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Ep 13 - Matt Fanslow Is WAY More Mature Than We Are
254 Plays1 month ago
So, Elite Worldwide is changing my world. Well. Making my shop elite. Kinda the goal, right? Their advice is irreplaceable for me. Wanna know what you're missing? Click HERE
Without Tekmetric, where would my shop be? That's a scary thought. Let's change the subject. Where COULD your shop be WITH Tekmetric? Wanna know? Learn more HERE
Matt Fanslow hosts the Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z podcast. Today, we discuss whether you truly can future-proof your shop. Matt says you have to start with passionate and engaged technicians. Also, where in the world is ADAS calibration taking this industry?
00:00 "Podcast Setup Quirks & Cleanliness"
05:05 "Wrestling with Ownership Importance"
08:12 "Shop Growth Through Shared Expertise"
11:55 Key Employees' Ownership Frustration
16:03 TechMetric Transformed Our Shop Management
16:53 "TechMetric: Fueling 300% Growth"
20:55 Subscription Price Increase
24:12 Assessing Profitability in Business Pricing
28:16 Automotive Programming Monopoly
33:18 Right People Over Rules
34:43 Keeping Teams Motivated
38:28 Tech Fatigue Over the Years
40:40 Engagement: Key to Future-Proofing
44:36 Curiosity Affects Interview Perspective
48:43 Demand for Practical Auto Diagnostics Training
51:13 ADAS Education Challenges
54:29 Collision Shop Insurance Discounts
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:00
Speaker
What's up world? ah Today we got a chance to talk with Matt Fanslow of the Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z podcast. he's pushing up on 200 episodes now. And so it was a lot of fun talking to him about his journey and his shop and what the future looks like at his shop and what the future looks like in the industry in general. And is it possible to actually future proof your business or is that just a buzzword?
00:00:23
Speaker
I think you'll enjoy the conversation. I know that ah I sure did. And I look forward to hearing your feedback.
00:00:31
Speaker
The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we, or our guests may say, do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have.
00:00:45
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Allen.
00:01:04
Speaker
With us tonight, Matt Fanslow. who has a much more mature and much more well-thought-out established podcast.
00:01:15
Speaker
He does not know me very well. we're just we're just I'm just trying, honestly, to mooch off of some of your coattails is what this amounts to. They're short. i don't know how much help they'll be. It's like one of those untucket shirts. Yeah, I don't think they even keep my butt clean when I sit down. Yeah.
00:01:36
Speaker
You know, okay, so we keep coming back to this at the beginning of every episode, and I feel like it's a broken record. And and if you haven't listened, you don't know this, Matt, but... ah I'm sitting on two pillows right now to prop me To give us that space proper.
00:01:50
Speaker
Because the way my camera setup is and everything, I can't angle it down any further than what it is. and Lots of excuses. But anyway, ah did. I went and I made sure that my ass was good and clean before I brought my pillows in here. Because I didn't sitting on pillows that sleep on, you know, with like a funky ass. With your dirty ass.
00:02:11
Speaker
So, you know. That's the key to success in the podcasting business is make sure your ass is clean. Yeah, your head hits the pillow and... Where's that smell coming from? Yeah. That's from where you're running here. I hope you're running the air conditioning down below 72. It smells like a Mercedes in here. What is that?
00:02:31
Speaker
um Anyway. Oh, gosh. we've had we've We've had our ass kicked by a couple of Mercedes recently, so I feel like it was an appropriate commentary. I empathize.
Shop Management and Growth
00:02:41
Speaker
Matt, i need I need a little background on you before we really get into it because we've met a couple of times at ASDA Expo and whatnot, but um china you are ah you're kind of a big deal.
00:02:53
Speaker
um But would you give me like the 60-second version of what makes you as awesome as everybody says you are? I don't know who says that. I'm waiting for the bill to show up.
00:03:08
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know if I could answer that. i I don't even know if I could just improvise something to make and mock it, but... Well, you're the shop manager at Riverside Automotive. I am. In somewhere Minnesota.
00:03:22
Speaker
Where is that? Red Wing. The home of Red Wing Shoes and Boots. Oh, I got a pair of Red Wings in the bedroom. yeah Nice. I never put two and two together. Do you have like the hookup? Can you like get us some special discounts? I can.
00:03:37
Speaker
No way. you got to know guy knows a guy. Oh, lots of stuff falls off the back of the truck.
00:03:46
Speaker
Hopefully it's the right size because you can't send it back. You take what you get. um How long have you been at Riverside? i think this will be my 13th year. Okay. When are you going to buy it?
00:04:02
Speaker
I think the gears are in motion right now. Nice. So... I think sometime this year, the things will be in motion that will allow me to acquire 50%, know, just air quotes. Go 51. Go for 51. 50% is the devil. In the next five years. 50% is the devil.
00:04:22
Speaker
and the next five fifty percent the devil
00:04:27
Speaker
If you've ever had a 50-50 partner, you know it's true. We're okay at 46, 47, 48, and even 49. for like 30 and make the rest of it somebody else's problem.
00:04:39
Speaker
When I was buying my dad out, um I was buying incremental shares of the business. And I got to 49. He was like, well, it's been fun. the next The next share that you purchase is going to be 51% because I will never be a minority owner to you.
00:04:54
Speaker
And so it took me a couple of years. I had to work that out. um Anyway. Well, congratulations. I had no idea that ah that was actually in the works. So that's exciting. ah You know what? I wrestle with it a lot. I think I even recorded something to the tune of it where I just wrestle with the whole notion. Like, is it that important that I own it?
00:05:15
Speaker
Part of it was I just didn't. And and this is. It's probably just employee.
00:05:24
Speaker
It's the game where I just didn't feel like I wanted to be left out to left out to dry. Meaning I felt like when I joined the shop in 2012, we're in a little more than a machine shed, you know, the rusted galvanized tin gravel parking lot.
00:05:47
Speaker
No real waiting room. ah it was okay well lit, but other than that, there was no exhaust system. Certainly not air conditioned.
00:05:58
Speaker
Did not have very good curb appeal. It was just like a total shithole. I don't know about your shop so much, but this one, the shithole part, i mean it was on borderline.
00:06:13
Speaker
It was also right next to their train tracks. ah So every time the train came by, which was about six times a day, you're pretty sure it was mowing through the building.
00:06:24
Speaker
and When I'm talking next to the train tracks, I'm talking 20 feet. So you're saying that would bring any NVH diagnostics to a screeching halt? It brought and NVH diagnostics to a stop. It brought phone calls to a stop. It made any conversations in the building stop.
00:06:45
Speaker
And then on the other side, not 20 feet away, but more like, I don't know, 30 yards away was the misslea there's a bar all Mississippi Oh, Mississippi River. The Mississippi River. And that would flood every spring.
00:06:59
Speaker
Oh, boy. we have railroad tracks 30 feet away, but then we have a bar on the other side. So we call it the customer lounge.
00:07:11
Speaker
That's don't have to have a nice waiting room. We have an entire freaking bar. Hey, everybody. I want to take a minute to tell you about the coaching organization I've been involved with for, gosh, over 20 years now.
00:07:23
Speaker
Elite. Elite worldwide, they don't give you a one-size-fits-all solution. They tailor the coaching specifically to you and your shop. They pair you with an experienced coach who is either a current or a former shop owner, and they turn strategies into actual action and accountability and results.
00:07:41
Speaker
Whether it's improving your service advisor's sales, growing your shop, growing to multiple locations, they really have you covered. Clients of Elite really see results. Higher profits, stronger teams, a better work-life balance.
00:07:53
Speaker
If you're ready to take the next step, visit EliteWorldwide.com to schedule your discovery session. That's EliteWorldwide.com to start working on your business rather than in it.
00:08:04
Speaker
Tell them that you heard about them on Confessions of a Shop Owner so that I get a pat on the back or maybe a box of chocolates or something. That would be awesome. Thanks. it's It's easy to make suggestions when it's none of your risk. you know My risk was sure this job goes under and I got to go find another job.
00:08:21
Speaker
So it's easy to kind of armchair quarterback it. But I felt like I showed up with a lot of... knowledge picked up from itn ah interacting with other shop owners, successful shop owners. my When I worked for Pico or, know, Craig Technologies, going to all the trade shows, rubbing elbows with a lot of successful shop owners, like there's certain things that works somewhat universally Let's just bring this to the table. And I felt over the years, I've become an integral part to us moving into a 10,000 square foot shop, not brand new. We bought it.
00:08:59
Speaker
um And increasing car counts, increasing the size, because when I started, it was just the owner, another tech and I. And now i think we're seven, eight of us.
00:09:11
Speaker
And ah going from, you know, maybe a couple hundred thousand a year, and i don't think we quite hit that, somewhere around, it's probably just under 200,000 year to now, you know, 2 million.
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah. try to punch past two million And I don't deserve all the credit. ah He deserves a ton of credit for letting me do a lot of the stuff I did.
00:09:38
Speaker
you made him a lot of money. following What's that? you You made him a lot of money by growing his business. Yeah, and i i I struggle to associate any of that. I hate to try to associate it.
00:09:51
Speaker
You know, I had X amount of percentage effect on this. I had this net benefit. I'd rather he do that, which is, you know, setting up for disaster. Me, specifically. But, yeah, I just felt like I told him I just don't want to be felt help hung out to dry. If you just sell this place...
00:10:12
Speaker
then I could be totally SOL and starting from the beginning. That would kind of suck. And I don't know if it's necessarily wrong of you to do that or morally wrong. Like, of course it affects me. So I find it to be morally wrong.
00:10:27
Speaker
I don't know if that's technically true, but I mean, you can, you can negotiate any, like you can negotiate anything that both of you will agree upon. Right. But right. Rather than your next compensation increase, you get a contractual first right of refusal if you ever decide sell the business. Or maybe you give him $20,000 and that gives you exclusive right to purchase the business over the next decade. And that $20,000 goes towards the purchase price if ever you execute it, right? Yeah.
00:10:58
Speaker
mean, you can be creative about that. Yeah. So I think... you know I took him aside and explained that. and He was cool. I think you know he feels like I might have leverage where I could bail and move on. I don't know.
00:11:18
Speaker
But ah yeah, I think he sympathized greatly. and um yeah, I think he's just but helping build in protections where that's not the case. And then hopefully putting me in a very good position to succeed after the fact because you know it's fine. Here you've built this up, helped to build this up. Sorry, you've helped build this up. And now I'm going hand it to you and the overhead's crushing.
00:11:44
Speaker
And all the years ah success he had. He's not going to hand it to you, is he? He's going to sell it to you, right? I don't, yeah, I don't think he's handing me anything, but yeah. Yeah.
00:11:55
Speaker
that That's the risk that I've seen so many integral key employees get burned by over the years is they are the reason that the business is successful and they've expressed to the owner for years that they want to buy it.
00:12:10
Speaker
And the
Future-proofing and Industry Challenges
00:12:11
Speaker
owner says, absolutely, absolutely. Just a couple more years. But every year the owner makes more money than they did last year because that... Integral employees doing a great job. So why would they sell it? And then when it gets time where the rubber meets the road, they're like, ah, and that burns down the relationship. And then that key individual leaves and goes and does something else. And then the business falls apart.
00:12:30
Speaker
It's just, it's bad for everybody. And I think that's what was explained to him. So he, on a whim, somebody stops in the shop. They're a business analyst and that you, they had something to sell.
00:12:43
Speaker
They get to talking to him and he decides to have them come in and analyze it. Primarily, he wants to know what it's worth. And, and I know this to be true because the guy that came in, the analyst that did it pulled me aside and said, right.
00:12:59
Speaker
He's ready. He's ready to concede an awful lot for you to be able to take over and make a go of it. So, yeah I know is I think his heart's in the right place.
00:13:14
Speaker
um The analyst went around to other shops and even restaurants on his um breaks and asked people about the shop. What makes it good? What makes it bad? Blah, blah, blah. And I guess my name kept coming up to where he took my boss aside and said, this is like a key component. You can't.
00:13:34
Speaker
This doesn't work so good without him. It's not worth much if he's not with it. If somebody were to swoop in and want to buy the place, if they do any more any sort of research and find out he's a key component, the value of the business is going to be related to him, which is a weird thing to hear, right? That's just odd.
00:13:52
Speaker
They don't even realize that you got too much shit and it ain't worth moving anyways. but the The value of most small businesses is tied directly to its key employees, right?
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, I just, it's hard for me to look at the shop as anything but an organism. You know, there's just as a bunch of symbiotic systems, including the clients that have to work together for that thing to make a go of it. And where I struggle is associating value.
00:14:22
Speaker
You know, what what this person means, what this person means, is this person expendable, is this person not expendable? And I have a tough time thinking in those terms.
00:14:34
Speaker
I'll tell you what. i ah I tried to sub in and put a strut in a 20-year-old Rusty Ford today, and we have a lot of indispensable people all of a sudden in my mind because because I do not feel like doing that shit again.
00:14:47
Speaker
that freaking sucked. I'm like, holy crap, I used to be really good at this. Is it the clamp style? It was. ah work five honor that's been sitting in the tall grass.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm like... Why did I say I would do this? You're 172 episodes into your podcast. I lost Colin after two, but yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
Holy cow. Diagnosing the aftermarket A to Z. Yeah. Aftermarket radio network. um i'm I've been really debating about changing the name.
00:15:25
Speaker
What do you want to go to Maybe. Oh, yeah. We talked about this, didn't we? Yeah. um It's long, but something like Brian Pollack really likes this. oh and all Shit you should know. Shit you should listen to. Shit you should listen to.
00:15:44
Speaker
he Hey there. I'm going to tell you about something that has completely transformed how run my shop, TechMetric. As a 20-year shop owner, outdated systems used to slow us down. Everything was clunky from check-in to estimate building to customer updates. It all felt just...
00:16:02
Speaker
Super inefficient. Switching to TechMetric has changed everything. With TechMetric, you get a powerful shop management system that includes DVI, quick and easy estimate building, inventory management, real-time reporting, amazing customer communication, and it's really easy for your employees to learn how to use the software.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm talking like a one-day learning curve. On top of that, TechMetric has tons of other tools to make you an even better operator. Stuff like integrated payments with buy now, pay later options is a huge asset. Ask me how I know.
00:16:33
Speaker
And recently, they've added a CRM component with their partnership with Shopgenie, which I'm a happy Shopgenie customer already. So I'm super excited about that. Obviously, there are a lot of factors at play here, but I want to give you some facts about my business since I made the change to TechMetric.
00:16:48
Speaker
In September of 2020, when switched to TechMetric, ARO was $293. In September of 2024, we were $916. That's over 300% growth. and september of twenty twenty four we were nine hundred and sixteen dollars that's over three hundred percent growth Now, I'm not saying that TechMetric created all of that change, but I'm 100% saying that I couldn't have come this far without TechMetric. It's a key factor in our growth and success.
00:17:08
Speaker
If you're ready to level up your shop, TechMetric has everything you need. Productivity, revenue, customer experience. Measure up by every measure with TechMetric. Tap the link in the show notes to learn more.
00:17:20
Speaker
I was kind of thinking of something of the tune of um automotive field theory.
00:17:27
Speaker
That sounds like some heavy shit.
00:17:31
Speaker
and just, uh, diagnosing the aftermarket A to Z diagnosing is not necessarily related directly to automotive aftermarket. We think of the aftermarket as automotive related, but it's really not.
00:17:45
Speaker
Um, I get the name, you know, it's trying to encompass everything that gets talked about and I have wide range of interests and we, I try to talk about, You name it.
00:17:57
Speaker
From technical to not technical. The diagnosis is terminal. <unk> We're fucked.
00:18:07
Speaker
Now, if we get to the root causes, how much time you got, right? can't wait. Everything's fine on a qualified technician end. Everything's just fine. There's certain people who are fucked, but it ain't the guys that can do the job.
00:18:22
Speaker
The pendulum has swung. The power dynamic has changed in the last decade. Yes. Yeah, I worry about that because when the pendulum was way the other way, we didn't yeah we did not like how that was leveraged against us. Now that it's over in our court, going to they don't seem to have any problems leveraging power now. and Yeah.
00:18:44
Speaker
yeah The pendulum will swing back. Always does. Rules for me, but not for thee. and get that Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out with, ah you know, how complicated ah things are getting.
00:18:59
Speaker
Not necessarily complicated, but so many more systems on cars and, you know, what it takes to make that happen. Yeah, I'm thinking about doing an episode. For amount of time that it will take for that pendulum to swing back, everybody who's in it right now will be retired.
00:19:12
Speaker
Probably. You think it'll be that long, Mike? I think it'll be 15 years, 20 years. Really? And you've got to train up a whole other generation of competent technicians. We're not talking about Luby's.
00:19:24
Speaker
We're talking about... I have to work on cars till I'm dead.
00:19:30
Speaker
Just to pay off the... get really no alternative. Yeah, i know. i keep buying shit.
00:19:37
Speaker
when you going to use this well if i get this 2011 jedda and this will come in handy how often do you get 2011 jettas and never for that yeah once i get that tool never again and yeah that will be the final one
00:19:55
Speaker
That's the idea, man. That's why we got to get Zentry. We won't have to worry about Mercedes anymore. Yeah. little anymore We get a Zentry. I've been using TeamU Zentry forever if I get a real one.
00:20:07
Speaker
And no, I'm not talking about Clone Zentry for all the haters. I'm talking about iScan3.
00:20:14
Speaker
got to watch. say you No, no, you'll get yourself on a band list. I ain't never seen no clones entry. I mean, I seen some on Alibaba when I was going through my ah looking at stuff, but I ain't never had one in my hands Or you're trying to figure out how to buy it legitimately and then all the ones on eBay pop up for a couple hundred bucks.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah, right. two hundred nineteen 219 Zentry. First path thing what is like T-Mew 219. Isn't there like a Zentry 2 or a new generation coming out or something? Four. Well, they're they're sundowning three.
00:20:46
Speaker
So in May, we all the three kits are goingnna be no good. So it'll be four. But the four is out now. It's like 25 grand or something. What it? I think it went up quite a bit. And yeah the subscription time went down. So it used to be like 27,000 for the ah kit with the interface and tablet.
00:21:07
Speaker
But that was four years of updates, which makes it a little more palatable. and But I've heard since that the time frame has dropped from four years to more like three and a half.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. shrinkflation. Yeah. Which it kind of was three and a half at one time because your subscription your subscription started the moment you ordered and if it took them four months to get it to you, it was four months out of your subscription.
00:21:37
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. That's some German shit right there. Yeah, that's excessively German. It is the most soup Nazi thing you've ever seen. Like literally. can't joke around with a Nazi word right now. It's a very sensitive time.
Profitability and Competitive Advantage
00:21:52
Speaker
Just because Elon waved. Oh, I mean, I was talking about science. Like, hey, what's up, guys? yeah Sorry. um So, hey, I, you know, Brian told me earlier that um you think that ah we don't charge enough for for testing and inspection or we don't pay enough for testing and inspection. Would you say that that is accurate?
00:22:20
Speaker
I don't know if I said that. I guarantee you that you think I don't charge enough, but that's me specifically. oh No, I've specifically said that you do charge. You just don't tell people they're being charged. That's exactly what you do.
00:22:36
Speaker
That's exactly what you've done. No, know just everybody pays for your free testing. Yeah, you you don't tell people they're being charged. yeah didn't say people are being charged for their testing. I just said they're being charged for testing in general.
00:22:47
Speaker
You've socialized diagnostics? Yes, and it's no different than should I charge extra for for credit should i charge an extra 3% for credit card processing? No, you shouldn't. Build it into your rate.
00:22:59
Speaker
Should I charge extra for a shuttle service?
00:23:05
Speaker
every everybody is Every ball joint installed is paying for a little bit of oscilloscope time. They just don't know. North Carolina, car fix you. Yeah.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. Tonight's beverage is Noah's Mill, genuine bourbon whiskey made in the hills of Kentucky. This is a barrel batch, 57.15% alcohol.
00:23:31
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's high end. i'm a I'm drinking Soko and 7-Up because I was called Rural Joe, so I'm going drink white trash type of drinks now. That is your new name. You need to change it on there from Brian Pollack to Rural Joe. Thank you, Lola Schmidt.
00:23:50
Speaker
so All I did was ask about Google reviews and why everybody's so wound up and now I'm real dro. Maybe not surprisingly. I'm all hopped up on Dye Mountain Dew. I'm on Dye Mountain Dew. Bunch ingredients I can't pronounce.
00:24:03
Speaker
But it's not raw sugar.
00:24:07
Speaker
There you go. So what's up with how we don't charge appropriately for testing? But it's probably not charging appropriately for anything when it really boils down to it. That's probably true.
00:24:19
Speaker
However people got it structured is how they got it structured. And if you're not profitable, you're not profitable. It doesn't really matter if you're not charging for Diag or you are charging for Diag or your rates too low or you're not charging enough hours or you're not putting people in the best position to be productive, whatever. Just either you are or you're not. If you're not charging specifically for Diag and yet you're profitable and you can afford the proper equipment and pay your people and bills and all that.
00:24:50
Speaker
who's to say of what's right or or wrong? Now it's just, you know, semantics. Who's to say what's right or wrong? Yeah. Everybody on the internet is to say who's right or wrong. Anybody who does it differently from the way that person X does it is clearly an idiot or a crook.
00:25:10
Speaker
i'm I'm pretty sure I've made posts where, you know, I've played with the idea of just not charging labor. There's just no labor line. It just starts for parts, but the markup is going to be insane or quote unquote insane.
00:25:24
Speaker
Cause you got to make money or we'll sell the parts to you at cost. I'll sell them to you for the same price I paid for them. But now my labor rate is either going way up or the amount of hours or time to show you my parts and places.
00:25:41
Speaker
You what's up? I think, um, That's one of the things that um I empower my really experienced and comfortable advisors to say when customers really start pushing hard for a parts and labor breakdown.
00:25:55
Speaker
It's just, what do you want the parts to be? Okay. That's what they are. the Job price is still the same. Wait, what do you want the labor to be? that That's what the labor price is. What's your labor rate? What do want Instagram?
00:26:06
Speaker
Out the door pricing by Carfix. what do you want though What do you want the labor to be? Free? Okay. Labor's free. It's still $1,200 to do this repair.
00:26:18
Speaker
oh The shop fees are a bitch on this job. Waste disposal on that open air. The environmental fees are like $2,000.
00:26:31
Speaker
We're doing the entire job for free. We're just charging you for the disposal.
00:26:37
Speaker
Remember that remember that prank that prank deal where they they call the lady and they're like... The cigarette lighter is missing and ah the parts free, but it's like $3,000 to put it in.
00:26:51
Speaker
It was like a radio station back in the day. It was hilarious.
00:26:56
Speaker
Man. So um how are things at the shop then, Matt? Busy. Yeah. i So I'll get phone calls or messages about, you know, whatever. Just shoot the breeze or advice about management or price structuring or marketing or whatever. And I struggle because I feel like Riverside's in a very, are a fairly unique situation where geographically we're located roughly an hour's drive South of a large metropolitan area, actually to Minneapolis, St. Paul, and roughly an hour drive North of another
00:27:42
Speaker
metropolitan area of Rochester, um where in Red Wing, the population's roughly 20,000 people.
00:27:56
Speaker
We have GM Ford Chrysler dealers. That's it. Any other car line, it's pretty much an hour drive to the north or an hour drive to the south to get any dealer support.
00:28:07
Speaker
So that immediately puts me in a very good position. position Right. Now, because out there's more than one rural Joe. and Right. Right.
00:28:19
Speaker
A lot because I'm just kind of tapped in to the matrix, if you will, just following along, whether that was on IATN or diagnostic network or the many, many, many Facebook groups that I'm now aware that I can have a J2534 box, some subscriptions, and I have OE-level tooling for a lot of car lines.
00:28:42
Speaker
And then if i spend some money on some other stuff, I'm kind of the only game in town. So if you have a programming issue on a Honda, where else are you going to go other than hour north or an hour south? Mm-hmm.
00:29:01
Speaker
Same with ADOS, just so many things. So it's hard to say it' to somebody that's in, you know, Chicagoland area where there's mobile techs, there's other shops, there's lots of people kind of after that very same piece of pie to do what I say, do do what I did.
00:29:20
Speaker
I don't know that it works so good. yeah I get away with a lot. yeah What are they going to do? Take it to Joe Schmoe's and get it fixed? Well, you know, when there's 2 million people in the city and there's 27 shops in the next 12 blocks, yeah, they will take it to Joe Schmoe.
00:29:35
Speaker
They might have to take the three of them, but there's 27 of them, so we'll get it figured out. and then when you find that bad ground, you can charge them $3,000, right? Right. $3,001. Yeah.
00:29:45
Speaker
three thousand one dollars
00:29:48
Speaker
So that, that helps immensely. um yeah. So virtually every day, and I will say not counting the collision shops every day. I have really at minimum one, two vehicles, uh, in my bay from another repair shop locally.
00:30:09
Speaker
for programming for ah diagnostic, uh, uh, opinion or something like that, or figure out why the programming didn't fix the, the issue, stuff like that.
00:30:21
Speaker
So like Brian, you are the guy in your town. If nobody else can fix it, that's you take it to Riverside. Yeah, I think so. I think that's a point of pride for so many people in the circles that do the shows and the training events and the, and the podcast and everything else is to be the guy, right? and That's, it's good for the ego.
00:30:44
Speaker
It can be, you're just not allowed to screw up. Like, you're not allowed to make mistakes. You know, like it just seems like if I would make a misdiagnosis or not figure something out in a timely manner,
00:31:00
Speaker
then i i I'm almost shamed over it. you know just the whole shop Does the whole wish for you to make a mistake? Oh, God. they' like It's a big deal. Oh, my gosh. I love it.
00:31:13
Speaker
I love it. My favorite part is when you diagued it right and the guy botched the install. Everybody's looking and you're like, what? This freaking Ray Charles put this freaking sensor in? What is going on here?
00:31:25
Speaker
Freaking, oh, oh, you drilled through the tone ring when you were extracting the old ABS sensor. Turns out I did diag it right. You just took the old drill bit to her. why why Why do you have to drill them out?
00:31:37
Speaker
Just slide it out, right? Yeah, I wish. oh my gosh. You Southern guys. You Southern boys. You know what? I got one of my texts moved down from Iowa and he loves that there's no rust, right? And another one moved from Ohio, loves that there's no rust. I get it i did an interview today, dude who's moving from Ohio. so There's an owner that posted in ASOG that- I saw that.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah. And I was like, don't mind if I And had a nice little conversation with him. He's coming down next month. um Dude had 100 hours of CE last year.
00:32:17
Speaker
I support that shit. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So that's impressive. So I like that a lot. You you hear somebody says that you're like, okay, that's somebody that I want on my team.
00:32:30
Speaker
You know? Yep. They're taking their craft seriously. Mike's a little aggressive when it comes to hiring Matt. He's probably one of the most, you're one of the more aggressive people. Well, I don't know a lot of people, but you're one of the more aggressive that I know when comes to So the seven people, you know, I'm in the top 50%. Yes. You're the top 3.5%.
00:32:53
Speaker
yeah pretty aggressive well i've seen the i've seen a lot of like stuff people posting social media professional networks i think there's been podcasts on it about future proofing and it's kind of a it's a weird it's a weird idea to me because it's management. There's really only so much you can do.
00:33:18
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like, I gotta to be careful. I suppose how I phrase all this, but you can have all the guidelines and the rules and this SOPs and all that.
00:33:30
Speaker
But if you don't have the right people, forget about it. You can send them all the training, but if they don't really care to be there or they're just not the type to yeah absorb it or Or like they started out really passionate, and they were that tech they were or that employee, really.
00:33:53
Speaker
They just inhaled information, retained it, cared about it, ate it, lived it. And then they got a wife, they got a kid, they got boats, they got whatever, new hobby.
00:34:06
Speaker
and they start carrying a little bit less and a little bit less. And they're still really good, but they're not future-proof anymore because... they don't They're not looking to the future anymore. they're This is what I need to do to sustain my life right now. And what I care about is... Dude's got a family in a bass boat. He's real comfortable.
00:34:25
Speaker
Right, right. yeah and But now it's not so future-proof anymore because he's not sitting in the class. It shouldn't be just he he or she is not just sitting in the class going, love this stuff. Bring it.
00:34:38
Speaker
Oh, I can't wait to see this. Oh, my God. They're not like that anymore. So it's trying to find the right pieces and keeping them and keeping them engaged as best you can. Right. I think the best you can do is remove obstacles from demotivation and then understand like people evolve or devolve depending on how you want to look at it and see what you can do to keep feeding that fire at least a little bit.
00:35:08
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like their interests are going to change. They are going to, ebb and flow a little bit but can you get them to come back a little bit with the you know the ebb a little bit more towards auto repair and what's coming and just stay engaged that way so like this is where the evil shop owner part of me comes in are you talking about the part where you did that by opening on saturdays Oh, i mean, well, Saturdays a no-brainer.
00:35:38
Speaker
but I mean, you don't care about serving your community if you're not open on Saturdays, clearly. um Drug dealers sweat cards at 2 a.m. m Why are you not open all night? and yeah You have to have passionate people if you're going to be the shop in town that everybody goes to when nobody can fix it.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yes. If you're not going to be that shop, if you're going to be that shop that can do 90% of the work that it's out there and that sends the 10% to you guys, then you don't need that super high level. And then you can process and systematize it and duplicate and and do more. Right? So you got to figure out what your goal as a shop owner is. I think the tricky part with that is 20 years ago that was the shop that could do the 99 and send the 1 out 10 years ago they could do the 95 and set the 9 out or set the 5 out right math is now we're down to the math is going the wrong way including my math right but you know 95 and send the 5 out right now it's well i can do the 90 i'll send the 10 to other shop
00:36:49
Speaker
So what's it get down to? Does it get down to when the 2025s are out of warranty? Right? Because it's on the technology is on an exponential curve still. And we're not even to the steepest part yet. That's the scary thing.
00:37:04
Speaker
Well, it's always coming. when the 2025s come out of warranty, I mean, are you down to 85 and 15? Well, I do the 85% of cars. I send the other 15 out. So that's where the whole future-proofing thing really comes in.
00:37:18
Speaker
I think that's where the evil shop owner who owns a business for the ah for the purpose of generating a profit versus the technician who owns a business for the purpose of making money but fixing cars because that's what they're passionate about, right?
00:37:37
Speaker
Because I'll tell you that that guy who's doing 85 and shipping out 15% is still making more money more often than not. than the dude that's spending all of the money necessary on tooling and training equipment to be able to do 99. Because all he's doing is he's just scraping the gravy off the top.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah. i it gets and guess It gets dicey because I don't know what we have for reference. You know what I mean? like i think... Brian and I, and and probably you too, that if we sit and think it long enough, we can probably start rattling off some names. And we would probably wouldn't do that on a podcast to out anybody. But you go back 20, 15.
00:38:21
Speaker
twenty Mike actually has some pretty sharp technicians, so he's not that sharp as much as he thinks he is. He's got sharp technicians. ah yeah But yeah, you go back 20 years, 15 years, 10 years, whatever. And then those techs were the ones you looked up to. like They were awesome.
00:38:37
Speaker
on it and then whatever happened what ah you know life happens and they just sure lose interest or just gets to be so much if you work on all car lines it gets to be so much just the freaking tools like you know what what laptop do i got to grab with this interface and then make this subscription or how do i log in and oh my god now they switch the two factor i gotta set that up i haven't used this in two years geez you know Whatever. It can be a lot. Six hours of updates to software just to be able it. Oh, God. Yeah.
00:39:11
Speaker
Otis, you can uninstall it and then brick the laptop and then you got to buy a new laptop. hit that Needed a new one anyways. That seemed personal. The laptop was going.
00:39:23
Speaker
That was the most technician thing I've ever heard when something breaks. It was probably no good anyways. Needed it anyways. Needed it anyways. That part was going to be broke anyways.
00:39:34
Speaker
They... The guy I know said to follow the pictures and I did it. And he had me go into the registry and I did it. And then it stopped working.
00:39:44
Speaker
It was done. So I don't, I followed the directions perfectly. And, uh, I don't know. don't know where, where do you start seeing diminishing returns? I don't know on either side of it. Okay. So going to be careful.
00:40:02
Speaker
You know, equations have two sides. Um, I don't know where as that shop that, and again, depending on the model, if we're talking about like all makes all models where you start saying no to more and more and more, and then the techs are doing less and less of certain things.
00:40:20
Speaker
Then when does that start and how long does it take to start affecting things where now you're finding yourself going, we might need to bring somebody else ah in to start doing this type of work because i don't have anybody here to do it.
00:40:37
Speaker
yeah I don't know. I don't have the answer. i just saw like the posts and the articles and the podcast titles about future proofing your shop. And it all just seems so management related. Now, granted, one of the best ways to stay future proof is to be profitable.
00:40:54
Speaker
The other thing though, is it depends on the people like the, the boots on the ground. If they're not going to stay engaged and have their finger on the pulse of what's coming down the pipe,
00:41:08
Speaker
I don't think it matters what your SOPs are. I don't think it matters that you demand 80 hours of training from everybody. If they're not engaged, then then they've just kind of lost that thirst.
00:41:22
Speaker
They still get the certificate for 80 hours of training, but well how are you going to prove what they took away from it until the cars are showing up and they're like, oh, I don't know. I can't do that. Well, that class was six months ago. I don't remember any of it.
00:41:38
Speaker
I don't know. was at the 3 in the morning. and I can't remember that class. I would see locally there's techs that were on top of stuff, and now there's no way they can handle a network issue.
00:41:52
Speaker
If IDENFIX or IATN or Diagnostic Network or whoever, phone a friend doesn't work, the car's got to go down the road. Phone a friend. Right. i like phone a friend.
00:42:04
Speaker
Is Diag.net, is that yours? ah Scott Brown. That's Scott Brown's. Okay. All right. Sorry. i I don't know that stuff. Sorry. Apologies. no Mike's falling asleep.
00:42:18
Speaker
I just trying to find ways to pull this back into like management conversation or you know whiskey. Hey, you mentioned being up till three o'clock at the bar and not remembering that class.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah. I've gotten to where I go to bed at like 930 at these training events because I'm so fried from the day. Are you going to start doing that now, Brian, if we have to record like for six hours at an event?
00:42:46
Speaker
trying to get like episode after episode. You know, still my wins have wins. So I can, I never really kind of went to bed the last day ASTA. I kind of just stayed up and I was like,
00:42:57
Speaker
Every time I moved through the lobby, y'all were there. It didn't matter what time it was. The last day was like, oh, crap, it's 3.30. I'm supposed to ride with Carm to the airport at 5.30. I should probably go pack my stuff.
00:43:09
Speaker
I went upstairs, packed my stuff, came back down, flew home.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, and you and Tracy probably went up the elevator together, and she went to her room, and you went to your room, and then... She was she was early. She was... Oh, yeah? Yeah, she was early. Lightweights.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah. Um... Are they back from their whirlwind tour of different trade shows and events? I think they just got home yesterday.
00:43:35
Speaker
I'm relatively certain. What are the odds that we can get, like, Carm and Tracy unplugged on here, you think?
00:43:46
Speaker
think that would be a lot of fun.
00:43:49
Speaker
We might be able to move it. Have they ever guest appeared on another podcast? I think at an event, we can make that up. I think I know because I'd love to just interview karma about what it's, what it's like having remarkable results and talking to all the people he talks to and right.
00:44:06
Speaker
And you know, all the conversations he's a part of. So, right. He's definitely the most polished interviewer of our, uh, world for sure.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, it probably helps him that into it. Yeah. It probably helps him though, that he's not, Not a shop owner, not a tech.
00:44:30
Speaker
He has a background in the auto repair from the parts side of things. yeah So he's not totally disengaged, but he's disengaged enough that it makes him super curious.
00:44:43
Speaker
And I think that helps a lot where, you know, I already kind of have my own ideas about whatever technology so whatever you're saying a lot of times i'm sitting there and going on okay you think that that ain't true that is not necessarily a good interviewer point perspective or right position to be in but give me a hot take what's what's the common thing that you hear at these events that's just total bullshit
00:45:16
Speaker
Oh, man. He's got to sort through all of them. Hold on. you're Right.
00:45:26
Speaker
I think the general idea that
00:45:31
Speaker
um Well, okay, from like a management perspective, I think just this hard work, hard work, intelligence and all that equals success.
00:45:42
Speaker
Kind of like, you ever see those memes or whatever? with The hustle and grind mentality? Yeah, or the iceberg.
00:45:51
Speaker
right, the 80% of the work and the 20% of the shows or whatever. and Without any of those, you're not going to be successful anyways, but depending on the level of success... And i don't you don't go to a training class about this, but I think it's more for humility.
00:46:07
Speaker
Luck plays a huge role in success.
00:46:13
Speaker
you knowt You could go down a rabbit hole what that means, but... I just think astronomical success, luck plays a role, but average level success, like it's like Bill Gates happened to grow up in the only high school in America that had a computer programming program at the time.
00:46:30
Speaker
Right. That put him a little bit ahead the lucky, Mike. Yeah. Yeah. So, but that's like astronomical levels of success. There's some luck involved. Sure. Yeah. And levels gets weird because I don't know what that means.
00:46:45
Speaker
Right. The, the, They did a study on like NHL players. The vast majority of them were born in the summers months. It's because they could start playing hockey and peewees or whatever. youre Three months earlier whatever. Right. So they had this advantage and it just keeps rolling. Right. We're born in the USA. We're immediately, you know, if you make over whatever, 35, 40,000 year, you're in the top 1% earners in the world.
00:47:15
Speaker
It's all crazy. Right. It's just, let's see, from a technology standpoint, I think one of is one is the sage on the stage type stuff where they just always seem to know exactly what to do, the right tests.
00:47:34
Speaker
It's easy. You just Use logic. Look at the service information, this wiring schematic, and use this tool and that tool, and and boom, the answer just jumps out at you.
00:47:44
Speaker
So what you're saying is service information is bullshit and overrated. You motherfuckers. Nobody talks about when they went six hours the wrong direction, not even close to fixing the car, and then went home, took a shower, pet the dog, and then came up with something, and it just happened to work for no reason whatsoever or logic.
00:48:05
Speaker
Nobody talks about that.
00:48:09
Speaker
More of that luck. and Well, I mean, I think, um, I don't remember who I was that I heard say this. It might've been one of you guys talking about how it feels like a lot of the classes right now are, ah being written to impress their friends who are also coaches rather than to be applicable to the average technician that needs the education and information and like tangible processes and and and thought patterns that they can take back and use the next day there's a lot of diagnostic classes that are written to the the the five percent or the one percent or whatever the percent of the cars that you're talking about possibly having to send out because they have some sort of technology problem or diagnostic problem that's just it's just too crazy to bother to deal with with when you have when you have freaking crap tons of brakes and wheel bearings and whatever else to do right
00:49:05
Speaker
There's a lot of classes that are being written towards those 5% of cars. And there's not a lot of classes that says, here, let me take your mid-level guy and instead of him taking an hour to figure out that EVAP code that you're going to have 10 of a week, we're going to teach them how to do it in 18 minutes.
Training and ADAS Calibration
00:49:27
Speaker
There's not a lot of that out there. There really isn't. um And there needs to be more of it for sure. Yeah, a lot of wall factor type stuff.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah. More exciting, right? You have to put advanced in the title of the class in order to get anybody sign up. The advanced fundamentals of basic electricity.
00:49:50
Speaker
Well, yeah, that โ I mean, people assume fundamental means easy. You know what, though? Yeah. You don't have to put advanced anymore. We found out that shit works pretty good.
00:50:03
Speaker
it worked I've been telling people, man, you you want to draw eyes? You just throw a little vulgarity in there, dude. like We're going to have to move you guys to a bigger room. um if We signed up don't want to teach 20 people. Why is there 130 people in here?
00:50:19
Speaker
you're not comfortable with cursing, just put some nudity. Yeah, right? Yeah. Yeah. um So... I lost my train of thought. Where was I going?
00:50:31
Speaker
It's weird. I thought about nudity and then ah everything else went out the one day. You went blank. will it But isn't it kind of insane that we're how many years into programming?
00:50:45
Speaker
We still have programming classes.
00:50:48
Speaker
Like a lot of them. There's still so many shops that ah don't do any. Programming and ADAS classes, the the thing that I don't understand really is a lot of it.
00:50:59
Speaker
Okay, programming arguably you can have some classes for because there's basic ways to sign up to the service, you know, through to the software, whether it's, you know, web-based, you got to order or something or whatever.
00:51:12
Speaker
But like the things I don't understand, like how many ADAS classes are we going to have? Because there's no class. You can't have a class long enough to teach how to do all the things.
00:51:23
Speaker
So and ada you could sum up every ADAS class on earth with like, here's how you find the center line of a car and RTFM, have a nice day. Like, what else do you need to know?
00:51:35
Speaker
Like you can't teach it. There's too many processes that they got like 8 million target. I have a barn full of targets. I've fricking barn full pallets, four by eight pallets full of targets for eight us full of targets.
00:51:50
Speaker
Is it not yet a situation? Is the technology not there where you can just have LCD monitors and it pulls target? I think that's coming. think Texas already has system. Yeah, Texas already has a windshield camera system, too.
00:52:03
Speaker
Autel at a โ not Apex, sorry. At SEMA had a system, ah the IA-1000. I don't think it's โ well, I don't think. It's not available yet. I just got the 900.
00:52:15
Speaker
Well, they have to address โ That's how they get you. Yeah, currently they have two โ are they 27, 25, 27-inch monitors? Yeah. seven twenty five twenty seven inch monitors for like if you can picture the Honda targets or even Toyota.
00:52:33
Speaker
that they'll have them ah spread out and it automatically kind of squares itself. If you get the main frame in a certain range, it will now auto align itself to the vehicle, square itself up, and then get the targets at the right height.
00:52:50
Speaker
The issue is the big target in the middle. Now, currently, I think they're just using the hard targets from like the the mobile frame. ah mobile frame but I suspect or not suspect I know they're looking for a large matte finish high definition TV or monitor to put in there that would then serve as you know whatever your Subaru target your Mercedes Volkswagen or the small you know fill in for that third Toyota target in the middle so you have the two monitors out to each side and then that would be
00:53:30
Speaker
I think that's coming. <unk> It's only reasonable. um What percentage of shops that have put their toe into the ADAS calibration and ah water are doing it profitably, you think?
00:53:45
Speaker
The ones that got into it early, probably really well, especially if they have a fairly good flow of it. The ones just now getting into it, making the big investment with more um competition,
00:54:01
Speaker
already have been out there and um i don't know if more cars have dynamics to be honest mean are you guys making money doing it yeah but we probably do we're probably up to six a day right now okay on average what would you say your average calibration cost is what we bill for or yeah bill yeah So you have to show a discount for the insurance company. Uh, so it's for collision jobs, 99%, which is probably a BS number. It's probably higher, uh, is for collision jobs. So we have to show a discount to them. So we'll just say what the money we put in our pocket for a static, um,
00:54:51
Speaker
is 400 per static. And then um the dynamics, I think we are i think we're putting in, it's either 250 or 300 after the discount. So that that's the real money per dynamic.
00:55:08
Speaker
Average car involved in a front-end collision requires two to three, typically, two to three calibrations. so And like if it's a surround view probably charging a little bit more, and or that will be the $400 one. And then if there's a radar, we might charge a little bit less as they stack.
00:55:26
Speaker
But yeah yeah, there's, there's quite a few tickets that leave for, you know, mean, a couple thousand bucks, 1500 bucks. Are the technicians, their experience doing this in volume for you?
00:55:39
Speaker
Are they getting good efficiency and beating book time on it pretty regularly? Yeah, and I would say I do the vast majority, and then I got one other guy that does ah quite a fair number.
00:55:54
Speaker
So for that $400 calibration, that's what, two hours for you? and how long does it take you to do it? maybe 10, 15 minutes.
00:56:05
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. If we go really from keys in hand to keys out of hand, we'll just say 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. Half hour at the, if things are kind of not going so good, half hour.
00:56:19
Speaker
So what you call that? Key to key.
Conclusion and Podcast Invitation
00:56:22
Speaker
that that something like that that's a reference that's a reference see
00:56:28
Speaker
um anyway well dude this has been fun i've really enjoyed it um i would uh you know in the interest of shameless self-promotion and trying to further my own endeavors and brian's endeavors uh i would like for us to come and um say inappropriate things on your podcast at some point if you're willing to i would enjoy the hell out of that yes ah would be Are we allowed to say naughty words on your podcast?
00:56:54
Speaker
You can definitely say naughty words. I don't know if you can say the actual words that you're referencing, though. Oh, okay. Well, you can say them, actually. i think Margaret dropped an F-bomb.
00:57:06
Speaker
would say would Tracy ah bleep us in post-production? Probably. i think I feel like that would be pretty good to get bleeped. on the aftermarket radio network i think the one i guess so bleeped up you'd be pretty spicy they actually beeped it beeped it i think they just kind of skipped it yeah yeah my little mixer thing that i have for the mobile setup it has a bleep button i can make a boop Come on. one hundred percent It has all sorts of sound effects. I haven't used any of them yet, but I did a practice recording with my kids. Sounds like an episode of Hell's Kitchen. it has a record screech.
00:57:47
Speaker
It has a sad trombone. it has a rim shot. and can we get on there where you're just going to have to like hold it for a while?
00:57:56
Speaker
What can we do? We could get Zeb talking about jazz. and Dusty Harrison, man. He could probably... Yeah. He could probably break it. I think so. He could break the bleeper.
00:58:08
Speaker
That'd be cool. All right. Well, guys. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. See you next time. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out.
00:58:20
Speaker
The good, and the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink?
00:58:30
Speaker
You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover? Or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike at confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's
00:58:45
Speaker
three three seven seven If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see on the next episode.
00:59:24
Speaker
Yeah.