It's 6:47 PM on a Tuesday. A 38-year-old master tech named Jason is standing at his toolbox, still in uniform, still in someone else's shop. He's been there since 7 AM. He stayed late because his service writer told a customer her car would be ready by 8 AM. Nobody told Jason. His back hurts. He hasn't seen his kids awake since Sunday. And a thought is sliding through his head for the third time this week: I'm worth more than this. He's not on Indeed. He's not refreshing your careers page. He's not going to apply to your "Now Hiring — $30/hr — Apply Today" ad. Not because the ad is bad. Because the ad is answering a question Jason isn't asking yet. And he's the tech you want. Here's the part most shop owners have never been told: YOU'RE NOT RUNNING ONE HIRING CAMPAIGN. YOU'RE RUNNING FIVE. YOU'VE ONLY EVER BUILT ONE. Every tech in your market goes through five distinct stages before he ever clocks in at your shop. Each stage is a different person, with a different question, with a different filter on what he'll let into his attention. The "now hiring" ad you've been running for four years answers the question at Stage 4. Roughly 80% of the techs you want are sitting at Stages 1 and 2. You're shouting into a room they're not in yet. Worse — and I'll prove this in a minute — the way most shops run their hiring ads is actively repelling the techs they're trying to attract. Let me walk you through the stages. Then I'll show you the unfair advantage hiding in plain sight, and what one of my members did with it last quarter. 👉 Stage 1 — Awareness. (Where 70% of the techs in your market actually live.) Jason isn't job-hunting. He's pain-hunting. He's scrolling Facebook on the couch after his kids go to bed. He's thumbing past his cousin's vacation photos. The voice in his head is not "I should update my resume." The voice in his head is "I know I deserve better — but what if every shop is just as bad as this one?" That voice is the only thing standing between you and a hire.

Most shops treat their Facebook ads like a faucet. Off when budget feels tight. On when the panic kicks back in. That model is wrong — and it's costing you the candidates you can't see. In this post: - The difference between pausing to save money and turning ads off after a hire - What Facebook is actually doing in the first week you don't see - The relearning tax — the invoice line nobody charges you for, but you still pay - Why some shops who spend less hire faster than shops who spend more - The decision frame that changes everything: let it learn, or pay to learn it again 3-minute read. Watch the video on the run if you're short on time. _______________________________________________________________ "Can we just shut it down for a couple weeks and see what flies?" Just about every shop owner I talk to has asked me some version of this — usually during an active campaign, when the spend feels heavy and the right tech hasn't surfaced yet. It feels frugal. It feels smart. It's neither. Your Facebook ads aren't a faucet. They're a trained dog. Stop the training mid-search and the dog forgets. Here's what's actually happening on the back end of your campaign — and why pausing mid-hire costs you more than you think. For the first week or so of any new Facebook campaign, the platform isn't fully sourcing leads for you. It's learning. Meta's official threshold is around 50 conversions inside a 7-day window before a campaign exits what they call the learning phase. In practice — for shop owners running specialty hiring ads — that usually takes anywhere from five days to two weeks depending on your budget and your area. During that window, Facebook is figuring out who to show your ad to. Which technicians. Which zip codes. Which times of day pull the right scrollers. Which version of your ad pulls A-techs and which one pulls guys who saw the salary and clicked apply on everything. Every click. Every scroll-past. Every application. Every bounce. All of it teaches the platform something about who's actually open to a move right now.

This is Kevin the iguana. He's our new buddy. He hangs out in the cabana here in Cancun. He loves carne asada tacos and corn chips. We tried to catch him but he's too fast. @Brian Nerger no he doesn't drink tequila... Even on Cinco De Mayo. Smart lizzard!

🎉 We Hit 500 Members! 🎉 A huge thank-you to every shop owner and gm in the Technician Find Skool Community. This group keeps growing because of you — your questions, wins, hiring tips, shop stories, and support for other owners. We built this community to help auto repair shop owners find better techs, make smarter hiring moves, and grow stronger teams. Now we’re 500 members strong. That’s a big deal. 🙌 Here’s to more wins, more hires, and more shops getting the help they need. Thank you for being here! — The Technician Find Team

What happened in the industry. What it means for your shop. What to do about it. $1.3 billion. That's what Jiffy Lube just sold for. Shell dumped it to a private equity firm called Monomoy Capital Partners — and that deal is going to ripple through every market where an independent shop competes for quick-lube and maintenance customers. But that's not even the biggest story this week. Driven Brands' legal situation got worse. A heavy-duty AI acquisition is about to change the diesel game. Strickland Brothers just loaded a $360 million war chest. And Caliber Collision — the nation's largest collision repair operator — quietly filed for an IPO. Here's what happened, what it means for your shop, and what to do about it this week. DRIVEN BRANDS: THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN Last week I told you Driven Brands was in trouble. This week, it's worse. At least four law firms are now actively pursuing the class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff deadline is May 8th. And the accounting errors? They've expanded to ten categories — including overstated revenue, unreconciled cash balances, and improperly recognized revenue in their Automotive Training Institute business. Here's the part that matters to you: Driven Brands owns Meineke, Maaco, Take 5, CARSTAR, and Auto Glass Now. Corporate leadership at those brands is consumed by legal discovery, financial restatements, and investor litigation right now. That means franchise owners are getting less support. Less communication. Less stability. And the technicians at those locations can feel it. They're not flooding Indeed yet. But the doubt is there. And when a tech starts doubting the stability of where they work, they start paying attention to what's around them. If you're anywhere near a Meineke, a Maaco, or a Take 5 — your shop needs to be the thing they find when they start looking. JIFFY LUBE SOLD TO PRIVATE EQUITY FOR $1.3 BILLION This one's big. Shell sold Jiffy Lube to Monomoy Capital Partners — a New York-based private equity firm that specializes in corporate carve-outs. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.