.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude. Yeah. Congratulations. That's awesome. Yeah. Oh yeah. They're gonna love that. That's very cool. That'll
Lance Lupi: help. I mean, it's really, so my problem is heat and I got a, you know, 20 foot ceilings in here and, you know, the opening and closing of the doors all the time is a, it's a lot of work.
Lance Lupi: 'cause like, you know, two people have to be there. We try and minimize the amount of. Escaping air.
Jimmy Lea: That's right. So,
Lance Lupi: you know, someone's opening the door, pulling the, someone's pulling the car in, someone's closing the door right behind them. So, this should, you know, minimize all those things. Right. Make it a little easier to get the doors open and close and not require two people and not require them to have to lift them up and open the doors close every night and,
Jimmy Lea: yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool, man. That's really cool.
Lance Lupi: They don't know it yet. It's a surprise, but.
Jimmy Lea: Hey, trigger
Lance Lupi: this weekend.
Jimmy Lea: Welcome back on Monday. On Saturday, here's your garage door open. Get on Saturday
Lance Lupi: and Sunday and yep. It'll be hopefully ready on Monday.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, congrats. That's awesome, brother. That's awesome.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. That's very awesome. So, one more question here for you. Sure. What does leadership mean to you?
Lance Lupi: That's a great question. Jimmy,
Jimmy Lea: yeah. I'm putting you on. Inspire this one. No, there was no Yeah. Inspiring. Right?
Lance Lupi: You know, you're gonna have to inspire the team to want to do their job and be successful at it. Not being afraid to get in and do the work with the team. I mean, I'm out there all the time helping them mount a tire or lift something or taking a delivery or something like that and assist.
Lance Lupi: So, you know, not being afraid to do the work that you're expecting the people around you to do. Right. I mean, I can't put in a radiator or, you know, change a spark plug or whatever. But if there's any help that's needed I'm willing to roll up my sleeves. Get my hands dirty and do it.
Lance Lupi: And be willing to listen to them and their concerns and their problems, and you know, what I'm not doing, be willing to take that in and not be defensive about it. And be willing to have that conversation and negotiate ways to, to solve the problem and value the input of the team.
Lance Lupi: What they have to offer, right? Like, like I said earlier, they've got tons of years of experience. There's tons of things that I learned from them all the time and about, you know, once in a while they have a good idea of how to change the business to, to run it better, you know, as far as in the office part, you know, and then I value their opinions on the repair part.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. That's very cool. It is important as a leader to value your. Members to value your team to hear them. Mm-hmm. And validate their input. I love that. I love that you are leading a group of highly skilled technicians and they are specialists. That is super cool, man. Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: Lance, absolutely.
Lance Lupi: Like I said before I'm so fortunate to have them.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. For true. This
Lance Lupi: business would, I would've not, probably would've closed up shop. A long time ago if I didn't have the group and the team that, that are here.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Team is so important. Man. It is so important. It's so valuable.
Jimmy Lea: Congrats. Congrats for having a good team there for you and with you that they work with you and man it is, it's all family. It all comes together.
Lance Lupi: Yep. We have our ups and downs just like family and. Overall it's mostly ups and you know, once in a while there's a down. Right. Just like with anything else.
Jimmy Lea: Just like with anything else. I totally agree. So, last and final question here, as we come to land this plane yeah. If you had a magic wand Yeah. And this magic wand would grant your wish, you can't wish for more wishes, what would you Oh,
Lance Lupi: I can't.
Jimmy Lea: No, you can't. What would you change in the automotive industry?
Jimmy Lea: What would you wish for?
Lance Lupi: I'd wish for all the people that don't do the right thing to leave it right. The people that give the rest of the industry a bad name.
Jimmy Lea: So it they wish to expel the riff-raff.
Lance Lupi: Yeah. Yeah. And just, you know, keep the people that are truly passionate about what they do here. Right. You know, the horror stories that I, and anyone else I'm sure hears of, you know, I took it to this place and they did these five things and that didn't fix the problem.
Lance Lupi: And I still had to pay them. And now I'm here to have you fix the problem. Right. So the person that I just helped while we were on break here. Yeah. I said that, you know, anything goes wrong. It's on me now. I told you that this was gonna fix your problem, and if it doesn't, if it costs me $5,000 to fix it, I own it.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. There's not a lot of shops out there that would say that, Lance. Well, they should. They should. And that's operating with some high level of integrity as well. Mm-hmm.
Lance Lupi: And I've done it. I've had to do it. I've, we've made mistakes. Right. It's, you know, as I tell my customers. The team I've got, and I've, as I expressed here, they're a great team.
Lance Lupi: Yep.
Lance Lupi: I'll say this. Tom Brady didn't throw a touchdown or win every game. Babe Ruth didn't hit a home run every at bat. Michael Jordan didn't score a hundred points every game. But who do you want on your bench? All those guys, if you had a baseball team, a basketball team, a football team. Who would you want?
Lance Lupi: Who are the, you know, who's your all star team that you would put on there? Yeah. And they're not gonna win every game. They're not gonna hit it out of the park every time, but they're gonna give it their all. And that's the, those are the people that you want on your team. And that's what I have here. And you know, but we're never gonna be perfect.
Jimmy Lea: Right? Right.
Lance Lupi: We're gonna make a bad call. I'm gonna get a bad part. You know, the other, another thing I say is, you know, I can barely control the four walls I've got surrounding me. I can't control the four walls of the parts store or the plant where the part was manufactured or anything like that.
Lance Lupi: You know, those things are outta my control and the things that are in my control are still barely in my control.
Jimmy Lea: Right. Oh yeah. It's true. It's true. But you're doing a great job, man. It's, I dunno about
Lance Lupi: that, Jimmy, but I'm trying.
Jimmy Lea: Well see. And that's the beauty of it. We're trying you're doing, you're not on the couch telling other people how to run the business or how to do things.
Jimmy Lea: You're in the mix of it and you're part of the solution. You're part of the the movement going forward. I wanna be, yeah. And you've got changing the industry, you've changed, we are changing the industry. How many times can we say that I think there's, they should be, have a podcast about that or something.
Jimmy Lea: They should. They should. Maybe. We talk to David and Lucas changing the industry and it's true as much as we can as an industry, lock arms together so that we're not. Leaving anybody behind because it really is a strange and weird and unique and odd and perplexing storm that we're all in.
Lance Lupi: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Not all ships are created equal.
Lance Lupi: No.
Jimmy Lea: Some are gonna catch, but I,
Lance Lupi: I
Jimmy Lea: some aren't gonna make Yeah.
Lance Lupi: And I try to help, you know, the shops that I am close with, and there's about six or seven of them. My area. Nice that, you know, they refer work to me, transmission work to me, and I'll refer certain types of work to them with their specialty.
Lance Lupi: And but I try to tell them the things that I've learned from the videos that I've watched, you know what I mean? And the changes that I've made and how impactful they've been to me. Try to get them to do the same thing. And those, they're all people that I respect. And, you know, I, like I said, I send customers there.
Lance Lupi: I wouldn't send my customers there if I didn't feel comfortable doing that. So I want to help them. 'cause again, I want them to be successful as well because it, there can't just be one shop. There's gotta be, you know, a bunch of shops. But they should all be great shops.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. I agree. And as you do this, as you lock arms with these other shops and those ones that operate with integrity and intention, you are gonna, and this is where you're gonna fit so well with the institute, is that we're here to build a better business.
Jimmy Lea: And by us helping you to build a better business, you're gonna build a better life. Better life for you, for your family, for your technicians, for their families. Mm-hmm. And for your clients, for your customers. For those that come and trust you, that become fiercely loyal to you, you're gonna help them have a better life as well.
Jimmy Lea: And here's where the institute comes in, that as together and as you are doing with these six other shops, we are gonna build a better industry as well.
Lance Lupi: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: So let's keep this bus moving forward and yeah, we're gonna get there and we're gonna get there together. That's gonna be awesome.
Lance Lupi: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Jimmy Lea: Awesome. Well, thank you, Lance, man. I really appreciate the conversation. I appreciate where, what you've done, what you're doing, and where you're gonna be going and gonna be doing as well. Mm-hmm. The future is bright. It's exciting, man. Congratulations.
Lance Lupi: Yeah, thank you Jimmy. It was a pleasure.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you brother.

177 - How Chris Pietrzak Went from 2 Bays to 11 Lifts and Is Redefining Mike’s Garage

177 - How Chris Pietrzak Went from 2 Bays to 11 Lifts and Is Redefining Mike’s Garage
November 25, 2025 - 00:50:46
 
Show Summary:
One year after buying a tired 2nd-generation shop, Coast Guard veteran Chris “Pizza” Pietrzak has turned Mike’s Garage in Pennsauken, NJ into an 11-bay, tech-forward operation with rising profits and a loyal team.
In this episode of The Leading Edge Podcast, host Jimmy Lea sits down with Chris to unpack his 22-year journey from “this place will be yours one day” at a tiny two-bay shop… to being told “take it or leave it”… to finally owning the building, the business, and the vision. They dig into switching from paper to TechMetric, implementing DVIs, building SOPs from scratch, investing in young techs (including buying their tools), and why Chris’ magic-wand wish is to reset society’s view of the automotive repair industry.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Christopher Pietrzak, Owner of Mike’s Garage & Pietrzak Automotive
 
Show Highlights:
[00:02:31] - Chris spends 22 years in a two bay shop he was promised, then walks away from a bad deal and lands a 10,000 square foot, 11 bay facility on a main highway.
[00:12:55] - He learns to build his own P&Ls, equipment lists, and projections so he understands the numbers and goes into purchasing Mike’s Garage with confidence.
[00:14:40] - Instead of changing everything at once, Chris stabilizes the shop, then methodically upgrades equipment, services, and systems.
[00:15:37] - Six months in, he switches from paper to Tekmetric and partners with The Institute to shore up his weaknesses as an owner.
[00:19:43] - Chris makes DVIs and photos standard, using SOPs so every car is inspected the same way and trust with customers grows.
[00:24:13] - His veteran service advisor uncle embraces new tech as Chris shifts check in photos and communication to the front counter.
[00:26:04] - Integrated parts ordering replaces 15 browser tabs and phone calls, freeing the team to focus on higher value work.
[00:34:47] - To lower the barrier for entry level techs, Chris buys their first tools and lets them keep them after a year if they commit.
[00:42:08] - He sets a long term goal of multiple locations and a four day work week to attract talent and create more family time.
[00:46:10] - Chris dreams of resetting society’s view of automotive repair so technicians are seen as skilled, respected professionals, not “grease monkeys.”
 
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.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello, friend. My name is Jimmy Lea. This is the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Chris. Chris is the owner of Mike's Garage and he is loaded located in New Jersey. Chris, good morning. How are you, brother?
Christopher Pietrzak: Good morning, Jimmy.
Christopher Pietrzak: I'm good. How about yourself?
Jimmy Lea: I am fabulous. Congratulations and thank you. Congratulations. Why? Today, one year, one year anniversary of Mike's Garage, powered by Chris. Congrats, bro.
Christopher Pietrzak: Thank you. Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Dude. That, that must have been one heck of a journey.
Christopher Pietrzak: Oh it's been a wild journey for sure.
Christopher Pietrzak: That's the say of the least.
Jimmy Lea: Hey, so what's the weather like in Jersey right now?
Jimmy Lea: Cold.
Christopher Pietrzak: It's on the nicer side, you know, it's about 40 degrees, so.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, you're not bad. We're 37, mostly sunny high of 44 today, so that's nice. Yeah, we got similar weather patterns. I'm in Highland, Utah. Okay. Just outta Salt Lake.
Jimmy Lea: So yeah we got similar today.
Christopher Pietrzak: Being forgiving. My, my heat's been acting finicky in the shop, so I said I gotta, I have a guy coming up, but he can't make it out until after the holidays. So I said, just hold off the weather. So I'll get my guys freezing out here.
Jimmy Lea: Right? Yeah. Do you go get him a butane or propane heaters?
Jimmy Lea: Do you hook up that? We have,
Christopher Pietrzak: I have two, two waste oil heaters and two gas heaters. So the gas ones are my backup, so I have something. The waste oil. Heat can be finicky at times.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, so is it the waste oil that's having the finicky problems, issues for you? Oh, got you. Okay. So you're on backup at the moment?
Jimmy Lea: Yes. All right. And how's, how is the shop by the way,
Christopher Pietrzak: going? Good. Things are going good. You know, recently we've switched over to a tech metric, got hooked up with Chad, with the institute with some coaching. So things are progressing. You know, I can't complain. You know, I don't look behind me.
Christopher Pietrzak: I just keep looking forward and just make tomorrow better than today. That's all.
Jimmy Lea: There you go. You're like an Italian race car driver. You don't need a rear view mirror. You're just going straight ahead.
Christopher Pietrzak: There we go. That's it. That's it. Fast and furious sense of looking in the past.
Jimmy Lea: And let's get into this, Chris, let's talk about your journey because everybody's journey here in the automotive aftermarket is unique and it's special and it's awesome.
Jimmy Lea: And I love to hear what your journey is. How did you get into the automotive aftermarket?
Christopher Pietrzak: I got into it it was just in high school and I was working a retail job and. My uncle had gotten into cars, my dad mechanical abilities, but never an auto mechanic. He was more of a maintenance mechanic for, you know, a factory.
Christopher Pietrzak: So that was in my blood. But you know, I said I wanted to work on cars and my uncle had, then he worked parts and he said, I found a shop that had a unfortunate incident where they lost a technician and they're looking for a young kid to start. I mean, I was 17 years old. He brought me over and I just, I'll never forget that day, the owner was talking to my uncle about what he was going to expect from me, my uncle to him, and said, put his hands up.
Christopher Pietrzak: And he said, he's ours. I only brought him here. So I spent the next 22 years of my life at this place. You know, it became, I took a little break. I joined the service. I was gone for about eight years, but the industry called me back. You know, I, came back and was working back with him and everything was great.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, he was getting older and he was always under the pretense that this place would be yours one day. And that sounds great, especially coming from, you know, hearing it from someone at the, you know, I respected in the industry. He's got 50 some plus years in it. And I'm like, okay, well what he says makes sense to me.
Christopher Pietrzak: It wasn't until. We got closer to that time when I started getting a grasp on what it actually takes to purchase a business.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Christopher Pietrzak: And that's when we kind of got into the, it was never an argument, but it was just at the end of the day, he doesn't wanna retire, which I have to respect, you know, that's just, you know, he is 80, 84 years old now and he's still working.
Jimmy Lea: Shut the front door. 84. Are you saying he's wrenching or is he working the office?
Christopher Pietrzak: Oh, he's rent never. Never in the office. When I was there, it was, he doesn't like answering the phones. He doesn't like computers and he doesn't do billing.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. So
Christopher Pietrzak: he just wanted to wrench. The rest was put on me.
Christopher Pietrzak: Which I gladly accepted that role. Okay.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Christopher Pietrzak: Because in the back of my mind, one day this place was going to be mine. You know, the countless hours of coming in early, staying late, working the weekends, just to keep this customer base happy, thinking this is gonna be mine one day. Well, we hit the situation where, you know, he didn't want to get involved with numbers.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Right.
Christopher Pietrzak: He didn't wanna get involved with providing me with any sort of, whether it be inventory, property, appraisal, business, appraisal, equipment, any of that. He said, that's all on you. Okay. Then I actually started looking into it, comparing it to what he was asking, and we just couldn't, it was originally offering some seller financing.
Christopher Pietrzak: Then we kind of, we backtracked on that and it was just, this is the number, take it or leave it. And just so happened that same uncle that dropped me off there
Speaker 3: Yep.
Christopher Pietrzak: Happened to now be the service writer for Mike's garage. Mike had heard the story, you know, through them talking and he had mentioned to my uncle and said.
Christopher Pietrzak: Well, does he wanna buy this place? So we came down and we talked and you know, they were talking comparable numbers and the first shop was a two bay shop, two in-ground hydraulic air to hydraulic lifts that leaked. You know, it had to, yeah, they
Speaker 3: did.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know. I never realized how unsafe it was until I left and was like, wow, I've been working under that for 20 something years.
Christopher Pietrzak: I should have been addressed. But, and long story short, now I have, you know, 10,000 square foot, 11 bay facility right on a right, on a major highway. So it's a win-win. You know, every, I always tell myself everything happens for a reason. You may not know, you may not know tomorrow, but eventually. You'll realize that everything does happen for a reason.
Christopher Pietrzak: And you know, in that moment when that deal was falling through, I was not in a good place. You know, that was, yeah. Ever since I, when I met my wife, you know, she, when we first met, it was always, whenever we talk about the future, it was, I'm gonna own a shop. I'm gonna own a shop, I'm gonna own a shop. If I hell or high water, I'm gonna own a shop, whether it's the one I'm at, whether I find one or whether I just rent a garage and start this.
Christopher Pietrzak: I said, I'm not gonna let the years of dedication, hard work that I put in to maintain this clientele to go out the window.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know? 'cause there's been times where it's like, do I just leave this state? Do I find somewhere else? You know, do we start fresh somewhere else? And I said, no. You know, I put in the work.
Christopher Pietrzak: And this is what I don't like saying what's owed to me. 'cause I don't feel anything in life is owed to anybody. But I earned it. I earned this clientele. I earned, this is my home, this is my area. I'm not leaving these customers. So
Jimmy Lea: congratulations on doing that, that there's so much to unpack in there.
Jimmy Lea: So first of all, thank you for your service. Which line of military were you in? Coast Guard. Coast Guard. Congrats. My father-in-law was also Coast Guard during wartime eight years. That's phenomenal. Congrats on coming back to it. So when you were at the previous location, what was the footprint? How many lifts, how many employees?
Jimmy Lea: What did that look like?
Christopher Pietrzak: It was, you're looking at it, I was everything. It was me. Yeah. It was me and the owner. That was it. It was two bays, two lifts, oh my gosh. One drive on, one drive on, and one center post forearm lift, which we did have one outside lift that was not being used. There was a vehicle on for 20 some years, but I bought an F Body Camaro that I needed to, that was doing a motor in, so I needed to drop the subframe, which I needed that lift for.
Christopher Pietrzak: So. I ended up rebuilding that lift just so I can do that job. Oh my. But
Jimmy Lea: that's hilarious. Yeah,
Christopher Pietrzak: it was. I was there and we had one other guy there, but he had retired and that's when the owner was like, I'm not gonna hire anybody because I don't want it to be your burden. I want you to hire who you want.
Christopher Pietrzak: And then 12 years went by.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, 12 years and the guy's still there and he's still drinking the coffee every morning and he's still having the same conversations. Oh, that's hilarious. So you, hey, you've heard it said before where if you want to hear God laugh, you tell him what your plan is because he says, Hey, you know what, I got a better plan for you, Chris.
Christopher Pietrzak: Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. And so now you're in a 10,000 square foot. 11. Did you say 11 lifts? 11, yes. 11. Oh, congrats, man. How many techs are you?
Christopher Pietrzak: I have four. Four technicians. Yeah. One service writer, not including myself.
Jimmy Lea: So you step in as the catchall.
Christopher Pietrzak: Exactly.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And you have to, man. You have to, until you get to the point where you've got enough technicians, enough service advisors, and a manager, then you're able to work on the business all the time.
Jimmy Lea: But right now you gotta be in there. You gotta be in for the grind.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So 22 years you were at the previous location combined altogether. 22 years, yes. Wow. Congrats on enduring all that and getting to the point where now you own Mike's garage and everybody probably wants to call you Mike.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Hey, I see you. He's Mike there.
Jimmy Lea: I wanna talk to Mike.
Christopher Pietrzak: I, my, I have one, one of my techs here, his name is Mike. So when people say, I wanna talk to Mike, I say, well, listen, Mike, if they're looking to complain, I'm gonna hand over the phone to you. You'll handle this.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Oh, that's great. He's gonna quickly change his name to Michael.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah, that was it. Been about the name of the business and I've been working with Chad about this, that I want to change the name and my last name is not an easy one to say or spell. So I said Mike has an easier ring to, I said, it may just be easier for me to change my name to Mike instead of changing the business name.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Well, you're powered by Chris, or that's it. How do you say your last name, Chris?
Christopher Pietrzak: Pizza. Pizza. Pete. Zack. Yeah. The R is just in there for looks
Jimmy Lea: right. It's a silent R.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yep. Yep.
Jimmy Lea: My wife's name is Rhonda and she has a silent H. She made a joke a while ago that she was gonna put in a silent seven in place of the H and just have it be our seven oh NDA.
Jimmy Lea: It was funnier when we were talking about it. It didn't catch on. Oh, that's cool. Mike. Mike Chris.
Christopher Pietrzak: There we go. That's all right. That's all right, Jimmy. I'll take it.
Jimmy Lea: You'll take it. Well, congrats on where you're at, man. Here you are. A year in. When you bought it from Mike what did that look like?
Jimmy Lea: Is what did the deal look like for you on your side?
Christopher Pietrzak: I mean, the deal broke it down. I got the property and the business, you know, and to sum up a long story, his analogy was, you know, the place just needed breath of fresh air and needed some new ideas, you know, to really unlock its full potential.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know? And when I first, when we were first doing the business again, I was. A lot of it was on me. You know, the bank wants numbers. Yeah. And I want numbers. I want numbers. It's purchasing the place. You know, the owner's always going to tell you that the place is profitable. I've never seen someone selling something that say, it's not worth, it's not worth it.
Christopher Pietrzak: So to do my own due diligence, and it really gave me a good idea on the numbers, you know? Mm-hmm. Instead of just somebody giving me a report and reading it. It's totally different when you're the one creating the report, you know? Yeah. The numbers kind of sink in better. So, you know, I handled all that situation, you know, between equipment, p and l, statements, expenses, projections so in the moment it was driving me nuts.
Christopher Pietrzak: I was losing sleep over it after everything settled. I was glad that I had to go through all that, you know, it was a lot of work, but it was a good learning experience. You know, and then once we took over it was kind of step one was cleaning up. You know, I kept, everything kept ev all the systems in place that were in place that seemed to be working, you know, paper statements, you know, were handwriting notes, texts are getting clipboards.
Jimmy Lea: Oh boy.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah, that got old pretty quick. Was tired. How
Jimmy Lea: quick did you go from paper to tech metric then?
Christopher Pietrzak: About six months.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, once I told everybody, I said We may we're making settlement, I was, I'm letting the dust settle.
Jimmy Lea: Amen.
Christopher Pietrzak: Then I'll start reviewing, you know, everything from internet provider to insurance.
Christopher Pietrzak: I said, but I'm not looking to change the world overnight. I said, I want to dissect it, see where we're at. And then I, you know, he was the internet provider. Everything was so out of date. So everything takes time. You know, we were just updating everything between equipment and services and then I got to the point where, you know, I started doing my research on these different softwares available and
Speaker 3: yeah,
Christopher Pietrzak: you know, I landed with Tech Metric.
Christopher Pietrzak: Honestly I listened to a lot of podcasts. I was listening to a lot of change in the industry, which led me to the institute and Oh, nice. It really sunk home. When, between the process of purchasing to then shifting gears to now running and owning and running the place, I realized that I need help, you know?
Christopher Pietrzak: One thing I've learned from my first garage I've worked at and the interim would always tell me was, you know, I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And you know, I knew my strengths and my weaknesses and I wanted to minimize the weaknesses. So we got hooked up with the Institute and even the short period of time that I had been with the institute and switched over to Tech Metrics, I can see.
Christopher Pietrzak: I don't feel it gradually because it just happens. You know, Chad gives me an assignment, you know, here let's work on this, work on that. And in the moment you're thinking, you know, how's this really gonna propel me to the next level? And then even just like I said, the short period of time on where I, I feel like I was two months ago to where I'm at now, I never would've expected myself.
Christopher Pietrzak: To be at this point in general, I've always envisioned my, like I said, the shop I was at, he was 80 some years old. We just left a DOS based billing software about six years ago. The biggest issue was getting RI ribbon ink for the printer. You know, it was carbon copy, so to go from that. And it was a cash or check only.
Christopher Pietrzak: No credit cards, no sort of electronic payments, no. And. A lot of my mentors and people who have been with Mason's beginning of the process are all older.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. So,
Christopher Pietrzak: you know, in this area, I feel like I'm kind of blazing the path of this new generation of auto repair. You know, where we're headed with, whether it be dvs, you know, stuff that.
Christopher Pietrzak: People got, you know, I don't wanna say get away from, they never really got involved with
Speaker 3: Yeah. Because they
Christopher Pietrzak: feel like it's too much work.
Speaker 3: Right. You know? Right.
Christopher Pietrzak: This has been working for me, this is what you gotta do. Everybody, you know, and I'm, and I say, great. And then I also listen to them, Andre, the same ones that are complaining about, whether it be the industry as a whole or business.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And.
Christopher Pietrzak: And a lot of 'em, I'm very grateful for the support the community, the auto repair community I have in my local area.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so true. It's so true. There's enough
Christopher Pietrzak: work to go around, you know, you have your few gatekeepers, but at the end of the day, they're not hurting me.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, and there's a few shops that you really don't wanna lock arms with.
Jimmy Lea: They're not your friends, they're not your enemies. They're just not people you want to be associated with. And that's fine. But there is such a great community out there that does wanna lock arms with you, that does want to see you succeed because they know, as, you know, every car passing in front of your shop and their shops.
Jimmy Lea: There's no way you guys could all handle every vehicle that comes through.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: There is a variety out there. And you wanna lock arms with those that are gonna help you succeed, which this community is very strong. So I love that you're in this six months after you started, you switched to Tech Metric, you're going for paper to computer.
Jimmy Lea: I'm interested to know your customer base. When you switched and started doing dvs, what did they, what was their response?
Christopher Pietrzak: Day one, it was paying off. I don't. I don't see any negative side of a DVI. I feel big. Everybody's biggest hurdle is time.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Guess what? You have to practice to make it perfect, so it's not going to be smooth out of the gate.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Christopher Pietrzak: And one thing that worked with Chad and is an SOP, get it in writing. Once, once there is a repetitive process, things will move faster. I'm still not there yet, but we're working towards it. You know, we're getting the system going to where nothing's overlooked, but d need to be standard practice across the board in this industry.
Jimmy Lea: Totally agree.
Christopher Pietrzak: There's no way. How you're going to gain the customer's trust and have them change their views on this industry is we have to elevate our side as well to meet the expectations that we want them to see us as. They're never gonna take us serious if a picture tells a thousand words, you know, it does, and the time that it saves.
Christopher Pietrzak: One of my biggest hurdles was my service writer, who's my uncle. You know, he was here at Mike's when I purchased it, and he stayed. So the transition, I'd say about half the people think he's Mike anyway, you know. Oh, that's funny. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: That's good.
Christopher Pietrzak: It just, it makes it smooth. I still have a few customers that come in that didn't even realize I painted the building.
Christopher Pietrzak: So that's when people start asking like, oh, did Mike sell? Because he painted the building. Yeah, because somebody's cleaning up around here. Something had to happen, so, oh, that's
Jimmy Lea: great.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: I was wondering if you took a pressure washer to everything, washed it all down and then started doing up your paint.
Christopher Pietrzak: Everything I could, it wasn't burn. I burn out my pressure washer. Cleaning that the floors and the oil heat is not it's nice burning your waste, but it's messy. It's messy.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it is. The soot and the grime and the grease and the grit that comes from it. Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yep. Yeah. And then it gets in the biggest obstacles, keeping it outta customer's cars,
Speaker 3: you know?
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. So, but we stay on top of that. But it's been, you know, with the whole switching over to Tech Metric and with the customer feedback that I've been getting between now offering online billing, online payments.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, how about the text to pay
Christopher Pietrzak: financing options? Phenomenal. It's a game changer when it comes to, you know, how I've always seen it done at the previous shop and it's, if you want a line of credit.
Christopher Pietrzak: It's like, yeah, we'll arrange something now. We don't have to do that. Here's, you can apply and click here. You can deal with them. Click there. And it's been, like I said, and just the communic, the forms of communication. They can text the shop number directly, whether it's I'm having an issue instead of the my counter guy spending 10 minutes on the phone.
Christopher Pietrzak: Trying to get a description from a non-automotive background individual.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Christopher Pietrzak: To make sense of what's happening, where a simple text and picture done. No phone call needed. You can, he continues to work. It comes in, we look at it. Send a picture of the VIN or the tag. I can already get it going.
Jimmy Lea: So question for you about your service advisor.
Jimmy Lea: That's your uncle. So I'm guessing he's got a few years on you and he went from paper to tech metric to digital vehicle inspections, text to pay, online pay. What was his adoption of all this technology?
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah, so, he's open to it, you know what I mean? That's the good part. You know, he's. He is been nothing but supportive in the changes I've made.
Christopher Pietrzak: A lot of the times it's me, I have to do certain things a certain amount of times before I can be affluent in it. So I tend to, you know, he's more than willing to go through it. I, but I gotta have, you know, going through the process now. Vehicle check-ins, for instance. You know, I want these pictures taken, this done.
Christopher Pietrzak: At first I have the text doing it and I'm saying, well stop. Let's have you do it. You know, this way, if there's an issue that can be seen directly in that moment, it can be addressed, and it's not a phone call 20 minutes later. Again, all about time management, you know, oh, it's here for a noise. I noticed just your oil changes is overdue.
Christopher Pietrzak: I noticed your tire light's on be, do you want these things addressed? Easy enough. But yeah, he's been, he is been grasping it, you know, getting, especially with the texting estimates, inspections, it saves him time linked up through parts tech, having all our suppliers on one screen. You know, it's once, once you get some repetition.
Christopher Pietrzak: It and I wish I could talk to every person who is nervous about making a change like that or doesn't trust certain situations. You know, I don't trust them when it tells me this and that. You're missing out on just a smoother workflow all, all across the board, you know, whether Oh, it's so true, dude.
Jimmy Lea: So true.
Jimmy Lea: It's,
Christopher Pietrzak: you know, having that. Like, it's still new enough to me where I can still remember having 15 windows open from different suppliers or pulling out your sheet, what all your phone numbers, going down, making phone calls, write down, okay, Napa was this much, c and m was this much, worldpac was this much, what brand?
Christopher Pietrzak: And all of that is eliminated by having these systems in place.
Jimmy Lea: Technology. You've got the technology in place. Yeah. And you've got systems in place and you documented it all into an SOP so that now onco can follow it. You can follow it, and when you hire the next advisor is gonna be able to follow that same process and procedure because you've got it established
Christopher Pietrzak: 100%.
Christopher Pietrzak: That is my main goal going through main goal when it's coming to SOPs, implementing procedures and processes. That's what I told Chad is my biggest goal is to get these procedures and processes in place, and I tell them, I know for example, him, you have decades of experience in this industry. I have technicians that have decades.
Christopher Pietrzak: I have technicians that have weeks in the industry. Yes. I said, my goal is to put these into place. You are my beta testers. Let's go through it because at the end of the day, something happens, I need my system to be plug and play. You know it's not gonna be a hundred percent because you can't plug and play relation customer relationships.
Speaker 3: Yeah, true. But
Christopher Pietrzak: I can plug and play processes. I know that whoever I have on front counter is going to take the four corner pictures that will change. The gauge cluster and the inspection sticker. That's what I need from my front counter, whether regardless of who's sitting up there.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love it.
Speaker 3: You know,
Christopher Pietrzak: that's my whole goal, you know, is to get these processes in place so it can be a plug and play scenario.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and I love that you're involving your technicians, whether they're two weeks on the job or two decades on the job. You guys are my betas. I need to know if this works or not.
Jimmy Lea: You get their buy-in and you take their feedback as well. And the the brand new technician might have some ideas that are outside of the view of the dudes that have been there for 20 plus years because they've got some form of technology that's gonna help. With the process procedure and the efficiency where somebody who's 20 plus years, they may not have been exposed to that technology yet.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: So by I, I
Christopher Pietrzak: look at it, I look at it as a benefit, having that 30 year technician and that for a month technician. Some people say, oh, it's tough having training. He represents 90% of my customer base. Yeah. If I can explain it to him. So he understands it. And it's the same with my wife. You know, she's not fluent in the automotive business.
Christopher Pietrzak: She supports me, but I asked for her feedback and she goes, well, I don't really know. I don't really know. I said, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I need feedback from you. And I need feedback from the guy who's been doing it for 40 years. Yes, because that's on. I've worked around guys. We've had a crew where they were all veterans.
Christopher Pietrzak: Trying to implement change into a group of veterans is a little bit trickier than having a mix. Yes. I have guys that have a year, like I said, up to 40 and everywhere in between.
Speaker 3: Wow. So
Christopher Pietrzak: we have, you know, it's a good, it's a good blending. The younger guy can help out the older guy when it comes to technology.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know how to, let's do this, do that. And vice versa. He is got questions about how things work, you know, and they kind of have their own ecosystem back there. You know, I'm always, I'm the go-to guy for any question, but I it makes me proud to see my team work as well as they do together, you know?
Christopher Pietrzak: Oh, I love it because this is my family here. You know, I have enough at home. I have four kids home, but. You know, at the end of the day, this is, most of my time is spent, you know, it's, and that's, I wanna make the best of it, and I want to, I want them to have a good experience as well. And making changes without looking for input is just setting yourself up for failure, because you could do something that makes sense to me, you know?
Jimmy Lea: And to that point, so, you know, I love that you talk about training and you need the training. Your guys need training as well. There's a lot of conferences and trade shows that are very close to you, by the way, I don't know if you're aware of like, tools. Do you know about tools? I, you know, Pennsylvania, I have.
Christopher Pietrzak: Okay.
Jimmy Lea: You take your dudes up there. It's not that far.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. Quickly drive.
Jimmy Lea: Another one is WMDA. The Wilmington, Maryland, Delaware automotive Association. They've got a conference that's coming up. It's a one day, one and a half day, two day event. That's really good. Asta down in North Carolina.
Jimmy Lea: Phenomenal, phenomenal show to go to.
Christopher Pietrzak: I've heard. I've heard. About Asta.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and Asta is where Chad's gonna be. 'cause Chad, that's his backyard. I mean, he drives from, it's a couple hours drive or something for him to go from Locus over to Raleigh. But the, to the point of training, you've gotta budget that into your business.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause if you just say, okay, everybody, hey, we're all going to ASTA next September. Pack your bags, make sure everybody's ready to go. And you haven't accounted for that in your business. Now it's, that's a heavy lift for the entire business to do it. Check your numbers, work it in there so that out of every car you service between now and September, you got a dollar or $2 or $10 or whatever the numbers is.
Jimmy Lea: You've gotta analyze that and know what the numbers are so you can take the full shop to the training, or maybe you don't take the full shop. Maybe you take half of 'em this year and half of them next year. Guys, this is what we have to do. We have to perform at this level. Anybody performing at this level?
Jimmy Lea: 'cause you analyze your numbers. Anybody performing at this level gets to go to the show because essentially you're paying your way to go by performing at this level. Anybody under that, you know, we just, we can't afford to take you.
Christopher Pietrzak: And it shows me that you're invested.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You know
Christopher Pietrzak: it, let alone the money that you're making me is great to pay for the trip.
Christopher Pietrzak: But the fact that you are performing or overachieving shows me that you're invested in this. Yeah. So I will, I tell them I will invest as much as I possibly can into you if this is what you want.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: This is not, you know, it's not a let's go on a vacation and not take any information in while you're there.
Christopher Pietrzak: And by taking everybody, like you said, maybe not making it a performance based marker that gets you eligibility. There's not a, there's no, no investment into it, you know? Yeah. And that's all I, that's all I want, you know, people to, I want everybody to love it as much as me,
Jimmy Lea: right? We do. We want them to love it.
Jimmy Lea: And the point of training is, well, what if I train 'em and they leave? Chris, what if I take 'em to all these conferences, all these trade shows? What if I train them and they leave? Okay, well, what's the opposite of that? What if you don't train them and they stay? Now you've got technicians that aren't going after the training and you're pouring into them.
Jimmy Lea: You're pouring into them knowledge and information, taking them to the training. So I applaud you for doing that. That is phenomenal. Chris. Thank you very much.
Christopher Pietrzak: Thank you. And one of the programs, like I, I've been working with the local high school.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Get
Christopher Pietrzak: some, you know, get some guys that come over.
Christopher Pietrzak: Summertime was a little bit easier. Now it's, you know, but now they went back to school. But, you know, my, my newest tech here speak. I purchased tools, you know, and I said, these are my tools. Until you have 12 months here, you give me a year you can take and you decide that this business, this industry is not for you.
Christopher Pietrzak: They're your tools to take. But until then, you know, I can't, I feel like one of the biggest drivers that keep people out of this business is the cost of equipment.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Just basic hand tools.
Jimmy Lea: It's true. If you wanna get professional grade automotive professional, you are spending five grand to get a small box and a good set of sockets and wrenches and that.
Jimmy Lea: You easily five grand.
Christopher Pietrzak: And then you're asking these guys or gals to make that purchase without even them understanding if they wanna be in this business.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Like you're asking them like, you know, give automotive a shot. You know, you might like it, but then it's like, but in order to even give it a shot, you have to drop $5,000.
Christopher Pietrzak: And then they're like. You know, I can go make coffee for $22 at the local Wawa.
Christopher Pietrzak: And you know, my big, my always pitch with that is, you know, room for growth.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, this is where you're starting in this industry. The sky is the limit on where you wanna take it.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. That's awesome.
Christopher Pietrzak: And that's. That's solely on you. You know, I can I'll lead a horse to water.
Christopher Pietrzak: I'll provide you with what you need, provide you with the most up-to-date scan tools, you know, tire equipment. I'm trying to make it as easy as it is as I can for you to try out this business. Yep. You know, and to be successful. And you, the more you show me that you're invested in it, then the more I'll support you.
Jimmy Lea: Dude. That's awesome. Congrats, man. That is so awesome. Thank you. It sounds very similar to this. The story I had with my son he decided that he wanted to play baseball, and I was like, oh, okay. Hopefully this isn't a flash in the pan, but just in case. We went to Walmart and we bought a bat, an eastern bat, just a inexpensive little bat, a tiny little glove, tiny, you know, pair of cleats that he could wear.
Jimmy Lea: Is this the real deal? Is he really gonna enjoy this? And it was finally when the coach came to us after a couple years and he says, you know, you really ought to get James a, a proper. Oh, okay. Yeah. He likes it that much now, does he? Yeah. Yeah. You might consider getting him a different glove and at that point we, instead of being out a couple hundred bucks for a bat and glove and cleats, it was like three 50 for a bat and two 50 for a glove and cleats that are a hundred bucks a pop.
Jimmy Lea: And oh my gosh his baseball career. Woo.
Christopher Pietrzak: Luckily he went to baseball, not ice hockey.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah, ice hockey,
Christopher Pietrzak: all that gear.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, the padding, the sticks, the clea the skate, the traveling. Oh. Like he was, we did do travel baseball. Luckily for us it was very close within driving distance. We were in St.
Jimmy Lea: George, Utah. So it was either Vegas or up to Cedar City, beaver, maybe even as high as Lehigh Provo. So it was always driving distance for us. We never went state to state that would require flying. That's good. Yeah. Except for once we did go to Cooperstown. Oh,
Christopher Pietrzak: okay.
Jimmy Lea: You know, Cooperstown very
Christopher Pietrzak: nice.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. My, my kids are still younger, but you know, like the baseball program always has a fundraiser to send the Cooperstown team out there every year for the tournament and.
Jimmy Lea: We did it. Dude. It was so rad. It was so much fun. They have that 200 foot back wall and so there's a lot of home runs that are hit out there.
Jimmy Lea: It is so cool. So much fun.
Christopher Pietrzak: I'm looking forward to it. That's why I have to get all of my systems in processes in place, because I have a family that there's nothing more in this world that I love spending time with. You know, I said, my wife's supporting me through this, you know, I said like, I know I'm.
Christopher Pietrzak: Burning the candle on both ends. I have, this is a lot of work, but at the end of the day, you know, I would love to be able to spend more time and when there's an event, it's not, dad's gotta work. He can't be here, you know? Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: No, you gotta be there. You gotta be. They're only
Christopher Pietrzak: young. They're only young once.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Amen, brother. Oh, congrats. What sports are they into? Is it ice hockey for your kids? No, I
Christopher Pietrzak: haven't got that. It's baseball. My oldest is baseball, football, wrestling. Wow. And my second son, he's not into much. He's got, he is got a little bit of a delay. So he's his sports career. He loves, he's a big supporter of his brother and sister.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. He comes out to support them. And then my oldest daughter, she's flag football, dance gymnastics. And then my youngest, we haven't dabbled yet. She's just about to turn two, so we got time on
Jimmy Lea: that one. Oh, you got time on that one. Oh, congrats man. That's awesome. That's awesome. Sounds like you got a beautiful family there and young.
Jimmy Lea: They're growing. They're gonna develop. And that's the beauty is you are the caddy in their life. You get to help guide and protect them for a few years.
Christopher Pietrzak: Worst case is if hiring process gets tough I got four techs lined up, you know?
Jimmy Lea: Yep. They're ready. Let's bring them in the shop.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, man. Congrats. That's so awesome. Yeah. Well, speaking of the the future is our children, but what about Mike's Garage? What's the future for Mike's Garage and what's the future for Chris? What does that look like?
Christopher Pietrzak: Ultimately? I would love to purchase that shop that I was supposed to buy the first go around.
Christopher Pietrzak: Just been talking, I haven't been here long enough. I was very fortunate on what this property appraised for and what was purchased for.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, so I'm fortunate to where I have some equity here and I just don't have enough. We haven't been here long enough for the bank to feel comfortable to borrow against it, but I said I would love to go back and purchase that place.
Christopher Pietrzak: Long story short, I'd like to have multiple locations and a four day work week.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, there you go.
Christopher Pietrzak: So I said that's a lot of baseball
Jimmy Lea: you'd be traveling to.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah, and I feel like I said I'm not at a four day work week. I hear horror stories about hiring process. I've dealt with a few of my own. I said sometimes it's not about money on what you can offer employees.
Christopher Pietrzak: People start hearing that you have a four day work week. People aren't, people are more in tune to, you know, hey, maybe I don't mind four 10 hour days or four 11 hour days. Like, we'll still get, you know, I said obviously that process is. I'm not at the point of implementing anything yet. I have a thought process of where I'm headed on how I'm going to do it, but ultimately that would be where I would wanna be a four day work week.
Christopher Pietrzak: I said it's two birds. One stone makes employee happy and it's gonna entice help coming in, you know, and set up and just let the word of mouth travel and amongst the tech community. See what see what happens. But right now I got a good squad. I don't need any more help currently, but I'm always open to the idea, you know,
Jimmy Lea: you, yeah.
Jimmy Lea: And you will, you've got 11 bays with four techs, so each tech has two bays at the moment. But really, if you optimize every single one of those bays. You should be doing 40,000 per bay. That's 400,000 a month times 12, that's 4.8 million a year. That's the potential you got at outta your shop.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. I have to get, where I'm running into with the new system is service writer.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, he's from what he's learning, yeah. You know, a new system then to now. When I purchased the place, we had two techs
Speaker 3: that he
Christopher Pietrzak: was writing for, so I brought on one left, three new ones came in. So now I'm asking him to learn a new program as well as your workload now doubled.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, as far as writing.
Jimmy Lea: It does. It does and it doesn't because of the technology. It's probably the same as what it used to be by adding two techs
Christopher Pietrzak: and I'm more, you just gotta get that system
Jimmy Lea: down.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah. And I'm more involved with it. You know, there was the old software I came in, it was what was being used and it wasn't used nearly as efficient as that could have been.
Speaker 3: Right. You know,
Christopher Pietrzak: little details that were left out of bills. That were just screwing up the whole number system. Couldn't get any information off of it.
Speaker 3: Oh no.
Christopher Pietrzak: Didn't quite understand how he was making the bills, so that's why we pulled the bandaid off and said, we're switching it up. I'm gonna become more fluent in this software so I can help with service writing as well as training.
Christopher Pietrzak: You know, I can't rely on one person to do it all right? And I feel like as the owner, I should have the answers. I should know how things work in my own place.
Jimmy Lea: There you go. There you go. Well keep at it, brother. That's awesome. Congrats. You got a bright future ahead of you, even if you buy the other location, just to be able to have it as your own personal headquarters.
Speaker 3: Exactly what,
Jimmy Lea: whatever it looks like, brother, that's gonna be phenomenal. And to be a passenger on this ride, watch this stuff happening with you. Chris, this is gonna be awesome. Congrats. Thank you. Congrats. Thank you. Well, last and final question for you, brother. I, if you were to have a magic wand.
Jimmy Lea: And you waive this wand, it grants your wish. You can wish for anything you want to except for more wishes. What would you wish for Chris?
Christopher Pietrzak: I would wish that we could reset society's views and opinions on this industry and not make anybody look at us a certain way or think about this industry a certain way.
Christopher Pietrzak: Just to give us a clean slate to give, to afford us the opportunity to earn the trust of society and kind of change the perspective on how this industry is viewed. Whether it's from parents having discussions with their children on what they wanna do when they get older. You know, simple comments like, oh, you don't want to be a grease monkey, or, so you know, this is this that.
Christopher Pietrzak: Train of thought, that mentality is long gone and in are the new ways of thinking. Grease monkeys have no place for it really anymore. You know, they're far and few between. They are what technicians used to be. Now there's no, people need to take, technicians need to take pride in their work and not portray themselves as just a mechanic.
Christopher Pietrzak: Yeah, nothing drives me more. When they say, well, I just work on cars, you don't just work on cars. This is a very respectable field to work in, and the level of training is so underestimated and it's really, it's our jobs as business owners to communicate to our communities and our customers so they can understand what goes into this business and.
Christopher Pietrzak: What sort of training? Anywhere from the appearance of my building to the appearance of my texts. You know, dress for the position that you want, not the one you have. I said it boils down to how we talk, how we present ourselves, whether that's our language and or our appearance. It's has to change. I wish I could just change it all and just reset and give us, like I said, I'm not asking.
Christopher Pietrzak: Like I said before, nothing is owed to anybody. Yep. But just gimme the opportunity to earn that respect and you know, let you to change your mind, hope, and let you be open to the point that this is just as much of an important career as. Nursing, welding, you know, any sort of these professional crews, we need them all.
Christopher Pietrzak: We need everybody. We do, you know, it's not, these cars are not gonna fix themselves and I don't care if they can drive themselves, if you plug them in or you gas 'em up. They all have tires. They all have brakes. You know, this industry isn't going anywhere. We just have to adapt to change with the times, you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Christopher Pietrzak: Unfortunately. I'm not the only one that feels that way, and a lot of resources, time and money is being put into this industry as a whole, and I couldn't be happier to be in it. And through all the good days and the bad days, I, people call me crazy, but I still love what I do. There is still just a rush on fixing something, especially when nobody else can fix it.
Christopher Pietrzak: That customers look on their face when they just I don't know how you do it. You know, it's, I'll never get over that feeling. And, you know, no matter how much I'm cussing inside my head, I still absolutely love what I do.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Because at the end of the day we'd give the shirt off our back to help people.
Jimmy Lea: And that's why you got into this business is to help people. We just happen to work on cars. Exactly. Exactly. We just happen to work on cars. That's it. And Chris, I see it happening. I see that wish coming true. You are elevating this industry. You are elevating the transparency with customers, with clients, with your digital vehicle inspection, with your ability to put a new coat of paint on a building and have people know there's something happening here.
Jimmy Lea: Keep in, keep involvement with that high school that is our future. That's where it's gonna happen. That's where it's gonna go. Yes. You are making a difference, brother. Keep it up and thank you.
Christopher Pietrzak: Appreciate it, Jimmy. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it.
Jimmy Lea: You're very welcome. Thank you.
Christopher Pietrzak: Thank you.

176 - Building Anchor Motorworks with Seth Lancaster: Diesel Dreams, Euro Cars & a 4-Day Workweek

176 - Building Anchor Motorworks with Seth Lancaster: Diesel Dreams, Euro Cars & a 4-Day Workweek
November 20, 2025 - 00:48:28
 
Show Summary:
When Seth Lancaster was five, he already knew he wanted to be a mechanic. Today, he’s living that dream as the owner of Anchor Motorworks in Laurie / Gravois Mills, Missouri, a growing five-bay European specialty shop serving Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, and especially diesel SUVs.
In this episode of The Leading Edge Podcast, host Jimmy Lea sits down with Seth to trace his unconventional path: shade-tree wrenching with his dad, years as a missionary and English teacher in Mozambique (where he watched alternators and starters get rebuilt instead of replaced), becoming a diesel tech and firefighter back in the States, and finally taking the leap into shop ownership.
Seth shares the real story behind moving from a tiny 2-bay shop with no lift to a busy 5-bay facility, why masterminds like ASOG and MWACA changed everything for his business, and how a four-day workweek, deposits on big jobs, and rock-solid SOPs are helping him protect his time, his family, and his sanity.
If you’re a shop owner wearing all the hats, this conversation will feel very, very familiar and give you a roadmap forward.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Seth Lancaster, Owner of Anchor Motorworks
 
Show Highlights:
[00:00:00] - Seth shares how updating signage and online presence immediately improved customer clarity and shop visibility.
[00:03:56] - Early hands-on experience with engines shaped his confidence and mechanical problem-solving from a young age.
[00:10:05] - His time in Mozambique taught him resourcefulness and repair skills that serve him daily in shop ownership.
[00:13:38] - Returning home, he built a diverse skill set that positioned him for long-term success as a specialty technician.
[00:17:24] - Industry connections and the ASOG Mastermind gave him tools, direction and accountability as a new business owner.
[00:20:23] - Investing in a lift transformed his efficiency and profitability, validating strategic equipment purchases.
[00:24:18] - Seth explains how building SOPs allows future growth and reduces dependency on him as the sole decision maker.
[00:26:17] - His focus on Euro diesel SUVs attracts distant customers and sets his shop apart with niche expertise.
[00:38:26] - He stresses requiring deposits after costly lessons with oversized jobs that drained time and resources.
[00:45:02] - Moving to a four-day workweek improved revenue, reduced stress and strengthened his family life.
 
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.
 
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: 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello friends, this is Jimmy Lea with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Seth. He is with Anchor Motorworks out of Missouri, right?
Seth Lancaster: Yes. So we are in Laurie, Missouri. The address is Grab voice mills, but you know, it's politics there.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and I wonder because I saw your YouTube video, you talk about two 17. South Main Street. I wonder if you were to tell people it was two 17 North Main Street, Laurie, if they would actually come to you and grab voice mills.
Seth Lancaster: So yeah, so it's two. Our ours is North Main Street and then there's a South Main Street.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, just a quarter mile down the road. So that's throw some fun in there. This shop has been closed for about five years, the building I'm in, and so. It hasn't been needed for looking up on Google, and Google knows that. And so thanks that everyone's going to the other places.
Jimmy Lea: There you go. So you've gotta get a sign out front and get a picture of that sign and send it over to Google so they know you are the real deal.
Seth Lancaster: Absolutely. That's in the books for hopefully this week.
Jimmy Lea: Ooh, congrats. Oh, that's awesome. So what are you doing? What is, what kind of, are you doing a temporary sign or is this a. Permanent fixture.
Seth Lancaster: So this one's gonna be a temporary temporary permanent. It's one that's gonna go up in above the front doors of the office.
Seth Lancaster: It's a two foot by 12 foot sign. And then we have another big sign that is there from the previous owners and still says the other business. So that gets to be quite confusing and interesting, but.
Jimmy Lea: Can you cover up that other sign? Is it a street sign?
Seth Lancaster: Yes. Yes. So that's gonna be covered up.
Seth Lancaster: It's gonna
Jimmy Lea: cover with a vinyl banner or something like that.
Seth Lancaster: Yep. That's in the process.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, that's awesome. Congrats. Congrats. And for those who are listening here, this is. Take number two for Seth and I, we had a fabulous discussion here last week, to which I forgot to push the stupid record button, but we're back for take two.
Jimmy Lea: Oh. And when Seth and I were talking last week about his Facebook page and his website and a couple of things, I gave him some advice to say, Hey, Seth you gotta look at these couple of things. And one was his hero picture. You wanna show your shop in the parking lot as full.
Seth Lancaster: And is very full.
Jimmy Lea: And is very full. And to his credit, Seth went out immediately, took a picture and loaded it in on the Facebook. I saw, first of all, yes, but website. I haven't got it on my website yet. No. There's something on your website. I saw it. Yeah. No, I did. I did.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. I forget what I do sometimes.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and that's the one that we want to cut out the gravel, 'cause I think gravel's about half your picture.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yes. So cut out. Cut out the gravel. Tighten in on that left side a little bit. Yes, because it's all about the cars and that's what we want to see is all those beautiful European cars.
Seth Lancaster: So that's what we do.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. European cars. European cars and I saw that on it was very obvious on your website that those are the cars you're working on because the, it was all Euro cars, so yes.
Jimmy Lea: That was very cool that you did that.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Welcome to our podcast, Seth. Glad to hear we are here for round two. How about that, huh?
Seth Lancaster: Oh, yeah. We had a good conversation. I wish you guys could hear it. Could have heard it.
Jimmy Lea: Well, I wish they would've heared it too,
Jimmy Lea: Seth. This is such an awesome industry. I love that we are in this automotive aftermarket industry. You have an absolutely fascinating story going all the way back even into Africa. You were in Africa for a while.
Jimmy Lea: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Let's go back What? Rewind the clock for us. How did you get into the automotive industry?
Seth Lancaster: So. It started out with a kitchen scale on my mom's bed, taking things apart. I loved doing that. At about the age of seven, my dad gave me a carburetor to take apart. And what it was one he was replacing and didn't have any need for it. And he gave it to me to have fun with and yeah. So how
Jimmy Lea: many times did you take it apart and put it back together?
Seth Lancaster: I took it apart. That was it. And all put it back together. Same with not that day, the kitchen scale. Same with everything else until several years later. My mom used to joke with me that I would I learned how to take things apart. And then now I finally learned to put things back together, so, oh my gosh.
Seth Lancaster: That's hilarious. That's that's how it goes.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And to that point, with my wife, I, every once in a while I, she'll have a an appliance and the appliance will break and I'll buy another one to replace it. But in the meantime, I wanna take this one apart. Yeah, see if I can fix it. 'cause if I can fix it, hey, that's pretty cool.
Jimmy Lea: I haven't been able to fix many here recently, so,
Jimmy Lea: so
Jimmy Lea: That's where start. But I do get to take 'em apart. I love taking 'em apart to see what makes it work.
Seth Lancaster: Oh
Jimmy Lea: yeah. And that's, I think, where your mind was going to.
Seth Lancaster: That was what I did. And so I used to help my dad just, you know, he really.
Seth Lancaster: He didn't enjoy working on cars, but he knew how to do it and he did it. Because paying a shop was expensive. He really taught me a whole lot though of how to maintain, how to take care of how to repair cars. I remember the first time I helped him replace an engine on a car, and so that was kind of where it started.
Jimmy Lea: Wait. Hold on a second. Is dad working out of the garage? Like he's on the driveway replacing an engine
Seth Lancaster: shade tree.
Jimmy Lea: At home. At home, yes. Is this his side gig? Is this his main gig? Is this how he's making money for the
Seth Lancaster: family? Just his own cars.
Jimmy Lea: Just his own car. So dude just decided to pull an engine, got a cherry picker?
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Picked out the engine. Put in a new one.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Wow, that's a school of hard knocks right there. Right. So you're helping pops in the driveway, replace an engine. Are you seven years old? Are you 12 years old? So
Seth Lancaster: that was, I guess I was about eight when I helped him replace the engine.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And is that when you learned how to hold the flashlight? Right.
Seth Lancaster: I don't think I, I don't think I ever learned how to do that. Right.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that, oh, that's too funny, man. That's awesome. I don't think we ever learned how to hold a flashlight. Exactly right. But we try.
Seth Lancaster: I hold it for myself and that's it.
Seth Lancaster: So, so this is
Jimmy Lea: the, there you go. There you go. And that's the start of your automotive introduction. That was the start of it. So you're swapping engines at eight years old with dad.
Seth Lancaster: Yes. So that really got me started in the love of mechanics, the love of fixing things. At the age of about five or six, my dream was to become a mechanic.
Seth Lancaster: And so a lot of people talk about, you know, oh, what you dreamed of being when you were five. You know, hardly anyone ever becomes that. And here I am I'm living my dream. So through the years I worked construction many different times and learned how to do it, didn't enjoy it. I worked on my own cars.
Seth Lancaster: When I would, when I turned 16 my dad had a truck with a bad engine and he said, you can have it if you can fix it. So. I swapped an engine in it and rebuilt that engine and all that stuff that was at,
Jimmy Lea: oh, okay. Well, hold on a second. There's a difference between swapping an engine and you fixed the engine.
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: You fixed the engine.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, so I swapped, well, I swapped a diesel engine into a truck that was a gas, it was a Mazda pickup, and I put a Mitsubishi diesel into it. Then ended up having to rebuild that engine. So I just dove in and did it.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, that's amazing. And to, to your point, I've always wanted to take a Ford Explorer and put a little four four cylinder diesel engine in it.
Jimmy Lea: I always thought that would be so cool.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: And you did it. Oh my God,
Seth Lancaster: I did it. I did it. And I did it a couple other times on different other vehicles as well. It was just kind of a hobby of mine.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. All right.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. So then through the years I never had a job doing mechanics partly because most mechanic shops wanted actual education
Jimmy Lea: certifications and
Seth Lancaster: not just, you know, learning yourself and doing it yourself.
Seth Lancaster: So then in 2013. 2012. I moved overseas to Africa and became a teacher teaching English as a second language there. I also took care of the missions. So I, as a missionary there, I took care of all their cars did all the repairs on them, and got to observe the. How they do it in Africa.
Seth Lancaster: They would rebuild stuff. It was kind of the, you can't get it, so you have to fix it. So they would rebuild things that we would just throw away. So that was, and
Jimmy Lea: rebuild things. I mean, this is like the thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. You're rebuilding starters and alternators and starters
Seth Lancaster: alternators.
Seth Lancaster: Really everything but.
Jimmy Lea: Did you ever work on them? Old cars that had the generators on 'em instead of an alternator?
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Would you, so did you rewire, did you learn to rewire in Africa?
Seth Lancaster: I didn't learn to, I just observed there, and then when I moved back or got kicked out whoa. Whoa. What?
Seth Lancaster: The government of Mozambique, the country I was at in was doing some stuff that weren't, that wasn't quite honest. And they were trying to hide it from the US and the un And so any Americans that were there, they would, they were highly suspicious that they were spies.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. So we
Seth Lancaster: got investigated as spies and,
Jimmy Lea: thanksgiving Day. As missionaries. As missionaries. I mean, gosh, that's a good cover for a spy too, I guess. Yes. But anyways, no I can
Seth Lancaster: understand from their side, like we had no financial reason to be there, you know? And so for them, it's like these people who are here, who aren't here to make money, where are they getting their money from kind of thing.
Seth Lancaster: And why are they here? I think they're here to. See what we're doing wrong. And so Thanksgiving day 2015, we got a call from immigration and they said, you have 10 days to leave the country. Yeah, that was fun.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. I mean, that ticket can't be cheap 10 days.
Seth Lancaster: No. And long story, it, we ended up being there another 30 days.
Jimmy Lea: Oh wow. Okay.
Seth Lancaster: Because we asked them, we told 'em, Hey, 10 days is too short. Can we extend that? And the immigration head of that area said, we'll let you know.
Jimmy Lea: 10 days
Seth Lancaster: later, they still hadn't let us know. 30 days later, they still hadn't let us know, but we had bought our tickets.
Jimmy Lea: Oh,
Seth Lancaster: wow. And so, yeah, that was fun.
Seth Lancaster: I got to experience how things are run in other countries and. Get all that experience. It's very interesting.
Jimmy Lea: Very cool. So you came back from being a missionary Yes. Back to the United States. What? And then did you try and go find a shop that Rewinds starters alternators.
Seth Lancaster: So, so that was. When I was when we knew that we were leaving I was like, okay, what am I gonna do?
Seth Lancaster: What? And there was a couple different skills that I wanted to do. I wanted to learn how to rebuild starters and alternators because I had watched it being done and I wanted to be able to do that. And then I wanted to become a diesel mechanic and oh, I wanted to become a firefighter. So those are like three of the things that, oh, and I wanted to get married, so I wasn't at that point.
Seth Lancaster: So anyway, I came back and yes, I became all four of those. I got married. I learned how to rebuild starters and alternators. Became a diesel mechanic and became a firefighter.
Jimmy Lea: So dude, congratulations. That's four ticks and four boxes.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. So when I came back, I applied to add a diesel shop.
Seth Lancaster: But they really didn't, you know, they didn't hire me and I found out later on it was because they thought that I was planning to leave again and they didn't want somebody who was part-time. But so I went and I worked at a starter and a alternated rebuilding shop. Which I really loved that I pretty quickly passed up the guy who was running it in knowledge and ability and really enjoyed doing it.
Seth Lancaster: So then I guess about after a year of doing that, then I was talking with a guy who worked at the shop I had applied at and he said, yeah, we're needing a new guy and. So I went back, you raised your hand and said, Hey, send me and coach, like, hey. And he said, well, I thought you were getting ready to head back out somewhere.
Seth Lancaster: I said, no I'm staying here. Says, well come in. So I went in, had an interview and got hired and that was really a very big blessing. Melvin Garber at Garber Diesel service. If he listens to that. You're a great boss.
Jimmy Lea: Hey, congrats Melvin. That's freaking awesome.
Seth Lancaster: How about that?
Seth Lancaster: Shout out from Seth. So he's part of Auca. He was the one who got me started.
Jimmy Lea: Nice.
Seth Lancaster: In moca
Jimmy Lea: Midwest Auto Care Alliance. Got
Seth Lancaster: a little, that Midwest Auto Care Alliance. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: With Sherry Hamilton. She's awesome.
Seth Lancaster: She brought us out to division. Paid for all the techs to go to Vision and to get the training that we needed.
Seth Lancaster: Nice. All that kind of stuff. I was there for I think six or seven years, something like that. I don't know. Time flies.
Jimmy Lea: Yes, it does.
Seth Lancaster: And that was really the biggest growing point of. Learning mechanics and all that eventually. But
Jimmy Lea: You were a diesel specialist really and truly.
Jimmy Lea: You, you were, yes. Every diesel class, you probably took every single D class twice
Seth Lancaster: Pretty close. I took a lot of the, you know, a lot of the diesel classes at vision and learned learned a lot of that and learned to enjoy electrical diagnostics. Oh, nice. That took some of the.
Seth Lancaster: Picoscope classes and just realize that there is so much more to mechanics and just changing parts. I love it. So then all this time I buy and own German cars. Diesel, German diesel cars. So the Volkswagen Diesels Audi diesel and that kind of stuff. And those were my cars and found out nobody else likes to work on them.
Seth Lancaster: Oh, but you do. But I do. So I'm also on the side. I was rebuilding starters and alternators. So I guess in the end of 2023, I found a building that was going up for lease. I'd kind of think, been thinking about. Going out on my own. I found a building that was going up for lease for a pretty reasonable price and decided to make the jump.
Seth Lancaster: And it was not easy, but it was also just a great learning experience. And then there were several guys who were. There for me who, who really helped. I'm gonna give a shout out to Elijah McMillan.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, love Elijah. He's the dude, man. Oh, he
Seth Lancaster: is. He messaged me and he's like, Hey, here's some resources for you.
Seth Lancaster: Here's the Changing the Industry podcast. Here's all these, listen to these podcasts. Here's these groups. Get part of these groups and really invested in me. With a lot of knowledge and told me to get Tech, tech metric and really was a big help there.
Seth Lancaster: So fairly soon on in, after I started is when I got you know, I got in touch. Well, Elijah got in touch with me. We kind of seen each other in some Facebook groups.
Jimmy Lea: Facebook groups. So did you meet up at Vision or was it all via Facebook?
Seth Lancaster: It was all via Facebook. Oh, wow. So we had both been at Vision, but I'd never met him there.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Seth Lancaster: And so it was through a Volkswagen Diesel Facebook group. I
Jimmy Lea: love it.
Seth Lancaster: And so we got to talk and became friends and we'd never actually met.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: So we I met him. In person the first time. I guess it was last Vision.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: So he also got me involved in the ASOG Mastermind group. Nice. Has been, so getting involved in Auca and all that was a really big step and a very big help.
Seth Lancaster: And then the mastermind group was just the whole link. Take it to the next level thing. Love
Jimmy Lea: it. Yeah. And you know, with that asog group, they don't let vendors in there at all. Yep. I've tried to get in it and nope. Can't, I don't own a shop, so I'm out. I'm sorry. It's okay. I got a lot other things I need to be doing, but that's the beauty of that Asog group.
Jimmy Lea: Is It is just shop owners. Yes. And so you guys have a phenomenal mastermind group there, so that's wonderful.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. So that's been a, it's been a, just an amazing experience and so much help. And those guys will tell you things that are hard Yeah. To push you forward. One example was, my shop is too small and.
Seth Lancaster: I didn't have any lift when I joined. I had no lift. Oh. So I was just doing everything with Jack and Jack stands and you know, and creep kinda sketchy stuff.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You were on creepers?
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. It was,
Seth Lancaster: you know, it worked.
Jimmy Lea: It worked,
Seth Lancaster: but it wasn't ideal. Correct. So the one day I was talking with Adam Wrath in the part of the mastermind group, and he said, why don't you have a lift?
Seth Lancaster: You know, here's why. And this building really isn't ideal for a lift. The floor isn't quite level and it's like, if you think about it, the cost of a lift, you will make more than the cost of the lift just in the increase in efficiency. So,
Jimmy Lea: so true. So true, dude. Okay.
Seth Lancaster: I went on marketplace and found one.
Seth Lancaster: Thank you, Adam. I went in Marketplace and found a brand new lift that a guy was selling.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: And put it in. And it was absolutely true that week. That week it paid for itself two or three times.
Jimmy Lea: Shut up. Are you serious?
Seth Lancaster: I am serious in the increase in ability to get things done.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude, that's rad.
Seth Lancaster: And so
Jimmy Lea: You're in this small two bay, correct? Yes. Okay. Keep going.
Seth Lancaster: So that, that really just gave me the ability to move to where I'm at now. I'm now in a five Bay facility. I have two techs and that's, and you're
Jimmy Lea: the service advisor
Seth Lancaster: Well. I've got a lot of hats.
Jimmy Lea: Uhhuh. Yeah, you are. So you're the service advisor, the shop foreman, the parts ordering, the parts returns, the bookkeeper, the shop owner, as well as the tech and Yeah, I was gonna add you're the
Seth Lancaster: diagnostician, the di yeah.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. So,
Jimmy Lea: dude, that's awesome. And you know, there's pe I've seen it said here quite recently that. That there are coaching companies out there that are saying, oh no, you just need to work on your business. I think there's a time and a season for everything. There's a time and a season where you have to wear multiple hats.
Jimmy Lea: You, you can't afford to be able to hire somebody to do all the things that you have to do at this time. There will come a time where you are able to have an advisor and that advisor, and you probably are gonna add a third technician. Yes. To have three full-time technicians and then you become the gopher.
Seth Lancaster: Yep. That's kind of, that's kind of the goal. So that kind of brings over, brings me over to what are my, you know, what my goals are.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: So I've been in this five bay shop for two, three weeks. I dunno, time flies. I guess the first, the 1st of November was when I moved in.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. It was November 1st.
Jimmy Lea: It's the 25th year. Year three and a half weeks, man. Yeah. Oh, congrats. Okay. It was going on a month.
Seth Lancaster: Going on a month.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: And so
Seth Lancaster: my eventual goal is to be able to set in motion, set in place, you know, people who can be here and run the place while I'm gone. That way like. If I don't if I have something else, the shop keeps, you know,
Jimmy Lea: keeps going, staying
Seth Lancaster: open. Sure. There's somebody there. Stuff's getting done right now as an owner, if I'm not there, it's closed.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and work on your SOPs. Standard operating procedures, document everything. How you open the shop, how you close the shop, what to do if this breaks, what to do if that breaks even to the simplest and easiest lube oil filter.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Document everything so that when you're not there, the technicians don't have to guess.
Jimmy Lea: They know that there's a process and a procedure for everything.
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Okay, cool.
Seth Lancaster: Good for you. I started working on that.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Yes. Oh, and bro it will never, ever be done. This is a living document. That you will continuously add to and develop and bring on more. In fact, I just did a webinar or a podcast with a gentleman that was developing his, and he's like 65 different SOPs into it.
Jimmy Lea: Uhhuh says to his team, he says, Hey, look, listen guys you guys are my betas. I'm testing this out on you guys. I need to know, does this make sense? Does it work? Is it written right? Yes. And what can we do to improve it?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: And I tell you, the beauty of what he's doing is getting not just the buy-in of his group, his technicians and his shop.
Jimmy Lea: It's becoming their company, their culture, the way that they do business. So even though it's on you to do it, you can enlist all of your technicians to help out as well? Yes. Do. That's awesome. Oh yeah. That's awesome. So you're in the five bay now? Yes. Been there for three or four weeks. Yes. Been there since the beginning of November, 2025.
Jimmy Lea: And you already have a full parking lot, so all Yes, very full. So are you just, are you working on all euros or just the diesel, euros. All euros.
Seth Lancaster: I kind of specialize in the diesel euros but. I do all of them. So whether it's Volkswagen, Audi Porsche, Mercedes, BMW
Jimmy Lea: which car is your favorite to work on?
Seth Lancaster: I would say that would be the well, it's the family of cars, so the Porsche, cayenne Volkswagen, Tourig and Audi Q seven. So those are kind of the same, like all three. The
Jimmy Lea: same look, make like the same
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. They're basically the same car. Just perfect. Different package,
Jimmy Lea: different badges on 'em.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. So I really enjoy working on those and so guys will come from quite a ways to have me work on theirs. Wow, congrats. Because not many people,
Seth Lancaster: The furthest I've had a guy come was from from Los Angeles, California.
Jimmy Lea: From California to Missouri?
Seth Lancaster: Yes. And with him, I'll say he was a retired guy.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Seth Lancaster: And the Audi dealer, ne near him, didn't really wanna work on it. And he had them do work before and they couldn't figure it out.
Seth Lancaster: And so he drove from there. Into, you know, here to Missouri, got an Airbnb in a rental car and just, you know, had fun, chilled and hang, hung out at the lake.
Jimmy Lea: Dude just hung out until you fixed his car.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, and by the way, how did he drive it? It must not have had drivability issues.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, so it, it had a coolant leak and it wasn't a severe coolant leak.
Seth Lancaster: Which it's a very common issue on them. They start to leak. Coolant from the valley area and for the first while, it'll be about a quart every 5,000 miles.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Seth Lancaster: And then eventually it'll get worse and cause more problems, but,
Jimmy Lea: okay. So what's the fix, Seth? How do you, what do you
Seth Lancaster: do?
Seth Lancaster: Replace everything.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, shut up. Are you serious? You have to replace
Seth Lancaster: Not necessarily. So there's some plastic. Plastic coolant, fla, flanges that whoever thought plastic should go in the cooling system, I don't know, heat. Or they shouldn't. I don't know. I have opinions about that. They
Jimmy Lea: shouldn't be in the design work.
Jimmy Lea: Have you seen the radiators with the sidewalls that are plastic? Yep. What, who thought of this as a good idea? That's cool. All the plastics, like, so anyway, so you read, are you gonna redesign these plastic bits and pieces and make it a metal?
Seth Lancaster: Yes. So I have a guy who makes metal ones.
Seth Lancaster: And so it's much better. Oh dude, that's awesome. Metal pieces in there and otherwise, you know, then there's, I'm replacing the oil cooler and the several flanges, several hoses. There's, you know. And the biggest thing is just cleaning out all of the mess that is inside, inside there. So, ah, I've done a lot of them.
Seth Lancaster: It,
Jimmy Lea: Seth, is it because of all the plastic bits and pieces that it just clogs up that coolant?
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, so that's part of it. Oh damn. Coolant has to be changed every once in a while and flushed. A lot of people don't do that as well,
Jimmy Lea: so, yeah. No, it, yeah. That, it's unfortunate. They think, well, it drives.
Jimmy Lea: Yep,
Seth Lancaster: yep.
Jimmy Lea: It's working, so I can still go.
Seth Lancaster: Right. Oh my
Jimmy Lea: gosh. Wow.
Seth Lancaster: That's how it goes.
Jimmy Lea: So you're into the five A now. What is the future, Seth? Where are you, what's your three year, five year tenure? What does that look like for you?
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, so the three year I think would be. I wanna get it set up so that I don't have to be here.
Seth Lancaster: So that if I'm working on cars, it's just because I want to. Yeah. Get a team set up, get a team, you know, in place to be able to manage and run the business. I wanna still be here, but I wanna be here because I wanna be here.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Seth Lancaster: I have a wife. She has some health issues and. So I, I wanna be able to be there for her and be there for my kids as they're growing up and that kind of stuff.
Jimmy Lea: Totally agree. Yeah. 'cause the kids are gonna start having performances and sporting events and outings and concerts and, oh, yeah. Oh my gosh, dude. You name it. And if they get onto any touring. Sports teams, which my son did. We were a touring baseball team. There were quite a few years that every weekend was a different city, a different town, a different place, and hopefully we had family in the nearby location.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause that's a lot of hotels. It gets very expensive very quickly.
Seth Lancaster: Oh yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Well good for you. And my
Seth Lancaster: wife wants horses, so.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's more expensive than kids
Seth Lancaster: your wife wants. So horses, I think it's more expensive than cars as well.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Get her a good motorcycle. And there
Seth Lancaster: you
Jimmy Lea: go. There you go. You don't have to.
Jimmy Lea: I don't know. I'm a
Seth Lancaster: firefighter. I see the, I see what happens to motorcycles.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Get her a quad or a side by side. Get a razor maybe.
Seth Lancaster: There you go. There you go.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You don't have to feed it as much. Right. And you don't have to shovel up after it either. Yeah. My mother had horses up her whole entire life, but that was a different time where horses were much more of a a very large pet rather than.
Jimmy Lea: A human and a half.
Seth Lancaster: Yes. Yep.
Jimmy Lea: What kind of horses does she like?
Seth Lancaster: Expensive ones.
Jimmy Lea: Ah, so the Arabians.
Seth Lancaster: So really she likes the like the ones is not necessarily the breed,
Seth Lancaster: The confirmation's very much about the confirmation and. How they behave and how their stature is. And a lot of times those are the most expensive ones.
Seth Lancaster: So, but quarter horses in Tennessee Walkers. But she likes the really nice ones.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Grandpa had quarter horses here in southern Utah for quite a while as well. My dad got a painted a Pinto. Okay. Dad bought a Pinto and it threw him, he had to get right back up on that horse.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. I had that happen.
Seth Lancaster: I had one land on top of me.
Jimmy Lea: Ooh, that's, that,
Seth Lancaster: that
Jimmy Lea: can
Seth Lancaster: hurt it. It did it, it took me really until the last the last couple years to actually want to ride horses and be fine with it. A lot of it is I've been building up my strength as far as physically, and I found that really helps a lot when you're riding horses because, you know, you feel more in control when you have the ability to, you know, to move and to have the core strength and everything.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, yeah. And being on top of a horse is not like riding a motorcycle. It's like two times a motorcycle. You are way up there.
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: At least it feels like it.
Seth Lancaster: Yep. So I lost control of one. It ran off and ended up tripping and flipping over on top of me. And it was a miracle that I didn't die.
Seth Lancaster: It was I think it wasn't God's time for me to die, but
Jimmy Lea: yeah. God angels looking out for you, brother.
Seth Lancaster: It landed on top of me and I felt like an old man for a long time. 15 when that happened. So,
Jimmy Lea: dang dude. Wow. Yeah. You were young. That was a, that's a long time ago.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: And you write, are you calling me
Seth Lancaster: old now?
Jimmy Lea: So no, ri riding horses is a very physically demanding. It is. It is hobby and you've got to have that core strength because if you are not in control, the horse will take advantage. Oh yeah, that's for sure. Oh, that's good. Well, that'd be a great hobby for you in the future as well. That's phenomenal.
Jimmy Lea: Are you going to expand? Do you want to have a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth location or, I don't think I
Seth Lancaster: wanna have a, another location. I think my eventual goal is going to be to have a bigger location of my own.
Jimmy Lea: So like a eight Bay, 10 Bay, 12 Bay single location, something like that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Optimize it. You're doing five, that one, five, 6 million a year.
Seth Lancaster: I'll probably have it built and I wanna own that that way it's, you know, that way I can decide how I want it and, you know, have it set up like that.
Jimmy Lea: Dude, congrats man. That's gonna be awesome. That's gonna be awesome. It will. So this next year, are you headed out to Vision?
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: You taking the shop? Yes. Okay. We gotta make sure we connect. Say hello. I will. That'll be awesome. Vision any other trade shows, conferences on your horizon that you're looking at?
Seth Lancaster: There's plenty on the horizon. I'll see how close the horizon gets to me.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. See if we can afford the horizon.
Seth Lancaster: Right. No, it's the biggest thing, the most difficult thing is just the time of going out there. And with the stage that my kids are at right now, it's hard on them when I leave, you know, it's hard on them, on in, on my wife when I'm gone for very long. They're also at the point where they don't really enjoy the waiting around and, you know, the, you know, not having something to do.
Seth Lancaster: You know,
Jimmy Lea: they don't enjoy the idle time.
Seth Lancaster: And my wife hasn't been feeling well enough, at least in the past, to be able to go out and, you know, go to the park and that kind of stuff with them. So,
Jimmy Lea: ah, that's tough. That's tough.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. It's tough, but
Jimmy Lea: well bring them back. All the tchotchkes from the vision trade show, the pens, the markers the squeezy balls.
Jimmy Lea: The Oh yeah. The fidget spinners, the guitar picks. Bring back one of each for each of the kids.
Seth Lancaster: Oh, yeah. They enjoy that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That makes it a little bit more enjoyable. I remember my dad way back in the day, he built gas stations in Las Vegas. I think he probably at one point had built half of all the lo all the gas stations in Vegas.
Seth Lancaster: Really?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And he would go to these trade shows in Dallas, Texas. He just loved Dallas, Texas, Uhhuh. And when he would come back home, he would always have all the pens and the hot wheels and the. The cars and all these things that he would give to us as kids. And it was like, okay, dad. Yeah. You can go to car.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. This is cool. Okay. Oh, dice. Dice was a good thing way back in the day playing cars, that they were playing cards that would have different gas fuel trucks on 'em and things like that. I mean, just way back in the day it was a lot of fun, man. It was really,
Seth Lancaster: no, I bet those, I bet some of those have some value to 'em now.
Jimmy Lea: Well, if we hadn't played 'em to death, they probably would.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. Yep. That's kind of how it goes.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yep. And that's the beauty of it. We had fun with our toys and we play with our toys rather than having a, an altar. Yes. Yeah. So, Seth, you've been through a lot over the last two years.
Jimmy Lea: Two years, right? Yes. Two years. You've been out on your own. Just about, there's a lot of learning that has happened, a lot of speed bumps that you've gone over, mountains you've climbed. If you were to start your business today, what advice would you give yourself today as you're starting your business?
Seth Lancaster: Get a network of guys. So like a, whether it's a mastermind group or other business owners that are going to lift you up and help you out. And then I think I said it, I said a different thing last time, but the other thing that I would've started off with first is get deposits on jobs.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, big jobs. If it's over big jobs, a certain amount you're getting in half up front.
Seth Lancaster: Yep. And I didn't do that to start with, and that caused so much stress in my life.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, amen. Yeah. That bites you in the butt, doesn't it?
Seth Lancaster: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: How many times did you have to do that before you learned your lesson?
Seth Lancaster: I don't remember.
Jimmy Lea: More than one. Right. No, really
Seth Lancaster: It was more than one.
Jimmy Lea: It was more than one. So mine I learned a $17,000 lesson, and here's the lesson I share with you. You have to get it in writing.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: You have to get it in writing. I had a $17,000 deposit down on buying a. An apartment complex. It was like a eight or nine unit apartment complex.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. And it was just taking me a minute to get the funding put together to be able to get it done. Well, we had a 90 day window, came to the end of 90 days, and I was like, oh my gosh, you guys. No, look, I'm almost there. I'm almost there. I'm almost there. And the verbal and no. You're okay.
Jimmy Lea: Take another, you know, take another week. Take another two weeks. Yeah. No we're good. Well, I came back three weeks later and I said, all right, I've got everything. We're all lined up. And they're like, oh, no, you're done. We took your deposit. Thank you very much. If you want to put in another deposit and do it again, we're ready to go.
Seth Lancaster: Oh, no.
Jimmy Lea: And I was like, oh, shut up. Yeah. That was a very hard lesson to learn, but a good lesson to, to learn that it has to be in writing. If it's not in writing. Yes. It didn't happen. Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: So that's my $17,000 lesson. I'm sure you've got your own lessons of more than thousands of dollars that you had to learn on.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah, I think the biggest was just the whole stress, you know? And don't take on jobs that are bigger than what you can do. I thankfully. Today got rid of one. That had been one of those lessons. Ooh.
Jimmy Lea: Ended up never ending story.
Seth Lancaster: I ended up buying it from the customer, buying the car from the customer.
Jimmy Lea: Ooh.
Seth Lancaster: And I sold it this morning, finally.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, congratulations.
Seth Lancaster: And it was every time I looked at it. At first, it was like, I don't even wanna see the thing. I don't wanna like, I don't wanna have, that's ptsd, TSD.
Jimmy Lea: Yes. And then
Seth Lancaster: In the last week, I started realizing, no, this is lessons don't do that.
Seth Lancaster: And so that, that was, you know, one of my, one of my, I guess it was one of my first jobs in the shop and. I didn't have the equipment for it. I didn't have the space, I didn't have the knowledge. Oh. And I learned that the hard way that book times are way off,
Seth Lancaster: but Yep, it was a lesson.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Do you know how they get those book times, by the way?
Seth Lancaster: So, my understanding is that they have. Somebody do the job a certain amount of times, five times on a new car, and average the amount of times or average the time.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. And they're in a pristine environment, in a beautifully kept environment where all the tools are laid out.
Jimmy Lea: It's simple and easy, and they just get faster and faster every single time. And
Seth Lancaster: all auto shops are like that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. Not, no, they're not, they yeah. It's not a fair representation of rust. Yes. Wear and tear of bolts that break off that you've gotta tap and pull. Yeah. It's a fair representation of an actual shop and working on an actual vehicle.
Jimmy Lea: And those book times, they should be updated and updated as the car gets older. Those times should be, oh, yeah, out. We need to add, so to protect yourself, add in.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. I have the
Jimmy Lea: 15% labor matrix,
Seth Lancaster: 20% with the multiplier.
Jimmy Lea: Good.
Seth Lancaster: And it definitely has helped. Well, with the mastermind group, we're actually looking at.
Seth Lancaster: At our numbers and comparing and seeing, you know, and that has been a very good thing to do, just to have and to see like, what did I do this week?
Seth Lancaster: Why are my nu, why are my numbers terrible? Okay, let me look at that and then learn from that. And next week, let's do it better.
Jimmy Lea: Next, next week we'll make better choices.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. And so it's kind of been a, it's kind of been a really good thing. To actually just watch the numbers and it's hard as a new business owner, like everything is pressing and so you don't get, you know, you don't do the things that you should and you don't pay attention to the numbers and you just keep on going.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah. And. That whole busy thing, like just keep pushing, keep working harder, and no, that doesn't work.
Jimmy Lea: No. Let's put a little mental thought into this. Let's work smarter
Seth Lancaster: rather
Jimmy Lea: than harder.
Seth Lancaster: So part of that is I actually dropped down to 4 10, 4 10 hour days instead of doing five days a week.
Jimmy Lea: Okay.
Seth Lancaster: I did that while I was still out on my own. And it has really helped actually my. My numbers stayed the same or went up.
Jimmy Lea: Congratulations.
Seth Lancaster: And my, and that was just myself. My stress level went down. My relationship with my wife went up, my relationship with my kids went up. So it was just really an all around win.
Seth Lancaster: So that, that would be the other thing I would tell myself is just do four days, four 10 hour days. Because I think a lot of people, as shop owners would also know and agree with this, that it's really hard to just be eight hours at a shop.
Jimmy Lea: Oh,
Seth Lancaster: yeah. 'cause it's just one more
Jimmy Lea: thing. Oh, always. Always. It's just one more thing.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I almost have it put back together. I al I'm just almost done. 15 minutes. 15 minutes becomes a half hour, 45 minutes. It's an hour. Yep. Just you just blink and Shazam, here's another hour. Yep. Yeah, no, that's so true, man.
Seth Lancaster: So that's the other thing I really, that really helped just to be able to, and people are like why are, you know, why are you closed on Fridays?
Seth Lancaster: Because I can,
Jimmy Lea: yeah.
Seth Lancaster: I mean, yeah, they still try to call. They can leave a message.
Jimmy Lea: They can leave a message and they can tow it in. They can drop it off. They, do you have a, do you have a key Dropbox?
Seth Lancaster: I have a Dropbox in pickup box. Bingo. One of the greatest investments I got.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah.
Seth Lancaster: One of those the, yeah.
Seth Lancaster: Whatever brand it is that stainless steel. Yep. Fort Knox type box. Love it. Oh man. It has been a very good investment.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, for sure. That is phenomenal. Because now even with 'cause you're on tech metric, you can Yep. Text the customer. Text the client. They can pay for all the whole entire bill right from their cell phone.
Jimmy Lea: So they're done. They paid for it. You're like, oh, thank you very much. Your keys are in box number two. The code is da.
Seth Lancaster: Yes.
Jimmy Lea: Swing by Anytime it's ready for you. It's here. You pick it up. We're closing. It's yep. Six o'clock we're out. Yep. And the clients let me tell you from my point of view, I love it.
Seth Lancaster: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: There was a time period of almost 6, 7, 8 years that I did not go into the shop because I couldn't, I would drop the car off the night before. They would work on it that day if they needed it for another day or two or three, but that's fine. Yeah. But I wasn't coming to get it until after work, and they were long gone.
Jimmy Lea: It was dark and I'm picking it up, but yeah. Oh my gosh. What I love love. Key drop boxes and pickup boxes. Those are really cool.
Seth Lancaster: Very nice. Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Very cool. All right. Cool man. Well, Seth, I look forward to seeing you at Vision for this year and many years into the future. I look forward to seeing your success as well, both professionally and with your family. Congratulations.
Seth Lancaster: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Alright, brother. We'll talk to you soon, man.

175 - "Ask Me Anything" with Cecil & Lucas: Mentorship, Margin, and Marketing That Actually Works

175 - "Ask Me Anything" with Cecil & Lucas: Mentorship, Margin, and Marketing That Actually Works
December 3, 2025 - 00:46:44
Show Summary:
A rapid-fire AMA with Lucas Underwood and Cecil Bullard cuts straight into the hard stuff shop owners wrestle with daily. They break down how to hire and develop entry-level techs without burning them out, why hourly plus incentive beats flat rate for apprentices, and what a real two-year mentorship pathway looks like. From there, the conversation shifts to car count and marketing, with Cecil pushing owners to stop doing everything themselves and instead build professional, measurable marketing systems.
They also get practical about documenting warranty work so the real cost is visible, and why you can’t manage anything you can’t see. The back half drills into pricing, estimates, labor-rate layering, and the danger of trying to compete with consolidators on cheapness. The close highlights Cecil’s “Preferred Customer Program,” a simple loyalty and scheduling system that stabilizes car count and boosts ARO, plus a reminder that fixing the car is only baseline, customer experience and profitability are what keep a shop alive.
 
Host(s):
Lucas Underwood, Shop Owner of L&N Performance Auto Repair and Changing the Industry Podcast
 
Guest(s):
Cecil Bullard, Founder of The Institute
 
Show Highlights:
[00:00:36] – Lucas and Cecil begin by addressing how to hire and structure pay for an entry level technician, emphasizing the need for a real mentorship plan.[00:02:29] – Cecil explains how a two year mentorship program should map out tools, skills, jobs, and weekly reviews to ensure progress.[00:06:11] – They discuss emotional awareness and communication and why technicians must feel heard to stay engaged and productive.[00:08:26] – Cecil outlines why apprentices should never be put on flat rate and breaks down a base pay plus incentive model that actually works.[00:10:40] – They explore productivity problems that come from broken shop processes, not technician ability, and how shops misinterpret low hours.[00:11:54] – Cecil details why owners should not do their own marketing and how professional marketing drastically changes car count.[00:15:56] – Lucas and Cecil walk through correct warranty documentation and tracking so owners can identify patterns, failures, and true cost.[00:20:10] – They explain how to get the most from a new coach by being honest, vulnerable, and open to pushback.[00:24:02] – Cecil shares why GS roles are often misused and how to pay them properly while building training and productivity expectations.[00:38:02] – They revisit pricing, customer experience, and why fixing the car is the minimum expectation rather than the differentiator in today’s market.
 
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/jG1rHqQjhww
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.
 
Episode Transcript:
Lucas Underwood: Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to this AMA from the Institute. My name's Lucas Underwood with the Changing The Industry Podcast, and I am joined today by the one, the only Mr. Cecil Bullard himself. Cecil buddy, how are you?
Cecil Bullard: Hey. Hey, brother. I'm great. I'm ready. Let's knock him outta the park.
Lucas Underwood: Let's get right into it.
Lucas Underwood: We've already got a pile of questions and so I want to jump right in. Let's make sure we get all these questions answered 'cause we've got so many people asking questions right now. And so we're gonna drop these in. And the very first one is Greetings from Wisconsin. We're a small three base shop with two full-time techs that are higher level guys.
Lucas Underwood: We're looking to hire an entry-level person to do basic services and hopefully grow from there. I was looking for someone with a little, no experience, but a good attitude. What advice would you give us when it comes to pay structure, expectations, and anything else you can think of now? Cecil, there is a response down below that, and it's kind of all in one, and I think we need to talk about this as well.
Lucas Underwood: And they said that we found that hourly pay with incentivized hours on production seems to be a great carrot for the entry level tech. They mentioned that I look to get an atec, but fill our industry is in a time that we have to develop, so we have to get a bench. And so I wanna start a little bit by clarifying that because I think it's an important point.
Lucas Underwood: I have been saying, I think for your first technician as a small shop, you should really be looking at hiring the best technician that you can find. And here's why I feel that way, because I tried to do it the other way and what I did is I feel like I did a disservice to our industry. Now that's me. I'm not saying that Chad would do that.
Lucas Underwood: I'm not saying that Ed would do that. I'm saying at that point in time. As a business owner, I didn't really have all of my ducks in a row. I didn't really have it together, and I wasn't able to train somebody to do that. And it takes time and it takes energy, and it takes a plan and a program to train them and bring them up.
Lucas Underwood: My fear when I say that is that we see so many shop owners that bring a young technician into the bay, they throw 'em in there and say, go do the thing. And then what do we have? We have a disgruntled technician in three, four years because they've not developed, they've not progressed, they've not grown like they thought they should.
Lucas Underwood: But I will say I've had a lot of really great entry level technicians who have gone on to be great technicians, and we're really invested, really driven to make this happen. So I think the key is the right person. Cecil, what's your take on it?
Cecil Bullard: I would tell you number one it, it is different at the different part parts of your business.
Cecil Bullard: If I'm by myself and now I'm gonna hire somebody. I think you're probably better off hiring an AEC at that point in time if you can find them and afford them and all those kind of things. If you're gonna hire a, an apprentice technician or a trainee type technician, you need to have what I would call a mentorship program that probably lasts somewhere around two years where they think about having a list of tools that they need to master, a list of jobs that they need to be able to do a list of equipment that they need to know how to operate which might include your point of sale and their part of the writeup and the coolant flush machine and how to flush brakes out and how to do a brake job.
Cecil Bullard: And, you know, just basic stuff. And if you have a and someone needs to be responsible for not just meeting with them to teach them kind of how to do this and to answer their questions, but also to keep them moving. Down the pathway. And that is also a management step. So you can have, you know, I can hand a young tech to my grumpiest, 62-year-old tech who's a master tech, but doesn't have the patience or the temperament to really train somebody.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And go, okay, you teach him. And then all of a sudden, you know, three months later that kid's quitting or we're firing him because he screwed too many things up because he really wasn't being mentored. In our mentorship programs, we recommend that you have weekly meetings with the mentor and the mentee and management and asking questions like, what did you learn this week?
Cecil Bullard: Do you feel like you're being held back? Are there jobs that you feel that you need to be taught? You know, and trying to keep a pathway ahead of them so that they know I checked this box off this week, I checked that box off this week. Yep. That helps us understand that, that hey, they now. We've taught 'em how to do certain jobs.
Cecil Bullard: In my shops, if you came into my shop and you were a master technician, you still had a min and you still had a sign off sheet.
Lucas Underwood: Yes, absolutely.
Cecil Bullard: That was, you know, where's the bathroom and how do you clock in and out and, you know, how do you rack a vehicle? I mean, every year we lose two or three guys because a vehicle doesn't get racked correctly and somebody gets killed and Exactly.
Lucas Underwood: And when to say something. Right. If the lift's not safe, if something's going on in the shop, if, like, when do you say something and blood. Or blood or fire, right?
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. If it isn't blood or fire, then I don't I probably shouldn't say anything. I should use a more formalized hey, we're gonna meet once a week, discuss where you're at et cetera.
Cecil Bullard: But if there is the potential for blood or fire then we should be saying something right now.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah, so absolutely and you know, Dutch has always been a really close friend of mine and yours as well. And Dutch was in the airline industry. He was a captain in some real big airplanes.
Lucas Underwood: And one of the things Dutch said was, is you always had to keep a line of communication open between you and your right seat. They always had to feel comfortable coming to you and saying there's a problem, because they needed to be able to correct you in case you didn't see something that they saw.
Lucas Underwood: And that's something that I think that we have to watch, especially if we're putting an older mentor with someone. There has to be some checks and balances in place because we have to make sure they feel confident if that mentor is doing something and they shouldn't be. They need to be able to communicate that.
Lucas Underwood: And I hear from a lot of guys that are young and they're put in and they say, I don't know if I'm making progress or not. I'm not, they're not told if I'm doing a good job or not.
Cecil Bullard: You know, but that's also like having the feedback loop that is saying, you know, you checked that off. Wow, great. Now you know how to do this job.
Cecil Bullard: Now we're gonna work on this job, or Yeah. Hey, you, I, I know today was a tough day, or I know this week was a tough week for you. Right. But you know, next week's gonna be a great week 'cause you're gonna learn this, and this.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: A hundred percent. The other thing you were talking about I have to make sure that whatever they're feeling, and it doesn't matter if it's my ATech or my apprentice tech.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. I need them to, I need to pay attention to what they're feeling, whether or not I believe it to be real. Right. Yeah. Because those are the people that are gonna do the work. They're gonna do the work. Right. That are gonna be productive. Hopefully that we'll put money in the bank and make the company run.
Cecil Bullard: And so, you know, sometimes you get employees that are having a conversation and they're talking about stuff and you're just like, oh man, that's, there's no way that, you know, we're not as a company, we're not that or whatever. But if that's what they're feeling and that's what they're talking about, we have to be able to address those things and clear the water.
Cecil Bullard: Right? Absolutely. And we can't do that a hundred percent. You know? So the other thing would be, you know, having routine communication weekly meetings with your shop. Yes, a hundred percent. Where that keeps owners from piping off on dumb stuff every day. You know, hey, take that to the weekly meeting. You know, if we're not keeping the shop as clean as you'd like, take that to the weekly meeting.
Cecil Bullard: We'll discuss it then Don't come in and yell at people and ruin their day for them when they're trying to get work out. And the other thing is I, as an employee, I need a place where I think I can take something that concerns. Yeah, and I believe I'll be heard, right? Yep. And heard doesn't necessarily mean I agree.
Lucas Underwood: It just means that I've heard you and listen, here's the thing about this is a lot of folks say, oh, I could mentor someone. I'm gonna tell you, as an owner who's had multiple apprentices and I've not done many of them the justice that I should have. Yeah. But as an owner who's done that, I'm gonna tell you that to mentor them is a lot of work.
Lucas Underwood: Right. And if you don't have the bandwidth for that, this is, you're talking about some serious work and some serious management here. Now, ed is a fantastic friend of mine. I really look up to this guy. I mean, he's next level. And so he talks about the pay aspect because that was really the root of the question.
Lucas Underwood: And he says, Hey, I believe that a good hourly pay with some incentive. And I do believe that we need to be making sure these guys are paid hourly as they come in. I've seen a lot of shops putting these apprentices on flat rate, and it's like, what are you doing? Are you serious right now?
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. You can't, it's unbelievable.
Cecil Bullard: You're setting 'em up for failure. I mean, exactly. And I don't. For the last say, 10 years, I haven't written any flat rate pay systems. Yeah. Everything is, you know, 60% of your pay should come from showing up. Yeah. In a base, people need to know they've got food and shelter and Yeah. Warmth and all of that.
Cecil Bullard: And then 40% is for doing what I want you to do. And in the case of an apprentice person, it would be learning the new thing, you know, making a mistake so that you learn the new thing correctly. Right? Yep. Et cetera. And we can't, that's another thing we cannot, at $125 an hour. Afford to pay these young people to make mistakes in our business.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And afford to have our best technicians take time to help train them and give them the skills transfer the skill sets that our best technicians have. Yeah. We can't do that. At a hundred. I think the last survey was $128 an hour is the average in the industry. Yeah. We need to be much higher because we can't, I can't bring a guy in at $22 an hour and expect him to feel comfortable.
Cecil Bullard: Exactly. Or her to feel comfortable and not do anything but live in mom's basement. Right? Yeah, a hundred percent.
Lucas Underwood: And that's kind of what you're expecting when you do that, right? You may not say it, but that's what your, that's your end result. Let's move on to the next question here. Cliff K says, I'd like to find a way to get more cars and more folks in.
Lucas Underwood: They really want to expand. They wanna bring in this third technician. I'm gonna tell you from my experiences, I grew fairly slowly for a number of years, and I kept hitting this plateau and I never could figure out what it was. A lot of my plateau was I was afraid to bring in that third person, right?
Lucas Underwood: Because I was running two for the longest time and I kept saying, I don't quite have enough work to get them to 40 hours a week. And I've realized that until I have them there and they can actually do something, I wasn't even scheduling. The potential for that work. And so I never could get it there until I just said, Hey, I'm gonna bite the bullet and I'm gonna go for it.
Lucas Underwood: So I think that part of that is, is we have to kind of bite the bullet. Now, I'm not saying if your guys are turning six hours a piece right now, that's not time to bring somebody else in, maximize what you have right now. Well,
Cecil Bullard: But it could be because Yeah, my people might be turning six hours a week because my shop processes are screwed up.
Cecil Bullard: It's not, I mean, I might be booked out three weeks and I still have guys doing five, six hours a day. Yeah. 'cause we can't get our dispatch. Right. And we're not getting our parts here on time, and we're not getting enough time for the jobs that we're doing. Exactly. Yes, they have to do a bunch of other crap because our shop isn't set up correctly.
Cecil Bullard: Right. Yeah. Yesterday I was having a conversation with somebody and it's a brand new person, or it was a person looking at us and you know, I was saying, you know, you, you have really bad productivity and, he goes, well, yeah, but it's not the tax fault. I said, yeah, no, most of the time it's not the tax fault.
Cecil Bullard: Right. They're the one doing that, not saying they call
Speaker 4: for
Cecil Bullard: it. Yeah. I'm saying if we could improve our productivity, then our labor margins go up our overall gross profit margins goes up and our profits in the shop go up.
Lucas Underwood: Yes.
Cecil Bullard: And then I can pay people more money. So Yeah. I I think pay-wise yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And we're talking about marketing, remember brain surgery like nine months ago. That's it. That's it.
Lucas Underwood: Cecil's often in Wonderland over here. So there are keeping, there are,
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. Well, A DHD too, so. Wow. That's it. Marketing you know, I'm not a big fan of direct mail. I don't, I think the ROI is not.
Cecil Bullard: Real great. I think that a lot of that is discounting, and I'm not a discount fan.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: I need to have a good website that's done by somebody that understands Google and what Google wants. And now AI and what a OI wants, I need to have seo, OSEM, I need to have social media you know, there are I should be booking the customer's next appointment.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. I should have a referral program. I should be working in the local community. I should be involved with the local chamber of commerce, the rotary, the local BNI groups. I should be a leader in some of those things. I think that the successful businesses have successful and marketing plans.
Cecil Bullard: And then the other thing I need to understand about marketing, not everything I'm gonna do is gonna work. Yes. And that's it's just part of the game.
Lucas Underwood: You know what, there's a lot of people listening, and I know because I too am a shop owner and they're saying, but Cecil. Where am I gonna get the time to do all this?
Lucas Underwood: And let me tell you something.
Cecil Bullard: Well, they can't they shouldn't. Okay. Exactly. Exactly. You're not qualified.
Lucas Underwood: Alright. A hundred percent. And even beyond qualified, right? Yeah. It's like, where is your value? Because my value, right? Like, you know this, if I'm the one running the shop, we can easily bang out $200,000 or more every single month with four technicians because I just know how it flows.
Lucas Underwood: And what does that mean? That means that's where my value's at in this business. That's where I need to focus my energy. I need to be paying someone who is that efficient, that productive, and that much of a master at doing the marketing for me, because it's a waste of money, it's a waste of energy for me to be doing it myself.
Lucas Underwood: That's ridiculous. We and I have to learn a new skill. There's no reason to learn that new skill. Find somebody who knows what they're doing.
Cecil Bullard: We're we are, do it yourselfers. I mean, you know, if I've got plumbing at the house or electric at the house or drywall or whatever, I'm like, oh, I can do that, but is that my best?
Cecil Bullard: Is that my best spent time? And I don't know how many people we, you know, when we get a new client, we bring 'em in and one of the first things we do is I dig up their website and I take a look and you're just like. I don't know who's doing it. Well, it's my cousin, you know? Yeah. They do it for free, man.
Cecil Bullard: Exactly. And you get what you pay for. Right. Exactly.
Lucas Underwood: And I, I don't know if you know this, and I know we gotta jumped to the next question. I'm gonna tell you this little story real quick. You know, I took over the family business, it was not intentional. It's not something I wanted to do. I'm figuring it out, right?
Lucas Underwood: Like day by day. It's not in automotive. For those of you wondering, this is completely different business, completely different world. And they had been doing all the marketing in-house and we went out and I talked to Kim and Brian Walker. I said, guys, I need help. I need you to gimme some type of recommendation of somebody who can handle this.
Lucas Underwood: And we hired a marketing company that's what they do. They specialize in this business. And do you know that we can't figure out how to schedule our people anymore because it's busy in times when it's never been busy before. And so we can't figure out how to like, make this work because we found people who were efficient and doing a good job.
Lucas Underwood: Well, if I'm gonna,
Cecil Bullard: I'm gonna, which spent a quarter
Lucas Underwood: of what we normally spend.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. You know, I it will cut my expense. Really? Yep. And it will actually get me measurable results that I can manage. And yes. And so, yeah, I mean, God bless you. Try not to do it yourself. Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Cecil Bullard: And the basis today, I mean, there's two things. There's the guy that's got a problem today. Mm-hmm. They're going either to AI or they're going to Google and asking Who can fix my Audi, blah, blah, blah. And then I also need the oh, come on. Brain damage vein brandage branding. The branding that when they need, you know, two weeks from now, three weeks from now, when Lucas has a problem, Lucas says, yeah, oh, I remember that shop.
Cecil Bullard: I've seen their name. Right. So when they do go looking, I'm familiar to them. Yeah. Different parts of
Lucas Underwood: my marketing. Amen. Amen. So Lance asked a really great question here. This is something I do that's a little unique compared to what I think you do. I was taught this from my original coach, and he says, how do I properly document my warranty stuff in my SMS?
Lucas Underwood: So, I want to know what my true cost of this is. Cecil. I'm gonna tell you what we do here in the shop is we make it like any other ticket. If it's warranty, we document the testing. We document exactly how we got to that. We go through the conclusions. It's got the five Cs on it. All of the testing data is attached.
Lucas Underwood: We bill it out like a normal job, and the way that we, instead of going in and discounting it, the way that I track it is I use a payment method and that payment method is then leaked to an expense account in QuickBooks. Now I have one for each technician. I have one for each service advisor. I have one for the manager, I have one for myself.
Lucas Underwood: I have one for each part vendor. I have all of those things placed in there. I have policy work and advertising. And you know, like policy work for me is, you know, we didn't really cause that, but I understand your situation. Let me help friends and family, same thing. Now I can track that by the percentages of income,
Cecil Bullard: my own vehicles, my own fleet.
Cecil Bullard: Yes. Absolutely. And I think we had nine marketing codes in our Yeah. In our shop. And we used those codes to track it back to an account. That, I mean, money never changed hands, but it looked like money changed hands. Yeah. And, yeah. And then the other thing is you wanna have a warranty sheet that gets filled out on every car.
Cecil Bullard: Yes. Who's the tech? What was the original repair wire? What went wrong? You know, where's the fault? I'm not trying to find fault so I can blame somebody or beat somebody up. But if I have the same tech making the same mistakes over and over, yes. And I can't pin that down, then we keep making the same mistakes.
Cecil Bullard: If.
Lucas Underwood: If it's
Cecil Bullard: a parts failure, because I'm buying parts from this company and it's a, you know, I have to be able to see that, and I have a grade form that is always filled out whenever there's a warranty and then management signs off on we've decided to give this customer, you know, a thousand dollars worth of whatever, because it really wasn't our fault, but okay, great.
Cecil Bullard: Then we put it in the right code and
Lucas Underwood: we
Cecil Bullard: track
Lucas Underwood: it. We might try and set that up so folks can get that form. I'm gonna tell you something about that beyond just this, with that form, right? Yeah. Beyond just internal needs. Something that I've learned and you know, Wayne Marshall and I had a great conversation at Apex.
Lucas Underwood: We were talking about all this stuff going on with the family business, right?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Lucas Underwood: And he said, Lucas, he said, what you will learn after running businesses, the sizes of businesses that I've ran, is everything has to be documented. Yeah. 'cause it's all it can't come back to he said, she said, or this person did this, or this person did that.
Lucas Underwood: You need to document every single thing that you can. He said, I don't care if you send a text message. I don't care if you put it on paper. I don't care how you do it. You need a record of everything you can possibly document. And there's also,
Cecil Bullard: go ahead. There's also, you can't manage it if you can't see it.
Cecil Bullard: Yes. If there's no visibility into it. Yeah. And it doesn't mean like I had my super tech. Mm-hmm. No mistake that he made was ever his mistake.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: It was always a parts failure. Someone else's fault. Exactly. And so when he had to redo that job or someone else had to redo that job, you know, it wasn't my fault.
Cecil Bullard: Parts failure. Yeah. I knew it was his fault. As the manager, somebody has to say, no, it was your fault. Yeah. Okay. That's a hundred percent right. A hundred percent. And if you're just passing it through, 'cause you're, let me just put the parts cost in. Wait, no, I don't really have cost 'cause that's a warranty part.
Cecil Bullard: So I don't have that let me just put the tech cost in except my tech cost in my point of sale, shop wear, whatever it's not correct 'cause I haven't really calculated it Right. Et cetera. And so that's all it really costs me. No. Cost You double. Right? Yeah. Because that same tech that's doing that warranty.
Cecil Bullard: He's not out producing, you know, $280 worth of parts and labor per hour because he's spending three hours doing that warranty. Yep. And so I like having the whole amount, having the account set aside with the right code that you can pull it out even though I'm not transferring money, it just looks that way.
Cecil Bullard: And I can say, okay, we had a 5% warranty this month, and that's too high. It doesn't meet our standard
Lucas Underwood: Exactly. A hundred percent onto the next one. And I need to answer this won't take just a second. Same fellow Lance asked this question, said, Hey, I just hired a coach. What's your advice for meeting with my new coach?
Lucas Underwood: Very first thing, and I'm gonna tell you from the shop owner perspective. Be honest, be vulnerable. Put the things that really hurt out there and say 'em. Don't hide behind that ego. Don't hide behind that pride. Say what you're up against. Because if you don't say, if you don't get it out there, it doesn't get fixed.
Lucas Underwood: You need to be honest. You need to be open, you need to be direct, and you need to understand that they have to push back on you. Right? I'll never forget my first business coach, right? One of the things that he kept saying was, is What's your vision? And he would say, no, that's not it. And I'm saying, dude, I'm telling you.
Lucas Underwood: You asked me what I want, where I wanna go. He's like, but that's not good enough. Yeah. And I got mad. Yeah. I won't lie. I got mad and he said, listen to me, you are looking, a year from now, you're looking, six months from now, you're looking, two years from now, you have a 20, 30, 40 year life in front of you in this industry.
Lucas Underwood: What does it look like in 40 years? And so you gotta push back some.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And plus the, from the coaching side you know, having done this a lot I want data that's I can understand. Yeah. So, and reports from your point of sale may or may not give me that data. Certainly a decent profit and loss statement if you have it.
Cecil Bullard: If not, we're gonna have to develop one. You know, you if I can't see what's going on, I can't help you. And if you're not open because you're ashamed or you're afraid or whatever then I'm not gonna be able to help you. 'cause I can't get the data to make good decisions. Good choices. Yeah. Had a meeting with a new client.
Cecil Bullard: We're just, they just put in tech metric. They don't have a decent p and l. The reports from the old system are inaccurate. And he's like, well, what are the five things I should do right now? Well, you know, at this point I can't really give you great advice because I haven't got enough data. And so we have to fill that out.
Cecil Bullard: And then it if you're a decent, if you're a good coach, you're probably saying, what are your goals? What is your future? You know, what's the vision? Because things should be built around that. And I think you also have to have a bit of a relationship where you can say to, you have to respect whoever's gonna coach you.
Cecil Bullard: Yes. And if you, because if you can't, then you can't take the feedback that you need to have. Yeah. And you need to make actionable. And some, you know, I always tell people, you're never gonna agree with me a hundred percent don't care who I coach. But you know, if you listen 85% of the time, we're gonna do really well.
Cecil Bullard: Right. That's
Lucas Underwood: exactly right. And a coach has got to somewhat be a bit of a therapist, a bit of a counselor. We're big tough men. We've never talked about these things. We've never talked about our fears. We've never put 'em on the table. You know, ed Caswell, who's in here is somebody who does this phenomenally because he encourages the people in his life, Hey, let's talk about the hard things.
Lucas Underwood: Let's stop trying to cover this up. Let's stop letting ego get in the way. Let's push forward let's drive. Let's make this better, because if you don't talk about it, and if you don't get it out there and deal with it, it never gets better. I had So shop owners will hold that inside and hurt over it, and they don't need to.
Cecil Bullard: I had a meeting today with a, with one of my clients and I told him, I said your biggest challenge is that you don't have the skillset yet to be a good manager. Yeah. And you have, you need that skillset if you're gonna have multiple shops and Sure. And you could tell he was oh. But then he was like, okay, Cecil, next meeting, can we talk about what that skillset is and what I need to learn?
Lucas Underwood: Absolutely.
Cecil Bullard: You know, that's hundred why I brought it
Lucas Underwood: up, right? Yeah, exactly. And it's not to hurt you, right? No. It's not to cause harm. It's not to make you feel bad about yourself. It's if you can't see that, if there's that blind spot and we can't see where we're weak, right. If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in trouble.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah. Right. Because you won't ever see that blind spot. And those blind spots are what gives you your massive growth. That's where the development and the movement comes from. The next question. How should we pay a gs? There's a lot of questions in this one, so we're gonna start with how do we pay a gs
Cecil Bullard: I hate gss.
Cecil Bullard: Okay. And not everybody has to start somewhere, but mm-hmm. We hire this guy that's gonna change oil and do our inspections. Who's the worst qualified person to do an inspection on a, you know, 2019 Toyota Tacoma, right? Mm-hmm. The GS tech. There are things that are unique to that vehicle that someone that's trained is gonna see that a GS is never gonna see.
Cecil Bullard: And
Lucas Underwood: Exactly.
Cecil Bullard: I think I owe it to my. Customer, my client, to give them the best inspection, the best information. And but how do I pay a gs? I think you look at what's, you have to understand your business again financially. So, you know, I'm a post-it. I'm $140 an hour, but effectively I'm 125.
Cecil Bullard: Okay? Yeah. Yeah. So, based on my effective, I can pay up to 40%, about 36% loaded of my effective rate. So if I'm 1 25 as an effective rate, that really says that in my shop, I can probably pay. I don't know, $50 an hour, 48, something like that. And then I have to assume the load. So back that down. Now I'm at 32.
Cecil Bullard: Yep. And a GS is gonna get paid enough to be able to afford an apartment gas for their car. You know, maybe beans and rice have the refrigerator full enough that they feel comfortable. But they're also not gonna get paid the maximum that I could pay at say, 38 bucks an hour. Yeah. So, but this whole idea of paying somebody 18 or 20 bucks an hour to start and come to work for me the McDonald's down the street here in Utah is I think starting people out at 24 bucks an hour.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And what skillset do I need there? Right.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah, absolutely.
Cecil Bullard: We're asking these young people to come in and basically work for nothing, and we're saying, well, yeah, and they're also not productive. You have to understand that you have to plan your business so that you have the funds to pay this unproductive GS guy for some period of time.
Cecil Bullard: I would also say that along with the pay part, the bonus part is I expect four hours a day of productive work, or five hours a day of productive work out of you. And if you do that, then there's additional pay that comes to you if you get new training, if you go out and yeah, take classes. If you buy new tools or, you know, learn new skill sets on the tools and the equipment the mentorship program that we have, I have a way to level you up.
Cecil Bullard: And yeah, a lot of my bonus structures around productivity, but there's a reasonable base pay for that person.
Lucas Underwood: Absolutely. And you know, one of our requirements here is like we have today's class. We just implemented that and it's always been scanner danner, like, you have to go through the scanner, Danner, we'll buy you the book, whatever you need, but you have to go through that because I don't want you to stall here.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah. That's one of the biggest complaints I get from young people is they get stalled out in the lube Bay. They get stalled out in the tire bay. Now, for me, what I found like a huge eye-opening thing, I had not been around other shops and I had always just done things the way I did things. So for my GS guys, what I was doing is I was just cutting the hours way down.
Lucas Underwood: I was paying them hourly, I was cutting the hours way down, so I was matching everybody else's prices. And so now I've added those multiple labor rates so I can adjust. And I know that person that's in that position and you know, one thing that I heard somebody say the other day is they said, you have to remember that your, a tech may not be as profitable and your GS tech may not be as profitable.
Lucas Underwood: They're feeding the middle. And, you know, you talk about the estimating, like, do you know, I disagree a million percent. I'm, well, I'm just saying like, I am with you. I know why you disagree, and I think that the atac we should charge should be the most profitable
Cecil Bullard: because you're charging more money for that person because they have absolutely have a much higher skill set.
Cecil Bullard: We're not, are we right? No. We, the average shop is absolutely not. Are we doing? It's why, that's why today the smart shops and, oh, Cecil just said only smart guys do this. So he's telling me I'm dumb. I'm really not. But the leading edge guys, the guys that are on the front of. Change in and everything.
Cecil Bullard: They have probably four or five different labor rates. Yeah. They have different labor rates for older cars. Higher, yes. They have different labor rates for diag much higher. They have different labor rates for European cars than they have for Kias and Hyundais and Toyotas and Yeah. You know, and they have different labor rates for different jobs that take different skill sets.
Lucas Underwood: Absolutely. This guy's, next question, I think this is a good one is there a time when we should charge, and Michael got ahead of me, he's going back and fixing it. Is there a time that we should charge for estimates? Now let me, I think this is important for us to talk about because for your car to make it into my shop, I'm typically going to be charging for a service no matter what.
Lucas Underwood: Okay. Mm-hmm. And so I'm making that estimate because I've already got your car in the shop and I'm doing work. I've oil service, testing, tire jobs, something. And now when I'm doing my 300% rule, I'm going over everything. I'm making estimates for what the car needs not to sell you something to inform you and keep you advised.
Lucas Underwood: Because I'm your advocate, that's my hoping that you'll buy
Cecil Bullard: the right stuff.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah, exactly. Because I'm supposed to be advising you and telling you what's gonna make this car safe and reliable for you and your family. That's my job. I'm not gonna make an estimate. I'm sorry, Cecil. If you disagree, I'm gonna tell you're wrong.
Lucas Underwood: I'm not gonna make an estimate over the phone when they call me and say, Hey, I need an alternator.
Cecil Bullard: No, we don't, not, we don't price on the phone. Okay. Yeah. The only things I can price on the phone are you know, for that particular diagnostic, this is what our base starting is this is where we start, right?
Cecil Bullard: And if I do have someone saying you know, I, I need a cooling flush and a break flush, or whatever, my question then is who told you? Yeah. Where's the car? Help me understand why do you think you need that? Right? Yeah. And frankly, I still need to inspect the car. Yeah. Because, and you see it on your, your site. I mean, every Facebook, every other day somebody is going you know, this customer said they needed X, Y, Z and they came in and I did X, Y, Z and they're dad didn't fix their problem and now they're mad at me, but I did what they wanted. Right. No. You're the professional. Imagine going to the doctor and saying, Hey, I need you to take my appendix out 'cause I have a pain in my right.
Cecil Bullard: Oh, Bob over
Lucas Underwood: here said, and
Cecil Bullard: yeah. And my cousin said, it's my appendix. And you're never gonna do that. So.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Cecil Bullard: And then back to the question, if you're doing a $69 oil change, 'cause you're trying to be competitive with oil changers or whoever down the street, and then how are you gonna afford the time for your service advisor to write that up properly in your tech, to write it up properly and your tech to do a good.
Cecil Bullard: Digital vehicle inspection. Yeah. We can we gotta stop thinking in terms of how cheap can I make it.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah. And we
Cecil Bullard: gotta stop talking about, we gotta start talking about, in order for me to do a good inspection and do a good, you know, 15 years ago I was running a shop. Our cheapest service was $165.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And my customers came in every day and paid that. And that included the time that it took to do a good inspection. That included the time that it took to create a good estimate. And then the other part of that would be, okay, I, but cis, I still want to do a $69 oil change because I think I have to be competitive.
Cecil Bullard: All right, great. Then raise your labor rate somewhere else so that you can pay for the time to do the inspections and pay for the time to do the estimates. Exactly. And exactly. If you're not estimate, you cannot sell. What you do
Lucas Underwood: not
Cecil Bullard: estimate.
Lucas Underwood: You're exactly right. And you know, I have been saying this ever since Michael Smith said it to me a while back.
Lucas Underwood: I tell everybody this little story that he tells and it's something that we have to think about as an industry because we are in the middle of a consolidation swing, right? It's happening all around us. It just happened to body shops. It's gonna happen to mechanical, there's no way around it. And these guys are trying to compete.
Lucas Underwood: With the consolidators and they may not even realize it. And what they're doing is they're getting out here and they're saying, Hey, that guy's doing oil change for this. That guy's doing tires for this. Michael talks about the fact that when he was in mergers and acquisitions with a very large company, they bought a bunch of funeral homes.
Lucas Underwood: And he said that the other little mom and pop funeral homes were actually coming to him saying, why can't I compete with these guys? And Michael said, 'cause I'm buying container loads of caskets. Caskets. Yeah. If I can buy 'em for a hundred dollars, you can buy 'em for 2000. Yeah. You won't compete with me when you lower your price, I'll just lower my price.
Lucas Underwood: You'll be at zero margin. I'll still be at 70% margin because you
Cecil Bullard: can't compete with me. And by the way, that customer that's gonna go to that chain store, to that dealership isn't probably not my customer. They're not looking for the same thing, you know, the unreasonable hospitality book.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: We have to become.
Cecil Bullard: Better at unreasonable hospitality than anybody else in our industry. That's the thing that's gonna allow us to be profitable. That's the thing that's gonna allow us to survive. Those, that customer's not coming to you because you're the cheapest guy on the block. And if they are right, you built the wrong business that you cannot survive because you cannot compete with Walmart or Costco or whoever.
Cecil Bullard: Right? Yeah. So, I wish we would quit the rush to the cheapest price in the bottom of the drain.
Lucas Underwood: I think we have made a little bit of a problem for our industry. Okay. I was in, so I was in Florida. Universal Studios stopped by there, went to some other places, was at a show called ia, and it's for the amusement industry, family entertainment centers, things like that.
Lucas Underwood: That's the space the family business is in. And I watched the people in this show go to vendors and make million, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million deals all day long. One right after another. Didn't even shake about it. Right. Just like, here's the money, do it. Right. They didn't negotiate. They didn't argue.
Lucas Underwood: Lots of money changed hands. And I'm, I was thinking about that. And then later in the day, we went to a universal theme park, four people in front of us went through, it was $5,200 that they invested to go to Universal for the two days they were gonna be there. 50, $200.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Lucas Underwood: Right. We're afraid.
Lucas Underwood: To give a client an estimate for an oil change, yet they're over here spending $5,200 later in the week on Thursday. This organization's highly involved in Universal Studios and so we go over to Universal after they close their new theme park. And I was talking to a lady that worked for Universal.
Lucas Underwood: She said, we have 33,000 employees in Orlando. We have over 3000 managers. Yeah. We have a payroll budget that would make you sick to your stomach. We work 10,000 people a day. Yeah. 10,000 people a day. And you're telling me that they won't pay to have their car properly repaired? No. It's because of the image we've created.
Lucas Underwood: It's the situation we've made and we keep backing ourselves into this corner. It's time for us to rise up and charge what we need to charge and be the professionals we need to be. We need to stop worrying about what Bob down the street's doing. We have to do what we have to do to make sure our businesses are profitable.
Lucas Underwood: Let
Cecil Bullard: Bob, we're
Lucas Underwood: on the curve.
Cecil Bullard: Let Bob bankrupt his business. Let Bob hire somebody at 15 bucks an hour and lose him. I can't do that. I want run my business as a financial model and make sure that I'm profitable in all areas of my business. Yeah, and absolutely there are gonna be some people that are gonna say, I don't want to go there and that's fine.
Cecil Bullard: The one more just comment maybe before we go on to the next thing, we've, I've worked with three to 4,000 clients individually over my career, and we currently work with several hundred clients at the institute.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And the top. 15%, the guys that make the most money, the guys that have the most consistent businesses, the guys that don't worry about the fact that Thanksgiving is coming.
Cecil Bullard: The guys that have, you know, 500,000 sitting in the bank as a you know, here's my spare money in case we have a bad week or whatever.
Speaker 4: Yeah,
Cecil Bullard: those guys have things in common, and one of them is they're not the cheapest guy. They're always the most expensive guy in the neighborhood, and they're constantly helping their customers understand why that's of value.
Cecil Bullard: Okay. So why should you come here and spend more money with me than you go somewhere else? And I think we know this all the time. We buy shit online. Oh. We buy stuff online and it comes not your censorship. You can say whatever you want. Yeah. It comes and to our homes or our businesses.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And we go, well, that was wasted money. That's a piece of crap. And, but it was cheap.
Lucas Underwood: Right. I've had so many conversations with shop owners over the years, and I'll say, let me ask you a question. So what, okay. Last time, let's say you replaced a TV in your house, Uhhuh. When was that? Oh, I bought one last year.
Lucas Underwood: Okay. Tell me something. Did you go and buy the 13 inch black and white television, this thing that you could find,
Cecil Bullard: right? That they sell for $23 and 99 cents? Or did you buy the. $1,400. Right. I wanted a
Lucas Underwood: nice TV
Cecil Bullard: ole or whatever it is.
Lucas Underwood: Right, right. Yeah. No, I wanted a nice tv. Okay, so that means you are telling me that you're so worried about raising your prices because of consumer perception but you could buy the cheapest TV if consumer perception was all that.
Lucas Underwood: It was, wouldn't everybody buy the cheapest thing? It's not just money that motivates us to buy. Right. And I think that's something that's lost. And so many of us we're technicians and you know this as well as I do, there's a lot of technicians selling out of their wallets as shop owners today.
Lucas Underwood: And it, it just, they don't have the perspective they need. They just don't have it different.
Cecil Bullard: There's a, when you go from being a tech, there's a skillset that you have when you become a manager or service advisor. Different skillset. Yeah. When you become an owner, different skillset. And if you don't learn to think in a different way to have the different skillset, what that is, then you're never gonna achieve what you can achieve.
Cecil Bullard: Yep.
Lucas Underwood: Absolutely. Okay, next question. Can you guys please explain the preferred customer program a little more in detail now? This was you talking about it, so I'll kind of let you Yeah. I think the last time, take that and roll with it. Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: I looked at, I wanted people to book their next appointment. And in order to get that done, I felt like I needed to give them some something.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. So, you could come to my shop and get a loaner car no matter who you were. Yeah. We had loaner cars for everybody because we knew that if I gave you a car, you were gonna spend five times more than somebody that was gonna wait for their car. Right. So let's give you a car. You go away that solves your transportation problem.
Cecil Bullard: It's that hospitality thing that unreasonable hospitality. Yeah. We also watched every car that came in. We ran surveys. The surveys said, customers most important thing is having a clean car. And the second most important thing is having a loaner car that they don't have to worry about transportation.
Cecil Bullard: So when I did the loaner cars, when I did the car washes, I raised my liberate by four bucks an hour because my cost was gonna be two bucks an hour to do that. Yeah. Anticipated. Now that said. I'm already giving loaner cars and car washes to everybody, but I created a card that said you're a preferred customer.
Cecil Bullard: And on that card, there were two loaner cars valued at $65 a day. Yeah. There were two car washes valued at $40 or 42 or whatever. Right. There were, there was a windshield treatment, which if we had done it for you separately, like an Aqua Pelle or a high-end Rain X we would've probably charged you 90 bucks.
Cecil Bullard: And so we valued it at 90, but we gave it to our customer for being a preferred customer. We also discounted some of our services by a little bit. Okay. 'cause we also knew that if you're a preferred customer, once we did the service and we presented the work to you, you bought twice as much as a non-preferred customer.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. Okay. And so I created a card that, and everybody that came in, I said, my service advisors or me said, would you like to be a preferred customer? And they were like, what does that mean for me? Well, we have a card here. It's got these items on it. It's worth about $450, and you get one of these every year, has a preferred customer.
Cecil Bullard: But we ask something from you. What we ask is that you make and keep your next appointment. Now we have six months service schedules, so will we be booking a service for you in six months? Okay. And if you can't make it, we have a communication communications system that three weeks before we're gonna send you a message and three days before we're gonna give you a call.
Cecil Bullard: And if you can't make it, all we ask is that you go, let's get it rescheduled. I'm not ready, or I can't make it. Okay. Right. Just like the dentist and For sure. And after doing that for the first year I think we were booking nine, 10 appointments a day out of 13 cars. Okay. Right. And we had a, I don't know, it was 69% or 72% show up rate.
Cecil Bullard: Okay. And I didn't think that was high enough. So I started closing the window a little people that wouldn't make their appointment, people that fought me I didn't make them preferred customers. Yeah. And so now we're booking six cars a day out of the 13. Yeah. But we had a 92% show up rate. Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And if you looked at a month, we actually had a, like a 97% show up rate within a month of the appointment. 'cause that was what we did. Right? And it's just a card and it's a script that you would teach your service advisors to say, would you like to be a preferred customer? And here's what we do for you and here's what we want ask for from you.
Cecil Bullard: Now, by the way, because we were already doing loaner cars and we were already doing car washes, my cost for that preferred customer card was, I don't think it cost me $35 for the year. Yeah, for sure. To offer that. And these people spent twice as much and they didn't argue and they weren't hard to convince to do the work they needed.
Cecil Bullard: And by having six appointments a day, all of a sudden my car count leveled out.
Lucas Underwood: That's what I was getting ready to say ups and downs is I'm over here thinking, you know, here we are, we're coming out of Thanksgiving, we're going into Christmas. We know this time of year is very up and down, and I'm thinking like, what would six months ago have been, right?
Lucas Underwood: Yeah. I'm thinking in the rush of my season, busy. And so now I'm, you know, back to the same thing where we're talking about the amusement side of things, right? I was in this meeting and this training and they had these research and analyst and they were talking about these huge parks and they've got it all heat mapped out and they're like, here's where we're busy, here's where we're slow.
Lucas Underwood: We're gonna move volume from here to here with this strategy. Hang on a minute. Now this is, we're gonna put
Cecil Bullard: The water
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: The $18 waters and the $12 ice cream over here. So people have to go over there. Exactly. And then they're gonna be where we
Lucas Underwood: want 'em to be. And we gotta think about that.
Lucas Underwood: So like in their scheduling, right? They change prices and they adjust things and they move things around based on that. And I was thinking, gosh, our industry is lacking when it comes to this thought process. Thinking ahead and planning. We've not developed and grown. Cecil, why is that? Why when you look at this industry we're what, how many points behind inflation since 1980?
Cecil Bullard: Oh my God. The average shop right now should be probably 264. $265. Yeah. If we raised 3% a year since 1980. Yeah. The average shop right now, I think, like I said, the last survey was like 1 28 or something. I do have shops. I a new client the other day I'm talking to, and he's like, I said, well, so what's your labor rate?
Cecil Bullard: He says, oh, we're 365 an hour. I was like, oh my gosh. Oh, right. You know, and of course they're in a, they're in a a very wealthy part of town working on high-end cars and Yeah, that makes sense. But they're not afraid to be what they need to be. I mean, why do we not because we make excuses.
Cecil Bullard: Mm-hmm. And we accept the excuses.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah. Okay.
Cecil Bullard: I'm not, I mean. What can I control, right? What can I control? Can I put a preferred customer program? Can I create a card? Can I punch it out when the customer comes? If the customer forgets their card, do I really care if I need to punch that out or not?
Cecil Bullard: Because you know what, if they came back a third time and I needed to give 'em a loaner car, I'd still give 'em a loaner car. I wouldn't say, well, you're outta loaner cars, right? Yeah, because so we are so busy trying to get the next car out. I talk about the assembly line, you know, I went to Nema Uhmi, which was Toyota's plant in San Jose, California.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah, they're not there anymore, but they were the best and most successful manufacturer in the world, right? And not by like 3%, by like 28%. They put out 28% more cars with 28% less flaws outta that plant than anybody else. I went on the tour and I said at the end of the tour, I said, okay, I heard all the crap.
Cecil Bullard: What's the secret? They said, there's two things we do. Number one, when there's a problem on the line, we stop the line. Yeah. The whole line. Not just a
Lucas Underwood: piece of it, all of it. We don't
Cecil Bullard: go, okay, we'll deal with that a six months from now, we fix it. And number two, when the line is stopped, everybody's responsible for fixing it.
Cecil Bullard: So think about in terms of your shop. So I have a business and I'm not making the profits that I need to, right. But I've gotta work, instead of looking at my pricing and looking at how I dispatch and how I do, I have a preferred customer program. What's my marketing look like? I've gotta fix that car because it's got a problem and it's kicking my ass or my people's ass.
Cecil Bullard: And so I'm gonna dig into that. I'm not stopping the line. Exactly. I'm not solving the problem. Right. You know why that is. Right? Do you know why that is? Sure. You know why? Because I know why that is. Joy out of fixing the car and being the guy that can fix the car. Not the joy out of exactly.
Cecil Bullard: Fixing a lot of cars. It's because we know happy and making money. Right. We don't
Lucas Underwood: know how to do the other thing. We know how to fix the car. Well,
Cecil Bullard: then you go, okay, so that's the variable.
Lucas Underwood: I know the monster in the closet that I know. I know how to deal with that.
Cecil Bullard: So why do I need a coach? Right? I mean, I, yeah.
Cecil Bullard: I have mentors. You know, you talked about Wayne and you talked about Michael and people that work in the company and outside of the company. I'm always trying to find like, oh man, that person does that really well. Yeah. I need to learn how to do that really well. Do I have to pay them? Will they do it for free?
Cecil Bullard: Will they become a mentor of mine? Will they get in my circle? How do I get 'em in my circle? Right? Yeah. I wanna surround myself with. With everybody that has all the skill sets that I don't have, so that when I need that skill set, I can go can they teach me that? Or do I hire them to do, you know, we talked about marketing, you know, hire marketing companies.
Cecil Bullard: Stop trying to do your own marketing. You're not qualified. It's too complex, right? Oh, I'm gonna do my own brain surgery, right? Oh, yeah. Because it's cheaper. I offered Cecil, I would've to a fortune. No, I got a pair. Needle knife. Thank you. Yeah. And a and a hot iron. We would've, that's it. We would've got up there and did that, burned that right out.
Lucas Underwood: It may not have been nearly as like aesthetically pleasing was done, but I promise I've gotten it outta there,
Cecil Bullard: scar, et cetera. But you know, it's kind of this mentality of, and I don't know if it's. You know, the guys with a DHD, we have a high level of A DHD in our industry, the guys that are dyslexic, we have a high level of dyslexia in our industry.
Cecil Bullard: I don't know if we were kind of pushed into that, into automotive and fixing cars, I think all of us have certain talents that when we do certain things, it just brings us joy. Right? Yeah. I mean, you get a car that doesn't run, comes in on a tow truck, and you know, you spend a couple hours on it and then you're driving it down the street and it's, you know, you're driving it like a striped ass tape, right?
Cecil Bullard: And it's running like that, and there's you're smiling from ear to ear and you're endorphins are going, your adrenaline's up and you're just excited. And then you come in and you go. I have to try to figure out how to get my customers to book appointments. You know, that's not fun. That's not, you know, but if you plan, it's not
Lucas Underwood: like I feel like I can do anything about it.
Lucas Underwood: I feel helpless. I feel powerless.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. Right. But if you know what to do and you actually do it, and you create a team of people that will get behind you to help you do those things, right? Yeah. And that's the whole company. And here's the thing.
Lucas Underwood: It becomes fun. It does. It does. And here's the thing is that I think there's a lot of fear involved.
Lucas Underwood: I think we make a lot of decisions based on fear in this industry. And we love our shops. They're our babies. We've poured our heart and soul into them, and we feel like anything we do could disrupt or damage our shops. And so it's very hard to make those decisions. It's very hard to make that push and jumping out on that limb to make a big move like that fills and, you know, I,
Cecil Bullard: so have you basically said, this is what I really want.
Cecil Bullard: This is my vision. Yeah. These are the results that I need in order. To be ultimately successful to get what I need out of this business, both financially, emotionally, et cetera.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And many guys have never thought past the next job, the next bill.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah,
Lucas Underwood: absolutely. And they push themselves into a spot.
Lucas Underwood: And I keep seeing this happen. They push themselves into a spot where they're convinced they're either going to be miserable for the rest of their lives, or all of a sudden they're the one who does the flip. And they're like, I don't care about the client, I don't care about the car, I don't care about anything.
Lucas Underwood: And I think that's something important we need to bring up because a lot of people think that fixing the car is like some great magical thing for our consumer. That's the base level of proficiency for an auto repair shop. That's the expectation. Yeah. Yeah. You have to go, well,
Cecil Bullard: you have to go well beyond fixing the car.
Cecil Bullard: And by the way, fixing the car. I know a lot of shops that fix a lot of cars and go broke. Absolutely. Where everybody's unhappy, miserable, they can't afford the tools they need, they can't even fix the roof that's leaking water every time it rains. Yep. Because they're afraid to raise their labor rate by 10 bucks an hour.
Cecil Bullard: I argue with or to hold up parts margin, you know, properly or whatever.
Lucas Underwood: I argue with Brian Pollock multiple times a week about this, and this is a very upsetting topic for some folks. But here's the deal. I talked to Brian and we're talking about the fact that I'm over here with a 4.9 star on Google and I can look at my negatives and I'm like, yeah, I earned that.
Lucas Underwood: Yep. And I look over across the street and there's somebody with 3.3 stars. They are known to not fix the car and the parking lot's packed full. And they did tons and tons of revenue, but I, it couldn't just be fixing the car.
Cecil Bullard: So I, there's a guy, I could mention his name. You and I both know him real well.
Cecil Bullard: He is one of our clients. Been a client for a long time. Yeah. He's got multiple shops. When we started they were doing 2.1 million
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: And losing money Yep. In their business. Yep. You know, and I think the first year we did like 2.4 and we made four or $500,000.
Lucas Underwood: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: Because we restructured and we did, you know, the important, the things that are important, right?
Cecil Bullard: The, I've gotta price myself correctly. I have to make sure that I have systems and process that create productive people. Wait minute, you didn't do it by
Lucas Underwood: fixing all the cars?
Cecil Bullard: No. Fixing cars is again, like, I'm gonna go to the grocery store, I'm gonna buy groceries. Right. And I expect when I open that bread up it's.
Cecil Bullard: It's bread and that I can make a sandwich with it. Right. That's exactly. And so you, you don't win anything by giving me bread. Yeah. You win stuff by having a clean store where I can find what I need and I have some choices to make, and maybe I could buy that high end bread that's twice as expensive, but I kind of like that one.
Cecil Bullard: Right. And you could do the same thing when you talk about the industry that your family's in, right?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: It's not, it's the experience that the customer walks away from thinking how they so close out. Not for this, but I'm gonna close you out. Mm-hmm. I have a script. You know, Hey Lucas.
Cecil Bullard: I've taken your money. I'm not gonna say this, but I already, I got your keys in hand. I got your keys in my hand. And I'm gonna say, Hey, Lucas, you know, before you leave, I need a promise from you. Will you promised me something? And you're gonna say, ah, had to pay on the Cecil, or, sure. Whatever. And I'm gonna say, well, it's two things, right?
Cecil Bullard: Number one, if we did a great job three days from now, someone's gonna call you and say, did we do a great job, basically? And if we did, do you mind recommending us to family and friends? Right? And you're gonna say, what? Yes. You know, you're gonna say yes. And then I'm gonna say this, Lucas, here's where the promise comes in.
Cecil Bullard: It's the most important thing. If you can't say yes, would you call me personal? My name is on these two business cards, my personal phone number. And tell me why you can't say yes. So I can fix that so that we can take care of our clients and make you happy. Right? A hundred. And now you're walking away from my shop.
Cecil Bullard: Having had an experience with someone who cares about whether or not you're happy instead of Well, I fixed your car, right? Yep, a hundred percent. And
Lucas Underwood: I've got a reel that, that upset a lot of people and it's a reel of Dutch. And he was talking about the fact that the new generation, and I don't necessarily think this is a generational thing, but Dutch, we gotta be careful
Cecil Bullard: about generalities and course generation stuff.
Cecil Bullard: But yeah, of course. But
Lucas Underwood: he, that, that's kind of where he was taking it. And he said, I don't care if it's blowing a hundred miles an hour in the wind and it's snowing and you can't see the runway, and all of the things that could go wrong have gone wrong. You don't get a pat on the back by the chief pilot for landing the plane because that was your damn job.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah,
Lucas Underwood: you have to do that. Your job was to land the plane. There was no exception. That was the job. And see, we miss that in automotive. We think that everything's about fixing the car. We become hyper-focused on the car itself. And the car is the least important part of this equation, in my opinion. Is it important to fix it, right?
Lucas Underwood: Yes. I would tell.
Cecil Bullard: I would tell you the most important thing is customer experience. Yes, absolutely. And customer experience starts with your marketing. Yeah. And what they can see. How do you answer the phone? I have. Yeah, I have. I have listened to 10,000 phone calls. Yeah. If I've listened to one, and that's not an exaggeration, and I can name on.
Cecil Bullard: Two hands and one foot. How many people answered the phone correctly or well, right. Yeah. And that's the customer, that's the start of the customer experience. Are you educating that customer about why you do what you do and how that's beneficial to them throughout the whole experience? Are you in the experience with another experience?
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. So that they walk away with the right stuff in their head. Have you stopped the assembly line?
Lucas Underwood: To
Cecil Bullard: figure out what's wrong and a hundred percent put those things in place so that you can give them a great, and by the way, the second most important thing is making sure that you're profitable so that you can deliver those experiences.
Cecil Bullard: Amen. Right.
Lucas Underwood: Amen. So you can stand behind it so you can take care of your people. Yeah. So you do the things that have to be done. Cecil, I know we gotta wrap up here and so I'm just gonna jump in and tell Jacob's a good friend of mine. He asked a question, I'm gonna save this question. Okay.
Lucas Underwood: We're gonna answer it next time. I may even respond to him personally and answer. His parents are actually in my neighborhood right now, so they're welcome to stop. Oh, cool. Say hello. Come on in. So, I just wanted to say to Jacob, Hey buddy, I'm sorry we didn't get to your question. I promise that we will answer it next time and I will make sure Cecil gets a copy of it so he can reach out to you and give you his answer as well.
Lucas Underwood: But we will get it answered next time. Cecil. In closing. We have one minute left. And I've never heard you say anything in one minute. Is there anything you want the people to know? Don't
Cecil Bullard: misquote me online.
Lucas Underwood: Listen, I wanna say I could be wrong. I believe that was Chris Inright. And Chris is one of the sweetest, most humble and awesome human beings you'll ever meet. And I believe that Chris I believe that Chris may have taken something in the wrong light. I could be completely wrong. It may not have
Cecil Bullard: The quote was, Cecil said that all guys working outta their house are bums and you know, whatever.
Lucas Underwood: Oh yeah, that's definitely Chris. That's why got his feelings hurt. That's who he is.
Cecil Bullard: That's not, that is not what I've said. I was cleaning out a storage unit this weekend, and there's a guy working out of a storage unit on someone's car. Right, right. Now that guy is not helping the industry at all.
Cecil Bullard: Okay. But I know a lot of my clients, I know a lot of people that started in their house and then they moved to a shop and then they move to coaching and now they have five shops or whatever. There's always a starting point and there's always bad people. A hundred percent in, in, no matter what it is.
Cecil Bullard: Dentist, doctors mechanics, whatever you wanna call. Please don't
Lucas Underwood: go to a dentist or a doctor that's working out of their home, though, I'll say that might be a bad
Cecil Bullard: idea. Probably not that smart. Although it might save you some money. Right? That's it. You know, and I love the fact that we have a lot of questions.
Cecil Bullard: Yeah. And we have a lot of people coming online and I'm. I'm glad that we get to make a difference here. Yeah. So, I look forward to the next one, brother.
Lucas Underwood: Amen. Me too. And look I'll say this I admire someone like a Chris Enright, and I'll tell you why. It's because Chris Enright Hass been listening to people like you, people like all these other coaches in the industry.
Cecil Bullard: I like to get quoted, so
Lucas Underwood: I'm happy about that. Here's the thing is this man's been watching and he's been building the base of the business. Mm-hmm. And I wish that I had the patience and diligence that he did, because what he did is he started with the foundation and said, I'm gonna build the foundation.
Lucas Underwood: Right. I'm gonna build a good foundation under this to do that. I need to do this at my home. I'm gonna start small, and when the opportunity presents itself, I will expand. But here's the foundation of how I'm gonna do this, and here's how I'm gonna be profitable and here's my plan. So he started very early saying, Hey, this may not be an ideal situation, but I'm gonna get profitable.
Lucas Underwood: I'm gonna maximize what I have now. So now I can go buy something and I'm in a smart place. I can afford it and I can make this work. But the other thing is more people would slow down and pay attention to that. Yeah.
Cecil Bullard: He charged enough to be profitable to have the money. To do the next level or the next five levels.
Cecil Bullard: So amen.
Lucas Underwood: Cecil, thank you for being here. Thank you, all of you for all the great questions. We look forward to it. Hopefully see you all again really soon. Next time we've got another one of these coming up and make sure you're emailing in some questions. We might do some more of the ones like we've done on changing the industry where we actually get a PowerPoint up and we answer some big questions and talk through some more delicate subjects.
Lucas Underwood: So make sure you email your questions in.
Cecil Bullard: Thank you guys. Thank you.

174 - Know Your Numbers or Pay the Price: A Shop Owner’s 20-Year Wake-Up Call

174 - Know Your Numbers or Pay the Price: A Shop Owner’s 20-Year Wake-Up Call
November 18, 2025 - 00:49:58
 
Show Summary:
Todd Compton shares how a childhood surrounded by NASCAR legends and go-kart engines pushed him toward a life in automotive repair. His path moved through military service, dealership work, and an intense side-hustle era before finally opening Compton’s Automotive in 2005. Todd walks through the expansions of his shop, the risks he took, and the financial lessons that came slower than the technical ones. He opens up about tax challenges, audits, and the importance of finding a competent CPA. Todd reflects on learning to run a business instead of just turning wrenches and why protecting employees with benefits matters. The conversation closes with his passion project, Tools in Schools, where he advocates for bringing trades education back to students. It’s a story of grit, growth, and giving back to the next generation.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Todd Compton, Owner of Compton’s Automotive 
 
Show Highlights:
[00:02:28] – Todd describes how growing up around NASCAR giants like Buddy Baker and Robert Yates shaped his early fascination with cars.[00:03:55] – After his father passed, Todd taught himself engines by tearing apart go-kart motors and blowing a few up along the way.[00:05:11] – He joins the Army as a heavy wheel mechanic during Desert Storm, only to see a ceasefire called before deployment.[00:09:25] – Todd moves to Colorado, survives starving-dealership days, and eventually meets his wife before returning to Charlotte.[00:11:31] – A storage unit becomes his seven-day-a-week second job, where he and a friend fix cars in the rain and cook dinner between jobs.[00:14:26] – Todd asks his wife the hard question about risking everything to start his own business, leading to opening his shop in June 2005.[00:17:35] – He walks through each stage of expanding from 1,800 sq ft to 7,000 sq ft and building a multi-lift operation.[00:31:15] – Todd admits he didn’t understand financials for years, leading to tax problems and a CPA who failed to file three years of returns.[00:40:16] – A missed 5,500 form leads to a $25,000 penalty that his new CPA helps reverse through a North Carolina disaster clause.[00:45:31] – Todd explains Tools in Schools, a Charlotte initiative exposing kids to trades by putting real tools in their hands.
 
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.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello, my name is Jimmy Lea with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Todd Compton of To Compton's Automotive in North Carolina. Todd, how the heck are you, brother? I'm doing well, Jimmy. Oh, that's so good to hear, man.
Jimmy Lea: How's the weather in North Carolina right now? Oh, it's about right now it's about sunny and 70 degrees. Dang. Oh my gosh. It's cold. Where am I? I'm in Utah. Yeah. This morning it was 48 degrees. I think our high today is 52. Being a guy from the desert. We just moved to Northern Utah, so this is cold for me.
Jimmy Lea: I'm bet. And 70 in November's. Gotta be hot for North Carolina.
Todd Compton: Yeah. And office. Last Wednesday, Thursday. We had little bit snow here.
Jimmy Lea: You had snow. Where are you? Charlotte, North Carolina. I love Charlotte. Oh my gosh, dude, Charlotte is one of the best Joey's truck repair. You know Joey?
Todd Compton: Joey
Todd Compton: I knew his last name.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it's Are you on the tip of your tongue when you've got it cock?
Todd Compton: Not familiar.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay. He's on the southwest side of town.
Todd Compton: That's where I'm at.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, are you? Joey's truck repair. He does a lot of fleet work.
Todd Compton: Yeah. I'm over by the county airport area.
Jimmy Lea: No, he's, he, I think he's past the airport anyways.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. When you look it up, make some introductions 'cause you, and I think you enjoy, you get along really well. He's a good dude.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. I was say when you fly from Utah, when you fly into Charlotte, you will fly pretty much over my shop.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome.
Todd Compton: Yeah. So that's cool.
Todd Compton: I always look out the window when I look down, make sure the guys are working.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you do. Right? Well, I, and I'll tell you what, if ever I move out of Utah, I hope that Charlotte, north Carolina's on the list. Good. I love Charlotte, North Carolina. I love Charlotte. It's gorgeous place.
Todd Compton: So is Utah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Utah's pretty great too. Pretty great too. So, couple questions for you about your journey here in the automotive aftermarket industry. I love, always love to start with your history and your past. How did you get into. The automotive aftermarket.
Todd Compton: That's a long story. Yep. It probably really started when I was when I was a kid probably pre-teen years.
Todd Compton: My dad he was in he was into being in Charlie we were big in NASCAR or my nascar, my dad. My dad was. This was back, you know, I mean, you know, when my mom and dad went to school with buddy Baker, Robert Yates, you know, I mean, and knew these people, you know, I mean, went to school with them.
Todd Compton: And so, I, you know, growing up as a kid, I remember I remember my dad taking me to these race shops and I'll never forget gonna Daral, which is Dar, I remember sitting in the 88 Kade car as. Seven, eight years old, something like that. So we were big into go carts as well. And so, in 1985, my father passed away.
Todd Compton: And in the building we had all these go carts and all these brick Stratton engines. And and so I wanted to learn how to build these things, you know, take apart and. I blew several of them up. You know, I didn't know what the oil pickup little tab was on the bridges and Stratton figured it wasn't important.
Todd Compton: And so, well it was like the oil splash shield thing, you know? And I didn't think it was important. Well, you know, put a hole on them in engine. But anyway, fast forward a little bit. I, you know, I get in high school my ultimate goal was I was wanting to get into a race shop and and work on race cars is really what I wanted to do, and design 'em and build them.
Todd Compton: The closer my dad's had a frame shop and he would build frames for Robert Yates and I think some for Rick Hendrick, you know, back, and this was back in the 80, late eighties, early nineties. And so, I when I went, when I got into high school, I took Automechanics one, two, and three and, the third ot, catch three, we went to this central Piedmont Community College. So to take college courses there. So, and then about this time, desert Storm was started to kick out up
Todd Compton: Ooh.
Todd Compton: And, you know, out, you know, in Kuwait. And so, I joined the military in the Army. And and so I went in and I.
Todd Compton: Of all the jobs I probably could have picked. I went in as a heavy wheel mechanic and I wanted to work out in the field. So, by the time I got through basic training or getting ready to go into a IT, they'd called a ceasefire. So I never gotta go. I didn't get to go. So then after that I ended up going to you know, college, went to Nashville Auto Diesel College in, out in Tennessee.
Todd Compton: And when I was out there, I graduated. I mean, I worked for a dealership out there. And I did trim work and oil changes.
Jimmy Lea: Trim work. Trim work. Like body work?
Todd Compton: No. So like in dealership, in the dealership world, you have this, the dealership was specialized, so you had your drivability guys that fixed your check engine lights, left the problems.
Todd Compton: Then you had your line guys, which would do your oil leaks cylinder heads, valve covers, things like that. Then you had your trim guy, which he would do like, rattles squeaks, water leaks. You know, if a trim panel was discolored, you know, you'd warrant, it was almost all warranty work. Oh, wow.
Todd Compton: You know, you know, carpet that was slightly frayed or whatever you're replacing the carpet. And so, so they had me doing, like I said, I was quickly got, and I did trim work, so I remember keeping a five gallon bucket between my two stalls. I would be pulling a door panel off a Corvette and then, you know, they'd say, Todd and dispatch.
Todd Compton: I'd go up there and they'd have a waiter oil change for me. And so now I'm doing oil change. So, I did that and I finished the college, then I I moved back to Charlotte and I went to some of the race teams. And one of the guys that was really good friends with my father, he blackballed me.
Jimmy Lea: Oh no.
Todd Compton: He did. Yeah. And he said you did not wanna be in this industry. It's 70 hours a week, you know, and it's you know, the guys take the car out, they crash and they come back and they do it all over again. And he says, this is just, I'm not gonna let you in this industry. You're not going, you're not coming in.
Todd Compton: All right. You know? And so, I remember talking to several engine builders at the time. There was a company called Hendrick Mer Sports, and it was Hendrick Mer Sports. Those Yates. And so anyway he told me just as long as he was alive, he's not gonna lemme get in and not that he was being, and so as a young man, I'm like, that's kind of messed up, you know?
Todd Compton: And and so that's terrible. But I look back on it now and I'm glad he did what he did. Yeah, because around that time I had recently gotten married. I had a young child. And so, he's like, you know, this is not the life for you. Not this time. So, so I came back, Charlotte. Then I started working for a Pontiac dealership doing used cars.
Todd Compton: And so, my passion, I started to figure out that electrical work and drivability was really where I started. I started, I had fun at, fun doing. Well, let me pre preface that by when I was in Col I forgot I went to Colorado for a couple years, so, actually that's where I met my wife. And that's right.
Todd Compton: 'cause I ca I, I graduated school went in the military, came back, Charlotte, then decided to move out to Colorado and 'cause yeah, race was not going, it wasn't do anything here for me. So that's what I Colorado to, and I went out to Colorado from a Toby Keith song. And when I was living in Nashville and we talked about moving out west, you know, where there's women in gold and things like that.
Todd Compton: I'm like, you know, I'm gonna go out west. And so, alright. And the first dealer trip I worked for, the service manager hired me on like a Thursday and then he said, go ahead and move my box in on Saturday. And so I get my box moved in. I show up Monday morning. Service manager was fired that Friday.
Todd Compton: And so the service director, he's like, who are you? What are you doing here?
Jimmy Lea: Right. You're a new guy.
Todd Compton: Well, I was hired, yeah. So they gave me a bay with they gave me one bay no lift. Oh, see. And so, the only thing that I could do was al. And so, so I started doing electrical work. I starved. I starved.
Todd Compton: And fortunately it was a dealership back. They had two chips. So I'd get there at seven 30 in the morning, work, sometimes 10 at night. And and try to, and just trying to learn. So anyway, so then I meet my wife up there and I moved her back to Charles. Yeah. And then that's when I went to work for Pontiac dealership and doing its cars.
Todd Compton: Okay.
Todd Compton: I did that for about a year. And a Chevrolet dealership that I applied at when I started. When I came back to Charlotte they had drivability spot open and so they they asked me if I wanna come work for 'em. So, that's what I wanted to do. So that's what I did. And so, I worked at dealership for nine years and I became Wow.
Todd Compton: Master a SC certified GM Master certified. And I got bored. I got bored. Oh yeah, because you look at a ticket and you already knew what was wrong with it.
Todd Compton: It was just, it was pattern failures.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And, and you were seeing, so you were seeing the same job, the same cars.
Todd Compton: Correct.
Jimmy Lea: The same everything over and over again. You're like, oh my gosh, I could do this in my sleep now blindfolded. Correct. Correct. Gimme something else.
Todd Compton: Correct. Yes. And so, about let's see, probably about in year 2000 I met a a good friend.
Todd Compton: I met this guy and he had a. Storage unit that he worked out of doing side work. And so he and I gotta talking. In fact he brought his truck to the GM dealership for some warranty work. And the way the bays were set up was, you know, people could walk right, right outside the bays, you know, and I was right, the service drive.
Todd Compton: So he saw me pull his truck in. He started, he struck the ation swimming and we started talking in. And so, he tells me. He comes ever. And then, and his wife brings her vehicle in and she, you know, so we started developing a, you know, friendly relationship. And I come to find out, you know, he works on cars at nighttime, you know, he's a building superintendent during the daytime, then he works cars at night.
Todd Compton: And so, I ended up, he and I started working together outta the storage unit and we worked really well together. And so I've worked there. Really seven days a week. I leave the dealership at five 30 and then I had it set up at that storage unit where we had a refrigerator. We had electric.
Todd Compton: Electric grill. Yeah, we had a microwave. And so we, and then we cooked dinner and then still keep on working.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh.
Todd Compton: And then of course, now, by this time I have two kids.
Jimmy Lea: I was gonna say, yeah, you're still a young married couple. You got probably a couple kids there at home.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. And so, there were plenty of nights where I would leave in the dark and I'd come home in the dark.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Todd Compton: And I would see my kids right. You know, my wife would just leave me a note, said, Hey, there's a plate in the stove. So I missed a lot of time with my kids around that time. And so, but what I was missing, what I was wanting to learn was. Again, going back to the pattern failures, you know, I was working on newer cars.
Todd Compton: It got boring. I'd done everything I could do at the dealership. Yeah, as much as I could do. And I wanted more. I just wanted more. And so the only way I could do this, you know, I took in some, the most junk cards, you know, and, you know, we didn't have a lift and some vehicles, we had to deflate the tires, get 'em, roll 'em in, roll them in into the storage unit.
Todd Compton: And sometimes we work out in the rain. You know, I remember working on a Cadillac STS and it started pouring out rain. I'm doing a tuneup on it, and I got rain falling down in the back of my jeans, you know? And going in places where you don't want it to go.
Jimmy Lea: Right.
Todd Compton: So I did this for about four years, and my wife, she, you know, it was, initially, it was seven days a week, then it was you know, six days a week.
Todd Compton: And she says, you know what? She goes. You cut down to five days. I did. And then finally it got to the point where I started building a little bit of reputation. And and so I remember asking my wife, I said, you know, are you ready to, I remember sitting in the kitchen with my wife and I said are you willing to lose everything we've got?
Todd Compton: And I said, I'm ready to go into business with myself. And so, I was so naive, very naive. And I you know, I even asked my buddy that he and I worked together to chop together with, he, he was not prepared to make that jump. He was comfortable doing what he was doing. You know, he had the the security of healthcare you know, steady paying job, you know, retirement, stuff like that.
Todd Compton: He just was not ready to let that go. So. I was I had money saved up a money market. I cashed all that in. I bought a few pieces of equipment and found a place to rent. And and June 20 June 21st thousand five, I opened the doors.
Jimmy Lea: Wow.
Todd Compton: And so that's kind of how, that's the journey that kind of got me into the independent world is really, it all came down to boredom and Oh, yeah.
Todd Compton: Wanting more.
Jimmy Lea: June 21st, the summer solstice. Ah any relation there of you opening June 21st or just happens to be a Wednesday or whatever it was?
Todd Compton: The only, only connection to that was I started at the dealership June 1st, 1996. I'm sorry, June 21st, 1996. I wanted to complete, I wanted to finish it nine years.
Todd Compton: June 21st, 19, you know, 2005. So that's kind of the, that's kind of the that, that's significant of the date.
Jimmy Lea: Nice.
Todd Compton: I my shop foreman and service manager at the dealership, you know, they could have just really ruined me, but I had, I told them three months in advance what I was wanting do, because I had to, I still needed a job, but I still need to handle looking at buildings.
Todd Compton: I still need to handle getting a lift put in. I still needed to handle. The attorney you know, getting my the S corp set up. So there's all these things I still had to get set up and I, but I still need to maintain some income. And so they were, I mean, they could have told me, you know what, just, you know, just leave now, you know, but I, they did, you know, so that I worked out the full three months and that they allowed me to do it, you know, and so I'm very grateful for those guys.
Todd Compton: And the funny thing is this, my service manager is actually now one of my customers.
Jimmy Lea: That's great. That's awesome.
Todd Compton: So, so that's kind of how I got into the independent world. I love that. Long story.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Long story. There is no short version to that. That's pretty dang cool, man.
Jimmy Lea: Congrats and thank you for your service in the armed services. Even in the thank you eyes of conflict. You jump right in the fray to say, I send me coach, put me in, I can take care of this. That's super awesome. I appreciate that. So what does the shop look like today and is this the same that it was when it, when you started June 21st or have you expanded?
Jimmy Lea: What does it look like?
Todd Compton: So, my very first shop was a is a 1800 square foot building. It had one bay door on one side and one bay door on the other. And it was in a row of. About 10 units, all about the same. They're all 10 units. Were right at 1800 square feet. Like a
Jimmy Lea: strip mall? Or was it a more commercial?
Jimmy Lea: More commercial.
Todd Compton: Okay. It was right by the airport. Okay.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. So it was like,
Todd Compton: Yeah, I mean, like the pe like the building behind me was US Air, and they had. Their their tugboat, their tug, I'm not sure what we call them the tug, the pushers and stuff. They'd keep those there and they'd kind have mechanic chop in the air.
Todd Compton: Next to me was a was a trucking company that was in another building.
Todd Compton: And like in, in the strip building that I was in one guy fabricated things for lawnmowers. He welded titanium and aluminum and stuff like that then.
Todd Compton: And another guy like another two doors down hit all he did was he polished the semi-truck gas tankers, you know, you know the tankers you see going down the road that carry liquids or whatever.
Todd Compton: He would bring these in and he would, he had ac crew guys and they'd sit there and they'd polish these things and, you know, to where they would just like look like mirrors.
Todd Compton: So like I said, it was a pretty industrial area and all brick brown. Yeah. You know, and so I remember July 4th, 2005 to try to stand out because when you looked at the row of buildings, every building looked, I mean, it was just, so you took a building that was a hundred yards long, roughly, or so, and you just had all these brown doors.
Todd Compton: Yep. Man, doors were all brown. So it's all L at the same.
Jimmy Lea: Same. So yeah,
Todd Compton: I was at the very end of one of the buildings. So what I did is I painted my door white. So that way when I was on the phone with anybody and I could tell 'em, you know, say, Hey, I 47 32 West Boulevard, suite eye, just look for the white bay door.
Jimmy Lea: Perfect.
Todd Compton: And so that way people would know where I'm at.
Todd Compton: Yeah.
Todd Compton: And so, and I was in that building from June. Oh five to February of oh six, then I moved about a block away to a, another kind industrial area, and I moved up to 4,000 square feet. At this time is when I hired my first employee, when I moved into that building.
Todd Compton: And I installed a couple more lifts. And so, I was in that building from two April, 2006 to around April, 2008, and I got kind of pushed outta that building 'cause the airport bought the property. It was privately owned, the airport bought the property. And I remember getting a letter saying that at some point the road will be closed, these buildings will be demolished.
Todd Compton: And so, you know, I had to find a place to, to go. So, I was on a test drive and I happened to see a building that was for for lease. And it was just literally, it was just a block away from where I was at. So I'm like, that works. But it was much bigger. It was 7,000 square feet and of course the rent's higher, all kind of stuff.
Todd Compton: Higher. I had more exposure to the road, to one of the main roads. So that's important.
Jimmy Lea: That's one of the rules of real estate is location. Yeah. Location. Location. So. Yeah. Not a bad move, but 7,000. You're doubling darn here.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. So, I,
Jimmy Lea: I I wanna pause you here for one quick second. When you started in June of oh five, how many lifts did you have in that 1800 square feet?
Jimmy Lea: One, one lift. And when you went to 4,000 square feet, how many lifts did you have in the building?
Todd Compton: I bought, when I moved in that building I bought one more, and then about four. 'cause actually the Lyft guy. Actually, lemme do 90 day financing. So I didn't have the money.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. So,
Todd Compton: so I bought one lift and he installed that one.
Todd Compton: So then once I got that one paid for, he installed the th actually had me third lift.
Todd Compton: Okay.
Todd Compton: And so, then when I got that paid for, I kind of lifted along a little bit and then I ended up buying a a Midrise a Midrise lived. Okay. That's where I stopped. Okay.
Jimmy Lea: Right there.
Todd Compton: Okay.
Jimmy Lea: So now you moved to 7,000 square feet.
Jimmy Lea: How many bays is this? How many lists do you have? How many techs are you now employing at the new location?
Todd Compton: So the location I'm at now it's still kind of, it's not like your typical automotive repair shop. It's still warehouse. So people, you don't see the, when you drive up to the front, you don't see the base.
Todd Compton: We have five loading docks in the back of the shop. And then we have a drive-in that's, you know, drive-in bay.
Todd Compton: Yeah.
Todd Compton: And so, in fact, this building used to be for Sears. Sears and Uck.
Todd Compton: Yeah. They
Todd Compton: used to use it for their, I guess, midterm shipping. You know, they'll bring them from the airport for 'em in this building.
Todd Compton: Then they'd ship 'em out to wherever they need to go.
Jimmy Lea: Right. It was like a hub. Yeah. And then they send it out. Okay.
Jimmy Lea: Follow you exactly.
Todd Compton: So. So when you look at the shop, you know, they're not, it's not like your typical shop where, you know, each bay is has a door or something like that, you know.
Todd Compton: So the way it's set up is I have I have an alignment rack, and then I have see this 2, 3, 4. So I got one alignment rack, and then four, two post lifts all in a line. And then I have another two post lift kinda off in a corner. So I got five, two post lifts and five, two post lifts. Yes. And then alignment.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. And how many technicians do you have for the the five different lifts?
Todd Compton: Three.
Jimmy Lea: Three. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. That's very cool. Do you get a lot of work for your alignment rack?
Todd Compton: We sell a lot of work in easy alignment rack.
Todd Compton: We, before I bought it, we were sub laying a lot of work out to a lot of alignment out to another chop.
Jimmy Lea: Yep.
Todd Compton: And you know, I gotta say it's probably the most expensive lift in the chop that it gets used to least.
Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. That's what I've heard. That's what I've heard.
Todd Compton: Yeah. So, but you know, it was one of those things where, the guys were hesitant on me. And this goes years back. Yeah. You know, before I really learning how to do certain things, they'd be hesitant to sell front end stuff because then they had to send it out for an alignment, you know?
Todd Compton: And so, I think something's got maybe overlooked
Todd Compton: Yeah. At the time.
Jimmy Lea: Probably. Probably.
Todd Compton: Yeah. And and now that we have the equipment, it's like, you know it, now we have different technicians since then.
Todd Compton: So, but now I can't say that for certain that's what was happening.
Todd Compton: But I got a feeling that, you know if the guys can't complete the job themselves, you know, then why, which it doesn't injustice to the customer.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, it totally does. What kind of alignment rack is it?
Todd Compton: It's a hundred alarm rack.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. Have you talked to Mr. Jay Allen? You had him up to the shop, do some training?
Todd Compton: Well, he's been to my shop that he has not, yeah, he's not done training here. But,
Jimmy Lea: well get your boys trained, get 'em, get all the boys and girls there in the shop, get 'em all trained on that Hunter, hunter alignment rack with Jay Allen.
Jimmy Lea: And then when they come back, they're gonna sell a ton more alignment work because now they're comfortable, they've been trained, they understand. Sure. Yeah,
Todd Compton: yeah. We're still all three of 'em. Well, at least two of them. Yeah. They're I would say that they have an ego on alignments, but you they have a couple of their own race cars and they set, they, they play around with alignment stuff all the time.
Todd Compton: Sure. And so I'm not saying they can't learn anything, not what I'm saying at all. But I'm saying is they are pretty competent. On, you know, looking, sometimes even looking outside the box on getting alignment. Right. You know, not always the fact respect will get something right.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Go out and
Todd Compton: drive it, and you bring it back and, you know, it's like, all right, man, this needs to be changed up a little bit.
Todd Compton: So they're not just they wanna make sure it's right when it leaves.
Jimmy Lea: No. That, and that's exactly what everybody wants. Everybody wants to make sure it's right before it leaves. You wanna make sure it's dialed in. It's not just good enough. You want it to be exactly good enough.
Jimmy Lea: Not just. So, no, I totally get that, that is awesome. Congrats on your new building too. So, are you in the process of buying this building or are you just gonna stay leasing this building? What's the plan? No, I,
Todd Compton: I, I've spoken to the landlord about it and right now he just he likes receiving those checks.
Todd Compton: He's not, see I don't think he's retirement age yet, but, okay. He's got multiple in Charlotte. He's got, I mean, that's his main career. Is he owns buildings all throughout Charlotte.
Todd Compton: And I've talked to him about buying the building and, you know, his big concern right now, at least right now is the tax hit. And he's like, yeah, right now comfortable receiving. Like, I don't need to sell it. You know, he goes, and if I do sell it, then I'm paying all his tax on it and I get it. I get it. So he didn't say no.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and if he puts it in a 10 31 exchange, he can go and buy a car wash or storage units or another warehouse somewhere else. And that's probably the best, quickest and easiest is those warehouses where you've got a company in there.
Jimmy Lea: They're gonna use it. They're gonna store stuff in it. They're assembling stuff in it. They're gonna do whatever they do in their warehouse and ship in and ship out. And it's probably easy for 'em, it's probably not a conversation or six to take 'em to lunch, take 'em to dinner, and make sure you've got that first ride of refusal.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause you want your name on that? Yeah. Absolutely.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I have not spoken to him about the first Right. Refusal. Refusal, but yet, but you know, he'll come in and just say hello and check in on things and I'll kind of casually talk to him. His name's Craig.
Todd Compton: He's like, Hey Craig, you know, you wanna sell this thing to me? And ah, nah, eh, not yet.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, because he could sell the warehouse to you and buy a 12 unit apartment complex, or 24 unit apartment complex. You know, you 10 31 exchange that, and now he's into something else that's making him 3, 4, 5 times what he was making.
Todd Compton: It's very, it's very true. Very true. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Well, let me know when you wanna negotiate with him and I'll fly out there and we'll sit down for, got it. Oh, that'd be fun. That'd be fun. Well, congrats on your journey. Congrats on the success of you your businesses. It's a sobering conversation to have at the dinner table with your wife and say, Hey, are you ready to lose everything? I wanna start my own business. What's some of those lessons that you learned very quickly in starting your own business?
Todd Compton: Well, I won't say they were learned very quickly tell you that you know, when I remember trying to mathematically think about what I needed to make.
Todd Compton: And there's coming from a technician to a business owner.
Todd Compton: So many different, I remember taking a notepad thinking, okay, if I bill out, literally, you're probably on these numbers, but I think what I remember is like, alright, if I bill out 11 hours this week at $65 an hour is what my labor rate was. I love it. And I was like, all right, so then I've got rent, I've got power, I've got, you know, and.
Todd Compton: I was always putting my own paycheck last. Yeah. I was like, where's leftover is without, you know, then, you know, that first year I kept, I put money into, I kept, I put as much money back into the companies I could.
Todd Compton: You know, some of the things I guess that, you know, over the years, you know, I stayed in my own little bubble. Yeah. I still, it took me a while to, to remove myself from the shop and actually run the business, you know, and manage the business. It took me, that's what probably took me so long to figure out to, I got, I had to step outta the shop.
Todd Compton: Yeah. I kept getting pulled back in. I kept getting pulled back in and I didn't know my numbers, but that's, yeah. Yeah, being in business for 20 years I guess I'm a, I'm an at tune late bloomer, but you know, for, if I could tell anybody that's starting off, learn the numbers first, you know, understand it because I did not, you know, I, you know, the years of 2020 and 21, 22, I got into a ton of trouble with the IRS, and it was not necessarily completely, and I'm gonna tell you, it wasn't completely my fault. My CPA just didn't file my taxes for three years.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, ouch.
Todd Compton: Ouch. Ouch ouch. And so, you know, I always thought, you know, I hear you hear on like movies or different things or whatever about, you know, my CPA, you know, you know, they're trying to keep me safe, you know, well, it's, when there, I don't know.
Todd Compton: You don't know what you don't know. And I felt that, Hey, as long as I see case, tell me everything's okay. I guess I'm making money, but I didn't know what I was looking at. I had no clue what a PL state looked at. I didn't know what a balance sheet was. I didn't know what cash a cash flow staple was.
Todd Compton: I didn't know any of that stuff was. It's like, Hey, okay, CPAs, he's taking care of the books. If he's, if he tees away from me to make more money, then I'm sure he'll let know. But until then, I'm gonna continue on, just turn wrenches and try to do the best I can and make whatever I can, you know, and make whatever I can.
Todd Compton: So that was probably the biggest thing for me was, is, continuing on as a technician.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Todd Compton: And not a business owner. So was that quick lesson learned? Not really. You know, because I still enjoyed working on the cars. I still enjoy it, you know, it still allowed me to take my family to, you know, vacations to mountains, take trips, you know, you know, we got involved some go-karts, dirt bikes, you know, bought a little camper.
Todd Compton: I mean, so we still had a good kids. Still brought were brought up. Well. But we were never, but we always slight, we always slightly struggled. Oh yeah, I'm sure. And I'm sure if we took some of that stuff out, we would've been okay. You know?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Todd Compton: We were not saying like we were starving, you know, but we were living pretty tight.
Todd Compton: But we still, we also wanna put the, those memories in for, you know, us and the kids.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, so it's good that you did that. The kids will remember those trips and those vacations and those overnight camp outs.
Todd Compton: Oh, they do. They do. Yeah. They bring it up. They bring it up and so, so for so long I focused on working on the cars and just trying to take care of customers that I had no clue about my finances, none.
Todd Compton: And so that's probably. The longest, quickest lesson that I guess I've learned.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and you hit on a point that a lot of shop owners today, that they came up through the shop. They came up through the shop just like you. They worked at a dealership, or they worked at another independent garage, and they got up to a point where they thought, you know what?
Jimmy Lea: I want to do this. I wanna be the boss. I wanna be the business owner. Mm-hmm. They're phenomenal technicians they can work on darn near any car any day, time of day. Any anything blindfolded, not a problem. They don't have the same business acumen to run a business as they do to fix a car or to run a car.
Todd Compton: Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: And so your advice is totally sound and I'll echo it. Get education, get learning. There's so many free resources available on the internet at your chamber of commerce at the community college. They'll teach you go to the small business development. They have classes, courses, all the time to help.
Jimmy Lea: The budding entrepreneur that wants to start a business. What do I need to do first? What do I need to understand? And to your point CPAs, there's two kinds. There's one that just takes everything you give them and they file it digitally. They're not looking out for you, they're just putting numbers on paper.
Todd Compton: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: And two is the kind of CPA that you want. And that's that tax advisor who's gonna say, Hey, you know what, if you do this. You can get this if you buy this piece of equipment at this time not now, but by this time you have these tax advantages. If you wait and hold off till next year to buy that equipment, it's gonna help you.
Jimmy Lea: You've got all your tax deductions you need this year. This is something for next year. You that type of a CPA it's a rare breed.
Todd Compton: Yeah. And the CPA that I've got now we're. There's still a few piece, few messes that we're still cleaning up from those years. From,
Jimmy Lea: from those three years.
Todd Compton: Yeah. And so we're not quite there where he can kind of gimme that advice yet.
Todd Compton: But you know, I mean, quick example is, you know, the alignment rack. Yeah. Previous CPA did not what's the word I'm looking for? He didn't add it into my, my. Property tax for the county. Oh
Jimmy Lea: no.
Todd Compton: And so when the new CPA found mistakes course he had to, you know, he had submitted.
Todd Compton: Yeah. And so then I got hit for three years for my property taxes.
Jimmy Lea: Sure. Money, sure.
Todd Compton: Well then I don't know if that, I don't know for certain, but all of a sudden now I'm going through a me a county audit and and so. Wait to see how that's gonna turn out.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So, well, and if ever you have to error, you error on the side of doing what's right, do what's right, and let the consequence follow, no matter what it might be.
Jimmy Lea: I, I, if you do what's right, you have that integrity and you stick to it, there's people gonna look out for you. And the universe will come to your rescue. Don't know how, don't know when, don't know where, don't know why, but it will. When you do what's right, and that's what you're doing is fixing past messes.
Jimmy Lea: All right. Hey, we'll get this, I gotta get it done, I gotta get done. Right? But yeah, now you're in an audit. So a quick little thing, you know, going from a
Todd Compton: technical to business owner. So, so we have a 401k here at the top. Nice. And so, and this is where my the new CPA got me out of.
Todd Compton: Really big trouble. I'm, I mean, devastating trouble. So there's a form called a Form 5,500 that you have to fill out as the as the corporate, as the owner, or as the entity. Shows that you're being basically fair on the 401k. And with that what they're kinda looking for is that the, that you're making sure they're making sure that you're offering that 401k to all your employees.
Todd Compton: It's just not a tax shelter, just for the you know, their principal owners.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yep.
Todd Compton: And so, that form is due on October 15th, I spaced it. Oh, no. And so, it was due October, the one I've done 'em all. I've done the, all the ones prior, but I, you know, so 20, 24 I spaced it later, forgot about it.
Todd Compton: And so. I got a letter in January of February of 25, January, February, and so I went and filled out, I said,
Todd Compton: i'll go get filled out. I'll get it done. And so, I knew there might have been a fine, you know, I was thinking there was a $750 fine. Well, yeah, if I'd have called the IRS Oh, no, actually it was Department of Labor.
Todd Compton: If I called the Department of Labor and disputed my calls, it'd been a seven $50 fine.
Todd Compton: But because I went and just filled the paperwork out, sent it on in, it was a $25,000 fine. And ouch. I was like, how, what do I do? Like what do I do? You know, and I'm looking online, figuring out ways to try to get out of it or, you know, I was like.
Todd Compton: Punish doesn't fit the crime.
Todd Compton: No, I mean,
Todd Compton: I mean, I mean, it's not like the r arrest where I'm evading tax. It was like, I just didn't tell the government that. Yeah I'm making sure everyone's got 4K. And so my CPA, I told my CPA about it. He's like, alright, gimme, gimme a couple hours. I'll give it right, right back with you.
Todd Compton: And so I don't like to take advantage of natural disasters. This is what happened. He found a clause or a not something that North Carolina did with Hurricane Helene, and that if you end up filing late on your taxes, that the, any penalties would be forgiven. And so, even though we were in an area that was not affected, the way the law was written was that was in North Carolina.
Todd Compton: So he submitted the paperwork from North Carolina and it came back and that 25,000 penalty was forgiven.
Jimmy Lea: Wow. I,
Todd Compton: I was like, oh my gosh.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
Todd Compton: So yeah, you go back 20 years and you're working on wrenches. You fast forward. Would you ever think that if I forgot, forget to fill this form, it's gonna cost this money?
Todd Compton: Or as a technician, you know, working the dealership? Do I, did I ever think about hr, you know, human resources? Did I ever think about life insurance? Did I think about short term long disability? You know. I mean, none, you know, and so, there's all these things you don't think about. And like short term, long term.
Todd Compton: One of my technicians years ago, he was in a, in an accident and he broke his wrist. Not here the shot, but, and, you know, and a wrist is very important when you're working on vehicles.
Jimmy Lea: Amen. Yep.
Todd Compton: So he had three kids you know, this was he was kinda the breadwinner and now he can't work so. What composition does that put me in?
Todd Compton: You know, do I, not only do I lose the technician, but I care about the technician. So I paid him his wage for three months or probably three months. I did not replace him. I ended up going out and doing, trying to work, do the cars, and that cost me a lot of money. I was like, you know, and then finally I was talking to one of my insurance guys.
Todd Compton: He's like, you know, if you ever talking about short-term, long-term disability, I was like, no, tell me more about it. And so, when he told me about it and so we picked out the right policy, and again, you're talking about, we're not talking about RES anymore, we're talking about policies. Yeah. And when he comes to this stuff and so, I picked out the top policy.
Todd Compton: And so now anytime I hired somebody, ar owned that policy. Well, they like it or not. I, nobody pays for it. So they get short term, long terms of disability because I do not ever wanna be put in a position to where I, I have an employee that may not be able to take care of themselves or their family for income.
Todd Compton: With the younger generation, they don't wanna put in their four one k. They don't wanna spend the money on short term, long term. But you know what, it's an investment for me, so I'm gonna spend that money each month, make sure that they're covered.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Your peace of mind is worth more than, whatever they think they want or don't want.
Todd Compton: I know that got a little bit of rabbit hole, but I just wanted to share that little tidbit there.
Jimmy Lea: No, Todd, that's phenomenal. I love the rabbit holes. I love the way the ways, the means, the areas that we go down and the things we get to talk about.
Jimmy Lea: Because who would've thought that wrenching in a dealership 20 years ago that you would've had a form 5,500 that you had to fill out? Almost cost you $25,000. But thank heavens you had a good CPA. Yeah. That did some research and found a loophole for you. Call it a loophole. Call it a saving grace.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You're in the state of North Carolina. You are protected. Oh my word. I mean, that's phenomenal, Todd that's just so cool. I like your advice of getting that education. Do you have any technicians right now that are thinking, Hey, you know, that's entrepreneur bug might be biting? Like you might want to educate them?
Jimmy Lea: No they're all
Todd Compton: not yet. Alright. Not yet. They, they enjoy, they they're. When we go to training especially like the a CE or a CA,
Todd Compton: they're so in tune to the scopes and turbos and stuff like that. I mean, they're, that's just where they're at right now in their life.
Todd Compton: You know, that's that's what they desire at the moment. I mean, one technician, I mean, we work, we've talked a little bit about GPS and things like that and he's. Kinda like poking at it a little bit, but probably not enough yet to wanna start training, you know, gonna classes on it yet.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, for sure. Well, when they do, you make sure you educate them because there's so many free resources. I mean, shoot, look at the institute and the YouTube channel for the institute, all that free information, all that data, all that knowledge. Anybody can tap into all that information and knowledge.
Jimmy Lea: It's available and it's there. So it's pretty dang cool. I'd love to land this plane here with you, Todd. Now I have one last final question for you. Tell me about tools in schools.
Todd Compton: See you better research on me. Huh? So that's tools of Schools is a organization here in Charlotte that that we're trying to.
Todd Compton: Educate, educate the young students that there's more to life than going to college. And and that the trades, whether it be automotive, plumbing, electrical hang and air, that those are successful, rewarding trades to get into.
Todd Compton: And that, you know, the school systems have taken out the tools, you know, there's no vocational classes anymore, and so.
Todd Compton: Until you put a tool in front of a student's hand, a kid's hand, you don't know if they're going, they don't know if they're gonna like it or not, you know? And so what we're trying to accomplish is getting that out there to them, putting a trow in their hand, putting a, you know, little small, you know, butane torch for plumbing in their hand, you know, and you know, sweating out the copper and, you know, putting you know, an impact wrench in their hand.
Todd Compton: But, you know, just letting them play around with the stuff. Showing them the the scan tools and showing them you different things, the way they're exposed to it. You know, that maybe one day, you know, as they're trying to determine their career that, you know, it's like, you know, I kind of enjoyed, I kind, that was kind, it kind of seemed interesting to me.
Todd Compton: I mean, more into it. And so we're going and talking to students that are, you know, I've spoken to students as low as I think sixth grade. And that's fun. That's interesting. God bless the teachers on that, I'll tell you that. And so, then the ninth, 10th, 11th, yeah. 12th graders.
Todd Compton: You can tell the questions that as the, they start touring in age from, well, I don't know, 13 to 17, 18.
Todd Compton: That's right. The questions you're gonna start maturing and actually some of the questions that, you know, we get that, that I've gotten. Been interesting when it comes to automotive side and so being, the whole thing was just being in front of them and trying to educate the students and the teachers, you know, that the world's not survive on everybody's gonna be a doctor or a lawyer.
Todd Compton: You know, you know, when you got houses that gotta be built, you got, I mean, you, they all have depend on somebody. Pick something. And fixing things is going away, you know, and that human capacity of fixing things or building things.
Jimmy Lea: Or the curiosity to take it apart.
Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. And creativity.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Todd Compton: Yeah. To build things. Yeah. The carpenters, I can't do anything for it, but carpenters, they have an eye for it. And so, and if you're playing video games all day, you're not exposed to it. You'll never know if you've got the eye for it or not. You never know if you could be an amazing carpenter or not, you know?
Todd Compton: And so that's what we're trying do.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Thanks for putting tools in schools. So, is Daniel still with you guys?
Todd Compton: He is, yes.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. How long's he been? Daniel
Todd Compton: Daniel's done very well. And he's been with me since he was in high school.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So he's, was he one of your apprentice?
Jimmy Lea: Yes. Nice. Congrats man. That's very cool. And what level technician is he now?
Todd Compton: If he hears this, he's gonna be a a plus.
Todd Compton: He's he's a good between a, a, b and a. Nice. He still, he's still got some learning to do. But he has done I mean at this point it just seems get some experience and get some things are they kind of challenge him very hardly, you know, to, for him to, you know, to start moving on up a little bit.
Jimmy Lea: Totally agree. Totally agree To be an expert. It takes at least 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours is at least five years. And where you were at the dealership at nine years, you were almost twice the expert. Yeah. Daniel's got a little ways to go. He's got four years under his belt, so he's up there. Yep. And we just need to keep challenging him so he doesn't get bored.
Jimmy Lea: That's right. Yeah. Very cool, Todd. Well thank you very much man. I really appreciate you spending some time with me today.
Todd Compton: Absolutely. It's fun.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.
Todd Compton: Alright, take care.

173 - Trust Your Gut: How Levi & Sally Built Arvu Auto to Three Locations (and Counting)

173 - Trust Your Gut: How Levi & Sally Built Arvu Auto to Three Locations (and Counting)
November 18, 2025 - 00:42:39
 
Show Summary:
Growing up in a tight knit Finnish farming community, Levi Hendrickson learned to fix equipment out of necessity long before he ever turned a wrench in a shop. He shares how that background, plus time in the North Dakota oil fields and a hydraulic shop, led him back home to start his own business and eventually co own ARVU Auto with his wife, Sally. Levi walks through buying the first Cokato location, building a new ground up facility, and expanding into Watertown and Long Lake with a goal of eight shops in eight years. He explains how culture, family values, and clear expectations shape his acquisition criteria and day to day leadership. From providing full shop tools for young techs to helping employees pay down tool truck debt, Levi is intentional about removing barriers to entry for new technicians. He talks about the importance of building depth so each location can function without him turning wrenches every day. Levi also reflects on the impact of coaching from The Institute and Wayne, especially around vision, clarity, and calm leadership. Looking back, the advice he would give his younger self is simple but powerful: trust your gut and keep moving forward.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
Levi Hendrickson, Owner of Arvu Auto
 
Show Highlights:
[00:00:00] – Levi shares the meaning behind the name ARVU Auto and how he and his wife Sally come from strong Finnish communities.
[00:03:33] – Growing up on a farm taught Levi to fix equipment early, including a memorable lesson about safety when wheels came off a neighbor’s semi.
[00:08:34] – His first job in the Twin Cities gave him a mentor who helped him apply his college training to real diagnostic work.
[00:10:17] – After working in the North Dakota oil fields, Levi returned home, built a client base, and eventually bought his first shop.
[00:12:05] – ARVU’s new Cokato building features a drive-through truck bay, multiple lifts, an alignment rack, and expanded office space.
[00:16:57] – Levi outlines the path to three locations and their long-term goal of eight shops in eight years.
[00:18:33] – Acquisition criteria have shifted toward shops with strong teams and healthy culture, not just good pricing.
[00:21:22] – With three stores, Levi is focused on filling capacity, improving efficiency, and strengthening processes before acquiring more.
[00:26:01] – ARVU provides full shop tools for new techs and builds clear career paths using tracked performance and guided training.
[00:28:33] – Levi supports techs by helping reduce tool debt and focusing on long-term employee stability and growth.
 
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?
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello, my friend. Good to be with you again here, Jimmy Lea with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. You are listening to the Leading Edge podcast, and my guest today is Levi Hendricks, and he is co-owner of ARVU Auto, Levi and Sally Hendrickson. Levi, how are you brother?
Levi Hendrickson: Good. How about yourself, Jimmy?
Jimmy Lea: Oh, fabulous. Thank you very much. And Arvu what does Arvu mean?
Levi Hendrickson: Ar vu is value in finish. So translates to value.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. And so who's Finnish in your family?
Levi Hendrickson: Both me and my wife are.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, awesome. That's cool. Are you doing some family history that you're learning these family roots or what's, how do you know this?
Levi Hendrickson: The community we grew up in, both in very strong Finnish communities and, very large you know, with our faith and, you know, it's very much the same demographic. So.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. That's very cool. How did you meet your wife?
Levi Hendrickson: I met her through a friend that was dating a friend you know, his now wife was friends with Sally, and met through that way.
Levi Hendrickson: Ended up skiing the whole day together and on our kind of first date, so,
Jimmy Lea: wow. Skiing on a first date, was it a blind date? Set
Levi Hendrickson: up? Yeah, kind of, but not really. It was my buddy's now wife asked if anyone else wanted to go skiing with the three of us for the day, and she she said, sure I will.
Levi Hendrickson: And we hit it off from there, so.
Jimmy Lea: Well, good for you. Congrats. How long you been married? How long you been together?
Levi Hendrickson: Well it'll be 11 years January. So.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations. That's awesome.
Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: And you guys have children?
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. We just in March. We just had our first baby boy.
Jimmy Lea: Hey, congratulations.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, thank you.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. My, my baby boy right now is in Brazil. He's 19. He is serving a mission there with the church. And just loving it.
Levi Hendrickson: Getting some world travel in
Jimmy Lea: world travel developing new language skills just studying a new language and working with the people of Brazil. It's an phenomenal experience. I. Just I, it's very cool. It's very cool what he's doing, so I appreciate him being there. Yeah,
Levi Hendrickson: yeah. Yeah. He'll learn a lot of valuable skills for, you know, working with people.
Levi Hendrickson: Right. And you know, it's a different dynamic when you have a language barrier and now he'll be able to take them skills back to 'em for the rest of his life. So,
Jimmy Lea: that's exactly correct. And you know, these boys, after they come, boys and girls, men and women go on these missions. Mm-hmm. When they come home after two years, 18 months, two years.
Jimmy Lea: They are different people. They have grown up, they are now adulting and they do a very good job of adulting. They've had to look after themselves and budget and money and travel and correspondence and oh yeah. It's just so much fun.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: So much fun. So, Levi, into your history, into your past, how did you get into the automotive industry?
Levi Hendrickson: Well I grew up on a farm. And my dad always fixed cars. So he would kind of do that as a side to the farming. He'd be fixing cars for people and tractors and farm equipment. So I grew up fixing stuff all the time. You know, I was given a little toolbox when I was a kid, so I'd quit stealing his.
Levi Hendrickson: That's so true. Yeah. So, so then yeah, spent a lot of time taking things apart. I don't know how many things I put back together as a kid, but I always took 'em apart. So, but yeah, then got through high school and you know, followed a buddy's path to going to college for automotive. Did that and, really kind of just took off with it and had a fairly entrepreneurial mind going up through high school and doing some other businesses then too.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Congratulations. So back to your toolbox. How old were you when you got your first toolbox?
Levi Hendrickson: Oh I don't recall.
Jimmy Lea: Like, I mean, is this like 5, 6, 7, 8 years old or is this like 11?
Jimmy Lea: That's what I
Levi Hendrickson: would say, probably around 10. So, some, for whatever reason I didn't trash it, I still have it, so it'll get passed down to to my son David, when, once he starts robbing my tools. So,
Jimmy Lea: congratulations, dude. That is super cool. That is super cool. So you got your first toolbox when you were 10 years old, so, and dad was saying this is to preserve my tools and your life.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause if you keep taking my tools, I'm gonna kill you.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good man. So, working on a farm, I, those repairs are almost out of a necessity. The farm equipment's gotta work. It's time to harvest, it's time to seed, it's time to. It has to work. There is no downtime. So your dad working on equipment, was it all his equipment or was this everybody in the community as well?
Levi Hendrickson: So a lot of it was our own equipment that we were, you know, fixing, you know, either, whether we didn't do a lot of maintenance. We got good at learning how to fix on the fly. So, you know, we got got good at using a welder and using a torch and learning how to make things work and. Really testing the bene or, you know, testing how far something really could make it.
Levi Hendrickson: And
Levi Hendrickson: yeah. And then we did do some other maintenance and stuff for some other local people helped them out when they had breakdowns.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, for sure. What's one of your greatest success stories when it comes to a repair that you made as a young man working with your dad?
Levi Hendrickson: Oh boy. I guess I don't have anything jumping off the top of my mind as a success.
Levi Hendrickson: I had a lesson learned as a very young age.
Jimmy Lea: And we call that a success.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Alright. All right. Go ahead. So, I was we're helping a neighbor farmer and me and the neighbor were, we were putting the wheels back on his semi. And I don't remember if we were putting brakes in it or what exactly, but yeah, not too much longer than wheels departed with the semi from the semi going down the road.
Levi Hendrickson: So, learned I don't remember what I was, you know, I remember working hand in hand with him on it, but I don't remember the whole details of it. But, you know, just that safety aspect and being diligent with the work that you're doing and making sure that you're checking over everything and get it right the first time.
Jimmy Lea: For sure. People's lives are in the balance here, and you gotta make sure that you're taking care of their lives. For sure. Wow. Is that also when you were introduced to the torque wrench or the what's that, what's the wrench called? The big handle that you can set the different pressures on it. Yep.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep. That's a torque wrench.
Jimmy Lea: Torque wrench, yeah. So is that when you were introduced to the torque wrench?
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, it probably was after that, but, the Torque Ranch was brought out for everything. You start learning what things should be set to and learning the values. So,
Jimmy Lea: so true.
Jimmy Lea: There's a really good friend of mine, a really good shop, Sherwood down at he and his son their shop is royalty Auto down in St. Mary's, Florida. And they have a rule that when you torque a tire. Then you call for a second torque and somebody comes right behind you to make sure that you did it properly.
Jimmy Lea: That's their qc.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So they call somebody. That's a very good very good procedure. So
Jimmy Lea: yeah, very good procedure. Very good to make sure that you are covering yourself. Yeah. So you decided to follow your buddy. You went off to college for automotive. Mm-hmm. And then what happens after you graduate?
Levi Hendrickson: So I I got a job working down in the Twin Cities right outta college, actually. I think they even let me go a little early so I could get started instead of doing open shop neighbor to my parents weren't, grew up worked at that shop. So he got me the job down there and actually had a phenomenal mentor that worked at that shop.
Levi Hendrickson: He helped me, you know, take all my training and my learning. From college and apply to real life. And, you know, it was it was phenomenal. And we actually ended up just doing an alignment for him today because to, to circle back, that was our third shop that we just bought last year. But we can get more into that later on.
Levi Hendrickson: But so yeah, I did worked the rest of the year for that shop and then. I ended up bouncing out to North Dakota, working in the oil fields as a fleet mechanic out there for one of the companies. So I was working on a lot of you know, pickups and semis and stuff of that nature.
Levi Hendrickson: And you know, so I was kind of rounding my skills and learning the industry and, you know, where, you know, it helped me decide where I wanted to be in this field of mechanics and, and then I also ended up taking a job at a hydraulic shop out there. So it's more of that farmhand knowledge and stuff of that nature that was applied.
Levi Hendrickson: And so then I moved back from there in 2013 and actually started my own company.
Jimmy Lea: How long were you in the oil fields there? Was it North Dakota or South Dakota?
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, North Dakota. Okay. For a year and a half.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah that's some life lessons you learned real quick. 'cause that's a cold winter.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Well, Minnesota's cold too, but they got some wind out there and That bites.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I was gonna say, North Dakota kind of cuts right through you and Minnesota. I've been there. Yeah. It's cold. But you can wear a nice jacket and you'll be okay.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. North Dakota
Jimmy Lea: cuts.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. That it does.
Jimmy Lea: So you went straight from the oil fields to starting your own business.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep. So I started my own business. I was kind of doing that out of the shop at the Farm Uhhuh. And I was like, oh I'm gonna be a, an adult. I'm gonna go buy a house now that I'm on my own. Well, that don't quite work. So, the bankers don't like you when you don't have a real job in their eyes.
Levi Hendrickson: So, there was also then another local shop was looking for help. So I did end up going back to work. For a couple local shops for three years. And then after that I had built enough clientele with my own business and everything that I was able to completely go out on my own. And and then six months later we bought our first shop in town with an established clientele base.
Levi Hendrickson: And, you know, then we took off from there. So,
Jimmy Lea: congrats. So which of the three locations is your first.
Jimmy Lea: Cokato because you've got Cokato, long Lake and Watertown.
Levi Hendrickson: Correct.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats. So Cokato first, what's the footprint of that one look like?
Levi Hendrickson: So we just actually finished a new ground, ground up build this summer.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.
Levi Hendrickson: And so we got a 80 by 84 building that we have a drive through Truck Bay in, and then we currently have. Five Ho, or 4, 4 2 posts and alignment rack. And then we got some office space and stuff inside of that, so.
Jimmy Lea: Wow, that's big. That's a big building. Mm-hmm. So, and did you, do I understand that you built that on the first property and you demoed the old building?
Jimmy Lea: Or did you add on the old building?
Levi Hendrickson: So we moved we moved from where we were. We did we bought this lot a couple years ago. So it was a vacant lot on the highway frontage. So we moved about a, I don't know, quarter mile to a, yeah, quarter to a half mile down the road when we moved into this shop.
Levi Hendrickson: So,
Jimmy Lea: dude, congrats man. That's so awesome. And so you've got a big semi-truck pull through five two posts and alignment rack and office space. Correct. Oh my gosh, dude, that, that is awesome. And how long did you have this location in Cokato before you added the second location?
Levi Hendrickson: So it would've been about
Levi Hendrickson: five, four to five years. So in 20 in, let's see, what are we, 25 now? So it would've been 20. 23, I think it was that we started our, that we bought our second location. We'd actually prior to that we'd done a rebranding and kind of structured our business for growth to, you know, we had developed our brand and what we wanted to help us identify the direction of growth we wanted to go.
Levi Hendrickson: So then we found an opportunity to buy a shop, and, build it up and put, you know, build all of our processes and procedures and vet 'em and test 'em and it worked phenomenal. So it's been great.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, good for you, man. That's awesome. So is Long Lake, the second location?
Levi Hendrickson: Long Lake is the third location.
Levi Hendrickson: Watertown was the second
Jimmy Lea: Otter town. And what's the footprint of Watertown? What does that look like?
Levi Hendrickson: So Watertown is like. About 6,000 square feet, I think, on that shop.
Levi Hendrickson: Dude, that's huge.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So technically we have way more, we have way more space to grow than we currently are utilizing.
Levi Hendrickson: Okay.
Levi Hendrickson: We were originally just in a very small three bay small office.
Levi Hendrickson: Part of the, there, there's two buildings on the premise. Okay. We were in that, the other tenant that was in the other building moved out. I took over that because I knew we wanted to grow it and it was gonna give us better opportunity. So we we don't currently utilize all of it a hundred percent yet, but we are working on growing into to filling it out.
Levi Hendrickson: So,
Jimmy Lea: dude, congrats man. That's awesome. So how many bays, how many lifts have you got there in Watertown second location?
Levi Hendrickson: Currently we have six hoists. Set up there. So we got a bunch of open space Nice. That we can do flat work on and stuff too, yet that, you know, we can add hoist more as we grow.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Hey, are you doing anything with the ados, ADOS systems? If you've got a lot of space you ever looked at that?
Levi Hendrickson: We've kind of looked at it. Both Cokato and Watertown are in a rural market and we don't, we're not seeing the car's volume come through to bring it in and then. We just had a body shop that went full off.
Levi Hendrickson: Full into ados in Cokato oh, good. You know, good partner, working partner there. So, we, you know, we'll be happy to use them and they'll be able to do the calibrations for us when we need.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats man. It's good to lock arms with people. 'cause that's how you really elevate and mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: You, you're not competition. You're, you are friends in the business and let's work together.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I love that. How long did you then have Watertown before you added Long Lake?
Levi Hendrickson: That would've been about a year and a half.
Jimmy Lea: That's what I was gonna say. It was pretty quick. After getting your second location, you decided for a third, so what prompted the third?
Jimmy Lea: 'cause if the other two were rural are is Long Lake more? Residential more urban.
Levi Hendrickson: Urban? Yeah. It is a direct high suburb of the Twin Cities. So in 22 before we bought another shop, we said we were gonna do eight shops in eight years. So that was our part of our big growth strategy that we wanted to go with our rebranding.
Levi Hendrickson: Love it. The. We had a connection to the Long Lake. We knew new ties, and when it was coming up for sale, we decided that we would just move on it. Maybe it was a little early. But it's it's learning, right? And it's learning what to do, what not to do as we continue to grow and remembering just to keep moving forward with it and you know, keep the positives going of it.
Levi Hendrickson: So.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it, dude. Congrats man. What is the footprint of Long Lake look like?
Levi Hendrickson: So Long Lake is is our smallest facility. I don't remember square footage wise, but it is five it's four bays, five ho and then one of them being alignment rack as well in a small office area with the waiting room and stuff.
Levi Hendrickson: So, still has great capability and ability for capacity. So it's just working on maximizing footprint and everything there. So.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats, man. So, in the future, as you're looking for more shops in the area, what are you looking for? What is that ideal client that gets your attention?
Levi Hendrickson: Well, so we've kind of shifted on that, and so right now our first what we went to was more of a price point that was affordable, didn't really have much for employees.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. Had
Levi Hendrickson: equipment, had some, you know, good reputation in the community, right? So. So that worked good, but it turns into a real long game and it takes a lot of my time and it takes a lot of manpower to get it staffed up and do that, so, got it.
Levi Hendrickson: We're gonna start shifting more into looking for probably more of the, an older owner that has good employees that we can, we could make more of a seamless transition into. You know, and I think culture is gonna be a big thing for our what we're looking for in the guys. We're not, you know, if it's, you know, if the culture in the shop that we're looking at buying is not good, we know that the employees that are there probably won't turn out to be very retentive to the way we're gonna run it.
Levi Hendrickson: And the, you know, the family style. Getting everyone together, get rid of the gossip, you know, just, you know, kind of, you know, make it a fun place to work and make it so it's enjoyable for everyone. So,
Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah, that's important. The company culture goes so far, it's so important. Do you think you could buy a company with a bad culture and repair it?
Jimmy Lea: Or is it best to just steer around it?
Levi Hendrickson: I mean, it's. Possible. It probably would take someone with a lot higher s psychology background than myself might take my wife, Sally, getting in there and digging deep and, you know, and ultimately I think it, it just it would depend because there could be one bad apple in the group that's turned everything sour and you could get rid of one bad apple and it could turn around.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So very true. I think it would all depend on the, the group as a whole and what we could determine everyone's individual status would be.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It's true. So you would almost take it in a case by case scenario?
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. I think we would have to you know, there might be a time we get down the road where it's, where we can figure out how to do bulk buys and deals and figure out how to deal with 'em, but not quite there yet.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome, man. Congrats. Congrats on the expansion. You're growing in some fast leaps and bounds even do you have any shops that are in your crosshairs, anybody that you're looking at that might be up next?
Levi Hendrickson: Nothing. Nothing's on the radar right now. You know, I think we're. We kind of talked that we were going to play a little reserved and build our shops, fill the capa the buildings we got, build our capacity, build our efficiency.
Levi Hendrickson: Because we know how to do a startup. We know how to do a one service writer, two technician shop like the back of our hands. You know, I need to learn how to, you know, turn these into 10, 10 bay shops and stuff. And there's a lot more that goes on. And involved, you know, marketing and employees and how your workload is in a much bigger facility.
Levi Hendrickson: And so that's what we wanna work on, building it. And then by doing that, we'll also solidify our branding side of things and how we're doing it, and what's working. So that way when we do go into another facility. We have that already packaged up and we can just plug and play and hit the ground running.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. And I love that you are taking a minute. You almost call it a breather. You're taking a knee, you're working on process procedures. You're working on that live document with your employees to make it more productive, more efficient, more simple easy to understand so everybody can grab a hold of it and really adopt it as part of their company and culture.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yep. And it's yeah you have to have the buy-in of your employees. And I don't necessarily know that I like the word buy-in, but like, they have to fit it. Right. And they have to, it has to be second nature to them. And you know, 'cause when they do that, you know, it, all that starts in the back starts for me.
Levi Hendrickson: Leadership goes into them. That just trickles out the door into the community and our customers and, you know, just makes a much better experience.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Speaking of leadership, what does leadership mean to you?
Levi Hendrickson: So, showing and, you know, and showing the proper way of doing it and assisting the people.
Levi Hendrickson: You know, that are around me, not, you know, we're not from the back pushing and saying, you know, trying to slave driver, you know, leading, pulling from the front, giving them the assistance they need to be able to do what they want and, you know, feel included within the argu team.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I love that.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. Yeah. I'm hearing you say that you bring the team together, you're part of the team, you're in the mix, pulling together with the team. You're not out in front saying, come on, pull it this way. You're not back at the back cracking a whip saying, all right, we're going that way. You're in the fray.
Jimmy Lea: You're in the mix with everybody. That's pretty dang cool. So how often do you find yourself working in the business? Turning a wrench, pushing a broom. Too much, right? Daily? Yeah. Yeah.
Levi Hendrickson: Yes it is it has been too much In the last year we bit off way more than we could chew and struggled with some some employee shortages.
Levi Hendrickson: And that's part of the reason why we want to build depth within all of our locations so that way when someone's gone, it's not a fire that I have to be there or filling in for 'em. So just trying to build that depth. And yeah, so it's pretty much every day. And we got a lot of, obviously with a, with growth like that, you have a lot of young employees.
Levi Hendrickson: You have, you know, to you and the company. So you're constantly working with your values and your culture and training them to make sure everything's going, how it should be. So, yeah, a lot of day-to-day stuff still happening to keep the boat rudded in the right direction.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's exactly right. And you've gotta build a bench. You've gotta build people that you can fall back onto and say, okay, this person left you're first on the bench. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? And you find that right person that comes in and fits your company, fits your culture.
Jimmy Lea: What do you do for those new employees that come in and they're the, you're their first job straight outta school or you're their first job in town that they've come in working with you. What do you do for their career path?
Levi Hendrickson: So, you know, we try to get 'em some hands-on training, you know, as much training as we can.
Levi Hendrickson: To see where they need 'em. You know, we use A-A-D-B-I system that can track their time and how long it takes to do the jobs. And then I can use that to to assess where they're struggling with if I'm not in that shop all the time. So then I can go and work with them one-on-one in certain situations or, you know, we can say, okay, we're not gonna give you that job.
Levi Hendrickson: Until you can work with someone else in the job on it, you know, train and shadow a little bit more with it. The real young guys that you know, don't have any tools or anything. We have shop tools. We have a full set of tools in every shop. So every, you know, you can come in to our shop and you don't need any tools as a young guy, and we have everything for you.
Levi Hendrickson: To be able to do everything as a gs you know, and be able to proficiently do the job too. So, and if it's something you want to get into, you know, then we will, we'll go from there and develop a path for you.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. So do you have a tool allowance for your technicians or how does a brand new GS start to build their toolbox?
Levi Hendrickson: So, I guess we haven't really. You know, I just keep buying stuff and putting stuff in it. So it's kinda what you know, is what we've done. Right. You know, and you know, if they, if it's something that they want to keep going, we will probably just buy a whole nother cart and another set of tools and just say, here you go.
Levi Hendrickson: You know, these are shop tools. Just use them. If you find something that you think you have to have that's not, you know, sure, go ahead and buy it. But otherwise we're trying to buy all the tools at the shop. We're trying to change that part of the industry that, you know, there's no other, as my plumbers are down in the shop working, you know, cha putting some oil lines and some some plumbing lines in, you know, their guys don't have it.
Levi Hendrickson: They're not buying anything more than maybe $500 in pools or something that, a couple drills if even anything. Right. You know? So the company buys all of it. So why? You know? So we're trying to change that part of the industry for ourselves and what we can do and help these younger guys coming in. And just because there's.
Levi Hendrickson: It's not something we really agree with and how this industry went so
Jimmy Lea: well, and I love that you are buying the tools for your technicians and something that I used to do I had a business that I ran for a while, house cleaning, yard care and handyman business. And it was constantly, tools would go missing, tools would fall off the truck, tools would, whatever.
Jimmy Lea: They were just constantly being misplaced. And so I, I bought a drill, a DeWalt, and I said to my handyman, I said, Hey, look, this is your drill. This is company property, and if you stay with me for 12 months, then at the end of 12 months, this is your drill.
Levi Hendrickson: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: That was the best kept drill of all the equipment on that truck.
Jimmy Lea: And he was with me for 12 months and I said, congrats here. This is your drill now. Congrats. This is yours. Yeah. Take care of it. And so maybe that's an idea that in the automotive industry, we can adopt this idea that says, Hey look, I'm gonna invest 1000, 2000, $3,000 into this toolbox. So if you stay with me for two or three years.
Jimmy Lea: By the end of those two or three years, that is your toolbox. You own it and you write up some documents, some paperwork, they sign it, you sign it, and
Levi Hendrickson: there you go. That keeps, that,
Jimmy Lea: keeps 'em with you as part of the team mm-hmm. For two or three years because they want toolbox and by, and that toolbox will be very well taken care of.
Jimmy Lea: It won't become the junk drawer, it will be well taken care of. And at the end of two or three years now they own it. And thank you. Yeah. You, Levi, thank you to Arvo for helping that technician start to build up their toolbox.
Levi Hendrickson: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, it's a fabulous idea. And you know, we're still a little loose around some of them stuff, so we probably just.
Levi Hendrickson: Wing it and there wouldn't be any paper and we'd go, Merry Christmas that three years or something like that. You know, that's generally how we operate and, you know, try to get the technicians we've done a lot of Christmas bonuses to the truck tool trucks to help some of these guys pay off their tool debt and Oh, that's awesome.
Levi Hendrickson: Get out of that tool that to help free up their life.
Jimmy Lea: And they're tools that they need. There's tools that they need for the industry, tools for the trade. They definitely need 'em. And those tools that they're buying off the Snap-on truck, the Mako truck, they are lifetime warranty, lifetime guarantee tools.
Jimmy Lea: So anytime down the road, if they were to buy some chance, break it, it gets replaced. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. You gotta love that. That's very cool. So you talk about eight locations in eight years. It sounds like you're three or four years into this, you've got three locations. Are we still looking for eight and eight?
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. We're gonna still stay on that path. So,
Jimmy Lea: hello. Yeah.
Levi Hendrickson: So, and I think it's one of them things, once you learn the processes, you get 'em all built, you get the team under you it is gonna help it go much faster. You know, and we're probably gonna have a couple lull years where we don't do a whole lot, but we might pick up a two or three bay in one year, or a two or three shop package deal in one year, or, you know, and you know, that might be the direction we go, but I mean, who knows?
Levi Hendrickson: Maybe we'll get to, we'll get through three and get into five and pull our hair out and say, you know what? This is our sweet zone. This is where we feel comfortable, you know. Not, you know, the goal is to go to eight. We're gonna try push through that, but we'll see what you know, you gotta be able to feel and see the balance in there as you're going and realize that, you know, you gotta keep that balance for work and life and, you know, totally agree.
Levi Hendrickson: Keep everyone happy.
Jimmy Lea: Totally agree. You've gotta set that goal that says, this is where we're going, this is where we're shooting for. And if you get to five and you're like, Ooh, sweet. This is cool. We're good. Or you get to five and you go, oh my gosh, this is so easy. If the deal's right, we're gonna buy it.
Jimmy Lea: Buy it. Don't buy it. Yeah. And you've got it down. I wonder if it becomes that process where like, like with children, they say that your first child's like a handbag and your second child becomes luggage.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. So
Jimmy Lea: you and your wife, one for you, one for her. You can handle it. It's not that.
Jimmy Lea: Ominous, if you will. Yeah. By the third child. The third child becomes a trunk and it becomes huge. It becomes big. And this is like the location where you are right now. You have three locations, three children that you're helping along, and then once you get four and five and six, it's just another mouth to feed.
Jimmy Lea: It's not that big of a deal. You plug in your process, you plug in your procedures, and you just keep going and going and pretty soon you look up and you go, oh, hey, look at that. We got a basketball team, we got a football team, we got a baseball team. We've gone from five to nine to 12. Okay.
Jimmy Lea: No, we're good. Let's keep going.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep, yep. Well, and then too, as time goes on, they start supporting and helping. Helping each other out. Right. So yeah, the early stages, everyone's learning and developing on their own. And you know, as after everyone's done, you know, developing themselves and getting to where they need to be.
Levi Hendrickson: Well, now we can. We can help some of them other people get developed and bring them up and it's gonna bring everything up. So,
Jimmy Lea: oh, I love it. I love it, bro. That's awesome. And it, imagine this scenario here. You've got 10, 12, 20, 30, 40, 50 locations, the opportunities that's gonna provide for technicians to grow and come up in the business.
Jimmy Lea: Now you want to talk about a career path. You're gonna come on as a general service technician, and then we're gonna teach you and train you, and then you're gonna be a c technician. We're gonna help you. We're still assist. And you'll be a B technician and then an a technician. And now you're gonna become a shop foreman.
Jimmy Lea: And once you're past a shop foreman, now you're gonna be a regional director, regional manager. You'll have three or four locations that you're managing and growing. And then, so there's so much that can be done. So much opportunity for growth for a guy who comes out of high school, comes out of college and starts by turning a wrench and being that general service technician, you are able to really put out a path in front of them that they can see it, they can smell it, they can feel it, they can taste it, that says, oh my gosh, this is gonna be amazing.
Jimmy Lea: I am gonna stay here with RVU as much as I possibly can 'cause we are gonna build this business. It's gonna be the best there is in Minnesota.
Levi Hendrickson: Yep. Yeah. Well, and that's, you know, a lot of these young people do wanna see the route. You know, I hear all the time of young guys leaving their job and they're, and some of these people do exit interviews, and they're like, well, we just, you know, I didn't see where I was gonna go.
Levi Hendrickson: Or they're like, well, here's where you could've gone. And they're like, as an owner, you failed your employee because you didn't tell 'em that, you didn't lay it out for 'em. You didn't show 'em the. Show 'em the path of, to their success, you know, without them knowing that it's just day to them.
Levi Hendrickson: So,
Jimmy Lea: and they can't guess You've gotta tell 'em mm-hmm. That you're leaving it up to their imagination. They're gonna create the scenario that fits their imagination. And it's probably not anywhere near or anywhere close to what you actually have in mind because you do want them to succeed.
Jimmy Lea: You do wanna see them successful in life. Career wise and family wise and personally wise and spiritually, you want to see them develop and learn and grow.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: I love it. I love it. Man you've got such a great opportunity. You've got such a great foundation. I can see here where Wayne's your coach, right, with the institute.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Correct. You got anything good to say about Wayne?
Levi Hendrickson: I mean, Wayne's I mean, Wayne sees something in us, so, you know, he definitely wants us to succeed. And you know, he makes sure that he connects with us and you know, it's, yeah it's all great. And I don't know. I mean, he's sticking with us even through his move within the company and you know, so it'll be fun.
Jimmy Lea: I say that tongue in cheek because I think the world of Wayne, I think he does a phenomenal job. I think that the shops that he works with, like you, he sees that potential in you. He knows it's there and he's gonna help work with you to bring it to fruition. It's gonna, it will rise to the top. Keep working with Wayne 'cause he will definitely get you there.
Jimmy Lea: I think the world of Wayne, I think he's doing a phenomenal job for the institute as well. Mm-hmm. So it's almost like he's a coach for a coaching company as the CEO Wayne's doing a yeah, a Cracker Jack job, man. He's awesome. We're absolutely loving it. Loving it.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Ron that's part of his position, right?
Levi Hendrickson: To be a coach and to lead and so yeah, a phenomenal man for the job. So.
Jimmy Lea: He is. He is, and he is doing a great job coaching us. He's doing a great job. Cheerleading us. He's doing a great job. Painting the picture of the future, what it's gonna look like, how we're gonna get there, what the air's gonna be.
Jimmy Lea: Crisp. It's clean. Easy to breathe. Oh yeah, man it's so much. Yeah, so much fun. Love it.
Levi Hendrickson: Paint paints the whole picture.
Jimmy Lea: He does. You have to do that with clarity. And be precise in it and do it calmly. You can't let emotions take over. So I think does a great, that's,
Levi Hendrickson: yes, that's very challenging.
Levi Hendrickson: That takes a lot of patience and clarity just makes me think, you know, you just, you gotta speak some of that stuff to the mirror a few times, so that way, you know, it sounds clear in your head, but it don't always come out clear. So.
Levi Hendrickson: Rehearse. Rehearse.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How many times have you said something and at the end of it you go, you know, that sounded better in my head, but now that I've said it out loud, let me come back.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yep. Yeah, definitely.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it happens. It happens. Well, Levi you have a phenomenal shop. You have phenomenal locations. I just think the world of what you're doing, I think Minnesota is such a beautiful, ripe area for you to grow your business and grow. Grow yourself personally, your family. Your business.
Jimmy Lea: It is just phenomenal. If you were to have, Levi, if you were to have a magic wand and you can't wish for more wishes, but you can make a wish, what would you change in the industry? What would you change in your life? What would you change in your business? What would you change? What's your one wish?
Levi Hendrickson: Oh boy. I see something, I feel like
Levi Hendrickson: magic wand, I don't, you know, that's hard because I feel like it's gotta be something with family because it all strives from the family. But, you know, we've been very happy. We've been very blessed and, you know, I say, you know, so I just, I guess. I hope the good fortune goes with us on our family side and, you know, and that'll, you know, trickle down through our business and going forward.
Levi Hendrickson: So,
Jimmy Lea: bless you. Bless you, and bless your family brother. That is awesome. I applaud you for thinking of your family with your one wish that Congratulations.
Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: I'm gonna follow that up with one more question here for you, Levi. If you were to be able to stand next to yourself today, and you are starting, you just moved back from North Dakota, back to Minneapolis.
Jimmy Lea: No, not Minneapolis. You're in Minnesota. You moved back to Minnesota. What advice would you give yourself starting today in the businesses that you're starting, as with now? What advice would you give yourself?
Levi Hendrickson: Well, I would say just, you know, trust your gut. Go, you know, don't you know, everything's meant to happen, right? So just don't trust your gut and keep going with it. Right. And then, you know, and that's how we still continue to live. And I think, you know, and then you don't, you're not fighting yourself on decisions or anything of that nature.
Levi Hendrickson: So
Jimmy Lea: trust your gut and your gut's gonna tell you the right thing to do.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. I like that. That's good. That's good advice. So that advice is applicable in, when it comes to starting your business, expanding your business, looking at other locations trust your gut with something feels like it's wrong, it's probably wrong.
Levi Hendrickson: Yeah. Yeah. Correct.
Jimmy Lea: That's sound advice, brother, that, that's really good sound advice, Levi, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Levi Hendrickson: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and as you know, we here at the Institute, we're all about building a better business for you, results in a better life, and a net result, if we all have a better business and we all have a better life, then we're all going to experience a better industry.
Jimmy Lea: That's our desire here at the Institute. That's my desire in working with shops all across North America, is to build a better industry. And I'm glad to be partnered with you, Levi, as we lock arms together, make sure nobody's left behind.
Levi Hendrickson: Thank you, Jimmy. We're glad the institutes took us in and helped us helped us do that, so.
Jimmy Lea: Awesome. Thank you so much, Levi. I really appreciate the time, man. Thank you very much.
Levi Hendrickson: Sounds good. Yeah, thanks Jimmy.

172 - Three Locations and a Whole Lot of SOPs with John Lascuola at LMW Auto Repair

172 - Three Locations and a Whole Lot of SOPs with John Lascuola at LMW Auto Repair
November 20, 2025 - 00:42:47
 
Show Summary:
This conversation follows how LMW Auto Repair grew from John Lascuola’s dad working out of a home garage in the 1980s to a three location multi shop operator (multi shop operation) in Maryland. John shares how his father, mother, and brother held down a tiny three bay shop for nearly 30 years before he joined in 2020 to focus purely on systems, branding, and marketing during COVID. He walks through the aggressive timeline of finding a “unicorn” second location in Eldersburg, keeping and upgrading the original Randallstown store, and then adding a third shop in Owings Mills. John explains how consolidating everything into one shared drive, creating 50 to 60 SOPs, and adding QR code training on equipment made growth repeatable and easier on his people. They dive into the realities of family business, including when someone you love should not be in a certain role and how to balance loyalty with what is best for the company. John introduces the LMW Community Foundation, which gives away repaired vehicles to people in need, funds the work with company profits and donations, and hosts youth volunteer events and car care classes. He closes by talking about his wish to understand people more deeply so he can communicate better and lead his growing team with clarity and empathy.
 
Host(s):
Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development
 
Guest(s):
John Lascuola, Owner of LMW Auto Repair
 
Show Highlights:
[00:00:00] – Jimmy introduces guest John Lascuola of LMW Auto Repair, a family business now operating three Maryland locations.
[00:01:35] – John shares how his dad started fixing cars out of their home garage before opening the first official shop in the late 1980s.
[00:05:33] – He explains why he’s heavily reinvesting in the original Randallstown store so it becomes their flagship location.
[00:07:34] – John talks about joining the business in 2020 and focusing entirely on systems, organization, and marketing rather than wrenching.
[00:10:30] – The Eldersburg “unicorn” building appears in late 2020, leading to a rapid close and grand opening in May 2021.
[00:11:19] – John details staffing and bay counts across all shops and why he plans to pause expansion at three to strengthen processes.
[00:16:04] – He breaks down how 50–60 SOPs and QR-coded equipment training made onboarding simple and operations consistent.
[00:21:13] – John gives candid advice on the realities of family businesses and having hard conversations about who should wear which hats.
[00:30:06] – He introduces the LMW Community Foundation, which has already given away more than a dozen vehicles to people in need.
[00:39:59] – John shares that his magic-wand wish would be the ability to understand people better so he can communicate and lead more effectively.
 
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Episode Transcript DisclaimerThis 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: Hello, friend, Jimmy Lee here with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. My guest today is John Lascuola, did I say that right, John? Very close. Lascuola Lascuola, John Lascuola with LMW Auto Repair outta Maryland, and it looks like you guys have three locations.
Jimmy Lea: Yes, sir. That is awesome. I'm so excited to dive in and get to the details of three locations and family run, family owned business, because you guys are all in the business. Which goes to the first question, how did you get started? How I, it's probably pretty obvious how you got started, but how did Pops get started?
Jimmy Lea: Where's the start of the business?
John Lascuola: Yeah, so he actually worked for a local Toyota dealership. I think they were called r and h Toyota way back in the mid eighties. He was working on cars and just kind of one day thought, you know, I could probably. Do this myself out of the garage at home.
John Lascuola: And it was probably back in the eighties where that was maybe a little more, a little easier to do.
Jimmy Lea: A little bit more lenient right there. Yeah.
John Lascuola: Right. When it comes to legal issues. So, yeah, he opened a business right out of his garage at our home in Baltimore County. Ran it out of the garage for I wanna say about a year or two.
John Lascuola: And then we got a building I want to say in 88. Then 89 we officially established the corporation that we have today. So, so that's how we, that's how we got started,
Jimmy Lea: bro. And you know, what's interesting about that, John is there are so many, even today that are starting out of their garage.
Jimmy Lea: They're starting out of the barn at the back of the house. They're starting out of a storage unit. I was talking to a guy just yesterday, start out of a storage unit. It was in there for four years. Yeah, before he finally decided to strike out on his own and got a brick and mortar facility. And the guy that he had partnered with, they, they parted ways.
Jimmy Lea: 'cause the one guy's like, man, I'm good. I got this day job, but I'm doing this nights and weekends outta the storage unit. And my buddy and the guy I interviewed was like, nah p piece bro. This has been great, but I'm tired of crawling around on the floor and I'm sure that's what happened with your dad as well.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
John Lascuola: Oh yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean that, yeah. That's how we started. And I'm sure a lot of people get started that way and hey, I mean, you know, hustle to get into it. However you gotta, you know?
Jimmy Lea: That's it. That's it. The hustle. I, and I love this industry. I love the automotive aftermarket because there is so much hustle.
Jimmy Lea: There is work. They're not afraid to work. They know how to work and they know how to work hard and. Smart. And that's what I'm seeing happen here recently is the intelligence, the training, the desire for more knowledge is becoming stronger and stronger. So I love that. So Pop starts, what is the first shop?
Jimmy Lea: What does that look like in 88? And dude, you must have been like. I wasn't
John Lascuola: alive.
Jimmy Lea: I wasn't alive. You weren't alive. Okay. Any pop's First shop? What, do you know what that looks like? Do you know the footprint of all that?
John Lascuola: Yeah. Yeah. So there's pictures. And actually at one of our locations we kind of have like a from humble beginnings wall with a bunch of pictures.
John Lascuola: And some of them include that first shop. It was a brick brick. I don't even know if it was brick. Just these big, heavy, like cinder block stone building. Not high ceilings at all. I think he only had a couple, I think he maybe had like two, two posts in there. It was not a building that you should, that is conventionally used for auto repair, so it was, oh,
Jimmy Lea: true.
Jimmy Lea: Do you know Lucas Underwood? Do you know that name?
John Lascuola: I know the name. Yeah I've seen some stuff from him. Yep.
Jimmy Lea: So his first shop? Mm-hmm. He had three bays. One actually had a tall ceiling, one, another one had a tall ceiling, but his third bay was seven and a half foot ceilings. Oh my gosh. How do you do that?
Jimmy Lea: I
John Lascuola: don't know. That's a flat day if you ask me.
Jimmy Lea: Y yeah. Oh to jack up the cars and try and change out a transmission. You just rested on your chest and tried. You was working on
John Lascuola: creepers. Yeah. Yeah, right.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, no. You couldn't even fit a creeper under there. You were on your, oh my god. Back.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. To. Lucas his humble starting and now he has a garage. Mahal. Oh, it's the big red barn. It is massive. You can pull two RVs all totally inside, have 'em on lifts and plus six or eight different lifts for other cars as well. So he's got like a 10 bay shop and running a three bay shop is totally different.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Than running a 10 bay. Absolutely. So Pops has the first location. Mm-hmm. Few bays. When does he
John Lascuola: expand? So actually they, we, we didn't do any expanding. We were in that building. We, there was some an, a different building came available that was maybe I don't know, half a mile up the road from that fit our needs a little bit better.
John Lascuola: Love it. It was still a three so technically it was one bay door. And we could barely squeeze three bays into it. So it was two, two posts and an alignment rack. And that's what we were from 19, I think we moved buildings in 91, so early nineties we were that until 2020 or 2021. Yep.
Jimmy Lea: No way.
Jimmy Lea: So in 21 is when you expanded and yeah. Did you move locations in 21?
John Lascuola: No no. We Do
Jimmy Lea: you still have the shop?
John Lascuola: We still have it. I've actually poured a healthy, a very healthy amount of money into that location. We've got a building expansion plan. We're adding four more bays onto it. Done a lot of stuff to the property, so I'm trying to make sure that our original home store.
John Lascuola: Turns into our nicest. That's my goal.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats. Dude. I love you honoring the history and the everything that's there, man. Oh, that, that does my heart. Good. Congrats man. Congrats. That's super cool. I. That is very cool. Okay, so you've got the one location, when do you add the other two?
John Lascuola: So, yeah, so that was I don't know if you want a little bit of context, but Yeah. The family business was my father, my mother, and my brother. And they were in that one three Bay shop for, like I said, what was that, about 25, 30 years roughly? Yeah, long time.
Jimmy Lea: Long time.
John Lascuola: So they were there my dad ended up retiring I want to say mid like 20 15, 20 16 ish.
John Lascuola: So it was just my mom and my brother. Wow. And it was just really hard for them to work on the business because my brother was working on cars, he was selling tickets. My mom was doing all the accounting. She was helping with all the administrative, so there wasn't really a lot of time to work on the business.
John Lascuola: Yeah. And in, in late 2020, I kind of got more or less recruited. As the son that went to college. So, I don't really know anything about cars. It's not my jam. My degree is in environmental science, so it's not even super applicable to auto repair. But I really like organization.
John Lascuola: I like systems, I love marketing. I just find it interesting. Yes. So I got in there and I didn't have to work on cars. I didn't have to write up tickets. I was solely focused on how can we improve processes? How can we get more cars in the door? How can we improve curb appeal, you know, branding, creating an identity?
John Lascuola: Who are we, you know? So that was our big focus. And that's when we started to tighten up on our processes. A, a new building became available. And I just, I, it was a unicorn. It was a total unicorn. And I said, this is it. We gotta go for it. This is gonna be everything. And we snagged it when we threw a bunch of Hail Marys and we got very lucky and it worked out.
John Lascuola: So yeah that's how we got store number two. And store number two gave us the cash flow to reinvest back into store one and then also to open store three. So yeah. Okay.
Jimmy Lea: So which one is first? Ralston.
John Lascuola: Randallstown. Randallstown. Randallstown.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Randallstown is first and then Eldersburg. That was store number two and then Owings Mills was
John Lascuola: three.
John Lascuola: Yep. That, we just opened that in November of last year.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. So everybody who's listening to this, let's put this in perspective, your family, mom and dad and oldest brother ran the business for 30 years, and I'm sure that there was a super big fear factor bringing in the college student to run the business.
Jimmy Lea: When the college student came and said, oh my gosh, you guys, I found this building in Eldersburg. You gotta come check this out. We have to move on this for them. I'm sure you are moving the cheese so far out of their comfort zone that they could not even wrap their heads around it. They're like, okay dude, John, we are putting total faith in you on this.
Jimmy Lea: We believe in you. We're gonna do it. Yeah, but you're scaring the crap out of us
John Lascuola: a Absolutely, yeah. That is a hundred percent. What happened? There was a lot of conversations of me and I tried to do as much legwork as I could to show 'em the numbers, look at the demographics, say, look, you know, this is it.
John Lascuola: We can make it, like, look at the projected expenses and say, look, I really think that this makes sense for us. But yeah, they, it was, and I get it. I mean, if your head's not in it, you're not the one doing all the homework. It just sounds super scary. You know our yeah, absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Well, and for 30 years they were a single location, two lifts, an alignment rack.
Jimmy Lea: That was it. Their idea of expansion was working more hours, not actually buying another shop. Hundred percent.
John Lascuola: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So props to you, bro, because here you came on in 2020 and put in perspective, I remember 2020, that was COVID extraordinaire. That was some interesting times. So at what point, from 2020 did you find and close on the second location?
Jimmy Lea: What does that look like?
John Lascuola: Yeah, so I came on board, goodness, I wanna say summer of 2020. We found the Eldersburg store I want to say either November or December of 2020, and then we closed on it in February or March, and then we opened it in eight excuse me, in May, beginning of May.
Jimmy Lea: In May of 21, 21.
Jimmy Lea: Correct. Okay. Wow. Very, I mean, this is fast. This is happening quickly. It was aggressively fast. Yeah. And props to you for doing the legwork, the homework and the groundwork. You were making stuff happen. At what point did you find the third location? Owings Mills?
John Lascuola: Mm-hmm. So, Owings Mills was a bit of a different story that I looked for about two years.
John Lascuola: It's not a unicorn, but it's certainly a great location. I think we're doing fantastic there. We've only been there a little over a year. We're already starting to get cashflow positive in that location. But it's, it definitely was a lot more leg work. We got very lucky with Eldersburg.
John Lascuola: That was a unicorn that fell into our lap and I was very grateful that we found that.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you were blessed right there. That's awesome. Yeah, I gotta look for more of those blessings. So, that's awesome and I love where you're at. How many technicians total, how many service advisors total?
Jimmy Lea: Where are you at demographic
John Lascuola: wise? Absolutely. So we have about 10 technicians for the whole company. So, I have four in Eldersburg. That is a four two post lift, one alignment rack store. I have four in Owings Mills. That is a four two post and alignment one alignment rack store.
John Lascuola: And then I have two in Randallstown at the moment. 'cause currently that is still two, two posts. And rack. However, with the new building that we have planned, that'll add four extra bays and I'll be hiring some extra techs. Yeah,
Jimmy Lea: nice. So you're gonna go up to six lifts at Randallstown
John Lascuola: six plus Rack? Yes.
John Lascuola: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Nice dude that's awesome. It sounds like you got this four bay four post. Forklift business down pat. So this new one, you're adding a, an extra two, probably a small lift. It won't be that much different for you which is awesome. Congrats. Yeah. What does the future look like? What are, where are you gonna go?
Jimmy Lea: Now that you have the three, are you adding more or what's the goal?
John Lascuola: Yeah, so I've kind of always said that it just depends on if the perfect thing comes along. I was aggressively looking for number three. I'm comfortable at number three. And I really wanna stay here for a while, hone our processes and really dial into systems and making sure that we're just killing it every single day and every way that we can.
John Lascuola: So,
Jimmy Lea: yeah. Well, and it's good to build the coffers again. I was talking to Dan Garlock Silver. Otto he's in Lac, Wisconsin. I love saying that. Yeah. He's like 7, 8, 9 locations and he is like, no we're gonna pause here for a minute. We're good where we're at. But we're gonna pause and just build the coffers back up, and then we'll aggressively go after some more.
Jimmy Lea: So, you know, yeah, keep your eyes open. Keep your ear to the ground, keep listening for that perfect opportunity, and you'll find another elder Eldersburg. Absolutely. And you'll find that in another unicorn. And what's interesting I heard this from Michael Smith. He talks about when you're looking for unicorns, you've got to put out unicorn bait.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. What does that say to you? What does that resonate to you?
John Lascuola: I don't know. I would love to know what unicorn beta is and get some of it, because that would be great.
Jimmy Lea: Right, right. So if you're looking for and this goes for technicians, it goes for finding the shops as well. If you are looking for unicorn technicians mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: They don't hang out with the deer in the middle of the field there Oh, sure. In the trees and Right. They. Are attracted by different things than the deer or the mule would be. Absolutely. So if you're looking for unicorn, you gotta make a unicorn call. You've gotta put out the bait for a unicorn.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. And you will find those technicians that are the unicorns, you will find those locations that are the unicorns if. You're putting out that vibe and you have that company culture and you're talking even to your technicians, Hey, who do you guys know? Who do you know where, do you know what's a shop that you think would be perfect for us?
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. That would fit our company, that would fit our culture? And it sounds like you've got that down pat, which is beautiful. What I hear from shop owners too is once you get past the three, it just becomes. The almost a rubber stamp e every place is unique in it's unique own way, but it becomes a rubber stamp that you're able to take your current process procedure and just put it in place in the new location.
John Lascuola: Yeah, absolutely. I mean that, that was our big focus for this year after we opened number three, was really honing into. Our organizational structure as a company, and I mean, we got we hammered down we used to have, you know, some processes, paper forms, and some of them were on the Google Drive and we had a OneDrive, a Microsoft OneDrive, and I said, Nope.
John Lascuola: We scrapped all that stuff. Compiled it all in one drive. Organized pathways. We've got I probably made about 50 or 60 new SOPs this year. Nice. I mean, we've got, we've really dialed into, you know, an exact process for almost every part of the job to really just try and make an easily repeatable.
John Lascuola: Valuable resource for the employees too. That way they're not having to constantly stop and say, oh my gosh, how does he want it done Again? They can just, you know, go look at the SOP. You can search for it right in your Google Drive. It's super easy.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And well, and every technician probably has a computer, so it's easy for 'em to look it up.
Jimmy Lea: It's just right there. Yep. And it to the SOPs. Are you doing SOPs for even? This is how we open the shop. In the morning.
John Lascuola: Oh yeah. I've got SOPs on the silliest stuff. I mean, I, well, what I think might be silly, but not everybody thinks that way. I, we also have I, I have QR codes on all my equipment, and we made videos of kind of explaining that way when we have a new hire, they may know how to use a tire balancer.
John Lascuola: They don't know how to use our tire balancer necessarily. So we've got QR codes on all of our equipment where we're, and it's us. It's not some, you know. Other company, it's me with my cell phone and you know, one of my techs and we're just kind of very casually, you know, 'cause we're not Walmart here, but, you know, I still like to use the technology and.
John Lascuola: And try. And I like it. I think it's a nice personal touch, but also super helpful. But that's just,
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So anybody who's listening to this, you just blew their mind with this capability. Really and truly. I, this, that what you are just doing is revolutionary. I have not seen another shop that's doing this.
Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Okay. And if there is somebody who is listening, that also does QR code to explain what that. Equipment does and how it works and what's the proper process procedure to, to do that machine or that unit. Mm-hmm. I would love to hear from them, John. That is amazing. That's next level. That's. That's awesome, bro.
Jimmy Lea: And I love that you have all your process procedures into one location and what you talk about a silly process. Mm-hmm. The silly one is the one you've never written down because you think it should be done one way and they think it should be done another way. And until you put it into a process procedure, they're gonna create their own path.
Jimmy Lea: And that's not your path.
John Lascuola: Yeah, absolutely. That is a good point. Yeah, it's definitely exactly like you said the, I totally agree.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Congrats for putting this all in process, procedure. You are doing things that I don't think your brother or your mother would've ever been able to do working on the business to the point of process procedures.
John Lascuola: Yeah. Well, I mean, and a lot of that just comes down to, it's hard, I get it. When you're. When you're working on cars or service writing or working on cars and service writing or working on cars, service writing, managing employee, when you're wearing all those hats, it is so hard to go marketing and then branding and you know, organizational systems and process like I get it.
John Lascuola: The we were very blessed. I don't fault them at all. We were very blessed that I just happened to be in a situation where financially I didn't really need a lot of money. They were able to not pay me a whole lot. Plus it's my family business. I didn't mind helping out. I happen to be not terrible at it.
John Lascuola: That was my only job. You know, it was very easy for me because Monday through Friday, eight to five, all I'm thinking about is, you know, all of the on the business stuff, not in the business stuff. So I get, I totally get how it can be hard to, you know, put in those 60, 70, 80 hour weeks, you know, because you gotta work in the business.
John Lascuola: And then when you're clocked at, you know, when it's not eight to five, now you gotta start working on the business. It's tough. It pays it, it definitely pays off. That's for darn sure.
Jimmy Lea: Well, and what you're talking about, these are the things that keep shop owners up at night.
John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: Is, oh man, I've gotta make policy, process procedures to make it easier for my technicians.
Jimmy Lea: And then they get in the office and they're like, oh, I'm now gonna do my PO process procedure. And you get deep into your inbox or you get deep into something else, or deep into accounting and pretty soon it's lunchtime and you haven't even. The cursor's still flashing. Yeah. You haven't even gotten process one done yet.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. So it's beautiful that you've been able to do that. Question for you with the family run business, there's a lot of dudes and dts, there's a lot of men and women out in this industry who are working in a family environment. What advice would you give to another. Person like yourself in that situation where you're working for the family business in a position of responsibility, how what advice would you give that person?
John Lascuola: I think my biggest advice for anybody in a family owned business, and it's tough and it's tough advice to follow and it's advice that has been hard for me to me and my family to follow at times is. Decide what you want. Do you want a successful business or do you want, or do you want a comfortable family environment and you kind of need to prioritize one or the other?
John Lascuola: There are, I think, compromises that can be made. But a lot of times you have to make hard decisions where you go, Hey, you know, I know you wanna wear this hat, but I don't know if this is the best hat for you to wear. Or you might even have to have situations where you say, Hey I thought, you know, it might be good to have you involved in this aspect, but maybe it's better if we just, you know, let's just see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas and let's leave the B You know, sometimes you have to have those hard conversations, and I think that is a lot of things that, a lot of that, that, that is something that a lot of family business owners struggle to, to face head on, is separating.
John Lascuola: You know, when you're the business owner and when you're the family member. And I think that's my biggest advice for everybody is have those uncomfortable conversations, face those uncomfortable realities and address those things head on. It might make things a little tricky. But it's worth it if you want to grow and have a successful business, and if that's your main goal is having a successful business, then pursue that.
John Lascuola: And if you can do that with family members, that's amazing. And I love that. And there's a lot of amazing perks. There is nothing better than having business partners that you can trust fully and totally. I mean, that is. An invaluable resource. It really is. But just make sure that your mind and your P's and Q's and you're facing reality when it comes to what people are good at and what hats people should be wearing.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. And even in that situation I know of family run businesses where one member of the family in an unscrupulous manner took advantage of the entire family Sure. And really did bankrupt. The entire business and the other members of the family. So even with the family and you have absolute confidence and trust in them, still know your numbers.
Jimmy Lea: Pay attention to your numbers. 'cause the numbers won't lie. Absolutely. Yeah.
John Lascuola: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Pay attention to your numbers. You have to.
John Lascuola: And that is that, sorry. That is an excellent point. Yeah, I, I wasn't trying to insinuate that just 'cause they're family. You never have to, that's one of those uncomfortable things is Yeah.
John Lascuola: You know, there, there is a little bit of, you know, contingency plans that you should put in place, you know, even with family businesses. You're a hundred percent correct. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And there are, there is family that we choose. Yep. Absolutely right. And that family that we choose can be that friend or that confidant or that business partner.
Jimmy Lea: And because you choose them, they're part of the family. So you mentioned something interesting hey, we'll only see you at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: What does that mean?
John Lascuola: Just meaning that if you, I, I have. I talked with a lot of shop owners and I feel like I have talked to some shop owners that are in family businesses that are partnered with people that shouldn't be involved anymore.
John Lascuola: Either they lost the passion for it. They never had it. They just really weren't. One of them's a rock star and one of them's mediocre. And I'm sorry if I'm speaking bluntly, but that's the reality sometimes. And as soon as it's, as soon as you realize that, having that uncomfortable conversation of being, you know, saying as nicely as possibly, you know, I love you, your family.
John Lascuola: I'm always gonna see every year, you know, as long as you'll have me. But you know, maybe you being involved in this business. Isn't the best choice for the business. You know, having that conversation. And it's tough. It's not an easy one to have.
Jimmy Lea: It is a tough conversation in fact, Cecil the founder of the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, his son worked for him.
Jimmy Lea: And it, it took him about a year and a half before he was finally able to let his son go. Ah, yeah. That's tough. Yeah, it is tough. And his son, his namesake, his son is Cecil Jr. Maybe he's the third. I think he's the third. It, it is hard. It is tough, man. It's tough working for family and I applaud you for being able to do it.
John Lascuola: Thanks. I yeah, I mean, it's tough and it's also not tough. Like I get why it's so hard.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's
John Lascuola: just I wish more people could realize if you tried to make me a technician, you should fire me. I'm terrible. Working on co. Like, if I was in that position, I would want somebody to be like, you have no business working on cars.
John Lascuola: I'm just. I'm not good at it. I never was. It's been a family business. I've tried several times and I just don't have the mindset for it. So it's like the old saying, you know, you don't judge a fish by how well he can climb a tree. Like, you know, you're good at what you're gonna be good at.
John Lascuola: And once we figure out that something's not clicking let's face it, head on together. It just can get, I think pride can get involved and ego can get involved, and it sucks when you've got a family legacy that you think you're gonna be a part of.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
John Lascuola: That you're not gonna be, but that's okay.
John Lascuola: You're gonna find your own way in this life, and it doesn't need to be that, you know?
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And I love what you're saying there. I love the analogy too. You can't judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree. We're all d. We all have different strengths. 'cause you can't judge a, an eagle by how well it swims in a lake.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. Yeah. A hundred percent. They each have their own strengths. So where are your strengths? Where do they lie and how can they fit in with the business? And maybe they don't. Yeah, right. And that's okay.
John Lascuola: Absolutely. A hundred
Jimmy Lea: percent. Tough decisions to make. I think I'm there's so many businesses right now just running through my head of family run businesses performance place.
Jimmy Lea: Tracy Holt and his sister they own the shop here in, in West Jordan, Utah, or Sandy, Utah. Denny's auto father-in-law started the business son-in-law, took over the business and now his son is working in the business. Oh, that's awesome. Beautiful family dynamic there. And there's so many more. I'm Oh, Colin.
Jimmy Lea: In fact, he's out by you. Do you know Colin? Dude, his last name starts with an A and it has a couple Z's in it.
John Lascuola: I don't know. Is, you said he is in Maryland.
Jimmy Lea: Is he in Maryland? Is he in Maryland? He might be in Jersey. Okay. I'll have to find out. Super awesome family. They, in fact, a similar situation.
Jimmy Lea: They had a three Bay, two Bay or three Bay. Mm-hmm. Sold it and now have a 14 bay shop or a 16 shop. Oh, holy cow. Holy. Yeah. And so he's going through the same learning curves as what? You did and Lucas Underwood did and a lot of other guys. 'cause you don't run a two three bay the same way. 10 Bay.
Jimmy Lea: So I'm sure he's right in the position you are of creating all his SOPs and all his,
John Lascuola: that's a big jump too. That's big.
Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. And he basically went across town so. Previous customer base is probably not gonna come into his ah, new place.
John Lascuola: Scary stuff. Definitely exciting but scary.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Exciting but scary is correct. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna attempt this last name. Sure. Holland Emma Za roso o. It does not A-M-M-A-Z-Z-A-L-O-R-S-O. Does not
John Lascuola: sound familiar.
Jimmy Lea: Okay. His mother's name is Beth. Super awesome people, family run business. His expansion plan is extraordinary as well. He wants to grow to a hundred locations within the next 10 years.
John Lascuola: Holy cow. Wow. I felt mine was aggressive.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, he, and he already has it in his mind that he wants to be doing. You know, blah, blah, blah, and these are calculations from a couple years ago. He was like no. $6.4 billion per year type of deal. Wow. I'm like, okay, but wait a second. A hundred locations.
Jimmy Lea: Maybe you want to a little bit higher anyways.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, it's fun. It's fun. So what is the future for your shops? What is the future for your business? LMW Auto Repair.
John Lascuola: So the future for our business I know I didn't really get into this too much earlier. We have a nonprofit so we fix up vehicles for community members in need.
John Lascuola: And kind of all of my scale and my growth, I really feel. Stems from trying to fuel that nonprofit. More so, the more locations I open up, the more we grow. The more I can fuel that nonprofit, the more I feel like I can help my community. That really is just coming down to obviously, yes, it's nice to make more money.
John Lascuola: Yes. It's nice to grow the work family and, you know, be able to get to know so many more, you know, lovely technicians and service advisors and managers. I love that. But really what I'm passionate about is getting involved and just really trying to help our community. I think we've given away somewhere between I've got a written down somewhere, 13 or 14 cars and we just started the nonprofit a year and a half, two years ago.
John Lascuola: We're just, we started doing community youth events, getting the youth involved in volunteering. We did some tree planting events. I'm just, yeah,
Jimmy Lea: dude, I love that. That's awesome. John, with your community foundation, are you getting people to donate their cars?
John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Parts stores to donate the parts text to donate their time.
Jimmy Lea: There's a whole big PR opportunity here.
John Lascuola: Yeah, no, a absolutely. So, most of our cars are donated. I've been trying to work some stuff out with some parts stores. I haven't been as fortunate with that one. However, we've got some really awesome communities that we're in, and we do get a fair amount of cash donations from other nonprofits or very generous individuals that have helped kind of, keep this program going.
John Lascuola: And what I do is. We, the company gives $30,000 a year to this. Wow. And any more that I get in here, I'm just funneling it straight to helping more people. I love it. I'm super into it.
Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So I would definitely go to your top parts suppliers and say to 'em, this is my program.
Jimmy Lea: This is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it, and I'm coming to you because. I'm gonna need some donations. I want you to donate the parts. I'm donating the cars are being donated. Our time is being donated. My technicians, they donate their time though. You give them the opportunity, guys, I'll pay you to come in on this Saturday to fix all these cars for these families that need a car.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. You got it in your budget, right? You got 30,000 that you can use for the technicians if they want to, but when they are part of the cause, they're part of the family now the repair takes a different flavor. Yeah. Now it takes on a whole different mindset and the technicians look forward to this.
Jimmy Lea: And are we gonna do it once a year? Are we gonna do it twice a year? What's the cadence and now they're looking forward to it. And this is when you get the bouncy houses and the food trucks and everybody comes out because this becomes an event that supports the community. So now the community comes together for it.
John Lascuola: Yeah, a hundred percent. No it's, I'm just trying to grow that as much as I can and. Yeah that's been my focus and that's my future goals really. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. So the, what, how many cars per year? What's the goal there for the growth? What, how do you judge success on that program?
John Lascuola: Right. So currently what we're doing is we have three we have three regularly scheduled giveaways. We do one at Christmas. We do one at Mother's Day for a single mom, and then we do one on Veteran's Day for a veteran. Outside of that, we are having people constantly reach out and saying, Hey, you know, my coworkers really struggling or, we fell on hard times, or We had this house fire.
John Lascuola: We, you know, I've had all of these people reach out and I'm, I've got lists and I've got backlogs and I'm trying to get to everybody when I can. And help when we can. You know, so my ultimate goal is to not have to turn anybody away. My ultimate goal is whenever we have somebody reach out, we can get them a car.
John Lascuola: That, that's pretty lofty. So, I'm just as close to that goal as I can get. I'll be happy. And that's what I'm shooting for,
Jimmy Lea: bro. That's awesome. Congrats. And you'll do it. You'll do it. I feel the commitment, the strength, the pattern. You're gonna do it.
John Lascuola: Thanks. I hope so.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Props. Props to you, bro. That's awesome. Thank you. And congrats to your community, or is it a full nonprofit now You got the 5 0 1 C3.
John Lascuola: Yes, sir.
Jimmy Lea: Yep. Congrats, bro. That's awesome.
John Lascuola: Thank you.
Jimmy Lea: Very cool. So if anybody wants to donate, where can they go? How can they find you?
John Lascuola: Yep. So, you can go to lw car care.com.
John Lascuola: And if you go to our main Facebook page, we've also got information there. You can find us, LMW Community Foundation on Facebook. I think we're on Instagram as well. I the same handle LMW Community Foundation. So,
Jimmy Lea: Nice. So anybody that wants to donate some money or donate a car.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely.
John Lascuola: Yes, please.
Jimmy Lea: Lmw car care.com. And what about your car care classes? You're doing some classes too, right? Talk about that for a minute.
John Lascuola: Yeah. Yeah. So that's the other leg of this is just also trying to give back in any way that we can as far as education for new drivers. We really feel like, you know when, not even just new drivers, honestly just a lot of drivers, some very basic things about your car that it's, we think would be much safer if you knew how to put air in your tires, change a spare tire rather than waiting on the side of the road for AAA for three hours. You know how to check your oil.
John Lascuola: The amount of customers that have a car's burning oil that we tell them, you know, not a big deal. Maybe just check it regularly. You know, you got that old Honda or whatever where they have that problem. Just stuff like that. So that's what we use these classes for. We've started to kind of design some more involved ones on, you know, brakes, electrical systems for some younger people that are interested in cars.
John Lascuola: Just to try it out, just to see if they're into it. So we're still early stages with that. We've partnered with there's another nonprofit in the area that helps single moms. So we've partnered with them to put on a class. We just recently had a class with them. Yeah we also do a lot of intern internships.
John Lascuola: We have several organizations that work with, young individuals that don't learn in conventional ways that maybe Sure. So, so, we have worked with them to give internships to, to several young men who have done fantastic and honestly could have a very promising career in this industry.
John Lascuola: I mean, they showed a lot of talent. So, I just love, I love doing stuff like that. Just trying to, yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: That is very cool. Congrats John. There's also an opportunity within the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of America which their new name is Scouts of America.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. They have a badge that is the automotive repair badge. I did not know that. So yes, it gives you an opportunity to reach out to all the troops in the area to say, Hey, I am an approved Merit badge counselor. Which John, you'd have to get approved. Yeah. Go through their youth protection training and make sure that you're a good, safe environment.
Jimmy Lea: You can talk to them and say, Hey look, if you guys are interested in earning this automotive repair merit badge, we're gonna do an, it'll take one evening and one Saturday morning or something like that. 'cause you gotta look at the badge. Yeah. And reach out to them that, that's an opportunity to expose it even to Cub Scouts in the younger groups.
Jimmy Lea: The kids that are eight to 12 or eight to 10 11. Yeah. Expose them to the opportunities of cars and Yeah and torque wrenches and sockets and, oh man they just totally will love it. They totally dig it. A
John Lascuola: hundred percent. I love that idea. I did not, I didn't know that was a thing, but that is a great idea.
John Lascuola: I wrote it down while we're talking, so I'll definitely be looking into that.
Jimmy Lea: Awesome. John. Yeah. When it comes to the Scouts of America, I'm a big proponent. I was a scoutmaster for 18 years.
John Lascuola: Oh, wow. My goodness.
Jimmy Lea: That's a long time. I'm an Eagle Scout. I've been to the National Jamboree, the World Jamboree, so Wow.
Jimmy Lea: When it comes to scouting and that's the beauty of the scouting program, is exposing these kids to everything that might be their possible future.
John Lascuola: Yeah. No, I love that.
Jimmy Lea: Steven Spielberg, boy Scout. Wow. Photography merit badge. There you go. Wow. Wild. Yeah, true story. True story. A lot of the astronauts are Eagle Scouts.
Jimmy Lea: Huh. So, yeah, there's a long history there of scouting and success in America. You don't have to be a Boy Scout to be successful. I don't mean to say that. I do say that the scouting gets you exposure to a lot of different areas that you might not be exposed to save it. Were the scouting program, so
John Lascuola: yeah.
John Lascuola: No great program. Absolutely.
Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. So, last and final question as we land this plane here, John, you have a magic wand and you're granted a wish you can't wish for more wishes. What would you wish.
John Lascuola: Oh man, what would I wish for? I think if I had, if I could make any wish, you know what? I wish I, I would wish for the ability to understand.
John Lascuola: People better. I think trying to manage staff and trying to deal with the complex emotions and the varying types of emotions and wants and needs. If I could just intuitively always know why somebody was thinking or saying what they were and know the best way to handle that and the best. Approach to that, that would have them understand me the best and make just communication easier between me and my staff.
John Lascuola: That bar none probably would be my wish. Yeah.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love that communication, being able to communicate better, more efficiently, more proper, to understand their mindset, their goals.
John Lascuola: Yep.
Jimmy Lea: Yeah, we in fact, we've got a program at the institute called Leadership Intensive. It's part of our legacy program.
Jimmy Lea: I would invite you to come and check it out. We do, this year in 2026, we have three different intensivess. One in Seattle, one in Ogden, Utah, and one in Tampa, Florida. Okay. So, check out our website. We are the institute.com. Go to the events page and find the leadership intensive. That's what you wanna look at that, that is gonna help you understand why you think the way you think.
Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. What are those truth tapes that you have written in your mind? What are the truth tapes that we need to change and to alter because they're not true? You need to alter your thinking patterns and. On day two and day three is when you get into understanding other people and what are their truth tapes and what have they been through, what, why do they make the decisions they make?
Jimmy Lea: So our leadership intensive program is phenomenal. We just had a had one in blowing Rocket, Lucas Underwood's shop. Oh wow. Awesome. He sponsored it and there was like 35 people there. Totally sold out, packed in there. He put up tables and chairs inside of his garage hall, and we took over on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Jimmy Lea: Man it was pretty dang cool. No, that's.
John Lascuola: That sounds like a good thing to check out. I will definitely add that to the list.
Jimmy Lea: Nice. Yeah, man. John, it's been a pleasure talking with you and learning about your shop, your business. You've got a bright future ahead of you, brother. I am honored to be able to witness greatness and it, I see greatness.
Jimmy Lea: Thank you.