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Ep 30 - Neal Maier | He Knows Where The Bodies Are Buried
243 Plays10 days ago
You've been hearing us talk about the benefits of Tekmetric for months now - ready to cave in and give it a try? Do that HERE
Marketing is...let's say...not my strong suit. Good thing there's Turnkey Marketing! Let Carrie-Lynn and her team help you with something that's not your strong suit either HERE
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In this episode, we talk with Neal Maier. Neal is someone who Mike has juuuust a little history with. Good history that is. Hopefully Neal feels the same! Neil and Mike take a trip down memory lane today and talk about their journeys through this industry. Oh and Bryan gets heated over O2 censors....again....
00:00 Mike has a confession
05:01 Tires Sustain Profitability
06:44 "Urgent Repairs Needed: Shaved Ball Joints"
10:59 "Costly Lessons Learned"
15:51 Evolving Marketing for Customer Journey
18:40 "Re-engaging Lost Customers Strategies"
21:01 Focus on Cost-Free Business Gains
25:08 "Pre-Qualified Offers Boost Return Visits"
27:21 Dispatcher's Stress Over Schedule Changes
32:49 Daily Car Processing Plan
36:00 Shop Confession: Off the Rails
40:22 "Laughing at Desperate Decisions"
41:41 Embracing Imperfection in Challenges
47:10 Event Planning and Expo Preparations
49:26 EV Safety Certification & Exam Proctors
53:50 Forklift Side Shift Adjustment
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Transcript
Leggett's Unconventional Car Repair
00:00:00
Speaker
I remember seeing Leggett pull a spark plug wire out of a trash can and put it on a car. I said, yep, that's good. That'll get you the dealer. Yeah.
00:00:14
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.
00:00:28
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings so easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Gallen.
Introduction to Neil Meyer and Tread Partners
00:00:46
Speaker
So in addition to what he what what Neil's company does, there's also some history there, and we'll reintroduce you in a minute. But Neil, out of college, not immediately out of college, i don't think, but shortly thereafter, started working for my father as a service advisor.
00:01:07
Speaker
Oh. And then became my dad's GM. Oh. um and was originally a partner in Carfix. And so we've known each other for a long time. He knew me when I was ah highly questionable character and made lots of poor choices. Oh, yesterday.
00:01:25
Speaker
I tried to suck him into my orbit of poor choices a couple of times, but he was way too mature for that. ah But he knows where the bodies are buried. So we have mutually assured destruction.
00:01:36
Speaker
So... Anyway, Neil Meyer, welcome to Confessions of a Shop Owner. how you doing, man? Thank you, guys. Great to be here. um Tell me a little bit about ah your company and what you do. And i'd also love for you to plug your podcast if you don't mind.
00:01:50
Speaker
Sure, sure. Gladly. um So ah I'm co-founder of Tread Partners. We're a digital, did excuse me, we're a digital marketing agency focused on multi-location tire dealers and auto repair shops.
00:02:07
Speaker
um Our podcast is Gain Traction. focused on a similar crowd on the, on the tire side of the world. And we've been at it for, we just celebrated our 15th year.
00:02:21
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's awesome. So I would tell you that, uh,
The 'Gain Traction' Podcast's Impact
00:02:27
Speaker
seemingly oversaturated as the, uh, independent aftermarket is for automotive repair podcast,
00:02:33
Speaker
It is inversely proportional. There's not really a lot of podcasts in the tire dealer space. And of the ones that are their tread partners is foreign um far and away the best and most well-known and well-followed.
00:02:46
Speaker
That'd be an interesting one to listen to. We sell we sell a fair amount of tires at Wilco Auto Care. Well, you're trying to grow your tire business you're a tire dealer and you're not familiar with it, you owe it to yourself to go and listen.
00:03:00
Speaker
Neil's not the host. He was smart enough to ah to pass that off to one of his guys. um But interviews with with successful tire dealers from around the country, interviews with manufacturers, reps, i it's just high quality stuff.
00:03:17
Speaker
So it's a gain traction podcast.
Tire Sales and Profitability Insights
00:03:21
Speaker
The best part of that podcast was introducing Mike Edge. So early on, I started it. I was the reluctant host and and I make an occasional appearance here and there.
00:03:34
Speaker
But along the way, i twisted Mike's arm into getting involved and turned out he absolutely loves it. So mike mike's ah Mike's a really good host and I'm thrilled. thrill be found it on my Spotify. I'm literally adding it so I can start listening to it because that would be...
00:03:52
Speaker
We were actually the in the region, we were the number one G3X independent Goodyear dealer. Oh, no kidding. At one point in time. So I don't know if we still are. The whole thing happened with Goodyear Wholesale and Tire Hub, and I don't know how they track that anymore or whatever. But um before that happened, we were the number one G3X in the Buffalo market.
00:04:10
Speaker
Got it. regardless you guys move some tires we move just a couple units which is why i laugh when people say you can't make any money on tires like well sure just listen to the guy that's moving 23 units a month to tell you how much money you can't make on tires that makes a lot of sense talk to the guy who's moving a couple thousand a month and see how much money you can make when your tire bills 80 grand a month maybe you can start talking about how much you can make on tires A really wise guy who um Mike and I had the pleasure of working for used used to tell us that it was really hard to beat the gross profit dollars per hour coming out of a tire bay.
TechMetric's Role in Shop Efficiency
00:04:51
Speaker
So here's the thing. Outdated SMS, just they don't just slow you down, they cost you money. And I learned at the hardware. Before TechMetric, I was wasting time on inefficient processes, manual updates, back and forth calls with customers.
00:05:04
Speaker
Now I handle everything in one place. DVI, customer communications, payments, real-time reporting, it's all in one page. Since making the switch, my average repair order has jumped from $293 to And sixteen dollars and it's not just me TechMetric powers almost shops nationwide. by the time you're hearing this, it probably will be shops.
00:05:26
Speaker
helping them grow and operate smarter. If you're tired of losing time and money to outdated systems, tap the link in the show notes and see what TechMetric can do for you. Here's the deal. i I like to think that I'm pretty good at running an auto repair shop.
00:05:39
Speaker
It's what I've done for 20 plus years, but I'm not good at managing a marketing budget and all the different facets of a truly well-rounded marketing plan. There's mail, there's local advertising, there's website, there's Google, AdWords, there's you know all the different things that go into that.
00:05:56
Speaker
And it's just not what I'm good at. So what I've chosen to do is to buy myself the time to focus on what I am good at while having someone else execute on all of those things at a way higher level than anything I could ever do.
00:06:11
Speaker
That's what turnkey auto marketing does for me. So if you feel like you could use some of that same magic, I'm going to recommend that you go to turnkeyautomarketing.com, get a free consultation. Tell them that I sent you, uh, tell them that confessions of a shop owner sent you.
00:06:27
Speaker
You won't be disappointed. It's true. The money's there. They have the big, beautiful buildings on the high traffic corners and we're all stuck in the back of an industrial, uh, zones. Tires make money.
00:06:38
Speaker
Um, tires when we bought our lockport shop tires floated that shop along the first couple years without tires we probably would have I can't say for sure but I'm guessing without tires we probably would have ended up throwing in the towel on that place you know tires tires make money and like you said yeah gross profit dollars per hour that's pretty good on tires I have a tangentially tire related confession to share about a total shit show that happened at one of my shops.
The Maybach Modification Dilemma
00:07:14
Speaker
It's actually ongoing right now. um Oh, it's a never ending shit show. Yeah, it's just kind of just what shit show do you want to talk about? Yeah. that's time yeah So I've got a a international professional basketball player.
00:07:31
Speaker
So he plays in Europe and South America and whatever else he's, I don't know how much those guys make. I know that it's not a ton, but they also have a desire to grow into the NBA, right? Keep up appearances and all that kind of stuff.
00:07:44
Speaker
So, um, he brought in his 2016 600 Maybach. boy. Uh,
00:07:52
Speaker
no boy or
00:07:56
Speaker
It's head over spray on his front radar sensor. TPMS light was on coolant was leaking everything else. Right. It's got 28. So, yeah. um And get it up on the lift and we get it off the ground and the passenger side front targets because the ball joint is just about to fall out.
00:08:18
Speaker
Right. It's not one of the reasons that he came in. Um, but it's like, this is fucking dangerous. a problem You know, we gotta do something about that. Right now. I wasn't involved at this point.
00:08:29
Speaker
Um, but, uh, they, sold him control arm of ball joint. Um, it sold both sides, uh, along with the other stuff that it needed. um, know, probably five or $6,000 ticket. And,
00:08:47
Speaker
and um I come in to the picture late last week and when it's about to be dispatched to the technician for service and he's like, Hey, um, the old ball joints and the spindle where the upper control arm come is held in have all been shaved significantly.
00:09:09
Speaker
Like the stud is shaved off the ball joint oh to allow for clearance and space for those 28 inch wheels and tires. And so we're going to have to shave the stud on the new ball joint.
00:09:20
Speaker
And I didn't really hear that. And I was like, yeah, I mean, just make the man safe, you know, whatever you gotta Um, and then I, uh, you heard it, but you just didn't comprehend it.
00:09:31
Speaker
You were like, yeah, whatever. I didn't put two and two together. Make it make a happen. Both the parts. I'm walking by Monday morning. I'm like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Holy shit. So the spindle, uh, where it comes up and the control arm comes into it was shaven so much to make clearance for this 28 inch wheel and tire package. Um,
00:09:52
Speaker
Not enough material was left in the spindle to hold the ball joint in place for long or through a hard impact. And I was like, well, thank you, Jesus, that we didn't do that shaving. But now we've put a ball joint in it.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, now you own the shaving. And I said, i like the wheel's not about to fall off anymore. But this is not safe. Sure. And so
Managing Shop Mistakes Gracefully
00:10:17
Speaker
what do you do? The jobs.
00:10:18
Speaker
I said, but don't do the other side because they'd only done the the side that was loose. I said, don't touch the other side. and
00:10:25
Speaker
I don't think we can charge this guy for this. I want to take a video and show him the before how loose it was. We already had that video and here's how it is now. And then show them how on paper that I did this job.
00:10:38
Speaker
Well, no, it's on paper, right? Yeah, right. It's like, voa you've got to go get new spindles and new wheels and tires. I'm not charging you for this control arm job. Well, you probably have the DVI from before, right?
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you I can show how it was. Yeah, you can be like, hey, man, I just got here. and It's in safer condition now than it was, but it's still sure sketchy as fuck. Oh, I hate modified suspensions. I i hate it.
00:11:04
Speaker
Well, there's a difference between a modified suspension and... i don't even like I don't even like the crap that companies sell that bolt on. ah I won't name any lift kit companies, but I don't um don't like any it.
00:11:17
Speaker
There's a reason if I walk out right now that my truck is stock height with stock tires and stock wheels because everything's garbage. It's hard to re-engineer a vehicle with a grinder.
00:11:30
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. Yeah, hard to re-engineer vehicle with a grinder. Especially a vehicle much over-engineering as a Mercedes S-Class. Well, it's all done for a reason.
00:11:41
Speaker
you know they they Maybe Mercedes, the financial end with Mercedes are arguably... may not be but most vehicles it's all if they could get away with using less material or less bolts they would have built it that way that's why gm took the bolts away from the blower motors because they saved two cents a car times a million cars a year and there you go right yeah um so are you going to give the vehicle owner keys the shop
00:12:14
Speaker
but what do you do at this point? Am I going to install wheels and tires and spindles and control arms just to get it to a safe condition? And then he's not going to be happy because he doesn't have 28 inch wheels on his Maybach?
00:12:29
Speaker
I mean, you shouldn't never touched it in the first place. Yeah, I mean, you're you know, we've we've had the same thing happen where we got involved we've been involved in things we shouldn't touched in the first place.
00:12:40
Speaker
It's a good reminder every once in a while. So you know what will happen now is you'll be safe from that kind of thing for a couple years. It'll take you a couple years before you make a similar mistake again. Yeah, a couple years, times three locations, times a bunch of cars. You a worthwhile lesson. Training's expensive, Mike.
00:12:55
Speaker
hit Well, yeah this is twice this year now. I've worked on a 6.4 diesel. Shouldn't have done that. Yeah. I don't feel bad for that one because people, well, I'm not qualified 6.4, but that Zeb's a qualified 6.4 diesel.
00:13:10
Speaker
You know, he made he made a million dollars rebuilding 6.4s. So when he told you not to work on it, you should have probably should have heeded that warning.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah. I just play one on television.
00:13:24
Speaker
So anyway, that's that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Um, so Neil, tell me, uh, sorry for the distraction and the tangential conversation. That's just, i don't know if you've ever listened to this show or not, but that's pretty much how it goes.
00:13:39
Speaker
I hope that you don't cause you deserve better. i've I've been, I've been known to listen. I especially had to listen to Zeb's episode about the six, four. Um, you know, it it, it does me a lot of good to hear these stories to, to, you know, brings back Some good memories, few nightmares along the way, but... yeah I want to meet all these people that don't ever have anything bad happen in their shop, and it's all pixie sticks, fairy dust, and rainbows all the time.
00:14:09
Speaker
Those guys are retired. They're liars. Yeah. that's I was thinking what Mike said. Yeah. Liar!
Customer Lifecycle Marketing Strategies
00:14:18
Speaker
Liar! So tell tell me about the journey of Tread Partners sure and its evolution over the years, because it was, ah you were targeting independent aftermarket initially, ah small mom and pop shops, and it evolved and and kind of what your sweet spot is now.
00:14:35
Speaker
So once i once I left the the repair business, um I went to work for a marketing agency and and kind of got my fill of automotive for a while and really wanted to do something wildly different.
00:14:52
Speaker
i I fell in love with marketing, but I wanted to market for all businesses, different businesses, you know, one to step outside the industry. 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.
00:15:10
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.
00:15:28
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.
00:15:40
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.
00:15:51
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. And that was the allure to to our group. um you know When I came on board, we were already up and running.
00:16:08
Speaker
And at that point, had built tons of websites. We'd worked for everything from dentists to manufacturers. um So I worked in that world for several years, but along the way, we always had some automotive clients.
00:16:26
Speaker
And the more we kept talking about it, Dave, my my business partner, Dave and kept just leaning back on our roots, which both of us came from the automotive aftermarket.
00:16:40
Speaker
Dave owned a couple of collision shops. I came from auto repair and tires. And frankly, that's just where we were most successful, most comfortable. And through the years, we we kept talking about rebranding eventually and just getting back into this world.
00:16:58
Speaker
So there are a lot of agencies the that work in work in the auto repair and tire business both, but none really focused on what it took to serve a multi-location group.
00:17:12
Speaker
And in for us, multi-location is five to ah thousand locations. So we built the business around that, around taking all the things we learned in the single location side and make it work for multi-location.
00:17:30
Speaker
So we're good at scaling. So one of the things that I've enjoyed about our relationship over the years, Neil, is your ability to think creatively around marketing and customer acquisition, um recapture of lost customers, that kind of thing. i think you've got a mind for marketing and you're also not stuck in old ways. You're willing to try new shit and, and you know, experiment. And I've always enjoyed
00:18:03
Speaker
working with your agency, whomever you were working with at the time since you left, since you left dad's business. um What types of things are you seeing right now that are working for your clients that might be able to work for our listeners effectively also?
00:18:22
Speaker
So i one, Mike, I really appreciate that. And i think that one of the one of the things that's made us successful is we're we're always uncomfortable, right? but we We never like sitting still.
00:18:37
Speaker
And i feel like marketing of all things has to continuously evolve and grow. Um, no one of the things we've been working on over the past year or two is thinking hard about the customer life cycle, right? The the customer journey going from, I've heard of car fix to, I'm going to, I'm going to cross that bridge and and come in for the first time to, I'm going to be a repeat customer on to, i love this place so much. I'm going to tell all my friends or I'm going to go somewhere else.
00:19:13
Speaker
and And if you you think about, it's it's really a pretty simple process, but if you think about those customer stages, marketing needs to be present at every level.
00:19:25
Speaker
So we've we've and found a lot of success at working to fill those gaps. So if if you think about the, you know, the, the, just the initial stage of I've heard of car fix, right? Think about social ads and that sort of thing.
00:19:42
Speaker
But on the complete opposite end, what happens when, you know, Betty Smith, your great long time customer who's spent tens of thousands of dollars doesn't show up for eight months.
00:19:55
Speaker
Do you do anything to try to get her back? And frankly, that's been a ah ah really big win for our clients is targeting that side of the business to just get the people who've just kind of gotten busy.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's never an ill will situation. It's always, they just got busy, right? they They stopped at the quick loop, got an oil change, different sticker on the windshield. That was pretty easy.
00:20:21
Speaker
And now you haven't seen them in a year. So taking those really, you know, we call them your, your, your best lost customers, following them, make sure that they come back is key to maintain a healthy business. That's a great point. I mean, we see that happen often.
00:20:39
Speaker
We'll see, you know, we won't see a car for a year. It'll be state inspection time and the things broke six different ways. And it's like, why the heck didn't I see this thing six months ago? And it's, you know,
00:20:50
Speaker
Usually because we told them it was going to be two weeks before they could get in for an oil change. So they to go somewhere else. usually half our fault. Right. So that's, that's really good point. Yeah. really nervous It's just convenience half the time. I mean, they just get busy.
00:21:05
Speaker
Sometimes they buy a new car, but it's generally, they just get busy. Yeah. So lets let's say that we've got a listener who's a small business and maybe they don't have the budget to hire an organization like your own or like Turnkey or something like that to track this list down. Most point of sale softwares have the ability to for you to review your customer base and rank them and and find out who your good customers are.
00:21:32
Speaker
And then you can cross section that with, how long since the last visit, right? And if they spend more than eight, nine months, then you can say that those are lost customers, ah potentially, if it's more than 12 months, they're definitely lost customers ah who have been good customers.
00:21:48
Speaker
If somebody needs to manage that on their own, is it pick up the phone and call them? Is it send them a letter? Is it send them an email? Is it all of those things or is it staggered? but What's your ideal?
00:22:00
Speaker
Well, one, TechMetric produces a perfect report for this, right? There's an ideal report that will show you spend history and last visit.
00:22:14
Speaker
So I'd look for anyone you haven't seen in six months or longer, and then I'd sort them by either ARO or sort them by lifetime spend. and And just look top down and and I'd call the most valuable ones, right? I'd just pick up the phone.
00:22:31
Speaker
Hey, you know, this is Neil. It's been a long time since I've seen you. Just wanted to make sure everything's okay, right? Just call him because we miss you. And I think just doing something that simple doesn't have to be complicated. You can leave a voicemail, but just that touch point that we noticed you're gone, right?
00:22:51
Speaker
That does more than any offer you can present. So that'd be step one. it's It's all the free things first. That's free. Yeah. Step two, email them.
00:23:02
Speaker
Right. And and most most of the systems now will send emails automatically when people go missing, but send them a personal email. Just a quick note that simple. Hey, just wanted you to we miss you.
00:23:14
Speaker
Give me a call there's ever something I can do to help. and And then past that, you know you can move on to to direct mail pieces. you know there's There's a dozen different ways to go about it, but i quite frankly, I think the the the free pieces have the the greatest results.
00:23:31
Speaker
So, um, obviously one of my pet peeves over the years with, uh, 20 group meetings, uh, has been that, uh, you know, we go in and we spend three days at somebody's shop and then we spend a half a day telling them all the different ways they need to spend a hundred thousand dollars on their landscaping and their, you know, paint the walls everything else. We don't, we don't focus on the low hanging fruit that doesn't cost much that can make them more money. Right.
00:23:59
Speaker
um So always look for the things that are free or inexpensive that can help your business bottom line. and so I appreciate that. One of the things that was really neat that we've been experimenting with and yeah i don't know if this is a ah waste of time for you or not, if or if something that that you can offer a la carte to other clients or not, but ah was we identified that list of missing customers that we wanted to try to recapture.
00:24:31
Speaker
we had their addresses already, right? And you had a service where you could go and identify the IP addresses at that home. And then we could start pushing digital ads to them that were customized to We Miss You or, you know,
00:24:46
Speaker
certain amount off of anything or whatever, whatever the compelling ad was to come through. And so they're getting calls, they're getting emails, they're getting direct mail and they're getting digital ads on their YouTube TV or on their device when they're logged into their, uh, any device and and that IP address. Right.
00:25:04
Speaker
Uh, so it's kind of, that Is that omni-channel? Is that what that is? Well, in this case, it's it's just IP targeting. um But omni-channel being we're we're trying to touch them every possible way.
00:25:19
Speaker
and And I think that's really, as an agency, that's where we come in is is once the shop's done all the normal things. Now let us let us go after hard-to-reach customers. group, right? The the ones who who haven't responded to the phone calls or emails.
00:25:36
Speaker
The returns off that are are are tremendous. it's when When we started this a long time ago, we put ah initially put 10 to 1 guarantee on it. And I'm proud to say I never had to write a check.
00:25:49
Speaker
um Really? ah um Unlike a ball joint in an S600. i i feel pretty confident in what I'm doing. And um now it's netted some very real results. And and there's there's no secret to it other than just just staying in front of people.
00:26:09
Speaker
um Offer-wise, i've we've experimented with dozens of offers, and I think the piece that's had the biggest impact has been going to a $50, no-strings-attached offer.
00:26:25
Speaker
So you're qualifying the list, right? You're taking all the people out who have the $20 ARO. we we We don't want the person who just comes us. was going to ask you what offer you feel like gets the most traction with this. That's it. That's it. Is that $50, no strings attached?
00:26:44
Speaker
And and you know we have to argue for that that offer every so often to have Literally no strings, no expiration date. but This is this a great customer. They're already qualified.
00:26:57
Speaker
You've already done the hard part. You've brought them in yeah right you multiple times. You get a customer with a $900 ARO, giving them a $50 no strings attacks offer really isn't a problem.
00:27:07
Speaker
No, no. and And, you know, if you really miss somebody, prove it. Show show them show them that that that you valued their business. um the The interesting part is the the redemption rate on that offer is not any higher than the redemption rate on any other offer, right? It's just a couple of percentage points.
00:27:28
Speaker
But the point is youre you've planted the seed, right? you've You've put your name back in front and... they begin to come back in the door. Well, one of the things, uh, and this is anecdotal, but that we noticed when we did that was because these are pre-qualified known spenders, not typically penny pinchers.
00:27:52
Speaker
Um, they'll come back and not even bring the $50 coupon. It's just, it rings their bell that, Oh yeah. And they'll come back and, and,
00:28:04
Speaker
Be happy see him. So we'll pull the report monthly. was like, well, we only got you know nine of those offers turned in. But of the 300 people that we sent this 40 of them came back. Yeah. Yeah. So some of that is just they...
00:28:20
Speaker
yeah know they They came back naturally of their own volition, but you got to think that those touch points put us back top of mind. Or it reminded them them we had slipped yeah it reminded them to schedule. They're like, you know what? I really like this place better than the quick lube.
00:28:33
Speaker
And it reminded them to just schedule a little ahead of time instead of yeah wait till the last minute or you name it Or you could just say yes and bring it in.
00:28:43
Speaker
Must be nice to have all them bays, Mike. You got tons of bays. Yeah. Yeah. Lockport's got what, like 12 bays? No, no.
00:28:54
Speaker
They only have 12. No, they only have six. No, they only have six. can change the the parking lot and strain it into gravel. yeah In the summertime, you've got a parking lot.
00:29:06
Speaker
Well, actually, in Sanborn, we're backed up next to the railroad tracks. So three feet off the back wall is actually CSX's problem. So we could probably do that there. And there's a lot of gravel there, so that'll drain real nice.
00:29:16
Speaker
just like as As long as you rake the gravel every couple of weeks, and it'll be hard to tell. Yeah, I don't know how all this oil from these new 6.2 liters is going to go into the gravel, but there's a lot of metal in that oil. It'll probably sit on top.
00:29:30
Speaker
But, um yeah, for most cars, it'll probably be fine. Just roll a magnet through every week. Yeah. Yeah. so I wish I could get there, Mike. I wish I could... ah i'd love I'd love to have a single frickin' 30 bay facility and just not have to tell people they have to wait.
00:29:51
Speaker
I'd love it. So at at the big shop, um our dispatcher is also the head of the Rack Attack team. And she is given to strong reactions to things that mess up the schedule that she has in her head. She's like an air traffic controller for, you know, the flow in the shop.
00:30:10
Speaker
And up front, it's like, guys, just fucking say yes and figure out a way to make it work. Give the customer service, make them happy, give them a ride home, whatever you got to do, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
And
00:30:25
Speaker
Wednesday of last week, we had six appointments on the schedule, which is really low for us. It was dead for us. And I said, I don't want to hear a single phone call where we're not finding a way to get them in today.
00:30:36
Speaker
Right. And they, can I come pick it up? Yeah. Yeah. They, so they ended up ah selling $25,000 worth of service that day on 18 cars.
00:30:48
Speaker
So it was a pretty good day. I'll, I'll take that all day long. And Liz was furious all day because all of these cars were coming in that weren't on the schedule and weren't on her, uh, weren't on her radar.
00:30:58
Speaker
What's the difference?
00:31:01
Speaker
last night, yeah everybody's waiting. Uh, you know, it's yes yesterday at four 30, we took in a waiter without an appointment yeah and, uh, you know, she was beside herself, $1,200 authorization and gave him a ride home. And you know,
00:31:16
Speaker
you know brian And once we give them a ride home, we control the timeframe. Mike and I grew up in ah and a shop. And when I've listened to you guys talk about the rack attack, and um of I've known Todd for for a long time, and i've I've seen it work with some of our clients, and I just think about what we could have done in in that shop.
00:31:42
Speaker
17 bays, there's a room. And the good part is we were pretty good at saying, bring it on in. um always felt like our job was to turn the building on its end, jump up and down, try to cram more cars in every day.
00:31:56
Speaker
I remember in the early ninety s On Saturdays, ah we're only at one end of the door and you get there and there was a line of people at the door wrapping around the corner of the building. There'd be 13, 14 people in line.
00:32:12
Speaker
And on a typical day at that point, this is before dad ah started going to Kelly Bennett classes and before he joined RL O'Connor and the 20 group. On a full day, there'd be over 100 And was...
00:32:26
Speaker
um and it was And an 18-wheeler of Goodyear's every week would come in and unload in the back warehouse. I mean, he was slinging some rubber. um But also, we didn't do fuck-all when it came to actual mechanical repair. you know I remember seeing... a leg it, pull a spark plug wire out of a trash can and put it on a car. So, yep, that's good. That'll get you the dealer.
00:32:53
Speaker
just so That's called meatball surgery, Mike. Some brakes and oil On a really busy day, we'd we'd run 120 cars through and ah we'd have about a $95 ticket average.
00:33:09
Speaker
um That was ah was in the late 90s. We didn't know better, right? It was just we had all these cars and the only way you're going to service all those cars was $10.
00:33:22
Speaker
to just hurry up. I'm counting the, uh, I'm counting the cars on the schedule for the Sanborn shop right now. Yeah. You do pretty high volume there. I was talking to, yesterday I was talking to Taylor Wilson, who is outside of Galveston, Texas.
00:33:38
Speaker
Uh, and we were talking about, um, all the different options that are out there for, uh, call monitoring and grading using AI tools. Um, and he realized that his store is getting over 4,000 calls a month.
00:33:55
Speaker
Uh, and it's not a 40 bay shop with 10, you know, 10 advisors. Uh, it's just, I can't even fathom. We have 41 cars, 41 new cars on the schedule today at the same for six bays.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yep. Gonna be a busy day. Well, they can just... What ARO are you guys around there? You don't have to fix them all. That's the thing. People get all people get all like, oh my gosh, how are we going get all these cars done? You're not. You're going to do triage, right? I don't promise anybody a fixed car.
00:34:27
Speaker
They're like, my ABS light is on. Okay. I evaluated your ABS light. You need a wheel bearing. We'll have the part later today. We'll have time to put it on whenever, you know, you name it, right?
00:34:39
Speaker
It's not, it's not a big deal. Everybody gets all, I just talked to another shop owner that just hired a guy and the guy's a lead tech and the lead tech is getting all frazzled about all these work orders he's got on his toolbox. And I'm like,
00:34:53
Speaker
oh I don't know, as a guy who's been experienced in fixing a lot of cars, I don't get frazzled if they put 50 work orders on my toolbox at 8 in the morning. Like, we're going to get done what we get done. They're here, right? Once the car's here, ain't using the word trapped, but like, what are they going to do?
00:35:11
Speaker
That's a business of managing expectations. Yeah. You're like, hey, get the here. that's the technician's problem. That's the advisor's problem. Yeah. Get the car down here. And we're going to work through as fast as possible. I'm probably going dykes per day. I'm probably going to get through 13 or 14 and do a little bit of mechanical work in there. And I'm going process this many cars a day, these many, you know, and sometimes they have to sit. Sometimes they got to sit for two weeks. You know, this one needs an engine. Well, the engine will be here in three days and we can, it's going be two weeks before I can put on the schedule to put your engine in.
00:35:45
Speaker
You know what I mean? And then it's got to shuffle across the street to the fleet shop or something like that, you know? Well, that's also your marketplace, right? Because every market's different. So you don't have a lot of high-level competition.
00:35:57
Speaker
No. Right? if you're in like Houston is one of the craziest markets I've ever seen. Yeah, we just had this we just had this conversation this week. If I had to fix Range Rovers in Houston, I would probably go out of business.
00:36:10
Speaker
You'd be busy. Yeah. Yeah. Probably wouldn't be that great at it, but I'm pretty good at doing what I do here. Well, if I had to go run a shop in Buffalo, New York, I'd last.
00:36:23
Speaker
Buffalo, you'd be okay. Buffalo, you'd be okay. countt ran out Up here north of the railroad tracks, probably not too hot. I think you can shave spindles anywhere in the country. Yeah.
00:36:35
Speaker
and I didn't shave the spindle. Okay. You know, there's, there's, and there's, that's the other thing. I mean, there's capable shops around. um but They're few and far between, but you know, some of them, them guys, you know, they're, they're technicians turn shop owners. They've been around the block and they, and they're not, I'm not saying they're technician turn shop owners. Like they don't, they're, they run their business. They have good numbers.
00:37:01
Speaker
They have very good numbers. and you know i have a friend who's a technician turned shop owner and he is capable of fixing anything i can fix but like some of these jobs we take on he's just like nah i don't need the headache i'll just i'll just do these other cars you know what i mean it's well it's just it's a sudden your experience you've been in or been involved in or seen the numbers for thousands of shops all over North America, the most successful businesses, how many of them started with a technician mindset versus a business mindset?
00:37:46
Speaker
What do you say?
00:37:49
Speaker
I think very few started with technician mindset and if they did they pivoted off of it yeah um it's it's hard to hard to survive that way um i i also think you know the the old adage that the riches are in the niches ah the, some of the most profitable operations I've ever seen have been very narrow in what they do.
00:38:13
Speaker
Sure. Now, especially if you've got 25 bays, it's really hard to say we're going to be land Rover only unless you're in, in a, in a market that supports it.
00:38:25
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. Right. Sure. Or next to the dealership. Yeah. With a big billboard. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I typically ask our guests for a confession about something that has run completely off the rails at your shop recently.
Challenges in Auto Repair
00:38:43
Speaker
um So you can either tell me about something that ran completely off the rails at Tread Partners or something that ran completely off the rails at Auto Protocol back in the day. Auto Protocol is my dad's shop where Neil ran it for for years.
00:38:58
Speaker
So I could probably come up with one of each with without without thinking really hard. you come up with one at Auto Protocol where the owner's kid came in and really jacked shit around?
00:39:10
Speaker
Oh, I mean, those those are difficult difficult to narrow down, really. They they they kind of blur.
00:39:20
Speaker
He gets a wheelbarrow out of his closet full of notes.
00:39:26
Speaker
ah Well, actually. You know, the the the car that sticks in my mind the most was was this PT Cruiser that that that came in and had check engine light on.
00:39:40
Speaker
And we went back and diagnosed it as an oil sending unit. that had gone bad and pushed oil up the wire e into the harness. Pretty common failure.
00:39:54
Speaker
Filled the computer. Yep. and And the fortunate part was we were able to diagnose that after already replacing half the engine. Ooh. We had did a dozen different things along the way before we decided to drain the ECM.
00:40:13
Speaker
so yeah by the time the draining fill yeah yeah they still do that those those chryslers still do that i just cloned a gpec 3 for a local shop and he hands me the old one so i called him up i go what kind of problems are you having with this he's talking about it i go did you notice all the oil on the transmission plug on this pcm because the that you know one side kind of runs the engine stuff and the other side kind of runs transmission stuff it's all one No, I go, I go, it's probably got oil in the, I go, this going to fix your problem, but the new one's just going to do it again. You're going have to put a solenoid pack in it or figure out what's leaking.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah, that happens. I mean, people miss stuff. People like to act like they don't ever miss anything. I stared at the scan tool for an hour and a half the other day on Jeep air suspension because the freaking button was stuck with coffee in it.
00:41:03
Speaker
and You know, that freaking crap happens. It happens. I mean, this no one outside this industry can ever appreciate just how difficult and how complicated some of these diagnosis processes are. Sure. um You know, i think I think we kept that that PT Cruiser for...
00:41:23
Speaker
probably four months. And, and, you know, if there's ever one that I wanted to buy and crush, that was certainly at the top of the list. That was always our back-up. Have ever car from a customer so that you can stop working on it? Brian?
00:41:39
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah. I have a Volkswagen, a two rig. Outback with a VR6 in it that I bought because it was going to be, I'm still figuring out, it's a case study car. It's sitting out back and I'm actually, actually this summer it's going get towed down to my house.
00:41:57
Speaker
And after the kids go to bed on Saturday night or whatever, that's what I'm going to pick a way at. I'm going to figure out a way to prove that the fuel pump, the injection pump timing is off without pulling the engine out. Cause there's, there's two ways to prove it. Invent some way to prove it.
00:42:10
Speaker
or pull the engine out so you can get at the timing on the rear of the engine. And um I have no intentions of pulling that motor. But yeah, 100 percent. 100 percent. I think I've told you my VR6.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah, you had to buy a known good running one to make sure you had one that ran. Yeah. Well, am a dumb ass sold a used VR6 motor because I'm a dumb ass. And this is this is early car fix days. This is probably 2007, 2008.
00:42:38
Speaker
And after we had three of them that never made it out of the parking lot, I went, I drove to New Bern, which is two hours away. And you drove it back so you could pull the engine out.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah. And bought a car from somebody and then drove it back to the shop. You know, you know, Mike, I'm not, I'm laughing at the idea of that, not at you, because I think that if I got in a ringer too much, I could totally, I could totally see myself doing that.
00:43:07
Speaker
Like, i i don't I don't know that it'll ever happen, but i can I can understand how you get there from here. I don't, you let's you know, when you're out in the weeds, when you're out in the weeds and you're just bleeding dollars and you um need the thing to go away, the things that you'll do are just not even not even for the customer, for your own mindset sometimes, right?
00:43:32
Speaker
So, yeah, we have we have some that we've bought. We have a Toyota we put a motor in that we bought because when the motor got installed, the block got cracked.
00:43:42
Speaker
um And we were like, we just we can't put a motor in this again. How much do want the car? Does anybody want to buy Maybach? Best I can do is tree-fitty. Yeah, so it it happens.
00:43:55
Speaker
Most... but most ah Most shop owners you see in these forums that run a supposed pretty tight operation have a story about a car that they've bought.
00:44:06
Speaker
You know, it's not, it is what it is, man. it's It's part of the business. You know, you can't, nobody's perfect all the time. And if you run into a situation where you're like, I've never heard of ever having to do anything like what these guys are talking about, you're probably not actually doing any of the hard stuff.
00:44:23
Speaker
That's, you know, that's the reality. um If you're getting involved in a lot of hard stuff and situations that are getting past a lot of people, you're probably going to have a situation that comes up that even you can't get past.
00:44:38
Speaker
I think it has a lot to do with wanting to stay in the community you're in and maintaining a good reputation. Sure, 100%. one hundred percent
00:44:50
Speaker
There comes a point where where it's it's not ah it's not a ah ah quantifiable, it's not a financial decision on its face anymore. right It's it's what ah what do we need to do to maintain our reputation and not have...
00:45:04
Speaker
this review that would make anyone cringe. You know, Wilco didn't get this right, but they really took care of me on this deal and they made it right. So even when they don't get it right, they still get it right.
00:45:16
Speaker
You know, it's exactly, you know, where there was Mike will remember that there was a ah ah Euro shop in Carrboro who had a ah phenomenal reputation, little tiny shop.
00:45:29
Speaker
And, And I remember this is probably 2001. I remember them running a magazine ad in town that said, you'll never know how good we are until we make a mistake.
00:45:44
Speaker
and And that has stuck with me. I wish as as a marketer at some point we we'd get to run that for somebody. yeah one make in I mean, that's it, right? is is you You won't know. You'll never know how much we care until there's a problem.
00:46:01
Speaker
And then understanding the perception of your mistake, right? Like there's things that happen. that are simple oversight that were not preventable due to XYZ, right? Like i I replaced this on a customer's car, because this is the code that it had, but that code's a blocking condition for running this other test.
00:46:19
Speaker
Now I have a car coming back. It's the same light as far as they're concerned. It's one check engine lighter. You name it. And it needs this other component. And the other component couldn't be tested before. It was simply the the PCM wasn't testing it. There were no codes. This is a different failure. You name it.
00:46:35
Speaker
Man, 99% of the time, I'm just going to freaking fix it. Because it's a perception thing. It doesn't matter that I'm right. It's perception is reality for them. It doesn't matter that I'm right.
00:46:47
Speaker
So is it further ahead for me to just buy $300 component and throw the thing on and not charge them labor or anything and be like, hey, this is what happened. I took care of it for You're all set. Have a nice day, right?
00:46:59
Speaker
we do We do stuff like that quite a bit. I mean, ah now it's not like all the time, but, you know, like when so when a situation like that comes up, I don't know. do it when you have to.
00:47:09
Speaker
Yeah, and that's why you charge. That's why you charge properly so you can afford to do it when you have to do that. I was like talking to a shop owner last week who had had a new customer come in they'd They'd already been to another shop, spent thousands of dollars trying to fix a problem, right didn't get solved, comes into them and they do a whole bunch of suspension work.
00:47:33
Speaker
And she picks up the car, drives to the hospital to go pick up one of her co nurse nurse coworkers. And right out front of the hospital, it spills its coolant guts.
00:47:45
Speaker
So she calls calls him, you know, he he drives over to to come take a look at it. Sure. and no They never raised the hood, right? It had nothing to do, but nonetheless.
00:47:57
Speaker
um and And he he told the told the customer, he said, this this is every shop owner's nightmare. is some things happen. it has It's not your fault. It's not my fault.
00:48:08
Speaker
But what I can tell you is you don't have to worry about anything from here. I'm going to take care of it. Yeah. At that point, he had two, three nurses all standing around. So sometimes you got to control perception and be sure that everybody knows that you are as good as your word.
00:48:24
Speaker
yeah So he went back and Put a radiator in the car for nothing. Yeah, because the perception is she just had it at the shop. She she spent $3,500, whatever the magic number is. Right. I just spent $3,500. I didn't make it 20 minutes and this car is broke down.
00:48:41
Speaker
what What do you do? Yeah, you fix it. And and that that's their perception. they don't They don't understand. if If she understood the difference in systems, she wouldn't be a nurse. She'd be in auto repair, right? Like that's that's the thing. So the perception is the reality and it's not their fault.
00:48:58
Speaker
It's not their fault. It's the limit of their education and experience on the subject. So you have to, unfortunately, which is very hard for technicians because like i'm ah I'm a very black and white person, right? Like fixed bad. Like I don't,
00:49:11
Speaker
I don't look at alternative repairs when I'm doing something. I'm like, okay, this is no good and we have to put this in and that's the bottom line because Brian said so, right? and But sometimes you get to a point where you're like, okay, how do I handle this?
00:49:26
Speaker
don't want to look like a jerk, so on and so forth. you know So yeah, perception is reality with that and taking care of and stuff is a huge deal. So can I change the subject real quick and talk about training?
Highlights of the Upcoming ASTA Expo
00:49:40
Speaker
Sure. I'm going to, even if you say no. um Brian and I are about to go to Tools PA, which is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, end of the month.
00:49:51
Speaker
And I think this episode will ah probably be published just before that. Looking forward to that. um And Brett Fadley and all the gang out there.
00:50:02
Speaker
It's a growing show. soon as we're done with that, it's time to start kicking it into high gear for ASTA Expo. And we just ah met last week for the third of our um planning and scheduling meetings about which courses are going to be offered and, you know, assigning classrooms and scheduling and that kind of thing.
00:50:27
Speaker
We have 93 class slots. for the expo this year. And we had 120 some courses submitted. So it's huge. It's like, it's amazing. And you know, the, the great thing about this new place that we're at, Brian, you haven't been to it yet, but it's the, the downtown Raleigh convention center it's mammoth.
00:50:48
Speaker
So if we fill this out this year, we just get bigger next year and we can expand multiple times before we expand to the capacity of this facility, because I mean, they have events with 10,000 people at this facility, right?
00:50:59
Speaker
So um I'm super pumped about that. But one of the cool things that's going to be happening is um and We're 99% of the way there to be sure that it's going to happen. So I feel like I can talk about it on Thursday because there's a the primary event is Friday and Saturday, but there are add on classes that you can get on Thursday.
00:51:21
Speaker
um The crew from AvTech is going to be out there doing two different four hour courses back to back. But the first one is going to be um EV safety certification, hands on.
00:51:32
Speaker
and So the didactic or the classroom portion is in the morning. And then there's going to be an EV in the hallway of the expo roped off. and And if you took that class and pass the written test, you sign up for a time slot to take the hands-on test.
00:51:49
Speaker
And you can get yourer your certificate, your hands-on certificate at the expo. at the expo um That's freaking awesome. Yeah. And so Dutch is going to be one of the he's going to attend and he's going to get he's going to be the first one to take the test.
00:52:04
Speaker
And assuming he doesn't fail, don't fail Dutch. He's going to be one of the the exam proctors, but, you know, he's he's going to do fine. ah So it'll be a mix of Dave McHoltz, Dutch and Jim Kakonas will be proctoring the exams.
00:52:20
Speaker
Um, and so if you have, if you're looking to get into the EV space, uh, and you want to check some of those safety requirement boxes off, send your shop foreman or some of your texts to that Thursday class. And then can get the, they can take the hands-on certification exam at the expo Friday or Saturday and get their safety certificate on site they can take it home with them.
00:52:42
Speaker
Uh, so I think that's pretty awesome. Um, got a bunch of hands-on classes that we're going to be doing. um a ton of management and ownership courses, a ton of marketing classes.
00:52:53
Speaker
We've got technical classes for apprentice and entry level all the way up to high level master tech courses. um think we're going to have a couple of Spanish language courses.
00:53:05
Speaker
um We're going to have ah A bunch of the community colleges and high school program, automotive programs around North Carolina are going to be there showing off some of their projects and their students are going to be there.
00:53:17
Speaker
It's just, this is going to be awesome. I'm, I'm super excited about The facility is awesome. It's new. It's, it's up to date. um The hotels that are available are awesome. There's tons to do because you're downtown. So there's tons of activities and restaurants and and nightlife and walking distance. Yeah.
00:53:34
Speaker
um I'm just pumped up about it. So I wanted to give a shameless plug. And I knew that Neil would listen to that because Neil's also on the board of ASTA with, is going to be there. So are you going to be there this year? I know that you were at a 20 group meeting last year.
00:53:48
Speaker
I will be absolutely awesome looking looking forward to it. and And I want to say one, one more thing. um This is, you know, no longer hasn't been for a while. It's it's not just a North Carolina thing. Yeah.
00:54:03
Speaker
You know, the the attendees are from all over the country. And i'm I'm really proud of of what Mike's worked hard to build. um is is you know It's becoming the preeminent training event in the Southeast.
00:54:18
Speaker
It really is. um It's an unbelievable, the training there is unbelievable. The amount of people that attend the networking, you know, is pretty much. I can confirm I did go check out the hotel lobby bar. It is large, lots of different seating areas, has a really good whiskey selection. They don't close at 11, they?
00:54:38
Speaker
I would doubt it. and It's downtown. Okay, good. Last time i was at that bar, it was at 1.30 in the morning on New Year's morning. So I've been downtown for New Year's Eve. There are plenty of options within but walking distance.
00:54:51
Speaker
Stumbling distance, yeah Uber distance, whatever.
00:54:55
Speaker
But it's going to be, it's going to be badass. So ASTAexpo.com or you can go to ASTAusa.org and follow the link there. But the website for the show itself is ASTAexpo.com.
00:55:08
Speaker
Check it out. um Also, Brian, you haven't. shared uh with us uh something that's gone horribly wrong in your business recently i feel like we need pollock horribly wrong i mean everything that goes wrong is terrible i don't know i mean your toolbox setup situation is embarrassing right now because feng shui is all fucked up and the the jet jet ski the uh snowmobile that you have on top of your toolbox is off center oh yeah no it's not the actual snowmobile centered
00:55:43
Speaker
right You heard it here first. He has a snowmobile on top of his toolbox. It is a 78 John Deere trail fire. I think you need to get a 2001 Thundercat and put it up there.
00:55:54
Speaker
ah which Which one? Got a couple. Not a problem. Not a problem. um You know, being in a farming community, you know, we had a couple back and forth. You know, it was going to get a 25 Articat Catalyst at first for the summer.
00:56:10
Speaker
And then this John Deere came up and, you know, having a John Deere snowmobile in a farming community was obviously the marketing thing. choice of the pros. um So that got put up there. I do have to paint the palette, but the actual machine itself is centered.
00:56:26
Speaker
Now, maybe I haven't showed you I think Friday, Thursday or Friday, we have a couple of forklifts, but none i have side shift. And the easiest way to move that centered was side shift. And I went down at unit step and I borrowed their cat forklift because they have sides shift and I side shifted it over a little bit.
00:56:43
Speaker
So we're just sketching. You need to post pictures of the setup in the group so that everyone can agree with me that until you get the palette painted, it looks like the palette needs to be painted black. Um, and you know, I've heard a lot of suggestions and, um, I'm definitely open. If somebody else wants to show me, um, their cooler snowmobile on their cooler toolbox, just send me a picture, man.
00:57:05
Speaker
It's fine. Yeah. Show me how much how many some of our Canadian listeners might be up for that challenge. So, um, all right. One last thing that I want to share, uh, before we let you go, Neil, and I know that this is really important to you to hear.
00:57:19
Speaker
You probably didn't listen to a recent episode where Brian talked about his foray into feetfinder.com where he sold pictures of his feet for money. I did not. I missed it. but Successfully.
00:57:31
Speaker
Successfully. Made 150 bucks off of selling pictures of his feet and he got some custom requests. ah Someone requested that he take a video of his feet smushing into cream cheese.
00:57:42
Speaker
um But it, ah reportedly he did not, uh, actually follow through with that request. Uh, I, I'm saying that he should, but, um, on our next episode that we record, we have a voicemail from the person who submitted the request for cream cheese. You're going have to listen to the next episode to hear no the voicemail from the person who submitted the cream cheese request.
00:58:10
Speaker
Oh, no. Oh, yeah. It's so good. Oh, no. And I'm not going to let you hear it. You're going to listen to for the first time live. Oh, no. As we record. Oh, great. so is Is this the point now where we shift and talk about politics and religion?
00:58:27
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. We talked about Ryan's burgeoning OnlyFans career. Yeah, the feet thing was just a stupid bet around a campfire that happened to work out, so it's kind of funny.
00:58:38
Speaker
It'll be my always claim to fame, how I put my ugly ass feet on the internet made hundred and made $150. I think it's going to be quality content, I got to tell you. i feel like there's some shorts coming up.
00:58:52
Speaker
Anyway. Are we going to that live at Tools in Pennsylvania? o
00:58:57
Speaker
Well, we're recording with Tanika soon. So I thought that Tanika would be a good guest to have to listen to all that poor things the foot voicemail. I would have done it today, but I don't have it queued up appropriately in the and in the app. so I hate I missed it.
00:59:16
Speaker
I'm happy to send it to you. but um Anyway, Neil, thanks so much for coming on, man. I really appreciate it. Hey, thank you, guys. It's a pleasure. we have a listener who is ah falls into that five-store or more tire-heavy focus, how can they reach out to you?
Connecting with Neil Meyer and the Show
00:59:34
Speaker
Sure. You can find me on LinkedIn or you can find us at treadpartners.com. Okay. okay And, um, gain traction podcast with Mike edge.
00:59:45
Speaker
That's it. That's awesome. Thanks dude. I appreciate you. Thank you guys. Thanks for listening to confessions of a shop owner where we lay it all out, the good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink.
01:00:03
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.
01:00:18
Speaker
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.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.