The tech who quits isn't what wrecks your week. It's the silence after. Nobody to call. Bays with cars on the lifts and one less set of hands to touch them. Somebody gives notice Tuesday. Wednesday you're writing an ad. The following Friday (if you're lucky) you're shaking hands with the first guy who can fog a mirror — because the bays are stacking up and you need anybody. Maybe he lasts a month. Maybe three. Then you're right back here, doing it again. That's not a hiring problem. That's a scramble problem. And some shops never scramble. Not because they're lucky. Not because they're big. Because the day somebody walks, they've already got a list of names ready to call. The shops that never panic aren't doing anything complicated. They're doing one thing — consistently. I went on @Carm Capriotto's show for 38 minutes to break down exactly what that one thing is. A few of the things we hit: 👉The three things techs actually want — and why money lands third, not first. 👉"10-Mile Famous" — and the $5-a-day move behind it. It's not a hiring ad. That's the part everybody gets wrong. 👉Why your best next hire isn't on Indeed — and where he actually is. Full episode's below. 38 minutes. Worth the drive home. 🔗

A shop marketing expert asked me last week if AI could handle the first 15-minute screening call with a technician. The applicant comes in. A bot screens them. Asks the right questions. Filters out the Domino's guys. Hands you the ones worth your time. On paper, clean. But look deeper at what's really going on. It's like you're hiring somebody to go on all the dates for you. And then telling them to call you when they've got your future spouse at the altar so you can show up with the ring. That's the trade. And it doesn't work. A technician deciding to look isn't a transaction. It's a buying journey. The day he updates his resume, he's already mentally talking to two other shops. He's pulling up your Facebook page to see what your team looks like. He's looking at your online reviews. He's asking the tool guy what your reputation is. He's making a ten-year decision. For himself. And more importantly, for his family. The 15-minute screening call isn't a filter. It's the first real touchpoint where he decides whether you're someone he can trust. AI is terrible at building rapport with a tech who's been burned twice and is one phone call away from picking your competitor instead. The shop owner who wins the candidate isn't the one with the smartest screening funnel. It's the one who picks up the phone Friday at 4:30 and says, "You busy tomorrow morning? Come by, I'll show you around." That's not something you outsource. Reactive hiring treats candidates as inventory to be processed. Proactive hiring treats them as relationships to be built. The first one is what makes you desperate. It's also what gets you ghosted. Who wants to be treated like inventory or a production unit? The second one is what makes you fully staffed three years from now. Because every technician wants to be respected. You don't build a bench with automation. You build it with one short conversation a week with a tech who isn't even looking yet. That's the whole game. This entire conversation was captured on the Garage Grit podcast with Brad Hurlock. We also got into the red/yellow/green resume sort, the technician who watched a shop's Facebook page for two years before applying, why "we'll save your resume" burns candidates faster than anything, and the $175K-per-year math behind every empty bay.

"I can't afford to recruit right now." I've heard this from dozens of shop owners over the years. And every single one of them would fix a broken lift the same week. But an empty bay? They'll let that sit for a year. Same lift. Same lost production. But because nobody sends you an invoice for an empty bay, it doesn't feel real. Until you see the number. Hunt Demarest — CPA, author of Beyond the Bays — ran the math across his client base. An empty bay costs roughly $175,000 a year. Not in revenue. In GROSS PROFIT DOLLARS out of your pocket. I just went back on Hunt's podcast Business by the Numbers for a second time. I'm the first returning guest he's ever had by-the-way😎 We got into: → Why one A-tech narrowed her search to six shops — and exactly what the winning shop did that the other five didn't → The reason every ChatGPT-written job ad looks identical to every other ad on Indeed (and what that's actually costing you) → What most shops get dead wrong in the two weeks between an accepted offer and a toolbox drop → Something I announced publicly for the first time If you've got an empty bay right now — or you're one Friday afternoon conversation away from one — this is the episode you need to watch.👇

The owner didn't even know that the tech was there. The tech was watching everything. The bowling nights. The lake trips on the owner's boat. The birthday celebrations. Techs getting recognized publicly for ASE certifications. Every single post that showed what it felt like to work there. Then one Friday, his current shop did something that pushed him over the edge. And guess who he called first. Not Indeed. Not a recruiter. Not the shop down the street with the biggest ad and the billboard. The shop he'd been silently watching for 24 months. That's the story I shared on the Honest Garage Podcast this week with @David Laird and Paul Regalado. And it's the story that changes everything about how you think about recruiting. Because here's the uncomfortable truth: The best technicians in your area aren't scrolling job boards on their lunch break. They're not. They're employed. They're getting paid decent. They've got a family and friends telling them "You're crazy for even thinking about leaving." And the only thing that gets them to pick up the phone is a shop that made the risk feel worth it. On this episode, we get into: → Why one of our client's techs (an A-tech with six shops competing for her) chose THEM — and what the tool truck driver who didn't even service their shop had to do with it → The blue marlin fishing story I told at a conference that explains exactly why your Indeed ad isn't working (and what to do instead) → What happens when you make a tech fill out a 12-page application before you'll even talk to them (spoiler: they go to the next shop) → The real cost of every day you're down a tech — and why treating recruiting as an expense instead of an investment is the most expensive mistake you'll make this year → Why speed-to-lead isn't just a marketing concept — it's the #1 reason good candidates ghost you One thing David said that stuck with me: "Set aside your ego. That person in your inbox deserves the same courtesy and respect as if they showed up in person."

I was on Remarkable Results Radio with @Carm Capriotto recently and the episode just dropped. A shop owner asked about structuring pay for a GM. I mentioned that any bonus tied to gross profit requires transparency. He pushed back hard. "I had a friend who shared his numbers. The guy learned everything and opened his own shop." Before I could respond, a veteran multi-shop owner dropped this bomb: "Are you hiring a babysitter or a manager? Because those are two different things." The Zoom went quiet. Then he said something that made a few owners uncomfortable: "Why would you hire a general manager if they're not going to manage the numbers for you?" Here's the thing—the fear of "they'll learn and leave" is almost never the real issue. The real reasons are uglier. And we unpack all three in this episode. This episode will make you think. It might make you squirm. And it could change how you build your next leadership hire. 🎧⏯️ [Listen / view the full episode below] P.S. One owner on the call said he builds his compensation INTO the model—openly—and his managers are MORE motivated, not less. Wait until you hear how he structures it.