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Confessions of a Shop Owner is hosted by Mike Allen, a third-generation shop owner, perpetual pot-stirrer, and brutally honest opinion sharer. In this weekly podcast, Mike shares his missteps so you don’t have to repeat them. Along the way, he chats with other industry personalities who’ve messed up, too, pulling back the curtain on the realities of running an independent auto repair shop.
But this podcast isn’t just about Mike’s journey. It’s about confronting the divisive and questionable tactics many shop owners and managers use. Mike is here to stir the pot and address the painful truths while offering a way forward. Together, we’ll tackle the frustrations, shake things up, and help create a better future for the auto repair industry.
[Sasha Holley] (0:00 - 0:24)
And that's what changed our mindset on, you know, labeling it, oh, I need an A-Tech, right? But do we? If I could spend the time with a like-minded, automotive-minded, diag, read-a-diagram-minded person for a year and a half to get them almost to what you thought you wanted to hire, man.
And then they're yours from the start. They're great.
[Intro] (0:26 - 0:54)
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 here easily, you should probably just move along.
So without further ado, here's your host, Mike Allen, with Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by Techmetric.
[Mike Allen] (0:55 - 1:00)
All right, so this is slightly out of my normal wheelhouse for a recording.
[Sasha Holley] (1:00 - 1:00)
Okay.
[Mike Allen] (1:00 - 1:06)
Because normally I talk to people that I've already shared shenanigans with at least a couple of times.
[Trey Holley] (1:06 - 1:06)
That's right.
[Mike Allen] (1:06 - 1:18)
I don't think we really know each other that super well. We've had a couple of brief conversations so far. Yep.
But I'm super glad to have you guys here. Well, thank you. Normally it was, do y'all ever listen to the show?
Have you ever?
[Sasha Holley] (1:18 - 1:19)
We do. Okay. Yes.
[Mike Allen] (1:20 - 1:24)
So, you know, normally we'll just blather on for 10 or 15 minutes and I'm like, oh yeah, who am I talking to?
[Sasha Holley] (1:24 - 1:24)
That's right.
[Mike Allen] (1:25 - 1:29)
But since I don't know you guys super well yet, why don't y'all introduce yourselves and tell me a little bit about yourself real quick.
[Trey Holley] (1:29 - 1:30)
You want me to go first?
[Sasha Holley] (1:30 - 1:31)
Yeah, go ahead.
[Trey Holley] (1:31 - 1:53)
All right. I'm Trey Hawley, technically my wife, Sasha Hawley. We're from Thomaston, Georgia.
So we're about an hour and a half south of Atlanta. We own and operate a 7,600, 7,500 square foot shop, 10 bays, four techs, one of which is a full-time diag tech. Small town?
[Sasha Holley] (1:53 - 2:04)
Yeah. We say small town. We get in trouble for saying small town when I say it's less than 30,000 people.
I've had people say, well, I've got 9,000 in mine. Yeah. We consider small town.
[Trey Holley] (2:04 - 2:06)
Yeah. Old school town.
[Sasha Holley] (2:06 - 2:10)
Yeah. Very old school mill town. Cotton mills.
Yeah. All that.
[Mike Allen] (2:10 - 2:15)
Has it been turned into like a hipster mixed use space yet, the cotton mill?
[Sasha Holley] (2:15 - 2:27)
No, it's completely empty. They're starting to halfway tear it down. Somebody has come in and tried to turn a part of it into like a wedding venue, which is pretty cool, but it's probably coming.
[Mike Allen] (2:27 - 2:55)
I mean, yeah. Mill town where I grew up, Saxapahaw, it was empty for 20 years and somebody came in and they got an event space for weddings and whatnot. And then they've got like a micro brewery and a coffee shop and, you know, hipster clothing stores and then apartments upstairs.
And it's really revitalized that town. So I keep looking for that to happen in little mill towns around the country, because typically they're on the water somewhere on a little river or creek or something that can be kind of visually appealing.
[Sasha Holley] (2:55 - 2:58)
Yeah. We have the Flint River in our town. So yeah, you know the deal.
[Mike Allen] (2:59 - 3:03)
Yeah. So hopefully that'll come through and you'll get... Them hipsters like to fix their cars, man.
[Sasha Holley] (3:03 - 3:07)
Yeah. We'll take it. Population increase.
Let's do it.
[Mike Allen] (3:07 - 3:14)
I do have a question. You introduced yourself, Trey, and said, technically, technically this is my wife, Sasha. What's technical about y'all not married or?
[Trey Holley] (3:14 - 3:18)
You know, I was going to let her introduce herself, but I just figured out going in while I was talking, stick it in there.
[Sasha Holley] (3:18 - 3:20)
Technically we are married.
[Trey Holley] (3:20 - 3:20)
Yes, we are.
[Mike Allen] (3:24 - 3:26)
You are a scholar and a gentleman, sir.
[Sasha Holley] (3:26 - 3:27)
Thank you.
[Trey Holley] (3:29 - 3:29)
Gotcha.
[Sasha Holley] (3:32 - 3:34)
We'll take care of you when we leave.
[Mike Allen] (3:34 - 3:36)
The funny part is the third cup he's got is for him.
[Sasha Holley] (3:36 - 3:37)
Oh, not you.
[Mike Allen] (3:37 - 3:38)
So messed up.
[Sasha Holley] (3:38 - 3:40)
You're so parched to get nothing.
[Mike Allen] (3:40 - 3:42)
I'm a very high maintenance young lady.
[Sasha Holley] (3:43 - 3:43)
Thank you.
[Mike Allen] (3:43 - 3:59)
I love you. Take back all the bad things I said about you earlier. No promises.
So, 10 bays. It's at 7,500 square feet, four decks. Have you always been in 10 bays or did you start out in this building?
[Trey Holley] (3:59 - 5:27)
So my first year, I rented my childhood family's automotive shop. It was two bays in the middle of nowhere. We'd done that for almost a year before we started looking for property back in my hometown.
It was just over the county line. Looked for shops, couldn't find anywhere. So we just decided we would buy property bare land and build from the ground up.
So original shop was a 40 bay, four bays. It was just me and my childhood best friend and Sasha running the office. So I think my very first day in my little two bay shop was just me.
I think the second day I called her. She worked at O'Reilly's for the time. And I said, hey, when's your next day off?
She said, tomorrow. I said, well, you might want to come up here tomorrow and work with me. She said, why?
I said, because if I have to answer this phone one more time, I'm done. I can't do anything for answering the telephone. So the next day she come, turn in her notice and we've been running ever since.
So I think probably we're at what, three, four years now, a couple of years now that we expanded. We added another shop in the back, which is a 70 by 66 bays. One big concrete slab right in the middle with like a 40,000 pound medium duty lift outside.
Kind of like a wash bay, clean stuff after it's done. So yeah, just kind of expanded over time. Bought another two acres on that same right beside our lot to be able to keep growing if need be.
Sounds like things are going pretty well. Yeah, they are.
[Mike Allen] (5:27 - 5:36)
So a lot of folks when they're two or three years in, they're just starting to figure out through the struggle that they need to figure out how to be a business person rather than a technician.
[Sasha Holley] (5:37 - 5:37)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (5:38 - 5:45)
It sounds like y'all got the business part kind of at least started on the process of getting it figured out pretty early. To what do you attribute that?
[Trey Holley] (5:48 - 6:03)
So I was fortunate enough growing up in it. She was fortunate enough growing up in it. When we got married, I worked all over the place.
And then a couple of years into that, went and worked for her daddy who owned an automotive shop.
[Sasha Holley] (6:03 - 6:05)
So I'm nothing but automotive background.
[Trey Holley] (6:05 - 6:05)
Okay.
[Sasha Holley] (6:06 - 6:06)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (6:06 - 6:14)
So and then he passed away, which was trial by fire because I've never done anything but technician. So that was like eye opener.
[Sasha Holley] (6:15 - 6:24)
I'm an only child and my mom got left with the business. Trey and I are both working for my dad. Massive heart attack instantly.
Had no clue. He was 51.
[Mike Allen] (6:24 - 6:25)
Oh gosh.
[Sasha Holley] (6:25 - 6:44)
So then Trey and I are looking at each other. I was 29. He was 27.
And my mom's like, so y'all got this right? You got me, you got the bills, you got the business. We had two children together already.
So to be completely honest, business was thrown at us. It was not a choice. And that started with before owning our own.
[Trey Holley] (6:44 - 6:48)
Lump in the throat. Uh, yeah. Yes, ma'am.
We got it. Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (6:48 - 6:51)
And then we didn't until we didn't.
[Trey Holley] (6:51 - 6:54)
Yeah. We attempted it, but didn't.
[Sasha Holley] (6:54 - 7:10)
We knew nothing about business, financials, understanding it. So when my mom would say, Hey, by this Friday, I need $17,000. Whatever that looks like.
However, whatever jobs you can finish, we need $17,000. The stress and the struggle and the, it was, it was a lot.
[Mike Allen] (7:11 - 7:12)
And that made me uncomfortable.
[Sasha Holley] (7:12 - 7:56)
Just, yeah, I mean, we just worked, you know, we were just literally pieces of the business before he passed. And we didn't know how the backside of anything was done. I got my $600 a week paycheck.
He got his, we went home at Friday five o'clock. We were done. We checked out, which is the ideal person.
You know, we don't want right now. That's who we were. And so she ended up selling the business because we couldn't do it.
We could not keep her above water with her set debt and expectations and how they ran the business. My dad did nothing but work. When I say he lived there, he may have went home, showered, slept two hours and was back seven days a week for nine years.
[Mike Allen] (7:57 - 7:58)
That's what gave him a heart attack.
[Sasha Holley] (7:58 - 8:05)
That's it. He, he did die of stress. That's really what it was.
The stress of carrying that workload in the business was really what took him.
[Trey Holley] (8:06 - 8:09)
He would never enjoy stepping away from it. He, he dragged race for a hobby.
[Sasha Holley] (8:10 - 8:10)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (8:10 - 8:16)
And when he would step away, he was miserable. He wanted to be back at work because he was too worried about what was going on back at work.
[Sasha Holley] (8:16 - 8:57)
Could we handle it? We could, but we could never validate that we could enough. It was never enough.
Um, so we've been separated from that business when my mom obviously sold it, we left that. Uh, he went to be a technician for somebody else. I went to rallies, I worked in the commercial side.
So then I got to deal with the people I knew selling parts to my shops, um, until he decided to go out on his own. And then I think that was just because he knew he had potential. We didn't have the know-how, but he felt he had the potential.
And this is five years after my dad passed. So we had a little bit of growth, a little bit of understanding of money and how things work then.
[Trey Holley] (8:57 - 9:24)
And then by this point I've seen, let's call it three to four different shops, how they ran them, what I did like, what I didn't like, their processes of how they done things and thought, and if you took a little piece of each one of these, you could have a hell of a place. Well, then at the time I'm working for this guy, he's okay with it, but I come home every day. Now that I'm not in a business, they're wondering where I'm at.
They realize I have a little shop in my backyard. So we'd come home to cars off in the driveway.
[Sasha Holley] (9:25 - 9:25)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (9:25 - 9:31)
Well then it's, I don't know who they are. Nobody's told me anything. Finally, she's like, listen, you better figure something out.
This is getting real aggravating.
[Sasha Holley] (9:32 - 9:37)
The county's going to be pissed. We can't have 17 cars in the driveway. The county's coming after us.
[Trey Holley] (9:37 - 9:48)
Yeah. So like I said, I called my pop and said, hey, listen, shop's still open. He said, yep.
I said, I want to rent it. I got to do something. So we dove headfirst into it.
Like I said, decided to build.
[Sasha Holley] (9:49 - 10:01)
Really on hopes and dreams. We didn't have a structured plan. The bank said, we'll give you the loan.
We said, bet. Sign it. Just ignorant, but it has worked out.
[Trey Holley] (10:01 - 10:01)
Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (10:01 - 10:07)
It's really panned out. Probably bigger and better than we even expected.
[Trey Holley] (10:07 - 10:50)
I'm very hard at it. So when we first started, it was listening. You build this shop small and from everybody around us, just build small and stay small.
You don't want to overdo it. You don't want to get too big. I mean, it happened so fast.
It wasn't long. We were like, hey, before it was over with, I think we had three techs and was hiring our fourth one in the first shop of four days before we even got to the point of trying to figure out how to build the second shop, what we're going to do and how we're going to expand it. The lot was full and you couldn't get it all done.
People want the stuff, so you accommodate for it. Figure it out.
[Mike Allen] (10:50 - 10:50)
It's awesome.
[Trey Holley] (10:51 - 11:02)
It hasn't always been great. I mean, we've made some mistakes and learned from them and readjusted our procedures on how we've done things to try to accommodate better, but it's worked. We've been blessed.
[Mike Allen] (11:02 - 11:13)
What is it like working together all day and going home and being together at the house? How do you separate working together and being husband and wife? Or do you?
[Sasha Holley] (11:14 - 11:50)
I think I've done really good and I'm the person he vents to at work. So before we get home, we've already resolved all the issues. So if anything's happening at work, he comes to me immediately.
We take about 10 minutes and then we just go resolve whatever it is. We don't let things fester. We don't let it sit too long.
So by the time we get home, it's already handled. We don't really carry it over at all. And we have such a good team.
Man, fires are put out fast. It's the customers before it is our people, really, to be honest. It's pleasing them.
[Trey Holley] (11:50 - 11:54)
Yeah. And then between the two of us, if we have issues, we operate on blunt honesty.
[Sasha Holley] (11:55 - 11:55)
There is no...
[Trey Holley] (11:58 - 12:04)
You say what you got to say. However you feel like you need to say it to make you feel better. Then five, 10 minutes is over with.
We don't drag it out.
[Sasha Holley] (12:05 - 12:07)
So what's for lunch? Yeah, I'm done.
[Trey Holley] (12:08 - 12:19)
Yeah. If it wasn't that way, I could see it being very stressful. And I will say, I mean, there was six months to a year she took off.
I was hard to deal with there for a little while.
[Sasha Holley] (12:20 - 12:42)
But it was just because I was fed up with all the guys in the shop. The morale was down. We had just things that were not working out, no matter what I said or tried to encourage, nobody listened.
So I didn't feel like I had a purpose or a place in there. So I was like, fine, I'll leave. Y'all don't need me then.
Nobody listens to me anyways. But that six months of me not being there about killed it.
[Trey Holley] (12:42 - 12:43)
Little eye opening.
[Sasha Holley] (12:43 - 12:44)
Yes.
[Trey Holley] (12:44 - 13:03)
Well, I told her the whole time I wanted her there. She just needed to try to do her own thing to, I guess, have what I almost called a wake up call. And that was her place to be.
She did have a place there. She just had to find it. And then when things would go astray and I'd be like, y'all run off the one person that normally handled that.
So now what you want to do?
[Mike Allen] (13:03 - 13:30)
Do y'all have y'all experience? And I'm asking these questions from a selfish perspective. I'm thinking about going into business with my wife.
She's never had a business of her own and she wants to buy one. But she wants to be the technician in her business. And she's going to want me to come and run some of the business aspects of it.
But she will be the owner by law because it's a dentistry business. A dentist has to be the owner. Have you ever had employees try to play one of you against the other?
[Sasha Holley] (13:31 - 13:31)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (13:31 - 13:35)
It's like a kid asking mom for permission because mom's more likely to say yes.
[Sasha Holley] (13:35 - 13:35)
Yes.
[Trey Holley] (13:36 - 13:59)
They try or have tried in the past. And because our relationship is so blunt and honest, one of us will immediately come to the other one. We'll bring it up and then bring that person in and say, all right, let's talk about it right here with all of us.
Let's open it up and say what you got to say and let's air it out here. Because then there's some backtracking that then starts happening when you put it to them. You especially with her.
[Sasha Holley] (14:00 - 15:36)
They think saying something to her is going to emotionally charge me enough to side with them. I think is what they do. And then they quickly have realized they can't do that because the three of us will sit in the room together and we'll figure it out.
It doesn't happen now because I think we really ended it because they saw that, well, that ain't going to work. I'm going to have to be honest, hold my end of the deal or whatever. But yeah, we, I would actually, I would call out an employee for lack of productivity or not finishing something I asked to get done.
And their response would say, well, you know, when Trey works late, he's in here on YouTube half the night. I mean, just crazy, right? That sounds crazy.
And I'm like, that's so irrelevant. Like that has nothing to do with it. But I would bring Trey in.
And he's like, well, I mean, I didn't really mean that. I said, you were just trying to take the heat off of you for not being productive in what I asked you to do. And just really mature stuff like that.
Lack of accountability. I mean, that's what that is. He now knows, and we've not had a problem in two, three years with that.
But yes, people will try to play you against each other. If you're not solid enough in your relationship or if you have any cracks in the relationship, it could fester, I would think. But we're so, like he said, blunt and honest.
I'm quick to say, yeah, I left early and went and got my nails done. So y'all don't have to tattle on me. You don't have to tattle on me, guys.
[Trey Holley] (15:36 - 15:46)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and even like in what I would consider some of the craziest of circumstances.
I mean, when we open, you're talking about what, a year and a half into it, COVID hits.
[Sasha Holley] (15:46 - 15:47)
Yeah, we open in 18.
[Trey Holley] (15:47 - 15:53)
So what I would consider stress. I mean, we breezed on through that. I mean, you just do what you got to do.
[Sasha Holley] (15:53 - 15:55)
We hired during the middle of it. We grew during that.
[Trey Holley] (15:55 - 16:37)
And it was just a lot of, which we have a very, I guess you call it family oriented communication between all of our people, all of our team. I mean, we all, every day before we leave, everybody comes up, bye, I love you. If you need something, call me, whatever.
And I mean, they'll call. There is no hesitation for somebody to call anybody at any point in time. So building that bond with everybody, I think has helped narrow down some of that too, because they don't have a reason to now.
If you have an issue with me, just come tell me. I can handle it. If you need to cuss me out today, just say, come out and back.
I got to tell you something. I'll take it. If that's what makes you feel okay, let's do that.
And then we can rationally sit down and talk about it. Come to some kind of solution. We'll go from there.
And it's helped a lot.
[Mike Allen] (16:38 - 16:39)
I mean it. Very cool.
[Trey Holley] (16:40 - 16:40)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (16:40 - 16:47)
Earlier, you said when you first started while you were still at O'Reilly's, it was you and your best friend who's another technician. Is he still working with you?
[Trey Holley] (16:47 - 16:48)
He is. Are you all business partners?
[Sasha Holley] (16:49 - 16:50)
No. Okay.
[Trey Holley] (16:50 - 16:57)
No, but he is my main guy. He's, I mean, I guess you'd say he's become now the face of the business. He's in the office now.
He don't technician anymore.
[Sasha Holley] (16:57 - 16:59)
He's our service writer slash shop manager.
[Trey Holley] (16:59 - 17:10)
Yeah. He come to me a couple of years ago and said, Hey, listen, we can get no younger. I don't know how much longer I want to turn wrenches.
I said, well, what do you want to do? He said, I feel like I can be an okay service writer.
[Sasha Holley] (17:11 - 17:12)
He said, I'd really like to sit in the AC.
[Trey Holley] (17:13 - 17:39)
I said, well, let's try it. Cause at the time I was, I was doing it and I wasn't, I didn't love it. Um, I missed being in the shop, but so we put him up there and the people love it.
So, I mean, it just works. Some people just have good connections, man. He does.
Yeah. He, I am quick to get on the phone and catch myself quickly trying to dismiss the conversation. Look, you either want to fix it or you won't.
I have stuff to do. Let's, let's move this on. He'll, he'll people person.
[Sasha Holley] (17:39 - 17:46)
He'll smooth it over and spend an extra 10 minutes where Trey's like, I got three more calls. Make a decision. Call me back if you don't know.
[Trey Holley] (17:47 - 17:54)
Yeah. But it worked out good. He's still there.
I mean, the shop was still open while we were gone here and he's just making calls.
[Sasha Holley] (17:55 - 17:55)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (17:55 - 18:06)
I don't have to worry about it. I mean, he's exactly what I could have hoped for, you know, cause we've known each other for 40 years, 40 years. And I mean, he just, I don't have to worry about it.
I trust him.
[Mike Allen] (18:07 - 18:16)
So you, uh, is the target to continue growing at this point and adding techs or we are at that conversation today on what's the next move?
[Sasha Holley] (18:17 - 18:39)
We don't know. Like we're so content where we are, but we don't want to come become complacent. And then, you know, you got to decide, do you want to grow?
And that looks like what, you know, cause everybody's so happy where we are right now. Everybody works and meshes well together, but do we have the space and could we add another guy and another tech? Sure.
[Trey Holley] (18:39 - 18:45)
We could, but for me to add another guy, I got another tech. I need to add another service, right?
[Sasha Holley] (18:45 - 18:47)
And then where does it end? That's kind of where we're going.
[Trey Holley] (18:48 - 18:59)
And then it becomes, which one do you add? When? Because for me, I look at it.
The instant answer for me is I need a tech because I've got say almost 400 hours of approved work sitting there with parts on the shelf to be done.
[Sasha Holley] (19:00 - 19:00)
Literally. We did.
[Trey Holley] (19:01 - 19:23)
And I, uh, I need a tech, you know, um, but finding a good one. I mean, like the last time we got on the hunt for one, I tried to find a good a tech in what, I mean, two, three weeks went by. He said, no, I said, I'm not.
I mean, we had cleanup guys come in and file applications. And, but I mean, I've hired another shop owner that sold that didn't work because he already knows how to do it all.
[Sasha Holley] (19:24 - 19:24)
He did.
[Trey Holley] (19:24 - 19:26)
And even though his business went out of business, right.
[Sasha Holley] (19:26 - 19:27)
And then they couldn't.
[Trey Holley] (19:27 - 20:06)
Um, but you know, I wound up hiring a young guy still in high school that I've been following some on social media. Um, just doing well and building his own car, started a little YouTube channel. I just been kind of watching him, uh, him and his daddy doing everything together.
So I could see the, the, the family involvement there. And, uh, I knew his daddy. So I reached out to his daddy and said, Hey, listen, see, interested in learning.
He said, I'm sure he would be tore up too, but he's still in school and he don't have tools for that. So I'm not worried about that. If he's interested, tell him to come talk to me.
So I hired him on, we went and bought him a toolbox and he's been there for a year and a half now. It's doing great.
[Sasha Holley] (20:06 - 20:50)
Pumping out work 30, 40 hours a week every week. So, and that's what changed our mindset on, you know, labeling it. Oh, I need a tech, right?
But do we, if I could spend the time with a light minded, automotive minded, wiring minded, diag, read a diagram minded person for a year and a half to get them almost to what you thought you wanted to hire, man. And then they're yours from the start. They're, they're great.
And so now that's kind of where we are is yes, we want a great technician, but I'm willing to spend time with a younger one and get them there if they want it.
[Trey Holley] (20:50 - 21:52)
Yeah. They come to us, which to me, my young guy come to me the other day and was, uh, talked to me. He wants to start learning the diag side and he spent, I mean, probably three or four hours with me one night because one of the jobs he worked on, it was like a fuel pump job or something.
And then once he got done with it, truck wouldn't start. He couldn't figure out why he did not want to come ask me, but he did, you know, and I went through it. I said, well, listen, you pull up the diagram.
I know, you know, your way around them because I've watched you wire your entire car and you walked me through it and let's see how your brain works with it. And then we'll, we'll go from there. So he pulled it up, we went through it.
And I mean, it couldn't have been once he got all his stuff laid out on how in his brain it worked. I mean, it didn't take him another 20 minutes to figure it out. And he, after that, he texts me later at night and he was like, I want to start learning all that because I let him do it.
I ain't going to do it for him. That's all he's, that's all he talks about. So now when he don't have any of his small stuff, that's what we're going to start doing throughout the day is teaching him some diag.
That's awesome.
[Sasha Holley] (21:52 - 21:53)
But yes, we need a tech.
[Trey Holley] (21:54 - 21:56)
Yeah. Tech's the next move, unfortunately.
[Mike Allen] (21:56 - 22:47)
I was talking earlier today, uh, to Isaac Rodel of Auto Rescue Tools. He builds, you know, partition programming laptops with different softwares loaded and that kind of thing. And, uh, they do, um, like they'll remote in and do programming for you and that kind of stuff.
But, uh, his point was everybody says they want a unicorn diag tech, but not many people have enough work to keep a diag tech busy doing diag all week long. It's usually you need two or three shots or a giant ass shop with high car count to have enough complex diag to keep a true specialist busy the whole time. So, um, I think growing young men and women into the trade is a great alternative path for that.
[Sasha Holley] (22:47 - 22:48)
So I really love what you're saying there.
[Mike Allen] (22:49 - 22:59)
But it is a tricky seesaw, right? It is. Because I got 400 hours of sold work.
That's incredible. You need a tech, but you add a tech, probably need two.
[Sasha Holley] (22:59 - 22:59)
Yep.
[Mike Allen] (22:59 - 23:08)
You add two techs. Well then they'll work through that backlog eventually. And then you need the ability to sell to keep it six techs busy.
[Sasha Holley] (23:08 - 23:09)
That's right.
[Mike Allen] (23:09 - 23:12)
And one advisor selling six techs busy is a big ask.
[Sasha Holley] (23:12 - 23:14)
So yes, another advisor.
[Mike Allen] (23:15 - 23:55)
Well, you need, uh, after you work through that workload, you need the advisor and you need the car count. You need to make phones ring and then you need the marketing budget. And, and it's just, so, and you said, well, where does it stop?
And that, you know, the question is how much is enough? Y'all, you know, my wife asked me that question, how much, how many stores you want? You know, how much revenue do you need?
How much income do you need? Uh, I don't think in terms of that, it's just, it's like, it's fun and growing and it's fun. It's like this core part of life.
Look, I'm winning. I'm growing. Um, as long as it's still fun and the stress is not killing me, uh, keep going.
So do y'all have conversations like that? How much?
[Sasha Holley] (23:56 - 25:37)
We do all the time. Um, we ran just brief numbers by someone earlier in the year and they were like, oh my gosh, by your car count and your ARO and all the things you should for sure in the next couple of years be a, you know, multi shop owner and all the things. And that's when we stopped and we were like, but do we want to like, I don't know.
I don't know what that looks like. And we try to kind of plan out 10 years down the road, what we think today we would want that to be and how involved we want to be in the true business. Do we want to own this and collect a paycheck?
We have a 24 year old son that is actually our diag tech. He is the guy that diagnoses every vehicle that comes through that shop. Um, he wants to take the business over.
So in 10 years at 34, how much will they really need us? If we now set up the next generation of guys coming through, when we built him a really good team, do we just want to collect a paycheck and still own it? Do we want to sell it to him?
Do we want, I don't know, you know, and then do you start another one? Do you not? I don't know.
You know, everybody will have their own opinion with it. It's just like you said, it's what you're comfortable with. Income debt, time off travel.
Um, we drag race. So I would selfishly love to do that more than I get to do it now. It's put on the back burner as it should be in, in business.
I understand that comes first, but I would love to have a big RV and stacker trailer and travel the world racing and put out fires over a phone call. But is that realistic? I don't know.
[Mike Allen] (25:38 - 25:39)
Maybe not yet.
[Sasha Holley] (25:39 - 26:07)
But that, that, to be honest today, that's more of our goal is to kind of have just the facility we have now ran so well that it's not stressful for the next person to take it over. Whether it's our service advisor, our son, whomever, um, try not to allow him or the next person to end their life the way my dad did. So I have a real good example of what we don't want to do.
And for each person, I think that's different.
[Mike Allen] (26:08 - 26:39)
Like, well, that was one of the questions I wanted to ask. I was going to get to it, but I didn't know that your son was involved in the business. So that's, um, what are you putting in place as far as continuity plans go intentionally planned continuity.
So if y'all are dragging in the RV, dragging the trailer to a race and you know, an asteroid falls out of the sky and boom, you're both gone. What's in place so that your son can keep things going and keep the payroll going and not enough.
[Sasha Holley] (26:39 - 26:56)
I mean, obviously there are, I say, massive, extreme amounts of life insurance that would pay all the debt off. But as far as him knowing the structure of the business and how to keep it going that way, we've not set things in place.
[Trey Holley] (26:56 - 26:57)
No, not like we've not.
[Sasha Holley] (26:57 - 27:51)
And we know that we've talked about it and we've talked about it to him. And he'll tell you today, like his diag list, if he, if it gets in the double digits, I mean, cause he's, he's panicked a little. He's like, I guess I'll work late tonight because I got 14 under my name and I'm like, no, there'll be there tomorrow.
It's fine. We'll we're good. I said, when you see me worry, then you worry, but I'm not worried.
You see, I'm fine. We're turning the lights off, shutting the doors, closing up. Let's go home.
And so we already sense like stress in him in just his one role. So we've even said, there's gotta be a lot of maturity there or a lot of understanding of things aren't detrimental. You create that in your head, right?
I mean, that's your head space that you feel that before he's even remotely ready to carry such a responsibility.
[Mike Allen] (27:51 - 27:57)
Managing customer expectations is the job of the front office, not the tech tech can only can do what the tech can do.
[Sasha Holley] (27:57 - 27:57)
That's right.
[Mike Allen] (27:57 - 28:05)
And I have texts that get stressed out when they see their seven or eight cars stacked on their hook. They're like, oh my God, what am I going to do? Like you're going to work on the cars as you can.
[Sasha Holley] (28:06 - 28:35)
That's right. You're going to do it. We're going to finish one at a time correctly.
Yeah. But no, we for sure. I mean, we for sure, if both of us snapped our fingers and we're gone, they'd have a mess on their hands.
Even if I were to, because I do all the books, all the accounting, all the payroll, all the taxes, I literally do all of that. He would be stressed to the max because he would have to hire somebody, pay him $2,000 a week to do it all.
[Mike Allen] (28:36 - 30:12)
There's a book in my desk, the bottom right desk drawer of my home office. It's a big gilded book. It says, oh shit, I'm dead now.
What? And I'm in the process of filling it out. It's got, but it's supposed to be the one book that lives in the safe that if I die suddenly, here's the passwords.
Here's the insurance policy numbers. Here's the phone numbers you call. Here's my banker's name, you know, all that kind of stuff so that it would be as smooth as possible.
I'm sure everybody would be partying and celebrating if I was gone, but they would also need to pay the bills. Right. So that's something that I've been working on, on and off as the whim hits me.
But I feel convicted that I, you know, I need to get further along that path because I've got acquaintances that have, I won't name names, but a very large, successful auto repair facility in the Midwest, multiple branches of the industry. They did remanufacturing, they did auto repair, they did part sales, they did tires, big website traffic. And it was one, you know, like 50 something employees.
And it was one man who had the keys and knew everything. And he got killed on the way to work one morning in a car accident. And it was like a real big problem to get payroll done in three days.
And people had to fly in from around the country just to kind of triage from his 20 group. They had to fly in from around the country just to keep it up and going.
[Sasha Holley] (30:13 - 30:13)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (30:13 - 30:37)
And, you know, we work really hard to support the ones that we love and to better their position. And I think we owe it to them. Once we get a certain level of financial security, and it's a business that has value, if your shop is nothing but a job and you close when you're not at work, it's not the time to worry about that yet.
[Sasha Holley] (30:37 - 30:37)
Right.
[Mike Allen] (30:37 - 30:49)
But if you've got five other families that depend on you guys, and you deserve to, you know, sit down with an estate planner and a business transition planner and a continuity plan.
[Sasha Holley] (30:50 - 30:50)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (30:50 - 30:58)
And get that in place. And that's, it's on my radar. I know I need to do it.
And I haven't done it effectively yet. I've got like 75% of the way there. Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (30:58 - 32:10)
So so my mom actually, it's funny, you say that did that when my dad passed away, I got her Oh, shit book that she wrote every thing she owned. I mean, stocks who she had this with who her investments were with over here, passwords, everything, email addresses, everything I would need to handle the estate, because it would all come to me only child. I have that in a safe at home.
And it literally says do not open until I die. This is everything. Love you, mom.
And it's on the outside of a manila envelope. And it's in my safe, that should automatically be something that I'm like, man, I should do that too. But you just put it off, right?
Because it's not me because I'm 42. Not me, right? Yeah, we're wrong for that.
You know, we have a technician at our shop that his 23 year old brother passed away two weeks ago on a dirt bike accident, a random dirt bike accident. And then it shakes you up. And you're like, Oh, man, wow.
And it just really puts you in in place of perspective of Yeah, you better get your stuff together. If you everybody should in general, but if you got something worth something, you sure should.
[Mike Allen] (32:11 - 32:13)
You know, because otherwise, you can give it all the man.
[Sasha Holley] (32:13 - 32:39)
That's it. Or you got your family fighting over how to keep your house and what the kids end up fighting over your stuff. Yeah, your stuff.
You're terrible. Exactly. Well, and you know, we have a lot of stuff.
That's what Trey says. Trey says, I don't have stacks of cash in the bank, but I got a whole lot of stuff you can stack up that cash in the bank.
[Mike Allen] (32:40 - 33:19)
So the dude that the dude that we bought our current home from, he's a wonderful dude. And when we went to view the house is eight years ago, so the kids were little. He was there.
It's like, you know, usually you leave a house when you got somebody to look at. He was in his office just hanging out. And we struck up a conversation and we walked a lot and he showed me the corner post and everything else and ended up becoming real good friends with him.
But part of the deal with buying his house was is like, I know what happens when you get old and die. People fight over your stuff or they don't want to deal with your stuff. If you buy my house, I'm taking my clothes, my computer and my filing cabinet.
And you got to deal with everything else.
[Sasha Holley] (33:20 - 33:20)
Wow.
[Mike Allen] (33:21 - 33:40)
30 years of that family's life. His children had come through and taken anything they wanted. His wife was late stage Alzheimer's.
She was in a care facility and like down to the family portraits on the wall. I had to take the Christmas decorations out of the attic. I mean, it was crazy.
[Sasha Holley] (33:40 - 33:47)
Wow. But what a relief for him is probably what he was thinking. You were handling everything he didn't want to handle.
[Mike Allen] (33:47 - 34:07)
He went and built a custom house and decorated it the way that he wanted to and put the furniture he wanted into it and the art he wanted. And he called me like a month later. He's like, I'm in the house now and there's a sculpture in the living room.
And I was like, yeah, I know I'm looking at it. He's like, I would like to buy that from you. I was like, how about I give it to you?
It's yours. You just left it here.
[Intro] (34:07 - 34:08)
Right.
[Mike Allen] (34:09 - 34:17)
And but I can respect that, you know, because it unraveling a life lived is got to be a challenge for the kids.
[Sasha Holley] (34:17 - 34:19)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
[Trey Holley] (34:20 - 34:31)
Yeah. I mean, it was a whirlwind when her daddy passed and he pretty much had everything laid out for her mom, you know, and even then still trying to figure everything out that he done on the day to day was still just a means a lot.
[Sasha Holley] (34:31 - 35:06)
Yeah. And then you have the emotion to it. Right.
You're emotionally charged during trying to figure out how to navigate life without this individual who did so many things on a daily for you or the business. And then everything is sensitive, you know. And yeah, I mean, and I don't know if something were to happen sooner than later, having younger children just not having the maturity and the capacity to just kind of like start lining things up and get things handled.
It's not fair, you know, for us not to be more prepared.
[Mike Allen] (35:06 - 35:06)
Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (35:06 - 35:07)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (35:08 - 35:17)
What's said that you ended up selling dad shop just because you weren't yet ready to run it. What ended up happening with it? Is it still in operation?
[Sasha Holley] (35:17 - 35:35)
So it a technician that used to work for my dad many years ago purchased it and that did not work out. He was a great technician, not a good business owner. It went up for auction last year or earlier this year on the courthouse square.
[Trey Holley] (35:36 - 35:37)
Oh, gosh. We discussed it.
[Sasha Holley] (35:37 - 38:03)
We discussed it. I'm not believe it or not. I'm again, only child.
My dad and I were very close. This was my best friend. But I don't have sentimental attachment like that.
That's just not my personality. Like when he passed, I was okay with selling all his racing stuff. His race car could go.
It's fine. Truck trailer. I don't need to keep any of this stuff.
It has it was his, but it could be used by someone else. Let it have life elsewhere. So the shop came up courthouse square.
A person who was looking to purchase it or go bid on it contacted me the night before and said, I just want to tell you, I have plans to go buy it if I can. But if you want to go, I will not show up. It's your, you know, pretty much it's yours.
If you want it, if you're the highest bidder, I won't go bid against you. And Trey and I, we went back and forth and back and forth. And I just, the last person that was there, did it no justice, ruined the floors, took all the copper wiring out of the electrical, ruined the AC system.
It needed probably half a million, if not more in work to get it up to what it was before he purchased it. I mean, it just, he let it go downhill a lot. And so I asked Trey, I said, so we're going to have a million dollars before we do anything in this piece of property.
It was going to go for around 400, we assumed. What then? What then?
Because we had not started talking about, would we want to have a second shop? Because that was earlier this year. And he said, I don't think, I don't think it's a smart decision.
And I said, to be honest, I don't either. So the friend that I told you called me, purchased it. He rents it now.
It's a used car lot for another friend of ours. This friend of ours that's running a used car lot out of it was really good friends with my dad. So it's full circle in how I think it was supposed to go, because I don't think we were ready for the stress of rushing into trying to, you know, turn this place around to make it be what, a second shop?
Rent it to others just to have property, you know? So no, it's, it's not a shop anymore. It's a used car lot.
Yeah. It's cool to see though. I mean that it does have a new life.
Yeah. It's pretty cool.
[Mike Allen] (38:04 - 38:08)
Let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about here. We're here at ASTA Expo 2026.
[Sasha Holley] (38:08 - 38:09)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (38:09 - 38:10)
It's the first time y'all been, right?
[Sasha Holley] (38:10 - 38:13)
Yes. Thanks to you. We greatly appreciate it.
[Mike Allen] (38:13 - 38:14)
I'm happy that you could be here.
[Trey Holley] (38:14 - 38:16)
What do you think of it?
[Sasha Holley] (38:17 - 38:17)
Awesome.
[Trey Holley] (38:17 - 38:21)
It's my favorite one. So we've done this, we've done vision, nothing against vision.
[Sasha Holley] (38:21 - 38:25)
I like it. We've gone four or five years now.
[Trey Holley] (38:25 - 38:45)
We've not been here yet. So coming here, you don't know what to expect. In my mind, it's all I have to relate it to.
But this, I would consider it smaller. Yes. It's way more personable.
I catch myself, no matter where I wind up at in a small group or even sometimes large group, just sitting around talking to other people.
[Sasha Holley] (38:45 - 38:45)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (38:45 - 38:48)
And that's been great because I don't typically do that.
[Sasha Holley] (38:48 - 38:51)
In vision, it's great again.
[Mike Allen] (38:51 - 38:53)
You try to come and go from what you're doing to what you're doing.
[Sasha Holley] (38:54 - 39:33)
Yeah. And then it's almost like Russian because I got to go here and do this. And then you can tell that it's bigger groups of people.
And then you don't know, do you go speak? Do you say something? Do you not?
But here, literally we've had so many people come up to us and just say, hello, how are you? And read your name on your lanyard and have the greatest conversation. We've met so many people, but I'm in a lot of classes with similar people.
So after we've seen each other twice, it's easy to have conversation. Right. Yeah.
I have really enjoyed it. And next year, no matter what, putting it on the calendar, second we get back, the whole shop's coming.
[Mike Allen] (39:33 - 39:33)
Lock it up.
[Sasha Holley] (39:33 - 39:35)
So there will be eight of us.
[Mike Allen] (39:36 - 39:46)
You should talk to Callie Grace or Ryan. If you buy tickets for next year today before the event closes, they're significantly discounted.
[Sasha Holley] (39:46 - 39:46)
Oh, okay.
[Mike Allen] (39:47 - 40:06)
So, um, but, um, I think that this is like, I think the training, the number of classes and the quality classes is on par with vision. Vision is obviously bigger. Yeah.
I think the networking and the socialization at this event is unlike anything in the country. I think it is.
[Sasha Holley] (40:07 - 40:09)
Casino night last night was a ball.
[Mike Allen] (40:09 - 40:09)
Absolutely.
[Sasha Holley] (40:10 - 40:15)
Seeing those guys get so excited over stacking up those chips at the roulette table.
[Mike Allen] (40:16 - 40:16)
I was giggling.
[Sasha Holley] (40:17 - 42:06)
I mean, he was like 19,000. Yes. So excited.
And then Trey, I was like, okay, it's loud in here. I've been in there about an hour. I was like, it's loud.
I'm gonna go sit outside, sat by myself, took all of four minutes before there were 12 of us in a circle after me sitting by myself, other similar people. And we're all talking. Trey comes up with his Napa bucket full of chips.
And he's like, what do I do? I said, go give them to somebody. He's like, oh, I know who I'm giving them to.
There was a guy in there that was super excited at the roulette table, like extra excited to be at the roulette table. He's like, I'm going to make his night. No, it's been so good.
The obstacle course, all the stuff y'all put on. I mean, obviously that's just the sidebar to the classes and all the knowledge and wisdom that these people who are extremely intelligent are willing to come and pour into us. Yeah.
I did several classes that I really enjoyed. I had one with Cecil that was incredible. And then we had Bobby McGraw.
We did his yesterday. It's just so good to sit down and really have an understanding of these people wanting to purposely give you tools. You just got to take them.
You just got to go implement this stuff. I mean, they're offering you some information that normally you would have to pay somebody big ticket prices to try to help you navigate that you get here all in one with networking, fun, hanging out, food. So we were last night in our circle, they were really bragging about the food versus other trade shows that give you box meals.
Didn't you say that?
[Trey Holley] (42:06 - 42:06)
Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (42:06 - 42:09)
Yeah. Everything's just been great. Awesome.
[Trey Holley] (42:10 - 42:42)
We split up some and I even did some of the technical classes this year just to get a feel for them to know about bringing the techs out for next year. And like us tumbling through, I mean, reading through all the options because we were so late signing up, what was even still available for me to still be able to get into. I was excited.
I got in the HP tuners class today on how they're using that for diag. And it's something I've not seen in any other trade show per se, but our expo, but the way it was presented made me go, I've got all that at the shop.
[Sasha Holley] (42:42 - 42:44)
I'm definitely going to do that when I get back.
[Trey Holley] (42:44 - 43:01)
I'm going to see if I can make that work. Just something that you don't think about that you get around other people and they get to explaining how they do it and why they do it. And then you got over the guy over here behind you in the corner, like you ought to try this.
And even the instructor goes out on everybody listening to him. He's got a very good point. So I've never even thought of, and it's not shut down.
[Mike Allen] (43:02 - 43:02)
Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (43:02 - 43:24)
And there's not 500 people in a class. You know what I'm saying? So I mean, it's not a class where they say, hold your questions for the end.
Encourage to engage in that moment. And it's almost one of those things where you're asking a question that somebody else may have been afraid to ask. And you're getting that question answered for everybody in the room.
And it's appreciated. You know what I'm saying? So that's, that's, I like that, that, that size and feel of the class has been great.
[Mike Allen] (43:24 - 43:39)
I think 50 to a hundred people in an engaging back and forth class is a really good size because there can be dudes in there and ladies in there who are shy and quiet and they don't have to speak up, but they still get a lot because they're a part of the back and forth.
[Sasha Holley] (43:39 - 43:39)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (43:40 - 44:09)
Too small. Sometimes it gets real quiet, too big. It's not approachable to speak up.
So I like the size of the classes that we have here. And, but of course I've been coming for 20 years. So, uh, we have one, uh, let's talk, talking to Lucas, I think it was 2015.
We had like 75 people show up. Well, I mean, it was, yeah, it was the, the, the association was, you know, it was on the skids and you know, it was, it was a hard time.
[Sasha Holley] (44:10 - 44:15)
So it's been around a while. It's just kind of been revamped. Am I saying that correctly?
[Mike Allen] (44:15 - 44:55)
Yeah. It was the independent garage owners association of North Carolina was originally formed to be an insurance brokerage for shop owners because you can get shopkeepers insurance in North Carolina. And, uh, that was formed in like 1956.
And then roughly the same time the North Carolina tire dealers and retraders association was formed for tire dealers. And both of them operated independently for 60 plus years. And then five years ago we merged and became the automotive service and tire Alliance.
And we each had our own shows every year. And so we finally put them together and now, now we're this, so it's been pretty nice and pretty great. Yeah.
Great ride.
[Sasha Holley] (44:55 - 45:01)
So this is one of those then, I mean, you want it to grow, but then to what capacity, right? Cause you still want it to have this feel.
[Mike Allen] (45:01 - 45:09)
Yeah. I think we want to grow to the point that we can without losing the Southern charm and the hospitality.
[Sasha Holley] (45:09 - 45:09)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (45:10 - 46:40)
Um, and if we start drifting away from that, then we'll start pulling back on the throttle a little bit, I think. Uh, because I mean, we're never going to be SEMA and apex. Uh, I don't think, I mean, could we be as big as vision?
Maybe, but we'd have to be very intentional about maintaining the hospitality because this facility has the capacity to be double the size of vision as a world-class facility in downtown. There's all sorts of, uh, food and beverage options and nightlife and everything else is really nice is walkable to everything. Uh, whereas at some other events, it feels like you're out in the middle of nowhere, you know?
Um, so I, I think we're poised for explosive growth, but we need to manage it appropriately so that we don't lose our soul. And I think that's part of what Callie and Ryan and Mimby and Tanika are doing so well is they're maintaining focus on healthy growth and growth that doesn't sacrifice that makes us strong and makes us, uh, financially viable because the finances are really tough in events like this. Um, and makes us successful so that we can continue to like, I like adding more classes.
I love, I love the trade show because everybody wants to go get their new squishy toys. Right. And talk to vendors, but it's not really a buyer's show yet.
You know, you don't come here to, not a lot of dudes come in here to buy 10 lifts and a bunch of tire machines and that kind of stuff. We can get there one day, but I don't want to get there at the expense of the relationships.
[Sasha Holley] (46:41 - 46:41)
Smart.
[Mike Allen] (46:41 - 46:48)
That's kind of what we're thinking about. That's where my vision is, but I'm also no longer the president of the association. So it's not my problem anymore.
[Sasha Holley] (46:50 - 46:52)
Listen to that evil laugh.
[Mike Allen] (46:54 - 47:02)
Yeah. Um, well, cool. So is there anything that any advice that you would give to anyone who's thinking about coming to the expo in 27, how they can get the most out of the event?
[Sasha Holley] (47:03 - 48:00)
Oh man, I would say just do it. Um, you know, we had every reason in the world to not come with our technician being out the past two weeks with the death and his family. We debated it and we honestly had to look at each other because any other time I want to do something, Trey says to me, it'll be here tomorrow.
There'll be, it'll be here tomorrow. It's not going anywhere to be here tomorrow. So when we kind of debated not coming because of this circumstance, he looked at me and he said, it'll be there when we get back.
And so, you know, you make up all these excuses in your head, why you can or why you shouldn't, right? We're behind at work. Somebody's out sick, um, T-ball game or whatever.
It's always going to be something. So you can do that until you're blue in the face and always find a reason not to show up. But I would just tell people to take, take the initiative, register and show up.
And you're going to be greeted by a smiling face that wants to engage with you and wants to conversate with you.
[Trey Holley] (48:01 - 48:03)
And get out of your room and get out of your hotel room.
[Sasha Holley] (48:04 - 48:08)
Yeah, get out of the hotel room. Don't hide in the hotel room. When you get here, mingle with everybody.
[Trey Holley] (48:08 - 48:09)
Go to the hospitality suite.
[Sasha Holley] (48:10 - 48:12)
Yes, hang out in the hospitality suite.
[Trey Holley] (48:12 - 48:33)
Between that, the, I mean, every night they've had something for the most part upstairs, go to it. Be around the people. You never know who you'll connect with when you're here.
And I mean, I'd say don't, don't skip out on a day and say, well, I'll just go to the whole thing. Plan on being at the whole event. I mean, make it worth your while because I'm telling you, it's been great.
And we've been here for the whole thing.
[Sasha Holley] (48:34 - 48:48)
Yeah. And it's just like anything else. Every class is amazing.
And you're not going to feel like, you know, you've been fire hosed necessarily. Just take the golden nuggets and run with it. Take what applies to you and go do you.
And it'll benefit you in the end.
[Sasha Holley] (48:48 - 48:54)
I've got something out of every single class that I'm going back and I'm implementing and I'm going to try it. Every class.
[Mike Allen] (48:57 - 49:01)
He says that I have to ask for a confession. His confession is of a shop owner.
[Sasha Holley] (49:01 - 49:02)
Okay.
[Mike Allen] (49:02 - 49:25)
And you guys have a shop. The show started with the idea to ask people for crazy stories that happen in their shop. And he was doing that.
And then it started, it's called Confessions of a Shop Owner. He never asked for a confession. So I have to remind him sometimes that, hey, the show's called Confessions, right?
[Sasha Holley] (49:25 - 49:26)
Got a real good one.
[Mike Allen] (49:27 - 49:29)
See, look at this. He made it weird.
[Sasha Holley] (49:29 - 49:30)
I know, it's not weird. I don't know.
[Mike Allen] (49:30 - 49:33)
I had to think about it for a minute. What you got? I don't know.
Well, while you're thinking.
[Sasha Holley] (49:33 - 49:33)
Okay.
[Mike Allen] (49:34 - 49:35)
I don't know. When are y'all leaving?
[Sasha Holley] (49:36 - 49:37)
Probably in the morning.
[Mike Allen] (49:37 - 49:41)
Okay. Oktoberfest is happening in downtown Raleigh, right outside the hotel.
[Sasha Holley] (49:42 - 49:55)
We saw. So we had a break between class and coming to do this with you and I'm doing 75 hard. So I have to do two workouts a day.
So I'm outside walking and we did Oktoberfest and look like crazy people because I did a lap around them probably 22 times.
[Mike Allen] (49:56 - 49:56)
Nice.
[Sasha Holley] (49:56 - 49:59)
But yeah, that's awesome that it's the same time as this.
[Mike Allen] (49:59 - 50:03)
We're going to be, we're going to have people in Lederhosen sneaking into the hospitality suite tonight.
[Sasha Holley] (50:04 - 50:04)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (50:05 - 50:14)
Do you have your Lederhosen, Brexen? I always have them on. I can't come up with a name.
And there's an App State football game against NC State tonight, also in Raleigh.
[Trey Holley] (50:14 - 50:15)
Go Mountaineers.
[Mike Allen] (50:15 - 50:16)
When people are trying to leave town.
[Sasha Holley] (50:17 - 50:24)
I have to tell you one more thing that it said it was happening. Little Wayne and 2 Chainz is putting on a concert around here somewhere.
[Mike Allen] (50:24 - 50:27)
Oh my God, at Red Hat? It's going to be a disaster outside tonight.
[Sasha Holley] (50:27 - 50:28)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (50:28 - 50:31)
We got Oktoberfest, a NC State football game.
[Sasha Holley] (50:31 - 50:33)
I mean, are we not all going to see Little Wayne?
[Mike Allen] (50:33 - 50:42)
And ASTA. And ASTA. All them are saying, they're saying, guys, did y'all hear that ASTA is happening right now?
[Sasha Holley] (50:42 - 50:43)
Oh my God.
[Mike Allen] (50:44 - 50:49)
Well, thank you so much for coming. Oh, wait, wait, wait.
[Sasha Holley] (50:50 - 50:53)
Confessions. Let's see. Confessions.
[Mike Allen] (50:54 - 50:55)
Something that went horribly wrong.
[Sasha Holley] (50:56 - 50:56)
Horribly wrong.
[Mike Allen] (50:56 - 50:59)
And you're changing your processes so it doesn't happen again.
[Sasha Holley] (51:00 - 51:04)
Horribly, horribly wrong. Can you think of anything?
[Trey Holley] (51:05 - 51:06)
I just do everything right.
[Sasha Holley] (51:07 - 51:08)
No, that's not true.
[Trey Holley] (51:09 - 51:18)
Don't, uh, I don't know. I don't know how to word it. The only thing, the first thing that comes to my mind is don't be afraid to work on yourself.
90% of the issues we had are from my bad attitude in the shop.
[Sasha Holley] (51:18 - 51:20)
Yeah, I would say that. I would say.
[Trey Holley] (51:20 - 51:31)
And I really buckled down over the last couple of years and done a lot, a lot. It had got so bad that it had, I was at the doctor's office having my heart checked. My wake-up call come.
[Sasha Holley] (51:31 - 51:45)
Trey fired somebody in a really ugly way. Told them how terrible of a person they were. How terrible of a person their family members were.
That if they wanted, that if they wanted to be like them. That if they wanted to be like them.
[Trey Holley] (51:45 - 51:46)
Hey look, your daddy's a piece of shit.
[Sasha Holley] (51:46 - 51:49)
Yes, that's almost where we went with it.
[Trey Holley] (51:49 - 52:00)
It was close. It wasn't that bad. I see it.
And your mama's fat. You're working here. You know where your daddy's working at.
He was a technician. I said, what kind of technician do you want to be? One that works here or one that works there?
[Sasha Holley] (52:01 - 52:09)
And I looked at him like, you didn't just say that to this. He's no longer there.
[Trey Holley] (52:09 - 52:10)
We do talk though.
[Sasha Holley] (52:10 - 52:21)
And Trey has made amends with that because he did hurt his feelings. Because it was very harsh. He just gave you the PG version.
I don't care what he says. He gave you the PG version of how it went down. He was rude.
He was a complete a-hole.
[Mike Allen] (52:22 - 52:24)
And so can I can I can I act it out?
[Sasha Holley] (52:25 - 52:26)
Yeah, let's do it.
[Mike Allen] (52:26 - 52:36)
What's wrong with my life? You know your daddy's a piece of shit. And he works at a crook.
You want to be a piece of shit working there? Or you want to be a quality human being working here? Essentially.
Which it's going to be.
[Sasha Holley] (52:37 - 52:37)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (52:37 - 52:40)
And he said, I prefer to be a big piece of shit working over there.
[Trey Holley] (52:40 - 52:43)
He didn't say anything. He just left in tears. And then he left in tears.
[Mike Allen] (52:43 - 52:44)
Oh my god.
[Trey Holley] (52:44 - 52:45)
I've only had two leave in tears, technically.
[Sasha Holley] (52:46 - 52:56)
And he left in tears. But then text a day or two later and said, if I get my truck. If when I get my truck to the shop, will you help me load my toolbox?
Trace said, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (52:57 - 53:00)
Yeah. Promise not to cry, you little baby.
[Sasha Holley] (53:00 - 53:09)
He's grown a lot. I do give him credit. He's been.
No, I'm talking about you. He's been really mean to all of us for a long time. He's better.
[Mike Allen] (53:09 - 53:18)
I'll tell you that my dad was famous for the James Allen 30-second conversations where they were not conversations. It was where he gave a diatribe to you and you listened.
[Sasha Holley] (53:19 - 53:19)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (53:19 - 53:30)
I do remember him telling a tech one time. He said, either you are a liar or a fucking idiot. So which one is it?
Yeah. I'm pretty sure I've said that before.
[Sasha Holley] (53:30 - 53:30)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (53:30 - 53:31)
Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (53:31 - 53:32)
Yeah. And we can't be that way.
[Trey Holley] (53:33 - 53:35)
But I was brought up that way. That doesn't work. I was brought up that way.
[Sasha Holley] (53:35 - 53:41)
It doesn't work now. No, it worked. It created who we are today because my parents were the same way.
[Trey Holley] (53:41 - 53:41)
Yeah.
[Sasha Holley] (53:41 - 53:47)
You're an idiot. What are you doing? What's wrong with you?
Gosh, we say that to somebody now.
[Mike Allen] (53:47 - 53:55)
Dad used to say, what are you, a big damn dummy all the time? And so I still use big damn dummy with my kids, but mostly in a laughing way.
[Sasha Holley] (53:55 - 53:58)
How about your employees? Are you able to say you're a big damn dummy?
[Mike Allen] (53:58 - 54:03)
Only a big damn dummy when we're joking. Yeah. There's a fair amount of joking at the shop, though.
We cut up a fair amount.
[Trey Holley] (54:04 - 54:04)
Do you have young techs?
[Mike Allen] (54:05 - 54:10)
A couple. I've got a pretty wide range age-wise. Yeah.
[Trey Holley] (54:10 - 54:17)
That was when I really had to start paying attention to what I said and how I said it was when I really started looking into the younger generation there.
[Mike Allen] (54:17 - 54:18)
Yeah, the old guys got thick skin.
[Trey Holley] (54:18 - 54:20)
Yes, they do. They're way more sensitive than I was prepared for.
[Sasha Holley] (54:20 - 54:21)
Yes, a lot more sensitive.
[Mike Allen] (54:23 - 54:24)
Well, thank you, guys.
[Sasha Holley] (54:24 - 54:25)
Thank you. It's been good.
[Mike Allen] (54:25 - 55:03)
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?
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.