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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.
Greg Buckley [00:00:00]:
Do you sell a lot of suspension off of your tire work?
Dan Thieken [00:00:02]:
I wouldn't say we sell any more because we're looking at them anyway. But yes, you would argue that window to the car sold.
Greg Buckley [00:00:09]:
Right.
Dan Thieken [00:00:10]:
So you're obviously going to have the brakes in front of your face. You're obviously going to have the front wheels to shake again. It's all about the opportunity. It gives you the opportunity to shake down that front end.
Mike Allen [00:00:22]:
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 our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, here's your host, Mike Allen with Confessions of a Shop Owner presented by techmetric. The best software ever invented for any purpose ever,
Greg Buckley [00:00:57]:
I think. Well, I don't know if AI is a dead horse the moment, but you got that, you got Jesus.
Mike Allen [00:01:04]:
What else are we gonna talk about? Flat rate or the technician shortage? I'd rather talk about AI.
Greg Buckley [00:01:09]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or I mean, what is AI going to do to all of the third party folks?
Mike Allen [00:01:26]:
Them up. Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:01:28]:
I mean that's a serious thing that I think it should be brought out and to. No offense to any of the vendors that are involved with that. Can't help what we're hearing and seeing. I mean it's, it's real world, you know.
Mike Allen [00:01:47]:
So, so sorry. I'm sitting here eating food actively while I'm. We all are. So I recorded earlier with Rochelle and Ashley and all this candy was laid out in front of them and they were both so self controlled and they didn't eat any of it. And so I felt obligated that I wasn't allowed to eat it either because that would be unprofessional. But since you guys are and we
Greg Buckley [00:02:15]:
come in and we just try to get grabbing.
Mike Allen [00:02:16]:
They look diabetes. All right, great.
Greg Buckley [00:02:21]:
I gotta have chocolate sometime. Yeah, I'm.
Dan Thieken [00:02:24]:
I.
Greg Buckley [00:02:25]:
Dark chocolate, but that was milk chocolate. I'm going like, I don't care, I have some chocolate.
Dan Thieken [00:02:29]:
All right.
Mike Allen [00:02:29]:
So I recorded an episode at Vision with Seth and Keith and released a couple weeks ago and I thought we were gonna talk about Nastif stuff. Right. Because they're both on the board. Nastif.
Greg Buckley [00:02:38]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:02:38]:
And the conversation never got around to it because we started talking about AI and because Seth had just taught a. Seth and Keith had just taught a class about building AI agents. Yeah. Did. Did you go to that class or. Everybody that I heard talk about it about that class was like, holy.
Greg Buckley [00:02:55]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:02:57]:
And so I'm shameless. Plug Confessions of a Shop Owner podcast is having Seth, at least, if not Seth and Keith, come down on Saturday, June 13, to North Carolina, and we're going to do another full date. We're going to do a full day class on building your own AI agents and the different things that you can do that you can streamline, that you can make more efficient, that you can make savings internally.
Greg Buckley [00:03:26]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:03:27]:
And it's from estimate creation processes, dvi, streamline hr, bookkeeping, your train, your training manual, your book. Yeah, all of it. Right. And so if you guys are bored, I'm going to do Friday night shenanigans live at the Car Fix Bar and Lounge.
Dan Thieken [00:03:51]:
Say it's in June.
Mike Allen [00:03:52]:
Y. Yeah. I put in my calendar second Saturday in June. You come down Friday night, we'll hang out and play video games and poker and. And drink and. And be merry. And then all day class on Saturday in Raleigh. I have no idea what it's going to cost yet because I got to get a final picture on the total expenses, but I hope to have registration open end of next week.
Dan Thieken [00:04:13]:
So you said it's the 13th?
Mike Allen [00:04:14]:
Yep.
Greg Buckley [00:04:14]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:04:16]:
So are you gonna be at Tools? Can't make it to Tools. I've got a commitment. I'm gonna be on a Napa trip with my bride. If I went to Tools, my bride would go to Mexico without me.
Dan Thieken [00:04:27]:
That wouldn't be fun.
Mike Allen [00:04:27]:
Yeah, I. She might think it would be way better. You know, she might. But, you know, Patty.
Greg Buckley [00:04:34]:
Patty went to a room on her own because she was pissed off at me because we couldn't go to Punta Cana. And she. And then she goes, you're going to Ireland for golf? I'm going to Aruba.
Dan Thieken [00:04:45]:
So I go, my buddies are going to. Yeah. What's that course over there in Ireland?
Greg Buckley [00:04:53]:
In Ireland? Yeah. What, many of them?
Dan Thieken [00:04:55]:
No, what's the. What's the original.
Greg Buckley [00:04:57]:
Help me out here.
Mike Allen [00:04:58]:
Where the British Open is played occasionally.
Dan Thieken [00:05:01]:
Yeah, St. Andrews.
Mike Allen [00:05:02]:
Yeah, St. Andrews.
Dan Thieken [00:05:02]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:05:03]:
They're playing.
Dan Thieken [00:05:03]:
They didn't invite me. I said, you?
Mike Allen [00:05:06]:
Yeah. Are they really your buddies?
Dan Thieken [00:05:08]:
Not now. Yeah, those guys, they're two of my best friends. They said, look into the camera and
Mike Allen [00:05:12]:
tell them to go.
Dan Thieken [00:05:13]:
They claim that they invited me, but they did not.
Greg Buckley [00:05:17]:
Well, we keep ratcheting up the cost of this thing and. And, you know, we started off well. How can we do this? And I said, look, just screw or in Deep. Just keep going. So we got E carts because you, you and you have to have a caddy. So we hired a caddy of what they call a four man caddy. He just really looks for your ball, doesn't really walk with you.
Dan Thieken [00:05:39]:
Now, four caddy.
Greg Buckley [00:05:40]:
Yeah, four caddy.
Dan Thieken [00:05:41]:
There you go.
Greg Buckley [00:05:42]:
And got the E carts. We've got a tour of the Guinness factory brewery, right? And then we got a. Hired a driver. So all these little things are racking up and you know the cost of this thing. I know it's going to be about six grand to fly.
Mike Allen [00:06:01]:
Smash brothers are going.
Greg Buckley [00:06:02]:
No, no, no, he's not going with me now. He wouldn't. He. He doesn't like going overseas, man. So it's me and three others. In fact, one of them was a software developer who developed CRM for nonprofits. I found that. And he sold his company about three years ago to a.
Greg Buckley [00:06:24]:
A bigger. A bigger company, of course. And we hit it off. We were at bar, was drinking one night down. We had the wives out down Rehoboth. And this guy's funny as hell. Frank Be Beer, Beersley, something like that. But really good guy.
Greg Buckley [00:06:39]:
Really good guy.
Mike Allen [00:06:40]:
So you're international traveling with a dude whose name you don't even know the last name.
Greg Buckley [00:06:45]:
I know he's probably gonna go wrong.
Mike Allen [00:06:48]:
That's the most Greg Buckley I've ever heard in my life.
Greg Buckley [00:06:51]:
I can't remember the guy's last name, but he's funny as hell and, and unfortunately he likes to drink. So we don't know how this is gonna.
Mike Allen [00:07:01]:
We don't know how it's going to turn out. So one of my, one of the guests that I recorded with earlier, Rochelle Richland. She's got a shop in Richland, Texas. Hang on, I gotta, I gotta name the shop. It would be rude not to. Northridge Automotive in Richardson, Texas. Her father is here with her and he sat off camera, but he brought a bottle of bourbon to share, so.
Dan Thieken [00:07:30]:
Nice.
Mike Allen [00:07:30]:
I've got an appointment in an hour and a half to go share some bourbon. Put up. Put a big hurt on a bottle of bourbon.
Greg Buckley [00:07:37]:
There you go.
Mike Allen [00:07:38]:
So I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a good time. All right. Just like I assume that everybody knows you guys, because who doesn't? But in case someone doesn't know you guys, introductions all around.
Greg Buckley [00:07:49]:
Greg Buckley, Buckley, Zotic Care. Two locations. One in Wilmington, Delaware, and one in Millsboro, Delaware. From the bricks to the beaches.
Dan Thieken [00:07:57]:
Dan Tekin, Craig Tire and Service, Millersport, Ohio. Been in the industry 30 years now.
Mike Allen [00:08:03]:
Ish. Doesn't feel like a day over 90.
Greg Buckley [00:08:06]:
Right.
Dan Thieken [00:08:06]:
I don't even know anymore.
Mike Allen [00:08:11]:
Real quick, totally off subject. How far is your down the coast store from Lewis?
Greg Buckley [00:08:19]:
85 miles. Okay.
Mike Allen [00:08:20]:
So I was a long way away then. I was in Lewis last weekend.
Greg Buckley [00:08:23]:
Oh, from Lewis to the shop. Oh, no, no, you're about 10 miles.
Mike Allen [00:08:26]:
Okay.
Greg Buckley [00:08:26]:
I thought.
Mike Allen [00:08:27]:
I felt like I was close, man. Yeah. So historic downtown Lewis.
Greg Buckley [00:08:31]:
Yeah. Was gorgeous. Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:08:33]:
Like it was like a tulip festival or something. There were like tulips blooming everywhere and every possible crevice where a plant could be was tulips. And it's a historic town with lots of museums and, you know, cannon ramparts and stuff like that. So.
Greg Buckley [00:08:46]:
Yeah, it was great.
Mike Allen [00:08:47]:
And. And really good bars.
Greg Buckley [00:08:49]:
Really good bar. Did you stop the Lewis Swer house?
Mike Allen [00:08:52]:
I wanted to go to the speakeasy in the back.
Greg Buckley [00:08:55]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:08:55]:
But we got too drunk early in the day and ended up. Yeah, well, at this point it's like if I have three strong margaritas, I gotta go to bed, so. And the, The. The Mexican place on Main street there. Agave. Yeah. Yeah. Got a little face in the afternoon sometimes.
Mike Allen [00:09:17]:
It happens. Yeah. So anyway, I hate that we couldn't link up.
Greg Buckley [00:09:21]:
And when did you go home?
Mike Allen [00:09:24]:
We drove home Sunday morning.
Greg Buckley [00:09:26]:
Yeah. Because I was gonna make it down early Monday to see if you had lunch or anything yet. So what are you gonna do? Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:09:33]:
Now I guess we got to hang out today. So we are at Tectonic 2026. It is the tail end of day one. Dan, you just finished teaching your class.
Dan Thieken [00:09:43]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:09:44]:
Trying to bring the light of the world of tires to the dirty maintenance and repair side of the industry. All these dumb sons of bitches who think you can't make any money on tires need to get a little learning on.
Dan Thieken [00:10:00]:
They do. But surprisingly, like I mentioned, we were assuming we were going to be teaching to a lot of people that didn't sell tires. And all but two had already implemented tire sales. So they were looking more for a strategy which wasn't quite where our presentation was lined with. So we had to kind of ad lib some and help shed some light. But it's. It was very well received and they. 45 minutes just.
Dan Thieken [00:10:27]:
It was rough. Yeah. I wish we had more time, that's all.
Mike Allen [00:10:30]:
What. What percentage of revenue at Gregor is tires?
Dan Thieken [00:10:34]:
So we used to run about 60% tires, 40% service, but that's flipped, which is the. The path. I want, I want.
Mike Allen [00:10:43]:
That's about right. Right.
Dan Thieken [00:10:44]:
I want 65 service, 35 tires.
Mike Allen [00:10:46]:
Ultimately you want to maintain the same volume of tires and grow Service until it's 65. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm going to ask like typical rookie questions for shop owners are thinking about tires. What kind of margin can you realistically expect on tires?
Dan Thieken [00:11:05]:
I think in the passenger light truck market because we handle everything from golf cart to big ag tires. Right. So. But for the passenger and light truck, I like to see a combined with labor in there around a 35% GP overall. We don't charge, we don't do a separate line item for labor on the tires. In our shop, we have a tire techie that he's paid sourly to be there.
Mike Allen [00:11:28]:
Would you say sourly? Is that a mixture of celery and hourly celery? Celery, Sourly, celery. So we pay him in produce.
Dan Thieken [00:11:38]:
We pay him in produce, yeah. But at the end of the day, it's just about making sure that people have that option to buy them. You don't want them going somewhere else. That's my big thing. You don't want them. You don't want to give up the opportunity to your client.
Mike Allen [00:11:52]:
Period. Yeah, period. And you're giving another shop multiple chances a year to win your business. To win. Win the business away from you.
Dan Thieken [00:12:02]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:12:03]:
Because I send you going back for free tire rotation to that shop that put the tires on everything else.
Greg Buckley [00:12:07]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:12:09]:
Is there anything that you do in your business that generates a better gross profit per hour than tires?
Dan Thieken [00:12:16]:
No, not really.
Mike Allen [00:12:18]:
I mean it's astronomical.
Dan Thieken [00:12:19]:
I mean, I mean there may be, there may be a one off, whatever
Mike Allen [00:12:22]:
exhaust job or AC job, catalytic converter, that's a half hour to bolt.
Dan Thieken [00:12:26]:
But no, overall, no, the GP per hour is better with tires is the rule of thumb.
Mike Allen [00:12:31]:
And the skill level and labor cost of a tire installer if they've got good equipment is so much lower than it is for that other job. That other job is. That's fair. That's the reason that tire stores have big beautiful buildings on the corner and high level technical shops. A lot of times or in industrial complexes, they might still be beautiful shops. Yeah. But there's a reason they can afford the, the fancy real estate. Yeah, they, they're better at making money if they're run right.
Mike Allen [00:13:03]:
It feels like Hunter is the gold standard on tire equipment to a lot of people. But let's say that there's a listener who is, you know, a little three, four bay shop that they're just trying to get into tires and they don't want to drop 30 or 40 grand on a installer and a balancer. What equipment should they be looking at? Can you say?
Dan Thieken [00:13:25]:
Well, I can't speak to like some of the cheap off brand stuff I see people getting online and those are
Mike Allen [00:13:31]:
probably effective TEMU tire changes, whatever that
Dan Thieken [00:13:33]:
looks like, that's probably effective. But my go to for the last several years has been coats specifically a coats refurbished machine. There's a lot of coats service reps likely in many people's areas that deal in the used equipment. So I have two coats tire changers. One was brand new, one was one year old refurbished, came with a year warranty and I got it for like four or five grand and it was an $8,000 machine new. I think coats is the best value, especially if you can find them refurbished or generally used. Yeah. And I'm sure like the Ranger products or whatever the case may be, we've all seen.
Dan Thieken [00:14:12]:
I'm sure they're fine for you know, four or five sets of tires a week. If you're just getting into it 100%.
Mike Allen [00:14:18]:
Is. Is Corgi a good brand or is that just European crap?
Dan Thieken [00:14:22]:
I mean I think they're quality. I've never personally used one. I've seen them and demoed them, but I don't know much about them in my shop.
Mike Allen [00:14:29]:
So if you, if you want to get a refurb coats tire machine that can do most passenger and light truck and wheel balancer. Is it possible to be in the business of doing tires in house for under $10,000?
Dan Thieken [00:14:44]:
I think that'd be. I think that'd be fair to say 10 to maybe 12 top end. But yeah. 10 grand figure with used equipment. I think. Yeah. With used. Even if you found good used coat stuff, you could be in that 10
Mike Allen [00:14:56]:
gram figure you keeping a dozen different styles and types of wheel weights. Are you using all stick ons or.
Dan Thieken [00:15:03]:
We now have two color of stick ons. It's still a 50, 50 split I would say. We have the coated clip ons for a lot of wheels.
Mike Allen [00:15:11]:
Okay.
Dan Thieken [00:15:12]:
The stick on get used more on the oversized truck stuff.
Mike Allen [00:15:15]:
Yeah, for sure.
Dan Thieken [00:15:16]:
The deep dish offset wheels do you.
Mike Allen [00:15:20]:
So like I grew up in my dad's shop and he was probably 60 tires at the time. He was a big Goodyear dealer in the area. We would unload an 18 wheeler of good years a week.
Dan Thieken [00:15:30]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:15:30]:
We had the. It was truck day back that you back the truck up and you spend three hours sweating your balls off putting tires in the warehouse. Right. And it was profitable and it was very Low skill labor. I mean I could do it. So it had to be low skill. Right. But also he could keep a good, better best option in tires.
Mike Allen [00:15:59]:
For 80% of the cars that came through the bay, the need to order tires from the distribution center was almost negligible. It feels like to have four, not even good, better, best, but one option to cover 80% of the tires in a general repair shop, you'd need a couple hundred SKUs at this point. So how do you manage inventory? Or do you have inventory and just get it all from the warehouse?
Dan Thieken [00:16:27]:
I manage it by not having it.
Mike Allen [00:16:28]:
Yeah.
Dan Thieken [00:16:29]:
And that's obviously going to differ by your geographic location. The closer you are to a city center, the better off you're going to be. So we're, we're about 35 to 40 minutes from the east side of Columbus and we have three, three maybe four distributors that will deliver to us twice a day.
Mike Allen [00:16:50]:
Yeah, that's great.
Dan Thieken [00:16:51]:
So that doesn't mean you don't have like if you're out in the country and can only get deliveries next day, you might have to stock maybe a handful. But at the end of the day you don't need inventory mostly speaking to be successful.
Mike Allen [00:17:04]:
Well, very few people walk in the door and they need to buy tires right now. Right. Those are the only ones that have non repairable tire damage. Right. And those instances, maybe you run a shuttle van to the, to the warehouse and grab one or maybe put them in a loaner car or whatever, which I've done.
Greg Buckley [00:17:20]:
That's what we do. I mean we'll tie rack is 20 minutes away from the shop and in Millsboro ATD will hotshot for an extra 20 bucks out of Salisbury. And so we've been quite doing pretty good with tires. I'm really shocked. You know, one of the things I'd ask you and what do you, how do you sell or I should say, do you sell a lot of suspension off of your tire work?
Dan Thieken [00:17:50]:
I wouldn't say we sell any more because we're looking at them anyway. But yes, you would argue that like I said, window to the car sole. Right. So you're obviously going to have the brakes in front of your face. You're obviously going to have the front wheels to shake. So yes, you would be selling more work, especially if you're offering an incentive with like a free alignment inspection or whatever you do when you buy four tires, you're going to be inspecting that front end in that moment too. But again, it's all about the opportunity. It gives you the Opportunity to shake down that front end.
Greg Buckley [00:18:22]:
Right, right.
Mike Allen [00:18:24]:
Do you do a tire protection plan?
Dan Thieken [00:18:26]:
So we are in house free tire repairs at no additional to the customer. They, they can buy a tire protection plan that covers nationwide. I just don't want my tires going anywhere else. So you're coming back to me and I'm going to fix them and rotate them and balance them and so.
Mike Allen [00:18:43]:
But you don't have a line item. Okay.
Dan Thieken [00:18:46]:
Nope.
Mike Allen [00:18:47]:
Feels like a lot of big tire dealers. That's a big profit driver for them is having a tire protection plan. It is program that they drive. Yeah, I'm trying to think about the other things that I hear tire dealers talking about. TPMS rebuild packages. You do that on every install or.
Dan Thieken [00:19:03]:
No, we have it if we need it, we do a good inspection. Now if it's really old tpms we may consider it. But the older they are, the more likely they're gonna break. And we're in Ohio, so rust. A lot of them break. Yeah, yeah. So we spray the valve stems down first, make sure the seals aren't leaking. If they're older, do you pre sell
Mike Allen [00:19:20]:
them with the customer and say, hey, if these break, they're gonna be this much.
Dan Thieken [00:19:23]:
We address it. If we address it. If we need to. We actually have a bucket of. I forget where I got them. Someone gave me a bucket or I bought a bucket of just TPMS kits. So I got like nothing in them. So if we do need them, we take care of it.
Mike Allen [00:19:39]:
Okay.
Greg Buckley [00:19:41]:
Interesting.
Mike Allen [00:19:42]:
You do much tires?
Greg Buckley [00:19:43]:
I do a fair amount for not being a tire shop. And we were growing that every day or every week, you know, and we're, we're competitive. It's, it's funny how we, we don't promote tires per se, but I think just because of the area that we're in, especially in Millsboro where it's void of anybody else. There might, there's a Goodyear store 24, maybe about three or four miles away from me, but that's it. And then yeah, we're, we sell them. We.
Mike Allen [00:20:19]:
You know, I do feel like I've got to change the subject real quick. I just recalled this. The reason I was in Delaware was to visit my father in law who was in the hospital. He had a health issue pop up and went in. And while we were in the hospital room, my wife said to me, hey, are you gonna go visit your buddy Greg? And I was like, no. I called him, he's out of town right now. And my father in law said, oh, is that Buckley's? Auto Care. And I was like, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:20:52]:
He's like, I go there. And he said, I always get his marketing man. And I hear. I hear him on the radio and I see. And I was like, well, he's kind of. He's kind of a big deal. He's known in our industry as a marketing genius.
Greg Buckley [00:21:06]:
I don't know about geniuses, but I
Mike Allen [00:21:10]:
don't think there's any risk of him hearing this episode. He's probably. Is he a bad customer?
Greg Buckley [00:21:15]:
No, no, no, no.
Mike Allen [00:21:18]:
He was a dealership customer for, like, all of the time that we were dating. And truly, I forgot. He was like. He was always going. I was like, I can't believe you go to the dealer. And he was like, I can't believe my daughter, my princess, married a dirty mechanic. You know?
Greg Buckley [00:21:31]:
Oh, yeah, pretty good. We've. You know, I have to give credit to my. My team down in Millsborough.
Dan Thieken [00:21:38]:
They.
Greg Buckley [00:21:39]:
My. My nephew Jackson, who were programming to be actually the manager. My son and him are down there operating that one. They really are a great pair. They're very cool, calm, collected. You know, Jackson, he's a, you know, tall, dark hair. You know, he's just. He's got all the tools.
Greg Buckley [00:21:57]:
And so we always get good comments on how, you know, the customer service end of things are all, you know, they're grade A.
Mike Allen [00:22:05]:
All the tools is tall and dark hair. So I'm short, fat, with light hair.
Greg Buckley [00:22:10]:
I got nothing, right.
Mike Allen [00:22:11]:
Yeah. You know, some bullshit right there, man.
Greg Buckley [00:22:14]:
Yeah, he. He. He presents really well. And. And the demographics being what it is, it's what it's like the Silver Tsunami, right? So they're all retirees, and they're all
Mike Allen [00:22:24]:
like, there's a lot of wealthy people up there.
Greg Buckley [00:22:28]:
I just picked up. This is before I came here. A gentleman from Bayside came over. Not Bayside, Baywoods, where the golf course is. And this neighborhood is like affluent times 10. He comes over and he goes, hey, do you want to be part of our newsletter? And we've got 375 homes. We're building another 300. And, you know, we.
Greg Buckley [00:22:51]:
You're the only game in town. I go, where do I sign them? And I said, in fact, I got to go back Monday and put the whole. The whole ad together. Because I said, look, I just bought this 26 Honda Odyssey, right? We're getting it stickered up Monday when I get back, I said, I want pictures of that in the ad. Goes, no problem, no problem. And we talked for about 40 minutes, and we're talking about what we can do and all this. And this guy's like my marketing agent within this development. Right.
Greg Buckley [00:23:27]:
And we got that. We got Liberty. So, you know, we're. The boys were going, do we really need to spend money on a van? I go, let me tell you something. This van is going to be the rolling billboard in all of these communities. So, yeah, we're looking forward to that. But when it comes down to just getting your name out. Yeah, we've done an incredible job, you know, of marketing, you know, and getting the word out and building the business up the way it should.
Greg Buckley [00:23:54]:
Where I go back and I got to talk to contractors. We're in the middle of getting at least four bays. All depends on how the engineering comes out. You know, behind the building. We got to keep it tucked in. Can't go outside the wings of the building. Got all this stuff we got to do. And that's what the big goal is, is to get that shop built for volume.
Greg Buckley [00:24:13]:
So, you know, we get it prepared.
Mike Allen [00:24:15]:
Very cool. Well, you bought the lot next door too, right?
Greg Buckley [00:24:18]:
I bought the house and a lot next door.
Mike Allen [00:24:19]:
So you got unlimited parking.
Greg Buckley [00:24:21]:
I do, I do. And Patty, she goes, I don't know if I. I want to be in a community. So you're asking me to sell the property that we just bought in April. Right.
Mike Allen [00:24:33]:
So, you know, so I'm trying to remember his name. He's in western North Carolina. He's a big, big time tire dealer. Shelby, North Carolina, maybe he bought the house next door in the lot for parking and then turned the house into his waiting room.
Greg Buckley [00:24:52]:
That's what? Bingo.
Mike Allen [00:24:54]:
From the lobby, you go into the lobby of the store and you drop off your keys, and then there are painted footprints on the sidewalk.
Dan Thieken [00:25:00]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:25:01]:
Take you to the turn up and go up. And like, the local chamber of commerce would have meetings in there for their committees.
Greg Buckley [00:25:07]:
Really?
Mike Allen [00:25:08]:
And he had, like, in the living room, he had two big massage chairs, like the automatic massage chairs. The kitchen was stocked with, like, snack foods and drinks and stuff.
Dan Thieken [00:25:17]:
That's crazy.
Mike Allen [00:25:18]:
And that's.
Greg Buckley [00:25:19]:
I'm telling you, that's spot on. You know, I mean, I just had all the trees cut down that interfered with the. With the walkways. And it's. Now it looks like it's connected 100%. So I go, all right, well, I'll sell the property or rent the property to the company.
Mike Allen [00:25:37]:
Right.
Greg Buckley [00:25:38]:
And. And go buy a house in the community that she wanted. So I don't know.
Mike Allen [00:25:42]:
Yeah. The only thing out there is $750,000 and up subdivisions and beautiful picturesque farms.
Greg Buckley [00:25:48]:
Yes.
Mike Allen [00:25:49]:
It's until you get to the beach and then it's million dollar, you know, huts. So it sucks. Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:25:58]:
So.
Mike Allen [00:25:59]:
Well, you know, you live in a good market. I live in a good market. I don't know anything about your market.
Dan Thieken [00:26:03]:
I love my market. Yeah, it's a good market.
Mike Allen [00:26:06]:
Good. Yeah. All right. So one of the things that you guys said you really wanted to talk about a lot is AI. So we talked briefly off the record about how AI is coming for a lot of these third party vendors that have extensions and integrations and everything else. And they're going to have to really pivot and really be aggressive in their feature growth, I think to maintain competitiveness from just the little in house apps that can be built and everything else. How are you utilizing, utilizing AI tools in the business or are you yet.
Dan Thieken [00:26:49]:
So I really wasn't outside of just, you know, chat GPT. Right. Doing. Helping me make some images and whatnot.
Greg Buckley [00:26:56]:
And.
Dan Thieken [00:26:57]:
And then all that changed just a few weeks ago when I went to visit my brother who had started on a huge AI project which is going to turn out to be a very big endeavor and a big infrastructure. And then I think both of you that sent you that survey. I'm trying to develop some AI platform that starts with an autonomous agent that it's going to be able to send emails on your behalf and schedule zoom calls.
Mike Allen [00:27:30]:
And I think AI personal assistants are absolutely a thing in their infancy right now and they're just going to continue to get more.
Dan Thieken [00:27:37]:
So we're going to, we're building that, I'm building that with persistent memory. And then that just kept me going, my train of thought and I'm like, well, what else can we offer in this with different tiers and the platform is going to be called Ethnos, but I don't know where it's going to end up. I have a fully functioning version locally on my laptop. I'm just fine tuning some things, but it's going to be pretty impressive. And if it never comes to market, I have a really cool product on my laptop. Yeah, that's the cool thing.
Mike Allen [00:28:11]:
There are a lot of people that are sitting at home at night and working on development of projects like this.
Greg Buckley [00:28:17]:
That
Mike Allen [00:28:19]:
and the limiting factor is just your imagination and your willingness to learn how to use the tool.
Dan Thieken [00:28:24]:
Correct.
Mike Allen [00:28:24]:
Right. I mean being a genius prompt writer is the next thing knowing how to get it to do what you want it to do.
Dan Thieken [00:28:33]:
And the interesting thing is I think it was maybe Nathan Bryant pointed this out to me, whatever you're doing across this industry, or any for that matter, if you're going to be building a product, it has to, it has to solve a problem. And as he pointed out, it just can't be another monthly expense. So I've been off, I've not been working on it for about a week. My mind was on overload. So I just sit back and I showed it to a few people. I'm like, listen, I gotta make certain that you guys potentially see the value in this because I might be jaded by looking at it. Right. I might be biased.
Dan Thieken [00:29:10]:
So the feedback's been pretty cool. I'm excited. Like I said, if it never makes it anywhere, I'll have a really cool something on my computer. And some of the information I've been gathering from owners and other roles, it's pretty interesting.
Greg Buckley [00:29:22]:
It was that 20 page survey.
Dan Thieken [00:29:24]:
Yeah, like I said, there's a follow up one if you want.
Greg Buckley [00:29:29]:
Oh my God.
Mike Allen [00:29:32]:
What If I use ChatGPT to write the responses to the open ending questions? It doesn't matter.
Greg Buckley [00:29:39]:
So for us, we're building really a complete platform. My son has developed quite a few incredible options already for us.
Mike Allen [00:29:52]:
I mean, look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up, the software that I had would continue to evolve. But as we grew the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, it really just, it was becoming a real problem. That's why I switched to techmetric. It's not just software, it's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier. Smart jobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean, it allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric. And when I need help, their support team responds in real time.
Mike Allen [00:30:33]:
I actually was online with them asking questions just this week and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later. If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how techmetric can help you move your shop forward.
Greg Buckley [00:30:48]:
As I told Mike on the plane ride out to Ignite, he built Rilla, 80% done. And we have a complete scoring system, phone, and we're using APIs, we're not using chrome extensions over top of anything. So we're into the roots of everything and we can pretty much do everything that, like you said, whatever your imagination can build, he's building it. And I'm fortunate because that was his background. I mean he had computer science as his major. He interned at Apple and Cupertino. He stayed on top of tech. He can do minor coding.
Greg Buckley [00:31:30]:
But with the help of Claude and we're on Claude, we're really creating functional on point platform and options for us. That again, like you said, we don't have to pay for that third party. And that's going to be a big. There's a lot of questions. These third parties have got to. They're going to have to come to Jesus with it the way continue what happens. I mean, I would be afraid. I would be afraid.
Dan Thieken [00:32:05]:
Yeah. Something's definitely changed on the landscape that's lighting some fires under a lot of
Greg Buckley [00:32:10]:
people with this stuff.
Mike Allen [00:32:12]:
Well, I think there'll be a lot of user cases in our industry where people are not willing to build their own tools and they just want somebody to build it for them. You know, we're, I mean that's what we make our living off of, is not the DIY customers but the do it for me customers.
Greg Buckley [00:32:28]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:32:28]:
So a lot of shop owners are going to be. Do it for me. Right. And the DIYers will be early adopters and they'll. Some of, some of them will fail spectacularly and some of them will have incredible success. Yeah. I'm still trying to decide where I'm going to fall on that spectrum. That's why I'm having Seth come down so I can sit through that.
Mike Allen [00:32:46]:
That instead of two or three hours, make it a full day, you know, nine to five. And if my dumb ass can be taught through it in a day, then that shows what's possible. I'll probably bring my oldest kid with me too.
Dan Thieken [00:33:00]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:33:01]:
And have him sit through it. And a couple of my key players.
Greg Buckley [00:33:05]:
Well, that's the thing that I look at. I, I mean the future does it hold where you'll have an accountant, a bookkeeper and a prompt writer, you know,
Mike Allen [00:33:15]:
as part of your. Are you going to need an accountant and a bookkeeper?
Greg Buckley [00:33:18]:
Well, that's true. Ready to go. Because you could have the prompt writer.
Mike Allen [00:33:20]:
Prompt writer needs to write do all code for your accountant and your bookkeeper. Correct.
Greg Buckley [00:33:23]:
So you pay, let's say you pay six figures to a prompt writer. But he's got everything. They've got everything all managed for you or whatever. Hr, you name training. I mean we have that now. We have a schedule. You know, our employees can go ahead and you know, type in their date that they want. It gets checked off Whether it's yes or no, based upon everybody else's schedule, clock, estimated workload, all that is in to say, okay, we think you're okay to go to take vacation day on this day, that kind of thing.
Greg Buckley [00:33:55]:
It's, it's insane.
Mike Allen [00:33:56]:
I was talking to Ashley Butler early today, earlier today, ice cold air in Florida and they have used AI because there's, they're all in on training up young technicians and they say, well, some people learn audibly, some people learn visually, some people need infographics, some people need video content, right? So they're using AI to generate infographics for all of their onboarding and handbook and training material and to generate podcast for each of the subjects in there. And it's like, so I just send them the playlist and they can listen to it while they're in the car and learn all of our processes and procedures and everything else that way, if that's how they choose to learn or they're creating videos and I would imagine you can, you don't have to produce videos. You can say you can prompt it and it will make the video for you.
Greg Buckley [00:34:48]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:34:48]:
Like right now you might get some, some hallucinations and some drift, but it's better every day.
Greg Buckley [00:34:55]:
Well, on stage, Cody mentioned replit. R E P L I T. Fantastic. You can give it your transcripts, right. It'll create the, the whole video with a storyline to it. And so, you know, I think I told you I was working with Cliff Ravenscraft, which is, he's a 20 year veteran in podcasting. So I hired him as a coach, right. And he was giving me all kinds of great software to actually use and take advantage of because he builds his audience internally.
Greg Buckley [00:35:34]:
Like, you know, he's really not out doing all kinds of shorts and all this stuff. He builds storybook and he said, you got to try replit. So we had a session where he was showing me what he's doing and I go, oh my God. Made this complete two minute video that described the whole podcast. But it drew you in. He says, I don't sell my podcast, I draw you into it.
Mike Allen [00:35:58]:
And I go, not me, I'm a whore. I just,
Greg Buckley [00:36:01]:
there's all kinds of ways, right. But you know, Cliff, I was following Cliff for like almost 15 years and he's got a coaching program for podcasting and all that. But he turned me on a lot of good software, Replit. And when she mentioned it, I go, holy smokes. I mean, that's a, that's a good outfit or a good, good program. I think it's. It's kind of expensive. I said sometimes I think it's like 40 bucks or some.
Greg Buckley [00:36:30]:
Is 79amonth or something like that. But it does amazing stuff.
Mike Allen [00:36:34]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:36:35]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:36:36]:
So from a perspective of not adding any value to the conversation at all, I do want you to know that My middle child, 13 years old, has reached his angsty teen phase. Yeah. And he's decided that his outlet for his angst and frustration is going to be songwriting.
Greg Buckley [00:36:51]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:36:52]:
And. Okay, that's poetry.
Greg Buckley [00:36:54]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:36:56]:
And he's found Suno, and he's creating, like, high production value, high vocal song. So he. He puts in his lyrics that he's written and then names the genre and the tonality and the voice characteristics of the. Of the vocalist, and then creates a song and edits it and then he publishes it and shares it with the family.
Greg Buckley [00:37:22]:
Oh.
Mike Allen [00:37:24]:
And so typically it, you know, unrequited love or love or I've been treated unfairly or I'm mad. Right. And so the first one that he did was. I mean, it was really good. And I wanted him to show me the paper where he wrote the lyrics first. I was like, there's no way you wrote this. This is.
Greg Buckley [00:37:50]:
This is way above.
Mike Allen [00:37:52]:
Yeah, yeah. And he actually wrote the lyrics and then typed himself. I was like, okay, hey, good job, dude. But I was like, what. What woman is this about, man? This sounds like somebody has just shredded your heart. And he looks at me and he goes, no one but the next girl says, no, I'm gonna send this to her.
Dan Thieken [00:38:07]:
Oh, man,
Greg Buckley [00:38:10]:
that's good. That's good.
Mike Allen [00:38:12]:
I was like, holy, dude. Are you a psychopath?
Greg Buckley [00:38:13]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:38:16]:
But I did get my first song Thursday.
Greg Buckley [00:38:19]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:38:20]:
I was already gone. But he. It was about how unfair it is that I always side with mom in arguments when he's. I was like, dude, you just don't know. I mean, they want to be like, bro, if I side with you, it's worse for everybody.
Dan Thieken [00:38:37]:
Exactly.
Mike Allen [00:38:40]:
And she's more important than you are. You're gonna grow up and leave. And I'm living with her for the next 50 years. Exactly. But I felt Amanda, I think, was pretty amused that I finally got my first song in the. In the Jack's playlist because she's got like, three already, so. Yeah. So anyway, soon.
Greg Buckley [00:39:01]:
It's great.
Mike Allen [00:39:02]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:39:02]:
Yeah. I mean, I love it, you know. Right. And he could probably put. Well, I know that.
Mike Allen [00:39:07]:
Is that what you use for the confession songs?
Greg Buckley [00:39:09]:
Everything. I wrote a whole album. I got a whole album on itunes with songs well, your song.
Dan Thieken [00:39:15]:
Yeah, right.
Greg Buckley [00:39:16]:
And then I wrote one for the wedding for my son and daughter in law. I got one about missing an oil change called Missed Opportunity, which is about a young woman who couldn't find time to get her oil changed. Her engine blew up, but she turned the radio up and out came white smoke. And it's kind of like a Miranda Lambert type voice.
Dan Thieken [00:39:39]:
That's hilarious.
Greg Buckley [00:39:40]:
So I have fun with it. I love AI. I mean, it's art to me.
Mike Allen [00:39:44]:
And I'd be pretty nervous if I was a creative artist right now, if I wanted to make my living as a creative artist. Like you can't stop creativity. People are still going to want to do on a guitar and, and sing and well, here's paint and here's a simple analogy.
Greg Buckley [00:39:59]:
When I get, when I like for, you know, what I'm doing with radio and all that stuff musically, you know, you hear the argument, well, it's not real music and, and you're not making it. And I go, well, I'm writing the lyrics. So if I'm Bernie Taupin and I hand the lyrics to Elton John, Elton John is the AI agent for Bernie Taupin. I mean, there's just simple logic there that Bernie wouldn't know what Elton's going to write until he writes, until he plays the music to it. So when I write the lyrics and I hand it over to Suno and I pick the tonality like you said, and everything, the structure of the music and it comes out with, you know, after four or five attempts to get it right, the right voice, all of that, it's a song and you publish it and you can get it ranked. I mean, there are, there are AI artists that are outranking traditional artists right now. And it might be a shame, you might say, well, music is dead.
Mike Allen [00:40:56]:
Oh, do you think I'm hearing on like, on my Spotify playlist, I'm hearing music?
Greg Buckley [00:41:01]:
Oh, without a doubt, yeah. In fact, Spotify is the villain in all this because they are allowing AI music to come through where a lot of them are now saying that there, there's a, there's a code or something where they, they're, they're letting you know that it's AI and not real, you know, or not.
Mike Allen [00:41:23]:
If it makes me feel good.
Greg Buckley [00:41:24]:
If it makes you feel good.
Mike Allen [00:41:25]:
That's the thing gets my toe tapping.
Greg Buckley [00:41:27]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:41:28]:
You know, so, but I guess that's why the Screen Actors Guild went on strike for so long a couple years ago is because they saw the writing on the wall about, oh yeah, Tom Cruise is going to be starring in Mission Impossible 317, 50 years after he's dead.
Greg Buckley [00:41:45]:
Why do you think Oracle bought Warner Bros. You know, because that's exactly what they're going to do. The actors and all that. They're going to be, you know, you sign. You sign your image away. That's what it's going to be.
Mike Allen [00:41:58]:
Well, you know that there are Instagram thoughts with over a million followers now that are not actual people.
Greg Buckley [00:42:05]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:42:06]:
That's amazing.
Greg Buckley [00:42:06]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:42:07]:
Never underestimate the thirst of the Internet.
Dan Thieken [00:42:09]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:42:10]:
So how's that going to relate to automotive. How do we.
Mike Allen [00:42:12]:
How can we. Are we supposed to be talking about how could.
Dan Thieken [00:42:14]:
No, no.
Greg Buckley [00:42:15]:
How can we take advantage of all of that? Right.
Mike Allen [00:42:18]:
Can I make an Instagram picture of. Or an AI picture of the car repaired? And no, I know it's right because they still got to drive it home. So I don't know.
Greg Buckley [00:42:33]:
It's all kinds of stuff.
Dan Thieken [00:42:35]:
Well, it's not going anywhere.
Mike Allen [00:42:36]:
So I'm ready for AI estimating. I want. I want to take the picture and I want the model to recognize what it's a picture of, identify what's wrong, know what car it's attached to. Because I'm doing it through the DVI and techmetric and I want it to build the estimate using the vendor I prefer and the part line I prefer and the margin I prefer, and understanding my availability metrics and preferences. And by the time I'm done building the dvi, the estimates built. Because you know what that does is that makes Rack Attack available for everybody without five employees. Yep. Running a Rack Attack, it makes one person doing a DVI having the DVI done in the estimate done in 20 minutes.
Mike Allen [00:43:24]:
Yep. Because you don't have to write out the details either. And the findings. Like there will be some front load errors as it learns and gets better. Right. But I really think that that's a reality. In six months, eight months, 12 months.
Dan Thieken [00:43:40]:
Yeah. It's quick.
Greg Buckley [00:43:42]:
Well, I'd like to see because, you know, right now, between the two shops, we have. We have Esther, we have Auto IQ in Millsboro to help with DVIs, because we had a. We hired a crew that great, groomed them well, but they just were not capable of writing a good. A good DVI. Right. Okay. Whereas Wilmington, they're superior and their AROs show it. You know, they do a real deep thing on it.
Greg Buckley [00:44:17]:
I said, well, let's get Uwe's program down into Millsboro and let's find out how we're going to Work with it because I said it helps. I said, why aren't we helping them succeed? So we finally did, and it's proven itself that it does build a better dvi, but not as good as Wilmington's. And we don't know if it's because the guys are letting AI take over more than actually structuring a good DVI.
Dan Thieken [00:44:50]:
How are you.
Mike Allen [00:44:51]:
How are you determining that the DVIs are good, but not as good as Wilmington? Are you auditing them manually or.
Greg Buckley [00:44:57]:
Yeah, we're looking at manually. Then we're looking at the sales, the AROs versus and car count. Like Millsboro is off the charts for us.
Mike Allen [00:45:05]:
And you got to look at tech average quote and closing rate is a service advisor thing or is it? That's.
Greg Buckley [00:45:09]:
This is where we're really learning on what's going on between the two. Because Wilmington is mature. It's got three pretty much a techs, right? And they write great DVIs, from content to pictures. It's all there. And the advisors are more mature. It's just a mature operation. Whereas in Millsboro, still growing three years old, we've had to hire a crew that was never used to this. So we're learning.
Greg Buckley [00:45:38]:
Is it something that. Is it service writers and not selling, or was it the techs not putting it on the dvi? We're getting better at it now, estimating when he came out with the fact that you can have an estimate all done up, I said, why don't we introduce that. I got a big push back on that, you know, for now. But when you talk about speed of service like we, like you just talked about, you know, you get it down to one person doing this completely and having it ready to go for the. The advisor to make the call.
Mike Allen [00:46:18]:
How many more customers can one advisor help in a day if they don't have to spend any time around with estimates?
Greg Buckley [00:46:23]:
That's what I'm trying to get to. Look, your job is relationship building. You know, it's exactly.
Mike Allen [00:46:29]:
Everything else is a distraction.
Greg Buckley [00:46:30]:
Everything is a distraction. I go, you come on, why do you want to write these things out? Like if they can come out 95% complete, right? That's still. That's something that you don't have to do. You can. Then you can learn the client, you can do. You can build a relationship. It's what it's all about. So, you know, I think it's going to take some time, but like you said, in about a year, it'll be there without a doubt.
Dan Thieken [00:46:55]:
I've had three or four People, at least in the last couple weeks, mentioned that exact same thing. I'm waiting for AI estimating to be efficient.
Mike Allen [00:47:05]:
Yeah, well, there's, there's a race. There are a lot of people working hard to get there. Yep.
Greg Buckley [00:47:12]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:47:13]:
So I'm, I'm, I'm ready for it to be built into techmetric so that I think.
Greg Buckley [00:47:17]:
I don't see that real, real soon.
Mike Allen [00:47:19]:
Yeah, so do I.
Greg Buckley [00:47:20]:
Real soon.
Mike Allen [00:47:21]:
Yeah.
Greg Buckley [00:47:21]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:47:22]:
Maybe in the next 48 hours. Yeah, yeah,
Greg Buckley [00:47:26]:
I'm almost sure.
Dan Thieken [00:47:30]:
So
Greg Buckley [00:47:32]:
it is.
Mike Allen [00:47:33]:
One of the things that I've been feeling the crunch of is there's so many integration partners and Chrome extension overlays and everything else is just I'm ready for a single source solution and that's one of the things that Sunil is pressing for now. What'll happen is they'll have it and then everybody else will just say, well, my solution is better than their solution. So you should still pay me a monthly fee to have a Chrome extension laying over it because look, I have three colors instead of two or whatever it might be. So there will always be that. But I'm excited for this next evolution coming.
Dan Thieken [00:48:13]:
Oh yeah, big things.
Greg Buckley [00:48:14]:
I can't wait.
Mike Allen [00:48:16]:
So tell me about Super Radio.
Greg Buckley [00:48:20]:
Yeah, we're moving along. It's getting better and better. As soon as I get some time to actually dedicate the programming, I'm doing it much more on 302 for the state. But as long as I keep continue to learn and the programming is there, I've got all the software now that's in check. I must have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on building everywhere. I have a seat. I now have a studio of some sort. One in Millsboro, one in Wilmington, one in a house.
Greg Buckley [00:48:55]:
I just bought a duo for my little small office. So I got all the tunes, got all the license, all that's good. I think the next step now is to actually get into true programming and structure it so that I have sections available like, you know, at 10:00am we'll have your show or my show or a show and then music and then live interviews. So that's just going to take me to the point where, you know, it's going to be a more than a part time.
Mike Allen [00:49:31]:
Can you simulcast the live content across social media platforms?
Greg Buckley [00:49:35]:
Yeah, yes, I, I, if I wanted to, I could have broadcast it today throughout the whole network and it's getting better. The platform that I'm using will allow me to do everything with an RMTP fee to it, you know, and then that way I'll get out to where? Wherever, whoever.
Mike Allen [00:49:58]:
So if people are curious about super radio, how do they find it?
Greg Buckley [00:50:01]:
Soup Radio FM.
Mike Allen [00:50:03]:
Soupradio FM. Gentlemen. It's about. Oh, beer. 30.
Greg Buckley [00:50:08]:
Okay.
Dan Thieken [00:50:09]:
I like that idea.
Mike Allen [00:50:10]:
All right.
Dan Thieken [00:50:11]:
Yeah. I need something.
Mike Allen [00:50:13]:
Something I need to. Man, I. You know what? Sitting on that panel earlier, if they had brought beer in and let the panelists drink beer, it would have been. I mean. Oh, it'd have been unchained. It would have been great. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna lobby for that.
Mike Allen [00:50:24]:
For Tomorrow morning's panel, 9am, 9am bloodies. Yeah. Bloody marys and mimosas for the coaches. Can you see, like, Cecil and bill haas up there having mimosas and throwing shade? Yeah.
Dan Thieken [00:50:37]:
I'm there for it.
Mike Allen [00:50:38]:
All right, I'll see you guys.
Greg Buckley [00:50:39]:
All right, man.
Dan Thieken [00:50:39]:
See you.
Mike Allen [00:50:40]:
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 mikeonfessionsofashopowner.com or. Or call and leave a message. The number 704-confess. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to, like, subscribe or follow.
Mike Allen [00:51:14]:
Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.