Why Technician Pay Isn’t the Real Problem

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Better doesn't know what's going on.

[00:00:02]Yeah, they know everything, David.

[00:00:04]Yeah, they do.

[00:00:05]They know everything about everything, bro. Like all these people putting their entire life on on Facebook and like comment about everything. I got this friend and she doesn't listen to her stuff, but her husband does and so I know I'm going to get called out for this. She's going to hear about it.

[00:00:21]Man, she posts about everything. She wakes up in the middle of night, she's got a headache, she posts about it. She wakes up, she's feeling a little sick to her stomach, she posts about it. The dog farts and she posts about Like she posts about everything and I'm like you are informing AI about who you are, what you do, when you do it, what time you do it. You like you are giving the matrix your entire life plan, okay?

[00:00:45]You understand that, right? What kind of shoes you like, what kind of medicine you take. Like you're going to be feeding the matrix.

[00:00:52]>> the AI is going to extrapolate that out to the rest of us. So it's whatever she likes is what we're going to end up getting fed.

[00:00:58]>> I know, right?

[00:00:59]>> through AI.

[00:01:00]I I I Hey, listen, I've taken care of that problem in my life with AI because all I've put in it is all this crap we're going through and it's going to be like, yo, your life is already screwed.

[00:01:11]We don't have to do anything.

[00:01:12]>> [laughter] >> All right, so you posted something about technician pay. Every time I I say it's not about pay, technicians get mad.

[00:01:20]Hey y'all, Lucas here. It's story time.

[00:01:22]Over the past 6 months to a year, I've actually been working more and more in the family business. Now, the family business is not an automotive business, it's a tourist attraction and one of the things that was happening in that family business is we were doing all of the marketing internally. Be it social media ads, be it Google, all of it. We were handling all of it. Website building, the whole nine yards. And here's the deal. It became very clear our marketing efforts were ineffective. Now, we could see that we weren't getting return on investment. We could see that we weren't getting good conversions and that's when we stepped in and hired someone. We hired a professional that knew what they were doing and for the first time in years, our parking lot's full when it's typically empty. And that's why I'm going to recommend you pick up the phone today and call Shop Marketing Pros or click the link down in the comments [music] below because you shouldn't be learning how to do marketing. Your marketing machine should be working for you right here, right now, making sure your bays are full. So, go into the link in the comments and click on the Shop Marketing Pros link for your free marketing analysis today.

[00:02:21]And listen, I agree compensation matters. It needs to be better, but I don't believe that's the real problem anymore because I've seen guys making good money who are still miserable. That stand true.

[00:02:33]So, now I got to ask, what's really going on? They can't manage their money, Lucas. That's the problem.

[00:02:39]They can't manage their >> Hey, hey, it gets bigger than that. It The comments tell a very different story.

[00:02:45]Is it cultures of the environment? Is it this constant everyone versus everyone mindset in shops? Because that's not a pay issue, that's a people issue.

[00:02:55]And here's where it gets uncomfortable.

[00:02:57]I'm starting to think that some of this has just become a habit. Complain first, figure it out later. It's easier just to complain than fix anything. Just complain. Just [ __ ] about it. Yep. And when everything is a problem, nothing actually gets solved. So, let's flip it.

[00:03:11]What do you actually want?

[00:03:13]Not what's wrong, not what you hate.

[00:03:16]What does a good job look like to you?

[00:03:18]What's the number?

[00:03:20]Anything that allows them to become complacent pieces of [ __ ] That's the That's what they want. Hey, I want to I want to get paid more to do less. Exactly.

[00:03:31]>> And and that that is a theme among some technicians. That is a theme among some people.

[00:03:38]But but now listen, that's not the majority.

[00:03:41]The majority of the people who commented talked about something very different.

[00:03:46]Right? Number one complaint, flat rate.

[00:03:49]Now, I'm I'm not talking about flat rate's not fair, flat rates not this.

[00:03:53]And a lot of these independent shop owners jump in and say, "Yeah, but I support flat rate. I believe in paying my guys flat rate, this, that, and other. These guys make a lot of money on flat rate." But see, what what they're not seeing is the dealer side of it, okay? Because everything that came back the majority of the things that came back are all dealer sentiments.

[00:04:12]And if you look down through those comments and you see I I was going in and asking them like, "Hey, what's up with that?"

[00:04:18]And they're like, "Yeah, every dealer does this." I'm like, "Okay, I'm For one, I'm not talking about dealers."

[00:04:23]But I'm realizing that all the complainers are talking about dealers, okay? So, flat rate, warranty times are tanking.

[00:04:31]That we know they're tanking, but then management's playing games with the warranty times on top of that. They're adjusting things, they're maneuvering things, they're trying to do things shady behind the scenes.

[00:04:42]They're squeezing these guys even harder.

[00:04:45]Right? So, that's one thing.

[00:04:47]The other thing that they kept bringing up was was like, "Hey, listen, the environment is entirely dog-eat-dog."

[00:04:53]Like it it is them trying to get something over on us, it's us trying to get something over on them because they've beat us so hard. Like if we don't fight them, we don't get paid fairly.

[00:05:03]We don't get anything.

[00:05:05]The The other really interesting thing the the common theme in here is the shops are dirty.

[00:05:11]The shops are nasty.

[00:05:13]The shops don't have good HVAC and ventilation.

[00:05:16]The shop tools are worn out.

[00:05:18]Right? And and I think that is an independent problem, too, but a lot of these guys are saying, "Hey, this is a dealer problem. This is something we're seeing." Specialty tools mixed up, boxes and boxes of tools just thrown in piles.

[00:05:32]They don't know where the specialty tools are.

[00:05:35]I think this is something you know, there again, parts. They all brought up parts. They all said, "Hey, I'm over here trying to find these parts for my car. Nobody can find the parts in the parts department." Or when they give me the parts, they're not the right parts.

[00:05:51]Or I'm sending estimates up front. I send the estimate up front or I send what the car needs up front and they change my entire repair order.

[00:05:59]Because we don't think the client's going to buy that. Let me take this off and I'll take this off and I'll take this off and I'll adjust this and hey, just so we can get the sale, let's lower the time on the ticket.

[00:06:09]So now, wait a minute. So you can sell the job, you're lowering the time on ticket that it takes me, but I'm paid straight flat rate.

[00:06:18]So you're using me as a discount because you know that your GP's going to remain the same because you just brought my hours down.

[00:06:26]I'm going to have to work that same amount of time to complete the repair, but I'm not getting paid for the time that I'm working. And so I I think there's >> same time though, they might might they might make the argument that if I don't do that, you get zero and something is better than zero.

[00:06:40]That's that I listen, I understand that.

[00:06:43]But if if [snorts] I showed up to a job, right? As an employee and I was told I don't get paid for the time that I'm working and this is your opportunity cost, I'm going to have beef with that. I don't think that's right. Like if I show up for a job, I want to be paid for the time I'm working. Now look, I'm not David, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some type of sweat equity, that there shouldn't be some type of motivation because you and I both know we we have ran into this. You pay straight hourly, production tanks.

[00:07:13]And and I was told that for many, many years and and listen, I did not believe it. But I didn't believe it when I was here every day pushing and managing production.

[00:07:23]Hey folks, Lucas and I have been users of Shop-Ware for many years now. We believe that it's the easiest to use, it automates our profitability, it helps increase our shop efficiency and allows us to offer unmatched transparency to our customers. But Shop-Ware has stepped up and made it even easier to switch right now. Click the link in the description and when you're talking to them, mention the code CTI summer and they will migrate your data for free.

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[00:08:12]When when you're not there to push and drive and make sure, like, the boss is watching me, man. I got to go. I got to get this done.

[00:08:21]If somebody's not watching that, production falls off dramatically.

[00:08:24]You can't You can't be an absentee owner and do that.

[00:08:28]I think though there is there is Yeah, you got to have somebody like managing the flow of the shop. I I take back my um I take back my my hourly doesn't work thing partially because I've just found that it as long as someone is is ensuring the flow of the shop, it has to be somebody. So, somebody has to Somebody has to give a crap whether or not the car leaves or not.

[00:08:57]And if everybody puts their head down, and I'm just saying I I speculate that's probably what happens in your shop is everyone starts to put their head down to try to take care of their thing.

[00:09:08]Mhm. And nobody looks up to see that, hey, that car's still sitting here or that car's still sitting here or that estimate hasn't been sent out or, you know, and it And when that happens, then everything comes to a standstill.

[00:09:21]But if you've got somebody that that is just kicking that the ball down the road a little little bit at a time, but is still making sure the ball is moving down, then it it ends up working just fine because at the end of the day the if you've got good technicians I have great technicians. I love my technicians. For sure. Yeah. The the they just want to stay busy.

[00:09:48]Yeah.

[00:09:48]>> They just want to be working on something. They don't like sitting and scrolling through IG. Will they sit and scroll through IG? Yeah, well, if you give them the opportunity. But if it's like, "Hey, that you've got seven cars to do today." They're like, "Okay, great." And then they'll just bust through the cars. Right.

[00:10:03]>> And it it's whatever to them. Like, I could do nothing and have this the whole day like drag or I could bust out seven cars and have the day like go by in a blink and I look up it's already 6:00 p.m. It's time for me to go. And I've stayed busy the entire day. And at the end of the day the metric at our shop stopped being, "Hey, how many hours did you get billed out? How many" It just at the end of the day is like, "How much did you collect?" That's it.

[00:10:31]>> Yeah.

[00:10:32]And and all that I I get reported on at the end of the day from my managers, I collected X amount of dollars today.

[00:10:40]Because all that matters is how much money's going into the bank. I don't care whether the car stays or leaves or goes or what or what. And they know that I've got to collect parts deposits or I got to finish cars. And and the car has has to be picked up. Like, that's all that matters.

[00:10:57]Because if it doesn't if I don't collect the parts deposits, if I don't get the car picked up, and I I don't get paid, then I can't report a a sufficient amount of money at the end of the day.

[00:11:08]And all the stuff that goes in >> [laughter] >> is handled by somebody else. Yeah. Well, so here's the thing is I'm you're exactly right. Because that that's my shop, right? To the T. Is my team really cares and they really want to get the work out. And they really will do it.

[00:11:24]And they will motivate themselves and and they just they kind of need somebody there to raw raw. You know what I'm saying? Like, let's go. Come on, we got this. We got this. And and if if the mood gets to like, "Oh, this sucks.

[00:11:34]We're not getting there. Why are we never hitting our goals?" It all falls apart.

[00:11:38]But you're you're absolutely right. But the guys in that are responding to this post, they have systems built against them.

[00:11:45]Right? And see, me and you never see that because we don't work with shops and we're not engaged with shops that that operate and believe that way. The culture is literally set up to to be against one another.

[00:11:57]Right? And and so, like >> any sense. Like today, like you don't you're not getting paid from the same pool.

[00:12:03]So, let's read some of these comments here. I want I just want to see what you think. Uh You replied to some of these, but I haven't read any of these, so I don't have no idea.

[00:12:12]Uh This is a guy named Jerry. He says, "I love the rant on the last post, but again, I feel like you're comparing your shop and your peers that represent a very small percentage of shops overall to the rest of them. I don't think you're seeing the guys that can earn $80,000 plus a year in a 40-hour work week with a full benefits package complaining.

[00:12:31]You're seeing the guys that are prisoners of flat rate putting in 50 plus hours a week to get ahead. The guys working through their lunch hours and staying late while missing their kids' extracurricular activities. The ones spending all their money on tool trucks that make 25 bucks an hour. Am I wrong?

[00:12:46]Are you honestly seeing the guys that are high earners with health insurance, retirement plans, vacations, personalized training opportunities, and a good shop culture complaining? No, I don't, but at the same time, like you are choosing to stay at that job. Yeah.

[00:13:00]Yeah. You can't You can't see that there's a technician Did you You can't see that there's a technician shortage in the industry and then say, "Well, I can't go get another job at a different shop." You can't? You should be able to just throw, you know, a dart at a map and go, "That's where I want to go work." And then you go into that shop and say, "Hey, um toolbox full of tools, 20 years experience, 10 years experience, whatever, 5 years experience. I have my own scan tool. I can diagnose electrical issues on whatever. And like I want 45 bucks an hour. Yeah. It's like, oh, okay. They'll They'll go, "Sure. Let's bring you on."

[00:13:40]He He's right that we don't see those people as the primary complainers. And he's right that me and you don't see that. Right? Me and you really just don't see that side of the world. Now, listen, I I talked to some guys and and the more that I post videos like this, the more I'm hearing from these people who say like you just don't understand what it's like in dealer life or you don't understand what it's like in these big chain stores. I don't. Because I've not worked there.

[00:14:04]And so I think he's right in that aspect. I I do think that we have to get them to move >> They're still choosing Yeah, they're still choosing to stay there though. I just don't understand like you can Okay, I'm sorry that you have to work through your lunch and I'm sorry that you have to get buy all your own your own tools.

[00:14:19]My guys don't have to buy their own tools. My guys don't like I buy them lunch. They don't even have you know, they only get 30 minutes most days, but then we get the whole Friday off. They get a 3-day weekend every single week. I I don't know I don't understand why you would choose if there's another option out there.

[00:14:38]Is it going to take you more than 5 minutes to go find a shop that has 4-day work weeks?

[00:14:44]Maybe you don't want to 4-day work weeks, but you you just want to set hours and a long hour long lunch and You want to be able to leave when you need to leave.

[00:14:53]Yeah. Yeah, you want to have a specific type of benefit. I would prefer my guys don't leave.

[00:14:59]I get the whole extracurricular thing.

[00:15:01]Like I get that. But at the same time like schedule your [ __ ] for Friday because you have the entire Friday off. Every week Friday is is yours to do whatever the hell you want. It's not a weekend day. It's a Friday. Every Friday you have the entire day off. And just schedule your [ __ ] on those days.

[00:15:20]Those four work days like just get your [ __ ] done on those four work days.

[00:15:26]>> I will say this about lunch because one of the comments that came up is like, "Hey, I want a decent lunch and I want to be able to turn enough hours if I am flat rate. I want to be able to turn enough hours and I want it to be organized, the parts there, things can flow well, dispatch is flowing well, the cars are checked in on time, things like that to where if I am flat rate, I can move it." But a lot of them said, "Hey, I want to be able to leave for lunch. I don't want like such a short lunch break I can't leave."

[00:15:50]>> Now, I I just want to connect this to something. When we're out recording, all right? And we've been talking to people all day doing what we do, what do we want to do when it's lunch time? Even though we've both like cut way back on what we eat, we like to go sit down and eat and like just decompress for a few minutes and and not be in the environment like if we were sitting in that booth, just sitting there like having a drink or eating something and people are walking by and talking to you, you don't ever get to really relax. So, I support that. Being able to leave for a few minutes, go grab some lunch, take a deep breath, you know, I think that's important.

[00:16:23]I I'm with you if I didn't give you every Friday off.

[00:16:27]Yeah. I think and I did and here's the thing that I gave my guys the option.

[00:16:31]Said, "Do we cut down to 30-minute lunches and you leave at 6:00 or we do a full hour lunch and you can do whatever the hell you want for that full hour, but we leave at 6:30."

[00:16:40]And they'd rather leave at 6:00 than 6:30. And they said, "No, I just I'd rather leave at 6:00." I said, "Oh, okay, then great. It it's up to you. I don't care either way. I'm not the one that has to be there. Let's see some of these other Some of these guys put replied it and I know they don't work at the dealership or they they work at good shops or they're retired, so we're going to skip over those guys. Yeah, for sure.

[00:17:04]I agree that being that having been a tech is an important element of being a good shop owner. I don't agree with that. But very few techs have ever been taught anything about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Money may well be the base, but there's so much more to it. I tried to help my techs fulfill these needs that eventually bought them bought me out. They eventually bought me out. And he was able to retire.

[00:17:28]He's a 100% right. It's like, dude, it's not it's not a money thing. Like, you can't manage your money, but because and the reason why you can't manage your money is because you're impulsive with your purchases.

[00:17:41]>> Yeah. And you're impulsive with your purchases because you're trying to mask some type of problem that you have.

[00:17:47]Like, you're trying to distract yourself. Like, you're having a marital problem. So, you go and buy this junk just to keep you distracted from the marital problem. But then that blows your money, and then now that exacerbates your problem at home because you don't have enough money to cover your bills because you blew it on a freaking four-wheeler that you didn't need. Like, who the hell needs a four [laughter] This is a really interesting point, right? Because this is something that comes up often. This is something that we're consistently getting pushback on.

[00:18:18]And I say that, and they say, "Don't you dare tell me I can't manage my money."

[00:18:22]Well, one, it's offensive because like, hey, maybe there's some truth to this.

[00:18:26]And when you tell people the truth and they're having to face something they don't like, obviously, they're going to jump in the comments and be upset about it, right? Secondly, like, there there's no way around it. It's not about managing your money, right? Because my belief is is you have to live within your means. I I look, I'm all for you going and finding a better career, finding a better job, finding whatever it is. I don't have a problem with that.

[00:18:47]Go go do the thing. Make your life better. But you must live within your means until you can because you are the only [ __ ] responsible for your damn life. Right? Nobody else is going to do anything about any of this. This is you.

[00:19:02]And so, like, they get mad at me because I say that, and it's like, dude, don't get mad at me. I'm not saying this to hurt your feelings or say shop owners are are good or whatever it is they think I'm saying. I'm saying this because you must be responsible for your damn self.

[00:19:16]Right? Like come on now. You can't You can't like be upset because you're not where you want in life because of a boss doing something.

[00:19:23]Move on and get a different job. This is your responsibility, not mine.

[00:19:27]Right? I I had a meeting with an employee this morning.

[00:19:30]And they said, "Hey, is there any way" not with this business, with other business. They said, "Hey, is there any way that we can go back to getting paid every week instead of every 2 weeks?"

[00:19:40]Because it's unfair and it messes us up.

[00:19:43]And I'm like, "Explain that." And they said, "Well, we we run out of money after the first week."

[00:19:49]And I'm like, "You understand you're making the same amount of money, right?"

[00:19:52]Well, yeah.

[00:19:54]But like because it comes in in separate batches, it's not it's not fair.

[00:19:58]Yeah.

[00:19:59]Uh how about learning to manage your money? How about having self-discipline?

[00:20:03]Well, that's my point is like you you if they can't even understand that like you shouldn't be running out of money after 2 weeks if you're getting paid for 2 full weeks.

[00:20:11]I I looked I just wanted to look this up. The median balance in savings accounts by age is This is the median, not the mean, right? So, it's not the the middle of average of everybody.

[00:20:24]But the median is $5,400 for somebody less than 35.

[00:20:29]Less than 45 is $7,500.

[00:20:32]45 to 54 is $8,700.

[00:20:35]That's their savings account like balance, their emergency fund.

[00:20:40]>> baby. That's nothing, right? That's nothing. And so that's the average Americans.

[00:20:46]If the you can say that I know how to manage my money. Not I I doubt it. If be- because the average Americans carrying nothing in in their savings account. And if I see you on the tool truck at all I I automatically know that there's no chance in hell that you know what the hell you're doing.

[00:21:05]>> But it's convenient. It is convenient. I can see them carrying a small balance.

[00:21:12]But, here's the thing, like if you were smart other than paying $750 for that ball joint press you would have bought a used one for 250 bucks off of Facebook Marketplace.

[00:21:24]Because you want to save 2/3 or a pawn shop. You would have just paid cash at like a third of the price and just gotten a used one and it worked It works just as well and it has a warranty because it says Snap-on on it.

[00:21:39]And you wouldn't have paid the full $750 to get the fresh new one.

[00:21:43]And I normally know there's an issue.

[00:21:46]This This isn't true of everything. I did have a tech with me one time that had like $50,000 in tool truck debt.

[00:21:51]But, he was very very good with his money. Like, he made sure that he had everything segmented out. His wife was not good with the money, but he was. Um but if I see a a toolbox that's $50,000, like you'll never get that money back out of that toolbox.

[00:22:08]>> And no I don't care how much you think you're going to earn more over and above what you were earning before.

[00:22:14]I'm sorry, like the size of your toolbox has nothing to do with your earning potential, your ability to to work efficiently.

[00:22:22]You should be able to work out of >> Compensating.

[00:22:24]Maybe, but you know, it's the same guys that that also dump $10,000 in wheels and tires on their pickup truck. Like, what You're never going to get that money back out of it. And the only thing The only thing that's going to do is destroy the ball joints faster. And none of it makes any sense.

[00:22:40]But, if you're if you're looking if you you're listening to this and you look over and you're sitting at your toolbox right now and the toolbox has the laptop connection to it and you've got your laptop and it's got the lights above and your clock in the back and stuff like that and you're not a shop owner that's just your toolbox and it's $50,000 and it's sitting on 17-in wheels that you bought from Snap-on, like I'm sorry. Like, you don't know how to manage your money. That's a terrible purchase. There's just no way to get your money that doesn't retain its value. It immediately depreciates. It depreciates faster than than what you can pay it down.

[00:23:17]And then you're paying interest on top of that, too. It's like, I'm sorry.

[00:23:19]There's just no way to make get that money back out of it. It's like you're buying a brand new BMW. Like, what are you doing?

[00:23:25]Yep. Let me see if I can put an answer into a coherent statement.

[00:23:29]When he starts out like that, that means it's likely not going to be a coherent statement.

[00:23:34]We [snorts] need support. What does that look like?

[00:23:36]Modern or at least well-cared-for facilities and equipment.

[00:23:40]Good quality customers. What the hell does that mean? Good quality Like, who doesn't want good quality customers? But at the end of the day, like, you if you can't get any customers in the door, sometimes you'll just take whatever the hell you can. I I listen, I know this commenter, okay? And so, he is in a situation where they are not trying to find good quality customers.

[00:24:00]They say yes to everything. They say yes to everyone.

[00:24:03]>> Okay, but it's again, same He's choosing to work there. Go find a different job.

[00:24:06]>> I'm with you, and we've had this discussion.

[00:24:10]We've had this discussion. We talked about options. Good quality customers, that means management was actively trying to recruit and retain good customers. This doesn't mean oil change coupons aimed at price shoppers. It's okay. A quality process to And you know what? Like, the oil change thing, I get it if you've just been through lab scope class and you just bought a lab scope because again, you don't know how to manage your money, and then therefore the shop doesn't buy your $5,000 lab scope, you pay for it out of pocket. So, that was stupid on you, but whatever.

[00:24:42]But you got this lab scope now, you want to be able to use it, and your entire day is full of 1999 oil changes. I can see the frustration.

[00:24:51]But if you're getting paid for those oil changes, who the hell cares? Yeah.

[00:24:56]Just do the oil change and shut up.

[00:24:58]Anyway, a quality process to that that is well implemented designed to minimize my downtime. This is especially important on pure flat.

[00:25:09]I'm I'm going to tell you I've got that feedback from a lot of people.

[00:25:13]But what I find out when I dig into that that concept, not this particular commenter, but when I dig into that concept, they want someone else to design and develop a process and put it in place.

[00:25:25]And they just want to show up and do the thing.

[00:25:28]Right? The problem with that is is they have to be part of the process.

[00:25:32]They have to be part of developing the process. They have to put the work in to make the process work.

[00:25:37]Right? Like I was dealing with a shop owner this week, David.

[00:25:39]>> I'm going to hold on.

[00:25:42]If you were if that was part of the job description when I hired you on, hey, I want to help I want you to help me develop processes and systems that best utilize you and your skills and your abilities, then I would be on board with that and I'd be okay, let's do this. If you hire me on and you're like, hey, you're the cog in the machine, Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:03]>> and then you don't feed me and I'm constantly having to like bounce between this job and this job and this job and this job. But the the most efficient dealerships I've ever seen had porters that brought cars in and out all day for the technicians.

[00:26:20]>> back and forth.

[00:26:20]>> Yeah, because they didn't want the technicians spending their time driving and flipping cars in and out of the parking lot and running back and forth.

[00:26:29]They wanted those technicians just pumping out work. So, for sure. When I I hired one in, he's like, yeah, we used to have porters. I never moved a car.

[00:26:39]They would they would stay in the cars while I did the the fluid changes because I was able to do oil, transmission, front diff, rear diff, and then have it all done within 30 minutes. And that was like 4 hours worth of work.

[00:26:53]And I do a tire rotation, you know, while everything was draining. They would say the car >> with it. I'm not disagreeing with that.

[00:26:59]That's not That's not really what I'm trying to say here. I'm trying to say that what I'm finding is that they're coming back and they're not participating in the process at all. The shop comes in and says, "Here's our workflow." Well, I don't like that. This didn't move the way I wanted it to.

[00:27:15]Well, well, you know, they want a process, but they don't really want the process. They don't buy into the process is where I'm going with that.

[00:27:23]A clearer and consistent mission statement and direction.

[00:27:27]Yeah, we're just trying to pay the bills. Like, that's my mission statement. I just want to pay the bills.

[00:27:32]That's it.

[00:27:33]We're not trying to change the world fixing cars. I give a two [ __ ] about any of that.

[00:27:38]I just want to pay the bills.

[00:27:40]Let's just pay the bills. And everyone is like, "Yeah, let's just pay the bills today." And and listen, I I'm not Look, I'm fine with that. And a lot of these guys who comment like it's just about the pay, man. It's just about the pay.

[00:27:51]It's just about the pay. It's just about the pay. I do believe there has to be something like we have a purpose in doing this.

[00:27:58]Right? Like, I I can go anywhere and get a job and just get a paycheck.

[00:28:02]I think we have to be at least going on a journey. We have to be accomplishing something.

[00:28:07]It has to be bigger than just money.

[00:28:10]It It has to have some type of meaning.

[00:28:12]I don't like it. Like, you know me. Why am I thriving in the situation I'm in?

[00:28:17]I'm not exactly thriving, but you know what I'm saying. Why am I like Why am I okay with it? Well, it's because I like to have a big challenge in front of me, something to fight through. And I get super bored if I don't have it and I'll start breaking [ __ ] And I make my own challenges like somebody else I know. Uh and like I'll blow the shop up. I leave the [ __ ] alone. I leave the Hey, there's nothing broken. I'm going to leave that alone.

[00:28:39]You've improved.

[00:28:40]>> [laughter] >> I don't know. The The motivation of not being there has really helped you leave [ __ ] alone. I'm telling you.

[00:28:48]Anyway, uh back your techs.

[00:28:51]It's like, "Okay, I don't know I don't know if like But this is too All this stuff is like super vague. Like what is exactly This is a biggie. The chain of The chain of command is from car gods through me to you. If there's any doubt about your techs, someone needs retrained or shown the door. Nothing cuts the legs out from under a tech faster than being a second-guessed by bosses that are only looking at numbers."

[00:29:16]It's like, "Okay, I get that, but there's usually a reason for that." And it may not even be you. Like if you just hired [ __ ] techs over and over and over and over again because you're incompetent or whatever, or you're just looking for somebody cheap to fill the hole, right? I'm going to tell you >> they don't know how to diagnose a god damn thing, and you see a pattern and you're like, "Hey, it's not likely that.

[00:29:38]It's probably the same." There's a particular manager, we're not going to call him out or anything like that. Good people, I'm not saying anything bad.

[00:29:46]Um that really believed in, "Hey dude, like don't tell them that's wrong with it because then we'll get stuck trying to fix that, or they'll say they don't want to fix the car. Don't tell them about that. Tell them about this instead. Hey, we've got better GP per hour on these, and I get my bonus on that. So I need you to recommend that, not this. Take that off.

[00:30:05]Right? Or hey, they're not going to buy anything if we tell them it needs that.

[00:30:09]So how about we just keep our mouth shut? They'll find out eventually on their own. That's not our fault. We just don't want to edit it. Right? And like so there is some shadiness that's happening based on pay plans. That's one of my big beefs with dealers. Right? A full commission structure that everybody is paid on commission creates some evil mentalities, buddy.

[00:30:28]>> Yeah. They all of a sudden will start navigating. You know, and and I I was making a video about efficiency. And it was talking about like, "Hey, if you use a KPI to beat your employees, right?

[00:30:39]Like dude, you're not efficient enough.

[00:30:40]You're not efficient enough." They eventually will find a way around that number. They'll stop clocking in and out accurately. They'll start doing other stuff. They'll start turning down the jobs that are hard. They'll They'll do something to make that number better, but it won't be in the interest of making the number better. It'll be in the interest of getting you to shut the [ __ ] up.

[00:30:57]>> Yeah, it's whatever you incentivize, that's the behavior you you have to and this is what always drives me nuts about some of these like coaches that are like, "Hey man, why didn't you bill out 45 hours this week, man? What's going on? It's If it's not 45 hours next week, man, we're going to have to talk and maybe it's you out the door and blah blah blah." It's like, "Dude, what do you think you're encouraging there?"

[00:31:17]Yeah, absolutely.

[00:31:19]They're They're going to find a way to hit those 45 hours, but it may not be what you want it to be. At the end of the day, I'd prefer the quality work.

[00:31:26]Like, at 28 hours, I'd prefer quality work over 45 hours of sketchy, who the hell knows work. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:31:35]I'm with you, man.

[00:31:36]>> Um So, he says, "Back to techs, uh have a backup. If you pay flat rate or another production-based pay system, have a backup plan in place to keep your techs in decent pay if things get slow. I've seen shops go into slow season with 11 techs and come out with three. That is the backup plan, by the way. You just fire all the techs."

[00:31:56]>> pay anyone. Well, here's the thing.

[00:31:58]Like, the At the end of the day, these shops That That's the way they're structured.

[00:32:04]So, they'll When they're busy, they'll bring 11 techs on. Guess which three techs they keep? The best three. Yeah.

[00:32:10]>> They They didn't hire 11 fantastic techs.

[00:32:13]>> Well, I listen, I I will almost question that a little bit cuz I was talking to a friend who is a dealer principal. And he's the guy I've even said this to you before, who said, "What do you think all these techs who got these huge pay raises traded for that big paycheck?"

[00:32:29]And I said, "I don't know." He said, "They traded security because they're going to be the first to go if we slow down." If If we see that they don't have the ability. They've been out here swinging this hammer saying how much they deserve, how much they how good they are. He said, "If they're in here earning big money and they can't put up." He said, "The minute that it slows down even a little bit, they're the first to go." Right? And so, the bigger the paycheck is the one that that some of these guys are looking at pulling first.

[00:32:55]>> The last point he made was communication. It's like when paying your your employees correctly, sink or swim flat rate may not work for every shop, every technician, every situation.

[00:33:04]I mean, we we we talk about that all the time. I don't know that he made any points there. That's He said it was going to be a coherent statement. It was not. You You made some very vague very vague points. Why do you always hurt people's feelings?

[00:33:17]I Because it Look, if you're going to if you're going to post it on the internet and have the comment at least be funny.

[00:33:23]If it's not >> Seth's comments? Okay, you should go Oh, you still got him blocked. Never mind.

[00:33:28]You should go read Seth's comments. Like >> have him blocked. I I did have him blocked for a little while cuz he was following me around on all posts and I thought that was weird. Um >> [laughter] >> but that was years ago.

[00:33:40]He uh No, he What did I've seen him type, dude. He like smashes the keyboard like he's like slap slap slap slap slap. And then he hits enter and he's like, "I don't have time for spell check." That's what he told me. I'm like, What?

[00:33:56]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, he's hilarious. He's got the AI class at Mike Allen's. That's coming up.

[00:34:03]It's And And Mike said it was really cool. Like it was it was very interesting. I know you hate AI, but like I hate AI so much, dude. Here's the thing. Like if it was making people smarter, I'd be all for it. But I think people are getting stupider with the AI. Because now instead of like, "Hey, I'm going to think through this critically." Now it's like, "I'll just go ask AI." And the AI spits out the wrong answer, but because they can't think critically, they don't know the answer's wrong, and then they're like, "Hey, I thought it this." Like, okay. And did you think about this for a second? This doesn't make any sense.

[00:34:42]>> The things I've been using it for is like, you know what I show you what I'm using it for right now. Yes, and I'm telling you I just slop all of it. And I take a pen and I write down like I go through and I correct it. And so what I'm asking it to do right now is just format documents for me, right? That's all I'm asking it to do is format documents and put this in a a method that I can organize and understand where I'm at and the things I have to do, right?

[00:35:05]And so like, before I came up here, I'm sitting down with a pen and I'm writing over the document that I have and it's a running document and I just keep uploading it back into it. And it it's a project file. So in Claude, you can create a project, you can upload knowledge base files into that project.

[00:35:20]So like in that case, all of those bank statements and all of the stuff that's going on are all in it. And so I go back and I'm like, okay, I would like to know how much this person stole compared to how much I paid this or how much this company paid this, right? And so it it gives me the ability to kind of like parse data really quickly. And then I can go cross-reference that. Like, hey, you're wrong here.

[00:35:43]Fix this. Or hey, this statement's inaccurate. Fix this. So now, when I'm sitting down to think about this, I have like a document that I can reference and go through because there's so many phases and so many pieces of that particular situation that I couldn't You know what I mean? I couldn't organize all of it in a way that would be meaningful to me that I could go back and cross-reference it any point in time.

[00:36:06]Cuz I mean, there's like 107 major issues that I'm trying to work through right now.

[00:36:10]And so each one of those is in there and I'm like, okay, did I deal with this?

[00:36:14]Did I check the box on this? I need to call this person and find out. But it's really more of like a reminder and task list, if you will.

[00:36:22]And there's some other stuff that I've put in there that I've come back with different stuff. But like data analysis, things like that. I'm just telling you like I use it as a Google search. That's That's it. Like I need to ask it a question and I used to use Google, but now I'll go into AI and I'll ask it a quick question. But then it like I have to click on all I'm like give me references and I have to click on every single reference and I have to read through it because otherwise I don't trust anything it spits out. Open AI is dying. You're going to have Anthropic and you're going to have Google. That's what's going to be left. Yeah, I'm using Perplexity. I don't know.

[00:36:54]>> Yeah.

[00:36:55]Anyway.

[00:36:56]Anyway. I think the that a master A-tech, whatever the hell that means, with 20 years experience should make a third of a door rate.

[00:37:03]>> [laughter] >> Otherwise, they should go out on their own and make more. This is make more.

[00:37:10]>> [laughter] >> Good luck with that, huh?

[00:37:15]That's I look anybody who See, this is somebody that needs to go into AI and go, "Can you Can you math the math for me?" And have AI come back and go Yeah, the math doesn't work. Sorry, buddy.

[00:37:26]>> Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[00:37:28]And here's the thing like it depends on what your door rate is, but I Sure, I can pay you a third of the door rate. But guess what? Like the equipment's not going to get updated and the subscriptions are going to be out of date and the the scan tool is going to be 10 years old and I'm not going to be able to buy any tools and so you're on your own. I'll pay you a a third of the door rate, but you're buying your own scan tool, your own subs, your own tools. Like that's just the way it's going to go.

[00:37:57]And by the way, since I'm paying you a third of the door rate and you got to think also like 25% of that's going to go to the taxes.

[00:38:05]Right. You're not really getting a third of the door rate. You're only getting 75% of the third of the door rate, right?

[00:38:11]>> Listen, I'm not necessarily the door rate. I'm going to pay a third of effective labor rate, but I'm paying you a third of effective labor rate >> It's whatever the effective labor rate is.

[00:38:28]>> [laughter] >> It It's whatever the effective labor rate is, and it's whatever hours you build at that point. Yeah.

[00:38:34]>> Right?

[00:38:35]I Look, I I pay 30% is my target is what I pay to my technicians, but it's produced labor.

[00:38:42]And so if if you want to be on flat rate, I don't care. That's fine if that's how you want to be paid, and that's what you want. But now listen, you can't say I want flat rate, and I want to turn 400 hours, and I want this this and this, produce crap work, only get the gravy work, only do the things that you want to do to turn big hours, because that's not what I signed up for.

[00:39:03]I signed up to properly and safely repair automobiles so they are safe and reliable for my clients. That's what I signed up for.

[00:39:09]I didn't sign up to scam people based on what you feel like making this week, or what the work is that you love doing and is fastest for you. I'll never forget I had a technician one time, and every single car needed ball joints. Dude was fast as heck at ball joints, but every car got ball joint recommendations. I would go out, and I would check the cars, and they didn't need ball joints.

[00:39:29]Don't don't come checking behind me.

[00:39:31]Don't question my diagnosis.

[00:39:34]Come on now. I'm questioning [clears throat] you because every car needs ball joints. It's a mathematical impossibility.

[00:39:40]Come on, don't be stupid.

[00:39:42]Like it >> [clears throat] >> You don't want to be questioned. You don't want to be held accountable. You want big money. You want a big paycheck.

[00:39:49]You want all the benefits in the world.

[00:39:51]You want You want You want You want You want.

[00:39:54]But there's a lot of these guys who who And listen, there are a lot of really good technicians who if you treat them very well, will treat you very well, and will take really good care of your clients, and will do the right thing, and will work really hard. Me and you both have a full fleet of those technicians right now.

[00:40:08]All right? I don't have a doubt in the world. But I'm telling you right now, there are those who expect the world, who want it all handed to them, that will not do the right thing. It's all about them. It's all about what they want.

[00:40:21]Well, then not only that, too. That even if you do treat them right, they'll find some contrived reason that you're wronging them. And it could be something like, "Oh, I don't know why I inspected this Ford, and you gave the Ford to somebody else." Like, "Dude, because you were on a 20-hour job. Like, I had to give it to somebody else. Otherwise, that car doesn't leave for a week."

[00:40:42]Well, I That's just not fair. And then all of a sudden, now that now they have a reason to screw you over.

[00:40:49]>> I'm not going to say any names. We're talking about an employee that you know.

[00:40:52]Not not here at the shop anymore. But, one of the things that I thought was so funny is um recently, they um I'm still involved with the individual. And And recently, they got in trouble for eating four people's lunches out of the other businesses uh like a a friend's businesses fridge.

[00:41:08]And they're like, "Well, they shouldn't have it in there if they didn't want it to be eaten."

[00:41:12]"I had no clue it was someone else's."

[00:41:14]Like, are you seriously so dense that you can only see yourself in every situation?

[00:41:19]>> Yeah. Are you so dense that all that matters is what you want now you feel?

[00:41:24]Baby had a rumbly tummy. He wanted to eat.

[00:41:26]He didn't care that he didn't bring in that soup. It's his soup now.

[00:41:32]If I had to boil it down to one thing, uh this needs to go back to being a business a current technician would be all right if their own children wanted to do. This hasn't been that for a long time, especially at the dealership flat rate level. It's a shark tank. Who wants to drop their kid into a shark tank?

[00:41:48]Okay, don't work at the dealership then.

[00:41:50]Problem solved. This guy says you're right, so we're not going to read his comment. Yeah, cuz we know he's wrong.

[00:41:56]What would help out? Bosses that have done the job.

[00:42:00]I don't see how that I don't know if that that matters. The way we are all on That way we're all on the same page.

[00:42:05]Well, you should be on the same page if you're trying to accomplish the same the same goal, you would think. A team that works together, not battling each other.

[00:42:13]It's like, okay.

[00:42:14]Shop conditions that are better, better lighting, less leaking roofs. Who's a leaking roof? Who is that?

[00:42:19]>> Lots of people, dude. You would not believe some of these shops, man.

[00:42:22]I I've got people, because of of the videos I've been making, like I'll I'll post something like this and they're like, "You just don't understand what it's like in the real world. You just are not seeing this." And they all like, dude, they get mean. They say like really mean things to me as a shop owner and they're like, "You do this and you do this." And I'm like, "Bro, I I don't know what where you're getting your data, your intel, but like we don't do that here." And I'll send them pictures of the shop and they're like, "Holy crap. And you have air conditioning? Do you have heat?" And I'm like, "I have [laughter] heat. What are you talking about?" Of course I have heat. They're like, "Hey, our shop doesn't have heat."

[00:42:53]And they're sending me pictures of their shops. Dude, like inches of grease on the floor. Like you walk through the shop and they tell the techs to take their shoes off when they get in the client's car. I don't understand though.

[00:43:03]Like why not walk Like at some point stop and go, "Hey, I'm going to clean the floors." Well, if you're paid flat rate and you're never paid for cleaning, and they're not willing to hire somebody to help clean, and they're not maintaining the building, I If If it But I have to work there.

[00:43:19]You see what I'm saying? Like I get that I'm not going to get paid. I I'm okay with that.

[00:43:24]But I'm going to take an hour at the end of the day, I'm going to stay in late, and I'm going to clean the floors.

[00:43:30]And I'm going to say, "Hey, I'm going to tell everybody there, hey, I cleaned the floors. Nobody asked me to do this, but I cleaned the floors because I don't want to take my shoes off when I get into a customer's car.

[00:43:40]Keep your floor clean, or we're going to have a problem." And then that's it.

[00:43:44]Like I'm going to set the tone because I it I have to work there because I'm choosing to work there. Like I'd just go find another job is what I would do, but Yeah, if if If I'm going to stay there, then I'm going to make the situation better for myself and then try to help everybody else in the process.

[00:44:02]Just so we can all have a better situation. Just not be okay with the with the grease on the ground and just deal with it.

[00:44:10]Like they if you if you leave the grease on the ground it's sort of like the um this guy wrote a book and I man I can't remember the name of the book but he turned I think it was Baltimore. He turned around a city that had been dilapidated and it was like there were no new businesses coming in, people were moving out, it was just crime-riddled and then and then and then and and the way he started fixing it was they just passed ordinances that you just couldn't have broken windows.

[00:44:38]That that was it. Like that's how it started. And like the windows had to be fixed. And because all of the buildings now had nice fixed windows, like new businesses started coming in, people started moving in, the crime went down and it was just like they just didn't accept things like that. That's all it was.

[00:44:55]>> know how many of those people who had to fix their windows said this is this is unbelievable. I can't believe you're making us do this.

[00:45:05]This is unfair. This is not right. You shouldn't be able to control me. This is my property. You can't tell me what How many people acted like that about it. Now look look who paid the or look who got the the ultimate benefit from it, right? Like ultimately at the end of the day the benefit was is their the value of their property increased, right?

[00:45:28]And so they they got the benefit.

[00:45:30]But because somebody else told them to do it or made them do it, did not give them a choice. All of a sudden that person's evil and terrible and all the things. Now when they sold the house, they would never give that person any credit.

[00:45:42]All right? Like property values have increased. I actually have something of value now.

[00:45:47]That [ __ ] made me fix my window.

[00:45:50]That's true.

[00:45:51]>> By the way, the name of the book is called Fixing Broken Windows, Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities.

[00:45:57]And it was based off a 1982 article in The Atlantic. And it was We seen a the Go ahead.

[00:46:05]Well, I was just saying that that that's essentially how they were able to turn around these communities is like they they just didn't accept the broken windows anymore. I'm not going to Listen, I got to go, so I'm not going to fully set you off here, okay?

[00:46:18]But I just want you to know like go look up the news articles about Asheville right now.

[00:46:22]And people are saying like downtown Asheville used to be one of the most beautiful towns in North Carolina. It was so like so revered and these beautiful spaces and like it's in the mountains and Grove Park Inn and all this stuff and now the homeless population is such that people are saying like it's it's disgusting, it's dirty, it's dangerous, it's all of these things. You should go read the articles that have recently popped up about it. It's very interesting.

[00:46:50]That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to just stop right there.

[00:46:52]Let you go read for yourself. [laughter] By the way, they can fix it overnight like they did in San Francisco. Like all of a sudden when the uh if it was the president of China was coming into town, San Francisco got cleaned up overnight. Like all the vagrants, all of the poo in the streets, all of the needles got cleaned up and all of a sudden it looked like a beautiful city. It's cuz somebody from out of out of the country was coming in and they wanted to show off the city and then >> Well, I mean look at San Diego.

[00:47:18]Right? Look at San Diego. When we were in San Diego, man, they got these buses that are driving around. They're like, "Get in. Get in." Now, I'm sure they're taking them to Los Angeles [laughter] and just dropping them Just dropping them off in Los Los Angeles. Here's your tent.

[00:47:32]I'm like, "We're going to help you back up." We're dropping you off here. Don't come back. Enjoy.

[00:47:37]Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:47:40]All right.