I'm running a side experiment with @Brian Nerger to augment his current technician hiring campaign... Ever wonder what would happen if you built your entire hiring strategy around a single, ideal technician? We're doing it now. Meet Jason Reeves. He's not real… but he might as well be. This little experiment changed how I think about recruiting and I can't wait to report the results. 👇 Curious? Take a look at Jason's "Wanted Poster" and tell me what stands out to you. (And yes—you probably have a Jason out there looking for you too.)

When a "Great" Candidate Might Still Be a Bad Business Deal. "If it doesn't work for the business, it doesn't work for anybody." -Chris I had a conversation with a shop owner this weekend that I can't stop thinking about. He found a tech who checked almost every box: → European and exotic car experience → Worked at two shops known for phenomenal quality → Sharp diagnostic skills (impressed the shop foreman in the interview) → Family man, stable, asked great questions in the interview → Even owned his own shop before, so he gets the business side The guy wanted $115K salary. Straight salary. No flat rate. No hybrid. And the shop owner was ready to say yes. Then we started peeling back the layers. The first yellow flag: "I need all my vacation and sick days available immediately—10 days—because my wife is having a baby in February and we don't have anyone else to watch the kids." Okay, understandable. Life happens. The second yellow flag: "I can't come in for a working interview. I don't have any personal days left at my current job." Wait. You have 10 personal days where you are... but none left? Where did they go? The third yellow flag: "The shop is slow, that's why I'm leaving." But when the owner texted him during work hours, the response came hours later with "sorry, been slammed." Slow... but slammed? Here's what hit me: This shop owner—like a lot of us—was already mentally problem-solving how to make it work for the tech. "Maybe I can front him the days.""Maybe I can start him at full salary during the 90-day period.""Maybe he just needs a chance." And I get it. When you've been grinding for months trying to find someone, and a candidate finally shows up who seems like the answer... you want to believe. But I asked him a question that stopped him cold: "What happens to the whole shop if he starts, goes on paternity leave, takes his sick days, and you're paying $2,200/week for someone who hasn't turned a wrench in 60 days?" Silence. Here's the thing nobody tells you about hiring:

Had a conversation with a shop owner that got my blood pressure up. A competitor—a dealer employee—literally walked onto his property and tried to recruit one of his techs while the guy was on break. Just... showed up. On his lot. Talking to his people. Here's my take: That's not "recruiting." That's trespassing wrapped in desperation. And here's the thing—if they'll do that to you, they'll do it to their own people too. That's not a culture. That's a churn machine. What this shop owner did immediately: → Told the team: "If anyone approaches you on our property, bring it to management. No drama—just info." → Made it crystal clear: "You're not in trouble. We just need to know." → Had a calm, professional conversation with the business that pulled this move: "Do not come on our property again. Contact me directly if you want to talk." No shouting. No threats. Just clear boundaries. But here's the real lesson: The only long-term protection from poaching isn't policies or signage or confrontation. It's culture + clarity + communication. If your techs know what they have, know they're valued, and know you're invested in their future—some guy in a polo shirt wandering onto your lot isn't a threat. He's a reminder of what they don't want. Now I want to hear from you: What would you do if a competitor tried to poach one of your techs—especially on your property? Drop your playbook 👇 - Do you confront the other shop? - Do you set a policy or put up signage? - Do you pull your tech aside and ask what they need to stay? - Do you do nothing and just double down on culture? What's your move? P.S. The shop owner told me his tech brought it up before he even knew it happened. That's when you know your culture is working.

You didn't buy a business. You bought a job you can't quit. 60-80 hours a week. Back on the tools. Writing estimates between oil changes. Putting out fires that never stop coming. Meanwhile... Your kid's game? Missed it. Date night? Rescheduled. Again. That "freedom" you imagined when you opened the shop? Nowhere to be found. Here's the brutal truth nobody told you: If you take a day off and everything falls apart... You don't own a business. You ARE the business. And that's not sustainable. It's not scalable. And it's slowly killing the thing you built. Your spouse knows it. Your body knows it. Deep down—you know it too. But here's what most shop owners miss: The answer isn't working harder. It's not another productivity hack. It's not "grinding until it works." The answer is building a team you actually trust. Not just bodies in bays. Technicians who show up. Who give a damn. Who can run the show when you're not there. Because when that happens? You're not just hiring help. You're buying your time back. You're buying fewer fires. You're buying the freedom you thought you were signing up for in the first place. So let me ask you: If your team was solid and fully staffed—how would your week look different? Drop your answer below. 👇

This post is a bit long but its full of hiring gold nuggets if you stay with me till the end. You might know that Technician Find has started doing comprehensive salary and benefits surveys for the shops we work with so they can see at a glance what their competition is offering their techs and how they stack up. We pull this data from the top job boards online and then aggregate the data into an easy to read chart. Then we run a statistical analysis of how our client shop's salary and benefits stack up so they can see where they are weak. This level of detail helps us write ads that get applications and it helps shops make offers that get accepted. Anyways, a client asked a great question this morning... To paraphrase he asked if there was a way to see what shops were actually paying their techs. NOT what they were offering online in job ads. You know me, I love a good challenge so I took a deep dive on Perplexity.AI to see what I could drum up. This is my reply and the interesting stuff I found in my deep dive: ______________________ Thanks for the detailed context. You're absolutely right that posted salaries only tell part of the story. Short of doing a W2 audit of each shop in your area there's no way to get an accurate read on real compensation numbers. That being said, there is a workaround of sorts. I did a deep search for actual compensation information in Perplexity.AI and received the output below. This output is based on supposedly factual data gathered from real shop owners and technicians via online sources where compensation is being discussed candidly. You can be the judge of its veracity but this data does reveal some interesting conclusions about how salary should be structured and listed for maximum impact. Let me know what you think. Take care, -Chris ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Based on recent placement data and industry compensation research, here's what strong technicians are actually accepting when they're recruited off-market versus what appears publicly.