Here are the two most recent episodes
From Brain Fog to Better Sleep: Transforming Health for Business Owners [RR 1036]
Mauro Stara from 6packceo.com shares powerful strategies for staying strong, sharp, and energized as a business owner. He breaks down common myths about health and highlights the importance of a personalized approach to well-being. Key areas of focus include the essential roles of sleep, nutrition, and stress management in promoting longevity and a high-quality life.
Mauro offers practical tips for optimizing sleep by aligning with your circadian rhythm, managing light exposure, timing meals strategically, and maintaining proper electrolyte balance. He encourages listeners to treat their health like they would their car, prioritizing regular care and attention to ensure a longer, more energized life.
remarkableresults.biz/e1036
Speak, Stretch, Repeat: The Communication Growth Loop [THA 429]
Recorded at Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo 2025, two attendees of a communications class, led by Chris Cloutier and Craig O’Neill, were chosen as the top speakers during a Toastmasters style mock run-through. Their heartfelt and authentic stories resonated so strongly with the audience that they were invited to share their experiences on the podcast.
What began as a simple role-play exercise turned into a powerful conversation about the role of communication and relationship building in the automotive shop industry. Our guests reflect on the value of active listening, vulnerability, storytelling, and how these traits fuel strong leadership and team culture in repair shops.
This episode is a reminder that sometimes, the most meaningful moments are unplanned, and that great communication is at the heart of every successful business.
remarkableresults.biz/a429
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FTR 007: Matt Fanslow – Integrate the Malleable Young Apprentice Into Your Shop
Matt Fanslow Worries That Young Technician Apprentices Will Leave the Industry Without a Series Mentor Program and Career Path.
RR 354: Geek Talk 2.0 Part Two – Tech Talk From Aftermarket Professionals
Geek Talk 2.0 Part 2 – Who owns your data.
Join Greg Buckley CEO, Buckley’s Personalized Auto Care, Wilmington, DE, Chris Cloutier, Golden Rule Auto Care, Dallas TX and CEO of Autotex.me, Bill Nalu, President of Interstate Auto Care, Madison Heights, MI, Karim Morsil, Winkler Automotive, Gaithersburg, MD, and author and trainer Tracy Martin.
This is the second part of this episodic series covering important ‘tech’ topics that the automotive aftermarket, especially the service professional needs to pay attention to.
We discussed ownership of car generated data, the influence of the dealer network, the explosive growth of cellular networks in cars and trucks. The fact that new generations have no brand loyalty and what are we doing as shop owners to prepare ourselves to survive and thrive if we are not embracing IT.
THA 080: Bring Them Back: How To Revitalize a Lost Customer
Bring Them Back: How To Revitalize a Lost Customer
Our lively discussion starts with the Customer Retention Myth and ends with taking extreme ownership of your customer and keeping them in the fold. We talk about steps to get lost customers back, the power of relationships, the power of culture in customer retention and what type of marketing works for retention and revitalization up to and including a phone call.
The panel: Shari Pheasant, owner with her husband of A Master Mechanic, in Reno, NV and is a business coach and president of Horsepower Strategies and Ron Ipach, co-founder of Repair Shop Coach and known as Captain Car Count and David Roman, owner of Done With Care Auto Repair in Merriam, KS.
RR 353: Kyle Holt from S/P2 – Helping Entry-Level Technicians Enter and Stay in the Industry
Kyle Holt. Helping Entry-level Technicians Enter And Stay In Industry.
Kyle Holt is the Co-Founder and President of S/P2. S/P2 serves businesses and career tech schools in the automotive service, collision repair, heavy-duty/diesel, welding, among others.
They are not just building careers, they are nurturing! Offering an innovative mentor training program which has its own Mobile website in which Mentors can log in, comment and grade a student based on the ASE task list. This would be good at retaining students within the industry.
Kyle is very passionate about providing businesses and schools the ability to utilize the technology that they have created to help improve the lives of the people they serve.
FTR 006: Scott ‘Gonzo’ Weaver – Listen To Your Body
Scott ‘Gonzo’ Weaver Has A Warning. If Your Body Is Speaking To You? Listen.
RR 352: Rocky Khamenian. Uniting The Industry’s Great Divide!
Rocky Khamenian. Uniting The Industry’s Great Divide!
Rocky Khamenian is the owner/operator of Bimmer & Benz Specialists in Costa Mesa, located in south Orange County, CA. He is an active member of both Chapters 48 and 50 of the Automotive Service Councils of California and has served on the Board of Directors for both.
Throughout his 32-year career, Rocky has continually increased his education to maintain the highest possible level of professionalism. He’s achieved the status of Master Technician through ASE and he has completed a wide variety of technical classes on the repair and maintenance of BMW and Mercedes Benz vehicles through WTI. At the present time, he is in the process of being certified as a Bosch Master Technician.
Rocky is the current president of ASCCA Automotive Service Councils of California. He gives some life lessons for every shop owners, shares the importance of association membership and gives us a glimpse of the new ASCCA Degree program at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California.
The new ASCCA Degree program that has been in the works for years that has just been approved at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California 92019. You’ll start to hear more of this groundbreaking program soon on the podcast and through ASCCA. This state-approved credit course will create paid internships for ASCCA shops. This is a post-secondary program like the OE programs but strictly for independents and will help solve the need for entry-level technicians for independent shops.
THA 079: What Drives Your Parts Buying Decisions?
What Drives Your Parts Buying Decision?
This Town Hall Academy summit features Keith Williamson, owner of Williamson’s Repair and Tire in Bondurant, IA, John Long partner in Schertz Auto Service in Schertz, TX, and Keith Katz, owner of Quality Service Center in York, PA.
The panel covers part quality, service, availability, training, price, and warranty. We also get into credits and returns, their salesperson, volume rebates, e-commerce, and labor claims. There is a consensus on the value their supplier brings to their business.
Compare your supplier needs and relationship to what this panel has to say about their parts buying decisions.
RR 351: Paul Danner – Educator, Diagnostician and You-tuber ‘ScannerDanner’
Paul Danner. Educator, Diagnostician and Youtuber ‘ScannerDanner’
Paul Danner is an ASE L1 Certified Master Technician with Twenty-Four years of field experience in electronics, electrical and drivability diagnostics. For eighteen years he has been employed as an instructor at Rosedale Technical College where he has taught Engine Performance Diagnostics and Basic Electrical Systems. Eleven years ago, he opened his own mobile diagnostic business which performs electrical and electronic diagnostic services for over Twenty Garages in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.
He fell into mobile diagnostics and case studies by stopping in and helping his friends on the way home from work. He called it diaper money to help pay the bills. He is thankful that God has graced him with the ability to troubleshoot.
He is wired for variables and loves ‘What Ifs’. Paul stresses that your learning curve comes from the ‘good parts’ drawer and from the mistakes you make. You have to be in a shop that gives you a steady diet of diagnostic work to become good at diagnostics.
He teaches his student’s field diagnostics and has written a field manual about it and his youtube channel is a very popular place to learn.
FTR 005: Jennifer Filzen – She Wants To See More Women in the Auto Care Industry
For The Record. Jennifer Filzen Wants To See More Women in the Autocare Industry.
RR 350: Carrie-Lynn Rodenberg on Building Relationships One Transaction at a Time. The Power of CRM.
Building relationships one transaction at a time. The power of CRM.
Carrie-Lynn Rodenberg is the founder of Turnkey Marketing. It is a leading all-in-one marketing system for Auto Repair Shops. It is not just a software platform, but is an entire strategically planned, timed, and executed online and offline system, developed by marketing experts, that removes virtually all of the owner’s stress and time spent on marketing.
She and her team specialize in helping auto repair shops attract new leads, increase car count, and keep customers longer, without the shops having to do any work. She managed to do this by integrating cutting-edge technology with the best digital marketing tactics.
Her valuable tips and advice provide insights on how to build and connect with customers while maintaining healthy marketing content to keep businesses visible. Her strategies also include the most basic form of connecting, the normal conversation and content that revolves around helping customers get over their immediate issues. Appealing to humanize the complicated world of CRM, she enlightens us that the key to loyalty is built one transaction at a time.
THA 078: Low Hanging Financial Fruit That Will Increase Your Profits
Low Hanging Financial Fruit That Will Improve Your Profits
The cost of doing business rises each year. Net profits that are necessary to move your business forward are challenged each day.
Our panel talks about the value of inspections on your sales, association membership, and billing for all parts and fluids used on a repair. We get into some cost savings ideas and using the power of a company credit card to help with training costs.
RR 349: Tracy Martin – Our Vehicles are Becoming Smartphones on Wheels
Smartphone on Wheels.
Tracy Martin has authored six Motorbooks Workshop Series and writes articles for industry and trade magazines. His articles of late are focused on the connected car.
Our cars today are becoming if not already became smartphone on wheels. If this is the case, then all threats that are threatening our computers at home and our mobile device could potentially harm our cars as well. There are instances of factory system hacking and car software hacking that heightens our concern.
We talk cybersecurity concerns, the evolution of techs needed to fix the vehicles of the not too distant future and a better encryption protocol. Tracy says that you must be aware of the risks that can and will be present as the future unfolds.
FTR 004: Maylan Newton. Pay attention to your numbers.
For The Record. Maylan Newton. Pay attention to your numbers.
RR 348: Vinnie and Anthony Lucido from CoAuto – Community Conscious Car Care
Community Conscious Car Care
Vinnie and Anthony Lucido started CoAuto in 2014 at Reno, Nevada. The brothers are both ASE Master Technicians with Anthony holding 15 ASE Certifications.
Their shop CoAuto which stands for Community Conscious Car Care ran Veteran car giveaway every year, Local art display in waiting room which shop doesn’t take commission from sales, High school internship program, Reverse carbon footprint which Partnered with Arbor day foundation and have tree planted with every oil service and Women’s Car Care Clinic.
The brothers are taking a step back from business, letting employees learn by themselves and not micromanaging the company. They remained motivated from seeing the previous employer working to the bone as the owner who couldn’t let go of control and knew they didn’t want to be that type of owner. Both Anthony and Vinnie on a 5-year plan to have the shop run by itself.
THA 077: Business Coaches LAB – Standards
Business Coaches LAB on Standards
Standards, in a business is the bar, the rules that set the level of quality, service, experience, caring, and engagement. The problem is so many times the owner is so busy doing whatever he’s doing in his business mistakenly believing his job is to make sure cars are fixed.
Owners forget about the standards that set the tone and pulse of the business when it comes to customers, processes, training, conduct, dress code, ethics, financial, execution and performance among others.
You do not want your ‘standards’ to be set by others so you must create them if not chaos is ensured and as panel member Cecil Bullard says, “In business, there is no floating. You either going up or down.”
RR 347: Jonathan Ortiz of Foreign Affairs Auto – From Used Cars to Full Service
A Family Affair
Jonathan Ortiz is the General Manager at Foreign Affairs Auto, West Palm Beach, Florida finished his MBA at Northeastern in Boston. Since he joined the family business, he played a key role, with his Dad, in the transition from a used car dealership to full-service repair. He embodied a people first culture and took the entire shop to Worldpac this year.
He’s changed the way he approaches new hires because of losing past hires before they are set to arrive. Jonathan shares the changes he’s made to his hiring practices because of the impact no-shows has had.
Foreign Affairs Auto’s service pledge is same day service. Their client base is mostly European and has come to accept repairs to take more than one day. Making repairs in one day brings differentiation in the market.
FTR 003: Chris Cloutier on Taking Ownership | Training | Technology
For The Record. Chris Cloutier: Take Ownership As A Leader, Set The Standard For Training In Your Business And Embrace Tech Because It Isn’t Going Away.
RR 346: Matt Fanslow of Riverside Automotive – Improving the level of professionalism within the aftermarket industry
Improving The Level Of Professionalism Within The Aftermarket Industry
Matt Fanslow is an expert Diagnostic Technician and Shop Manager at Riverside Automotive, Redwing, Minnesota. He specializes in diagnosing automotive failures and is very well versed in using diagnostic equipment and is a PICO trainer.
Since he took his first job out of college, he has dedicated his efforts and training towards improving his abilities to efficiently and accurately diagnose automotive driveability, electrical and electrical failures.
It is his goal to improve the overall level of professionalism within the automotive industry and light truck repair trade while raising its public image level which can boost more professional tech to get into the industry.
FTR 002: Ron Ipach – Email is Destroying Your Business
For The Record. Ron Ipach says that email is destroying your business.
FTR 001: G Jerry Truglia on Training, Labor Rates, Tech Shortage & Standards
Find out what does J Gerry Truglia thinks about Training, Standards and Labor Rates.
FTR 000: For The Record Overview & Purpose
Introducing For The Record, a platform for every aftermarket professional to say what is on their mind. The goal will be to make ‘For The Record’ a platform that will challenge, stretch thinking, roll over the status quo, present new ideas, and change some opinions.
THA 076: Improving Your Soft Skills. How To Lead and Spread a Positive Vibe.
Improving Your Soft Skills. How to Lead and Spread a Positive Vibe.
Soft skills are the personal attributes that go a long way in building and enabling you to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. A soft skills inventory can be active listening, Enthusiasm, Attitude, Communication skills, Teamwork, Work ethic, Flexibility, and Courtesy, among others.
Our panel Amy Mattinat, from Autocraftsmen, Mt. Montpelier, VT, trainer, Former President of Women in Autocare, along with Greg Buckley, Buckley’s Personalized Auto Care, Wilmington, DE, and Jeremy O’Neal from Freedom Automotive and CEO of AdvisorFix.
Our Academy panel dives deep into the value of soft skills for a leader and among the entire team. We talk roles and responsibilities, the value of a success coach, and the value that soft skills bring to the technician, service advisor, customer relationship.
RR 345: Leon Martin from Auto Tech Services – The Importance of Soap-Paint and Light
The Importance of Soap-Paint-Light
Leon Martin started his shop on a 60×40 oat-field, in a community with a population no less than 2,200. He started it with pure guts and determination despite detractors that told him that he can’t do it. When Auto Tech was open in Rochester, Washington for appointments, he appealed to the emotion of his customers.
Starting a business has a lot of challenges especially on the financial side of things. Leon shares some tips on how to make a wise financial decision, getting a business coach, advocating shop cleanliness and the deeper value of customer service. He shares his cleanliness, colors and bright days and nights in Soap-Paint-Light.
He always tells his customers Maintenance is easy to schedule, breakdowns are not. His customers will nod in approval while he and his crew extract a smile and a simple ‘what can I do to make your day better’ will work wonders on any given situations.
RR 344: Technician Roundtable – Brin Kline, Tanner Brandt, Pedro De La Torre
Technician or Diagnostician, What’s the difference?
Technician Roundtable episode with Brin Kline, Tanner Brandt, and Pedro De La Torre share their passion for their craft and talk scheduling and selling diagnostics. We get into apprenticeship/mentorship to younger techs, and what training and education are necessary to be top diagnostic tech. This episode will benefit technicians and diagnosticians in a lot of ways.
They share their views on constant improvements that build the strength of a team and creates satisfied customers. Areas like IT, Quality Control, Business Education and top training for techs. This episode tackles the differences between techs and how to improve their skill through training. It is important to show a pathway of continuing education for the industries young techs to emulate and follow. The industry will benefit in the long run.
Listen to a diagnostician’s point of view only here at your premiere aftermarket podcast.
THA 075: Am I ready For My Second Branch?
Is there another branch location in your plans.
Have you ever thought of growing your brand into other communities? There is an art and science to intelligent growth. According to this Academy panel, it is not an easy task. You can choose an acquisition or open a brand new location.
The Panel includes multi shop owners Greg Bunch, from Aspen Auto Clinic, Colorado Springs and Denver, CO, Dwayne Myers, Dynamic Automotive, Frederick, MD, and Brian Sump, Avalon Motorsports, Denver, CO. They all have additional growth plans.
You will get a solid overview of growing your location count from the panel who have already made a ton of mistakes. Learn from them and take their wisdom to account in your growth plans.
RR 343: Shop Talk: John Constantin, Mike Shultz, and Jim Fleischman
Shop Talk: Time Management and Digital Inspections
Shop talk with three shop owners; John Constantin, Jim Fleishman and Mike Schultz talk time management and digital inspections.
Systems for time management will either make our lives easier or without them, our stress level could be at Defcon 2. You may use post-it notes or digital software to stay on track and more organized.
This episode was recorded live and was an ‘open mic’ format. You enjoy the dialogue between these shop owners from the Western New York area near Buffalo.
RR 342: Brandon Steckler – Diagnostician, Trainer, Writer
Diagnostician, Trainer and Writer. Learn What Inspires Brandon Steckler to Be the Best.
Brandon Steckler is a working diagnostician, writer and trainer. He loves to help maintain and improve the level of professionalism among today’s diagnosticians. His first article for Motorage is still his favorite piece. Brandon shares his take on daytime training, who he counts as his mentor and who is the respected and admired industry trainer he aspires to be like as he continues to earn his own stripes.
His lessons resonate even outside the confines of his class. It reaches out to each and every one of us that sharing knowledge will always result in discovering and learning new innovative things. Never be afraid to ask because careers are made with each choice we make.
Brandon is a trainer for CTI/WTI and has a personal mission to maintain and improve the level of professionalism amongst today’s diagnosticians and to help grow the number of competent diagnosticians of tomorrow.
THA 074: Can David Beat Goliath?
Can David Beat Goliath?
The Academy panel dives into the dichotomy of David and Goliath. David, quick nimble and did not perceive that he was an underdog. The panel considers that larger industry players can be Goliath-like … complacent, too structured, weighed down with rules and inflexible. It doesn’t mean that it is bad, but they say small and nimble is better than big and sluggish. They are quick to point out that we can learn a lot from Goliath’s as it pertains to systems and processes.
Ironically we did discuss that having a Goliath mentality may be good for a David. We talked about business models, being able to adapt to changes in the marketplace and consumers habits. A great example in the discussion was that Starbucks is a Goliath but they hire Davids. A very potent strategy for success. We also talk customer loyalty and what we can learn from the Goliaths of the aftermarket.
The Panel: Bambi Crozier, from Car Clinic in Lowel, AR, Jeremy O’Neal, Freedom Automotive, Freedom Automotive in Hesperia, CA and President and Lead Sales Trainer at AdvisorFix and Scott Pelava, Lonsdale Auto Works in Lonsdale, MN
RR 341: Mark Bergasse, Carlo Sabucco, Glenn Colling, Todd Sarson. Friends First-Competitors Second.
Friends To The Rescue.
Mark Bergasse from Marks Auto Service in Oakville, ON, had a life-changing medical condition. A heart attack that precipitated a quadruple bypass. His wife Sandy called their friends Glenn Colling of Eastside Auto Service, Todd Sarson of Stop N Go Automotive, and Carlo Sabucco of Sils Complete Auto Care Centre. They share their story of support to Mark and Sandy.
This story is about friendship, caring and the power of humanity. Are you prepared for a possible business or life-changing moment? Is your network in place? Are your friends or competitors ready to step up. Mark, Todd, Carlo and Glenn share the backstory on the value of friendship first, competitor second.
RR 340: Seth Thorson Creates $25,000 Scholarship Endowment
Ready To Create Your Own Scholarship Endowment for Automotive Tech Students?
Seth Thorson from Eurotech Auto Service, New Brighton, MN, has specialized in the service of European automobiles since 1999.
Seth made a bold move this year and created a $25,000 endowment scholarship to Century College. The Thorson Automotive Scholarship which is sponsored by Eurotech is an eye opener for the entire industry.
Seth points out that parents and students need to view an automotive career as a valuable and viable career opportunity. We need to reach out to help students afford college through scholarship programs.
Recruiting into our automotive tech colleges starts with talking to school boards, meeting with school superintendents, joining advisory boards and creating endowments.
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