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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.
Mr. Subaru [00:00:00]:
And the question proposed was, what are the most clickbait content creators in the automotive space? And I saw my name multiple times along with Scotty Kilmer. I'm like, what? Since when am I clickbaiting? And I even responded to the guys. Cause I'm that petty. I'm like, what do you mean? Elaborate. What do you mean? I clickbait.
Bryan Pollock [00:00:19]:
You're like, 50% of my content is tools you've never heard of.
Mike Allen [00:00:22]:
They don't want to have an actual conversation. They want to be angry. Two sentence keyboard snipe and move on and not be held accountable.
Mike Allen [00:00:32]:
The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we or our guests may say do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, here's your host, Mike Allen, with Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by techmetric, simply the best software ever made.
Mike Allen [00:01:08]:
How far are you from rock hill?
Mr. Subaru [00:01:10]:
About 15 minutes.
Mike Allen [00:01:11]:
Okay, so not just get on highway.
Mr. Subaru [00:01:13]:
21, head south, and you'll run right into my driveway.
Bryan Pollock [00:01:15]:
So that's. That's southern North Carolina. Rock Hill, that's pretty far south, right?
Mike Allen [00:01:20]:
It's northern, northern South Carolina. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Well, there you go.
Bryan Pollock [00:01:25]:
That's.
Mike Allen [00:01:25]:
So Rock Hill is known as home of the Ocho.
Bryan Pollock [00:01:29]:
I know. Where they have killers.
Mike Allen [00:01:32]:
All of the crazy sports that ESPN puts on when they have nothing else to watch.
Mr. Subaru [00:01:36]:
Oh, yeah, the BMX thing and the BMX center and all that crap. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:01:41]:
I think there's a white. The former Olympic white wall centers out there. Right?
Mr. Subaru [00:01:46]:
The whitewater rafting centers in North Carolina.
Mike Allen [00:01:49]:
Okay, okay.
Mr. Subaru [00:01:50]:
But we did build one in South Carolina down below me and Great Falls, but it's smaller and.
Mike Allen [00:01:55]:
Okay.
Mr. Subaru [00:01:56]:
Out in the sticks.
Mike Allen [00:02:51]:
No, I don't. I. I'm learning, as we slowly get more and more into this, that there is drama among automotive content creators, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:03:03]:
Oh, a ton, I guess. It's insane drama.
Mike Allen [00:03:04]:
Drama drives engagement, right? But I had no idea. It's like when you get involved. When you get involved in a church and you're going to the church early on, you're like, hey, this place is great. And then you get, you know, I'm going to be on the finance committee, or I'm going to be on the building committee, I'm going to be on the phone, and. And then you're like, terrible idea. Oh, this is. This is not great.
Bryan Pollock [00:03:24]:
It's not a terrible idea. It just changes your view of the situation.
Mr. Subaru [00:03:28]:
That's all right.
Bryan Pollock [00:03:29]:
Are you gonna get your pillows, Mike, or what?
Mr. Subaru [00:03:30]:
Here?
Mike Allen [00:03:31]:
No, I'm just gonna have bad headspace, and Braxton can deal with it, so. So we've met. We met in Vegas, so you know that I'm kind of a little guy, and Braxton always gives me a hard time because I've got too much head space between my head and the top of frame. So sometimes I'll sit on some pillows.
Mr. Subaru [00:03:53]:
Get you a phone book.
Mike Allen [00:03:55]:
You'd think that maybe I just adjust my camera down, but no.
Bryan Pollock [00:03:58]:
No.
Mike Allen [00:04:29]:
So. Pretty easy. So. Well, you know, I feel silly trying to enter, trying to introduce you because I feel like, you know, you're kind of the big dog, and we're just living in the shadow of the OG content creator.
Bryan Pollock [00:04:45]:
He's got a way nicer beard than I do.
Mike Allen [00:04:48]:
He does have a way nicer beard than you.
Mr. Subaru [00:04:49]:
It is bad right now. I haven't been to the barber in a month. It is. The hair is getting long and wavy and the beard's all over, so.
Mike Allen [00:05:01]:
Well, I mean, at least you guys can grow a full beard. Look at that. I'm 46 years old and I can't fill in. It's pretty bad. What are you gonna do? I do have one of my guys and I feel like I can talk about this openly because he was not at all like keeping it on the down low. He went to Mexico for vacation with his wife. It was four days of hanging out in the all inclusive and then hair replacement surgery and then two days of recovery and then came home. So I guess, I think they harvested.
Mr. Subaru [00:05:31]:
All from back here, right? Right here, yeah, that's what I've heard.
Bryan Pollock [00:05:39]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:05:40]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:05:41]:
And so he's got like, he's got like a line right here. Right, right. Little like micro needling spots where it's.
Mr. Subaru [00:05:51]:
Like a tattoo gun. Right?
Mike Allen [00:05:53]:
Yeah. Where they've planted hair. And so he's like. I mean, he looks kind of funny right now because he can't wear a hat or anything else to cover and he's just at work.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:02]:
Just do what everybody else does. Everybody else just shaves their head. Plus it's hot as hell down there all the time anyways. Who cares?
Mike Allen [00:06:10]:
So he, interestingly, he is a student of sales psychology. He loves the art of sales and he said, look, the math is there, the science is there. People, people buy more from people who are good looking. And he is, he's tall, he's physically fit, he's charming. But he was starting to bald and he was like. So I've done the math and I'm gonna see what my numbers are like in the six months after I do this versus the six months prior.
Bryan Pollock [00:06:45]:
Checking his ROI.
Mike Allen [00:06:46]:
Yeah, he's 100. Like just doing the science on his own to see how if it affects his clothes. And he's also at the store that has all the college kids. Right.
Mr. Subaru [00:06:56]:
So.
Mike Allen [00:06:59]:
I don't know, maybe he's trying to sell to all the college girls or something and that's impressive dad vibe or something. I don't know. We'll see.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:09]:
Well, I got some news yesterday from a banker. Weirdly enough, working on a Sunday. I think we're finally approved so we can finally build the new shop.
Mike Allen [00:07:18]:
Nice. Tell us about that.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:20]:
Subaru will finally have content coming out of a shop again on my own property. Mine. All mine here in the. On the farm.
Mike Allen [00:07:29]:
So not having to deal with anybody else's schedule or timing or Thought process.
Mr. Subaru [00:07:34]:
Oh, please, lease in a place or renting or dealing with landlords and all that kind of crap in the past.
Mike Allen [00:07:41]:
So, all right, if there are the. Anyone out there who's not familiar with your channel and who you are. When did you start creating content?
Mr. Subaru [00:07:51]:
Originally it was September 2013, I think somewhere in that range. I closed my last auto repair shop, like, well, my first auto repair shop in August, I think, of 2013. And there was a hiatus between August 13th and January 14th when I went to start with Snap On. And in that time frame I was like, I'd been, you know, mulling around in my shop watching YouTube board on the off days as I was like dwindling down to like officially closing down. And back in those days, it was Eric the car guy and Scotty Kilmer. For better, for worse. Mainly worse. And humble mechanic.
Bryan Pollock [00:08:36]:
He's a genius.
Mr. Subaru [00:08:37]:
Those were like the three automotive YouTubers back then, the main ones. And I was sitting there after I closed up, I was like, what am I going to do for the next, you know, three, four months before I start with Snap On? I was like, I can do videography and I can fix cars. Why don't I make videos like these guys? So I shot a fuel pump replacement and a Dodge Ram pickup. And I think that was my first auto repair video on YouTube in like, I think October, September of 2013 when I uploaded it. That was before I was even. I even went to the Mr. Subaru name or even thing that was old name that started my YouTube channel back in like a YouTube account back in like 2008, 2009. So I don't think I branded it Mr.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:19]:
Subaru to like somewhere in 2014 when I was like, hey, people are actually watching this and I'm actually getting like some views. I'm gonna focus in on the Subaru stuff.
Mike Allen [00:09:27]:
So just to be clear, Mr. Subaru's first automotive video was a fuel pump.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:31]:
On a what, 1996 Dodge Ram 1500. That was my dad's truck.
Mike Allen [00:09:38]:
Perfect.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:38]:
I still got it. It's on the farm right now. Only got 102,000 miles on it. Nice, nice.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:45]:
Don't put too many fuel pumps in Subarus.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:48]:
No, not really, no.
Mike Allen [00:09:50]:
Yeah, that's true.
Bryan Pollock [00:09:51]:
They don't really go through them.
Mike Allen [00:09:53]:
When was like the tipping point where you were like, oh, crap, this could be something.
Mr. Subaru [00:09:59]:
I think it was around 20, 2017, 2018. I left Snap on in the beginning of 17 and I had to move back home to take care of my mother. She had to have back surgery and it was like a year and a half of back surgery, recovery, learning to walk again, all that stuff. She's, you know, 82, I think now, so she's on up there in age. And I'd put back a bunch of money when I was with Snap on before I quit, knowing I wasn't going to be able to work, you know, just have something to live off of. So I was putting more and more time into making content and the videos and I think I had maybe 20, 30,000 subscribers on YouTube then. And like I was like, man, I'm actually making some money at this, you know, maybe I can make this a full time gig. And I don't think it really took off for me until 2020 though.
Mr. Subaru [00:10:48]:
I think a lot of people got that boost at the beginning of COVID.
Bryan Pollock [00:10:52]:
When everybody was locked down and watching. We were all watching the content all day.
Mr. Subaru [00:10:56]:
Right. I think I went from 30 to 100,000 subscribers in 2020 and then it was 200, the next 300 and I'm almost a half a million now on YouTube. So.
Bryan Pollock [00:11:08]:
That'S awesome.
Mr. Subaru [00:11:08]:
That's been a long road though, I.
Mike Allen [00:11:11]:
Will tell you, I mean if you need any advice, we did make $23 off of a video last month. It was pretty awesome. So happy to help you out if you want any pointers.
Mr. Subaru [00:11:23]:
That YouTube or is that short form TikTok?
Mike Allen [00:11:26]:
No, it was Facebook, man. We don't have any, we don't have any followers on YouTube. I don't even know what the monetization looks like on that yet.
Mr. Subaru [00:11:32]:
So YouTube based on the best, but Facebook isn't lacking. Facebook and Instagram have gotten stepped it up since I finally got monetized on there.
Mike Allen [00:11:39]:
So what does TikTok look like as.
Mr. Subaru [00:11:41]:
Far as monetization goes for me right now, Crap. Like it was really good for a while and it's up and down like I think they've sold it or they're going to sell it January 21st or 22nd. I heard that the US companies taken over and like the algorithm is going to be completely different and like it's going to go to hell in a.
Mike Allen [00:12:02]:
Handbasket basically when the communists stopped paying. And now capitalism, it's going to be all up, man.
Bryan Pollock [00:12:10]:
Oh my gosh.
Mr. Subaru [00:12:12]:
But yeah, they had like an automotive influencer program I got into and it pays a couple little bonuses here and there, but I don't know, my views have been down just like I said with them changing servers and stuff that the algorithms all whacked out. So I don't Know, I assume that's what it is. Not just people hate me, which could very well be part of it.
Mike Allen [00:12:33]:
So I want to talk a little bit about your time as a, as a snap on dealer. Is that okay?
Mr. Subaru [00:12:37]:
Sure.
Mike Allen [00:12:39]:
So what was your experience like with that?
Mr. Subaru [00:12:42]:
Well, it was, it was hit and miss, good and bad. The sales aspect of it I didn't quite care for. Like I did well at it. I was platinum elite, which is like inside terms that you might not know. It's a certain amount of your credit with snap on and keeping your customers to a certain degree and a certain amount of credit sales per month and keeping your delinquency at basically zero where you don't have someone that owes credit money and you're not going to repossess in these guys that are not making their payment. So I held that for almost two years. So I was trained.
Bryan Pollock [00:13:19]:
My customers sell side. Right. Because you can get people approved that normally wouldn't have been approved.
Mr. Subaru [00:13:24]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:13:24]:
You know, if you're like, all right, this dude's a good guy and he just had a bad thing happen, you can get.
Mr. Subaru [00:13:28]:
Right. They do platinum program where it's like this guy they shouldn't loan a stick of gum to, but I can vouch for him. So I'm gonna sell him a five thousand dollar toolbox, that kind of deal.
Bryan Pollock [00:13:37]:
So that's the spirit.
Mr. Subaru [00:13:39]:
It can be good sales, but then it's bad when they don't pay or you judge them incorrectly as being, you know, someone that's gonna be good. So.
Mike Allen [00:13:47]:
So when you have to, when you have to use violence against a non paying individual, what portions of their body can you break and not affect their ability to earn money? As a technician, I couldn't tell you.
Mr. Subaru [00:14:00]:
Because pinky finger, I've had guns pulled on me, knives put on me. I had all kind of stuff in the repossession process with customers across South Carolina between the routes I was on. So I've had police involved. I've done like Facebook marketplace sting operations to get toolboxes back. Like I got some stories so we can get into with that stuff.
Bryan Pollock [00:14:24]:
But awesome.
Mr. Subaru [00:14:26]:
As a whole, I like the job in interacting with the customers, the good customers and going in and out of dealerships and mom and pop shops and quick lubes and seeing the differences of places. Because I was always self employed, I always had my own shop work for myself. I never did dealership life or anything like that. My dad was a lifelong dealership tech so I knew about dealership politics and stuff from his, you Know, telling me, you know, coming home and complaining about it, you know, as a kid and all. But that was what I like. Going into the different shops, talking to the guys, the relationships with the customers, the selling part, hit and miss. Sometimes it was great when you had a great week, sometimes it was bad, sometimes corporate was breathing down your neck to move stuff. I mean, it's, there's all kind of aspects to it, but as far as the job overall, I couldn't say I loved it or I hated it.
Mr. Subaru [00:15:17]:
It's kind of in the middle.
Bryan Pollock [00:15:18]:
Right, right. And that's a mix everything, right. There's strategy involved. Like, you know, when you go to this tool show and you get a deal, this, you know, should I buy a bunch at this price? How should I spread it out? Weeks delivered all that, all that crap.
Mr. Subaru [00:15:30]:
Right. And though if you buy this toolbox, you get all this, what they called BA items basically that, the freebies, you know, like giving a coat with a toolbox or you know, all the chotchki stuff that Snap on dealer has the water gun impacts and T shirts and hats and all that kind of stuff.
Mike Allen [00:15:50]:
And how much, how much beef jerky did you put on weekly payment accounts? None.
Mr. Subaru [00:15:56]:
That was cash and carry for food. We didn't finance.
Mike Allen [00:15:59]:
Food, More clothing.
Mr. Subaru [00:16:01]:
No clothing nor food financed.
Bryan Pollock [00:16:03]:
What about sunglasses? Snap on wasn't sunglasses though.
Mr. Subaru [00:16:09]:
I didn't sell sunglasses because we only had the Wiley X and I didn't like them. If we would have had, you know, the Oakley's, like macro sales then. Yeah, but like I never ordered any Wiley X sunglasses. Got you lots of knives and stuff, but I never got the sunglass packs.
Mike Allen [00:16:28]:
Yeah, they've always got that nice knife box Right. When you walk in the door of the truck.
Mr. Subaru [00:16:33]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:16:33]:
And they're partnered with quality brands. Right. So. So yeah, you know Kershaw, the knife. Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:16:42]:
What was the worst thing about being a Snap on dealer?
Mr. Subaru [00:16:45]:
Oh, the repos, definitely. Cause being a Snap on dealer is very odd when it comes to the credit sale stuff compared to anything else. So you're like the finance or the guarantor and the repo man all in one. You know, it's like if you were in the dealership and you sold someone a car as a car salesman and they went to liquid on it, you went and repoed the car and brought it back to the dealership instead of the bank and the repo guy because you were an agent for Snap on credit at that. So it all fell back on you. So you either got the toolbox or the AC machine or the scan tool back, or they charged you back for that amount of what it was owed on their thing and would mess up your credit with snap On. So the confrontation parts of it and like tracking the stuff down was while you're trying to do your regular route, see your regular customers, you know, it's, it's a lot.
Mike Allen [00:17:41]:
But had a. I had a situation at, at one of my shops, probably April of last year. And so I'm gonna go with three perspectives here. Shop owner, perspective. Brian, you're gonna play technician perspective. And Robert, you're gonna be snap on guy. So I had a technician, he was a young man. He was with me for like 60 days.
Mike Allen [00:18:04]:
He talked a big game. Turned out, unfortunately, that he cuts, cut a lot of corners, ton of comebacks. Didn't really know what he, what he indicated that he knew and he saw the writing on the wall that his comeback rate was just astronomical. Right. And so he was like, hey, it's probably not working. I was like, yeah, I agree. It's probably not working out. And so he left and left his box and everything and said, I'll be back for my box on Friday.
Mike Allen [00:18:28]:
This was like, Tuesday, no problem, that's fine. On Thursday, snap on man shows up. He's like, hey man, here's a list of all the that that he has in that box that I own that he's badly delinquent on, right? I need you to open his box so that I can get his stuff out. Box is locked up. I have the keys to the box. He left the keys with me. I don't really know why he left the keys with me. He was like, if you need, if you need them, whatever, okay?
Bryan Pollock [00:19:00]:
Because he knew the snap on guy was coming. Mike.
Mike Allen [00:19:04]:
So what do you, what do you do there? Do you. Do you open another man's toolbox so that snap on dealer can repossess his tools while he's not there?
Mr. Subaru [00:19:15]:
I never had that issue. So there's a hold harmless piece of paper that we can give the shop owner and we both sign off on it that, you know, your hands are clean, you're not, you're not liable for this. I had a master set of toolbox keys, and a lot of times I just take the whole box especially I've done that before where I just took the whole box locked up and everything. I got home, unlocked it, took all the stuff they owned, put in a box. Hey, your stuff's here. I'll come meet you. But the stuff that is financed, I'm taking Back and the box since you have been delinquent for more than a week or two. You know, it's like a month.
Bryan Pollock [00:19:51]:
Yeah. Three months or something stupid like that.
Mike Allen [00:19:53]:
Well, it's all stuff that he got before he even came to me. He had been delinquent on it since before he came to me. But I think the, the hard spot was it wasn't a snap on box, so he couldn't get into it.
Mr. Subaru [00:20:03]:
Right. Yeah, that's always. Yeah.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:06]:
What's the largest toolbox you ever rolled out of a place?
Mr. Subaru [00:20:10]:
The lar that I've actually taken on, I've taken out on a repo or the largest toolbox ever sold.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:15]:
No, no, the one that you've taken out on a repo. Like what's the largest you've had to move?
Mike Allen [00:20:19]:
You've repoed a lot of Mr. Bigs. Because Mr. Bigs are for. No, never, never.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:25]:
At one point, mine will go out the door.
Mr. Subaru [00:20:28]:
At one point, I and the franchisee I was working for sold the record snap on toolbox. We sold a Mr. Big top and bottom with four lockers on four overheads on one contract. And at the time in 2014, it was the largest single toolbox sale snap on ever delivered. Wow. That guy paid cash.
Mike Allen [00:20:48]:
Can you share what that price was?
Mr. Subaru [00:20:51]:
I can't tell you off the top of my head.
Bryan Pollock [00:20:55]:
List price was $76,000.
Mr. Subaru [00:20:57]:
I think it was 60 something. Oh, yeah, I think it was 60 something at the time. Now it's way more because of the price increases since 2014. I mean, it's plus interest.
Mike Allen [00:21:06]:
He ended up paying $247,000 for that toolbox.
Mr. Subaru [00:21:09]:
No, he paid cash. He paid cash for it. Oh, nice. And then the next week, he ordered eight side lockers and put them in the locker room for his guys. He owned a big trucking company and he then gave every employee in the break room their own snap on locker to keep their stuff in. And the big toolbox was his just to put all his stuff in that he likes.
Mike Allen [00:21:30]:
This was an evil shop owner just throwing his money around. This wasn't a technique.
Mr. Subaru [00:21:33]:
No, no, he, he was great. I still keep in contact with him today. He actually came by the farm four or five months ago and bought some stuff from me, some tools I had on Marketplace. But yeah, the biggest thing ever pulled out of was probably like just a classic or a master series double bank.
Bryan Pollock [00:21:52]:
Okay.
Mr. Subaru [00:21:52]:
It was at a Chevrolet dealership. Actually. That was the. That story. This guy, I saw him on Fridays and he was leaving early every single Friday to miss me at 4:30 when I got there. So I was like, all right. You know, this was like two months. I'm like, I got your little red wagon buddy.
Mr. Subaru [00:22:11]:
So I just took his damn whole box, locked up everything and I took. He called me in 20 minutes. He hadn't answered my calls for months. You know, been dodging me for two months. Really took his whole toolbox. Sabo dealer just took your. You call him, you know, so yeah, then he called. He called me.
Mr. Subaru [00:22:29]:
So I was like.
Bryan Pollock [00:22:32]:
Oh my gosh, I thought something terrible had happened to you. I haven't been able to get a hold of you.
Mr. Subaru [00:22:36]:
Right. It was done at that point though. I was like, I got a cardboard box with your stuff. I'll meet you in town.
Mike Allen [00:22:40]:
You know, with all three wrenches that you actually have.
Mr. Subaru [00:22:44]:
Yeah, yeah. That was like a husky set and some stuff from Harbor Freight and that was about it. So. But I gave him every chance in the world over, you know, two months, you know, so. But he was clearly.
Mike Allen [00:22:55]:
What's your favorite icon tool set? None.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:01]:
You ought to know that one.
Mike Allen [00:23:04]:
I don't know if that was one.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:07]:
Of those things that we talked about earlier.
Mike Allen [00:23:08]:
I did not know that.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:09]:
I'm forgot.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:09]:
He's not big on the icon.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:10]:
Oh no, no, no, no. If you don't your religion and politics at the beginning. Let's not get in the Harbor Freight thing. And why am I doing my. My non supportive Harbor Freight and Eric Schmidt. We get all kind of stuff between Harbor Freight and Snap On. That'd be the whole whole podcast here.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:29]:
I bought one set of icon wrenches because I actually. Because content that you had done right. Sure would. And I.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:38]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:38]:
I was at Harbor Freight grabbing something and I seen them wrenches. I'm like, I'm gonna buy these things and find out what they're actually about. There's a lot of bullshit online. I'm gonna find out.
Mr. Subaru [00:23:47]:
I don't know.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:48]:
They sit in my cart. They're okay.
Mike Allen [00:23:49]:
I'm telling you, Harbor Freight is the best place to find GS technicians. They're all there at 5:30.
Bryan Pollock [00:23:55]:
I got one there one time. Still works for us. Do you know that Mike told me about this? He goes, you just go in there. So I went. None of these guys like working Saturdays. I went and hung out on a Saturday from like 4 to 6 and I'm getting the guy. Oh, you're working Saturdays, huh? Hmm. Interesting.
Mike Allen [00:24:14]:
Here's my card.
Bryan Pollock [00:24:15]:
Here's my card. When you don't want to work Saturdays anymore, get a hold of me.
Mike Allen [00:24:21]:
So, okay, so you did some Snap on repos for a few years, and then you're like, wait a minute, I'm going to be freaking famous. At what point were you, like, enough of this slinging wrenches for a living? I'm going to go be a content producer and I'm going to be able to support myself and my family just doing that. When did that happen?
Mr. Subaru [00:24:44]:
It was kind of decided for me. Like I said, it began in 2017 when my mother got bedridden, had to have the back surgery. I was pretty burnt out on Snap on at that point in Columbia, South Carolina. And it just worked out that I was able to put my notice in. We found a replacement and moved back home. So because I was about an hour and a half away from home at.
Mike Allen [00:25:06]:
That point, how is the Columbia market for automotive?
Mr. Subaru [00:25:11]:
Honestly, if I had the chance to re buy that snap on route, if I had a gun to my head and had to buy, you know, go back to being a Snap on dealer, I would have liked to have had my route back. It was. It was Lexington and West Columbia. It wasn't really Columbia downtown.
Bryan Pollock [00:25:26]:
Okay.
Mr. Subaru [00:25:26]:
I was like, Lake Murray around the dam and all that area, if you're familiar.
Mike Allen [00:25:31]:
So my brother is. Has 100 acres down off of Lake Watery, the Camden area. Okay. And he's been trying for a decade or more to get everybody in North Carolina to sell everything and move down there. And he's like, you can open a shop in, in. In Columbia. It's a great market, great market. But I'm kind of stuck in my ways.
Mike Allen [00:25:54]:
But I've always.
Mr. Subaru [00:25:55]:
You could open one in my neck of the woods and mop up. That's. Oh, God.
Mike Allen [00:26:01]:
All the Charlotte money spilling into Rock Hill.
Mr. Subaru [00:26:03]:
Right? Oh, my God. So, yeah, that's my. Lancaster is where I had my shop. And Indian. We were just talking about it yesterday because we go up to Indian land, Indian land. And up 521lancaster is becoming another suburb of Charlotte. Just the money and the sprawl from North Carolina down has been pretty big. I mean, the area's exploded in just like the last 10, 15 years.
Mr. Subaru [00:26:29]:
I'm to that age where I was wife and I were driving. Like, I remember when all this was pine trees and farmland. They got a Costco now.
Mike Allen [00:26:38]:
Yes.
Bryan Pollock [00:26:39]:
RCI can see who are all these people, right?
Mr. Subaru [00:26:44]:
Like, where'd all these people come from?
Bryan Pollock [00:26:46]:
My kids make fun of me. They're like, dad, why are you complaining at the road? I'm like, I lived in this town 39 years. I ain't never seen none of these people. There ain't nothing up there. Where are they all going?
Mr. Subaru [00:26:55]:
Right?
Bryan Pollock [00:26:57]:
Like at the end of my road is the lake. Like, where are all these people going? Like there's nowhere to go. Like you're out of road in a mile.
Mike Allen [00:27:03]:
Like going to the lake, dumbass. It's the lake.
Bryan Pollock [00:27:05]:
No they're not. I've been to the lake. Think they ain't going to Lake January 3rd. Promise you that much. It's freaking cold as hell.
Mike Allen [00:27:12]:
Maybe they're going ice fishing.
Bryan Pollock [00:27:13]:
No, they don't. It's too rough.
Mike Allen [00:27:18]:
Does the lake freeze where you're not?
Bryan Pollock [00:27:20]:
Lake Ontario? Because it's. Well, it does, but it doesn't. It's really deep. Lake Erie will freeze over solid, but Lake Ontario won't.
Mr. Subaru [00:27:29]:
It was 75 degrees here two days ago.
Mike Allen [00:27:32]:
Wasn't it wonderful? It was amazing.
Mr. Subaru [00:27:34]:
40 degrees right now. Going get 25 tonight. It's not like South Carolina winter. You get a couple of days of spring and summer sprinkle.
Bryan Pollock [00:27:41]:
I was on the phone with Justin Morgan the other day and he goes, my weather is drunk. Or he goes, come get your weather.
Mike Allen [00:27:46]:
Hey, it's me, Mike's kid. Want to tell us your wild shop stories? Or maybe you just think my dad's totally wrong. Call us at 7:04 confess and leave a message. You can tell us we're awesome or you can tell us we're idiots. We're cool either way. That's 704 confess. Just don't make it too weird.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:06]:
It's freaking. He's like, it is freaking snowing here. I'm like, it's 35 and sunny here.
Mike Allen [00:28:12]:
Where is home for Justin?
Bryan Pollock [00:28:14]:
He's in. He's always talking about Rock Hill. I don't know. He's in South North South Carolina somewhere. Northern South Carolina.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:22]:
North. There is a town of North South Carolina. Oh, as you say North South Carolina. It's not near Rock Hill.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:29]:
He's not far from Charlotte. He's across.
Mike Allen [00:28:31]:
There's a lot of really high skill shops, a lot of really high skill techs and a lot of automotive media in north and South Carolina.
Bryan Pollock [00:28:40]:
I've made this point many times.
Mike Allen [00:28:41]:
Humble mechanics out here too. Right? Right.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:43]:
He's in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yeah, like three hours from me.
Mike Allen [00:28:48]:
So yeah, there's. I don't. I don't know what to. What. That should be a true.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:52]:
You're out of Raleigh, right?
Mike Allen [00:28:53]:
Yeah, I'm in Raleigh.
Mr. Subaru [00:28:54]:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:28:57]:
Or is was it Terrell Owens who calls it Raleigh?
Mr. Subaru [00:29:01]:
What was up with that, pronounce it Raleigh. So not from the area.
Bryan Pollock [00:29:07]:
You know, I'm going to say that from now on I'm flying out to Raleigh.
Mike Allen [00:29:12]:
So what is. We were, we were having this conversation. We have a group chat with a bunch of different automotive space podcasters and I mean there's only like eight of us, so it's most of us in the group chat and we were talking about what is good for the industry and what is good for growth of the podcast.
Mr. Subaru [00:29:37]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:29:37]:
And how they are frequently not the same thing.
Mr. Subaru [00:29:40]:
Correct.
Mike Allen [00:29:41]:
How like, like genuinely good intentioned, good spirited, seeking first to understand and explain type content, gets no engagement.
Mr. Subaru [00:29:53]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:29:55]:
7 likes.
Mike Allen [00:29:58]:
Millions of views. Right. So how do you balance that?
Mr. Subaru [00:30:04]:
Well, it's platform to platform. Like most of my YouTube. Com content has always been like DIY how to auto repair stuff with some rants or talking head videos sprinkled in. It's gotten a little bit more to the talking head videos lately. And then you know, my short format stuff's mainly tool stuff. And every once in a while I'll throw the automotive stuff from YouTube over there. Like when the Ford CEO famously ran his mouth the other day, which I just saw an article this morning where he put his foot in his mouth again about we got these $120,000 salary, job openings and yada yada yada. So I guess I need to go ahead and take that bait wrong with that while that's hot and see if I can get another million views that.
Bryan Pollock [00:30:45]:
He used the term salary, so not salary.
Mr. Subaru [00:30:49]:
Right?
Mike Allen [00:30:49]:
Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:30:50]:
Where's this salary at salary 120.
Bryan Pollock [00:30:52]:
I'm pretty sure that was the salary. I'm pretty sure he's exactly right is what. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that that's exactly what was said. I don't even comment on him anymore.
Mr. Subaru [00:31:01]:
I'm like, I think at this point Jim Farley's just trying to stay relevant and in the news by saying dumb to just rage bait.
Bryan Pollock [00:31:10]:
Technicians of America really rage bait the technicians. That's Mike and I specialty. What's really weird is Mike does most of the rage baiting and I get most of hate that guy. Like what are you talking about?
Mike Allen [00:31:22]:
All right, I'll be honest. Most shop owners don't have a time problem. We have a can't let go problem. Because if you step away, stuff breaks, right? Phones ring, comebacks happen, someone calls in sick, some type of fire that you have to put out. You know the drill. But tectonic 2026 is one of the few things that's actually worth stepping away for. Presented by techmetric, Tectonic is three days in Houston this April. Built for owners, advisors and technicians who want real answers, not hype.
Mike Allen [00:31:52]:
The kind of stuff you don't get from scrolling Facebook at 11pm Although you should scroll Facebook at 11pm if you're watching our content or listening to another guru tell you that you should just raise your labor rate, right? Like that fixes everything. You'll hear what other shop are charging, you'll hear what other shops are charging, what they're, what they've stopped doing and what's actually working right now. If you want to get out of the weeds for a minute and come back with a sharper plan, check it out. Tectonic is happening April 9th through 11th in Houston. Tickets are on sale right now and my listeners can get $500 off of your ticket price with code Confessions. 500. Go to techmetric.com tectonic that's T E K T O N I C or tap on the link in the show notes. We're going to be there, we're going to be recording with a lot of folks.
Mike Allen [00:32:46]:
If you want to be on the show and you come down to Tectonic, find me. Let's record, let's talk. It'll be fun. So anyway, like I was saying, people engage more with rage than they do with genuine thoughtful content. So how do you balance that? How do you balance growing your channel and, and your, your brand in a, in a, as quick a manner as possible with not turning pure rage bait.
Bryan Pollock [00:33:21]:
Without going full Scotty Kilmer.
Mr. Subaru [00:33:24]:
You know, I got shot.
Mike Allen [00:33:25]:
Never go full Kilmer.
Mr. Subaru [00:33:27]:
Never go full Kilmer. I was scrolling Facebook and something come across my feed and it was a group and I can't remember what it was. Automotive technicians or some random group. And the question proposed was what are the most rage bait or clickbait content creators in the automotive space? And I like, all right, let me look. You know, like this came across a feed. Let me look at the comments. And I saw my name multiple times along with Scotty Kilmer. I'm like, what? Since when am I click baiting? And I even responded to the guys because I'm that pity.
Mr. Subaru [00:33:59]:
I'm like, what do you mean? They're like, yeah, you. I'm like, elaborate. What do you mean? I clickbait.
Bryan Pollock [00:34:07]:
50% of my content is tools you've never heard of.
Mr. Subaru [00:34:11]:
Right?
Mike Allen [00:34:12]:
They don't want to have an actual conversation. They want to be angry. Two sentence keyboard snipe and move on and not be Held accountable.
Mr. Subaru [00:34:20]:
Right? Every single one that mentioned my name, I asked them in what way? You know, just pure curiosity of why they thought I was. I, I do. I was the worst automotive front. And I was like, I never got a, like substance. An answer of substance.
Mike Allen [00:34:34]:
Yeah, yeah, rage bait title that I've done. Not me. I know that I do rage bait stuff all the time now.
Mr. Subaru [00:34:43]:
I know I've done a handful on YouTube, but normally when it's clickbait, it's addressed in the video. It's not like I'm just dangling the, you know, metric in front of them and never address what it's right about.
Bryan Pollock [00:34:55]:
But I think a lot of people just want to have to have a instant snapshot opinion without having to be able to expand on that. We got a lot of, in a recent video, we got a lot of hate. And one of the, one of the number one things that comes through the messenger is what about, what about can systems? It was like it was talking about how somebody, Mike had, Mike had a guy and the guy wanted three hours or four hours or whatever it was to read and understand the system. Everybody's like, you've obviously never worked on CAN networks. And I go, well, you know, can was originally developed in 1983 and approved by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1986. So it's a 30 year old system that plays by a set of rules and protocols. If you have to look that up, we're 30 years into it. If you have to look, they all play by the same rules.
Bryan Pollock [00:35:46]:
It's government mandated. I'm like, your argument is like actually the worst argument you could have made. But they just wanted to be like, what about this? Because I think it's complicated, because I don't actually understand it, you know.
Mike Allen [00:35:57]:
Well, so here's the deal, right? When most of our content is the two of us plus somebody else, right? And so thank you for being that somebody else tonight. And when we get a lot of comments on our reels and our shorts and our videos, we'll engage with them sometime. Sometimes we don't, sometimes we do, but it's one account and both of us will engage at different times.
Bryan Pollock [00:36:22]:
And I love to not identify that it's me. There's no indication which of us is so bad.
Mike Allen [00:36:27]:
One of us is a highly skilled technician. One of us doesn't need to change your oil.
Bryan Pollock [00:36:35]:
Sounds like you offer an elite service is what it sounds like to me.
Mr. Subaru [00:36:39]:
I don't know. I mean, every single super I've worked on, I mean, I've got people from, I don't know, seven, eight years ago. I worked on their car and they still hunt me down to bring it to the farm and drop it off and take your time, whatever. Just I want you to do it, you know, because I trust you.
Mike Allen [00:36:53]:
So yeah, do you let them come to the farm or do they have to like meet you at the Walmart parking lot and you pick it up?
Mr. Subaru [00:37:00]:
There's certain ones that I've been dealing with for years that you know, come by my place that I'm fine with. But yeah, it's gonna be the randos. Like I get, like I said, 15 to 20 emails a week. People in the area, even just like around Charlotte area that want to come to me. So those have been, hey, putting them off for now or referring them to my buddy who's still got a shop right now and doing some stuff. But yeah, once the, once we get our location for that endeavor, the full floodgates will be open, I'm sure.
Mike Allen [00:37:29]:
So I think there's a value to maintaining a degree of anonymity. Right? You don't want like weirdo followers showing up at your house. Right?
Mr. Subaru [00:37:38]:
That has been something that has been painful for me is like my cell phone number, personal cell phone number leaking to certain people. That was a. That was a messed up situation there. That's happened a couple times. And I know how I found out how they were doing it. My address got leaked by another. We won't get into that. Someone on YouTube that I've had stupid Scotty Kilmer.
Mr. Subaru [00:38:03]:
No, not him, but sorry, up north. I'll give you that as a point of reference. But yeah, there was several times I got called on my personal cell phone number and I'm like, who is this? You know, answer. Just. I screen everything now through the thing on your iPhone that screens calls now. But I found out that one of my old snap on customers in town, people were finding my old business name because the sign from my old business is in the background of some of my videos. And they looked on Google Maps and found it. So then they called the shop across the road and the shop beside them and they gave them my personal cell phone number because what are they thinking? Yeah, there's weren't thinking but anyone that comes around to any of these shops, they refer to me that's got a Subaru because none of them will touch a Subaru.
Mr. Subaru [00:38:54]:
No one in town will touch a Subaru for 10 foot pole. I don't know what it is about Lancaster Chester, S.C. no one will Touch a Subaru, not even do spark plugs or anything. They only want to tipt it on a boxer engine. So they just don't know.
Mike Allen [00:39:06]:
They have an aversion. They have an aversion to wealth. That's what it is.
Mr. Subaru [00:39:10]:
Well, they're a unique.
Bryan Pollock [00:39:13]:
They're a unique vehicle, but they're not complicated. It's.
Mr. Subaru [00:39:16]:
Well, one thing I excelled at between the Snap on thing coming home and doing the content, I was doing mobile diagnostics for all my Snap on customers basically in the area because none of them could diagnose out of a wet paper sack. Like there were many shop owners that bought a Varys or a top flagship from me and use as a code reader and they just need it as a tax write off. You know, they had no idea what a LE Scope is. They don't know how to use the lab scope.
Bryan Pollock [00:39:48]:
You take it in on trade and all the leads are still in the packages. They've never been open.
Mr. Subaru [00:39:52]:
Yeah, Exactly. Yep. Yeah, 100%. I see it time and time my.
Bryan Pollock [00:39:56]:
Snap on guy gives me because I burn through leads a lot.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:00]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:00]:
If he takes one in on trade and he sells it to somebody and they ain't going to use it, he'll just give me the leads out of the box.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:05]:
I've got. I've got at least five or six sets of them and a stack of OG Motuses that I went through and like put better LCD screens and stuff. I've hacked some Snap on scanners. I found out. I'll stop there. I won't.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:21]:
What's a.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:21]:
Say.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:24]:
What'S an acceptable amount of OG Motuses for one person to own?
Mr. Subaru [00:40:28]:
I think I've got three or four of them right now.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:31]:
Nice. You and me could hang out sometime. How many Vantage Pros you got?
Mr. Subaru [00:40:35]:
None.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:36]:
Ooh, I've got a demo, only not for sale. Vantage Pro?
Mr. Subaru [00:40:39]:
Yeah. Why you switch the nicads, the lithium batteries and then switch the screen to an LED or LCD so you can actually see it. That's backlit. So that dinosaur screen in it.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:51]:
Yep.
Mr. Subaru [00:40:53]:
I mean, when they're free, they work great. It's just a four channel scope.
Bryan Pollock [00:40:56]:
Yep.
Mike Allen [00:40:57]:
At Tools last year, Brian, who did you get in the bidding war with over a tool that had no Keith.
Bryan Pollock [00:41:04]:
Perkins over a Bosch and a Mac labeled OTC Oscilloscope. A Mac branded oscilloscope. And it was actually an otc. And it was funny. It was real funny because I had written down there with the scope in the truck, somebody was bringing it to donate to the Charity auction. And I'm on the board of the charity that was having the auction. So I couldn't really just be like, yo, man, I'll give you a 250 bucks cash right now. Just give me that thing.
Bryan Pollock [00:41:34]:
That would have been like, not okay.
Mike Allen [00:41:36]:
It ended up going up over a thousand dollars, right. For a scope that was probably worth 75 bucks.
Bryan Pollock [00:41:40]:
I tapped out at a grand. I tapped out at a grand. I'm like, I'm not paying a grand for this thing that I'm not going to use.
Mike Allen [00:41:48]:
I don't know. There's a special. It's a special kind. It's a special kind of tism to collect antique scan tools.
Mr. Subaru [00:41:53]:
Yeah, probably. Or just to collect tools in general, like I do. My God, I got a problem. Problem.
Bryan Pollock [00:42:01]:
Right, I hear you.
Mr. Subaru [00:42:03]:
My problem is alleviated a lot now that companies, like, want to send me new products so I don't have to buy. Like my tool bills are all zero now, right now. I haven't spent money on tools in a while. It's been really, really nice.
Mike Allen [00:42:16]:
So I'm. I'm trying to figure out how many followers we have to get before I can start getting free shit from companies. Because I don't know if you notice or not. This is our Facebook follower counter. And while we've been talking, it just tipped over to 17,000 live while we were talking. And I checked your YouTube and I'm only. We're only 470,000 behind you, give or take.
Bryan Pollock [00:42:38]:
So you better watch out. We're coming. 470,000.
Mr. Subaru [00:42:45]:
To touch. Back to that. When I was doing the mobile diagnostic stuff, it really opened my eyes to how many, like older shop owners and stuff that had no clue. There was one example. He had put an engine in a Chevy express van. I think it was like a 98 or 99. So it was a 5 7. Vortec, I think.
Mr. Subaru [00:43:05]:
Not a 5 3. And it had been in his shop for over a year after putting the engine in it because he could not get it to idle right. Could not get to run right. Went in, pulled codes. I was there for 15 minutes. And the orange O ring between the throttle body and the air plenum was missing. And he had a massive air leak between the mass air and the throttle body. Put that in there.
Mr. Subaru [00:43:28]:
Idle came back down, perfect. Check. Engine light gone. But it has sat there for a year after the engine replacement. He couldn't figure out how to make it idle right for the guy as an example.
Mike Allen [00:43:39]:
And when and when that shop goes belly up and he has to go.
Mr. Subaru [00:43:42]:
He's still in business. He's still in business. That was 12 years ago. How older fella? Everyone brings their cars to him in the area. It's just the. The reputation that people have for, like, you know, they've been doing it since before OBD 2. And they just never kept up with education and never learned, you know, the electrical side of it. They know the mechanical side of it because they've been working since, you know, they had points and carburetors.
Mr. Subaru [00:44:11]:
I saw. I see all that.
Bryan Pollock [00:44:12]:
Nuts and bolts essentially operate the same as they did in the 70s too. So that's not as tricky. Great lefty, Lucy. Righty tighty is right. Still good to go.
Mr. Subaru [00:44:22]:
Another example he had. He had a trailblazer, you know, inline six trailblazers, 4200 Atlas common coal number four to the hood seal would leak watering coal. Four spark plug corrode. It had that and two other coal packs were dead. He couldn't figure out the misfire in it. I just put the scope on it and found out which coals are back, you know, in 10, 15 minutes in the back parking lot. He's like, man, I got more work for, you know, you got excited that, hey, you figured these out, these two out. And then it's like, yeah, more, more, more.
Bryan Pollock [00:44:49]:
So what you find out is most of these vehicles that are just so complicated that everybody talks about are just not as difficult. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's. There's head scratchers out there and there's cars I haven't fixed. There's cars we've bought because I haven't fixed. Okay, right. Not one of the people who's going to sit here and be like, I've never not fixed a car, unlike some people sit there and tell you that, right? Because I've not done it. But for the most part, I mean, I don't know.
Mike Allen [00:45:16]:
So can I, from my ignorant perspective, not being a technician, go on a short rant that is topically appropriate for this conversation?
Bryan Pollock [00:45:25]:
Oh, gosh, there we go.
Mike Allen [00:45:27]:
Earlier today, we were having a conversation with another technician who's a prominent technician in the space, and we were talking about weaponized incompetence, about technicians who either choose not to learn or act as if they don't know how to do complex work so that they can sit in the corner and live off of gravy and just hanging ball joints and hanging metal all day and cranking tons of hours and making flush machines. Right? And so that's a common Trope in tech forums right now is doesn't pay to learn. Because if you become a real A tech, you get stuck with the hard work and you don't make any money. It's better to be a B tech and just hang metal all day, right? And just do wallet flushes all day, right? And one of the points that Brian made in this conversation was they say they are choosing not to brand themselves as an A tech because their ego won't allow them to admit that they don't know how to do those things, which I think is probably a common occurrence. And my point was you sit in the corner and make bank turning 70, 80, 90 hours a week, hanging metal, doing the easy stuff for 20 years, not managing your finances, having a new jacked up F250, getting a new bass boat, getting a new side by side, whatever it is, all through your 30s and 40s and suddenly in your 50s, your body doesn't work anymore. And you never went to that scope class. And then you're gonna be that angry guy on the forum saying my boss never sent me to training or oh, that my boss took advantage of me.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:12]:
Or they got rich off the back of my labor. Like there's not, like there's not 400,000 hours of free training on YouTube right now. Still waiting for their boss to send.
Mr. Subaru [00:47:22]:
Them jump over and check out Paul Dan or, or you know, yeah, 11 bucks a month.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:28]:
I think maybe it went up to 14. That was like the big price increase. $14 a month.
Mike Allen [00:47:33]:
$14 a month shop subscription. Can you subscribe your whole shop with Paul or is it one purpose you.
Bryan Pollock [00:47:42]:
Can do either way, he has, they, he has a shop package.
Mr. Subaru [00:47:44]:
Not to hurt him in his pocket, but I mean there's plenty of free resources too. I mean Vinnie Ats, I mean there's, there's tons of stuff on YouTube alone that like. Sure, I didn't know. I mean coming out of trade school, I didn't know scopes or anything, but scanner Danner on YouTube taught me. And that was the reason I bought my first Varys was watching his videos and just bored in my office, you know, on downtime, like how to go from doing the brake jobs and ball joints and axles and stuff to doing the upper channel stuff. And I self taught myself a lot of that stuff.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:16]:
That channel taught probably 90% of people under 45 years old how to use a scope. I mean that's where I learned how to use a scope, right? Like hey, how's this thing work? Oh, look at that.
Mike Allen [00:48:30]:
And now you help him develop content.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:32]:
Yeah. And now I have videos on his website.
Mr. Subaru [00:48:35]:
Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:36]:
Like.
Mike Allen [00:48:38]:
Those are the worst performing videos on his website.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:40]:
Probably they're diesel diagnostic work. Plus nobody likes me because I'm mean, I guess. Which is okay.
Mike Allen [00:48:47]:
You've never fixed a car anyway.
Bryan Pollock [00:48:48]:
Never fixed a car in my life.
Mr. Subaru [00:48:50]:
That's one problem.
Mike Allen [00:48:53]:
What does 2026 hold for Mr. Subaru?
Mr. Subaru [00:48:56]:
I don't know. Hopefully this new shop build, finally getting into the content on YouTube that I've wanted to do for years that I haven't been able to do. Just you know, working out of the farm, as a lot of people joke, a garden shed, you know. So getting more in depth in tearing down CVTs, doing more in depth videos on the CVTs and Subarus, doing more, you know, ground up stuff on the F series engines. We did a lot of stuff on the EJ series engine in the past. Just more of that stuff and more of actual customer work. More actual case studies of. Instead of stuff I bug or whatever or things I did just to make DIY videos on to show people common issues and stuff or project cars or whatever.
Mr. Subaru [00:49:41]:
So that's the main thing is, you know, back to filming in a shop environment. More in depth stuff on the Subarus. As far as the YouTube content goes, I mean short form will still be renting about tools and ticking off Harbor Freight fanboy, snap on fanboys and everybody in between. But yeah, that's the main drive there. And then more of the performance stuff on the WRX STI Forester xt. Hopefully with my buddy Stu doing all wheel drive dyno talking about tuning the performance build side of it. So trying to get into more in depth stuff which the shop is, you know, that next stumbling block to get past to get to that, unlocking that.
Bryan Pollock [00:50:20]:
Kind especially on property. Right. Like we can walk out your door on property and go do what you have to do.
Mr. Subaru [00:50:27]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:50:28]:
Do you think that that will appeal equally to the DIY folks that kind of were the, the core of your early growth?
Mr. Subaru [00:50:35]:
Yes and no. When I was in, I had a shop in 20, 18, 19 up to 20 and there's a lot of people that was like, I don't like this, you know, filming with a lift. It'd be nice to have had a lift, you know, and you know, filming on, it's like it's more to show you, you know, look at my older videos where I'm on Jack stands in the driveway. Like you can do it just the same. It's just easier for Me to show you on video under the lift. You know, just camera angles and lighting, everything. So there. There is.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:06]:
There's the comments there.
Bryan Pollock [00:51:08]:
You're never gonna please everybody. You'll never please film the content weekly.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:11]:
Everyone, always.
Bryan Pollock [00:51:12]:
They only have to work on their car once a year.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:14]:
Right? Right.
Bryan Pollock [00:51:15]:
Yeah. So, yeah, I'm gonna have a lift.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:17]:
Thanks.
Mike Allen [00:51:19]:
Yeah. It's really hard for me to crawl under my Miata without a lift, so.
Bryan Pollock [00:51:24]:
Can you even get under a Miata without a lift?
Mike Allen [00:51:27]:
Well, I could when I was skinny, but not anymore. You know, I mean, maybe I should lift it. Should I. Should I get a lifted me?
Bryan Pollock [00:51:33]:
Oh, a lift kit for Miata. Put some swamper Thornbirds on there.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:37]:
Yeah, you're talking. Matra Miata is to a different level.
Mike Allen [00:51:41]:
Yeah, keep. Keep the 98 horsepower motor in there. The 1 8. Just. Yeah, I mean, I don't need any more power. I just. Just want the look.
Bryan Pollock [00:51:48]:
That's what first gear is for. Be fine.
Mike Allen [00:51:51]:
All right, man. So is it appropriate to congratulate you on your nuptials?
Mr. Subaru [00:51:56]:
It is. Thank you.
Mike Allen [00:51:58]:
Congratulations, man.
Mr. Subaru [00:51:59]:
It's very exciting.
Mike Allen [00:52:02]:
We met at. At Vegas. We shared a dinner or the tail end of a dinner. I got there late, and that was a funny good time. And then I think I met you and at your time, at the time of your fiance at the airport waiting to fly home from Sema last year.
Bryan Pollock [00:52:20]:
Right?
Mr. Subaru [00:52:20]:
Yep.
Mike Allen [00:52:21]:
Any exciting travels coming up.
Mr. Subaru [00:52:25]:
For us? I'm not sure. We've kicked around the idea of a couple little vacations. We're not sure how that's going to work in. Next for me probably will be visions, which I think's March, Right? Kansas City, I think that's the next. I got the farm show in February. That's for the other YouTube channel. And you have another YouTube channel? Yeah, at Home on the Farm. Oh, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:52:51]:
I gotta go subscribe and follow.
Mr. Subaru [00:52:53]:
It's about the farm. All my stuff I do with Bobcat equipment, Renovating the houses, all that stuff.
Mike Allen [00:52:58]:
Nah, man, We've been. We've been fighting Internet connectivity stuff all night. I just want to say thanks so much for coming and hanging out and chatting with us for a little while. And I just went to. At Home on the Farm is your other channel, and. And followed that. Now, the. The background picture on that channel.
Mike Allen [00:53:18]:
Is that the truck from the very first video that you put the fuel pump in?
Mr. Subaru [00:53:23]:
No, no, that's the. The white Sierra. Dually Duramax. I heard you talking about that. No, it's a. It's a blue Dodge Ram 96, 1500 gasser. But it is still on the farm. It was my dad's truck.
Mr. Subaru [00:53:34]:
It was his last pickup he owned before he passed away.
Mike Allen [00:53:37]:
I gotcha. I gotcha. So you'll have that one forever then.
Mr. Subaru [00:53:41]:
Yeah, I mean, that was. That was when I was. Let's see, that was. I was 17, so. 38 now. Been a hot minute.
Mike Allen [00:53:50]:
Yeah, a little bit. Time flies, man. Time flies.
Mr. Subaru [00:53:52]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:53:54]:
Well, maybe we'll see you at Vision. I'm gonna be at Elite Ignite later this month in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then we got Vision coming up. And after that there's Tectonic, which I talked about earlier, and then there will be tools in Pennsylvania, which I'm excited about. That's always a good time. And of course, Asta. Have you been to Asta Expo in.
Mr. Subaru [00:54:17]:
Raleigh with the last two years?
Mike Allen [00:54:21]:
Yeah. Well, then you already know that it's better than all the other ones, right? Way better than anything else I went to.
Mr. Subaru [00:54:32]:
That wasn't like a tool show. I went and let's see, 20, 24, that's when Helene came through and that's when. Check engine Chuck.
Bryan Pollock [00:54:46]:
There's always a hurricane in there.
Mr. Subaru [00:54:48]:
Brandon and I sat down with Jada Mechanic and did my first podcast. And then I was there this year and. Yeah, plan to go again for 26.
Mike Allen [00:55:01]:
I remember you guys all sitting down with Jeff in that. In that room in the back there. It was before we went to the. To the convention center. Now it's. It's a way better space now.
Mr. Subaru [00:55:11]:
Yeah, yeah.
Mike Allen [00:55:13]:
Did you come to the. To the epic spectacular hospitality suite last year? You would know if you had, you'd be like, yeah, probably not. Yeah. Well, it was sponsored by Confessions of a Shop Owner podcast and it was the best part of the entire event.
Bryan Pollock [00:55:32]:
So it was the best hospitality suite there's ever been.
Mike Allen [00:55:35]:
Yeah, it's. I mean, it's not even close without.
Mr. Subaru [00:55:37]:
That was 24 this year. 24.
Mike Allen [00:55:39]:
It was 2025.
Bryan Pollock [00:55:41]:
That was this past year.
Mike Allen [00:55:42]:
Yeah. So, man, I was really hoping you're.
Bryan Pollock [00:55:45]:
Mike bought all the furniture off Facebook Marketplace.
Mike Allen [00:55:48]:
Yeah. Put on my hot button. But no, never mind.
Mr. Subaru [00:55:52]:
Issue we found is picking the right classes. There's been a couple where Chuck and a couple other of us have picked some and we're like, this is not exactly what we thought or planning on the.
Mike Allen [00:56:08]:
What has been your favorite class at a. At a training event recently?
Mr. Subaru [00:56:15]:
It was God. What's his name? James. He had him on Facebook after. What was the class? It was God Shotgun Diagnostics Emergency Diagnostics.
Mike Allen [00:56:29]:
Something with shotgun diagnostics. Yeah.
Mr. Subaru [00:56:34]:
Yeah, it wasn't L1s or. Who was it?
Bryan Pollock [00:56:42]:
It was with Hawkin. If it was shotgun.
Mr. Subaru [00:56:44]:
James something older fella.
Bryan Pollock [00:56:46]:
James Wilson.
Mr. Subaru [00:56:47]:
James Wilson.
Bryan Pollock [00:56:48]:
James Wilson.
Mr. Subaru [00:56:49]:
Maybe it was. No, it's Triad Diagnostic triage or something, I think. James Wilson. Yeah, something like that.
Mike Allen [00:56:57]:
It was last day. Yeah, sounds like load the parts cannon and. And fire it. Right. Well, hey, man, who's the.
Mr. Subaru [00:57:08]:
Or is that? I don't know. Everyone's names run together now. But.
Mike Allen [00:57:15]:
You know, if I was on top of my game, I'd have the whole class list from last year pulled up already. Because I was the president of the association until, you know, two weeks.
Mr. Subaru [00:57:25]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:57:26]:
Yeah, I was involved in that and now I'm not, which means all bets are off in 2026. It's going to be total show for the podcast.
Bryan Pollock [00:57:37]:
Are you gonna. Are you gonna actually try to wrestle Jeff this year? They do sumo wrestling again. Are you just gonna let him beat your ass, like, a little bit? Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:57:44]:
Here's the funny thing, is that you think it's ever gon again. That's really cute.
Mr. Subaru [00:57:53]:
Well, maybe we can sit down and do this again at Visions and not have to worry about Internet issues.
Mike Allen [00:57:58]:
I think that would be awesome. I think that would be great. But either way, thanks for coming on, dude. I appreciate you and good luck on finishing the deck up and. And getting the build done this year on the farm, and I look forward to seeing what you got going on both channels this year. Take care.
Mr. Subaru [00:58:15]:
Thank you.
Mike Allen [00:58:16]:
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 [00:58:49]:
Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.
Mr. Subaru [00:59:12]:
You know I said jess. You know I said jess.