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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.
Aniz Lavji [00:00:00]:
The loaner vehicles are there for people that need it for a day or two, right. If they have an issue that's going to take three months to get parts, they need to find a solution for their automotive needs. They can't have my car for three months. Are you kidding me? I shouldn't be in charge of tracking the loaner car aging, but I am responsible. The following program features a bunch of
Mike Allen [00:00:18]:
doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we or our guests may say do not necessarily features a bunch
Aniz Lavji [00:00:25]:
of talking about the motive after any
Mike Allen [00:00:28]:
other stuff we or our guests may say. There may be some spicy.
Aniz Lavji [00:00:37]:
There may be some spicy Mike Allen. So if you get your feelings, you
Mike Allen [00:00:42]:
should probably just move along. Techmetrics without the bad software in the
Aniz Lavji [00:00:45]:
History of Mike Allen with Confessions of a Shop Owner presented by techmetric.
Mike Allen [00:00:50]:
The best software ever invented for any purpose ever.
Aniz Lavji [00:00:59]:
We met in September at ASTA Expo 2025 and now we're at Vision 2026. And I know that you're, I think coming to Tectonic Asta Expo was your first ever trade show, right?
Mike Allen [00:01:14]:
That was the first one ever. And yeah, I would say that that really changed my life.
Aniz Lavji [00:01:22]:
I remember that halfway through it you were kind of stressed because it was the first time you'd been away from wife and kids since you had kids. I think is my understanding. I got three and there was, there's stress leaving a single parent back at the house with three kids, little kids, 100%.
Mike Allen [00:01:38]:
Like just a second ago, talked to my wife and I'm like, how's everything going? Just want to make sure you're okay. You don't have any papers waiting for me when I get back.
Aniz Lavji [00:01:49]:
Or was she upset about you coming to this or she see the changes.
Mike Allen [00:01:54]:
She's 100% supportive of it. It's, it's more of, you know, it's not easy, right? A single parent being with three kids. And I have a six year old, a two year old and an eight year old. I don't know why I did that order, but anyway.
Aniz Lavji [00:02:08]:
That is an interesting order. Not the order you would expect.
Mike Allen [00:02:10]:
No, I would have started with eight.
Aniz Lavji [00:02:12]:
It was an order of your favorite to least favorite. Is that what that was?
Mike Allen [00:02:15]:
Six year old would have been the middle. He's the, he's a little bit of a troublemaker. I love them all, but no, it's just not easy for one single parent to handle three. So she ended up taking them to Niagara Falls for four days. So she rented an Airbnb there and
Aniz Lavji [00:02:32]:
you should tell her to swing by and check in on Wilco Automotive. It's not far from Niagara, I don't think. Right.
Mike Allen [00:02:38]:
I don't know if she's gonna make that trip. Right now she's in survivor mode, and she's taken them to Bird Kingdom, so she's passed some time there.
Aniz Lavji [00:02:48]:
I've always heard that the Canadian side of Niagara is way nicer. Yeah. So is that the side they're staying on, or are they on the dirty American side?
Mike Allen [00:02:55]:
No, no, we're on the clean, clean Canadian side.
Aniz Lavji [00:02:57]:
Okay, copy.
Mike Allen [00:02:58]:
All right. Far away from ice.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:01]:
Are you afraid you might get detained if you come across? I don't know.
Mike Allen [00:03:04]:
Like, it depends on which way the. The wind blows. Right.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:08]:
Didn't they just. So it is Friday, March 6th. I think they just fired the DHS lady numb today, I think. So we probably shouldn't talk politics.
Mike Allen [00:03:21]:
Yeah, it depends on what's. What side of the bed Head Hunter rolled on. But, yeah, let's definitely not get too much.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:27]:
He seems like he would be a very hard man to work for long term. I don't think he's got a very. He's got a really high turnover rate.
Mike Allen [00:03:35]:
Yeah, he's got more of a turnover rate than some shops to have tech. So.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:39]:
Yeah. Wow. I actually. I just got my. My DTF T shirt.
Mike Allen [00:03:46]:
Oh, yeah.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:47]:
Down to fix your staffing problems.
Mike Allen [00:03:49]:
It's down to fix your sh.
Aniz Lavji [00:03:51]:
From promotive. They're down to fix your staffing issues. I thought that was. I thought that was pretty funny. I like that. So I went and got a T shirt.
Mike Allen [00:03:58]:
So I was actually talking to Lisa just yesterday, and she was saying, yeah, so there's a T shirt that's a DTF on it. And then the chat just went kind of silent, and I'm like. I'm just waiting for her to actually spell out what it is.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:10]:
Did Lisa Coyle just hit on me? That's we.
Mike Allen [00:04:15]:
She's awesome, by the way. She is. And I actually learned about her through some confessions podcast. I don't know.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:21]:
Like, some highly questionable podcast.
Mike Allen [00:04:24]:
Yeah, very highly questionable. You know, obviously it works because that's how I found out about Promoter. Yeah, I've been chatting with her for a while. She's awesome, by the way.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:34]:
Well, when you see her today, tell her that you found out about her through the podcast.
Mike Allen [00:04:38]:
I did. Perfect.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:39]:
Perfect.
Mike Allen [00:04:40]:
But, yeah, no, she's been talking with her and yeah, she mentioned that, and I was like, okay, I'm looking forward to seeing this T shirt.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:46]:
Well, so when did you get into town. I just got here today, so I was delayed a little bit.
Mike Allen [00:04:52]:
So I flew in Wednesday night.
Aniz Lavji [00:04:53]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:04:54]:
And from Canadia. And by the time I reached town with all the delays, it was about 10 o'. Clock. I landed, got my ride here, it was 11 o', clock, and then I was up at 6 in the morning, ready to go.
Aniz Lavji [00:05:09]:
Oh, yeah. I want to talk about the class you took yesterday because you told me a little bit about it. And then I just interviewed Seth Thorson and Keith Perkins. And I'm going to be honest with you, when we sat down, they both serve on the board of Nastif. And I was like, well, we're probably going to talk nasdaq. We're probably going to talk, right? To repair and information access and all that kind of stuff. We didn't. We talked about AI and about how it's going to revolutionize everything.
Aniz Lavji [00:05:33]:
Tell me about that class.
Mike Allen [00:05:35]:
So I'll start off with Seth. If you're watching this, you did.
Aniz Lavji [00:05:39]:
Seth does not watch my stuff.
Mike Allen [00:05:42]:
I hope he watches this because he did one hell of a job. He taught an amazing class. I ended up, like we were supposed to actually, before the class started, sign up for the Pro or the paid version of ChatGPT. And obviously I procrastinated. I did that in class. And he was teaching us how to. How to do things that I didn't think was possible. I knew AI was wild, but he's basically got AI in the background with an agent.
Mike Allen [00:06:13]:
I figured out what an agent is, and he's like, yeah, you can just go in there and have textmetric make a work order. I'm like, get the out of here. No. So he said, okay, do this command, blah, blah, blah. And I had, Obviously, I have TechMetric logged in because I'm working 29 hours a day.
Aniz Lavji [00:06:29]:
That's what we do.
Mike Allen [00:06:30]:
And it logs in. It starts making a work order. I'm like, this is too much. And then he's saying, you can even go in there and have it compare your November to last November and find missed opportunities. I'm like, okay, this is just too much. Okay, I'm done right now. That was a great class.
Aniz Lavji [00:06:50]:
Listening to him and Keith talk about the ways that they're using it and their businesses and the tools that they've built out and the evolution of those tools over time. It's pretty freaking interesting. I mean, I decided he's coming to North Carolina. So, I mean, if you're listening to this and you want to go sit in on that class, it's going to be happening in North Carolina soon. I'm not sure what date because I got to get with his scheduler because he's so important that he doesn't manage his own calendar. But he'll be teaching that class in North Carolina sometime soon. And when I know the details, I'll put it out there so that you can come to that. But I mean, it's changing the world, bro.
Aniz Lavji [00:07:25]:
It's changing the world fast. And the limiting factor for folks like you and me is that we don't realize how powerful it is because it can do whatever. Your imagination and your willingness to learn how to prompt it. Right. Prompting is going to be the skill.
Mike Allen [00:07:44]:
You have enough time to focus on prompts and everything. That's where it all is. If you. It's only as good as what you feed it. Right? So if you're feeding it bad information and bad prompts, you're gonna get crap.
Aniz Lavji [00:07:56]:
Yeah. Crap in, crap out. Well, cool. Was that. So that was four hours of yesterday. What other class did you take yesterday?
Mike Allen [00:08:05]:
Oh, man. So put me on the spot here. It was yesterday.
Aniz Lavji [00:08:10]:
Okay, don't say it now because obviously it was a mediocre class and we don't want to shame whomever it was.
Mike Allen [00:08:14]:
Oh, no, it was a great class, but I'm. I'm still jet lagged.
Aniz Lavji [00:08:19]:
You're fried.
Mike Allen [00:08:19]:
Yeah, it will come back to me. I'll bring it back up. But today I took an awesome class. There's a guy, he's got a beard.
Aniz Lavji [00:08:31]:
Josh. Josh Parnell. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:08:35]:
I took his class bright and early this morning. And honestly, I was. I was so glad to take it because I missed North Carolina when he did that frog pond.
Aniz Lavji [00:08:45]:
That was two weeks ago.
Mike Allen [00:08:45]:
Yeah. And I was trying to make it work. Wasn't happening. I had major fomo, as he would say. Every time I'd see a video posted, I'd see Benji doing his speech. I'm just like, I could have been sitting right there, dude.
Aniz Lavji [00:08:59]:
Benji has. I mean, he's in a community. It's not a town. He's in a community. I don't think there's a stoplight. There might be a stoplight going across Highway 24, which is the little road a couple miles away. It's from my business perspective, it's in the middle of nowhere. And he has built a business in that community where they are the heart of that community.
Aniz Lavji [00:09:26]:
If somebody in town has a problem, not necessarily car related, they just have a problem. The goats got out, they call.
Mike Allen [00:09:37]:
He'll figure it out.
Aniz Lavji [00:09:38]:
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think they were talking about there's, there's an elderly woman who's on oxygen and when the power goes out, they know that they stop what they're doing and they go immediately to her house to get backup power running so that her oxygen generator keeps going. It's got nothing to do with fixing cars. It's got to do with taking care of people. Right. The culture in that business is amazing.
Mike Allen [00:10:05]:
I mean, he could teach a class himself just at ASTA and just call it culture.
Aniz Lavji [00:10:10]:
With Benji, I think he's too humble for that. I think he, I mean, like all those dudes are bought into it and that whole family is awesome. I mean, his kids are awesome. You know, his daughter's been doing his marketing forever and I think she just married and is following her husband to Texas. So they're probably gonna have some heartbreak from that. But their son is awesome and taking more and more leadership there. I think Benji is effectively not involved in day to day operations anymore. So.
Aniz Lavji [00:10:42]:
And that's a role model business. If you, if you have a desire for a single location, community focused business, they're a role model for that for sure. And they're bringing in world, world leading trainers multiple times a year and inviting shops from anywhere in the country to come down and visit and hang out.
Mike Allen [00:11:04]:
I got the pleasure of meeting him last year and I had a good conversation with him. And again going back to asta, my first time going, I'm this random guy that comes in from Canada. I was one of, I think three people total. Me, Jeff, and I think there was one more guy. He may not have been Canadian. I don't know.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:23]:
Canadian. Ish.
Mike Allen [00:11:24]:
He never said a once.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:26]:
Highly suspect. Maybe a spy.
Mike Allen [00:11:28]:
I kind of disqualified.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:29]:
Maybe a spy.
Mike Allen [00:11:30]:
Yeah, definitely a spy.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:32]:
I will say. Oh, you would like to know that this week I put the tail light, the brake light bulb and the Miata. Oh, so should have brought that car.
Mike Allen [00:11:40]:
You could have driven it all the way here.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:42]:
Ooh, ooh. I don't know.
Mike Allen [00:11:43]:
Too many hecklers.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:45]:
I mean, I would have had too many women, you know, just kind of trying to hop in the car with me. I mean that's, I mean that would
Mike Allen [00:11:51]:
have been a whole other podcast.
Aniz Lavji [00:11:52]:
It's a sex machine. So no, yesterday. So it's like 75 and beautiful in North Carolina right now. So I, I'd had it in storage, one of the shops actually, because I've got some non usable space at one of the shops. So I'd had it in storage for the winter. And I took it out this week. And so yesterday I wanted to take one of my advisors to lunch and he's, I don't know, six to 300 pounds. And I was like, hey, man, we were gonna go get sushi.
Aniz Lavji [00:12:20]:
I said, do you want to meet me there? I'm in the Miata, top down. Are you gonna. Are you gonna be a fat guy in a little car? Right?
Mike Allen [00:12:26]:
Yeah.
Aniz Lavji [00:12:27]:
He said, no, I want to be Brian Pollock 2.0. And so I pulled up in front of the shop.
Mike Allen [00:12:33]:
The video right. Of this,
Aniz Lavji [00:12:36]:
I did take a picture of the car out again. I pulled up in front of the shop and he was like, hey, sun's out, guns out. Can I take my shirt off for this? And I was like, yeah. I was like, I appreciate the commitment to the bit, but man's got to know his limit.
Mike Allen [00:12:54]:
That would have been gold.
Aniz Lavji [00:12:57]:
It would have been something. It would have been something. No, but it's a fun little car to drive. And it's Miata season again. So you know what Miata actually stands for, right? No, Miata is always the answer. That's what Miata stands for.
Mike Allen [00:13:15]:
Did you make that up or was that.
Aniz Lavji [00:13:16]:
No, there's a whole subculture of Miata guys. Whatever. I say guys because I don't know that there are many chicks that think Miatas are cool. It's mostly a middle aged guy thing.
Mike Allen [00:13:26]:
Are you part of the North Carolina Miata Club?
Aniz Lavji [00:13:29]:
I am not. I probably should be.
Mike Allen [00:13:31]:
Are you starting it?
Aniz Lavji [00:13:32]:
Missed opportunity. Oh, no, there's absolutely. I guarantee you there's a North Carolina Miata club, but there's going to be
Mike Allen [00:13:38]:
a bunch of guys with the shirts off driving Miatas around. Basically.
Aniz Lavji [00:13:41]:
You know what, it's. It's just hard to deny animal magnetism sometimes.
Mike Allen [00:13:45]:
So anyone driving Miata, I mean, that's a whole other level.
Aniz Lavji [00:13:49]:
All right, so you came to North Carolina for ASEA Expo. You bought into the idea of coming to training and networking events. Would you say that it's changed your business or your perspective on the business 100%?
Mike Allen [00:14:03]:
Yeah. Like before I even went to that, we were using QuickBooks for our shop management system.
Aniz Lavji [00:14:10]:
Oh, gosh. Yeah. That's cumbersome.
Mike Allen [00:14:12]:
I mean, we're basically using a software that you can sell flower pots with.
Aniz Lavji [00:14:15]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:14:17]:
So we went from a stone age to. Holy shit. What did I just sign up for?
Aniz Lavji [00:14:22]:
The most amazing automotive management platform in the world. All right.
Mike Allen [00:14:28]:
Universe.
Aniz Lavji [00:14:30]:
Dare I say Galaxy. Anyway, Beyond. So clearly you sign up with TechMetric.
Mike Allen [00:14:35]:
Yeah, yeah. I would never touch anything Else copy. But yeah, that once we got that software it was, oh, okay, this is what everyone's talking about. And you know, we've got our matrix going. We got parts in order from parts tech and next part, everything's just flowing and we went through. Yeah, I got it in June and by the end of the year I'm like, holy crap, what the hell have I been doing for so many years? And now, you know, from January 1st till now, like we're using it completely. And yeah, I mean I, I definitely see the business is. I have a feeling this year we're gonna go up 50% sale.
Aniz Lavji [00:15:16]:
50%. Wow. Wow, that's. I mean that's, that's life changing, right?
Mike Allen [00:15:23]:
It's life changing for me.
Aniz Lavji [00:15:24]:
That's why your wife's cool with you coming to more shows like, oh wait, we're making a lot more money now.
Mike Allen [00:15:31]:
So she's. You know what, she's honestly the best. Very blessed that she's even letting me come here today for four days and she's taking on three kids and I'm going to Tectonic, hopefully may have to hire a nanny or something just to give her some help. But I've got that. And you know, Asta is kind of like a non negotiable. Like I have to be at Asta one way or the other somehow.
Aniz Lavji [00:15:57]:
Special place in the heart.
Mike Allen [00:15:59]:
That's where, that's where I'll begin. Like I was saying, I came to town alone. I didn't know anybody. I knew you from messaging on Facebook and I knew Jeff from listening to his podcast and Lucas listening and everyone really welcomed me in and I felt like part of the family by the time I left. I was sad to leave because, well, I'm not going to see these guys for maybe a year. And then here we are less than a year later and we're sitting down.
Aniz Lavji [00:16:21]:
Well, and you, I think got bit by the bug also. And I think you talk in front of a camera every now and then too. Right?
Mike Allen [00:16:28]:
I do.
Aniz Lavji [00:16:28]:
Tell me about that.
Mike Allen [00:16:29]:
So I ended up starting a podcast because I've got so much time on
Aniz Lavji [00:16:33]:
my hands and all your free time. Right.
Mike Allen [00:16:35]:
Just like you. So I started a podcast and we're about 13, I'd say 13 episodes in right now. And it's been great.
Aniz Lavji [00:16:46]:
What's the name?
Mike Allen [00:16:47]:
Oh, I wasn't sure it was a shout out. It's the Shop and Tread Talk podcast.
Aniz Lavji [00:16:51]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:16:52]:
So we're on Spotify, Apple, where all the videos on YouTube as well.
Aniz Lavji [00:16:57]:
Okay. And Shop and.
Mike Allen [00:16:59]:
Or Shop in the Shop and Tread Talk podcast.
Aniz Lavji [00:17:03]:
Okay, copy. Got it.
Mike Allen [00:17:04]:
So it's been nice. We've had a lot of fun. I'm with my buddy Frank, who has a shop. He's a shop owner and a licensed mechanic. Okay, so both of us were on the.
Aniz Lavji [00:17:15]:
What is this licensure for being a mechanic? What is that about in Ontario?
Mike Allen [00:17:20]:
Oh, yeah. Here is basically, how does it work if you want to be, like, in
Aniz Lavji [00:17:25]:
your area in North Carolina line, If you want to be a mechanic, all you have to do is tell people you're a mechanic.
Mike Allen [00:17:29]:
You can tie your shoes.
Aniz Lavji [00:17:31]:
I am a mechanic.
Mike Allen [00:17:34]:
I know. And that's why your. Your tail light took almost a year.
Aniz Lavji [00:17:38]:
Well, look, look, it was not on the road for a significant portion, and it became part of the Miata canon also was that it had a brake light out. And.
Mike Allen [00:17:47]:
But I'll never forget being you being heckled in the car. And I'm like, mike,
Aniz Lavji [00:17:54]:
why don't I
Mike Allen [00:17:55]:
just leave you alone?
Aniz Lavji [00:17:56]:
All right, so, listeners, the Miata thing is part of the shtick of the podcast, right? And so it was a whole deal that Brian Pollock, my co host, who's not here at Vision this year, and I were riding around in the Miata because he's like 65350 or whatever he is, right? He's a fucking Sasquatch. Yeah, 190. Chiseled man meat. But so we did a thing that the podcast rented out a go kart track, and it was like, hey, listeners, come, let's go race the go kart track. Right? And there was a group chat on the podcast going. It was like, who needs a ride? You know, we're taking an Uber. We're taking a cab, whatever else. And I was like, well, I got space for one.
Aniz Lavji [00:18:39]:
And you answered, yeah, right? And so we'd never met at that point. We just talked online. So I pulled up in front of the hotel. You hopped in, hey, good to meet you. Good to meet you. And we're driving through downtown Raleigh, and we're a block and a half from the hotel, and a bunch of people start heckling, hey, nice Miata. You got a brake light out. Anybody you know can fix that? And what Anise didn't realize was that these were all people that were at the expo that I knew that were in on the shtick of the podcast, right? He just thought that.
Aniz Lavji [00:19:07]:
He just thought that North Carolina was full of raging assholes.
Mike Allen [00:19:14]:
Let him drive his Miata.
Aniz Lavji [00:19:15]:
He's happy. Just let me seek my inner joy. Okay, but so then an hour and a half later, we're at the bar at this go kart track and he's like, oh, that's the guy that heckled you earlier. Oh, now it all comes together now.
Mike Allen [00:19:28]:
Yeah, they were just getting shooting.
Aniz Lavji [00:19:30]:
Oh man. Anyway, it was a good time. So like, are you like, what's your format? Is it very business focused? Is it kind of casual? What are you shooting for?
Mike Allen [00:19:41]:
I try to keep it really casual. Like, I'll be quite honest, I don't really do any editing on the video. I don't really do much editing on, even on the audio as well because I just want to keep it so raw. I don't want it to feel like, oh, you know, I edited this out, edit this out. We just really go with the flow and we don't have a huge script, obviously. We want whoever we're interviewing, we want to get the information, hear their story and everything, but just trying to keep it really fun. And mini therapy session for free.
Aniz Lavji [00:20:14]:
You know Josh Coombs? Did you meet him down there?
Mike Allen [00:20:16]:
Yeah, I passed with them actually last year.
Aniz Lavji [00:20:18]:
So Joshua Coombs has a shop All OK Auto Repair in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He started a YouTube channel that's auto shop therapy something. But if you find Josh on Facebook or if you auto shop therapy search that on you, you'll find him. But it's just like a 20 minute daily journal about the shit that's happening at his shop. Good, bad, indifferent. What customers did he have, what problem cars did he have, what employee issues did he have? His wife as his service advisor. He talks about that.
Mike Allen [00:20:50]:
You saw his shirt last year, right?
Aniz Lavji [00:20:52]:
Which one was that? Oh, I'm sleeping with my service advisor. Yeah. And she had one that said, I'm sleeping with my boss. Right. So, yeah, it was pretty funny. But he's a good dude and he's just kind of living life out there in the open. No. No filter.
Aniz Lavji [00:21:07]:
No. And I think it's really refreshing and I hope that he gets some traction from that and some validation because he's sharing a lot of the struggles that.
Mike Allen [00:21:16]:
Sharing his truth.
Aniz Lavji [00:21:16]:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right, so what does 2026 look like for. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We are 24 minutes in. I have not introduced you.
Mike Allen [00:21:26]:
Oh, that's okay.
Aniz Lavji [00:21:27]:
Anais, introduce yourself.
Mike Allen [00:21:29]:
My name is Anise and I am from. From Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Yes. We have free health care.
Aniz Lavji [00:21:38]:
What's your tax rate?
Mike Allen [00:21:40]:
Too much. I have a five bay shop out there. We've been in business. I've been in business since 2006. And we've been running the automotive shop for about 15 years.
Aniz Lavji [00:21:54]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:21:55]:
Before that, I had a car dealership where we were just focusing on cars. And then we got busy with tires and then cars. Just kind of like a side hustle now.
Aniz Lavji [00:22:04]:
But you do a lot of tires, right?
Mike Allen [00:22:07]:
We do quite a few tires. In November, we had one of our greatest months ever, thanks to TechMetric, which really helped us stay organized. And we had 454 cars come through in one month. Wow. And I wrote all the Service.
Aniz Lavji [00:22:27]:
You wrote 454 tickets in a month?
Mike Allen [00:22:29]:
454 in a month. And at the same time, we were. When I was not on the phone writing service, we were down a guy in the garage.
Aniz Lavji [00:22:39]:
So you're busting tires, too?
Mike Allen [00:22:41]:
So I ran in. I was busting tires at the same time, pulling cars out, bringing them in, giving them customers, checking them out, and then back and forth. But whatever I had to do to take care of the customer.
Aniz Lavji [00:22:51]:
So what you're saying is in November, you slept really well.
Mike Allen [00:22:55]:
Sleep? Oh, like when? No, I banked a lot of my hours. I was supposed to sleep, and I'm still banking. So I'm planning in 2027 to actually fulfill those hours and actually sleep.
Aniz Lavji [00:23:10]:
So what's the goal for this year?
Mike Allen [00:23:12]:
This year I'm in the process of hiring a service advisor because I want
Aniz Lavji [00:23:19]:
to stay married, reasonable.
Mike Allen [00:23:21]:
I want to actually take some time off and not. Not be working in the business as much I want to run the business more. So I'm in the process of hiring a service advisor. Hopefully that goes well soon and just grow.
Aniz Lavji [00:23:37]:
So are you prepared to deal with the emotional impact of not having your hands on every ticket?
Mike Allen [00:23:44]:
Yes. I'm fine with it. Because I do want to spend more time at home, more time with my kids and family. You know, I've. I've been.
Aniz Lavji [00:23:54]:
Are your customers going to come in and ask for you by name and not want to deal with whoever you hire?
Mike Allen [00:23:59]:
Well, by that time, I'm gonna have an AI agent anyways. Like, I'll just have a video screen behind me with a camera and.
Aniz Lavji [00:24:06]:
Yeah, you're just gonna have an AI model of.
Mike Allen [00:24:08]:
You know, I'll just get that thing from China. It's got the. All the spinning things on it. It's like an AI 3D thing.
Aniz Lavji [00:24:15]:
Perfect, perfect.
Mike Allen [00:24:16]:
Like, I'm right there. Yeah. And I'll just. All the input in there. I'll just put any advice I've gotten from you put that in there.
Aniz Lavji [00:24:25]:
I'm not sure that Advice for me is the way to go depending upon your business model. I don't know. If you listen to people on the Internet, they're going to tell you that I'm the best.
Mike Allen [00:24:35]:
Of course.
Aniz Lavji [00:24:36]:
And they're right. No. So that is part of what we talked about earlier and part of what we discussed earlier is AI coming for your job, Right.
Mike Allen [00:24:47]:
I think it's going to be taking a very big portion of people's jobs. I don't think it's going to be able to do the job completely because at the end of the day, people still want the human element. I want to come into your shop and you know, Mike's going to be there to greet me and tell me that everything's gonna be fine. Your car will be ready by this time. If it's not, you can take one of my loaners, but make sure it's giving me the Camry. I want it back this year.
Aniz Lavji [00:25:15]:
Yeah. Did you know what I was talking about this week? Oh my God, no.
Mike Allen [00:25:19]:
But I just. Every, anytime I see a Camry now that looks similar to what you had.
Aniz Lavji [00:25:24]:
So here's the thing. Outdated SMS just, they don't just slow you down, they cost you money. And I learned it the hardware. 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. And it's not just me.
Aniz Lavji [00:25:51]:
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.
Mike Allen [00:26:07]:
I remember the story of your Camry that was out for.
Aniz Lavji [00:26:11]:
I have one that just came back today that was out for 84 days with the same customer, which is, I guess by today it was 85 because yesterday was 84 when I was losing my mind over it.
Mike Allen [00:26:24]:
High GP dollars on that job, hopefully.
Aniz Lavji [00:26:27]:
No, that's it. When they've had one of our assets for that long, I mean, it just erodes. I mean, because it's the opportunity cost, right, that the loaner vehicles are there for people that need it for a day or two. Right. If they have an issue that's going to take three months to get parts, they need to Find a solution for their automotive needs. They can't have my car for three months. Are you kidding me? So that was a failure of leadership on my part to. To evolve, to not evolve, to keep an eye on that.
Aniz Lavji [00:26:58]:
And one of the things that Josh talked about two weeks ago was that if I'm going to effectively lead a business that is growing beyond the capacity for me to have my hand on every car, I think, like, Josh has always got, like, catchphrases and quotes and shit like that was. You should be responsible. You should be in charge of nothing, but responsible for everything. And I've been really bad at that. So I shouldn't be in charge of tracking the loaner car aging and who gets them and making sure that we enforce our loaner car policies. But I am responsible for making sure that the people who are. That gets delegated to her doing the job.
Mike Allen [00:27:47]:
So only your business is only as good as your team members.
Aniz Lavji [00:27:50]:
I think that's. Yeah, that's the case for sure. So.
Mike Allen [00:27:54]:
And sometimes, like you were saying, can
Aniz Lavji [00:27:55]:
you imagine a Chick Fil A with a bunch of assholes on the drive through? It just doesn't work. Do you have. Do you have Chick Fil A? And where.
Mike Allen [00:28:04]:
You have one which is 10 minutes from our store, which is very dangerous.
Aniz Lavji [00:28:08]:
It is the Lord's preferred chicken Sundays. Well, the Lord doesn't eat on Sundays. That's why they're closed. Yeah. Are they open on Sunday? Okay. I was like, wait a minute. Blasphemy. There's no reason for you to open
Mike Allen [00:28:23]:
a shop in Canada.
Aniz Lavji [00:28:24]:
No Sundays. The Lord wants you to go to Popeyes. And so that's what we do. It's good. It's just a different kind of good. Yeah. So you don't have Bojangles, though. So when.
Aniz Lavji [00:28:38]:
When you come to Asta, we'll go to a Bojangles and get. That's the third chicken. This is the third chicken.
Mike Allen [00:28:43]:
So the first tier is Chick Fil A. Chick Fil? A. Then it goes to Popeyes, and then it's Bojangs.
Aniz Lavji [00:28:49]:
Yeah.
Mike Allen [00:28:50]:
Dare I say what's for?
Aniz Lavji [00:28:53]:
Do you need four in your life?
Mike Allen [00:28:55]:
I'm curious.
Aniz Lavji [00:28:57]:
I feel like. I mean, I guess you could go like Raisin Cane's.
Mike Allen [00:29:01]:
Never heard of that.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:02]:
Yeah, it's an also ran. Nobody remembers who finishes fourth in the Olympics. If you're not on the step, it doesn't matter.
Mike Allen [00:29:08]:
That's true.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:09]:
So that's true. Like, I mean, like in the Olympic hockey championship game.
Mike Allen [00:29:20]:
But you know what? Yes, we lost. But I'm actually a dual Superman. So I still won. Well, so I can't lose if US And Canada are playing.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:30]:
Well, who was in the bronze medal match? Huh?
Mike Allen [00:29:34]:
I don't watch.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:35]:
Yeah, Exactly. Somebody got third, but nobody even knows who was fourth. Right.
Mike Allen [00:29:40]:
I watched most of the Canada U.S. game.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:43]:
That was an amazing game.
Mike Allen [00:29:44]:
So my kids did not cooperate when overtime happened.
Aniz Lavji [00:29:48]:
Well, it's probably for the best that you missed the overtime, right?
Mike Allen [00:29:51]:
Yeah. So then. Yeah, we're trying to get them to settle down and stop turning the TV off. Thanks, kids. And before I knew it. Turn the TV back on. I see the big USA flag. Turn it off.
Mike Allen [00:30:02]:
We're done.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:04]:
No problem.
Mike Allen [00:30:04]:
I know what happened.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:07]:
Well, I mean, like, the kid who got his teeth knocked out makes the winning shot in overtime. This is storybook. But I'm here to tell you that the keeper on the US Side should never pay for another beverage in his life.
Mike Allen [00:30:19]:
Life.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:20]:
That was an incredible performance. So they deserve to win.
Mike Allen [00:30:23]:
I'll say it right here. They had a good game.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:26]:
The keeper kept ascendant. So, I mean, he had to be covered in bruises the next day.
Mike Allen [00:30:33]:
Yeah.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:34]:
So anyway, not a hockey fan. I don't know how to speak intelligently to it. So that's the one thing that I could talk about.
Mike Allen [00:30:39]:
I'm all, basketball.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:40]:
Okay.
Mike Allen [00:30:40]:
I can. I can talk basketball for hours.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:42]:
Pro or college? It's gotta be pro. You're Canada.
Mike Allen [00:30:46]:
Yeah, I mean, we.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:47]:
Vince Carter, best Canadian basketball player ever.
Mike Allen [00:30:49]:
He's amazing.
Aniz Lavji [00:30:50]:
Also, he went to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where I'm from. Yeah. So also not Canadian. But, you know, he just played for the Raptors forever. Right. So, no, I'm a big Tar Heel basketball fan. College basketball is where it's at for me, so.
Mike Allen [00:31:06]:
I know. I've seen you post a few.
Aniz Lavji [00:31:07]:
My obnoxious stuff. Well, I've pulled back from it. Right now I just post a link to www.diddukewin immediately after. Because that's a website. It just says yes or no is all it says on the website after every Duke men's basketball game. And anytime the Tar Heels beat Duke, I just post that link.
Mike Allen [00:31:28]:
You know, it's funny. It was a few weeks ago. I don't know who I was talking to, but they're saying, you know, you're so into the automotive and you're going to these conferences and you're so heavy into it. Like, you're always going to the States, and I don't know what it means
Aniz Lavji [00:31:44]:
always when the stakes have been twice, three times.
Mike Allen [00:31:46]:
I've been to one conference since the second one, like, you should open up a shop in the States. And I'm like, look, there's only one place that open. It'd be North Carolina.
Aniz Lavji [00:31:56]:
It's a great market.
Mike Allen [00:31:57]:
And you know what the reason is? It's for you guys, because I can see the. The culture that you guys have in your shops, and you guys care to a level where we don't see it on our end in Canada. I care. I have my own level of caring, but I don't see that in very many shops. There's some in my area, for sure, but when I was in North Carolina and talking to shop owners there, it's different, man.
Aniz Lavji [00:32:25]:
You know, we've had conversations trying to figure out why it's different like that. And I think that it's. You know, the association is Automotive Service and Tire alliance right now, but it was the Independent Garage Association. It was formed in the 1950s, and it was an insurance agency originally because shop owners couldn't get insurance.
Mike Allen [00:32:43]:
Aste, Right.
Aniz Lavji [00:32:44]:
Well, it was. The show was aste, the Automotive Service and Technology Expo. And after the merger happened, it was aste, presented by asta. It was just too much Alphabet soup, so it just became the ASTA Expo. Right. But I think it is that we had for 70 years a trade association that brought training, management and leadership training into the area every year. And it made a huge difference. And I think now that we're three generations deep in that, we're seeing that there's just a culture of one not being.
Aniz Lavji [00:33:34]:
Not hating your neighbor. Right. Right before we started recording, I was standing. We started two or three minutes late because I ran into a couple of guys outside who. It's the shop foreman and the son of the owner of the shop that is literally immediately next to one of my shops. And they were over at my shop at an ASTA event, social event last month, hanging out, drinking beer. I think we were playing poker, right? And when I moved into that building, I went in and there's actually. It's three shops in a row, three consecutive addresses.
Aniz Lavji [00:34:11]:
I went into both of them, and they're both IGO members, both former IGO board members. And I was like, hey, man, you cool if I go into that building? And they're like, yeah, sure. Hey, man, you cool if I go into that building? And he said, the owner of the shop, of those guys, he was like, if I lose any customers to you, it's my fault, not yours.
Mike Allen [00:34:28]:
Yeah, there's enough cars to. There's more cars than there are shops to fix them.
Aniz Lavji [00:34:34]:
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Mike Allen [00:34:35]:
Everyone works together.
Aniz Lavji [00:34:36]:
I mean, well, and it's cliche to say, but a rising tide lifts all boats.
Mike Allen [00:34:41]:
Right?
Aniz Lavji [00:34:42]:
And if we can all be better together and we can all pay well and give good benefits and be a good working environment. The shop foreman there worked for me. He moved up from Florida and worked for me for two or three years and he quit to go somewhere else for more money and probably he thought I was a dumbass. Right, Whatever. But he's found his happy home now where he is, and it's good, man. You don't have to be adversarial because like you said, there's more cars than I can work on. There's more cars than you can work on. Let's just take care of people and take care of our people.
Aniz Lavji [00:35:20]:
Be ethical and shit. Just tends to work out.
Mike Allen [00:35:23]:
You know, like Josh says, service mindset. Right. I mean, our job is to service the customers, vehicles, take care of them. And if we've done that by the end of the day, you've done your job.
Aniz Lavji [00:35:36]:
Yeah, for sure, for sure. What are you looking forward to for the rest of the show?
Mike Allen [00:35:44]:
Rest of the show? I've got. I'm like, I'm looking forward to going through the Expo and going through all the different stalls. Give me flashbacks of Asta just seeing all the different stuff.
Aniz Lavji [00:35:53]:
This is bigger. This is bigger than asta. Yeah, I walked.
Mike Allen [00:35:57]:
Well, I actually walked through the Expo kind of quickly because I wasn't sure exactly where this room was. So I did a quick round two and I'm like, I am lost here.
Aniz Lavji [00:36:08]:
You know, I said. You know what I say it's bigger than asta. But ASTA was huge last year.
Mike Allen [00:36:15]:
Yeah, no, it's.
Aniz Lavji [00:36:16]:
I think it's about the same size as ASTA now. So ASTA has grown up to almost this size. This has always been way bigger than. Way bigger than us.
Mike Allen [00:36:25]:
I have to look at it properly in comparison because I remember I have a picture, you know, at asta, when you go up the.
Aniz Lavji [00:36:31]:
Yeah. Looking.
Mike Allen [00:36:32]:
I have a picture that's looking down and I'm thinking of that picture compared to this.
Aniz Lavji [00:36:37]:
Well, so this year in 2026, the plan. And I'm no longer the. I'm no longer the board president.
Mike Allen [00:36:44]:
So you're be drinking this year.
Aniz Lavji [00:36:45]:
Thank you, Jesus. It's probably good for the association that I'm no longer the board president, but I think we're doubling the floor space this year, so we're actually going to have it and if you think about the escalators, going to be two sets of escalators, one going on each side. And there's going to be a restaurant in the back. And we're going to have the big central area with all the tables for dining and everything else. And all the meals will be on the trade show floor. And so I think that's going to be pretty cool. And that'll be big. No, I don't know.
Aniz Lavji [00:37:24]:
So we're doing the hospitality suite again, of course, which is a good time
Mike Allen [00:37:28]:
without a confession of a shop owner.
Aniz Lavji [00:37:30]:
That was pretty awesome last year, right?
Mike Allen [00:37:31]:
It was. It was awesome. Not pretty awesome. Yeah, it was awesome.
Aniz Lavji [00:37:35]:
So how do I. How do I bring the heat again this year? I don't know. I've still got all the video games and most of the furniture. Still got the throne. That's key.
Mike Allen [00:37:44]:
Have you sanitized everything or is it just gonna.
Aniz Lavji [00:37:46]:
No, I just left all the stains. I just left all the stains. So we're gonna be in a different part of the hotel this year because that space that we were in one wasn't quite big enough. Yeah, he did too good of a job last time.
Mike Allen [00:38:01]:
That's why.
Aniz Lavji [00:38:01]:
Well, I mean, I think we were pushing up on fire code on the number of people that we had in there at points. Fire code, schmeier code, whatever.
Mike Allen [00:38:08]:
Not our problem.
Aniz Lavji [00:38:09]:
Yeah. So I'm pretty excited about how that's going to go this year. And I'll probably try to do the go kart racing thing again because way too much of my self worth is wrapped up in my ability to drive rental go karts quickly.
Mike Allen [00:38:23]:
Are you going to Andretti?
Aniz Lavji [00:38:25]:
You know, I had not signed up for it, but I was. I was just saying I'm surprised you're not going because I think I'm gonna go buy a ticket right after we finish recording last time.
Mike Allen [00:38:33]:
You did really well.
Aniz Lavji [00:38:34]:
Well. And then I went to Elites event in Arizona earlier this year.
Mike Allen [00:38:38]:
Braxton destroyed you.
Aniz Lavji [00:38:40]:
No, no, that was at Apex. That was. Well, so Braxton didn't go to Elites event, so we went to techmetric, one of techmetric's events at Apex. And it was. It was at Speed Vegas. And you get to drive your selection of supercars. Right, With a. Yeah.
Aniz Lavji [00:38:59]:
And. And he did get a better lap time than me.
Mike Allen [00:39:03]:
How much better was it?
Aniz Lavji [00:39:04]:
I think he was like a half a second faster, which is pretty significant. Yeah, no, I wept into my pillow until the sun came up and then I went back to work. Yeah. So. But we did do an indoor Go Karting event at the Elite event. And my coach that I do my coaching calls with, Matt Lofton, he's the director of coaching for Elite. In a previous life, he was a race driver and he got all the way up to the NASCAR truck series. So he's done like 200 miles to Talladega, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Aniz Lavji [00:39:34]:
And I fucking crushed him. It was, it was great.
Mike Allen [00:39:39]:
So you still talk about it a little bit?
Aniz Lavji [00:39:40]:
Oh yeah, I live. Like, I like it. I'm like, I was never athletic enough to be the high school quarterback, but I'm like the 40 year old guy who's like, I could have gone, bro, but I blew my knee out. Like, I could have, I could have raced Formula one if I just, you know, had more skill and talent and time and money.
Mike Allen [00:39:56]:
Then at asta, there's some pretty major competition and shit talking going on during the go karting. So yeah, that's going to happen again this year. It's going to be nice.
Aniz Lavji [00:40:05]:
I think so. I think so. I do have. If you look at the episodes that I record at home right now, I've got the $9 trophy in the background on my desk behind me that I got.
Mike Allen [00:40:17]:
Your counter.
Aniz Lavji [00:40:18]:
Yeah, so it's actually sitting on top of the counter.
Mike Allen [00:40:21]:
Did your counter hit 30,000?
Aniz Lavji [00:40:22]:
Well, we passed over 25,000 this week, so I would just.
Mike Allen [00:40:26]:
With all your schmoozing over the next few days, you should easily hit 30.
Aniz Lavji [00:40:30]:
I mean, why stop there? I mean, half million I think would be good. Yeah, yeah. No, I. It's crazy, man. I mean, we were at like 10,000 in October and to be at 25,000 now, I don't know what to make
Mike Allen [00:40:42]:
of it, but it must be all the rage bait.
Aniz Lavji [00:40:44]:
I think it is the rage bait and I think it, I think it's. Brian Pollock is really, really good at making funny cap cuts. That helps. The funny thing about rage bait, that's all Braxton, he just knows how to cut a clip to cut out all of the appropriate context and nuance and just make it easily misunderstood.
Mike Allen [00:41:11]:
Yes. And then whoever gets pissed off from it, they watch the whole episode and they're like, hey, I see what you did there.
Aniz Lavji [00:41:18]:
Well, they don't. It's like when you're like, hey, did you watch the episode? And they're like, I don't need to watch the episode. No, you're a dumbass. I was like, no, I already know what you do.
Mike Allen [00:41:26]:
I to want watch the whole nine seconds of the one hour.
Aniz Lavji [00:41:28]:
Yeah. Yes, I am a dumbass, but not for that reason.
Mike Allen [00:41:33]:
So now I'm curious what 9 seconds of this episode Braxton's gonna I think.
Aniz Lavji [00:41:40]:
I think mostly the part about me saying that he was good at something is the part that he'll cut out and choose to highlight. So probably the part about where he beat me on a racetrack.
Mike Allen [00:41:49]:
100% that's gonna be on there.
Aniz Lavji [00:41:51]:
I let him win for his ego,
Mike Allen [00:41:53]:
so everyone's got a win.
Aniz Lavji [00:41:55]:
Cool. Well, dude, thanks for coming on, man.
Mike Allen [00:42:00]:
Thanks for having me.
Aniz Lavji [00:42:00]:
And what's the name of your podcast? One more time?
Mike Allen [00:42:03]:
The Shop and Tread Talk podcast.
Aniz Lavji [00:42:06]:
Find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your player of choice.
Mike Allen [00:42:11]:
Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Aniz Lavji [00:42:13]:
I'll see you at the expo. 100% 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.
Aniz Lavji [00:42:49]:
Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.