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Ep 5 - Joe Adams w/Adams Automotive
395 Plays2 months ago
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Joe Adams is a second-generation shop owner at Adams Automotive in Houston, Texas. Joe talks about the challenges of trying to carry on the family business. Mike and Joe talk a lot about Joe's mentor, Todd Hayes, and how he's helped Joe realize a few key things: to focus on what works and strive for high-margin through exceptional customer service.
00:00 "Business Boom Post-COVID Surge"
03:58 Business Transition Concerns
08:05 Assessing Technician Expertise
13:11 Father-Son Business Dynamics
15:03 Girlfriend's Intuition Senses Troublemaker
19:08 Success and Financial Fulfillment
23:41 Passion and Hard Work Balance
24:40 Reflective Leadership and Sales Coaching
28:25 Work Variety and Training Passion
31:40 Service Pricing Justification
33:40 "Maximizing Profit Through Selective Work"
37:53 "From Facebook to Full Parking Lot"
40:21 "Controversy on Opening Sundays"
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Transcript
Joe Adams' Journey and Vision
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Today, I'm talking with Joe Adams from Adams Automotive in Houston, Texas, famous for being one of the biggest shops in the country. ah They're known as being the million dollar a month shop. Pretty interesting conversation hearing about his journey growing up as a child in that business and now where he sees it going in the future. So I think you'll enjoy it.
00:00:21
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. There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along.
Explosive Growth at Adams Automotive
00:00:42
Speaker
So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner, with your host, Mike Allen.
00:01:02
Speaker
I've got Joe Adams of Adams Automotive joining me. Second generation shop owner. and living through actively an explosive growth phase. I would love to talk to you a little bit about your history and about your time growing up in the shop. um And I think there's some parallels in our experience growing up in the shop ah and kind of how you made the transition into working in the company business and the family business and where you see it going in the future.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah. So what's up team? I'm Joe.
Learning from Family Business
00:01:38
Speaker
Thanks for having me. um Yeah, we had a great day today. um My story is pretty similar to most people's. I would say, you know, my dad got into the business 1980 out of a gas station, you know, handshake deal, no contract, no lease. And he just basically grinded for 40 years to build a business that we had. And my experience was very similar to most second-generation kids experiences of shop owners because let's I mean I'll be honest my dad's a master technician and he had to he didn't go to business school he learned by the school of hard knocks so um I faced the same things that every single shop owner family deals with which is I'm coming home from college you know Christmas break and there's a negative technician
00:02:24
Speaker
you know, or there's drama at the shop or there's some guy who's drunk and not shown up to work or there's some it's not like the same environment. You know, it's Monday through Friday and people are barbecuing out back on Friday afternoon getting drunk in the back shop, you know, and I'm not exaggerating here. That's like actually what how that happens all over the country. Yeah. And I know it does because it's I call the shops and I recruit out of them because it's a it's a joke now. Anyway, um so Todd, we love Todd Hayes. Todd's
Todd Hayes' Impact and Mentorship
00:02:50
Speaker
crazy. He comes into our business in March of 2020.
00:02:53
Speaker
We're a faith based business. Um, I don't believe it was a coincidence. I graduated in May of 2020 and we pretty much just exploded. So we were doing 3 million a year in revenue for pretty much 20 years. That's a unicorn store in the industry. Um, you know, if you net 20% of that, you have a good living. You can put your kids through private school, send them to college. That's what my parents did. Um, But Todd comes into our business right about when COVID happened and he doubled our store in four months. And um just kind of basically, excuse me, he's been mentoring me for you know the last five years. And yeah, I grew up working in the store in the summertime, driving parts, picking up customers.
Career Choice Struggles and Resolution
00:03:33
Speaker
And that's pretty much what I did for the first
00:03:36
Speaker
year, two years. It took me a long time to pay attention and um I guess you asked me how did I get into the business to the point I am now. So Todd basically sat me down two years in and he said, look,
00:03:48
Speaker
I can tell you're not loving it still. You're not paying attention. You're not as locked in as I need you to be. Because I was showing up late. I was watching TV on my phone in the corner, you know? I mean, um it's a classic dude. It's classic tale. It's like, hey, shop owner is going to hand off his business to his son and the son's going to drive it off a cliff. yeah And technicians have seen this across the country. Glenn was thinking it. He's our general manager.
00:04:08
Speaker
for those of you that are listening. And um I said, look, Todd, none of my buddies are doing this. you know I graduated from University of Texas. I said, I want to be like all my buddies. you know They're all you know starting their own business or they're lawyers, they're in law school, they're going to medical school, they're start they're working for tech startups and medical startups and they're investment bankers on Wall Street.
00:04:27
Speaker
And I said, that's what I wanna go do. I wanna go sell real estate in Austin and be with those guys. And he said, um that's exactly why you should do this. He's like, how many of your smart University of Texas friends that you just listed are in the car repair business?
00:04:40
Speaker
And I was like, none. And he said, exactly. Why compete with the smartest people in the world when you can compete in a blue collar down in dirty industry that's the same as it's been for the last 38 years since he started doing this? So what you're saying is everyone listening to this is a dumb ass. Exactly. Yeah. That was my complete intention getting on this podcast. That's how you sell more seats in training. business It's 100% a valid point though. There are.
Business Acumen vs. Technical Skills
00:05:06
Speaker
and enormous portion, the vast majority of the aftermarket automotive sector is technicians who open their own shop. And they're maybe world-class technicians, but they don't know shit about how to run a business. At all. Yeah, and so it's not hard to run the score up on somebody who doesn't know that. Now, you can't out-diagnose them. You can't out-repair a car compared to them, because that's what their expertise is.
00:05:35
Speaker
You've been hitched to the side of a dude whose expertise is operating a business, like a business. Right. It makes a huge difference. so Yeah, yeah if you start airp but if you go look at all of our reviews, it's not about how good I put the water pump on their car. you know If you go look at all of our reviews, it's not the ability to out diagnose a guy down the street for cheaper. It's man.
00:05:53
Speaker
They're a little bit more than the guy down the street, but man, are they transparent and they gave me outstanding customer service. And I got a that. We got thousands of five star reviews that are just telling talking all about, um, the experience on the front end. Cause I'm selling the family, I'm selling service and the car, the part that the product is just the repair. And there's a million people who can fix a car, right? But they don't know how to talk to customers.
00:06:16
Speaker
and they pretty much get into the business and they don't know how to recruit good technicians. They don't, they get into the business because they're good at fixing cars. They think they can do it for cheaper than the guy down the street. And then they get hung up doing accounting and payroll work, stuff that they hate doing. And they basically, you end up in a miserable, miserable place. They get jaded and angry and then they become a terrible boss and they yeah create new jaded angry technicians who open their own shop and become but terrible shop owners. It's just a vicious cycle, right?
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, and I see these resumes where it's like 10 technicians and they've been in 10 shops in 10 years. And you might be like, Oh my gosh, I would never touch a technician that's been in 10 shops, he's gonna bail on me once I trained him up on our process. But I look at that and I'm like, that's a microcosm of the industry. It's like I call the shops every single day and training. And they're all terrible at answering the phone.
Recruitment Strategy and Passion
00:07:02
Speaker
That means they're terrible at selling. That means they're terrible at producing hours for their technicians. And then the merry-go-round continues. You know, it it has like, if a guy jumps from shop to shop, that doesn't mean he's a bad technician. That means he hasn't found the right home yet. Yeah.
00:07:15
Speaker
Sometimes, sometimes it means they're back. Sometimes they suck, yeah. That's what the interview process is for. Sometimes they suck, yeah, that's true. So I know that you're heavily involved in recruiting with your company. Yep. Obviously, when it's front of house guy, you can probably go you know full process recruiting. If it's a technical guy, you can kind of get a feel on their vibe, right? But do you have somebody, does Glenn interview them for technical acumen? or Do you just take a flyer and they don't make it? They don't make it. I'm not a technician. I've never changed oil. And I don't say that to brag at all. I have so much respect for technicians. But I'm really good at operations and running in a store and selling customer service. But i I don't have a lot of technical knowledge. Same thing. Yeah, it goes to show you, you can do pretty good in this business without knowing how how to take an evaporator core out of a car. um If I'm interviewing and a master tech, there are questions you can do.
00:08:05
Speaker
Excuse me, there are questions you can ask to get around that. you know If I talk to a technician, I'm like, what's your toolbox inventory? And he tells me $5,000. I kind of know the level of technician. If he says $100,000, I know that he's a better technician. I've got some boilerplate questions that I can ask to determine a technician's diagnosis.
00:08:24
Speaker
uh, diagnostic process and see kind of just how his brain works. And if he knows what he's talking about and, um, I, I can figure it out pretty much for the most part, but I do lean on my GMs to, uh, for those more technical interviews, yeah but that's fair. Right. I folk, I do focus mostly on front of the house, uh, sales training processes, yeah recruiting. So, um,
00:08:46
Speaker
You're a big golf guy, right? I am, yeah. I used to be. are you Do you still play a lot? You know, I shot a clean 81 this week, which I used to be really good. I'm i'm not super happy with an 81. What do you define as really good? like like yeah Were you a scratch golfer? Yeah, but it wasn't. Nice. I was, yeah. I'm very experienced.
00:09:04
Speaker
So I, uh, have never played around a golf in my life. Uh, okay. And when I go, when I go to drive shack, we, uh, you know, I, I'm that guy who swings. It's really painful to watch the swing and he misses the ball half the time. okay Um, but I do appreciate, uh, that it's really satisfying when you actually get good contact with the ball and it goes straight.
00:09:25
Speaker
And I think I would become addicted very quickly if I decade a little time. It's a very close relationship with business. You know, it's the dopamine drip. It's like when I'm hiring somebody, I'm looking for a guy who played sports in high school, like honestly, or played an instrument or something, because it's usually an indicator that they are addicted to, we got clapping in the background. So Todd Hayes, Hey, it's the Hayes effect. Hey there.
00:09:50
Speaker
I'm going to tell you about something that has completely transformed our on my shop tech metric 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.
00:10:05
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. I'm talking like a one-day learning curve.
00:10:25
Speaker
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. It's a huge asset. Ask me how I know. 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.
00:10:45
Speaker
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. In September of 2020, when I switched to TechMetric, my ARO was $293. In September of 2024, we were $916. That's over 300% growth.
00:11:01
Speaker
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. 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
Family Dynamics in Business
00:11:22
Speaker
more. If somebody's used to practicing a craft or they're disciplined or they're used to training on something, it's probably an indicator that they're going to have success.
00:11:29
Speaker
That's a really good point. That's something that I've integrated into my interview process since I first came here, December of 23. And that is asking if they played high school or college sports. And that's for any position in the building. I ask that now. Yeah. A question to you. I prefer that they played a team sport. Yeah. Do you feel like it makes a difference if it was an individual sport like a tennis or a golf or something?
00:11:53
Speaker
You know, I don't think it's actually, I think it's an indicator more than anything, but I'm not going to put too much weight behind it. I am successful in this business and I played golf, which is technically a a single person sport, but I just see them addicted to the grind. I would in high school, I'd go hit balls at night, you know, because it was like my happy place and I just wanted to get better and better. I'm like addicted to getting better at stuff. Were you on the Texas golf team? Oh, no, I'm not that good. No, not even not even close. um But.
00:12:20
Speaker
you know ah it's like the the process you know it's like the that's just my personality and it's a lot of the people that we recruit are it's like i don't care what it is my fiance tells me i have to find more hobbies that i'm not good at because i only have fun at something if i'm really good at it and it's like i don't i don't like relax by you know painting or doing something that I'm not very good at. I relax by like grinding out. Are you are you hyper competitive? Oh, yeah, super competitive. And I think that's something you're born with. I don't think it's something that you can put in a person. So we ask that in the interview for sure. You have like a family game night where you flip the table over if you lose a monopoly type thing. No, we don't fist. We don't break into fisticuffs too often, but we we play Jeopardy every year at Christmas and we're pretty pretty competitive on that.
00:13:04
Speaker
So let me ask you this. Growing up, I also work in a shop and during high school and and whatnot. um Never learned to work on cars. Busted tires changed oil some, you know take out the trash, know that kind of stuff. um And I
Intuitive Role of Joe's Mother
00:13:20
Speaker
never wanted to come back to the business. And that's a whole other story for another day when I hear you talk about me. But one of the things that I always, I had to learn to deal with was,
00:13:29
Speaker
My interactions with my father at the shop, right? I mean because he's It's hard on you I would assume that perry was as hard on you as he was on anyone to a degree or my my father was he was and we fought hard In front of people and that was really inappropriate I should have known better than that, but I didn't I was a kid But it it was super awkward because we got over it in 30 seconds and then it's like hey you wanna get lunch, right? And everybody else has this emotional like Oh, they're shook because of that interaction. Did y'all ever have that going on? or Oh, absolutely. He called me one time five o'clock and he's like, I don't think you're going to make it, man. He said that to me because I'm hitting balls on the range because remember I'm a silver spoon kid, you know, or not. I'm not a silver spoon kid, but the reputation, uh, you know, if that's, if you if you don't show up to work and you leave early,
00:14:20
Speaker
That's what they think. Maybe you were at that point. I certainly was, you know i didn but I also had no passion for the business. I wanted to go figure out my life. ah Selling real estate in Austin is code for I'm 22 and I have no idea what I want to do with my life. you know so He called me straight up and he was like, man, I don't think you're going to make it. I don't think you have what it takes.
00:14:38
Speaker
straight up. and And I'm not saying that was like the healthiest thing to do, but we've, ah dude, you're working with your family and I've got a, I mean, I've got a lovely relationship with my dad in the, in terms of the business. Like there's a very blurred line in terms of like, that is our main topic of like what we love each other about and care about each other about. But what comes with that is some intensity. So, um, yeah, we, we, we,
00:15:02
Speaker
I think it's just like any father-son relationship. You got to have a balance between what's appropriate and what is kind of too close to the heart, you know what I mean? But I think we do a good job managing that pretty well. Now, your mom is at the shop. yeah that's That's awesome too. So my mom was not involved in the business. What role did she play before yeah BT and AT, before Todd, after Todd? What role did she play in the business then and versus now?
00:15:30
Speaker
co-chairman, CEO, you know what I mean? Not really, but like she was um never super intimately involved in the financial aspect of the business, but she knew, you know, she knew when people were players and she knew when people weren't following Perry's process and um she couldn't.
00:15:49
Speaker
Drive the machine you know being a woman I think in the industry is difficult even today imagine 20 years ago yeah um But she knows man. She's like our closest confidant. You know and people tell her stuff because she's mama. She shot mom and She is like i i I lean quite heavily on her gut feeling oftentimes about um about people that she trusts or doesn't feel a good feeling about. And um um I imagine that my dad has been doing that for his whole career. So she's a stud. On my experience, um you know women are more intuitive. Yeah. And they they sense.
00:16:28
Speaker
the inherent goodness or lack thereof of people a little bit more effectively. and I tell you a crazy story. So my I'm giving my girlfriend at the time, we're going to get married now, but I'm giving her a tour of the whole company like a year ago. She met probably 50 people that day and there was one person and it wasn't even, I don't know how she noticed it, but she was like, what about this guy?
00:16:51
Speaker
I don't like that guy. And I was like, how did you know oh you know? It's like we were having issues with that guy at the time. And I'm like, how did you know? She just can smell it or something. So yeah, that's a super, it's something that a simple minded male species, we don't we don't understand something about it. My wife is totally that way now. My my business is so small comparatively. I've got like 35 guys.
00:17:17
Speaker
But my wife wants to get to know each one of them. And she gives me her feedback. Oh, whether whether or not I ask. yeah Yeah. She gives me and need it, though, when I'm talking about, you know, performance reviews and.
00:17:33
Speaker
Is somebody, am I going to hire somebody? Like I've had multiple people that I've let go and hired back over the years. Uh, and I'll have a conversation. Hey, this guy wants to come back, you know, cause they grass is greener. They think they give notice. I'm like, you know what? You don't need to give me a notice. Thanks for everything. Take care. Um, and then two months later, like, Hey boss, I'm, I'm really sorry. Yeah, we'll take them back. Um, so I've done that several times and sometimes she's like, Oh, fuck now. this is Not at all. Um, so that's interesting. So.
00:18:04
Speaker
I had a very similar conversation, I was probably 10 years ago.
00:18:10
Speaker
15 years ago, god, time flies. um I did not want to be in the business. And at the time, my father was still involved in the business. And we were at a meeting with a bunch of other shop owners. And I told them at dinner that my wife is a dentist, she doesn't want to own a business, she just wants to fix teeth. And I was going to give dad a one year notice to get out of the business, because I was heavily involved, but I didn't have any ownership stake at that point.
00:18:37
Speaker
no and I was gonna go open a dental practice and run it for my wife. oh god Because I'd been going to conferences with her and seeing the margins that they have and that kind of stuff. It's probably a lot of the technicians. you know yeah There are a lot of similarities. between Every business is the same, but you'd have to learn it, right? yeah um And I had a guy pull me to the side and he was like, look, dumbass, you don't understand what you're trying to give up here and what the potential is and the lifestyle that's possible and the way that you can support your family and the way that you can support your community and the way that you can support your team, you just got to take your head out of your ass and take it seriously and treat it like a business and not a hobby.
Career Advice from Todd Hayes
00:19:17
Speaker
And so that was that was his name. him Was his name Todd Hayes? No, but it sounds similar to the conversation you had. Yeah, man, it's the exact same conversation. He goes, look, dude, you can become, you know, anything you want out of any career path, this can satisfy that.
00:19:32
Speaker
And I was like, I don't believe you. And then he showed me an offer for $75 million dollars for our company at the time, you know, and, you know, oh that was like just another defining moment that was down the road. And it's like, man, everything he has said, he's insane. He's known in the industry and people listening to this podcast probably know about Todd. Oh, yeah. Look.
00:19:50
Speaker
It's all true. Todd's crazy. like It's all true, but he's a mentor of mine and he's taught me everything I know. and um you can You can make an insane amount of money doing this, but it's not about that. it's like I think anybody that comes into our shop, hopefully that's our reputation. You know that about our family. is you know I'm wearing Costco socks right now. i'm wearing you know my dad's My dad's got a net worth of a lot of zeros, you know, and he's a real estate mogul, you know, whatever, you know, he's got stuff going on and he wears Costco pants and the Costco shirt to work and he gives a bunch of money away and it's fun and all, but you know what's more fun is watching
00:20:29
Speaker
other people learn how to make money what's what's more fun is watching a guy named um you know maybe i don't need to share his name but guys that have never made six figures in the entire history of their family first time and they're making six figures and i had a guy come up to me last summer and he's like showing me pictures of his son and he's like You know, they had a two year old, uh, two, two year birthday party for, for his son. He goes, our family's never been able to have a party like this for, for, for anybody. And we we were able to do it because of, uh, because of my career here. 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.
00:21:11
Speaker
Elite. Elite Worldwide, they don't give you a one size fits all solution. They tailor the coaching specifically to you in 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. Whether it's improving your service advisor's sales, growing your shop, growing to multiple locations, they've really have you covered. Clients of Elite really see results. Higher profits, stronger teams, a better work-life balance.
00:21:40
Speaker
If you're ready to take the next step, visit EliteWorldwide dot.com to schedule your discovery session. That's EliteWorldwide.com to start working on your business rather than in it. 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. I'm not saying that to backpat us on the back, but The money is a byproduct of executing at a super high level and Todd's mentorship has really taught me a lot about that. It's like the money is cool and I love to provide for my family like you said, but at the end of the day, we have more money than we know what to do with, but I want that feeling to, I want Glen to have that feeling. You know what I mean? I want all of our employees, you know, generational wealth, we can create a lot of generational wealth for a lot of people, you know?
00:22:28
Speaker
I think that's one of the reasons that I keep coming back down here and bringing some of my employees down every time to experience it because they're hearing a version of what y'all are saying every time that we have a morning meeting at 7.15 every morning, we go up um and we're touching on the same subjects, right? But Todd has got it honed to such a fine point. And the delivery is so,
00:22:56
Speaker
I was having a conversation with Greg Buckley earlier today, and there's no single part of this concept and process. that i haven't heard before it's all the same yeah but putting them all together so seamlessly and in the right way and executing at such a high level every day is the differentiating factor yeah it's like you know i understand speed of service i understand if you put four people on a dvi it's going to happen a lot faster than one person on a dvi i understand giving incredible service i understand
00:23:31
Speaker
Satisfaction callbacks. I understand pre booking the next appointment. I've been coached and heard about all of those things before I've never seen anyone put it all together and Todd's been doing it for 30 years, right? So it's it's just it's dynamic and I think it's I mean, Todd's a lightning rod, right? he he's probably the most He's probably the most divisive personality yeah in our sector right now. You love him or you hate him. Yeah, a lot of people but really hate him. and i Yeah, that's OK. There's always going to be haters. I really love him. So high high level success attracts haters. yeah um Five years ago, it was Aaron Stokes. Everybody wanted to hate Aaron Stokes. Really? Yeah. um I've never met Aaron. Actually, I think I shook his hand one time. He is smart. He's a good businessman. He's a nice guy.
00:24:17
Speaker
And he's a good he's very charismatic and he's I tell people, when I'm talking to people about Todd, because a lot of people come to me and want to ask about Todd, because they know that I'm a believer, but that I'm also friends with a lot of people who hate him. yeah um I say, tell to to him I'll meet him. it It's harder to hate me. yeah
Todd Hayes' Polarizing Leadership
00:24:40
Speaker
and That's one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on here, because Todd is always on, right? Yeah. And so I wanted to have a conversation with with you, because you've lived
00:24:51
Speaker
in his in his back pocket for five years. Yeah, literally. um i think you know Maybe I should edit this out too. I think Todd is like the Donald Trump of automotive. That is so good, dude. Keep that in, dude. he He's over the top. He does not give a fuck if you don't like him or not, because he knows that he's going to win. Yeah, he's going to kill you, actually. He's like, dude, I will come into your store right now and put you out of business. And he means it. i mean and he And he's a straight savage. He's actually a straight savage. Donald Trump became famous by saying you're fired. Todd is not scared to say you're fired. I've seen it many times. But he'll also go and hire a rock star yeah the same day. so um I think that's the best comparison that I've been able to draw because it's so funny yeah he's a lighting rod. You either love or you hate Trump.
00:25:36
Speaker
yeah but He says what the hell he's thinking, and he means it, and he doesn't care your opinion. And all he does is win, win, win. The people that like him are really, really like him. And you know who likes him? Bankers on Wall Street because of Prince. It's like, sorry. That's what it is. AI can't take our jobs away. That's why it's so valuable. I know you guys have a plan, and you can't talk openly about that. There are portions of that plan you can't talk openly about. um What do you want to be doing in 20 years?
00:26:05
Speaker
crazy kids. Ultimately, somewhere in the Bahamas. I don't think I'm going to be working this hard. I mean, we're putting in a lot of hours to build this deal. I don't think I'm going to be working this hard in 20 years. So I'm 27. Now I'll be 47. I don't think I'm ever going to stop working just because I love it. i You know, it's like it is quite exhilarating. But to be quite honest, to be open about it, I'm not as like.
00:26:30
Speaker
Todd is way more passionate about operations than I am. I'm way more passionate about training. I think training and coaching and developing other people to be who they can be is like just the most fun thing on earth. Sometimes the operations can be really stressful. You know what I mean? You have like a fire break out in a store and it's like you got people threatened to sue you and you got like, you know, I got two one stars today during training. I got two one stars and it's like,
00:26:53
Speaker
That sucks, you know? It's so fucking annoying. It's so annoying. And it's like these slimy, greasy salesmen were trying to sell me something right away. They were super nice, you know, when I came in. They were trying to sell me shit that I needed, but I didn't like it. They were trying to sell me shit that I needed. And, you know, and maybe that's maybe I need to look in the mirror and say, look, I got to train my team better to not come across that way or whatever or to recognize that and not maybe they were slimy. It could be me, but.
00:27:19
Speaker
You know, I love the training because you can talk to a bunch of people, give them information and they double their sales and I don't have to deal with the one stars. You know, it's like, so I think, you know, hopefully we can take this thing to a transaction, make a bunch of people rich, take it to another turn.
00:27:36
Speaker
second bite of the apple make a bunch of people rich um And then I would love to just coach people on our process for pretty much the rest of my life Because I don't think cars are going anywhere to be quite honest. Oh, no, they're definitely not right. They're just changing but I feel like being a coach has to be intoxicating sure because You once you know the things that people need to do and you can communicate that with them You change their lives because there's so obvious too there are so many shitty shop owners out there So much low-hanging fruit that you can change their lives and you become this
00:28:10
Speaker
i didn't I haven't been on a vacation in 10 years and I just took my family to the Bahamas for for a week and my shop ran fine without me. yeah It's life altering and you get all these people that are singing your praises. got to be that's why I think that's why so many coaches in our industry have such huge egos yeah because they've been told that they you saved my life, you saved my marriage, you saved my family over and over and over.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I, you know, that's something I, um, that's why I'm getting married. She keeps me in check. You know what I mean? It's, uh, I don't, I try not to have an ego. I hope that that's not my reputation, but it is really gratifying. You know, you have like a Jorge in, uh, you know, Las Vegas. He's a client of ours and he did 600 grand first half of 2024, you know, and he stressed out going to the hospital. So, you know, a hundred K a month at your shop.
00:28:58
Speaker
I know a lot of shops that aren't making money at 100K a month. you know You're losing money or you're making like 200 bucks or you're making 12,000 and then the plumbing breaks and you got to fix it. you know Running that thin is super stressful. he's He told us he was going to the hospital. Anyway, second half, he comes to the comes to the class, he a million he did a million bucks in six months. So it's like almost double. you know to go To go from you know tracking 1.2 to 2 million, it's like,
00:29:23
Speaker
he's sending us videos he's like it fixed all my stress you know he's like i don't have to go to the hospital anymore so that's pretty that's pretty gratifying you know like why wouldn't you want to do that yeah why wouldn't you want to do that and it's like i mean to be quite honest i don't have to do all the work i get to do what i my dad gave me this you know piece of wisdom when i was very young he said what you like doing or what you enjoy what you enjoy doing what's easy to do what you're good at doing that's what you were made to do he's like the beagle wants to run and be free but he doesn't want to swim you know we have this dog we also had ah a lab a chocolate lab the chocolate lab wants to swim and and go pick up the bird and and you know it's like
00:29:58
Speaker
They're made to do different things. I am a salesman through and through. I can train people through and through. I'm not a technical person. I cannot fix a car. You don't want me fixing the router at your shop. Yeah. Do you enjoy these weekends once a month that you're doing this or do you enjoy going and firing up the crew and spending a half day on the rag attack and recruiting? what's I mean, I know that you enjoy them all, but what's what's like your favorite?
00:30:22
Speaker
all of them, to be quite honest. you know like Todd said this would happen. It's like the the variety of being an entrepreneur when you're having success is intoxicating in that way. We work harder than anybody else, I think, because it just never stops. like if you're thinking of If you're listening to this podcast and you're a technician thinking about getting into business, really think long and hard about it because it's notass it's not passive income. It is not a part-time gig. You're not going to be having free time.
00:30:47
Speaker
it is like you take all the risk and you're, it's a 24 seven, you're trading your
Relentless Nature of Entrepreneurship
00:30:52
Speaker
nine to five for a 24 seven, yeah you know? And so like there are cons to it, but the fun part about it is the variety. I don't know what I'm going to do at work every day, pretty much. And so I love the recruiting. I love doing a take five. I love PMI in a car, ah but I really love training too. I would say training's probably my favorite. It's my, I feel like I have my skills and talents at the most.
00:31:13
Speaker
impact at a training weekend but having a conversation with a 22-year-old GS who didn't have the same upbringing that I did at six o'clock on a Tuesday after we just crushed out of 50k a day like that's a similar feeling you know that's just as fun I love that part about it just as much well you know seeing for what it's worth seeing your development from December of 23 when I came for the first time and now we're here in January of 25 you're I mean, you knew your shit back then, but your development, your your delivery. Thank you. It's been great watching you grow in that capacity. So it's obvious that you're passionate about it. so God, I love it. it's all's I say this in training. my Most used app on my phone is my calculator app and the tech metric reporting page.
00:32:01
Speaker
yeah know And it's like it really is all I think about I'm freaking recruiting technicians i'm I'm listening to podcasts from the HVAC industry see what we can learn about you know their industry the players that they're Dealing with but it's Todd, you know, it's like I learned a lot from my family a lot from Glenn but you know ultimately Todd is brash and abrasive and he's the Trump of our industry if you want to call him that like you said, but I He taught me everything I know. He really did. And i he's like a mentor, a father figure to me. And he's if you can read through the language, I call it the language of Todd. You know how he slurs his words? Yeah. He slurs his words and and you know sometimes goes on a ah rampage or a ah tangent, yeah if you will. But if you can speak his language, and it's taken years of sitting shotgun, driving around, visiting stores, talking to him to sort of grab on to everything he's he's taught me. and
00:32:53
Speaker
I'm a product of good leadership. He really is a good leader. He's ah he's taught me how to run our business and um I'm super grateful for it. That's awesome, man. yeah Well, ah the title of the podcast is Confessions of a Shop Owner. One of the themes that we have is What did I screw up last year yeah and what am I going to do different to fix it this year? so i mean You're experiencing explosive growth and you're building this incredible organization and you'll have this vision that is very open and out there. ah but If there was one thing on an operational level, because most of the people that are going to be listening to this are not
00:33:34
Speaker
in the same ballpark, right, as far as their next five year goal points. But operationally, what do you think was the biggest swinging mess or screw up last year? You know, we pushed the envelope on price pretty hard. So um we went to your listeners are going to fall and they hear that we went to like 360 an hour or some crazy thing. You know, we did 12 million out of a single unit in 2023.
00:33:59
Speaker
and we pushed the envelope on price pretty hard and we went like 350 plus which in hindsight my god was a mistake. we Right now we're at 280 to 300 which is still ridiculously expensive for most of the industry. We got clients that are doing you know $119 an hour. It's like, come on, man. It's 2025. So we're still really expensive. At our other units, we're doing $250 an hour. But with inflation and everything and the cost of parts, I think that's pretty appropriate for the quality of service we provide. you know It costs me a lot of money and insurance to have 40 loaner vehicles on the lot. It costs me a lot of money to be open seven days a week and have 401k and time off and
00:34:37
Speaker
All that for my employees and benefits and insurance. It cost me a lot of money to have master technicians on Sunday. you know It cost me a lot of money for all this stuff. and so Our customers are willing to pay a lot of money for our service. We still have a lot of cars.
00:34:49
Speaker
but in um 2023, we had 11,000 and change cars. And then this last year we had 10,000. So we actually went down. You know, we still, we did 10 million in 2024. So it's hard to say, it's hard to say, you know, it's hard to be embarrassed of not doing a million a month. But when your reputation becomes the million dollar shop, it's like, you know, it's like, man, we did 850. Ah, dang it. Yeah. But I think a lot of it came from, we probably pushed the envelope on price.
00:35:16
Speaker
um Another mistake I would say is just not working on the right stuff. I mean we all fall into it. It's like I Got I love gravy man. I love working on the easy stuff where you can provide great service a high margin I don't want to be an auto repair shops, but you know like I want to be a world-class service center I don't want to be you know, beat my chest as I'm the technician that can fix the cars that every other technician in on Earth can't fix. Because guess what? I'm gonna spend six hours scratching my head on on some pain in the ass car that doesn't pay my bills. Whereas if I give Moe, our stud technician at 1010, if I give Moe a 15 hour ticket and it's motor mounts, rear shocks, and all the fluids on a Tahoe,
00:36:01
Speaker
He fixed it in four hours and it was like a $6,000 job. This is a month ago. It's like just focusing on the right stuff. Let's just do that 20 times a day. I know you know. It's like, wouldn't that be nice? You know, just in one of my dad's rules is you make more money on the stuff you don't work on. So, you know, if a guy comes in and his check engine lock light came on on the way to work.
00:36:21
Speaker
and it's the same day i can fix that car you know like it's an easy tech engine line if a guy's like man it's this is the fifth shop it's been in i've been chasing this check engine line for six months you know or ah man it's just recalled an outie it's consuming oil man i'm sending it to the dealer or i'm sending it down the street so ah mistake I mean, it's just it's just training your team like hey man, it might be six thousand dollars in GP today But like that car might not leave your shop for two months clog your bays and all of a sudden you're just Now you're married to the car. That's something we say you are married to that car if anything goes wrong Third owner BMWs with a hundred thousand miles on it. I don't want to work on it I don't make any money on it always a bad experience always a bad experience and just staying focused on that I would say I went to
00:37:04
Speaker
Lucas Underwood shop in western North Carolina Tuesday of this week and we were recording some promos for this and I needed to borrow some equipment from in this little monitor and whatnot and I walked through the shop and he's gone from a three bay shop to a 12 bay shop in the last couple years and so and he hasn't really filled out that 12 bay shop yet and he kind of runs the exact opposite of the Todd model. Right. Oh, God. So I'm sorry. Is he broke?
Focusing on Profitable Jobs
00:37:32
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. I've never met you. and I'm just being funny. um And there was a 71 Chevelle in the back corner left. And I saw that, you know, it had defender covers and probably and I walked over and I talked to a senior tech and I was like, how long has that thing been on that left? Six months. It's been on. It's been there for a month. They're 55 hours into the job.
00:37:55
Speaker
I was like, dude, just get rid of it. I don't want to work on those things. I don't want to do that shit. And we put it we put in place a 25-year rule. or We're not working on anything more than 25 years old unless it's a known known customer who's a buyer. Exactly. Yeah, I'll do that. So we got a car right now. It's Sienna. It's an Oldsmobile from 75. And I walked into the shop and I go, what the f are we doing with that car? And I ah checked it the other day. you know August 7th, today's January 17th or 18th.
00:38:25
Speaker
August 7th and they go, well, it's big GP $20,000 ticket 62.7%. And I'm like, okay. So I broke down the math. It's been there since August 7. It's literally $130 per day in revenue. And it's going going to go down every day. And it's going to clog 10% of your shop. You know what I mean? And it goes down every day. Sitting on a lift. Or whatever. You know what I mean? If you're going to be working on it, if you're 55 hours into the job. And so it's like, I'd rather have one brake flush on another car. Seriously, think about it. It's high gravy. What are the odds of brake flushes coming back?
00:38:58
Speaker
zero. What are the odds any fluid maintenance item is coming back zero? What are the odds that that old spelt deals coming back? We were shooting a commercial one time and we had like a classic Shelby on the left in the background and we reached out the whole commercial because you don't want people to don't see it because they fucking multiply. Yeah. They have babies. We had an RV on our lot one time. And a technician told Glenn, get that thing off the lot before it starts making babies. because Burn it down. per Yeah, seriously. because per A guy with an RV drives by the shop and he goes, oh, they work on RVs. I didn't know that. Yeah. And they start picking it up and drive it down right now.
00:39:31
Speaker
I'm a service center, dude. I can't provide service at high margin, ah you know, on Oldsmobile. Sorry. I'm a soccer mom shop. I would tell you that that's one of the reasons that aye you guys get so many haters is because oh yeah the most active dudes on the forums and in the groups that come to training events all around the country are the specialty shop and their point of pride is I fixed the car that's been to five other shops and that customer spent $3,000 on it elsewhere and I figured it out in an hour. And that is an incredible skill and it has great value. It's just not what I have. And it doesn't pay.
00:40:10
Speaker
so and they're on the Facebook group. Sorry, if you're listening to this and you're that guy, I don't want to turn into Todd or people hate me, but youre you're sitting in the shop. They're going to hate you by by association, yeah yeah so you're already guilty. I'm already hated. You're sitting in the shop because you got no work, you know and you're on Facebook because you got no work. you know The last time I've been on Facebook, like I got work. you know i got I could send you a picture of 70 cars in my parking lot because we say yes to good work,
00:40:37
Speaker
And i I literally kicked stuff down the road. But that is how my dad got started. He said, you know, he would call shops and be like, hey, whatever you don't want to work on, send up, send my way. Because he was new in business and he's 25 years old. He was a master technician. And it sounds like a good idea to drum up some business. But man, you know what pays frickin engine mounts and rear struts or rear shocks. You know, it's like scratching your head on a dyad that you can't figure it out. Figure out you're paying the guy 60 bucks an hour to figure it out and he'll pay.
00:41:05
Speaker
Um, do you know, uh, obviously no names, but how much did the highest paid technician in your organization make last year? Uh, 250. I don't know. Uh, I know the record is 409 hours. I think if I have that correct, 409 hours and he got paid and he was, he gets paid 65 plus now, but, um, I think he got paid 60. So you can do the math and that's 25,000. But I got, I mean, this, we got guys with six bedroom houses, you know, like,
00:41:36
Speaker
We're a big shop, you know? It's like you can make a lot of money doing this. Well, and I think, you know, you're open seven days a week, which a lot of people freak out about. That guy works seven days a week, you know what I mean? And we don't crack the whip to make him be there. But it's like, dude, he's going home on the weekend fixing his neighbor's car, doing side work anyway. Just come to the shop and fix cars and they just love it. They're grinders.
00:41:55
Speaker
Well, I think, as you guys say, there are people who want to work on the weekends because of their life situation, whatever that might be. So you can find those individuals, especially if you're in a major metro area, you know, if you're in rural Southern Arkansas, maybe there's not a dude, but ah good luck. Yeah, but that's not where you are. That's not your reality. So um I think if you pay more than anybody in your market, and you give good benefits, and you've got tons of traffic and tons of cars, and your advisors can sell, then you can get techs who are happy to work on the weekend. yeah Because they can make six figures. They can make high six, you know well, not high six figures, but they can push 200. So I'm not yet at seven days a week. um We just opened on Saturdays this month.
00:42:46
Speaker
<unk> right now we're sitting here in our third Saturday of the month. you know This is going to be controversial for Todd. If I were opening my own shop you know and I'm 55 years old, I'm not opening on Sunday. I think if you're going for greatness like we are and you're maxing it out like and it's a business,
00:43:04
Speaker
I'm opening Sundays because i mean that's going to give me the greatest access to more customers and I can staff for Sundays. you know Every major business in the world is open on Sundays. Delta Airlines open. Amazon dot.com open. Imagine they close on Sundays. Gas stations open. Bucky's open. Everything's open. but you can make a lot of money Monday through Saturday. ah saturday improve For all you Monday through Friday guys, we we don't even care if our clients are open Monday through Friday anymore because we did 500 on Monday through Friday, you can make a lot of money. But Saturday is like free. Saturday is like free game. Sunday is kind of hard. Sundays we have to work really hard to set appointments and you know buying parts is just impossible because half of them are closed and ah you know you have to buy time with the customers. But
00:43:48
Speaker
We like Sundays, but if I had to open my own shop and I just didn't want to work that hard, like Monday through Saturday is great. But Saturday is like, a gottada you got to have Saturday, dude. Saturday is like 40 cars for free. We're just blown out. Yeah, i mean of course you are. so And it's not the same customers that I have Monday through Friday. It's different customers. so And ive I've got a very small sample size, obviously. but you know were I think we did 15 the first Saturday, 16 the
Saturday Operations Boost Revenue
00:44:14
Speaker
second Saturday. And I think when I checked a little while ago, they were at 14 for today. so Okay, so let's call that 15. So that's 750,000 a year. So it's like, what's the GP on that? Yeah, GP on that 60%. So, you know, that's literally $500,000. That's between four and $500,000 in GP. And what's it cost you to be open for another day?
00:44:34
Speaker
less than that. Less than that. It costs you probably two days or two employees ah extra that you'd have to hire max. You're paying all your technicians flat rate. You're just paying the landlord rent. You're paying your utilities bill. you know You're paying your trash removal bill. You're paying your parts pickup guy. You're paying all that stuff. so It's like a no brain. It's a no brainer to do seven hundred and fifty thousand extra in revenue. Am I am is my math right on that? Am I doing the math right on that? Fifteen times fifty. ah subject Yeah. It's like all literally that's more than a lot of shops do. Fifteen K on a Saturday. Yeah, that's a no brainer. So all right. So thank you for the time. I'm going to wrap up here in just a minute. Do you guys do any training outside or yeah have you y' allll gotten to the point where you do all your training internally now? What do you mean?
00:45:25
Speaker
Like do you go to Apex or Vision or like y'all came to ASTA, but y'all came to that to teach, not to attend classes. I don't think people don't like us, you know, to be quite honest. Maybe that's the Todipek. I'm being funny. but But the people in those circles, you know, you guys are the, you know, the the popular kid to hate right now.
00:45:43
Speaker
Yeah, of course. So, um, you know, we actually don't, we got a business to run. You know what I mean? We did 50 million last year and, uh, sorry, 46, 46 and a half. And it's like, yeah, don't exaggerate. We're projecting a, you know, we opened a store late February and you know, our call center's getting off the ground, but, uh, we're projecting 50 this year and it's like, we don't make it. We didn't, we make some money on training, but like.
00:46:09
Speaker
We make a lot more money fixing cars. So this is just a byproduct of it. It's our onboarding program. so But we have a lot of training. you know we have ah We have Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday morning training on the drive to work. All of our guys train on phone skills, gyms open, whoever wants to be in there. um You can come to our shop and work a day. You can pull a $40,000 day with us, feel it see what that feels like. You can go to Charlie's two-bay shop. People get enamored by my family's business. and I'm not saying that to brag, but we have 50 days, you know, and some people are like, oh, you got 50 days. That's why you're doing a million. Well, Charlie's doing four or five, Charlie's doing 4 out of two days.
00:46:45
Speaker
And like it's insane. So you can go work at his store if you want. Be fair, it's two doors, four lifts. It's It's still fucking incredible. Dude, it's six parking spots, too. Yeah. It's it's remarkable. And I've never met anyone like Charlie. I'm bummed that Charlie is sick this weekend. I was hoping he was going to be here. I wanted to get him on because he is the epitome of the American success story. Yes, yes. He's an immigrant who came here and busted his ass, and he's generation alone. He was making $20,000 a month revenue.
00:47:14
Speaker
not making. He was he was doing 20,000 a month when he met Todd and he's the hardest worker I've ever met, didn't speak English and combined his two stores will do a million a month. 900 and something thousand I think is his record. you know so He's doing 10 million plus out of two tiny stores that are a mile and a half apart in in in Boston and he's got a net worth of you know however many you know tens of millions of dollars and it's like He's a great lover. Hey, Todd. He is a product of Todd. He is a product of Todd's of training of his training. Well, lot he's also a product of him. He went and watched all of the webinars from 20 years ago. I haven't even done that, you know, so wow he's amazing and he did the work, right? He did the work. Well, hey, man. Thank you for spending the time. I know that we're having a party out in the lobby right now. so
00:48:07
Speaker
I appreciate it. Talk to you again soon. Yeah. Talk to you again soon. If anybody wants to come down to Houston, you know where to find us. Giddy up. Call Mike. Call Joe. Call Todd. Hit him on Facebook. See you guys. Later, players. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out, 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?
00:48:32
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 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.