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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.
Sam Freeman [00:00:00]:
But a lot of shops have an open bay and they just want a warm body. And then once they're able to get something better, they kick them out. And then they wonder why that kid that's been trying to grow his career has a job because he's found four shops in a row that treat him like shit.
Mike Allen [00:00:16]:
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 [00:00:52]:
Okay, so vision KC 2026 in the books. It's done. We've been tearing down the trade show floor for the last couple of hours now. They're almost completely cleaned out. They're pretty efficient at it, so.
Sam Freeman [00:01:07]:
Well, that Tech Metric booth is still up.
Mike Allen [00:01:09]:
Well, you know, you leave the best for last, really, is how that goes. No. So we were just talking about the show, and I always think that it's interesting talking to vendors and people who have booths at these shows about what makes a good show for you guys, versus for me from the perspective as an owner or an attendee or somebody taking training. And now I'm seeing it from your side a little bit more effectively.
Sam Freeman [00:01:39]:
Oh, yeah, because you're an exhibitor now, huh?
Mike Allen [00:01:41]:
Technically, I'm an exhibitor, I guess, Kind of. But I don't get to go to class because you get double duty.
Sam Freeman [00:01:48]:
It's a walk the floor.
Mike Allen [00:01:49]:
Yeah, it's nice, though. It was cool. But talking about some shows have visual cues on the lanyard. So, you know, because you don't want to be, like, trying to strike up a conversation with somebody who doesn't want to talk to you anyway, right?
Sam Freeman [00:02:04]:
Well, yeah, I mean, we've had plenty of those conversations today.
Mike Allen [00:02:08]:
Well, that happens.
Sam Freeman [00:02:09]:
You also don't want to spend a whole lot of time in talking to the person that has zero ability to help engage in any aspect of what you're doing. So for us as a vendor, right, we want to talk to the owners, but we're recruiters, so if we're seen talking to their technicians, it might be a negative thing.
Mike Allen [00:02:29]:
Yeah, yeah, I could see how you could. Somebody sends their whole crew here and half their techs are all gathered around chatting with you guys, trading contact information Might get a little sketchy.
Sam Freeman [00:02:39]:
So to be clear, though, to be clear, the shops that are typically here are the ones that we actually want to support.
Mike Allen [00:02:46]:
Well, the shops that send their guys here, their guys are typically pretty happy and they're not looking to jump ship.
Sam Freeman [00:02:50]:
Exactly. And the technicians, we like to engage and talk to them, though, because they have friends that probably are techs too. So we draw a very clear line. But we're strategic with our line.
Mike Allen [00:03:03]:
That works. That's reasonable. So one of the things we've been talking about. Okay, well, we should back up. I'm terrible about this. Welcome to confessions of a shop owner presented by techmetric. I'm your host, Mike Allen. Introduce yourselves, guys.
Ethan Whidden [00:03:23]:
My name is Ethan Whitten. I'm the sales rep for promotive. I don't know where to look. Am I looking here? Am I looking here?
Mike Allen [00:03:29]:
Me, Whatever.
Ethan Whidden [00:03:30]:
I'll look at you.
Sam Freeman [00:03:31]:
You're better to look at his eyes. Look in his eyes.
Ethan Whidden [00:03:33]:
He's better to look at.
Mike Allen [00:03:34]:
Deep into my eyes. Sultry.
Ethan Whidden [00:03:37]:
I'm the sales rep for promotive. So I go to all these shows.
Sam Freeman [00:03:40]:
The singular sales rep.
Ethan Whidden [00:03:42]:
Yes. So I get sent everywhere. Shipped around like a box, but a good box.
Mike Allen [00:03:47]:
How many. How many shows a year?
Ethan Whidden [00:03:51]:
Probably around 12. It's not that bad. But coming out of college where I didn't do anything like this. It's. It's like, take some getting used to.
Mike Allen [00:04:03]:
Yeah.
Ethan Whidden [00:04:04]:
Especially with Lisa.
Mike Allen [00:04:05]:
Two years in now, one year in.
Ethan Whidden [00:04:07]:
I'm 24.
Mike Allen [00:04:09]:
Yeah, but how many years into.
Ethan Whidden [00:04:11]:
Oh, into all this? About a year and a half. Yeah. Yeah, about there.
Mike Allen [00:04:17]:
Well, God bless you.
Ethan Whidden [00:04:19]:
Yeah. So this has been. This is a cool industry to be in. Like, you can have free conversations and people are genuinely pretty nice. So coming out, I was worried it was going to be like this super uptight corporate y world where it's like, you know, you have to hold your tongue on everything. No, it's great. You can have a real conversation with
Sam Freeman [00:04:38]:
somebody and it's genuine.
Ethan Whidden [00:04:39]:
That's what I like about it.
Sam Freeman [00:04:40]:
I've actually, like, accidentally cussed in multiple
Ethan Whidden [00:04:43]:
presentations in front of everywhere, in front of a lot of people.
Mike Allen [00:04:47]:
You shut your fucking mouth when you're talking to me.
Sam Freeman [00:04:49]:
Yes. Pause please. It's my turn to talk. But it is fun when the crowd actually laughs versus gets offended. But it's my turn to introduce myself. I'm Sam. Sam Freeman. I am the partnership manager with promotive.
Mike Allen [00:05:07]:
What does a partnership manager mean?
Sam Freeman [00:05:09]:
Jesus. Why do you and Lucas ask me the same question? So I manage the partnership.
Mike Allen [00:05:15]:
It's in the fucking name, Mike.
Sam Freeman [00:05:17]:
So you know how we have like a lot of vendors or exhibitors, they are our all potential partners and or partners. We also have all of the podcasts. So like the jaded mechanic that is a partner of ours. So there's a lot of different opportunities.
Mike Allen [00:05:32]:
I've heard this vicious rumor, but tell me, vicious rumor that confessions of a shop owner may become a partner with promotive. Is there any truth to that vicious rumor?
Sam Freeman [00:05:42]:
I plead the fifth.
Mike Allen [00:05:44]:
Write the fucking check.
Sam Freeman [00:05:47]:
I think he's talking to you, Lisa.
Mike Allen [00:05:51]:
So well, so one of the things, like I've got a few different companies that partner with the podcast, but it's very important that I actually use that company and that I can honestly and truthfully promote them from a place of like genuine belief in the service. And so we actually started talking. Was it. Which what event was in January? Was, was it Elite?
Sam Freeman [00:06:21]:
No, Elite was in January. But you were already with us. We had already.
Ethan Whidden [00:06:25]:
We first met at Asta.
Mike Allen [00:06:27]:
Okay. Anyway, I finally signed up. Cause we've been talking for a while. Finally signed up.
Sam Freeman [00:06:32]:
Was it after like Apex and Siemen? Like around that time I feel like.
Mike Allen [00:06:35]:
Well, we talked about, we talked about podcast partnerships and I was like, I don't partner with anybody that I don't actively use. Oh yeah, that's how it happened. Yeah, I was like, no, no, I'm fucking awesome. I don't need help.
Sam Freeman [00:06:47]:
That's my little name.
Ethan Whidden [00:06:49]:
Yeah. What? Need help Or Awesome.
Sam Freeman [00:06:52]:
Awesome.
Ethan Whidden [00:06:52]:
Okay.
Sam Freeman [00:06:53]:
It's in all my neighbors phones. Sam awesome Freeman. I'm not even kidding.
Mike Allen [00:06:59]:
I 100% believe you. Do you put it in their phone that way? Do you take their phone and change the contact?
Sam Freeman [00:07:05]:
I do not. But I have.
Mike Allen [00:07:06]:
Do you share the contact with that in it already?
Sam Freeman [00:07:09]:
No, I do not. I may threaten them in some aspect or like why would you not do that? But I want them to call. I want them to push Siri and be like, call awesome. Like that is the goal of my like neighborhood community thing. It's stupid, but I love it.
Mike Allen [00:07:27]:
That's awesome. See, there you go. No, but I did finally sign up with you guys and I think I'm like, I'm on my second full month now, but I got boom, boom, two really quick hires and then I put it on pause and just went to maintenance and then we turned it back on again two weeks ago.
Sam Freeman [00:07:47]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:07:48]:
And I've had five interviews and I've got another one tomorrow. Not tomorrow, Monday is Saturday right now.
Sam Freeman [00:07:55]:
So it's very important for you to know when your interviews are, I need you to show up.
Mike Allen [00:07:59]:
That can be an issue, I've heard. But no, you know, I think it's like anything else, you know, you get the results you get are directly proportional to the effort and attention and focus that you put into it. And so I was bemoaning some staffing issues to Matt Lofton, who is the director of coaching at Elite, who I do an episode with once a month. And he was like, well, what do you think? Like, for you, the most important thing for you to be doing in your business right now is like, I need to hire tech. He said, okay, well, you're working 50 hours a week, give or take. How many hours this week have you devoted to recruiting if that's the most important thing you need to be doing? It's like, oh, I see where you're going. He's like, no, I'm not around. I'm serious.
Mike Allen [00:08:45]:
How many hours have you go to recruiting? I was like, maybe one. Then you're doing a shitty job. So either get better at it.
Sam Freeman [00:08:51]:
Matt said this.
Mike Allen [00:08:52]:
Yeah, he doesn't curse like that. Right. I'm compressing.
Sam Freeman [00:08:56]:
I have a meeting, I need to schedule them. So I'm going to use these words right back at him. Let's go.
Mike Allen [00:09:01]:
Well, his point was, you know, you need to either do it or you need to delegate to someone. And so that's when I finally called and signed up. I think we talked after, like you were right. We were talked after. After ASTA last year and I balked. And then we talked at Apex and I balked and I finally pulled the trigger. And Stacy's been great to work with and.
Sam Freeman [00:09:29]:
Okay, I gotta give her a different name than awesome. She's wonderful.
Mike Allen [00:09:34]:
She's. We'll work on that. Be thinking. Be thinking Spectacular. Stacy. No, it's too much of a mouthful.
Ethan Whidden [00:09:43]:
Yeah, too many syllables.
Mike Allen [00:09:44]:
Super. No, super Stacy.
Sam Freeman [00:09:46]:
I think Wonderful was great.
Mike Allen [00:09:48]:
I need alliteration, but especially with technicians. Right. So I want to talk about recruiting a little bit because not everybody is going to sign up with promotive.
Sam Freeman [00:10:00]:
But can I do it really fast?
Mike Allen [00:10:02]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:10:03]:
Why did you wait so long?
Mike Allen [00:10:06]:
Because I'm a control freak and I wanted to handle it myself, but I never got around to it.
Sam Freeman [00:10:09]:
And it took Matt saying something to you to realize that you were only spending X amount of time on recruiting for you to open up your eyes.
Mike Allen [00:10:15]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:10:16]:
Okay. Just wondering. All right, we can go back.
Mike Allen [00:10:18]:
No, no, no. There's some judgment there. Suss that out.
Sam Freeman [00:10:22]:
No, no, I legitimately.
Mike Allen [00:10:24]:
The disdain in your voice was clear.
Sam Freeman [00:10:26]:
So listen, everybody in this. I've been in the industry for over 20 years. Everybody in this industry that is a shop owner should be hiring or should be actively attempting to. If they don't have a current need. We have. What is it? The turnover rate is huge. It's outrageous. I honestly don't believe the numbers, but I know they're true.
Sam Freeman [00:10:47]:
It's weird. It's like that. Like, the injury rate is stupid high as well. It think about it. They're, like, bending.
Mike Allen [00:10:56]:
It's like crab fishing in the Bering Sea. It's the next best thing.
Sam Freeman [00:10:59]:
Dude, I had a freaking nightmare that I was. No, seriously. Okay, sorry.
Mike Allen [00:11:04]:
That you were a crab fisherman?
Sam Freeman [00:11:05]:
No, I had a nightmare the other night. It was actually two nights ago. I told Lisa about this, and I was on a cruise in the middle of. I have no idea where. And we were way too close to the. To the land for this. But the. That I got caught up in, like, some weird, like, circle, and the cruise ship was, like, going around.
Sam Freeman [00:11:22]:
It was crazy. It was, like, going, like, around the drain or whatever. Stupid, but that's how dreams go. It was absolutely crazy. All right.
Mike Allen [00:11:31]:
Did you jump out?
Sam Freeman [00:11:33]:
Well, ultimately, so there was, like, multiple ships going around.
Ethan Whidden [00:11:36]:
Maybe you were in the Bermuda Triangle.
Sam Freeman [00:11:38]:
That's what she said. And, like, a whole different way for that. But, like, the other two ships that were in there, they sunk. And then we were, like, slowly sinking. So we did get to jump out of it and, like, swim to the. Why we were so fucking close to the land. No idea. But, yeah, it was crazy.
Mike Allen [00:12:00]:
Sounds very exciting. I'm glad that we had that tangent to talk about your nightmare.
Sam Freeman [00:12:03]:
You're very welcome. I need to get that out, actually. I've been holding it in all day.
Mike Allen [00:12:09]:
Okay. So every shop that signs up with you guys are like, I need an A tech. I need an A tech yesterday.
Sam Freeman [00:12:17]:
Everybody needs them yesterday. Everybody wants an A tech. Everybody actually wants a unicorn. And I'm still working on figuring out where we find them at.
Mike Allen [00:12:24]:
They don't exist. That's why they're called unicorns.
Sam Freeman [00:12:27]:
That's what it is.
Mike Allen [00:12:29]:
I think I can, like the truly unfair, unrealistic expectations that people set out when they describe a unicorn. I've known it maybe five in my life, and that. So trying to recruit for that is stupid. The only way you get that person is by going to events like this and building relationships and they decide to change where they live in the country.
Sam Freeman [00:12:53]:
The only way you get that person is if you build that person, for the most part, somebody built that person.
Mike Allen [00:13:00]:
Well, those guys move around the country too. Like they have families and they. And they get tired of living in the Rust Belt or whatever else it might be and they move. And so some of the best guys I've ever had were moving to North Carolina and, you know, they found us online, found us on the forums or something like that, you know, so. But like, even like a high level and being arbitrary, we gotta say you gotta have a way to categorize skill levels, right? So you can say general service technician, journeyman technician, master technician, diagnostic specialist, whatever. Abc. Like an atec. A standard atec.
Mike Allen [00:13:38]:
If we're going to say that is a competent diagnostician who can produce labor at an efficiency of 100% or better, I think that's a pretty low bar for an atec.
Sam Freeman [00:13:50]:
It's a low bar as long as that person is also not assisting everybody else with diagnostics. Because.
Mike Allen [00:13:54]:
Yeah, not a foreman. That's different.
Sam Freeman [00:13:56]:
Well, I mean, so the leveling of who and what. So I get a lot of people that ask. They're like, I want an atec. Like, okay, well what is that?
Mike Allen [00:14:05]:
What does that mean to you?
Sam Freeman [00:14:06]:
Yeah, and 50% of the time they're like, I want somebody that's able to diagnose and I want them to assist with other people. Like, all right, well that's either a foreman or a diagnostic. A level tech where you're expecting them not to bill X amount of hours. You're expecting them to still be able to do the hours and be able to do that, but they're also going to be diverted to help everybody else to get their stuff done or. I don't know, I said stuff I meant to say. Shit.
Mike Allen [00:14:34]:
You got to get that clear. Well, the next guy might think that an A tech is a dude who can do 120 hours worth of ball joints every week. And they're both super valuable to a business.
Sam Freeman [00:14:43]:
Yeah, the number one thing I typically will try to do. Sorry, Ethan, I keep talking too much.
Ethan Whidden [00:14:47]:
That's okay.
Sam Freeman [00:14:47]:
But every time I do an intake with a client, I clarify exactly what the levels mean to them so that we write up the job ads to align with what they're looking for. Because I can ask 100 people what an A tech means to them, I'm going to get 50 different answers depending on what, where they are, who they are and what they've seen. So that is like the first line is ensuring. And it's also the first line that a lot of prospect shops ask Us is well what's an A level at least from what I've seen.
Ethan Whidden [00:15:17]:
Yeah, well yeah they don't one they don't really know but I think I get to see the front line of it because the first person they talk to from promotive is me and so I think the impulse need is an A tech it's I need this guy now. And then they talk with an account manager like Stacy, Brian or you and they're like well maybe my focus should be more on a btech.
Mike Allen [00:15:38]:
Well if you brought me a tech today and because I've got tech ads out with you right now that was like I hang metal like a motherfucker. I'm going to generate 90 hours of parts replacement as long as you don't give me diagnostics I'm going to give you 90 hours of parts replacement with very low comeback rate every week. That's great. I'm not sure that I can feed him 90 hours right now I can feed somebody 60 hours but I'm not sure I can do 90 hours. So do I need an atec right now? And if you brought me one I'm going to find a way to make it work right. But not everybody needs an atec a diagnostic atec Most shops don't need one because most shops don't take enough high level diagnostic work on to keep them busy doing what they love.
Sam Freeman [00:16:25]:
It's magical though. Majority of our clients need them or they say they think they need them. Exactly.
Mike Allen [00:16:31]:
It's because they're getting their ass kicked and they've got a backlog of cars that are kicking their ass but if they had somebody who was competent they'd work through it pretty quickly and they are having one or two truly difficult cars a week and a half Like a, like a super diag guy he just wants to work on the interesting fun stuff that's a brain exercise and not a back exercise most of the time and most shops don't have the volume to have that many challenging vehicles every week. It's my take. So we all think we need an A level diag guy and I don't think that's the case. Like I could use one A level dyag guy in my business and just bring the problem cars from all the stores to that individual and that would be fine because I have between the stores I have enough real problem cars each week to keep one guy busy probably maybe, yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:17:26]:
I think our biggest, our biggest issue right now is aligning technicians expectations of what they think they are and shops expectations what they think they need and kind of bridging that to identify. All right, you guys are trying to speak the same language, but you're in two different chapters of the book. But they're close, but they're not.
Mike Allen [00:17:48]:
Well, every technician is the best technician they've ever met. And every shop owner is the best shop owner in the country. We are all creatures of Edmund.
Sam Freeman [00:17:57]:
I've been doing this for over 20 years. I honestly think I need therapy for the therapy that I give.
Mike Allen [00:18:02]:
Okay, I need you to give me a story of a ridiculously unrealistic shop owner.
Sam Freeman [00:18:09]:
Oh, I have one.
Mike Allen [00:18:10]:
Okay, sweet.
Sam Freeman [00:18:11]:
All right. He's actually out of California. He's great, by the way.
Mike Allen [00:18:14]:
You know who you are.
Sam Freeman [00:18:15]:
Yeah, you definitely know who you are. He's absolutely awesome. The issue was he wanted an A level diagnostic. And everybody that we were bringing to him, he would ask him a question and they would not answer exactly how you wanted them to answer it, mind you. I know there's multiple ways of answering a diagnostic question. Everybody's thinking process is a little bit different, but he wanted somebody that thought exactly like him, that would go through the exact steps that he would go through. So probably about four months into the process, I had to have a heart to heart with him and say, hey, I need you to look in the mirror. We're not going to find you.
Sam Freeman [00:18:56]:
You're already found. We need you to realize what it is that you need. So I had him take a little bit of a step back and he's like, well, I need help with a dyag. Okay, we're not going to help you with the diag. We're not going to be able to solve that problem because you have so many other things going on. He needed help with the scheduling component of it, like the, the dispatch. He was the one doing the dyac. He was doing the dispatch.
Sam Freeman [00:19:20]:
He was doing everything. So he was doing nothing.
Mike Allen [00:19:25]:
Classic owner who's over involved in the business, who. The business falls apart without the owner.
Sam Freeman [00:19:31]:
So I told him very nicely, you need to sit the fuck down. And I legit had this conversation with him. You need to sit the fuck down. You need to breathe, you need to. What is your number one pain right now? I know I'm not gonna find you a diag right now because I can't get you out of your own head. So what is the number one need to take that off the table? And it was, he needed a shop manager, so he needed somebody that could
Mike Allen [00:19:58]:
help run the front chaos coordinator that
Sam Freeman [00:20:01]:
my sister walks around that shirt all the time. But, yes, that he needed somebody that was able to understand and help run the front, help make sure the dispatching was going correctly so that he can continue the dyad, because that's what he wants to do. That's what he loves to do. And once he was able to get that piece done, then he's like, I actually want a B level. Somebody that can take the weight off my shoulders a little bit on this stuff. Because again, he loves the A level piece of it or the dyag piece of it. So we still haven't found a dyag guy for him. It is absolutely fine.
Sam Freeman [00:20:37]:
But we have a service manager and we have a B level that they all click. And honestly, I haven't heard from him,
Mike Allen [00:20:46]:
like, three months, so he's just put. Put it into maintenance.
Sam Freeman [00:20:50]:
And he put it into maintenance.
Mike Allen [00:20:52]:
So he didn't even fully understand what his needs were. He thought he knew what the magic bullet for him was.
Sam Freeman [00:20:59]:
That's because everybody thinks they need an A level diagnostic tech.
Mike Allen [00:21:02]:
Come on, you heard it here first. You don't really need an A tech. You just need to be a better owner.
Sam Freeman [00:21:06]:
Oh, shit. I did not mean that exactly that way. But you just need to listen to Sam.
Mike Allen [00:21:15]:
Done auto shop therapy with Sam.
Sam Freeman [00:21:17]:
Yes. That's a great podcast. That is a great podcast. And we can drink while we're doing it.
Mike Allen [00:21:26]:
I did have a recording yesterday after when happy hour was open. I was drinking some of that free Bud Light from Endeavor Media in here while we were recording. I thought it would have been awkward to stop and go out and get a refill mid recording. So only drank for the first half of the recording.
Sam Freeman [00:21:43]:
Well, I had a little bit of break before this thing, so I sat and had one of my favorite drinks that I just learned that I love.
Mike Allen [00:21:52]:
What's that?
Sam Freeman [00:21:52]:
A dirty, dirty martini.
Mike Allen [00:21:55]:
So that's just extra olive oil?
Sam Freeman [00:21:57]:
Yep. Olive juice?
Mike Allen [00:21:59]:
Come on.
Sam Freeman [00:21:59]:
Not oil. I would die.
Mike Allen [00:22:01]:
Yeah, it is the best thing.
Sam Freeman [00:22:03]:
So I'm slightly liquid right now.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:05]:
Do you know what you need to try? A Michelada? No. Well, you need to try a meat. Have you had a Michelada?
Mike Allen [00:22:13]:
Yes, the beer upside down in the marg or something like that.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:17]:
It's tomato. It's like Bloody Mary mix and beer. I stand by it.
Sam Freeman [00:22:21]:
Oh, no, that's his nickname.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:23]:
It's. I drink it every day.
Mike Allen [00:22:24]:
It's a great. It's the best. It's like in the morning. It's just how you.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:27]:
Yeah, it's salt, little lime, tomato juice, seasonings.
Sam Freeman [00:22:31]:
I Feel like he's, like, starting a song right here.
Mike Allen [00:22:33]:
Modelo.
Sam Freeman [00:22:34]:
Say that again with a little accent. What?
Mike Allen [00:22:36]:
What?
Ethan Whidden [00:22:36]:
Mandela.
Mike Allen [00:22:39]:
Did anyone beat you at Mario Kart?
Ethan Whidden [00:22:41]:
I took first place.
Mike Allen [00:22:43]:
Did he get the price?
Sam Freeman [00:22:44]:
No, he did not.
Mike Allen [00:22:45]:
Lame. He earned it.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:46]:
I agree.
Sam Freeman [00:22:46]:
No, he did not. He set the bar too damn high.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:48]:
And you know what? There was.
Sam Freeman [00:22:49]:
He's an A tech trying to get an A tech.
Ethan Whidden [00:22:51]:
There was people playing that thing over and over and over. I know there was one guy, he came back probably five times to try to beat it.
Sam Freeman [00:22:58]:
How many times have you played the damn game?
Mike Allen [00:23:01]:
He could have played it.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:02]:
So, yes. But I took a long time not playing it. But then I rejoined with beerio Kart drinking game. With beer and Mario Kart, you can't drink in drive. You have to finish the race. You're playing somebody, so it's typically 1v1. You have to drink your beer and finish it by the end of the race. Goal is to get first place.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:25]:
Loser has to chug it through.
Sam Freeman [00:23:26]:
I've never heard of this the in. In my entire life.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:28]:
It is the funnest, quickest way to get drunk.
Sam Freeman [00:23:31]:
Oh, no.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:33]:
And you're doing it safely because you're not driving actually. You're just, you know, it's a video game.
Mike Allen [00:23:37]:
Well, we're gonna go drink beer and drive go karts in, like, an hour and a half.
Sam Freeman [00:23:41]:
You're going.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:41]:
You're going.
Mike Allen [00:23:42]:
You're not going.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:43]:
I thought I was, and I'm not.
Sam Freeman [00:23:46]:
There is a little bit of a mess out there, miscommunication.
Ethan Whidden [00:23:50]:
I'm pretty damn good at those things. And there's a lot of prideful shop owners here. I would just love to just not
Sam Freeman [00:23:56]:
ever get their business.
Mike Allen [00:24:01]:
So here's the deal, right? I think that I'm awesome at everything until proven otherwise.
Sam Freeman [00:24:10]:
Typical technician.
Mike Allen [00:24:11]:
Yeah, I'm definitely not awesome as a technician, but I don't have the time, money, or skill to actually drive real cars fast. Hence the Miata that I have. This is a lot of fun to drive a slow car fast, but I love me some go kart racing, man. And there's a track not far from the house, so my kids and I go way too often.
Sam Freeman [00:24:38]:
There was, like, a long period of time where I had a season pass for my kids and I. Cause it was inexpensive and super fun
Ethan Whidden [00:24:49]:
to, like a little K2 thing. Like the electric ones?
Sam Freeman [00:24:51]:
No, no, it was.
Mike Allen [00:24:52]:
We have, like, a outdoor one.
Ethan Whidden [00:24:54]:
Gas powered.
Sam Freeman [00:24:55]:
Yes.
Mike Allen [00:24:55]:
Gas is more fun anyway.
Sam Freeman [00:24:57]:
Oh, man. I would those kids up.
Mike Allen [00:24:59]:
Yeah. No mercy, man. Don't Let your kids win at shit, man.
Sam Freeman [00:25:02]:
My kids off. Yeah, no, I'm going to kick your ass as much as I can.
Mike Allen [00:25:08]:
For sure.
Sam Freeman [00:25:09]:
It's awesome.
Mike Allen [00:25:10]:
One of my favorite things to do and actually my wife doesn't participate any longer is family board game night and just crushing their soul on Monopoly.
Sam Freeman [00:25:23]:
Monopoly is such a long game that'll split families.
Mike Allen [00:25:26]:
I love it, man. They always end up in a fight and I'm laughing maniacally, but it's like I need a monocle to wear Just while we're playing Monopoly.
Sam Freeman [00:25:34]:
We do play family board night though. So we do date night, which is we do music bingo. And we also do a game, just my husband and I. And then we also do board night and we also have a friend board night game. We do a lot of this shit.
Mike Allen [00:25:48]:
You're very community involvement, I can tell.
Sam Freeman [00:25:49]:
I am.
Mike Allen [00:25:50]:
You're probably like master of ceremonies in your cul de sac. Is that what you are? Kind of.
Sam Freeman [00:25:55]:
No, they did used to call me. What the hell was the name?
Mike Allen [00:25:59]:
Awesome.
Sam Freeman [00:26:01]:
No, I actually was naveled. Oh, that's the martini. I was labeled as the ambassador.
Mike Allen [00:26:13]:
That works.
Sam Freeman [00:26:13]:
That was awesome.
Ethan Whidden [00:26:14]:
Of your cul de sac.
Sam Freeman [00:26:15]:
Of my block.
Ethan Whidden [00:26:17]:
That's a thing?
Sam Freeman [00:26:18]:
Well, yeah, it was.
Mike Allen [00:26:19]:
I think master of ceremonies is better.
Sam Freeman [00:26:21]:
I mean, yeah, that's cool. But no, listen, my community is fucking awesome. So every single fourth of July we have a major four day party. It's my husband's birthday. Yes, pretty much. It's my husband's birthday on the third and it goes the entire week. And we normally have. So we have a park right in front of us.
Sam Freeman [00:26:43]:
So we have a big water slide. We have slip and slide. We typically will do a. Have you seen the kickball? Slip and slide.
Mike Allen [00:26:51]:
No, but it sounds like a great way to need a chiropractor.
Sam Freeman [00:26:55]:
Well, so far nobody has gotten hurt. These are wood and it's absolutely hilarious to watch. I would probably break my neck but seeing you know, these 40 year old men run and sleep, slide and try to hold my beer while they do it, it's hilarious. So. And what it is is you have your home where you kick the ball, whatever, and then every base is a small pool and you have to slide into it. It's hilarious. But we do water balloon fights. Slip and slide.
Sam Freeman [00:27:24]:
We do the slip and slide kickball.
Mike Allen [00:27:26]:
My brother's. So my, my brother and his neighborhood group of family, he lives on Lake Wateree in South Carolina.
Sam Freeman [00:27:36]:
So they're exactly where that is.
Mike Allen [00:27:37]:
They're not. Yeah, it's in the Middle of nowhere. But they're. So they're not all neighbors, right? On the same street. Right. But they're all on the same lake. So they all come together.
Sam Freeman [00:27:45]:
But they're both something.
Mike Allen [00:27:47]:
Well, they'll. They pick each other's house, you know, each time. But they have the Olympics, the beer Olympics. And so they have all sorts of different games that they play and events they have. And they have a podium and a trophy and the trophies pass from family to family because it's. It's your family versus my family versus their family versus. So it's. It's fvf, I guess.
Sam Freeman [00:28:10]:
Well, we have. In my family, we do a chili cook off every single year. I have not won. And our chili's awesome. They rate it every. Or they. They rig it every time. But it's S M.
Sam Freeman [00:28:23]:
Chili cook off. Sisters and their misters. But there's a legit trophy, an apron, and a hat. It's fucking awesome.
Mike Allen [00:28:31]:
Do me a favor. This year, just go get, like, two gallons of Wendy's chili. No. Pour it into a crock pot.
Sam Freeman [00:28:42]:
We have some level of class in our life. Jesus.
Mike Allen [00:28:47]:
Wendy's drive through. I need all the chili. I'm sorry, sir? I need all the chili that you have.
Ethan Whidden [00:28:52]:
Wendy's chili is like an instant code red.
Sam Freeman [00:28:53]:
This last chili.
Ethan Whidden [00:28:57]:
Instant.
Sam Freeman [00:28:58]:
No, no. On the way.
Ethan Whidden [00:29:01]:
All right.
Mike Allen [00:29:03]:
All right. And break. Now back to you, sir.
Sam Freeman [00:29:08]:
On the way over here.
Mike Allen [00:29:11]:
Come on, Sam.
Sam Freeman [00:29:12]:
I'm working on this.
Mike Allen [00:29:13]:
You got this.
Sam Freeman [00:29:14]:
On the way over here. I'm walking fast. I have short legs, but they fucking move. And he goes, I'm in a code yellow situation. And I'm like. I have no idea what that means. I'm like, what does that mean?
Mike Allen [00:29:29]:
He's gonna piss.
Sam Freeman [00:29:30]:
No. Oh, my God.
Mike Allen [00:29:33]:
What's code yellow?
Ethan Whidden [00:29:34]:
Code yellow. Well, coat. Let's just say code red. You better find a toilet.
Mike Allen [00:29:40]:
It's urgent.
Ethan Whidden [00:29:41]:
Oh, it's urgent.
Mike Allen [00:29:42]:
There's a countdown.
Ethan Whidden [00:29:43]:
And it's not just a zipper. It's pants to the. To the ankles.
Mike Allen [00:29:47]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The sweat breaking out on the forehead.
Ethan Whidden [00:29:50]:
Oh, I was skiing two weeks ago. I'm. I'm about to get to the. The.
Mike Allen [00:29:57]:
Sam's weak spot is poop jokes. Oh, my God. We figured that out now.
Sam Freeman [00:30:01]:
No, the whole situation. Oh, my God.
Mike Allen [00:30:07]:
This.
Sam Freeman [00:30:08]:
My face is. Okay, go. Sorry.
Ethan Whidden [00:30:12]:
Okay. Keep it together.
Sam Freeman [00:30:14]:
I'm trying.
Ethan Whidden [00:30:15]:
I'm trying to take the bus to the. To the ski lift at Copper Resort in Colorado. And on the drive over, I'm like, man, something's. Something's a Little off here. Yeah. I'm like, I'm gonna let a couple, you know. And we're waiting for the bus out front and I'm like, fuck, this is code red situation. I need to find a bathroom now.
Mike Allen [00:30:38]:
Drop trowel on the snowbank.
Ethan Whidden [00:30:40]:
I almost, I was scouting places to. In front of a hundred people waiting for the bus. I was thinking if I get on this bus, I'm gonna shit in front of everybody.
Sam Freeman [00:30:49]:
Okay. I need to bring this back in because I can't.
Ethan Whidden [00:30:54]:
Okay. Long story short, I sprinted to a bathroom and we made it happen.
Mike Allen [00:30:58]:
Sprinting and snowboarding boots, it's.
Ethan Whidden [00:31:02]:
It's not the best.
Mike Allen [00:31:02]:
Better than ski boots. I mean.
Ethan Whidden [00:31:04]:
Yeah, better than ski boots. I'm. I'm glad I didn't eat cuz it would have been probably pretty bad.
Sam Freeman [00:31:10]:
Yeah, you got makeup at this point, my face was bad.
Mike Allen [00:31:14]:
So your weak spot is poop humor?
Sam Freeman [00:31:17]:
No, no, it's not though. It's just him and poop humor that is, oh my goodness, it is the most hilarious thing. But he's just so natural about it. And like I'm used to like Lisa.
Mike Allen [00:31:31]:
It's part of what our body does. Everybody poops.
Sam Freeman [00:31:33]:
I have five kids. I get that.
Mike Allen [00:31:35]:
So here's the thing. Outdated SMS just. They don't just slow you down, they cost you money. And I learned it the hard way. Before techmetric, I was wasting time on inefficient processes, manual updates, back and forth calls with customers. Now I handle everything in one place. Dvi, customer communications, payments, real time reporting, it's all in one page. Since making the switch, my average repair order has jumped from $293 to $916.
Mike Allen [00:32:02]:
And it's not just me. Tekmetric powers almost 10,000 shops nationwide. By the time you're hearing this, it probably will be 10,000 shops, helping them grow and operate smarter. If you're tired of losing time and money to outdated systems, tap the link in the show notes and see what techmetric can do for you.
Sam Freeman [00:32:19]:
I don't know.
Ethan Whidden [00:32:21]:
That's how my family is though. No, my dad's house like that.
Mike Allen [00:32:23]:
No.
Sam Freeman [00:32:23]:
My family is so super. I've never ever, ever, ever heard of any code Yellow. The
Mike Allen [00:32:31]:
I just assumed that was I'm about to piss myself.
Sam Freeman [00:32:34]:
That's what I initially thought. So I was like, oh, okay.
Mike Allen [00:32:37]:
So it's like DEFCON 2.
Sam Freeman [00:32:38]:
Well, I told him, I said I'm gonna run potty real quick. And he's like, oh, I got a code yellow. The. So yeah, no that was awesome.
Mike Allen [00:32:49]:
I'm glad that we brought that value to our listeners. That last three or four minutes is really high level content.
Sam Freeman [00:32:55]:
It was the best ever. Let's get this back.
Mike Allen [00:32:58]:
All right, we're going to reel back. I want to talk about. Let's talk about localized guerrilla recruiting because it's not the stuff that you all do.
Sam Freeman [00:33:06]:
Can I change the topic?
Mike Allen [00:33:09]:
Well, fuck, I guess so. Let's go.
Sam Freeman [00:33:12]:
No, I actually would really, really like to talk about shop owner expectations with vendors and how they forget that we are actually human sometimes and have unrealistic expectations and sometimes treat us like shit.
Mike Allen [00:33:28]:
Oh. I think as much as our forums and groups and everything else are full of shop owners complaining about shitty customers and unrealistic expectations and bad behavior from customers, just as frequently it is shop owners being shitty to vendors and having unrealistic expectations of the vendors. And, you know, God, every week it's on there. It's like, oh, this person approved X, Y and Z and said everything was gold. And then they come to pick it up and all the work's done, and then they want to argue about the price.
Sam Freeman [00:34:03]:
Oh, gosh.
Mike Allen [00:34:04]:
And I guarantee you that you guys deal with that shit. And I know that there are other vendors out there that I talk to on a regular basis that deal with that shit. As an owner, you need to be the customer to your vendors that you want your customers to be to your business. It's do unto others. Right? That's just basic golden rule stuff. But people just don't fucking get it.
Sam Freeman [00:34:27]:
I go by the whole treat people the way you want to be treated, and my son likes to twist it around and say, treat people the way you treat or treat people the way they treat you. I'm like, no, you're fucking ruining this. That's not how it goes.
Mike Allen [00:34:37]:
Well, it can't be treat people the way they treat you because then we'd have anarchy.
Ethan Whidden [00:34:40]:
But.
Sam Freeman [00:34:40]:
Exactly.
Mike Allen [00:34:41]:
I heard someone say, peep, treat people the way they want to be treated.
Sam Freeman [00:34:45]:
No, treat people the way you want to be treated.
Mike Allen [00:34:47]:
Well, what if. What if I like poop jokes and so I always give poop jokes to other people and maybe they might find it inappropriate.
Sam Freeman [00:34:57]:
So, for the record, I did not find it inappropriate at all. I found it absolutely hilarious and uncontrollably. Again, it's coming back.
Mike Allen [00:35:04]:
So how do you combat unrealistic expectations from ownership?
Sam Freeman [00:35:09]:
I mean, it. I think a big part of that is. So what's the number one thing that. I think yesterday Lucas actually mentioned it, or it was David that mentioned it in the same room, actually. But he was like he was losing his over bad reviews.
Mike Allen [00:35:25]:
It's because what he does.
Sam Freeman [00:35:26]:
Yeah, no, his veins were popping out of his brain.
Mike Allen [00:35:29]:
It's.
Sam Freeman [00:35:29]:
Yeah, but he's got issues that kind of brought me back to shop owners typically will lose their mind and just how dare they actually write a negative review about me. We didn't do this. It's not the full story. And then they turn right around, trade a vendor the same fucking way. So I think it all comes back to if somebody have like an open mind, like nobody is perfect. And also understand that if there's a problem, communicate it. If you're not happy, voice it.
Mike Allen [00:36:03]:
So much misunderstanding or unhappy outcomes could be addressed with clear communications and unspoken expectations. Cause so much. I mean, I've been having that conversation all week, this week with multiple different people in my life that I find myself being a mediator between multiple people who are frustrated with each other. And they don't just go talk to each other. They don't establish clear expectations. They just have assumptions and they for whatever reason both come bitching to me. And I'm like, well, now I know your assumption and I know your assumption and those two assumptions ain't the same thing. Why the don't y' all have a conversation? Right?
Sam Freeman [00:36:44]:
I think my favorite one is let's talk about like placements real fast. Okay. This is great. So promotive we do our best at lifting, doing the heavy lifting up front. So we write the job postings, we do the screening. We are trying to eliminate the candidates that are absolutely not worth your time and present candidates that we believe based off of the communication that we've had, that meet your ICP and that we
Mike Allen [00:37:15]:
think are worth you Insane Clown Posse.
Sam Freeman [00:37:17]:
Shut up. Ideal candidate profile.
Mike Allen [00:37:20]:
Okay, copy.
Sam Freeman [00:37:21]:
Got it. But that meet that line, that are worth your time. And then clients will hire them after they interview them. And sometimes multiple crazy ass interviews and then the candidate doesn't work out, it's all of her fault. Whoa. I mean, I feel like most of my conversations now are have some fucking accountability for the process. Here we are doing the lifting up front to give you time and the ability for you to do the screening. You still have to fucking screen them.
Sam Freeman [00:37:58]:
It is still your job to evaluate or evaluate their ability and their skills to ask them questions and fucking see if they can actually do the job.
Mike Allen [00:38:07]:
So one of the things that I heard the other day in a training class was, sorry, I got way too close. Crazy. No, I'm agreeing with you. Completely is. As the leader in my company, it's my job to delegate appropriately. Right. And so I should be responsible for almost nothing. Not I should be in charge of almost nothing, but responsible for everything.
Sam Freeman [00:38:24]:
Oh yeah.
Mike Allen [00:38:26]:
And so I have delegated the initial screening and candidate collection process to you guys. So I'm not in charge of that process, but I am responsible for who I fucking hire.
Sam Freeman [00:38:39]:
Boom.
Mike Allen [00:38:40]:
Right? So it was funny, one of the placements that I had because I placed two with you guys so far. And I think I'll probably end up hiring the dude that I'm talking to on Monday.
Sam Freeman [00:38:52]:
Oh, he's gonna hear this now,
Mike Allen [00:38:56]:
but one of them had applied with me three times already, but I was so inefficient. And my. For whatever reason, my ads work, man. I get a lot of resumes. I got a lot of, A lot of. I think I have like 900 and something profiles on my. Indeed account. And he was in there and he applied three times.
Mike Allen [00:39:15]:
And I had never gotten around to responding to him. I had green, I had green checked him three times and never had a conversation. And so you know what, y' all had a conversation with him. Y' all wrote up his profile you sent me. I was like, oh yeah, I think I recognize that name. No. And so I texted Stacey. I was like, haha, guess I should have called him back one of the first three times that he applied.
Sam Freeman [00:39:34]:
You know what's really funny is I just dealt with a situation where very similar. So the candidate applied to the shop. Shop was slow. Or didn't get back in concert. The candidate, we did our full entire job scheduled, submitted the candidate, got them scheduled. They did the interview and he's like, oh, I've already interview this guy. I'm not going to pay you. Like, are you kidding me? So now the people that.
Mike Allen [00:40:01]:
That is being a shitty customer. That's being a shitty customer.
Sam Freeman [00:40:04]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:40:04]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:40:05]:
And it happens more often than not. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Mike Allen [00:40:09]:
It doesn't happen more often than not. It happens more often than you might think. Most of your customers are great, actually.
Sam Freeman [00:40:14]:
Yeah. I mean, we have a couple of cool ones. Oh yes. No, you're right. I thank you for correcting me. That was also the martini. But no, it happens more often than you think. And it's crazy.
Sam Freeman [00:40:26]:
It happens with people that I'm like, I thought I knew you. Like, I thought we were homies. Like I've known you before the shit.
Mike Allen [00:40:32]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:40:32]:
And I can't believe that's the way that people are. And it's the Whole. Well, you know, we could have found him on our own. No shit. You could have found him on your own.
Mike Allen [00:40:41]:
I could have found the dude that I hired on my own because he tried to help me find him three times, but I never fucking connected the
Sam Freeman [00:40:47]:
dots because you have all this other shit that you need to do so well.
Mike Allen [00:40:51]:
And also, you know what? I signed an agreement.
Sam Freeman [00:40:53]:
I appreciate you. I actually listen initially, like, starting off meeting you, I was like, I don't know, maybe. Yeah, I listen to your podcast. What the fuck?
Mike Allen [00:41:02]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:41:03]:
But you saying that I actually really do appreciate this is not like, not even no bullshit, like, turn the camera. I legit. That means everything to us because we are legit trying to make a change here. We're to trying. Trying to help in an area we know. The number one thing that when I first started off in marketing sales with customer Link back in the day was I don't need marketing. My customers come back on their own. Help me find a tech.
Sam Freeman [00:41:27]:
Now we're doing it, and it's what, like, come on. We appreciate that. So thank you.
Mike Allen [00:41:36]:
Well, tell me more about how awesome I am because.
Sam Freeman [00:41:38]:
Nope, that's ends.
Mike Allen [00:41:41]:
All right, dude, so you've been working. You. You've been working the show circuit now for a year and a half.
Ethan Whidden [00:41:48]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:41:49]:
Was. Was ASTA Expo your first show? No. Okay.
Ethan Whidden [00:41:54]:
My first show. No, my first show was SEMA of 2024 4.
Mike Allen [00:42:01]:
Okay.
Sam Freeman [00:42:02]:
I remember this.
Mike Allen [00:42:03]:
Yeah. What's your favorite show?
Ethan Whidden [00:42:06]:
My favorite show. That's a good question.
Mike Allen [00:42:10]:
It's not a loaded question. I'm just curious.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:12]:
I would say my favorite show experience.
Sam Freeman [00:42:15]:
Oh.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:16]:
Including all of the outside show activities would probably be. No. What shop?
Mike Allen [00:42:23]:
Hackers. Yeah. They put on a good. They put on a good show.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:27]:
Man 1 the show is good.
Sam Freeman [00:42:29]:
Yeah. Dude, I walked away from that show wanting to buy a shop. I'm not even kidding.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:33]:
But also, Nashville is awesome.
Sam Freeman [00:42:36]:
So I forgot about. I was actually kind of.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:39]:
That was a good time. We were hopping around on a little party bus.
Sam Freeman [00:42:42]:
And whenever you're with Lisa, there's typically a party bus following shortly.
Ethan Whidden [00:42:46]:
That's true.
Sam Freeman [00:42:48]:
When you're in Nashville or if they
Mike Allen [00:42:49]:
have party buses in the town where you are, they're. They will be hired.
Sam Freeman [00:42:53]:
Yes.
Mike Allen [00:42:54]:
Note to self, I just like going
Ethan Whidden [00:42:56]:
to any show, though, in general. Like, it's fun traveling because I'm young and I want to go see new places, but I also get to see customers that I'm talking with strictly over the phone. So I had a guy come up today, Keith. He is out In Wyoming. But I've been going back and forth with him for like probably six months. And so he's opening up a new shop, he's building on top of it a couple of apartments for new technicians
Sam Freeman [00:43:19]:
and he's getting real creative with that fucking reload, right?
Ethan Whidden [00:43:23]:
Well, yeah, I mean he's, he knows his area's super expensive, it's wealthy ski town, but it's also in the middle of nowhere.
Sam Freeman [00:43:32]:
Is he? Nope.
Mike Allen [00:43:36]:
You guys know who Zeb Beard is?
Sam Freeman [00:43:38]:
Yeah. I love that long haired crazy guy.
Mike Allen [00:43:41]:
He is a crazy son bitch. But his 70,000 square foot shop includes like six bedrooms for relocating diesel techs from around the country to come.
Sam Freeman [00:43:49]:
He failed to mention that to us.
Mike Allen [00:43:51]:
Well, they come. They can. They come and they can. Well, the concept was that they could come and live there on his dime for 90 days, six months to figure out if they wanted to one work for him, if he wanted them to work for him and then move. And so it's like an extended working interview because if they're dumbass, they haven't picked up their whole life and moved to the other side of the country or to the middle of the country. So I thought that was pretty creative solution for a problem of being a specific skill specialist in a market that doesn't draw a ton of human beings, you know. Where is he? Southern Arkansas? Yeah, something like that.
Sam Freeman [00:44:32]:
Yes. Question.
Mike Allen [00:44:35]:
Diesel Jesus is his name.
Sam Freeman [00:44:38]:
He has like this long like golden, dirty blonde hair actually. Why is he not here?
Mike Allen [00:44:46]:
I don't know. He's coming to ASTA Expo. I think he's going to tools either of those.
Sam Freeman [00:44:51]:
That's his job. Question, when you travel to these events, do you do like anything like outside? Like crazy because people for me. I'll set you up. I've done a lot of these shows over the years and everybody's like, oh my God. Like you get to travel all over the world, like all over the US and Canada, Mexico a lot crazy. And you can see all these things. I am airport, location, hotel, convention, airport, like party bus. That's typically only in Nashville and Vegas.
Sam Freeman [00:45:25]:
If it's not for Lisa, my ass is staying there. Like I don't go out and adventure. But he seems to do that type of stuff. Do you? I know he's young. I was young when I started this shit. You'll look like this.
Ethan Whidden [00:45:38]:
But I can't do it.
Mike Allen [00:45:39]:
At when I was in my 20s and 30s, I did absolutely. Yeah. Wow. But like at, I don't know, at SEMA last year we took a day Vegas Is different. Yeah. We took, we went out into the desert and rented side by sides and went tearing across the desert with a bunch of us. And that's.
Sam Freeman [00:45:54]:
Next time you do that, I want to go.
Ethan Whidden [00:45:56]:
Fantastic.
Mike Allen [00:45:56]:
It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I think Jeff Compton thought he was going to die because I was driving
Sam Freeman [00:46:02]:
the one that we were and he,
Mike Allen [00:46:05]:
he looked like he was regretting his choices to get him get. Get in the side by side with me.
Sam Freeman [00:46:10]:
So I would love to do that.
Mike Allen [00:46:12]:
It was a lot of fun.
Sam Freeman [00:46:13]:
Put that on the list.
Ethan Whidden [00:46:13]:
Yeah. I was about to say I was thinking paintball.
Sam Freeman [00:46:16]:
Oh, I would do that too. I am basically a dude, but a chick when it comes to that stuff.
Ethan Whidden [00:46:22]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:46:23]:
I mean, hey, you just identify however you want to identify. Girls. 20, 26.
Sam Freeman [00:46:27]:
No. Okay. So I had a take. I'm in California, don't hate me. I identify with a toaster, but stay
Mike Allen [00:46:36]:
away from the bathtub.
Sam Freeman [00:46:38]:
No, but I had to take sexual harassment training. That's it. You have to do that every year. It's like you forget. And this time it like walked me through. Like how people dress is how they identify how they, their pronouns is. Elliot. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm confused.
Sam Freeman [00:46:59]:
I walked away more confused because I dress like a dude 90% of the time. I'm like, what am I? I asked Lisa. I'm like, what am I?
Mike Allen [00:47:07]:
You're stupid. Sup, dude?
Sam Freeman [00:47:08]:
Sup, dude?
Mike Allen [00:47:09]:
Fist bump.
Sam Freeman [00:47:10]:
Yeah, gotcha. Elbow something with fist bump. I can create shit too. Oh my Jesus.
Mike Allen [00:47:20]:
You gonna want some editorial input on this one or we're just gonna go raw doggin it? Just straight up put it out there.
Sam Freeman [00:47:25]:
No, no, I want you to fix all that.
Mike Allen [00:47:28]:
Fix it all, please.
Sam Freeman [00:47:31]:
Fix it all.
Mike Allen [00:47:32]:
All right. One of the things that. Two of my main points of frustration with hiring and the. I think it's turning. I think the pendulum is swinging back because the market's changed a little bit and technician supply is coming back, back closer to demand a little bit. Now there are more guys on the market. Maybe that just always happens. January, February, because a lot of markets slow down.
Sam Freeman [00:47:56]:
It's a peak and valley on that one.
Mike Allen [00:47:59]:
Ghosting interviews or accepting the offer and ghosting the job and taking the offer letter as leverage to get a raise and stay where you're. Where you're at. I've gotten so many dudes big ass raises to stay where they are. And in the interview process, I'm like, well, why are you looking? Oh, they're, they're unfair. With their dispatch or, you know, the owner is asking me to do unethical shit or, you know, this guy's an asshole, or, you know, this guy doing drugs at work or whatever, you know, and Suddenly they get $7 an hour more and that shit's not a problem anymore.
Sam Freeman [00:48:32]:
They magically have.
Mike Allen [00:48:34]:
So is. Was all this stuff a problem or were they fucking lying and they just want more money? I think they.
Sam Freeman [00:48:40]:
Yeah, well, I feel like there's a combo there. I feel like a lot of times when. At least with us. Because one of our questions is, you know, why are they leaving? And we drill into it a little bit more and they forget that money isn't solving. They forget about their problem on why they originally were wanting to leave because they dangled some more cash in front of them. So magically it made all that other shit. Disappointed. Disappear.
Sam Freeman [00:49:05]:
But come full circle, they might be back on the hunt again in a year because the same shit's happening and it's still frustrating.
Mike Allen [00:49:15]:
But then they're hesitant to apply with me again because they know they. Me.
Sam Freeman [00:49:19]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:49:19]:
With a no call, no show. Right.
Sam Freeman [00:49:21]:
Well. And they.
Mike Allen [00:49:22]:
And I pulled my ad down and checked with them and got their uniform sizes and you know, arrange for the toolbox move. And then they call me 24 hours before or text me or we should
Sam Freeman [00:49:32]:
line all those guys up and hit them with paintballs. I think that that is an appropriate F150s. No, no, no, no.
Mike Allen [00:49:40]:
What? No,
Sam Freeman [00:49:43]:
like long term damage versus F150s with paintball nuts.
Mike Allen [00:49:47]:
No drive by in an F150 shooting in the.
Sam Freeman [00:49:50]:
That's getting better. That's getting better. No, I think it's. We all have to fix this. It's not going to fix overnight. I mean, realistically, if I was to go talk to a competitive company, I don't even know who the fuck that would be, but I would go talk to a competitive company and put my fillers out there and they offer me. If money was the only thing I was looking for, I'd bring it back to my existing company and be like, hey, put myself on the market. This is where I'm at.
Sam Freeman [00:50:19]:
I've gotten a raise like that before. Now I was.
Mike Allen [00:50:22]:
I feel like Lisa would be like deuces.
Sam Freeman [00:50:24]:
No, I don't think so.
Mike Allen [00:50:25]:
Get the out.
Sam Freeman [00:50:26]:
I'm Sam.
Ethan Whidden [00:50:28]:
She loves Sam too much.
Sam Freeman [00:50:30]:
Yeah. And no, I think I bring a lot more value than that. Deuces.
Mike Allen [00:50:35]:
But I think you would also just go and ask if you felt like you needed.
Sam Freeman [00:50:39]:
I would, Yeah, I would. But again, it's not the money that typically, I think, is pushing people away. It is all the. The things that lead up to it. It's feeling. Feeling not valued. It's feeling not appreciated. It's feeling, you know, like being talked to.
Mike Allen [00:50:53]:
Like, you're a dog at work. That happens so much. It's crazy.
Sam Freeman [00:50:56]:
I mean. Yeah. And being somebody said something, I don't even know who the hell it was, but they're like, if you're not running, then you're not worth it. Like, if you're not running in their shop, then you're. You're done. Like, you're. What the fuck? I'm not on a treadmill a goddamn day. I'm good.
Sam Freeman [00:51:14]:
Like, that's stupid.
Mike Allen [00:51:15]:
Two of the meetings that I've had with Lisa, she was actively on a treadmill while we were in meeting.
Sam Freeman [00:51:19]:
No, she is on a treadmill all the fucking time. And then now she's a gimp, so she can't do that.
Mike Allen [00:51:26]:
All right, so now I'm fired. I do want to. I do want to say devil's advocate, because if. If I give air time to bitching about technicians being dishonest and accepting a job offer and then using it as leverage and not showing up for the job job.
Sam Freeman [00:51:40]:
Right.
Mike Allen [00:51:41]:
I think there's probably equally as frequently shops that promise the world and are straight up full of shit about what they're actually offering for their technicians that.
Sam Freeman [00:51:53]:
Oh, dude. Yes. But that is a big part of it as well. I mean, there's so much accountability that needs to go on both sides of all of these things, on everything. But I talk to shops all the time and I'm like, oh, I see. Got a job ad up just randomly. It's for this. But you told us that it was for this.
Sam Freeman [00:52:13]:
And yeah, I just post the job ad like that because it gets more like. It's the pay structure. So they have it flat rate with us, and they're offering hourly, and it's like hourly with a guarantee just to get applicants in. What the fuck? Like, you don't have to lie.
Mike Allen [00:52:31]:
Yeah. Let you put that ad out and see what you get.
Ethan Whidden [00:52:34]:
Right.
Sam Freeman [00:52:35]:
Oh, my goodness.
Mike Allen [00:52:35]:
They're gonna pay you if you get them the hard one. A pure flat rate unicorn.
Sam Freeman [00:52:41]:
It is outrageous. But, yeah, no, it's on both sides. And that's. I mean, I go to the job hoppiness. I have a lot of shops that are. They're like, oh, well, you know, I don't want anybody that's job hoppy. Okay, well, that's wonderful. 50% of the time it's the shop.
Sam Freeman [00:52:57]:
50% of the time it's candidate. And let's not forget that a lot of shops, a lot of shops are shitty. Well, no, not even that, but a lot of shops have an open bay and they just want a warm body. And then once they're able to get something better, they kick them out. And then they wonder why that kid that's been trying to grow his career has a job because he's found four shops in a row that treat him like shit.
Mike Allen [00:53:19]:
It absolutely is a thing. So I used to be one who would see somebody that's worked at four places in two years and be like, my, it's a red flag. Yeah, it's a yellow flag. You got to find out why, have a conversation.
Sam Freeman [00:53:32]:
There's a story there.
Mike Allen [00:53:34]:
Yeah, but if you know a yellow
Sam Freeman [00:53:36]:
flag or a yellow code.
Ethan Whidden [00:53:37]:
Yellow flag, Yellow flag. Yeah. We just talked to the guy at the dinner table. He had 10 years of experience, nine different places he was working with, but none of them were really his fault. Like they were all seasonal. He moved, he had a girlfriend. Like, it wasn't a bad tag, it was a great communicator.
Sam Freeman [00:53:53]:
Always stories behind it. I will not allow one of my clients to reject a candidate for job. Hoppiness is your only fucking reason. You will talk to them. Even if the phone interview, even if it's 10 minutes, I need you to talk to them.
Mike Allen [00:54:08]:
So the initial call screening process. So when I get, when you, when Stacy sends me a candidate and there's the write up profile and then there's the resume that you have created for forum. Is that call screening done by a human or are they filling out a form or talking to an AI for you?
Sam Freeman [00:54:26]:
It is done by a human.
Mike Allen [00:54:27]:
Okay.
Sam Freeman [00:54:29]:
Because absolutely love my AI though.
Mike Allen [00:54:31]:
Who is for that screener, that initial screener? I mean, they talk to 20 people a day, I would imagine to create those profiles, to submit them to different customers. There's some dudes that just straight up fucking lie. And I know that they know that they're talking to a liar, but they can't be like, this bro's a liar.
Sam Freeman [00:54:54]:
Well, sometimes they will dig deep and ask the questions, but there's that thin line of they need to take the information and kind of convey it because they don't know everything.
Mike Allen [00:55:06]:
Well, every single technician resume that I've gotten, not just from you, but for me personally, says I keep a very clean and organized and neat workspace. There are technicians out there that keep a very clean and organized and neat workspace. It ain't all of them.
Sam Freeman [00:55:24]:
I mean, maybe we should ask on the frequency that they clean their. Their toolboxes and their. Their tools.
Mike Allen [00:55:30]:
How often do you organize and put away your tools?
Sam Freeman [00:55:31]:
How often? Do you think that's a better question than just you keep it or. Cuz yeah, the day that I start is fucking clean and organized, but.
Mike Allen [00:55:40]:
Hey, it's me, Mike's kid. Want to tell us your wild shop stories? Or maybe you just think my dad's totally wrong. Call us at 704 confess and leave a message. You can tell us we're awesome or you can tell us we're idiots. We're cool either way. That's 704 confess. Just don't make it too weird.
Sam Freeman [00:55:58]:
I mean, even for me, my desk, I have to clean it every so often because at the end of the week, shit's everywhere.
Mike Allen [00:56:07]:
So I've got an advisor ad out, and there was a candidate, and Stacy was like, hey, what do you think of that candidate? I was like, no, I pass. She said, well, you didn't even talk to him. Why are you passing?
Sam Freeman [00:56:17]:
I was like, well, I'm happy she said that, by the way.
Mike Allen [00:56:21]:
Yeah, she'll push back. I said, well, if you do the math on the number of cars that he says he writes per day and what he says his average repair order is a day, that means that he's doing $300,000 of revenue a month and he wants to make $60,000 a year. He's a fucking liar.
Sam Freeman [00:56:41]:
I mean, damn, he's undervaluing himself. Those are the numbers.
Mike Allen [00:56:45]:
No, he's a liar.
Sam Freeman [00:56:46]:
I know.
Mike Allen [00:56:46]:
Yeah, he's probably not a liar. He's probably ignorant.
Sam Freeman [00:56:49]:
Well, I feel like he doesn't. I mean, math. The math a little bit here. Like, I mean, I enjoy when I see a technician that can build 200,000 or 200 hours, and I'm like, so are you working? Is that one week or two weeks? I'm curious. And what type of work is that? Like, are you just seeing brake jobs constantly and that's all you're doing? You're just able to bust that shit out? Like, what is it?
Mike Allen [00:57:12]:
Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think
Sam Freeman [00:57:16]:
for liars.
Mike Allen [00:57:17]:
Yeah, I probably still have. I think you need to do lithograph. Is that the lie detector test? I mean, you need to fly out and do a lithograph with every candidate.
Sam Freeman [00:57:27]:
I also think we should do a blood test. I also think that we should see if they have platelets that are fine.
Mike Allen [00:57:32]:
You Know, I love how they all say, yes, I'm cool with the drug test, and then they come in and it smells like a dispensary.
Sam Freeman [00:57:39]:
You know what's funny, though, is we're
Mike Allen [00:57:41]:
not in California, dog. This shit ain't legal here. I can't wait till it is. But it's not yet. Right?
Sam Freeman [00:57:47]:
So the way that we frame those questions, because we don't do the drug test, we don't do the background checks. We don't. But we ask, you know, if you were to do a drug test, is
Mike Allen [00:57:58]:
there anything that they should be aware of?
Sam Freeman [00:58:00]:
Anything they should be aware of. If you do a background check, is there anything we should be aware of? And we remind them that this is typically a second chance industry. And if you're forthcoming with stuff, typically, it's going to be fine if you are a fucking liar. Okay, we don't say that part. But if you are a liar and they find out or it comes out later, the, oh, I didn't know is not going to fly. A lot of times that type of conversation gets the truth out. Like, we've had some crazy stuff. I'm like, oh, I'm rejecting him because I don't agree with him at all.
Ethan Whidden [00:58:30]:
Yeah, but also, we're not the shop owner. Yeah, right.
Mike Allen [00:58:35]:
Well, I mean, a lot of the shop owners have had arrest histories and have had.
Sam Freeman [00:58:39]:
This is a bigger second chance industry.
Mike Allen [00:58:40]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:58:41]:
I mean, we typically draw the line on pet pedophiles. And.
Mike Allen [00:58:46]:
Yeah, I think sex crimes is probably the.
Sam Freeman [00:58:49]:
The number one is.
Mike Allen [00:58:50]:
The one that is a. Is a killer.
Sam Freeman [00:58:53]:
So you might have to filter that one out too. No, but, yes. I mean, you have the sex crimes
Mike Allen [00:59:01]:
and you also have, like, order out against you if you have a restraining order out against you or you've. If you're a registered sex offender. I think that probably might pretty much precludes you from employment.
Sam Freeman [00:59:12]:
Yeah, I think you.
Ethan Whidden [00:59:13]:
You can't go 100ft from a school. Yeah. It's a good reason.
Sam Freeman [00:59:16]:
There's a red flag or a yellow flag.
Ethan Whidden [00:59:18]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:59:18]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:59:20]:
I'm never gonna get over that with the flags.
Mike Allen [00:59:23]:
Always with the codes and the flags.
Sam Freeman [00:59:24]:
Codes and the flags. I literally am gonna have a hard time with this.
Mike Allen [00:59:27]:
All right, so what is the easiest position for you guys to fill right now?
Ethan Whidden [00:59:32]:
Ooh, probably service advisors. Right. We're cranking through those.
Mike Allen [00:59:35]:
I think that's the easiest to get candidates for.
Sam Freeman [00:59:37]:
That's for sure. I would actually say a solid B tech is pretty legit.
Mike Allen [00:59:41]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [00:59:42]:
The hardest isn't a diagnostic A level European tech, that is the hardest. I don't think there's actually that many out there.
Mike Allen [00:59:49]:
So unicorns are unicorns for a reason. But if our listeners are looking for an experienced service advisor or a good journeyman btec, then y' all can probably help them out pretty quick, depending upon. I mean, if they're in the middle of nowhere and they're in a town of 500.
Ethan Whidden [01:00:05]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [01:00:05]:
I mean, if they have realistic expectations and they have decent pay and we can work on it. But if they want somebody yesterday and they live in the boondocks and they pay shit, don't call us.
Mike Allen [01:00:14]:
So I'm in a mid major market, Raleigh, North Carolina. Right. And pretty good quality of living. Pretty good. It's a desirable place to be. I'm in a really healthy, good market. What do you think a journeyman B level technician in a market like that should be? What's the total compensation package I typically
Sam Freeman [01:00:38]:
see on that would be about. What is it probably about 30 to 40 on, and that's that range, depending. There's all those extra qualifiers in between.
Mike Allen [01:00:48]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [01:00:48]:
So either a 30 to 40 on a flat rate or 30 to 40 on a hybrid production.
Mike Allen [01:00:53]:
What's the highest that you've had a client offer for a unicorn and Diagtech?
Sam Freeman [01:00:58]:
65 an hour, flat rate.
Mike Allen [01:01:00]:
There's places that are paying that easy.
Ethan Whidden [01:01:02]:
I've heard 75.
Sam Freeman [01:01:03]:
Listen, we don't have everybody. I'm talking about my own client base.
Ethan Whidden [01:01:06]:
Okay.
Sam Freeman [01:01:07]:
I mean, I can go do some numbers for you.
Mike Allen [01:01:08]:
I'm seeing. I'm seeing 70. I'm seeing 75 for like true savant type guys.
Sam Freeman [01:01:13]:
I'm. Listen, making 200k is not unrealistic at that level.
Mike Allen [01:01:20]:
Yeah, well, you said. I mean, you got to be. It's gonna be easier for you to do your job if our listeners are building an environment that's a nice place to work with good benefits.
Sam Freeman [01:01:30]:
Yeah. And they're responsive and they know how to communicate.
Mike Allen [01:01:32]:
It's clean and has good lights and
Sam Freeman [01:01:35]:
good flooring, so you can actually see shit you drop. That'd be a great one, too.
Ethan Whidden [01:01:38]:
You would be surprised at how many shop owners don't know what to pay their guys. Oh, yeah, I get it. Almost. Probably on 50% of my calls that I take on all my demos, they're
Mike Allen [01:01:48]:
like, what do you typically, you know,
Ethan Whidden [01:01:50]:
what do you typically pay a B tech or what does an A tech go these days?
Sam Freeman [01:01:52]:
I'd rather have somebody admit that they don't know what to pay and take the advice from People that have the data in front of them versus somebody that is just hard set on not wanting to pay the average market. I think there's somebody in Washington that pays their A level tech less than 30 bucks an hour. It's like, are you kidding me right now? Maybe it's like 32.
Mike Allen [01:02:16]:
Can I get that guy's name?
Sam Freeman [01:02:19]:
I don't know. I will not. I gave you a state that's close enough. Go and figure it out.
Mike Allen [01:02:25]:
Yeah, yeah. If you're an A tech in Washington making $32, call me. I'll move you, you know, to North
Sam Freeman [01:02:34]:
Carolina where it's beautiful in the state. I actually do think it is beautiful there.
Mike Allen [01:02:38]:
It is. It's a great place.
Sam Freeman [01:02:39]:
First time I went to, to North Carolina I was working and a different industry for all of five seconds. And which industry?
Ethan Whidden [01:02:47]:
Yeah, what?
Sam Freeman [01:02:48]:
Oh, I was trying to fix the school industry.
Ethan Whidden [01:02:51]:
Oh.
Sam Freeman [01:02:51]:
And so I was working with school districts and software or. Yeah, it was software.
Mike Allen [01:02:56]:
Yeah.
Sam Freeman [01:02:57]:
And I was working with like superintendents and all the things I'm like, this is the most corrupt industry. You think the automotive industry is bad? No.
Mike Allen [01:03:07]:
And the school system in North Carolina is terrible. Terrible.
Sam Freeman [01:03:09]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [01:03:10]:
No, terrible.
Sam Freeman [01:03:11]:
Listen, I dealt with North Carolina and
Mike Allen [01:03:15]:
the teachers don't get paid. I mean it's the is.
Sam Freeman [01:03:18]:
There was a reason I was trying to go and save the world. But I mean that entire place, you
Mike Allen [01:03:22]:
saw how the sausage was made, you were like, this is beyond saving.
Sam Freeman [01:03:25]:
I was. I did not feel safe traveling by myself as a grown ass adult with a bunch of those superintendents. A hotel that is dead. Honest truth. Oh, and I'm a scrapper. I'm one of seven kids. I will take automotive shop owners and technicians any day over the superintendent power
Mike Allen [01:03:48]:
tripping TSA slime balls.
Sam Freeman [01:03:50]:
Like it. Literally, that makes my skin crawl. I'm not.
Mike Allen [01:03:54]:
Name name girls, give me counties, I'm about it. No, you can't do that.
Sam Freeman [01:03:59]:
Like I was that close. But no, I feel like it's all of them. Like it's not fun, it's bad. They do not. I think the biggest part is, is like what I value about our industry is we give a shit. Like majority of shop owners decided to become a shop owner because they cared and they wanted to do something.
Mike Allen [01:04:22]:
Well, they wanted to do it right because they worked for places that they thought weren't doing it right.
Sam Freeman [01:04:26]:
Correct. I don't feel that the educational system gives a shit like that.
Mike Allen [01:04:33]:
The educators when they become teachers.
Sam Freeman [01:04:35]:
I'm not talking about the teachers.
Mike Allen [01:04:36]:
They want to do it right.
Sam Freeman [01:04:37]:
Higher up.
Mike Allen [01:04:38]:
And the ones that matriculate upwards, like the ones with the truest heart. See how ugly it is? And they, like, the turnover rate is super high, Right?
Sam Freeman [01:04:47]:
Yes.
Mike Allen [01:04:48]:
And the ones who get to that level, they're politicians.
Sam Freeman [01:04:50]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [01:04:51]:
And also not a fan. And politician is super desirable field, you know, 100, remember? Okay. I'm older than you guys, but when I was growing up, it was a thing to be like when I grew up. I want to be the president.
Sam Freeman [01:05:08]:
Oh, yeah.
Mike Allen [01:05:09]:
My kids said that I'd smack him. I don't. I don't. I'm not. I'm not advocating for beating your kids, but if there was a reason to beat your kids, as if they wanted to be the president. Oh, my God, what a disaster.
Sam Freeman [01:05:22]:
Might have to filter that one out, too.
Mike Allen [01:05:24]:
Should we talk about religion also while we're at it? Let's just fucking cover them all. Okay. So what's next for you guys?
Ethan Whidden [01:05:34]:
Oh, boy. Ate.
Sam Freeman [01:05:37]:
Yeah, he's going to Ate. I'm going to ati, but in between that, I'm going to LA for a cheer comp for my daughter, A stunt comp for my. My daughter. So I'm really excited about that.
Mike Allen [01:05:46]:
Nice. My brother's wife is the cheer coach at their school, and his daughter is now in ninth grade on the varsity squad.
Sam Freeman [01:05:58]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [01:05:59]:
And they've won states for the last three years with her as the coach. So she's very proud of her cheer team. Good job, Desiree.
Sam Freeman [01:06:07]:
Wonderful job, Desiree.
Mike Allen [01:06:09]:
Yes.
Sam Freeman [01:06:09]:
Now I am going to boast about my daughter really fast. So two weeks ago, we were in Vegas for nationals, so she came home with two national titles, so. With her cheer comp team. And they were also level champs, and they also came home for. With a national title for their stunt group, which my daughter is their main base on.
Mike Allen [01:06:31]:
Wow.
Sam Freeman [01:06:33]:
They just did awards on Wednesday. I came here, so the traveling world, you missed some core things that I'm not the biggest fan of, but I have a very amazing group of a community that I help run.
Mike Allen [01:06:44]:
No, I can see you being a cheer mom for sure.
Sam Freeman [01:06:47]:
I'm 100% a cheer mom. I cheered and I coached. I also wrestled, so that's. But so she won center of the year. And the coach also made it a point that she is the number one athlete. She's a sophomore in varsity. She's the number one athlete that is sought out by the D1 schools. And when they realize that she is a sophomore, they are absolutely, like, shocked because of her technique and her strength and just power.
Mike Allen [01:07:17]:
Does she Know where she wants to go to school?
Sam Freeman [01:07:20]:
No, not right now. So she wants to be an attorney, but she also wants to work with psychopaths. So we're figuring though, she wants to get in their brain. We're figuring it out. We are working on it. If you ask her, that is what she says.
Mike Allen [01:07:33]:
I remember in college, a lot of hot chicks in the psych classes. So I'm not saying your daughter's a hot chick. That's weird. That came out way too weird.
Sam Freeman [01:07:43]:
Beautiful. But that, whoa.
Mike Allen [01:07:45]:
I just remember also thinking that there were a lot of crazy people in the psych classes.
Sam Freeman [01:07:49]:
Oh, is that right?
Mike Allen [01:07:50]:
Because they're trying to understand themselves. Oh, kind of what I felt like. No, those are freshman year only thing for me, I was like, I gotta get the out of here.
Sam Freeman [01:07:58]:
No, she, she does want to be an attorney. We actually, the neighbor for us is one of the top attorneys in our community for criminal defense, so.
Mike Allen [01:08:05]:
Well, she can work with psychopaths.
Sam Freeman [01:08:07]:
That way she can defend them in court. Dude, we hear some stories.
Mike Allen [01:08:10]:
Public defenders, man, but they got stories.
Sam Freeman [01:08:12]:
So Cal Poly is actually interested unofficially because it's not appropriate for them to be interested in a sophomore. So we're clear, no rules of being broken. But she's.
Mike Allen [01:08:25]:
Does the cheer team get nil money yet?
Sam Freeman [01:08:28]:
I don't know, but we actually did. So for our high school, they won the first division and the first state championship for the high school out of all sports. So we won the CIF state and division and section and I mean, not proud though, right? I'm absolutely proud. I. When we were in Vegas, when our girls went on stage to perform, it was so loud. Not just because of the girls. When they were cheering the community. I shoot you, Our entire community.
Sam Freeman [01:09:02]:
Somebody could have robbed our houses because everybody was there. I'm dead serious.
Mike Allen [01:09:07]:
Well, it's always in Vegas or Orlando for every. For all. Okay, what's in Anaheim? Oh, there's a Disney in Anaheim too. In there.
Sam Freeman [01:09:14]:
Yeah, there's a Disney in Anaheim, but we, we don't do that one anymore. Hey, in my junior program, the feeder program into the high school, they got grand champs. They do that.
Mike Allen [01:09:25]:
So we just spent five minutes talking about high school cheer. I think that might be a first for automotive podcasts and stunt. I started it. I started it by talking about my sister in law, so.
Sam Freeman [01:09:36]:
But it was awesome. I got so excited about that too though.
Mike Allen [01:09:39]:
So where is it? ATI super conference that you're going to?
Sam Freeman [01:09:41]:
Yes.
Mike Allen [01:09:42]:
Where is it this time?
Sam Freeman [01:09:43]:
Orlando. A couple weeks after cheer comp I
Mike Allen [01:09:48]:
thought they normally went to, like, Cabo
Sam Freeman [01:09:51]:
or it's West Coast, East Coast. So they've done it all over the place. This is ATR is probably one of the oldest partnerships I've been a part of, but they've done it in Orlando. They've done it at Amelia Island. They've done it in Austin or San Antonio. They've done it Puerto Rico.
Ethan Whidden [01:10:08]:
Hawaii.
Sam Freeman [01:10:09]:
Hawaii. They just said Hawaii.
Ethan Whidden [01:10:12]:
Yeah, I want to get behind that.
Mike Allen [01:10:15]:
I can do Asta Expo in Hawaii.
Sam Freeman [01:10:18]:
How can we make that happen? Yeah, I'll take that one. I've been to more Astas than you have.
Ethan Whidden [01:10:25]:
Yeah, you can sub me in.
Sam Freeman [01:10:28]:
I'll teach you something.
Ethan Whidden [01:10:29]:
Pass the torch.
Sam Freeman [01:10:30]:
No, no, no.
Mike Allen [01:10:31]:
All right, guys, well, thanks for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time. Time and. And I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Stacy. She's a rock star. It was great to put a face on Rockstar.
Sam Freeman [01:10:40]:
That's. We brought it all the way back. Rockstar.
Ethan Whidden [01:10:42]:
Rockstar.
Sam Freeman [01:10:43]:
Rockstar Black. Let's go.
Mike Allen [01:10:45]:
I like that. Yeah.
Sam Freeman [01:10:46]:
Y. I'm gonna make her a shirt.
Mike Allen [01:10:47]:
This is the most overused term to describe people in corporate America now, though, in there. There's a whole series of commercials spoofing that now with, like, actual rock stars and office. Super bowl superb owl.
Sam Freeman [01:11:02]:
I was drunk by then.
Mike Allen [01:11:04]:
Copy.
Ethan Whidden [01:11:06]:
We'll have to brainstorm on that one still.
Mike Allen [01:11:08]:
Okay, well, in the meantime, now you know what code yellow and code red mean. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. The good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes. So why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink? You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover? Or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mikeonfessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number 704-confess. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to, like, subscribe or follow.
Mike Allen [01:11:47]:
Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.
Sam Freeman [01:11:53]:
Sa.
Mike Allen [01:12:19]:
Right.
Sam Freeman [01:12:20]:
You know, I said jeff, jeff, jeff, jeff, jeff, jeff.