Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
[James Hornak] (0:00 - 0:00)
What's happening?
[Mike Allen] (0:02 - 0:07)
Oh, Braxton. Oh boy. Oh, Braxton's got...
Braxton, where'd you get that shirt? Braxton.
[James Hornak] (0:08 - 0:10)
So, that's... Some really cool guys that I met.
[Mike Allen] (0:10 - 0:21)
That's very familiar looking to me. You motherfuckers. So it turns out, you can get these shirts in any color you want, when you pay for them.
You motherfuckers.
[Nathan Ward] (0:22 - 0:25)
We got one for you too. Yeah, you get your own. Arrrgh.
[Braxton Critcher] (0:27 - 0:29)
Arrrgh. Arrrgh.
[Intro] (0:32 - 1:05)
Arrrgh. 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 ever invented, for any purpose, ever.
[Mike Allen] (1:06 - 1:09)
This is because Tanika prefers grape Kool-Aid.
[Nathan Ward] (1:09 - 1:10)
Oh no, Mr. Kool-Aid Man.
[Mike Allen] (1:11 - 1:13)
Drink the Kool-Aid. Oh yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (1:13 - 1:18)
Oh yeah. Better get back here before my dad hits me with the toaster.
[Mike Allen] (1:20 - 1:25)
Have you already hit play? Yeah. Okay, we're recording.
We got that on tape. Oh yeah, I hope so.
[Braxton Critcher] (1:25 - 1:26)
That's fantastic.
[Mike Allen] (1:26 - 1:43)
So it is Saturday afternoon, getting on into the later part of the afternoon at ASTA Expo 2026. I have learned that I perform at a higher level at events like this, that are multi-day events, if I stay dry and I don't drink any alcohol.
[Nathan Ward] (1:43 - 1:44)
No, that tracks, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (1:44 - 2:23)
Because it's early mornings, it's late nights, it's go, go, go, you're talking the whole time. Like Tanika was just hearing voices shot, right? Yeah.
Taught a class this morning, obviously, so I couldn't get too crazy. And you guys show up to record, and you bring a motherfucking martini bar with you into the booth. We're not here for second place, Mike.
Blue cheese, stuffed olives, the whole deal. Yeah, last time it was, what, Bloody Mary's? Bloody Mary's was the first one.
Yeah, cheers. Cheers. You fucking degenerates.
Cheers. It's all for you. So, last time we recorded, we recorded in the lobby of your shop.
[Nathan Ward] (2:23 - 2:24)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (2:24 - 2:27)
You just opened up. We had Bloody Mary's. We did.
[Nathan Ward] (2:27 - 2:27)
Bacon.
[Mike Allen] (2:28 - 2:36)
Noticing a theme, kindred spirits. It's been a year. Have you gotten rid of the Mustang?
[Braxton Critcher] (2:37 - 2:40)
No. God damn it, no. It's still in the same spot.
We still have the stupid car.
[Mike Allen] (2:40 - 2:41)
It's still on the same fucking lift?
[Braxton Critcher] (2:41 - 2:43)
No, no, no, no. It's outside.
[Mike Allen] (2:43 - 2:51)
It's outside, under a tarp. Okay. We look at it, we laugh at it.
I was like, that thing has been on the lift the whole fucking time. We're gonna come over here and slap each other.
[Nathan Ward] (2:52 - 2:59)
Absolutely not. Every now and again, we'll look at it and just say, that's how the shop started, was we were gonna make millions building race cars.
[Mike Allen] (3:00 - 3:08)
We took advantage of some poor old man who was senile. Oh, I'm telling you, it is, as far as marketing goes, they're the easiest to hit over the head.
[Braxton Critcher] (3:08 - 3:09)
Oh, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (3:09 - 3:27)
We go after. Oh, it's fantastic. We find the old folks home and just start dropping coupons on them left and right.
I'm telling you, it doesn't even matter what it says. They're not gonna renew it. They're going 74 miles a year.
They don't know. Right. What do you need to market?
What are the odds that you're gonna have warranty exposure? Use the cheapest parts ever. They're not ever gonna drive it enough to find out.
[Nathan Ward] (3:27 - 3:28)
SKP.
[Mike Allen] (3:28 - 3:30)
T-Move fuel injectors all day long.
[Nathan Ward] (3:31 - 3:31)
Oh, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (3:33 - 3:34)
Oh, yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (3:34 - 3:36)
But I digress. That fucking Mustang.
[Mike Allen] (3:37 - 3:38)
How is the Mustang coming along?
[Nathan Ward] (3:38 - 3:39)
It's not.
[Mike Allen] (3:40 - 3:43)
What does that mean? Is that because you've been working on profitable stuff?
[Nathan Ward] (3:43 - 3:44)
Yes.
[Mike Allen] (3:44 - 3:45)
That's exactly what that means.
[James Hornak] (3:45 - 3:54)
The Mustang is, there is a motor in it, and that's as far as it's gotten at this point, because, again, we had to push it outside. It's been sitting outside in the same spot for months.
[Mike Allen] (3:54 - 3:56)
I think there was no motor and the interior was torn out when I was there.
[James Hornak] (3:56 - 3:57)
Correct.
[Nathan Ward] (3:57 - 3:58)
Yeah. The interior's broken.
[Mike Allen] (3:59 - 4:08)
What's in it? Mostly. It's just not where it goes.
The engine's in it, but there's a lot. The engine's literally just bolted in. It's not.
So is it, right now, it's just collecting mice and anthills? It is.
[James Hornak] (4:08 - 4:09)
Yeah. Yes.
[Mike Allen] (4:09 - 4:19)
We're gonna have to de-ant it again. Yeah, we fucking ant shits last time we did it. It was terrible.
Well, I'm happy that y'all haven't had time to work on it at all.
[James Hornak] (4:19 - 4:26)
That is a good thing. Yeah, it is. The growth that we have seen in this past year is mind-boggling to us.
[Mike Allen] (4:27 - 4:35)
It feels very surreal, honestly. It's wild. I think you had just quit your job to come work full-time in the office when we recorded.
Is that right?
[James Hornak] (4:35 - 4:36)
Yeah, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (4:36 - 4:43)
I think so, yeah. Do you remember how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I looked? Now I'm drinking martini.
How deliciously naive you were.
[Nathan Ward] (4:43 - 4:52)
Oh, man. I thought it was gonna be mailbox money. I gotta get this running, put a pretty blonde girl in the front, put somebody in the front, and, like, hey, all you do is take calls.
[Mike Allen] (4:52 - 4:54)
Barbara Brunette got myself, but, you know, whatever.
[Nathan Ward] (4:54 - 4:55)
Tomato potato.
[Mike Allen] (4:55 - 4:56)
Tomato potato.
[Nathan Ward] (4:58 - 5:05)
And, yeah, that's really what I... I had no idea what a service rider is. Now I am one.
I have taken classes through Elite to become a service rider, because it's...
[Mike Allen] (5:06 - 5:08)
Because it's a necessary skill. It is.
[Nathan Ward] (5:08 - 5:09)
It is.
[Mike Allen] (5:09 - 5:14)
Well, he's got the sales skills, because your whole career has been sales, so his selling ability is fantastic.
[James Hornak] (5:15 - 5:19)
But the learning the actual service riding and the automotive side was...
[Mike Allen] (5:19 - 5:20)
It was hard.
[James Hornak] (5:20 - 5:21)
Yeah. Different.
[Mike Allen] (5:21 - 5:36)
A lot of wrong parts. Still a lot of wrong parts. I want to hit him a lot.
Yeah. Yep. Trying to hire my position out.
Are you allowed to hire your position out yet? Not yet. I don't think you're allowed to until he's allowed to.
I think I'm...
[James Hornak] (5:36 - 5:36)
No.
[Mike Allen] (5:36 - 5:37)
I paid for it.
[James Hornak] (5:39 - 5:58)
Realistically, you will probably be out first, which is fine. Because at this point, we are... Our shop is full.
We've got three full-time technicians for three days. And I play more of the shop foreman type back of house role. So I'll probably be doing that still for a while, because my techs are not at a point where they can step up to that position yet.
[Mike Allen] (6:01 - 6:11)
Tell me about going from opening your own shop and it being just you guys to the process of hiring and now having three technicians in the first year. Because, what, you're 13, 14 months in now?
[Nathan Ward] (6:12 - 6:13)
Yeah. Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (6:13 - 6:15)
Exactly. When did you hire your first tech?
[Nathan Ward] (6:16 - 6:20)
We had our first guy when we opened. We had a 19-year-old young man.
[Mike Allen] (6:20 - 6:22)
Yes, we did. Great guy.
[Nathan Ward] (6:22 - 6:23)
He's still with you? No.
[Mike Allen] (6:24 - 6:28)
No, no. I've hired three 19-year-olds, and I've fired three 19-year-olds.
[James Hornak] (6:29 - 6:30)
We have not had good luck with them.
[Mike Allen] (6:30 - 6:31)
I've had several experiences.
[Nathan Ward] (6:31 - 6:32)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (6:32 - 7:15)
To a degree, I feel like it's the 19-year-old, and to a degree, I feel like it's me. Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I think I hold them to a higher standard than I should, or I expect more life experience.
The expectation is wrong for what we get. I think the expectations are wrong for them and for you. I think you probably expect more of them, and they expect, you want a TV?
I give you 20 bucks. Pizza party. Oh, man, I put both of us in for that stupid TV drawing, even though you weren't here.
Really? I didn't get it. Bullshit.
Stephen, this is Tyson. Tyson just opened his shop last month. My guess is that came from a vendor who really wants to be on his good side as a new shop.
[Nathan Ward] (7:16 - 7:17)
I think it might have been.
[Mike Allen] (7:18 - 7:36)
If you're at a trade show and vendors have drawings, that shit ain't random. They give it to the people that they want to develop a relationship with. Yeah.
You know what, straight up, that's what we did when we went to Cars and Coffee the first time. Instead of having people fill out for, you know, free oil change or alignment or whatever it was, we had to write it down by hand.
[Nathan Ward] (7:36 - 7:41)
And I found out how bad people's handwriting are. It's like, nope, I'm going for the best handwriting. You didn't win shit.
[Mike Allen] (7:42 - 7:53)
You get a tablet and let them type that shit out, man. The second I, we had like a hundred people, but I'm sitting here and it's like, I'm not putting all these in the system. Like this is like, you've got good handwriting.
Great.
[Nathan Ward] (7:53 - 7:55)
You got it in alignment. I forgot we did that.
[Mike Allen] (7:55 - 8:09)
Yeah. I was talking to somebody earlier about when you go to an event, like a Cars and Coffee or a town fair or something like that, take the giant Jenga or the Kinect 4. Okay.
And if they beat you, they win a thing, whatever that might be.
[Braxton Critcher] (8:09 - 8:10)
All right.
[Mike Allen] (8:10 - 8:20)
And so that gives you four or five minutes to get to know them, what kind of car they drive, where they live, what do they do. And identify if they're a good potential customer or not. And if they're a potential good customer, you fucking lose the game.
[Nathan Ward] (8:22 - 8:24)
That is evil shop ownership.
[Mike Allen] (8:24 - 8:27)
That is evil shop ownership. We have a lot to learn.
[Nathan Ward] (8:27 - 8:30)
We really do. We've got so many years of evil ahead of us.
[Mike Allen] (8:30 - 8:52)
You do the same thing at career fairs with young technicians. And like if you beat Mike, you get a pair of mechanics, wear gloves or safety glasses or something like that. And you get a chance to talk to them for a few minutes.
You know what their project car is and where they're from, all that kind of stuff.
[Nathan Ward] (8:52 - 8:52)
Right.
[Mike Allen] (8:54 - 8:55)
That's a good way to do that.
[Nathan Ward] (8:55 - 8:56)
That's cool.
[Mike Allen] (8:56 - 8:57)
I didn't even think about it.
[Nathan Ward] (8:57 - 9:03)
No, it's to cars and coffee. We brought water and trash cans. The two things you can't find at cars and coffee.
[Mike Allen] (9:06 - 9:12)
I haven't been to cars and coffee in 20 years. No. Yeah.
It's been going for 20 years.
[James Hornak] (9:12 - 9:22)
Yeah. So it used to be split up into separate, smaller things. The big one hasn't is more recent.
I think that was COVID related or after COVID or something.
[Mike Allen] (9:24 - 10:42)
I got you. Yeah. I'm not from here.
What are you guys working on? What are you doing? Are you general repair?
Yeah. General repair, Asian domestic, majority of it. We have 20 years and newer.
How have you grown car business? Holy cow. We are, let me see.
July and August, we did about 180 cars a month. ARO was 955. And we're doing $29 load changes.
So we kind of figured out. There's a caveat to that. Oh, absolutely.
There's a caveat to everything. Wait, stop. 14 months in.
They've already hired three other technicians. 180 cars and a $900 ARO. $29 load changes.
Suck it. But we still charge for Diag. But they do charge for Diag.
Not giving any of that free Diag. No. Free Diag is for hacks.
Well, the worst part is if they come for just the oil change. I look at that ticket and go, I just lost $40. We just lost a shit ton of money that way.
What we did, we turned our shop into no waiters. Do it. Other side.
Thank you. You could have totally left me there. I just left it there the whole podcast.
A little funny.
[Nathan Ward] (10:42 - 10:45)
So yeah, with that, we mail those people.
[Mike Allen] (10:45 - 11:06)
Mail them. I give them out. Hand out cards for them, et cetera.
It is for cars that are five years old or older. 50,000 miles or more, and it has to meet both. And you're going to drop it off with me at the line.
So there is no, oh, I just want my cheap oil change. I'll come in and wait on it. No, you won't.
Absolutely not. And it says those things on the coupon? It says call.
Call for appointment.
[James Hornak] (11:07 - 11:09)
Call for appointment is what it says, I believe.
[Mike Allen] (11:09 - 11:22)
Well, if they call for appointment, and they say, I've got a 2023 Camry. So it doesn't fall within our realm. It's $29 off of $129 oil change.
Any pushback? Nice. A little bit.
You'll get some of your own.
[James Hornak] (11:22 - 11:24)
A one in 100 doesn't matter.
[Nathan Ward] (11:24 - 11:24)
No.
[James Hornak] (11:24 - 11:26)
Not as much as you would think, honestly.
[Nathan Ward] (11:27 - 11:32)
A lot of people, oh, I just want a cheap oil change. Like, yep, that does not. I'm losing $70 on an oil change or whatever it is.
[James Hornak] (11:32 - 11:40)
It's just being honest with people. If you want the cheap oil change, we're just not the best fit shop for you. There are places out there that'll do it.
And probably do it well, but it's just not us.
[Mike Allen] (11:40 - 11:45)
If you're a previous customer, yeah. Full synthetic custom? Yes.
You're not keeping any semi-synthetic in stock, I imagine?
[Nathan Ward] (11:46 - 11:49)
No. Especially not with how much oil it costs right now.
[Mike Allen] (11:49 - 12:01)
It is. Oil is silly. And actually, with the oil going up, it's easy to explain to somebody.
It's like, look, when we started doing this, oil was $300 for a 55-gallon barrel of 0820.
[Nathan Ward] (12:02 - 12:24)
It's like the last, I forgot who I called, but they're like, yeah, $2,350 for a 55-gallon barrel. And I just, like, you've got to be out of your mind. You're one of those, but explaining to somebody, this is what the jump in oil has been.
I have to find the other stuff on your car, or we're losing money. This has to work for both of us. You get a cheap oil change, but I'm going to have it for today.
[Mike Allen] (12:25 - 12:28)
So you guys are going to do a million and a half this year, two million next year?
[James Hornak] (12:30 - 12:35)
We're pacing to hit one-five-ish this year, yes. Shooting for two next year, I think, is doable.
[Mike Allen] (12:37 - 12:39)
What do you think the capacity of your building is?
[Nathan Ward] (12:40 - 12:48)
We're doing this out of three lifts in the alignment rack, and we've talked to the owner of the building to take over the next 2,000 square foot.
[Mike Allen] (12:51 - 12:57)
Do you have the opportunity to buy the real estate? No, unfortunately. Mike's been very, so his name's also Mike.
[Nathan Ward] (12:58 - 13:07)
We have tried, and he has been very big, like, rent's not crazy expensive, but if my kids want to sell it to you and I pass it down to them.
[Mike Allen] (13:07 - 13:08)
I've got two of those.
[James Hornak] (13:10 - 13:14)
He wants to give it to his kids, and I understand it. I understand it, but I want the land.
[Mike Allen] (13:14 - 13:19)
Do your kids want a commercial building, or do your kids want a million and a half dollars?
[Nathan Ward] (13:19 - 13:30)
A million and a half. Do we hang on and wait to see what decision they're going to make? Because it might last the next 30, 40 years, too.
I have no idea.
[Mike Allen] (13:30 - 14:40)
One of my landlords already died, and I'm in conversations with the child now, and the other one's like 92, so I'll probably get a shorter landing strip. He was like, look, dude, I'm emotionally attached to this building. There's no way I'm going to sell it to you, but my kids, they want the money.
So just wait for me to die, and then you can buy it. And I was like, well, okay, how are you feeling? Do you need a drink?
Do you need some water? It looks like water, mostly. It looks like your car needs some work on it.
Would you like a cocktail with a little bleach? Brake lines cut themselves. We're taking advantage of the elderly.
Now he's trying to go. I'm telling you. No, I'm just trying to ease him into the afterlife.
Tomato potato. He's actually a really good dude. He had an air-cooled Carmen Ghia specialty shop in the 70s and 80s.
Is that what was going on in your shop at the arcade at the top of it? Yeah. So everything upstairs is at the hospitality suite.
The upstairs is empty right now. I feel like that would look a little weird. It's just a big open loft up there.
Well, it was a machine shop back in the day. He used to build motors up there. Really?
So there's a crane over the... A gantry crane.
[Nathan Ward] (14:41 - 14:45)
Yeah. So is that how you're getting the... What is it?
The tables and all that?
[Mike Allen] (14:45 - 15:00)
No, I just hired a bunch of college kids to schlep all the shit down the steps. That's why I didn't have one of the T-shirts, conspiracy theory T-shirts with me, because I was there with the box truck directing the moving guys. So you weren't out front when the dude was saying it.
[James Hornak] (15:01 - 15:02)
Oh, dude, I'm so disappointed.
[Mike Allen] (15:02 - 15:15)
And I imagine that whoever did it, because I still don't fucking know who did it, is probably disappointed that I wasn't there to witness their genius, because it is a genius fucking T-shirt. I thought they were hilarious.
[Nathan Ward] (15:15 - 15:22)
I grabbed one. We walked past the guys like, hey, do you want a free T-shirt? And when I looked at it, I was like, weird flex, Mike, but I'll take one.
[Mike Allen] (15:22 - 15:27)
A lot of people have assumed that it was me. A lot of people have assumed that it was me, and no, it was not me.
[Nathan Ward] (15:28 - 15:32)
So at the hospitality suite, we're not going to find out like, I got you all good. I did my own shirt.
[Mike Allen] (15:32 - 15:49)
Well, so multiple people have told me, oh, there's a time you'll find out who it was soon. And I'm like, okay, so somebody's got to know something. I'm like, the show's almost fucking over, guys.
Who's going to tell me? And so somebody just said, well, there is a hospitality suite tonight, so fingers crossed. I can know who did the best troll job ever of me.
[Nathan Ward] (15:50 - 15:53)
I feel like Braxton probably knows more than he's letting on.
[Mike Allen] (15:53 - 15:56)
Yeah, he totally does. Braxton knows the whole story. He just won't tell me.
[Nathan Ward] (15:56 - 15:56)
Oh, seriously?
[Mike Allen] (15:57 - 16:05)
Yeah. Oh, shit. So Braxton, when your paycheck this month bounces, sorry, bro.
Maybe I'll figure out who bounced your paycheck.
[Nathan Ward] (16:07 - 16:26)
My God, your employees are working against you. Never. I've got one.
I was wearing it around. It's the Charlie Day, trying to explain whatever it is. He's smoking the cigarette.
You don't care?
[Mike Allen] (16:28 - 16:41)
Oh, man. How's shop going for Mike? It's good.
So when we recorded, it was probably July of last year.
[Nathan Ward] (16:42 - 16:43)
I think it was.
[Mike Allen] (16:43 - 16:49)
Yeah, it's probably the peak. We were at maximum performance that we've ever had as a company financially.
[Intro] (16:49 - 16:50)
Okay, wow.
[Mike Allen] (16:50 - 18:59)
And it all fell apart immediately after that because I put new systems in place. We were breaking records, and I put a manager in place, and I walked away, and I wasn't paying attention. And that guy just, he was counter to the culture that we had.
And I wasn't paying attention, and I lost, had a massive brain drain happen very quickly. And I didn't pay attention for four or five months. And by the time I realized that we had a problem, it was too late.
We lost a lot of incredible guys. And a lot of them are here because when I hired them, they started to come. I don't think they harbor any ill will towards me because they all come up, and we've all talked and hung out.
I had lunch with a couple of them. And it's been really good seeing them again, but they've all moved on to other good shops. They wouldn't work for you again?
I think they would if where they are. But I lost some cool points with them, right? Because I put someone in charge and didn't pay attention.
It was counter to the culture that we had created. So not only did the culture tank, and I lost a lot of really high ethic, high work value guys, high energy guys. I also lost an enormous amount of revenue.
And I lost money at the end of last year. But at the end of the year, I kind of pulled it out of the nosedive. I realized what was going on, made some changes, got involved in the business more heavily again.
And so I think I can confidently say that the culture is back. We've got just dudes who care. The ones who survived through that kind of come out with a thousand yard stare on the other side, but they're like, okay, Mike's back.
That's what I heard. It was, Mike, you're missing from the business. You don't know what's happening in your business.
You need to be back. We had something kind of similar. We did 100K.
Our first month of 100K was March. So it was seven, eight months into it.
[Nathan Ward] (18:59 - 19:20)
Holy shit, everything's going great. I'm going to grab a technician and put them in the front office while I go fuck off for a while. We had a $100,000 month.
Then we had a $60,000 month. It's like, man, we're back to losing money. It's Yemi.
She's probably the most valuable person we have at the shop.
[Mike Allen] (19:20 - 19:36)
She's our diagnosis technician. But she's also worked in retail, things like that. I never thought like, oh yeah, you do sales naturally because you've done it your whole life.
All right, Yemi, you got it. Retail and service sales are not the same thing. Retail people are coming in to buy things they want to buy.
[Nathan Ward] (19:38 - 19:40)
Nobody wants to buy anything that I'm selling.
[Mike Allen] (19:41 - 19:44)
I'd like to replace the rear main seal on my car today.
[James Hornak] (19:46 - 19:47)
Nobody does that, it's true.
[Mike Allen] (19:50 - 19:54)
It's a very specialized. We were trying to hire for a service writer.
[Nathan Ward] (19:55 - 20:07)
Tons of different applications. Oh yeah, I've sold this. But you don't know anything about cars.
Sales helps, but I'm trying to hire somebody that I can put in there. They just work.
[Mike Allen] (20:07 - 20:21)
They get it. They know service writing. They know what they're doing.
Hiring a turnkey service advisor is challenging. Especially if they've got 15 years of experience because they invariably have 15 years of experience doing it wrong.
[James Hornak] (20:23 - 20:36)
Yeah, there's absolutely that possibility. You've got more experience in this than I do. What has been your most effective service advisor hiring process, I guess?
[Mike Allen] (20:38 - 21:01)
Hospitality, bartenders, and others. So, okay. The best service advisor I've ever had was a bartender.
A fine dining bartender who lost their job during the pandemic because the restaurant closed. Without a doubt, the best salesperson I've ever employed.
[Nathan Ward] (21:02 - 21:04)
Sounds like this person's not with you anymore.
[Mike Allen] (21:05 - 21:09)
Correct. I promoted that person to be a manager and then I left the business and then they tanked the culture.
[James Hornak] (21:09 - 21:10)
That's what happened.
[Mike Allen] (21:14 - 21:21)
I'd love to still have the dude in the organization if I had never promoted him. But now it's not an option anymore.
[Nathan Ward] (21:25 - 21:29)
It's kind of nice to know that you still make mistakes even after doing it for 20 years.
[Mike Allen] (21:32 - 21:47)
Constantly, I fuck up. I am such a clusterfuck of a business owner. See, we're not that bad.
That's the whole point of this podcast is so other people can learn the stupid shit that I do and make new interesting mistakes, not just my mistakes. Sure.
[Nathan Ward] (21:48 - 21:53)
There was a few that I think it was Tanika had said, Michael Jordan had a coach in 97.
[Mike Allen] (21:53 - 22:20)
What makes you think I'm better than Michael Jordan? Actually, I came in here wearing an elite shirt and I would have lost my house. If we hadn't looked at each other, we don't know what the fuck we're doing.
Let's hire. We have got to turn this around or we're going to be on the street. Having elite from the beginning has been massive for us.
It's put us where we are. We'd never be doing 150k a month. We're over 100 now and we're gone.
[Nathan Ward] (22:21 - 22:25)
We would not be anywhere. I'd be homeless and the shop would be some new owners.
[Mike Allen] (22:25 - 22:26)
You'd be sleeping on the couch in the shop.
[Nathan Ward] (22:27 - 22:27)
Yes.
[James Hornak] (22:29 - 22:34)
It would be a real mess. Big shout out. Shameless plug to elite marketing.
[Mike Allen] (22:34 - 22:54)
These people are good at what they do. If they would make a fucking elite hat, I would have one here and I would put it on right now. I don't think I've ever seen any of them.
Come on, guys. Elite stands on their own business. They don't have a lot of swag.
I want one of those cool blue polos they have with the embroidered elite.
[Nathan Ward] (22:54 - 22:54)
Those are cool.
[Mike Allen] (22:55 - 22:57)
I don't know if they let you have one. Darren, hook your brother up.
[Nathan Ward] (22:58 - 23:00)
Come on, bud. Come on, man.
[Mike Allen] (23:00 - 23:18)
I think elite has changed the direction and path for my family. Because my dad was with pro service when I came to the business. In 2005.
2001. 2002.
[Nathan Ward] (23:19 - 23:22)
He's getting old and forgetful. We can take advantage of him later.
[Mike Allen] (23:23 - 23:27)
I remember back in 2001. Which one of your jobs do you want to sell us?
[Nathan Ward] (23:31 - 23:33)
We're trying to make a move on the old timers.
[Mike Allen] (23:33 - 23:44)
Look, bro. Real talk. I want to sell them all to you.
But it's going to cost an enormous amount of fucking money. Speaking of that, I call it boomer man. Do what?
Boomer man?
[Nathan Ward] (23:44 - 23:57)
Yeah, I went and looked at a shop that's off of Glenwood. And the guy's like, yeah. It's worth two and a half million.
I was like, awesome. Show me the P&Ls that say that. And he goes, no, it's worth the land that it's on.
How long has it been for sale? What shop?
[Mike Allen] (23:57 - 23:59)
You know what shop it is. Triangle Park area.
[Nathan Ward] (24:00 - 24:00)
Or car center, I think.
[Mike Allen] (24:01 - 24:31)
So that real estate is worth that much. He's not selling the business. He's selling the real estate.
So here's the thing, though. If it was worth that much, somebody would have bought it. It went for two years.
And there's developments going in. It's right next to a megachurch. Nobody's putting in apartments or anything.
It's coming. He's a couple years early. But it's the whole lot with the Sherwin-Williams and the other buildings.
So the commercial real estate. Well, he's selling both properties. He wants to do it together.
But he was willing to do them separately. So Bobby Dunn was a board member of ASTA for a long time.
[Nathan Ward] (24:31 - 24:32)
He told us.
[Mike Allen] (24:32 - 24:44)
And right when they switched over to Techmetric years ago, they used to call me to help with set up and reporting and that kind of stuff. They used to host the hospitality suite. They hosted the hospitality suite for 15 years.
[Nathan Ward] (24:45 - 24:49)
No shit. I do want to be very clear. Him and his wife are awesome people.
[Mike Allen] (24:49 - 24:49)
They're spectacular people.
[Nathan Ward] (24:49 - 25:00)
They're really cool to hang out with. I saw that. I was like, I need a profit and loss statement that says that I can pay this and get it back.
Well, it's worth the land. I was like, I mean, maybe.
[Mike Allen] (25:00 - 25:07)
Well, how much? So you get asked how much are the tenants of the other buildings paying and what's the terms of their lease. I know that.
[Nathan Ward] (25:07 - 25:09)
I'm not going to say it on the podcast.
[Mike Allen] (25:09 - 25:33)
So talk funny money. Let's say that servicing the note is going to cost $25,000 a month. Let's say the other businesses are paying $15,000 a month.
You need to have a shop that can service $10,000 a month, right? And if you want that to be 7% or 8% of revenue, you can go into that math, right?
[Braxton Critcher] (25:33 - 25:34)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (25:36 - 25:40)
But his facility is interesting because of the concave floor.
[Nathan Ward] (25:40 - 25:45)
Yeah. The half pipe. Yeah, yeah.
That's a bit of a problem.
[Mike Allen] (25:46 - 25:50)
It's been that way for years and years and years, though. I thought it might have been.
[Nathan Ward] (25:51 - 25:56)
Yeah. It's a cool property. If it was flat out on Glenwood, because it's not.
[Mike Allen] (25:56 - 26:37)
It's on the street. It's a nice sign, though. That nice digital sign is really nice.
It is. Yeah, for me, everything. It has to make sense on paper for me because I couldn't pay off $2.5 million. God. That will be a hot piece of property in a decade. Sure.
But that part of Glenwood's gentrification hasn't moved that far out yet. Right. It's coming.
It needs a little bit longer. We definitely want a place on a main street because a $40,000 sign. I'm spending $15,000 a month in marketing to get people in.
Right. I could put up a $40,000 sign and have thousands of people see this. I think about the traffic that drives by right there.
[Nathan Ward] (26:37 - 26:38)
That's exactly it.
[Mike Allen] (26:38 - 26:44)
And he's not right on the road, but he's right at the light. And so the people that stack up at the light are all looking at that.
[Mike Allen] (26:46 - 26:49)
But it's been a very good business for him and his family for all these years.
[Nathan Ward] (26:49 - 26:51)
He said he's opened in, like, 81.
[Mike Allen] (26:51 - 26:57)
Oh, yeah. He's been there in the early days of me going to IGO meetings with my dad. He was always there.
[Nathan Ward] (26:58 - 27:02)
He actually still has the sign in the front window for IGO. For IGO, yeah. Not ASTA.
[Mike Allen] (27:03 - 27:03)
IGO.
[Nathan Ward] (27:03 - 27:12)
And for us, it's a 5,000-square-foot shop, but it's set up as a shop, which was like, oh, god, there's a whole parts room.
[Mike Allen] (27:12 - 27:27)
Look at all the space. Oh, yeah. Look at all the space for activities.
We just have a 5,000-square-foot building. You have a commercial warehouse. Yes.
Yes, that we turned into a shop. It was built to be an HVAC plumbing warehouse, right? I think it was Landscape.
Yeah, Landscape.
[James Hornak] (27:27 - 27:29)
Yeah, he was doing whatever, but it was not built to be a shop.
[Mike Allen] (27:30 - 27:54)
Well, he didn't even have a mailbox out front. We had to go to the USPS and get a mailbox for it because he didn't want anybody to find it. He didn't want anybody to drive up to his business.
So he just never registered with USPS. Wow. Yeah.
Wow. Oh, man. All right.
So it sounds like you've had really good growth. Yeah. Are you putting money to the bottom line the way that you want to yet?
[Nathan Ward] (27:54 - 27:59)
Yeah. So we're paying our loans off twice as fast as we were planning to.
[Mike Allen] (27:59 - 28:03)
Yeah. So we're making double payments on it, paying straight to the principal.
[Nathan Ward] (28:04 - 28:04)
Principal, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (28:05 - 28:18)
I'm looking at another year, and we're going to pay off almost $300,000. Yeah, that's fucking great, dude. Then we are stacking money for our Fuck You Fund.
Two fingers to win, motherfuckers!
[Nathan Ward] (28:20 - 28:23)
That's what's going to allow us to take a step back.
[Mike Allen] (28:23 - 28:28)
Like, okay, we can make major changes or buy another shop or do something else.
[James Hornak] (28:28 - 28:28)
Right.
[Mike Allen] (28:30 - 28:42)
And kind of expand. The whole idea, we're trying to take over the world. What's happening?
What is happening? Oh, Braxton. Oh, boy.
Oh, Braxton's got... Braxton, where'd you get that shirt at? Braxton.
[James Hornak] (28:43 - 28:45)
So that's... Some really cool guys that I met.
[Mike Allen] (28:45 - 28:54)
That's very familiar looking to me. You motherfuckers. So it turns out, you can get these shirts in any color you want when you pay for them.
[Nathan Ward] (28:56 - 28:59)
You motherfuckers. We got one for you, too. Yeah, you get your own.
[Braxton Critcher] (29:01 - 29:05)
Ah! No!
[Mike Allen] (29:09 - 29:19)
What are you, two or three XL? I am a... Oh, you motherfuckers.
I have accused every person in the world.
[Braxton Critcher] (29:20 - 29:21)
Oh, my God.
[Nathan Ward] (29:23 - 29:28)
Mike, we did it for no other reason than we could. We threw the idea around.
[Mike Allen] (29:29 - 29:40)
Oh, there it is. All right, now I can take this off because I'm really warm. Oh.
But that was so worth it. I was wondering why you were in a zip-up hoodie, though. Oh, dude.
Well, you've been brutal.
[Nathan Ward] (29:40 - 29:42)
Well, then we walked up to the... Earlier, because we thought we were...
[Mike Allen] (29:42 - 29:45)
Is that why y'all rescheduled for the last one of the event?
[Nathan Ward] (29:45 - 29:47)
No! No, Snoke, what happened yesterday?
[Mike Allen] (29:47 - 29:49)
No, Snoke, you're making me confused. Oh, yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (29:49 - 29:50)
Neither was I. Heavily medicated.
[Mike Allen] (29:51 - 29:57)
So, I have... I think I heard somebody else say it on your podcast. Weapons Grade.
[Nathan Ward] (29:57 - 29:58)
Yeah, Weapons Grade ADHD.
[Mike Allen] (29:59 - 31:10)
So, I'm heavily medicated with Adderall. Because it's a controlled substance, they change the size and color of it, so you can't just hoard a bunch of it. They know about when it came out.
They changed it this last time to the exact same color and size of my sleeping medication. Oops. So, that was where...
I had a martini, jumped in an Uber, and I came here, and I couldn't... I could barely stand. I was slurring my words like, what the fuck's going on?
And I had taken two milligrams of Lunesta. That's fine. I'm telling you, after seeing it, I was like, I am way too drunk for this.
Like, why am I too drunk for this? And, yeah, I got in the car with my wife, and just... It's like kind of the last thing I remember.
I have to take my mic off, because I have to put this fucking shirt on. Please put the shirt on. I was like, why is that door opening so fucking slow?
What is happening right now? You motherfucker. Oh, yeah.
Braxton put it all together and paid for it. With your money. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Who... Oh, my God. Who was the dude that you had handing out shirts Thursday morning?
Okay. We had him do it on purpose.
[James Hornak] (31:10 - 31:16)
So, that's my best friend from back home. He's down here visiting me, and I knew that nobody was going to know who he was.
[Mike Allen] (31:17 - 31:23)
Fantastic. Somebody told me... Somebody told me that he had, like, a Hitler mustache.
He does. Oh, he absolutely does.
[Nathan Ward] (31:23 - 31:25)
I mean... His name's Tony.
[Mike Allen] (31:25 - 31:48)
I don't know that it's on purpose. I think it just goes in all fucked up like that. Honestly, because he's got a full beard, but I was looking at it, too.
I'm not going to say that to the guys. He's bigger than I am. I'm 100% wearing this to the hospitality suite tonight.
Thank you so much. Please do it. Thank you.
I had so many people ask where they can buy one. I was like... And you got the ASTA logo on here, too.
[Intro] (31:48 - 31:49)
I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out for that.
[Mike Allen] (31:49 - 31:51)
Oh, my gosh. Definitely not licensed.
[Braxton Critcher] (31:51 - 31:55)
Well, I mean, they didn't know who did it, right? So...
[Mike Allen] (31:55 - 32:06)
Well, actually, he set everything up, and then we came walking back around like, ha-ha, we got to go grab our shirt. There's a cop pulled up. He's getting out of his car like, oh, shit, we might have to bail out Tony.
We might be in trouble.
[Nathan Ward] (32:06 - 32:06)
Whoops.
[Mike Allen] (32:07 - 32:10)
We got Seth Thorsen walking by outside, laughing at the shirts.
[Nathan Ward] (32:12 - 32:18)
I was hoping to see more of him throughout. I was really hoping that you couldn't go anywhere without seeing one.
[Mike Allen] (32:18 - 32:46)
Thursday morning, my phone was fucking blowing up. I wasn't even here. Because I was still loading in.
Oh, that's amazing. I love it. I was like, oh, I got one of your shirts.
He's like, what are you talking about? Oh, I got one of your shirts. Somebody sent me a picture of it.
I'm like, what the fuck is that? And what I told him was, one, that's amazing. Two, I've never been trolled that well in my life.
And three, who is it? Because I need him on the show. Here we are.
[Nathan Ward] (32:47 - 32:52)
James said that. He's like, I talked to him in the hospitality suite. And he's like, I don't know who it is, but I want him on the show.
[Mike Allen] (32:52 - 33:15)
It's like, oh, ask him. Yeah, when I talked to you Thursday night, I was poking it to make sure you didn't know it was us. I was...
Oh, man. I have cast... I have blamed so many people.
I'd like to think you looked just like that smoking a cigarette with Tanika. Trying to figure out who it was. I was 50-50 on Tanika and Matt Loftin.
So... Yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (33:16 - 33:19)
As nobody expects, the Spanish Inquisition. Right.
[Mike Allen] (33:20 - 33:21)
Oh, my God.
[Nathan Ward] (33:21 - 33:25)
I'm telling you, Mike, we did it just because we could. Yeah. You fucking did to me.
[James Hornak] (33:26 - 33:27)
I wasn't already.
[Mike Allen] (33:28 - 33:35)
And he did a pretty good job of... trying, like, almost accidentally making it seem like it was Matt Loftin.
[James Hornak] (33:35 - 33:35)
Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (33:36 - 33:40)
So, we told Tony out front, I was like, if anybody...
[Braxton Critcher] (33:40 - 33:41)
Oh, wait.
[Mike Allen] (33:41 - 33:45)
I had him use off the scent sometimes. The dude was like private investigator.
[James Hornak] (33:46 - 33:49)
He was interviewing people with a flashlight in their eye.
[Nathan Ward] (33:50 - 34:02)
I love it. I told Tony, I was like, if anybody asks you, say a tall black lady told you to hand out shirts. Put it on Tanika.
My wife was standing there when I said it. She's like, oh, my God, don't do that to Tanika.
[Mike Allen] (34:03 - 34:09)
Well, I mean, she had custom shirts for when she recorded with Lola that said, shut up, Mike, enough from you. I saw those.
[Nathan Ward] (34:09 - 34:10)
Oh, really?
[Mike Allen] (34:10 - 34:15)
And I was like, well, you bought T-shirts for your podcast, you bought T-shirts for this. It was probably Tanika, right?
[James Hornak] (34:16 - 34:37)
For the people that... I think this is on. For the people that aren't going to be at the show, we'll have to strategically release the episodes that you were trying to decide who was...
I talk to a lot of people about it. And then release this one last. Because a lot of people may not know.
And it's fair. They'll be kind of lit in. Yeah, they'll be living the mystery with us.
[Nathan Ward] (34:37 - 34:41)
I'm telling you, we can keep it under our hat and tell them that. There are very few people that know what we did.
[Mike Allen] (34:42 - 34:43)
There are a lot of people that actually know.
[Nathan Ward] (34:43 - 34:45)
Matt's our coach, he has no idea.
[Mike Allen] (34:46 - 34:53)
Nobody knew. The crazy thing is, I was in New York City when Nate called me.
[James Hornak] (34:54 - 35:23)
And we played phone tag for about two and a half days. And finally, I got through to you guys and you were like, okay, so I have a really strange request. And I knew I was about to be in some kind of shady something going on.
I was like, oh no, what am I about to get involved in? You never know when a shop owner calls you and says, I have a really strange request. Usually has to do with feed pics.
That has been one of my strange requests before.
[Mike Allen] (35:25 - 35:28)
We went through a lot of renditions of shirts before we landed on this one.
[James Hornak] (35:30 - 35:35)
Which picture, because I sent you like 15 possible pictures.
[Mike Allen] (35:35 - 35:52)
No, I fed them all into Chad GPT and then I fed into Charlie Davey and was like, can you make this out of mic? And the first one had like 12 fingers and whatnot. I was like, pretty close, now light the cigarette.
One of the first ones, you sent me a picture where he's got like both hands up, you look like you're playing a piano.
[James Hornak] (35:53 - 35:56)
Oh yeah, so you're on like a desk like this, like you're probably like explaining something.
[Mike Allen] (35:57 - 36:02)
But you look... Made this one that was like, what was it, a free Diag and E-flat major. Mike Allen.
[James Hornak] (36:03 - 36:07)
We're going to need all the edits. We're going to need all the edits.
[Mike Allen] (36:08 - 36:10)
Sounds like I'm going to get an e-commerce store and make some money.
[James Hornak] (36:11 - 36:12)
This is business number two.
[Mike Allen] (36:12 - 36:17)
Give him a link to the merch store, you know. Right? Check for the link in the show notes to the merch store if you want to buy your own.
[Nathan Ward] (36:17 - 36:18)
Buy your own.
[Mike Allen] (36:18 - 36:23)
We have them in fashionable hot pink and also in black options.
[Nathan Ward] (36:23 - 36:25)
Oh yes, that's it. That's it.
[Mike Allen] (36:25 - 36:52)
Bigger, blacker, better. Why is that weird? Man, we got them in every size you could think of and I think Tony got rid of them.
He found a body for every shirt. There are not many left. So we absolutely expect retaliation.
Yeah, you got a year to plan, so good luck. Two-year check-in. I'm going to put my balls on your drum set.
[Nathan Ward] (36:53 - 36:59)
Don't you touch my drum set. The weird thing is we have a drum set at our shop.
[Mike Allen] (37:00 - 37:28)
Do any of your team have keys to the shop? Keys and a code? So if I befriend one of your teammates, I could get a photo shoot in your shop without you knowing.
My people are loyal. Uh-oh. Now see, if there's a photo shoot, Mike, I'm not going to be your photographer for that.
Whose feet are these? Whose shop is this? I'm not going to be involved in that one.
Hey, look. You'll know if it's my feet if there's some toe fungus involved. So just keep an eye out for the toes.
If it's clean toenails, it's Brian.
[Nathan Ward] (37:29 - 37:32)
Isn't that Sasquatch123? Yeah.
[Mike Allen] (37:33 - 37:37)
Feetfinder.com. Squishing the cream cheese, baby.
[Nathan Ward] (37:38 - 37:39)
Oh, the blue cheese olives.
[Mike Allen] (37:41 - 38:04)
It was hurting you to not give me any hints. No, it was making me happy because I was hurting you. Man, it was so fun.
I feel like I should thump you in the ear right now. Don't you dare. The next one will be worse.
Well played, gentlemen. Supremely well played. Thank you.
[Nathan Ward] (38:04 - 38:11)
We figured the ASTA got us to where we are. We're a profitable shop now. We can spend the money for a joke.
[Mike Allen] (38:11 - 38:20)
Did y'all talk to Ryan or anybody to get permission to use the logo? Or were you like, fuck it, Walt West. Nah, man.
I took it off the website.
[Nathan Ward] (38:21 - 38:23)
We're like, we know these people.
[Mike Allen] (38:23 - 38:41)
They'll be fine. Public domain, bitches. Worry about it.
If there are problems with that, I was not involved. If you see, it's been changed just a little bit. Yeah.
It is not. It is 8% variation from the original trademark. If there are issues...
This is all alleged. We didn't actually do it.
[Nathan Ward] (38:41 - 38:46)
As a shop that's themed after a beloved movie, we're really good at skirting trademark.
[Mike Allen] (38:49 - 39:13)
Lawsuits. What are those? The fact that you guys could do something like this is inconceivable.
He gets one in. I'll take it. You know, we've had this entire conversation.
We're only like 40 minutes in. Really? Braxton, will you link in the show notes to the original episode where they were on?
People still remember that episode, by the way.
[James Hornak] (39:13 - 39:18)
Right here, you can click on the video to watch episode 1.
[Mike Allen] (39:18 - 39:31)
Somewhere up in one of these. But, we haven't introduced ourselves or your business. We've just been talking like everybody knows.
Bullshitting, that's right. And drinking a gallon of gin while we've been talking.
[James Hornak] (39:31 - 39:32)
It's actually vodka.
[Mike Allen] (39:33 - 39:49)
But, you know, whatever. I don't know. We were sitting there and I was like, man, after we do martinis, what's the next bar we're going to set up?
I'm like, shots. We should do shots. Shots!
[Braxton Critcher] (39:49 - 39:52)
Shots! Shots! Shots!
Everybody!
[Mike Allen] (39:53 - 39:55)
The podcast goes four hours of wasting.
[Nathan Ward] (39:55 - 39:56)
Oh my God.
[Mike Allen] (39:56 - 40:09)
We're going to go Joe Rogan length in here. We're going to start talking about aliens and mushrooms. I can probably find some DMT.
I mean, it's not long before we're going to be working on spaceships. I did have somebody offer me acid last night. That was good.
[Nathan Ward] (40:10 - 40:12)
Who? At the hospitality suite?
[Mike Allen] (40:12 - 40:31)
That's new. I shall not give further details. That's fair.
I politely declined because I'm pretty sure they were fucking serious. Yeah. I mean, acid's not a party drug.
I have moved beyond that stage of my life. Cocaine? Now, we're still recording so that is illegal.
[Nathan Ward] (40:31 - 40:32)
Yeah, it is.
[Mike Allen] (40:33 - 40:53)
Ironically, I joke a lot about cocaine. Oh, look, a police officer. Like, all kidding aside, the thing fell off.
All kidding aside, obviously, I drink a fair amount of booze. I've never really been into heavy drug use. It's never been my gig.
[Nathan Ward] (40:53 - 41:00)
Yeah, I went to rehab seven years ago and I have not touched cocaine in years.
[Mike Allen] (41:00 - 41:05)
Years and years. I've had a role in some employees. Ah, yeah.
Yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (41:06 - 41:12)
Yeah, I mean, it's a lot more prevalent than you think. When you're doing it all the time and end up going to rehab for it.
[Braxton Critcher] (41:12 - 41:13)
It's a yuppie drug, right? Yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (41:14 - 41:20)
It's talk fast and love everybody. It's terrible. It'll ruin your life and ruin mine.
[Mike Allen] (41:21 - 41:35)
I will say that in college, I did, there was like a year where I did a fair amount of ecstasy and it's a good thing that I was broke because it was so goddamn fun. It was fucking awesome.
[Nathan Ward] (41:35 - 41:46)
I can just see you with a shirt that color like light sticks in your hands or the gloves. Oh, yeah. Oh, you saw Dyrone Sandstorm?
[Mike Allen] (41:46 - 41:48)
Yeah. Man, I was about that shit.
[Nathan Ward] (41:49 - 41:52)
So was I. I definitely, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (41:52 - 42:15)
But thank God I didn't have any fucking money because Sure. But here's the thing, right? It's so fun but the next day you wake up and you know that something ain't right and you can feel your brain is not what it once was.
Oh, yeah. I have short-term memory issues right now and we joke about it on the show about how I'm forgetful. I'm 100% believe that my memory issues are a result of my college drug use.
[Nathan Ward] (42:17 - 42:18)
Yeah. That tracks.
[Mike Allen] (42:18 - 42:36)
And my cognitive ability is not what, I mean, I was a pretty smart dude at one point in my life and now I'm just kind of a mediocre dumbass. I feel that. Yeah.
Not because of drug use just because I'm a technician and we're biologically stupid. It's because you've huffed all the brake cleaners. Actually, you know what it is.
[Nathan Ward] (42:36 - 42:37)
I've seen him do it.
[Mike Allen] (42:37 - 42:44)
Yeah, you just do a brake clean until you see rainbows. You know. Right?
I gotta tell my mechanics to stop huffing all the brake cleaner.
[Braxton Critcher] (42:44 - 42:44)
It's true.
[Mike Allen] (42:44 - 43:10)
Yeah, hard drugs, sure, fuck, I used to have a great time but it ruined my life. Well, I'm happy for you that you pulled it out of the ditch, man. That's good.
How long were you in rehab? It was 45 days. Oh my God.
Then I went right back to the same town that I came from. Oh, you got a move, man. I did, I packed all my shit up and I moved to North Carolina.
Good, good. How much does a real deal rehab cost? It's gotta be hugely expensive.
[Nathan Ward] (43:10 - 43:15)
Actually, believe it or not it was the same one that Marshall Mathers went to in Tucson, Arizona.
[Mike Allen] (43:15 - 43:21)
Okay. It was paid for by the VA. So the VA paid for 100% of the rehab.
That's great.
[James Hornak] (43:22 - 43:27)
For once, a veteran gets taken care of. You hear about all the stories where they get screwed.
[Nathan Ward] (43:28 - 43:32)
I couldn't be more thankful. It gave me a second chance.
[Mike Allen] (43:33 - 43:47)
Have you been able to stay clean the whole time since then? No, right after I got out I relapsed. And then it's kind of intermittent for a couple of years and then I found reasons that I didn't found people in my life that made me not want to do it.
[Nathan Ward] (43:48 - 43:57)
I married her and I'm marrying her again on Halloween of this year. So we're doing our big wedding October 31st. That's been good.
[Mike Allen] (43:57 - 44:05)
Well, I'm happy for you, man. That's awesome. Do you find that alcohol is a risky thing to partake in because of that history?
[Nathan Ward] (44:06 - 44:12)
A little bit. Because I do, when I drink, I drink. I drink heavily.
So I do try to stay away from it.
[Mike Allen] (44:13 - 44:27)
The best part is I don't need no more to lie. That was a straight up lie. First of all, the lie detector has determined you're full of shit.
I'm tired. I'm stressed. The test is back and you are the father of that gallon of vodka.
[Nathan Ward] (44:28 - 44:29)
Son of a bitch. I'm sober.
[Mike Allen] (44:32 - 44:35)
If this conversation is not a conversation you want to have right now.
[Nathan Ward] (44:35 - 44:50)
No, no. Almost everybody in my life knows this. One of the biggest things, I don't even know where to head it now.
Even if I had... Because I will get that urge from time to time. But then I look around my house.
I own my house. I've got two dogs that like me. I've got a wife that loves me.
[Mike Allen] (44:51 - 44:52)
To be fair, your dogs like me more.
[Nathan Ward] (44:52 - 44:53)
What's that?
[Mike Allen] (44:53 - 44:54)
Nothing. My dogs like me.
[Nathan Ward] (44:54 - 44:55)
Your dogs like me more.
[Mike Allen] (45:02 - 45:25)
There's nothing quite like the responsibility of your family and other families to give you a little perspective, right? Big boy responsibilities. Well, I'm proud of you for making those choices and pulling your way out of that.
That's good, man.
[Nathan Ward] (45:25 - 45:27)
I'm glad you were broke.
[Mike Allen] (45:30 - 46:32)
I remember the restaurant that I worked at. I was a server. And the head cook was our...
Head cook's always the one. He was the drug dealer in town, right? Every time.
And he would take those one-gallon mayonnaise jars and wash them out. And I went to Appalachian State University. And he would drive down to Charlotte and he would come back with that jar full of ecstasy pills.
Oh my God. Damn. And he dealt to all of the Greek organizations on campus.
Oh, wow. Wow. And so this is like little mom-pop family-owned restaurant that didn't even serve alcohol.
And he's slinging ex out of the back door of that kitchen like you read about. Oh my God. It's like the dinner rush and we're stacked up and there are tickets.
Where the fuck is his name? Yeah. Oh, he's out back packing out little little Ziploc bags full of the frat boys.
Holy shit. And...
[Nathan Ward] (46:32 - 46:34)
Little dinner rush. That's my favorite part.
[Mike Allen] (46:34 - 46:40)
I feel like it was like $8 a pill or something like that. That sounds right. Yeah, and...
[Nathan Ward] (46:40 - 46:43)
So you're probably buying a boat of them by the thousand.
[Mike Allen] (46:44 - 46:48)
Wow. Just like everything you buy in bulk, you get a discount. That's the way it works.
That's business.
[Nathan Ward] (46:49 - 46:50)
That's the Costco of good times.
[Mike Allen] (46:51 - 46:57)
I remember that he was annoyed selling stuff to me because I was buying one or two.
[Nathan Ward] (46:58 - 46:59)
With your waiter money?
[Mike Allen] (47:00 - 47:13)
Yeah. I paid $20 for that. But I'm very fortunate that I came out on the other side for the most part unscathed and you as well growing into a successful young business.
So... Good.
[Nathan Ward] (47:14 - 47:15)
I found most people.
[Mike Allen] (47:15 - 47:17)
You taking it astray and leading them along.
[Nathan Ward] (47:17 - 47:17)
I know.
[Mike Allen] (47:18 - 47:41)
Well, so I've... Alcohol and I have always been good friends. There's some history there but nothing...
Nothing on the same level I would say. But... Yeah.
What's your chosen vice? Alcohol. Still.
I mean, I don't... I'm not dry, obviously. I still drink.
Furious masturbation for hours a day? Damn it. He got me.
Well, it was the pink shirt that gave it away. Really.
[Nathan Ward] (47:42 - 47:45)
The worst part is he likes to use that orange soap that we've got in the...
[Mike Allen] (47:46 - 47:50)
With the hummus? Yeah. Extra friction.
Oh my God.
[Nathan Ward] (47:50 - 47:51)
Cut this whole last five minutes off.
[Mike Allen] (47:52 - 47:52)
A little bit of pain here in the ACL.
[Nathan Ward] (47:52 - 47:54)
He's an exfoliator guy.
[Mike Allen] (47:55 - 48:23)
So many open pores. You should see our pumice stone for the line item on our P&L. It's got like a mushroom stamp in the end of it.
It's weird. I feel like we've reached a point of no return in the conversation. I don't know what you're talking about.
We've had lots of serious adult conversations over the last three days and somebody brings a gallon of vodka to the conversation and it just goes downhill from there. To be fair, it's a good way to end it.
[Nathan Ward] (48:24 - 48:24)
It is.
[Mike Allen] (48:24 - 48:55)
It's the last podcast. You might as well have fun with the last one. Do you?
I was going to stick by and help Braxton pack all this stuff up and ship it out, but no. You're paying him too much. Those shirts are expensive.
To be fair, I was unloading couches and video games and poker tables and coolers and rugs. He's like, none of that is my problem. He's like, he's like, Yeah, but he worked so hard for the money to do this.
I was supervising.
[James Hornak] (48:55 - 48:59)
I was like, put the chaise lounge over there. You had to supervise real hard.
[Nathan Ward] (49:02 - 49:07)
That was the hospitality room I went last year. I didn't go this year. Is it bigger this year?
[Mike Allen] (49:08 - 49:11)
It is double the size this year. So it's not in the same place.
[James Hornak] (49:11 - 49:14)
It's through the bar and the restaurant, behind it. It is bigger. Cool.
[Mike Allen] (49:15 - 49:23)
Stay to the left of the bar and keep going back. You're like, I'm walking through a restaurant dining room. You are.
Keep going. You'll find all of us. Yes.
You're going to find all the degenerates in the back.
[Nathan Ward] (49:23 - 49:25)
You're going to find the guy slinging an X out of the back.
[Mike Allen] (49:25 - 49:56)
I'll be sitting. There are two rooms. There's the ante room and then there's the main degeneracy room.
I'll be in the ante room watching the Formula 1 race this evening because it happened this morning. Where is it at? I think it was in Azerbaijan.
It was in Baku. It was in Baku today. They had to do it on Saturday instead of Sunday because there's some holiday tomorrow.
Okay. It's like a Muslim holiday or something.
[Nathan Ward] (49:57 - 50:01)
Actually, speaking of racing, we had the, was it the president?
[Mike Allen] (50:01 - 50:12)
Speaking of racism? Racism. What the hell, man?
We had a guy with a Hitler stash handing out shirts. Okay, come on. 21.
And a dude on the shirt doing this. I was like, fuck, man.
[Nathan Ward] (50:13 - 50:15)
It's more of a point.
[Mike Allen] (50:15 - 50:16)
It's a full circle.
[Nathan Ward] (50:16 - 50:17)
Yeah, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (50:17 - 50:35)
Okay. We're back. Speaking of races, I apologize.
Speaking of racism, we had the, was it the president of the BMW Racing Club, Raleigh, came into our shop and he's an older cat and he knows, I mean, he's probably late 80s and he comes in and he's like, hey, can you take some tires off of some rims for me?
[Nathan Ward] (50:35 - 50:47)
I was like, probably. And he was asking him on the phone, what are you talking about? He's like, oh, they're this big, they're racing slicks.
Then I see him walk in like, what in God's name are you doing with tires like that?
[Mike Allen] (50:48 - 50:53)
Well, I mean, road course racing is the gentleman's sport, right? It's for older affluent men.
[Nathan Ward] (50:54 - 50:55)
With Miatas, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (50:55 - 51:02)
I mean, Miatas are for the young affluent men. Can we get this picture put on the hood of his Miata?
[Braxton Critcher] (51:02 - 51:04)
I'm thinking I could get a wrap.
[Mike Allen] (51:04 - 51:15)
We have literally talked about doing a wrap with this image on the hood. Already that's been a conversation. I need a high-def image to expand to the postage stamp size of the hood of the Miata.
[Nathan Ward] (51:15 - 51:16)
Oh, you can have all the files.
[Mike Allen] (51:18 - 51:24)
Braxton's got all the files. We got all the other iterations.
[Nathan Ward] (51:24 - 51:29)
Well, that was the last time we talked to him. We didn't tell him what we were doing. He gave me a shout.
[Mike Allen] (51:29 - 51:38)
We just asked for pictures of you, essentially. So when the T-shirts popped up, did you know that it was them immediately? Or did you text him and be like, hey, was this you?
[James Hornak] (51:39 - 51:48)
I did it first. No, I knew it was them. But the image is so different from the original.
I was like, wow, Chad did a good job.
[Braxton Critcher] (51:49 - 51:49)
He really did.
[James Hornak] (51:49 - 51:56)
I was kind of impressed. I don't think his hand was positioned like that in the original image for the cigarette.
[Mike Allen] (51:57 - 52:05)
No, it took the whole Charlie Day meme and then it did that first. I was like, oh my God, I put Free Diag on the back of it and it put it on each piece of paper individually.
[Nathan Ward] (52:05 - 52:09)
I was like, no, I just need it once. With all the supporting data.
[Mike Allen] (52:09 - 52:26)
It's so good. It's better than I even thought it was going to be. And I knew it was going to be good.
This went over so much better than I thought. I don't know how I'm going to do better. I'm going to try.
I'm going to put the A.I. overlord. How do I get back to these sons of bitches?
[Nathan Ward] (52:27 - 52:31)
Yo, we were thinking about a skywriter. We weren't sure how often you were outside.
[Mike Allen] (52:32 - 53:44)
Just a giant cloud dick over your shop. With your name on it. It says, Free Diag with your personal cell phone number.
704 confess. Have you talked about the lady in the class this morning? No.
So we taught a class today with Tanika and Lucas and I and it was, I don't know that we taught a class. We facilitated a large group discussion. Yeah.
But it was really good. And it was an owner's only conversation and there was one non-owner there and she sat front row center. Because we've been, we've talked on and off for a while.
She is the manager of a shop not far from me. So you knew her before? Oh, I didn't know that.
This is the first time I met her face to face was today. We've talked on the phone for a couple hours probably. And she has an employee who is a former one of my employees.
We've talked about managing personalities in that capacity. And she truly thought that Free Diag was a running joke and not a real thing.
[Braxton Critcher] (53:44 - 53:45)
Oh, no.
[Mike Allen] (53:45 - 54:23)
And so one of the topics late in the class like after the mid-class break was new customer acquisition strategies. And obviously it came to Free Diag. And she looked like she was going to get up out of her chair, come over the table and hit me in the face.
Talking about giving away Diag for free. It got a little awkward there. And I had multiple people talk to me about how awkward it was after the class.
And I didn't know it was awkward. I was like, ha, ha, ha. Guess we have one person who definitely doesn't listen to the show.
[James Hornak] (54:25 - 54:39)
And we live streamed the class, of course. I've got it all on video. And when it was happening, about five seconds in, I realized this is going to be good content.
Of course, I got my phone out and videoing from behind Mike's perspective.
[Mike Allen] (54:47 - 55:58)
I might have to get there. don't I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't I don't don't I don't know.
I don't know. games. So i'm good for you.
Ya mama. If you'd like to listen to a full episode and understand the why and the when, check the link in the show notes, bitches.
[Nathan Ward] (55:59 - 56:11)
I mean, with the free diet, we do the $29.99 oil changes, but everyone gets a DVI, and then we sell additional testing if we find, you know, a check engine light that we weren't told about, things like that.
[Mike Allen] (56:11 - 56:12)
That's right.
[Nathan Ward] (56:12 - 56:14)
Get them in the door, that's my job.
[Mike Allen] (56:14 - 56:21)
What's your closing rate? I got $31 and some changes. A $900 ARO and a 30% closing rate?
[Nathan Ward] (56:21 - 56:25)
Oh, yummy. This is strong DVI, dawg. Yummy.
Our DVI tech is on.
[Mike Allen] (56:25 - 56:48)
Thug. So our average discovered services is like $5,300. Average.
If she finds it, she takes pictures, she'll take a video of her, like, hey, this is why this is dangerous. She is our most irreplaceable person. You need to have her on Jeff's show.
Yeah. Which one is what podcast? The Jaded Mechanic.
[Nathan Ward] (56:48 - 56:49)
Okay, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (56:49 - 56:49)
All right.
[Nathan Ward] (56:50 - 56:50)
Yeah.
[James Hornak] (56:50 - 56:52)
Dude, she's badass.
[Nathan Ward] (56:52 - 57:03)
She goes through, finds it, and we use, you know, elite training, coaching. They teach you the 300% rule. It's 100% of the things that you find go on the ticket, 100% get shown to the customer, 100% get estimated.
[Mike Allen] (57:03 - 57:15)
I'm a 250% rule kind of guy myself. To be fair, we don't always estimate everything, but we don't always pitch everything.
[James Hornak] (57:15 - 57:19)
Some stuff that's in yellow, it depends on the customer. It's situation by situation sometimes.
[Mike Allen] (57:19 - 57:49)
The breaks are at 5 millimeters. That's yellow. So it's something that- Hey, next time or the time after that, we're going to tell you you need breaks.
Yeah, usually there's other pressing concerns that, you know, you talk to the customer first, go through- Do you estimate class one oil leaks? No. It's gathering dust.
No. But, I mean, that's not how it was designed from the factory. So if it's noted on the DBI, then you're 390%.
You're 290. 290, yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (57:50 - 58:06)
292 and a half. We've got our own oil leak diagnosis cam job. You go under there, you're going to clean everything.
We're going to dial it in, bring it back. Go drive it for two weeks, bring it back. We'll figure out where it's coming from.
If it's a bunch of oil, don't guess. We're not here to guess.
[Mike Allen] (58:06 - 58:07)
We're here to be right.
[James Hornak] (58:07 - 58:33)
A lot of it depends on what the customer wants. Again, if there's like a big laundry list of stuff, it's a, okay, call the customer, talk through it. Like, these are your major concerns.
We don't have- without pricing first. Like, do you want us to go through the whole shebang list, even the minor stuff? Some of them say yes, some of them say no.
Give me the major stuff first. And you can kind of create a road map of these are the right now things. These are the three months down the road things.
These are whatever, so.
[Mike Allen] (58:35 - 58:49)
Talk to your customers. Like, holy cow, it is. They will tell you everything about them, the car.
Like, make them comfortable. And they'll tell you everything that they- Oh, yeah, Billy Bob was working on it, and he did this and that. Like, I hit something with the car.
[Nathan Ward] (58:50 - 58:55)
Like, oh, cool, now we're getting to the real, like, now I know what happened. Yeah, those conversations.
[Mike Allen] (58:55 - 58:56)
You guys are doing it right.
[Nathan Ward] (58:57 - 58:58)
I feel like you're doing a really good job.
[Mike Allen] (58:58 - 59:29)
I'm trying. You're a year in. You've already got a profitable business that's supporting multiple employees.
You're running an $800 ARO, an $900 ARO. 944, but, yeah. 944.
I digress. If we come back in a year, and I'm, like, wearing a t-shirt with your butthole on it or something, I don't know. What are your numbers like in a year?
[Nathan Ward] (59:30 - 59:32)
3 million. It is. I plan to have that.
[Mike Allen] (59:32 - 59:36)
3 million next year? Yep. In that facility?
Yep.
[Nathan Ward] (59:37 - 59:38)
Oh, I shoot high.
[Mike Allen] (59:38 - 59:39)
Well, you're adding two bays.
[Nathan Ward] (59:39 - 59:39)
You're adding two bays.
[James Hornak] (59:39 - 59:42)
I would say a lot of that depends on if we add two bays. Yeah.
[Nathan Ward] (59:42 - 59:43)
Yeah, for sure.
[James Hornak] (59:44 - 59:48)
If we're not able to do that, because our landlord, he likes to drag his feet.
[Mike Allen] (59:49 - 59:52)
How do you feed the machine and add the cars that you need to get there?
[Nathan Ward] (59:53 - 59:59)
So, man, I went through CDT Automotive here in Fouquay. I went through his class on Monday.
[Mike Allen] (59:59 - 1:00:07)
Thomas is a baller. Oh, my God. Just the way he goes through his pipeline, re-targets these people.
He's 70%.
[Nathan Ward] (1:00:07 - 1:00:13)
It was all people that have been to his shop, and he's not a super old— He said the new shop's, like, a year old or two. It's not old.
[Mike Allen] (1:00:14 - 1:00:44)
You know that his number one technician is one of the guys that I lost last year when things fell apart. That sucks. And he's a great employer and has a great environment.
There's no chance I ever get him back. I still talk to him. We say, hey.
He sends me memes. I send him stuff. You know, whatever.
And the manager of his new store is a former service advisor of mine that I've actually fired twice. Hi, Jenny. What's up, dog?
And he listens to the show, and he's a Miata guy. He gets it. And we're still good.
[Nathan Ward] (1:00:46 - 1:00:49)
Yeah, Thomas has got an incredible machine now.
[Mike Allen] (1:00:49 - 1:00:51)
He runs a really good business.
[Nathan Ward] (1:00:52 - 1:00:54)
There's certain things that he does for his community.
[Mike Allen] (1:00:56 - 1:01:39)
If somebody comes in with a safety concern, and there's absolutely no way they can pay for it, they're just going to drive with their kids in the car? Like, okay, we'll fix it. I love that.
I really loved hearing that from a shop owner. It's not all evil pieces of shit out there. I think most— I think most— I think Thomas will be the next face of Shopvix.
Yeah, okay. You know, Berger is awesome. And I think he's a great CEO.
And Andrews is just a remarkable operator. And he's got that stage presence, that energy. And I aspire to the level of energy that he brings.
[Braxton Critcher] (1:01:39 - 1:01:40)
He's very good at it, yeah.
[Mike Allen] (1:01:40 - 1:01:48)
I also want to steal his lead tech back, but it's not going to work out. I know that you'll get a soft-serve machine in the employee break room. Okay.
[Braxton Critcher] (1:01:48 - 1:01:52)
In a hotdog roll, we're making fresh blizzies every day. How do you fight the soft-serve?
[Mike Allen] (1:01:53 - 1:02:10)
Man, I'm so fucking jealous. I'll get there one day, and one day I'll grow up and be like that. Well, guys, I feel like we're up against the timer.
We might be, yeah. But you're not done with your martini. I will tell you, this is my second martini.
Thanks very much.
[Braxton Critcher] (1:02:10 - 1:02:10)
I know.
[Mike Allen] (1:02:10 - 1:02:25)
And I still have to help Captain Jackass over here pack up and move out. I feel like this has been the best episode I've had the whole show. Maybe it's because you guys are awesome.
Maybe it's because of the t-shirts. Maybe it's because of the vodka.
[Nathan Ward] (1:02:26 - 1:02:28)
No, you're the best, Mike.
[Mike Allen] (1:02:28 - 1:02:30)
Maybe it's Maybelline.
[Nathan Ward] (1:02:30 - 1:02:35)
It's 100% because we're awesome. It's 100% the t-shirts. It's 100% because we got him drunk.
[Mike Allen] (1:02:35 - 1:02:46)
Yes. No. It's called OBL.
Optimal Buzz Level. It's before I have not yet begun to defile myself.
[Nathan Ward] (1:02:48 - 1:02:51)
That's why I keep the breathalyzer, so I stay at home.
[Mike Allen] (1:02:51 - 1:02:54)
I also have removed a certain level of inhibitions.
[Nathan Ward] (1:02:56 - 1:02:58)
Yeah, we got into some weird topics. We did.
[Mike Allen] (1:03:01 - 1:03:03)
I appreciate you guys. Thank you.
[Nathan Ward] (1:03:03 - 1:03:17)
Thank you for giving life. Mike, if we hadn't met you that first go-around, that ASTA barbecue, we'd have never found Elite. We'd have never gotten to this.
Everything directly comes from going to the ASTA and going, we don't know what the fuck we're doing.
[Mike Allen] (1:03:19 - 1:03:29)
From, I'm opening a shop in a couple of months, to a million and a half in year one because of finding a trade association and getting plugged in and being involved and getting a coach. Get a coach.
[Nathan Ward] (1:03:30 - 1:03:32)
That's where you're at. Join your local trade association.
[Mike Allen] (1:03:33 - 1:04:19)
Call Matt Loftin and Elite. Get it done. Yeah.
That's a wrap. That was spectacular. 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.