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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.
[Andrew Klement] (0:00 - 0:11)
What I tell customers when they come to my shop is my job is not to talk you into spending money with me. My job is to educate you on the needs of your vehicle and provide solutions. I want to take your money, but I want to do it the right way.
[Intro] (0:13 - 0:44)
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, the best software in the history of ever.
[Mike Allen] (0:45 - 1:08)
I've seen one, two, three, four, five, I've seen six dudes here who have worked for me in the past, and five of them are like, hey, what's up, man? We talk, and one of them was like, how many dicks you sucked today? So, and I just told him, I said, hey, man, as many dicks as I've had the opportunity to suck, right?
[Andrew Klement] (1:09 - 1:17)
So when in doubt, I mean, embrace the, I have not seen that as your coach have a trailer, have a 16-foot trailer.
[Mike Allen] (1:17 - 1:44)
Does your coach have a 16-foot trailer? I don't know, does Matt? I suspect he has multiples that are significantly larger than that.
I've only got a 20-foot trailer, so I don't. I've only got a 16-foot trailer, and I just got it so that I, well, no, I've got some enclosed trailers, that I just got them so that I would be qualified in case I ever wanted to go into coaching. So when in doubt, add coaching.
Everybody should be a coach, right?
[Andrew Klement] (1:44 - 1:47)
Shop owner coach? What is the rule on if in doubt coach?
[Mike Allen] (1:48 - 1:52)
Those who can do, those who can't teach. That's, yeah. Is that what you're looking for?
[Andrew Klement] (1:52 - 1:52)
Yep.
[Mike Allen] (1:54 - 2:43)
And that's why I'm choosing to quasi-pseudo-teach via podcast and not even get paid to do it. Because it doesn't have to be good if it's free, and it doesn't have to have like quality, like Diag. Free Diag doesn't have to be good.
But I feel like if people are paying for the instruction, then there's a responsibility to bring some level of quality, and then I might actually have to charge for Diag. So, you know. All right.
How you doing, man? Welcome to Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by Techmetric, the best software in the history of in the history of ever. But like, that too.
Yeah, I mean, Apple, Microsoft, Techmetric. Same, same.
[Andrew Klement] (2:43 - 2:43)
Right.
[Mike Allen] (2:44 - 3:00)
You know, we did not include Android in that conversation, because Android is shit. And on that note, you know what? I don't judge you for being just a little retarded.
A little tardy.
[Andrew Klement] (3:00 - 3:01)
Are we allowed to say that?
[Mike Allen] (3:01 - 3:49)
A little tardy. I just thought you meant the ignition timing was just a little retarded. Yeah, coming in a little late.
Yeah. We did just advance the timing on the Miata by a few degrees to hopefully give it a little bit more ascend. Because, I mean, it's so anemic on acceleration that it's just like, it's a little bit sketchy to pull out in the road if traffic's heavy.
Have you considered an LS swap with a single turbo? I have had a significant number of people ask me why I have not done some crazy powertrain upgrade on the Miata yet. It's because I want to teach my kids to drive this car.
I want them to have a slow car to drive first. If they want to, because they already are demons on the track with carts. Right.
I don't want them to get a car that has actual power and start doing like that. So, hear me out.
[Andrew Klement] (3:51 - 4:11)
Duramax, like the big one. Just a smokestack right out of the hood. Yeah, rolling coal straight up.
Right in the middle of everything. I don't see what could go wrong with that idea. I'm sure they wouldn't mess up the weight balance.
You'd have to put an F-350 front end under it, but it'd be fine.
[Mike Allen] (4:14 - 4:31)
No, but I mean, I did suspension work. I did brake work. Obviously, we replaced everything fuel-related, everything rubber, you know, tires.
I put sticky tires on it and wheels. It's a lot of fun, man. It is so much fun to drive for people that can fit in it.
Yeah, for normal sized people.
[Andrew Klement] (4:32 - 4:33)
I got to meet a lot of my heroes.
[Mike Allen] (4:33 - 4:34)
What's it like being a Sasquatch?
[Andrew Klement] (4:35 - 4:44)
It's fantastic. It's fantastic. You get tall guy privilege.
I do, I do. There's certain things that come with that. I get to look down on everyone.
[Mike Allen] (4:45 - 5:18)
I also get to sit comfortably for a flight across the country. I do if I pay for first class. Which, as the evil shop owner, for half of the flight here, I did.
I feel like I can't fly across the country unless I'm sitting up front. Because, I mean, part of the joy of travel is to sit up front and silently judge all the people as they get on the plane going to the back, right? Like, excuse me while I drink my Tito's.
No, once you upgrade flights, it spoils you. And having to...
[Andrew Klement] (5:18 - 5:35)
The big spoil for me is not the drinks before takeoff. It is more of, like, my knees don't hurt in 10 minutes. Well, big guy problems, you know?
And because I live in a part of the country where there's small airplanes because we don't have a big airport.
[Mike Allen] (5:35 - 5:35)
Yeah.
[Andrew Klement] (5:36 - 5:49)
If you fly first class and you pick your seat early enough, you get the one where, like, there's just a single row of seats on the one side and it's just you. There's nobody next to you. You get the window seat and the aisle and nobody to share an armrest with.
Sounds nice.
[Mike Allen] (5:49 - 6:01)
It is a standing understood rule though, right? Middle seat gets both armrests? Yes.
So, I bet you never fly southwest, right? Because you can't take the risk of getting stuck in the middle seat.
[Andrew Klement] (6:02 - 6:32)
I've never flown southwest, which is just because they're expensive. I'm an ultra low cost carrier kind of guy. And usually I just put up with the pain.
But now that I'm an evil shop owner, the time was right to move up to first class. Love it. Love it.
Still don't have the private jet, which apparently our mutual friend Matt Loftin used to have. He didn't have a private jet, but he had access to a private jet.
[Mike Allen] (6:32 - 6:42)
Correct. His family had a private jet for their jet setting lifestyle. But I mean, they were self-made.
No disrespect at all.
[Andrew Klement] (6:42 - 6:54)
I respect it. I respect the hustle. I don't want a private jet.
I would prefer to just be able to charter the private jet because I don't want the maintenance and upkeep. The maintenance and upkeep is ridiculous.
[Mike Allen] (6:55 - 7:57)
My brother is a pilot for Delta, but he's approaching the twilight of his career. He's 20 years and now he's 12 years into this or whatever. And he keeps trying to talk the family into going into fractional ownership of a six or an eight seater like Cirrus or something.
And I'm like, dude, that sounds like a great deal for the one of us who's a commercial pilot. What the fuck benefit is that going to be for me? Are you going to drive to my house and pick me up and take me and fly me where I want to go on my terms?
So no, that's not going to happen. He's going to have to buy his own fucking plane. He does just fine.
He does just fine on his own. But I don't think that I will ever be the level of evil shop owner that I have a plane. I'll stick to motorcycles and cars.
[Andrew Klement] (7:57 - 8:19)
I love the idea of getting to a point where I can own a plane. But the plane that I want is like a bush plane, like a little two seat that I fly that I can land at my house, go fly in the backcountry. Like that to me sounds way more fun than having a private jet.
Go fly. Is there backcountry work?
[Mike Allen] (8:21 - 8:26)
Ozark, Missouri. Is there backcountry in Missouri? Missouri.
Anyway.
[Andrew Klement] (8:26 - 8:33)
That's how you say it, right? Missouri? No.
It depends on how old you are and how long.
[Mike Allen] (8:34 - 8:35)
Who are we?
[Andrew Klement] (8:38 - 8:40)
Sorry, Braxton, this is what we have to do with mics here.
[Mike Allen] (8:40 - 8:47)
You don't want to talk to me? Just come in and say it, Tommy. Sorry.
Braxton, you can cut this part out. I apologize.
[Andrew Klement] (8:54 - 8:59)
Don't apologize. What are you doing? I mean, that's what this podcast is.
[Mike Allen] (8:59 - 9:10)
Hey, pick up a mic. All right. Have fun.
Some people's children. He was not raised right is the problem.
[Andrew Klement] (9:12 - 9:15)
I haven't actually met the guy other than that, so I can't speak to that.
[Mike Allen] (9:15 - 9:27)
You've been on enough shenanigans calls with him to know. That's fair. He's obviously an evil shop owner.
He charges for Diag. You tried not charging for Diag for a hot minute. You're like, this is a fucking mess.
I don't want to do this anymore.
[Andrew Klement] (9:28 - 9:55)
No, it was that I tried not charging for Diag and it worked, but because we were small and we were doing very low volume, when one or two people decided to take advantage of it, it really tanks the shop. And that was the issues. We had one guy that came in for the free Diag and then didn't fix the car.
He told all of his crackhead friends.
[Mike Allen] (9:55 - 9:56)
No, no, no.
[Andrew Klement] (9:56 - 11:03)
He brought another car back for free Diag and then didn't fix the car. And then we called the schedule a third time for free Diag. We can get you in in three months.
Yeah, basically. Yeah. That was when we were like, take three.
Now, the crazy thing is the same guy came back, I don't know, a couple months later for an alignment. I have an alignment machine. He doesn't have one of those in his garage and I'm the evil shop owner.
He was another shop bringing cars to you? No, he was a DIY guy. But then he's like, hey man, you hiring?
And I was like, I am, but not you. All right. How long have you been in business?
What is that? Almost, almost 10 months. Finley River Auto and Diesel in Ozark, Missouri.
We are the best shop in town. I'm the best technician in town. I'll say this.
I did this on Jada Mechanic. I'm the best technician in Ozark. If you think you're better than me, show up.
If you can beat me, I'll hire you.
[Mike Allen] (11:06 - 11:08)
You think we got a lot of listenership in Ozark, Missouri?
[Andrew Klement] (11:09 - 11:09)
No.
[Mike Allen] (11:10 - 11:11)
What about Ozark, Missouri?
[Andrew Klement] (11:12 - 11:12)
No.
[Mike Allen] (11:13 - 11:28)
Are you guys big into laundering money for South American drug cartels? You think I'm going to say that on camera? I've heard rumors.
There was a documentary series on the TV about it.
[Andrew Klement] (11:28 - 11:43)
That was actually Lake of the Ozarks, which is not where I'm at. I'm in the town of Ozark, which is about two hours south of that, so we're completely disconnected. No connection.
I wouldn't be wearing a Confessions of a Shop Owner hoodie if I could afford that. I'd have a glittery jacket.
[Mike Allen] (11:44 - 11:57)
Like Buckaroo, Buck and Bob, John Firm. Yeah. You know, I was surprised to see that Benji took home the title for who wore it best.
I don't think it's because of the jacket.
[Andrew Klement] (11:57 - 11:58)
I think it was because of who Benji is.
[Mike Allen] (11:58 - 12:06)
It's because he is the homer. Yeah. I was going for Jimmy Lee with a secondary coat reveal, multiple layers of coats.
[Andrew Klement] (12:06 - 12:08)
That was worthy of admiration.
[Mike Allen] (12:09 - 12:14)
I'm going to give him those props when I see him tonight. How have you felt about the hospitality suite?
[Andrew Klement] (12:16 - 12:19)
Apparently, the hospitality suite doesn't kick off until about 10.
[Mike Allen] (12:19 - 12:27)
Yeah. Well, the first night, people were in there at 830. Last night, because of casino night, it was like 945.10 before it really started going.
[Andrew Klement] (12:27 - 12:59)
I don't have the app. I don't have the schedule. I was dumped myself out of my room.
I caught up with some work stuff I had to do, and I was like, I should go to the hospitality suite instead of just chilling in my room by myself. It's an expensive room. I want to enjoy the expensive room, but the whole point of coming to this event and staying at the hotel the event is at is to network and be with people, right?
I go downstairs. I walk in, and there's some trash in a corner and nobody in here. What time was it?
What the heck was going on? It was 840. Yeah.
I wasn't even there at 840.
[Mike Allen] (12:59 - 13:01)
I didn't get there until like 855.
[Andrew Klement] (13:01 - 13:18)
Yeah. Anyway, I don't know what I did. I think I just went outside and walked around for 20 minutes and then came back, and there were a couple people.
My thing is not really a card player, meaning I haven't played cards in 15 years. Yeah. The poker game kicked off first, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (13:18 - 13:47)
I was like, well, it'd be fun, but it was the worst poker game I've ever been a part of. It was amazingly bad poker. Yeah.
It's funny money, right? We're not playing for real money, but if you win, you get a seat at the final table, which is tonight. The final table, we make a $1,000 donation to SD Charities in the name of the winner of the final table.
I'm here to tell you that it was the world's worst level of poker I've ever witnessed. It was amazing.
[Andrew Klement] (13:47 - 13:49)
I heard that Matt threw the game.
[Mike Allen] (13:50 - 14:15)
Matt realized how bad it was and was like, I don't even want to play it so bad, and he just started going all in on everything until he lost. So that's okay. Tom really wants to win because he won one of the tables last year, and Tom obviously does not gamble at all.
Right. So this is his opportunity to gamble and not really gamble, right? But anyway, it's a good time.
Back to Finley River.
[Andrew Klement] (14:15 - 14:27)
Back to me and my shop. Tell me more about you. I'm the tallest person here.
Are you? Pretty confident. Are you 6'5"?
6'7". 6'7".
[Mike Allen] (14:27 - 14:36)
I'm gonna strike you. If you had said that and I didn't do that, my children would have disowned me.
[Andrew Klement] (14:36 - 14:37)
That's valid.
[Mike Allen] (14:37 - 14:37)
Yeah.
[Andrew Klement] (14:41 - 14:49)
Usually I'm 6'8 with shoes on or I'm slightly shorter without. It's actually strong. I like that.
[Mike Allen] (14:50 - 14:57)
I don't know that I've seen anyone else that tall because I know Pollock is like 6'3 or 6'4". I haven't actually met him yet.
[Andrew Klement] (14:57 - 15:02)
Have you not? We've passed each other in the hallway and he's been talking to somebody.
[Mike Allen] (15:02 - 15:38)
He wanted to be in on this recording, but they're doing pop-up classes. You have to have the app. If you have the app, you get an alert.
I saw that. They weren't on the original schedule. I think there was two each day pop-up classes.
You get a pop-up and it's like, hey, so-and-so is teaching this class. He and Zeb are teaching the class right now. I'm here stuck talking to you.
You're here stuck talking to me. Imagine what incredible truth bombs are being dropped right now and you're talking to dumbass ESO about a hospitality suite and bad poker. You were at Christian Brothers?
[Andrew Klement] (15:38 - 17:04)
I was at Christian Brothers. How long were you with them? About 18 months.
How was that for you? Fantastic. I would say that was either the best job I've ever had or a very close second because there were things that I liked about my previous job before that, like a four-day work week, that you can't do that with a five-day work week.
You don't get three-day weekends every week. But the work environment, the structure, the way that things were done, the flexibility that Christian Brothers, specifically, Christian Brothers is a franchise company, obviously. Probably most of our listeners know that.
But the quality of work environment is somewhat dictated by home office, but a lot of it really is the franchise owner. Sets the tone for what the work environment is. And I had the privilege of working with, he goes by Lee, but Lee Von Grant.
He's in all the groups. Fantastic owner. Takes fantastic care of his team.
Allowed me the flexibility that I needed while I was building my house and getting screwed by my general contractor. Lee is fantastic. Is a great job.
I love it. I'm the odd man out when it comes to technician turned shop owner because it's not bad bosses that push me into this. It's just my own ambition and what I want to do.
[Mike Allen] (17:05 - 17:22)
Talk to me about that ambition. You were very intentional about planning out your going into business for yourself. You were talking to, you followed the podcast.
We met online. We talked on shenanigans calls. You knew your plan before you ever left.
Oh yeah. Where does that lead you to down the road?
[Andrew Klement] (17:25 - 19:03)
We're going to get some multi-location. That's definitely in the cards. I have to get location one right before we can duplicate it and do location two.
We're growing. I did all of the things that most techs turned shop owners don't do. I hired a coach.
Not just I was talking to Matt, but I hired a coach two months before I started. I hired a CPA before I started. I started with the highest tier of tech metric from day one.
I did all of the things that were like, oh, we did this and it changed our business. I did all of those things before we started. I started with a service advisor.
My background is technician. I started with a service advisor from day one. There was always someone to answer phones.
I've had employees since day one. We were deeply in the red month one. When we recorded last time was just the end of month two.
We actually ended up in the black on month two. It was like two grand. This to the good.
It was in the black in month two. Month three was 15 into the red. It was down and then we came up for a breath of air.
It was like, oh no, that air is right back down. Month three was deep in the red. We were marginally into the black month three.
Then we started having what I'd call them big boy months. Now we're actually doing volume and we're doing well. The last week, just phew.
[Mike Allen] (19:04 - 19:09)
Wow. Don't let a week define how things are going.
[Andrew Klement] (19:09 - 20:02)
No, because our initial business plan and projections, the financials that we put together and what we expected to bring in top line revenue for the year was 350 or 360 in top line revenue. This week we crossed 600 year to date. We're almost double.
We've got three months left. I've got a team. We've got a fantastic team.
None of that is because I'm so smart. It's because I've brought people in to help me that are smarter than me. I've got the team at Elite Worldwide.
At this point, who else am I working with? I've got shop marketing pros running marketing for me. I brought in people that are smarter than me that have done this before to help guide me through doing it instead of making every mistake myself.
[Mike Allen] (20:02 - 20:21)
Fumbling your way through. Wisdom and expertise comes from experience. Experience comes from mistakes.
You're paying to fast track your way through. Yes, very much so. Are you netting what you want to net right now for where you are in the journey?
[Andrew Klement] (20:27 - 20:54)
We're ahead of our projections. We are, I would say, marginally lower than I would like to be on the year. That's taking into account all the losses that we started with.
We're not just, okay, we made this much net, but we have to dig out from the basement where we were and push past that to get over it. On the year net, as of the end of last month, so end of August, on the year net, we broke 50k net.
[Mike Allen] (20:56 - 20:57)
As a startup?
[Andrew Klement] (20:57 - 21:10)
As a startup. As a green grass startup? As a technician turned shop owner.
I wasn't doing any side work. There were no clients. I didn't have any customers before day one.
How are you paying yourself?
[Mike Allen] (21:13 - 21:18)
More than most startup shop owners. Are you a W-2 or are you just taking owner draws?
[Andrew Klement] (21:18 - 21:38)
I'm mostly taking owner draws. I did take W-2 for a while. I'm working with my accountant to pay the least amount of money in taxes.
I was taking W-2 for a while. We just switched over to filing as an S-corp, which means I can now legally take the W-2. It's a mess.
[Mike Allen] (21:38 - 21:41)
Are you a local guy? I took everything as W-2.
[Andrew Klement] (21:41 - 21:44)
Are you Kaizen or PMA? No, I'm with a small...
[Mike Allen] (21:44 - 21:45)
Local guy?
[Andrew Klement] (21:45 - 22:52)
Well, I am with a local girl, girl, lady. A local company that takes care of me, but I am the only client that she has in my state. She doesn't do...
Is she just a customer or what? No, she was somebody that I was connected with. One of the resources that I connected with when I started looking was Small Business Development Center.
For anybody that's looking for that fantastic set of resources, she's definitely an excellent resource. They connected me with her. I talked to her.
I talked to her, and we're talking accounting and all the things, dollars. I think my first phone call with her was in July, maybe August. We started in December.
I was talking to her before we opened a business account, before we had a company credit card, before we had any of the stuff, before I had a QuickBooks account, so that everything could be set up smoothly, and there was the least amount of stuff for her to have to unscrew after I screwed it up.
[Mike Allen] (22:54 - 23:19)
I think it is really commendable for how intentionally you have gone about this process. I think you're seeing the results of that already. To what do you attribute the fact that you were this intentional?
What made you go that route rather than just 50 bucks in a checking account and some Harbor Freight jack stands?
[Andrew Klement] (23:20 - 24:39)
I do still have Harbor Freight jack stands, so that was part of the mix. No, I think the thing for me... There were a bunch of things.
I have known that I wanted to open a shop since I was 17. This was a thing that I wanted to do, and at various times throughout my career, I worked for really terrible shops. I almost left the industry two different occasions.
One, at the end of a really bad stint at a terrible shop that was three and a half years of just awful. The most toxic shops we talk about, it was that plus more. It was terrible, but I felt stuck.
I didn't know there was anything else. There was a guy that had gotten hired into the shop and then ended up getting fired, but we became friends. We stayed friends after he left, and he just encouraged me, like, you have to get out of this shop.
Literally anything is better than this. Doesn't matter what shop it is, anything's an upgrade from what this is. I had no idea because I didn't know anybody.
I left the shop and ended up going to work for a company that's actually an elite client, and it was a 40% pay increase on day one. I enjoyed the work. Can you say who it was?
[Mike Allen] (24:41 - 25:14)
If you don't need to, that's fine. I'm just wondering if it's somebody I know. I will.
You know Dave and Lisa Kelly? Oh yeah, absolutely. I got the peanut butter drive from them.
Wipe out hunger, man. You saw the video of me dancing in the banana costume, right? I did.
In the background, there was a wall of peanut butter. I did that because we collected 2,000 pounds of peanut butter. I said that I would do a stupid dance if we collected 2,000 pounds of peanut butter, and we did.
Gosh, man. You got to stop making these commitments. That was years ago.
It was well before I was a buffoon on the internet. That's fair.
[Andrew Klement] (25:15 - 26:50)
I went to work for Dave and Lisa, and you know them. You know the culture they're part of. You know what they do at their shop.
Fantastic place to work. They're a role model for community involvement and community engagement, for sure. A hundred percent.
When I think, what do I want my shop to be known as? Kelly's Automotive Services. That's what I want to have.
That's what I want to be. They're hiring technicians. If you're in Oregon or you're willing to move to Oregon, you need to talk to them.
They're the best. Anyway, it's only the second time I've made that video. They are awesome.
They're fantastic. They're fantastic. I went to work with them and the team there, and I basically took this dream of shop ownership and put it on a shelf.
I was like, I'm going to retire from this place. This gives me all the benefits that I want. These were what they were in 2019, so these may have changed.
Don't hold them to that. Use the shop on the weekends if I want to do for my own project, so I have access to the shop. If I want to put brakes on my car, I can do it on a lift.
I got all the benefits of being a shop owner, access to the resources of the shop, and none of the headaches. It was like, this is great. I love this.
Then I ended up moving to Arizona, and I wasn't sure that conversation was going to go. I had to go walk into Dave's office and say, hey man, I love it here. You guys have been the best job I've ever had, and I'm leaving in a month.
What took you to Arizona?
[Mike Allen] (26:51 - 27:01)
Cost of real estate. Well, you came back, right? Well, Arizona, you've been ping-ponging around.
[Andrew Klement] (27:01 - 27:02)
Oh yeah, yeah. Next stop's Raleigh at this point.
[Mike Allen] (27:03 - 27:04)
Come on, buddy.
[Andrew Klement] (27:05 - 27:14)
The water is fine. It is. I do like it here.
Beautiful area, but at this point, I have a shop and I'm building an empire.
[Mike Allen] (27:15 - 27:18)
You'll come to Raleigh when the empire grows into Raleigh. Yeah. There you go.
[Andrew Klement] (27:19 - 27:41)
Yeah, yeah. I got to see how the Kellys ran things, and I saw what that was like. I remember talking to them about how much I love this.
They were like, well, we've got some guys from Pro Service coming in, and this ain't going to cut it. We really got to improve this so that we're at least on the level what Pro Service is doing. I was like, that's crazy.
That just blew my mind.
[Mike Allen] (27:41 - 27:52)
Pro Service has some of the most incredible shops I've ever visited and some of the most incredible operators I've ever known. I mean, just incredibly good people.
[Andrew Klement] (27:52 - 27:56)
And I'm told to wait my turn because I'm not ready for it.
[Mike Allen] (27:56 - 28:06)
You need to go to a certain volume, have a certain level of autonomy. You'll be there. I'm close.
You'll be there. I mean, I think, well, whether or not I make it to Pro Service, but I'm going to be there next year.
[Andrew Klement] (28:06 - 29:25)
So I worked for that shop. Fantastic shop. Moved to Arizona, bounced around a couple shops to find one that I really fit in with, and that was four days a week.
It was fantastic. And the number of, what's the word here? Policies and procedures that that shop had was zero.
Just go in and just do it? Yeah. So when I asked my boss, what's the policy for this?
How do you want me to do this? And he just looks at me and goes, well, you know how to do it. What do I do with that?
I get that. What am I doing good? I wanted feedback.
And Josh Parnell talks about meaningful feedback being really important. I'm like, what can I improve on? What can I do better?
What are some areas that I'm doing good on? He's just like, well, just keep doing what you're doing. It's like, wow.
And then it was around that time that I had found, I don't remember what it was. I think it was Jeff, Jada Mechanic. That's where I started listening to some of his stuff.
And that kind of opened my eyes to, that got me into listening to kind of a lower mid-level podcast. You may have heard of it. It's called Changing the Industry.
[Mike Allen] (29:26 - 29:43)
Oh, yeah. It's got one dude who's- Got a couple of buffoons and- It's got one dude who's really smart and thoughtful and well-spoken. And then it's also- Got a hot head.
It's also got Lucas Underwood. What? What?
[Andrew Klement] (29:44 - 30:10)
I didn't say anything. Oh, man. So anyways, I started listening to that.
And this idea that we, actually, this idea started when I interviewed with Dave Kelly. And he said that he thinks that a we can have a transaction that wins for the client, it wins for the technician, and it wins for the shop. Absolutely.
[Mike Allen] (30:10 - 30:18)
And I went, like, that- Doesn't have to be a loser in that transaction. Everybody can be happy with it.
[Andrew Klement] (30:18 - 31:48)
Correct. And that was, and that, like that, combined with the podcast I started listening to and the Facebook groups that I got into, I started seeing that well-run auto shops are a vital need in our community. People need somewhere that they can trust, because there are so many bad shops out there that take money, don't fix the car.
Or they take the money and they make the car worse. However that shakes out. And there are so many techs in bad environments, that these techs, and advisors do, like they're, they're, sorry, my nose is itching.
Braxton, whatever. I'm becoming a podcaster very, very quickly here. Anyway, like, employees want a good place to work.
People need a good place to come for service. And as a repair shop owner, I can build that, that does both of those things and does them well. And if I am, if I am smart in how I do it, and I'm careful in how we do this, we could also produce something that is good for me in the long term.
That gives me more time with my family, gives me more freedom. And, you know, both, both personally and financially. And it's like, and every, everybody can win.
But if I can just get the right people on the bus, get the right people in the right seat on the bus, and get the wrong people off the bus.
[Mike Allen] (31:50 - 32:15)
I think, I mean, it's a people, it's a people issue in every type of business. It is 100% a people issue. Having the right people in the right place with the right tooling and equipment and training makes all the difference in the world.
You can have the best systems and processes ever if you've got a bunch of she-thieves working for you. Yeah. It's not going to matter.
Yeah.
[Andrew Klement] (32:16 - 34:06)
I get to experience a new and fun, fun piece of that equation. On Sunday, I had my first employee quit on me. Oh, what happened?
Tell me about it. This is your confession. No, I don't, I don't know this is my confession, but we'll, we'll talk about it.
So I was, we got to a point where the bottleneck is the front counter. We've got production. We've got call volume coming in, like car counts there.
And production capacity is there. And the bottlenecks front counter, I've got one, one advisor, one advisor, and I'm filling in as production and advisor. Yeah.
Wearing both hats. And I was like, okay, I need to hire someone for this seat. But I wanted someone outside the industry.
I didn't want to hire an advisor from the industry, because the way that we do things at my shop is different from the way that most shops do things. Now I say most shops being like in general, if we were to sit down with a group of pro service guys, my way is probably not that much different from any of their ways. Right.
So I don't want to take someone that's got five, 10, 20 years of bad habits. I'd have to untrain that and retrain my way to do it. And my thought was, if I can bring someone in that has a background in hospitality and sales and customer experience, I can teach the cars.
And so I interviewed this guy, great guy, interview went great. I ended up hiring him. What was his background?
He most recently came out of like roofing sales. So he sold roofs and did like pest control sales before that. So a lot of in-person, in-home, high pressure sales.
Pounding the pavement, knocking on doors. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And, and, and a lot of negotiating. So you say no.
And he's got room to negotiate the price.
[Mike Allen] (34:06 - 34:07)
He's got financing options.
[Andrew Klement] (34:07 - 35:39)
And he's got financing options and all those, but like the high pressure and like the, the Judo of overcoming objections and like getting, getting to the sale, you know, like that, like that's what his background was. And in the interview, we had the conversation like, Hey, that's not how we do things here. Like, yes, we need to communicate the urgency of the repairs that are needed.
Yes, we need to be selling, but this, this, the way that we sell is not about my, what I tell customers when they come to my shop is my job is not to talk to you and spending money with me. My job is to educate you on the needs of your vehicle and provide solutions. I want to take your money, but I want to do it the right way.
And part of the issue was when we first brought him on, we had a busy couple of days. And so his first two or three days, he was pretty much just plink. Here's your spot go.
And I'm out in the shop doing production. I'm not, I mean, I gave him the, the notebook and we've got procedures and we've got what, a game plan for what we, what, what success in week one looks like. And we've got, you know, the, the phone script and we got to where he could answer the phones and set appointments and was doing some of those kinds of support things.
And it was, it was okay. But the first time I heard him answer the phone, I was like, oh, you didn't train him, man. Great.
Well graded in-person sales, not great on the phone. Haven't been trained on phone.
[Mike Allen] (35:39 - 35:41)
So you hired him. It's your responsibility.
[Andrew Klement] (35:41 - 35:43)
It is. It is 100% my responsibility.
[Mike Allen] (35:44 - 35:49)
And look, and I'm bad at this too. You're 100% bad about throwing people in the pool and seeing if they can swim.
[Andrew Klement] (35:49 - 36:42)
Yeah. That, and that's a hundred percent what I did. And, and at the end of week one, we sat down, we had a one-on-one and I was like, dude, I've dropped the ball.
I'm sorry. This is, I'm going to, I'm going to be more intentional with training as we go through week two. And I was able to be more intentional.
We did do some training and, but it was like, we were slow and I didn't do, I, I probably didn't do the training that I should have done for that. With that slow time, we had downtime to be able to train. And because I'm still stepping out of my comfort zone to get to do the whole ring ring.
Yeah. You know, the, the role-playing exercises, which are. Sucks, but it's so necessary.
I know. I know. I know.
And I like, I need to go home and do it with my team.
[Mike Allen] (36:44 - 36:57)
You can practice. You're a chat GPT guy, right? Yeah.
You get it on your phone. Yep. Put it in voice mode, teach it your scripts and practice calls with chat GPT.
And I've done that, that, that I'm fine with.
[Andrew Klement] (36:58 - 37:06)
You can't do it with your guys. I've never, I, I, in my head, I'm like, I'm a, I'm a people person. I can talk to people like I could do this.
[Mike Allen] (37:07 - 37:13)
And you're trying to grow to be an evil MSO. You're going to have to create processes that everybody can do. Not just deal with your gifted gab.
Right.
[Andrew Klement] (37:14 - 37:25)
Right. And, and the excuse that I've used is ball. My service advisor is my father-in-law.
You forgot that.
[Mike Allen] (37:25 - 37:26)
Oh, I did forget that. Yeah.
[Andrew Klement] (37:27 - 37:41)
So it's, it's a interesting relationship dynamic, but as my coach tells me is like. You're going to have to coach any employee you have. What's the nature of your relationship with your father-in-law?
I'm going to be at his house for Thanksgiving.
[Mike Allen] (37:43 - 38:08)
Like, is it joking? Is it like a respectful? Is it like, cause like if I would be unable to resist the urge to make jokes about how I was going to go sleep with his daughter.
Hey, you want a raise? Yeah. Let me see what your daughter's got to say about it.
Let me see if she can earn you a raise there, buddy. Is that, is that on the card? No, no.
Does that mean that he now can't listen to this episode?
[Andrew Klement] (38:08 - 38:17)
Well, I'm aware that it's not, it's not that I'm worried about him listening to this episode. I'm aware that what I'm, what I say and do on a podcast is.
[Mike Allen] (38:18 - 38:18)
It's out there forever.
[Andrew Klement] (38:18 - 38:31)
It's out there forever. Right. And I'm aware of that.
But I also know that one of my techs, hi Abby, his wife goes and finds every podcast I'm on, shows and listens to the, so.
[Mike Allen] (38:31 - 38:45)
Did you know that your husband's boss is sleeping with another one of your husband's co-workers daughters? It's a, it's a weird office dynamic. I got to tell you, I mean.
[Andrew Klement] (38:48 - 39:04)
It's, it's wild, but it's weird because, so I've, so my service advisor, father-in-law, Mike, whatever. So Mike, I've worked with Mike for six out of the last 10 years in shops where he was the advisor and I was the technician. It's like we've, we've had a, a longstanding relationship.
[Mike Allen] (39:04 - 39:06)
So that's how you met your wife then was through that working relationship?
[Andrew Klement] (39:06 - 39:08)
No, that's how I got my first job.
[Mike Allen] (39:08 - 39:09)
Wow.
[Andrew Klement] (39:09 - 39:10)
In a real shop.
[Mike Allen] (39:10 - 39:10)
Okay.
[Andrew Klement] (39:10 - 39:12)
Yeah. Cause I was a hack.
[Mike Allen] (39:13 - 39:13)
Okay.
[Andrew Klement] (39:13 - 39:20)
I sold the guy a starter break-in noise. Cause I didn't want to admit that I screwed the starter up. Cause my boss gave me a discount.
[Mike Allen] (39:21 - 39:22)
A starter break-in.
[Andrew Klement] (39:23 - 39:37)
A starter break-in noise. So the starter grind, like made a grinding noise when it engaged the flywheel. And I told the guy with the straight face, that's perfectly normal.
About 30% of the starters that we put in make this noise. It's just a break-in noise. There's nothing to worry about.
If it's still making noise in a week, give us a call. We'll take care of it.
[Mike Allen] (39:39 - 39:41)
Okay. That's a choice.
[Andrew Klement] (39:43 - 39:47)
That's a choice. If that guy is watching, I'm sorry.
[Mike Allen] (39:48 - 39:48)
Wow.
[Andrew Klement] (39:50 - 40:06)
Bruh. That's strong. Dude.
I was a hack. I was 18. I was 18 years old working out of the back of a Ford Bronco.
Working for a guy's mobile mechanic company. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea what I was doing.
[Mike Allen] (40:06 - 40:07)
I want to do that fucking starter again.
[Andrew Klement] (40:09 - 40:34)
I got paid a percentage of the gross profit on the ticket. That's how I got paid. And so if there was a discount that was given, it came directly out of my paycheck.
And this was a friend of my boss's. That at the last minute, he's like, hey, man, did you go to the starter? I gave the guy a big discount.
There's already nothing to be made on it. Yeah. Yeah.
And it ate my lunch. It was like two hours on the ground on the side of a road putting the starter in. That's terrible.
With the customer.
[Mike Allen] (40:35 - 40:37)
Standing there watching. Oh, my God.
[Andrew Klement] (40:37 - 40:37)
Yeah. Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (40:38 - 40:39)
It's nightmare fuel, man.
[Andrew Klement] (40:40 - 41:02)
Yeah. Yeah. So I was fully prepared to say anything to get out of that environment.
And the other thing was because my boss was friends with the guy and scheduled the thing and ordered the part, this guy didn't have my number. So when I said, call us back in a week, it's call my boss back, not call me back. And I never heard about it again.
[Mike Allen] (41:02 - 41:06)
So I don't know if he's still driving around to this day, grinding on startup.
[Andrew Klement] (41:06 - 41:09)
It was a Jeep Patriot. I can't imagine it's still running.
[Mike Allen] (41:09 - 41:17)
Yeah, it's fair. It's fair. Where were we?
I don't know. I'm shifting gears. Okay.
Hey, there's a podcast by that name.
[Andrew Klement] (41:18 - 41:19)
Yes, I've been on it twice.
[Mike Allen] (41:20 - 41:21)
It's good. Have you been on it?
[Andrew Klement] (41:22 - 41:41)
I think we've been on each other's shows. Does that make me a more accomplished podcaster than you? Without a doubt.
Okay. Because at my office at work, I've got the podcast drilled into my desk and I use it on Zoom calls and everybody goes, wow, you sound really good. I was like, you record podcasts?
And I'm like, with other people.
[Mike Allen] (41:42 - 42:29)
I'm a perpetual guest. Same. I did hear an interesting idea.
We're talking about community marketing and just engaging with your communities in ways to raise awareness. And the suggestion was to start a podcast, not about your business, about your community. It works small town only, right?
So if I'm a small town of Small Townsville, North Carolina, it's Small Townsville Today. And you go around and you interview other small business owners around town. The podcast is sponsored by your business, right?
That's an interesting thought. The other small business owners obviously want to be featured on a podcast.
[Andrew Klement] (42:29 - 42:29)
What's free marketing?
[Mike Allen] (42:30 - 42:53)
Yeah, for them. That's a thought. But they hear your ad every single episode and it rapidly grew their social media presence within the community.
And only people that listen to it are people who are potential customers, right? And it took like 10 episodes and he was getting people coming in saying that they learned about him by listening to the podcast. Wow.
So I thought that was a great idea.
[Andrew Klement] (42:53 - 43:13)
That's an interesting idea that I hadn't thought about. Yeah. Because I mean, I go on everybody's podcast.
I've been on, I think, every podcast in this building except the Sirius podcast. Carm and Tracy, the OG. I had not heard of them until about a month ago.
[Mike Allen] (43:16 - 44:19)
No, man, they've been known for 10 years, man. Yeah. Carm is the OG.
And he's from the industry. His family had, I think, a chain of parts stores in New York. And after they sold that, he kind of bounced around to some other things and he started the show.
And he was doing it for three or four years before Lucas and David got started with ASOG podcast that has now changed the industry, right? So no, I've tried so hard to get them to come on the show. I feel like- Carm, let's go, buddy.
Come on. You're the OG. I want to recognize your greatness.
I just want to be on your show. And he lives around the corner from Brian Pollack. Brian maintains their cars.
They hang out socially. I'm like, dude, I'm pretty sure that our target audiences don't have a lot of overlap. But what are you going to do?
Yeah. So- Call me. So tell me about your experience here at the Expo.
[Andrew Klement] (44:20 - 44:22)
It's the definition of drinking from a fire hose.
[Mike Allen] (44:25 - 44:33)
It was eight hours on Thursday of- Eight hours of classroom and another four hours of social.
[Andrew Klement] (44:34 - 44:50)
It was eight hours of classroom and then some social and then a podcast. But I did not make it to hospitality suite on Thursday. You spent thousands of dollars so you could have a good hospitality suite.
Good mechanic.
[Mike Allen] (44:52 - 45:05)
Jeff made it on Thursday. Well, he's more committed than I am. He is.
He should be committed. Does that count? So I'll tell you.
You can always tell first-time attendees to events like this.
[Andrew Klement] (45:05 - 45:10)
One, because- The badge with the barbecue stain because I can't keep out of my food.
[Mike Allen] (45:11 - 45:22)
Anyway, I mean, if you've never been exposed to anything like this, you come here, you're like, holy shit. And you have 30 pages of notes and yeah, you've got your notebook right there.
[Andrew Klement] (45:23 - 45:32)
I've got it. I've got it right here. Like, yeah.
Yeah. Hang on. Here's the key takeaway.
I saw people plus process equals profit.
[Mike Allen] (45:33 - 46:04)
That's limitless leadership. That's one of his favorite bylines. The advice that I will give you is if you go back and try to do all of that, you will fail to do any of it.
And I know that. Pick just two or three things. And don't worry about anything else until those two or three.
And do the two or three things that don't cost a ton of money. Do the stuff you can do for free first that will make you more money. Yes.
And then you can afford the stuff that costs money without it taking anything out of the bottom line. Right.
[Andrew Klement] (46:04 - 46:11)
That's my problem is there's some idiot in my company that keeps getting a little fast and loose with the company credit card. And it's this guy.
[Mike Allen] (46:11 - 46:20)
That is the single biggest limitation to the success of my business, is that I spend money like I got it before I got it. I love me some spending.
[Andrew Klement] (46:21 - 46:30)
We had a big ticket back in July. The biggest ticket we've ever had in the history of the shop. About 18 grand.
Nice. I'm still owed 7,500.
[Mike Allen] (46:31 - 46:33)
You don't work on credit, buddy.
[Andrew Klement] (46:33 - 47:03)
No. You still have the truck? No.
Why do you give it back? Because I knew that these people work with the truck. And if it's not working, they're not making money.
So it'll sit in my tiny parking lot indefinitely. Or we draft a legal contract that gives me interest in the title. How long has it been?
We are a month and a half past when I was supposed to repo the truck. But we're making payments and we're staying current on the late fee.
[Mike Allen] (47:06 - 47:10)
Do not make that. That's your confession. That's some dumb.
That is dumb ass stuff.
[Andrew Klement] (47:10 - 47:12)
That is dumb. And I know it's dumb.
[Mike Allen] (47:12 - 47:32)
Don't do that shit. I know it's dumb. Don't do that shit.
You will get burned. It's not if, it's when. That's the best looking man in the coaching industry right there, man.
He's so well put together. You know, he really is. Yeah.
He knows his shit too. I'm jealous. He's younger than me.
He's better at business. He's smarter. He's...
Bullshit.
[Andrew Klement] (47:32 - 47:38)
And he just doesn't know what he's doing. Just spent the last... Well, before coming on here, the last hour telling me how stupid I was.
[Mike Allen] (47:39 - 47:55)
I disagree. You made a wise investment with a wonderful company to help improve your social footprint. I like that.
So, no. Thanks for coming on, dude. It's fun.
Let's have a good time. I feel like we could just sit around and shoot the shit like this for another hour.
[Andrew Klement] (47:55 - 47:55)
I think we could.
[Mike Allen] (47:56 - 48:04)
But I've got some dudes coming in. They're bringing a mobile martini bar with them so that we can make martinis and toast out the closing of the show.
[Andrew Klement] (48:06 - 48:09)
And I just came unprepared. I brought a notebook and...
[Mike Allen] (48:09 - 48:17)
I need to get a sticker and put it on my laptop. Although it's bugging me already because I was lazy with the way I put it on and there's bubbles in it. I'm gonna have to get...
[Andrew Klement] (48:18 - 48:19)
I mean, do you want another one just so you have a backup?
[Mike Allen] (48:19 - 48:27)
I do want another one so I can take this one off and reapply. Yeah. Thank you so much.
That's how we... Send me your stickers. I'll put them on my stuff and I'll do it carefully.
[Andrew Klement] (48:27 - 48:28)
No, no.
[Mike Allen] (48:28 - 48:29)
His laptop is full.
[Andrew Klement] (48:30 - 48:34)
Send me two. His laptop is full of stickers. There's none left.
I'm fine.
[Mike Allen] (48:35 - 48:46)
The Pelican cases have space for more stickers. But only the OGs get the laptop. Send me a sticker and a thousand dollars cash and I'll put it on the Miata.
Because I'm a whore.
[Andrew Klement] (48:48 - 48:54)
Thank you. I am going to find the Miata outside the hotel and we're gonna stick it on there and hopefully the staff doesn't yell at me.
[Mike Allen] (48:54 - 49:33)
Oh my god. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner where we lay it all out. The good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up.
I'm your host Mike Allen here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink. You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am?
Email mike at confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266-3377.
If you enjoyed this episode be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.