Charlie Zlatkos went from $20k a Month to $1m a Month in 15 Years - Here's How

What's up, players? This is Joe Adams with Adams Automotive, the number one shop in America. This is episode four of Master Tech to Millionaire, presented by Autoshop Answers, where we talk about the transition from technician, master technician to business owner, CEO. We are here with my partner, the GOAT, Charlie Zlatkos, the number one operator in the country.

Man, he is an amazing father, an amazing husband. He is a leader in his business. He is, there aren't words to say. He is the embodiment of the American dream.

We're going to walk through his story today. He moved here from Greece at a very young age, and he knew four words in the English language. Today, he has so many things going on. He is such an amazing guy.

People will follow him into battle. He is a millionaire, master tech to millionaire. Without further ado, Charlie, we just walked out of a classic Todd Hayes take five. I am all amped up and ready to go.

Good morning, Charlie. How are you doing this morning? Hey, good morning, Joe. Thank you for the intro, man.

Yeah, I mean, you can't take anything away from that guy. He amps you up every day. How can you leave that take five? I mean, we just went nuts for about 45 minutes.

If you're listening to this podcast, one of the main pillars of our concept is you have to have a take five every single morning and train on the concept. So I'm about ready to run through a brick wall this morning. I know Charlie is too. So let's get right into it.

Charlie, what is up my brother so i want to just start from the very beginning you were not born in america you grew up in greece correct uh just walk me through what got you into cars how'd you get over here how'd you you know just walk me through the very beginning okay great uh so born and raised in greece and name uh the city named salonica is the second biggest city in greece after athens. And just naturally loved cars and motorcycles i basically started with motorcycles uh all my friends had motorcycles i had motorcycles and riding wild and funny story you probably don't even know this story my mother had a little assembly line for clothes for like polo shirts and stuff and because i have big counter space in this in there she let me use the space at night after they closed down and we used to repair our bikes oh wow in there so it became a garage at night the deal was in the morning when they showed up it had to be spotless so i'm a clean freak because of it. So I started at night after work, all my friends would take the motorcycles apart. We repair them.

I mean, it going on every day, pretty much. We'll put them together, clean up the shop. It was spotless every day, ready for them to do their work. So you come from a technical background, like many people do, master tech to millionaire.

So we're starting at master tech. I do not have a car background. I have a communications background. So it proves there's multiple ways to go about it, but you had the technical bug from a young age.

Walk me through. So you moved to America. How old were you? I was about 16, call it 17.

I was about 17 years old. And you spoke no English, correct? No English. I knew four words.

They're cat, hat, man, and dog. Okay, cat, hat, man, and dog. We point to Charlie all the time because it's like, man, success does not discriminate. Internal locus of control.

It's like you are in control of your destiny. Anybody can do it. Anybody is capable of doing this in our industry, and the competition is just not that strong. So you're 17 years old.

You're born and raised in Greece, Salonika, and you're moving to America. Was that your decision or did your family kind of force that upon you? So my mother has a sister and she moved to United States many, many years ago with her husband and kids. And, you know, they invited us to come over when I was about five.

So we got all the paperwork ready, ready to move. And I was young and excited to come over. And then my father changed his mind and we stayed in Greece. We never came.

And then, you know, going move forward. I go home one day. And like I said, I'm older. this time and my parents are like oh we're moving to the united states and i'm like what i didn't want to go i mean i had like i said i had my motorcycles my friends my group of people it's very hard to move at that age right about 16 to 17 it's very very difficult to move uh so we made the move and i had an uncle there and you know i was crying at the airport leaving i was really like holding to the chairs of the airport i didn't want to go and he says listen just go there stay for six months. If you don't like it, you're more than welcome to come back and stay with me.

I have no problem. So we moved here and obviously still here. The rest is history. Wow.

So props to you. The story for our family is my great, great, great grandfather. I don't know if I told you this. When he was 12 years old in like 1821 or something, his name was Gottfried Mueller.

And he stowed away on a fishing boat from Germany and jumped off in Galveston Harbor. And Houston, Texas is as far as we've made it six generations later. So we're a sixth generation family, but I have no idea how that's possible. That is so crazy to be able to just leave your culture and your family and you don't even speak the language.

That's unbelievable. So walk me through that. What is that like? You get on an airplane, you land in Boston, right?

And you have family there. You do not speak English. What is that like? I mean, you went to a shop almost right away, correct?

Yeah. So as I said, my mother's sister and my uncle who actually passed away about a year ago now. God bless you. So super, super nice guy.

So we landed here. It was a Thursday. Friday morning. He takes me.

We went around to a few shops that he knew the owners of, you know, Greek owners. The first couple passed on me. And then the third guy was in the shop and the manager looks at the owner. His name is Jimmy.

And I still talk to Jimmy all the time, by the way. All right. Yeah. Jimmy says, man, I like this kid.

We should give him a shot. So that was on a Friday and he says, come and start work on Monday. So Monday I started working for him and I stayed there for over seven years. Jeez.

Yep. The reason I left there is because the owner had three sons and they had Jimmy there. So it was basically no future there for me, I felt like. So I wanted to move on and do something else.

So what I did, again, at the time, I thought I knew enough. And knowing what you know now, you know that you didn't know anything. Right. So I wanted to start my own little business.

So I bought a van of an electrician and I put some oil in there. I put some wiper blades, a floor jack, a handful of tools. And I had another friend of mine at the time, his name is Eddie, and he had detailing shops in the buildings in downtown Boston. So I used to go around the buildings and service his customers doing oil changes, maybe some flat repairs, minor stuff like that.

Did that for about a year and I didn't make any money. Right so that didn't work out so well at the time again i didn't know business i didn't know how to charge i didn't know anything right you just knew how to hustle so my first boss then because i'm still talking to them he says hey i have this other friend of mine who has two gas stations and it was gas station slasity repair shop right and he has one closed down he wants to reopen it doesn't have anybody to run it. So he introduced me to George. I'm married with George.

He made me an offer to start the business for him, basically. And I took the job because as I said, I wasn't making any money. So whatever he offered me, I said, yes. Yeah.

So I go in, I start opening the gas station and I opened the bay doors and hopefully some cars come in and I basically built a business for him. I was the, eventually we hired some gas attendants, but I was the only. Person in the shop for 10 and a half years. There was nobody else.

No service advisors, no technicians, no GSs, nobody. I was the only guy. So that's, okay. So let's back up here.

So that's like 1993 to like 2010 or something. That's crazy. So, oh yeah, go for it. 93. Yeah.

The whole story is from 93 to 2010, basically between the three jobs. It was the first gas station, then the oil change deal, and then the second gas station job. That's remarkable. So I want to point out an analogy here that Charlie mentioned.

He said, I was working all the time, but I wasn't making any money. That is very common in the industry. One of the analogies Todd likes to use is he goes, look, I am a professional CEO. I am a professional business machine.

What makes people think, and this isn't in an arrogant way, we want to approach this with humility, but man, my name, Joe Adams, his name, Todd Hayes, we do not know how to fix cars. I do not know how to take an evaporator core out of a vehicle. And so one of the things he likes to say is what makes people think like, let's say Todd were to go and buy, let's say I were to go and buy a hundred thousand dollars worth of tools and slap an ASE patch on our shirt and say, Hey, I'm a master technician. Now I'm going to start fixing cars.

That wouldn't work. You would not pay me. That would be recheck city. I would take about a week to do anything.

I mean, I'd have to learn it on the fly. I literally do not know how to do that. So what makes people think is what Todd says. What makes people think that they can just open their own business?

Charlie had to learn by the school of hard knocks years and years and years of labor, which we will get into. I've never met a harder worker in my life that it is just not a formula of work really hard and become successful that can work in car repair like as a technician. But man, there are so many things that have to do with running a business with admin and payroll and recruiting and answering the phone ride and training and having a business model. And, you know, all of it, all of it, all of it is just so complex and so stressful.

The number one, you know, the number one occupation in America for divorce. Do you know what it is, Charlie? I have no idea. It's small business owner because they don't know.

You don't typically know what you're getting into. And it is so stressful and it consumes your whole life if you're not prepared. So I just wanted to make that analogy. You would not pay me to fix your car I cannot fix a car.

So we tell people, you know, you need to find somebody who can fix your business You have to work on your business. You have to be a ceo. It is a very different job It is a different career. So we're helping you transition from master tech to millionaire, but let's go back a little bit So I want to go back to that first week So you really didn't have a high school education.

That sounds like you just got in the trenches. How did how did you learn english? How did that go? Uh, so when I came here, well, first of all, the high school in Greece, I changed in the last year before we moved here and I went to a technical school for automotive.

And then when I came here again, I didn't speak English and I was working with a bunch of Greek people, but because I was working in the gas station and there was a lot of traffic, a lot of people in and out, kind of learned the language pretty quick. Within the first six or nine months, I picked up the language pretty comfortably. Okay. And then I went to a technical school at night when I was here.

It was a school in Chelsea, Mass. So I would work up until about 5, then drive to Chelsea. I was there between 6 and 10 every night. Okay, I want to touch on something here.

I had to fall in love with the business and become passionate about it before I really felt my work ethic come out. I was a classic, you know, Gen Z, didn't want to work very hard. It really took a lot of time with Todd to see the light of how fun this can be. Was it just always in you?

I mean, night school, after a five o'clock, you know, after your shift, do you think, I just want you, I wonder if you have any thoughts on, do you think it's genetic? What do you think you have, the work ethic that you have? Well, the work ethic actually starts from my parents. I have to give them that.

So since I was five years old, so in Greece, you know, there's good areas and bad areas and a lot of bad things happening. So my parents were good enough to protect me from that environment. So since I was about five years old, my father used to do ornamental plastering and he used to take me with him on weekends. He used to work...

Construction, basically, used to take me with me on weekends and just to kind of help him out. And I got to be honest, the first few years, you know, a couple of years, I'm very, very young. I wasn't doing anything. I was mixing some stuff for him, carrying stuff around.

I wasn't doing much, but I didn't learn till later on. He taught me the work ethic, wake up on time, be on time, accountability. And he kept me away from the streets doing some other stuff. I think I also, as you're saying that I'm processing out loud here, I think that my mother is a huge part of the genetic formula and modeling that I experienced.

My dad works so hard as well, but my mother really, I mean, she is, she's at the shop every day. She, I won't tell you her age on this podcast, but she's been in the business for 45 years and she is at the front desk every single day. She is taking home customers. She is, she does not need to be loading the fridge with, with Coke Zero.

So mother, if you're listening to this, I love you very much. You are amazing. You are such an example for work ethic. So that's a great point, Charlie.

So let's go back to there's something I want to touch on before we get into you owning your own business, which is you are in the industry for 17 years. It sounds like before. I mean, 17 years, guys. First of all, it doesn't happen overnight.

Everyone's like, man, Charlie's so successful. Overnight success. It just I mean, 17 years in the trenches is crazy. But I want to touch on something that if you feel comfortable talking about it is very rampant in the industry.

And that's, you know, you were able, from what I understand, to witness some low integrity in the areas and shops in Boston. So is there anything that you want to talk about? Can you tell that story of what it's like being a young kid from another country and you're in a shop where they're trying to make ends meet and they get put under pressure and they take advantage of customers and do all the horror stories that we hear about out there? What's that like for you and just what did it teach you about the industry oh boy yeah so.

That is definitely true. I had to do a lot of unethical stuff. And when you're young and you have no money and they just tell you, you do what you're told and you don't talk about it. I mean, that's what you do.

And again, don't forget, I came from another country with no money in the pocket. Another story that goes to that. The first six months we moved here, my father started doing roofing. And then I come home one night and my mother is like, oh I got to talk to you so your father can't see out of his one of his eyes and then the other eye is very blurry and I didn't know again very young so he had to have operation in both his eyes he was doing roofing and the doctor after the operation is like you shouldn't do roofing anymore it's too much blood pressure you should do something else but my response at the time was how much is that going to be and she didn't know I'm like it doesn't matter I'll just work for it Yeah.

But again, when you have no money and everything is on the table and you have to make money, you do what you're told, right? But I have to be honest on thinking about this lower integrity people, and I don't want to get into details of what we did, but it was so unethical sometimes. See, everybody knows what's right and wrong, right? Nobody needs to tell you if you're doing something right or wrong.

Your gut tells you. So when you go in the morning, To Dunkin' Donuts, to pick up a coffee, Dunkin' Donuts is obviously very big in Boston. Right. When you go to pick up a coffee and you see somebody, you know inside your heart that you did something that wasn't right for that person, you avoid eye contact or you try to hide, that is not right.

Yeah. Okay. But to talk about the industry as an industry, why do they do that? I've really thought of this.

And right now, we're so blessed, both me and you and Bill and all of us involved in Autoshop Answers and what we're doing, that we learn from Todd the right way of doing business. And a lot of these people, they just don't have the right way of doing business. They're not PMing cars properly. They're not saying yes.

So they're trying to maximize everything they can to survive because they're doing it wrong. They don't know the right way. So, I still don't think that gives you the right to be unethical. You know what I mean?

If you don't have the answer, you should go sick for the answer. And there is something else, too, in that second job I had in the second gas station. You know, my friends and family, they used to tell me, because I was a very good technician by then. I mean, if you have to do something by yourself for 10 and a half years, you'll become really good.

Oh yeah. Because there is no option B, right? So you better figure it out. So all my friends and family used to tell me, oh, why, you know, start your own business.

You're so good. And I always said, always said this for years, I'm not ready. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm not ready.

I'm not ready. and I didn't know why I said this until years later and I said it to Todd and I'm like Todd I know why I said I wasn't ready because if I left that job in a different time other than the time I left I would have never met you yeah see our paths would never cross so I think you know God had a different plan and that was you know above my control but it was just meant to be but the point here is, I made a post this morning on LinkedIn, too. Actually, I said one of your posts. You owe it to your business, to your family, to your teammates, to your customers to learn a better way and come and experience the Autoshop Answers and learn what it's all about. Don't just guess.

Learn what it's really all about, and then you're going to know how to do it right, and you're going to feel so good providing this kind of service and making money in the process. I mean, money is the by-product of doing it. Wow. Okay.

So I can feel you, I can hear you getting a little choked up and it's, it's emotional for me too. It's like, the first thing I want to say is I have so much compassion for younger Charlie. I mean, you're 21 years old. You barely speak English.

You are from another country and your dad is having health problems. And it's like, you are a kid and you hit your boss. I was younger than 21 at the time it happened. I was probably 18. 18 years old, man.

That's, that's crazy. Just fresh. I don't want to say fresh off the boat, but like, man, so I have so much compassion. You are so forgiven for, for that part of life.

But man, one thing Todd says all the time is you had to be that guy to be this guy. That experience formulated in your, you know, we're a faith-based company. I think God makes all things work together for his good and his purpose. And you had to be that guy to be able to have compassion for people in the industry today.

And you had to be that guy to know what it's like and to experience the bad side so that you can really be an evangelist for the good side, you know, which is taking care of customers and doing the right thing and be able to look them in the eye at Dunkin' Donuts. So, you know, I have so much compassion for you. We are a faith-based company. I totally don't believe in coincidences.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Todd walked into your life all those years later. Let's get off of the emotional soapbox and let's go forward. So fast forward to about 2009, 2010. You are, you know, working for the man for 17 years.

You've got, I think, one beautiful child and your daughter was being born, correct? And you wanted to get into business. You want to walk me through that story? How'd that happen?

Oh, you said we're not going to be emotional. Oh, man. Oh, man. I hate to do it to you.

We'll cut that part out if we get too choked up. But yeah, so your daughter, Mariana, correct, is getting born, your beautiful wife, Vula, and you're ready to start your own business. So walk me through that process. All right.

So we're going to back up a little bit. Okay. So Dimitri was born in 2005, our first child. And now he's starting to get a little older, two or three years old.

And we're talking about having a second kid. And deep inside me, I just wanted to have my own business again because, oh, man, it's so weird. Oh, Joe, you're killing me. I know.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I had no path, but I know I wanted to do different from what I was doing and better. Okay. So Dimitri is starting to get a little older.

I'm like, I need to have my own business before we have another child. So I go up to George, the owner, and I have to say this too, George treated me so good. Yeah. Okay.

And again, he didn't run the business well, but he treated me personally really good. So I have a lot of respect for that. So, I go up to George, and I'm like, listen, George, I am your main guy here. Obviously, you have no backup plan, but I am going to look to find a place for myself and my family, so I want you to start looking for somebody else.

So, George comes back to me, and he says, there's nowhere you can go. I mean, everybody knows you're here. You run the place. Everybody thinks you're the owner, pretty much.

He says, I'm going to sell you the place. I say, George, I didn't ask for it, but if that's what you want, great. So that conversation went on. Every few months we had a conversation.

I'm like, George, are you ready to sell? Not yet. Are you ready to sell? Not yet.

So eventually, you know, Vula gets pregnant with Marina. So I'm looking at places now, and I told him, I went up to him, and I said, listen, Vula is pregnant. I'm going to look for a place. Obviously, you can't make the decision.

And I walked in his office one day with a blank piece of paper and a pen. That's really so bold. And I said, Jos, here's a blank piece of paper. I want you to put a number and a date down.

And he says, I can't do that. Then I say, I can't work here. So I said, I want you to know I am going to look for a place and I'm going to leave. Okay.

So Vula is pregnant. And then on June 5th, Marina was born. And I called him and I say, we just had the baby. He says, congratulations.

I said, by the way, I'm not coming back. And I had already signed a lease in the Watertown shop. And by June 21st, I had it all cleaned out and painted and up and running the business. And the place was so dirty, by the way.

It was three inches of old oil on the floors. I mean, it's very old. Like, I melted scrapers trying to clean the floor in that place. It was absolutely crazy.

So that's how the story goes. So this month is very- Tell him, tell him, Charlie, tell him. And this month is- Charlie's going to start crying, so I'm going to jump in here. Man, I'm going to start crying.

Wow. This is the 15-year anniversary of Charlie's jump off the high dive, and we'll walk through the revenue later, but he's having an all-time record month at that store, which I want to get to later. I don't want to spoil the surprise, because I'll start crying if I start saying the number. So I want to talk about a concept here, very interesting to me.

It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. You said, I don't know what, and we're a faith-based deal. I think it was divinely inspired in a lot of ways. but there is this concept of taking risk as an entrepreneur and why risk in this world is rewarded typically. So the way I've been thinking about it a lot lately is it's an asymmetric bet.

So a symmetric bet is 50-50 heads, tails, I win, you lose. It's like 50-50, it's gambling. An asymmetric bet is you start with $100,000 and the worst that you can do is lose all of it or go bankrupt. Correct.

That's the worst that you can do. The best that you can do is unlimited. You can actually do unlimited top side. So I think that's the way the world works.

And that's the way, you know, capitalism works is if you jump off the high dive, you are, you know. Much more likely, the most successful people on planet Earth are the people who take the risk. They're the people who start their own business. They ask the girl out.

They ask whoever out. You know, they go to that job interview when they've already got a safe job. They take that risk. And so it's this concept of like, it's not actually about being the smartest person in the room all the time.

It's about jumping off the high dive and going for it and talking to customers and having no fear. I've heard of this concept of the A students end up working for the C students. Have you heard of this? It's like the really, really smart people.

They just kind of sit in a room and think of all the reasons why they, the business won't be successful. And so they, you know, they work for, for other companies and they're really, really smart people. But man, my dad, he just had enough of his boss and he was like, I'm going to go start my own business. And he just didn't spend that much time really thinking about it.

He was 24 years old. His prefrontal cortex was not developed yet. And he got in the trenches fast. And it's like, that is just a very common.

Just, it's just something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Like the world rewards your effort. And I just think that's the nature of how it works. So last thing I'll say is you said, I don't know if it was something inside me, like it was something deep inside.

I heard of this concept about, it really is like a genetic thing. It is you immigrated from another country. You had the type of personality. I know your family was involved in it, was the type of person to take that risk.

My family, the same. My parents immigrated, you know, my great-great-grandparents immigrated from another country. And the whole culture, I know I'm talking a lot here, the whole culture of America is built by immigrants and built by people who generations past literally took the risk to jump off the high dive. And I just think that's so powerful.

And it's in your nature to literally, I mean, I've never met somebody like Charlie who just, they find information and they consume it and they run with it and they take chances. And so... I'll get back to your story, but you've opened up your own company. You have basically no business plan.

You're doing oil changes out of a truck for something. And then you open Watertown. Can you give me a little bit more clarity of exactly what that was like the first six months just being in your own business? And just what was that like?

I didn't even, I have not been able to experience that. I want to hear your perspective. Okay. So actually follow up on what you just said.

So it's called analysis paralysis. Yeah. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't do their legwork and be, you know, a little proactive, but my personal story, when I started, I mean, I really just had passion and I trusted my ability. Yeah.

That was the whole game plan. I knew I was very capable and I knew nobody could outwork me. I mean, that was the plan. Yeah.

And then again, we spoke a little bit about this morning on the take five. See, right now, I work hard, but I know exactly what's going to happen next. We know step by step because our business is so predictable. Everything that happens every day is so predictable right now.

And you can't work hard and get a lot of results, or you can just work hard and you go home and you're like, what did I really do today? And there's no result. I've been there. So when I started the business, that's really all it was.

I came in and I just hustled every day. And I was very lucky early on. I mean, we got the business name. First of all, let's start with this.

We got the Pleasant Kike name because we are located on Pleasant Street in Waratown. And secondly, due to the experience that I had before, I believe that was a much more pleasant person to do business with than some of the previous people I worked with. Oh, that makes sense. Okay, so it's a double meaning.

So that's how I chose the name. And it ended up being a great name, by the way. But I really just relied on being nice and being able to fix the cars correctly. And unfortunately, believing I could do it cheaper than anybody else.

Yes. Okay. So let's jump into that concept. Most people, man, they work for some other person and they think I'm doing all the work.

I'm Charlie. I'm managing this store for 10 years. I can do this. And I can, I'm actually such a good technician that I can do it for cheaper than the guy down the street and faster.

And so you get all these customers that you don't really want, that don't want to spend any money. They don't actually do a good job taking care of their car and they're going for the cheapest, cheapest deal. You can run a successful business with this model. Walmart is really, you know, well known for doing that.

I think their profit margin is like 3%, but they do so much volume that I don't know how they do it. That's not our business model. That's very difficult. But there's this concept of you get into business and most businesses.

Most small businesses in America, do you know what their business model is? It's a super hardworking entrepreneur. Let's say you survive past a year or five years. The business model is a super hardworking operator who puts in a hundred plus hours a week running around like a chicken with his head cut off, has honestly no idea what they're doing, and there's no profit at the end of the month and they can't figure out why.

And if they took a vacation or left the shop or left their business, sales would go in the tank and nothing would happen. Correct? A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

So that's it. You have to have standard operating procedures and systems in order to scale your mind and recruit people and train them. But I want to walk through the beginning stages of that hard work, Charlie. I've heard stories of you test driving customers' vehicles to get to and from your house because you couldn't afford gas. hard work doesn't necessarily translate.

I think eventually it does. I think eventually it's inevitable. The universe or God or whatever you want to call it rewards your try, rewards your hard work, but it doesn't necessarily directly compute to you put in hard work, you get results immediately. So can you walk me through just years of you had no money?

I mean, you couldn't put gas in your car. What's that like? All right. So- When I first started, again, all my savings, whatever I saved in the time I was in the United States, we had a house.

We had bought a house, so a lot of that money went for a down payment to the house. And then the rest of it went to buy equipment and pay the lease to open the shop. And it was all used equipment and, you know, some shop supplies that you needed. And I had a lot of people, I have to say, nobody does it by themselves, right?

Yeah. And so a lot of people helped me out early on. I used to have this friend of mine, Mike. Like he used to work actually for the bus company, the MBTA, and he used to be able to help me.

Like he would bring me air hoses and NDCs because I wasn't able to afford it. So he would bring me like a bottle of NDCs a week or an air hose to supply me to get the shop going. Then one of the things, like I said, the gas story, it's a funny story today. It wasn't funny at the time.

Because I had no money to put gas in my car, I would tell the customers that, hey, I would call the customer and say, hey, Joe, Charlie, you have a pleasant car carrier. We need to know, I just finished the work on your car. Everything looks great. What I like to do is I'd like to take it home for the night.

If you don't mind, just to put some more miles on it. And then I'll be able to confirm everything in the morning and I'll give you a call. You can pick up the car. How does that sound?

Which is great for the customer. Test driving a vehicle is great, but man, talk about trying to make ends meet. Man, that's wonderful. But they didn't know.

They didn't know what I was doing. I was just really, I needed to get gas to go home. And my wife did not know that up until later on. I think I told her that about seven years ago now.

And she's like, wow, why you didn't tell me? I'm like, man, how can a man call to his wife and say that I have no money to put gas? You just can't do it. So, I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but that's what I did.

Okay. So, let's talk about the numbers. Let's get into it. So, you were doing $20,000 a month when you met Todd, correct?

How did you actually meet Todd? Which, by the way, if you are an advisor or a manager and you don't own your own business, if you're doing $20,000 a month with all the liability and stress of running your own business and your margins aren't that good and your gross margins are bad, your net profit margins are even worse, you can't put gas in your car, that is an extremely stressful life, seven days a week. It's a lot of work. So you're doing $20,000 a month when you meet Todd.

How did you actually meet him? When did y'all cross paths? And just walk me through the beginning stages of that process. So one of the vendors, one of my suppliers at the time is in the shop.

And he says, wow, you need to get more cars in here. I say, you're right. He's like, call this guy Bill and see if he can help you advertise. And I basically got Bill's number And I called Bill, Bill Broussard.

Bill Broussard, yeah. Who's now our partner, right? And actually, we all build a lot. So I called Bill and say, Bill, my name is Charlie, blah, blah, blah.

I say, Mike gave me your number, and he says, you can help me advertise. So Bill is like, I can help you advertise. But he says, do you know what to say on the phone? And I say, what?

He's like, yeah, I don't advertise. He's like, if you don't know what to say on the phone, don't advertise, because you'll just be throwing your money out the window. He says, you need to meet Todd. And I say, who's Todd?

He says, you're going to get to meet him and then you'll know what it's all about. So a couple of weeks later, Todd was coming to Boston. They already had a meeting set up after hours in one of the shops down South Shore. And it was actually Paul's father shop, Paul Martin shop.

And I drove over there and, you know, Todd's personality is Todd's big personality. Can I jump in here? So timeline, just for everybody, because it helps me, is, you know, you've been grinding 17 years. You've opened your own business.

Todd sold his company all these years ago in about 97. And he had another chain called Repair One. But at this point, he was kind of flying around the country, consulting, coaching, doing his deal, correct? So what year is this?

And then I'll let you keep going. So this was around 2012. Okay, 2012. You're going to your first key to key to callbacks with Todd Hayes.

What's that like? Yeah, so it wasn't even a key-to-key yet. It was, like I said, just a little get-together after hours of super compressed version of key-to-key. Okay, like an hour-long compressed version.

So Todd's big personality comes up, and you know, I mean, even till today, he's bigger than life. Oh, yeah. So Todd gets up there, and it's probably like 10 of us sitting, and the first thing he says is customer pays for everything. And I'm like, what do you mean?

And he's like, well, who paid for you guys to get here? Who pays for the lift? Who pays for the electricity? Who paid for the gas?

Who pays for your phone bill? And he says, the customer pays for everything. And the minute you realize that and you really take it to heart, it changes everything you do. It changes the way you look at business.

It changes the way you treat a customer. It changes the way you answer the phone. It really changes everything. Yeah.

And what you guys need to hear if you're listening to this is it has nothing to do with the car. Everybody in America can put, everybody all over the world can put tires on a car just as good as everybody else. Everybody can, you know, there's technicians all over the country that can put a water pump on a car and it will have an amazing warranty if it's a quality part and it'll be great. It is about how you treat the customer.

It is about how you treat your people and you lead them and you take care of them. So Todd introduces you to this concept called key to key to callbacks, It's just a brief intro, but it kind of shifts your mind. And you are a relentless person. You are relentless in your pursuit of the consumption of knowledge.

You have the gene. You're obsessed. You're maniacal like I am, like our family is, like Glenn Piccolo is, Mike Quinn, David Ginn, all these amazing superstars. You are relentless.

So you actually learned English in a way, right? By like writing down the presentations, correct? You just went all in on Todd's concept from there. Walk me through that.

So I was lucky enough. And again, what got me where I was at the time, as I said, I was a very likable person, pleasant, honest, all those things. And I feel like that came through to Todd because he trusted me early on and he gave me access to this folder that he has all of his material, which not many people have access to. Right, right.

Okay. So Bill had access to it, and then he gave me access. And all I did, I sat there and I listened and I read everything he wrote over and over and over, and I didn't have much work going on. So every time I wasn't working, I was just learning.

And again, my English, I mean, I could speak English at the time, but certain words that he uses were a little complicated to me, and then I had to learn the presentations. So other than repeating, I would actually script out the whole presentation and write a two-page or three-page long presentation, start to finish, of what to say on the phone. I really took it to heart so much. Word by word, hey, Mr.

Casto Metalli over a place like I can. I would write that down. Yeah. All the way through, I will be calling you in 45 minutes with an update on the repairs.

Everything in between was already written down, and I will read through the presentation as I'm on the phone. And I'll tell you, that got me successful. That got me, I mean, right now it's a memory. It's just memorized.

It's like a tattooed on you. But I had to write it down because I didn't want to mess it up. The way I like to think about it is it's like a language. It's like business is a sport.

It's a language and it just doesn't take, I cannot learn Greek in a year. I can't learn it and I can maybe learn it in two years, but it's a, once you learn it, you know it for life. You know, like once you, once you learn a new language, you know it for life and nobody can take that away from you and the security that it provides you to be able to provide for you and your family is remarkable. So that's one of my key, you know, I'm so passionate about this podcast because I hope we can diffuse some of this knowledge to the industry.

It's like a language and it just doesn't happen overnight. People think they come through training one time and they got it. I've heard it from all types of people. It's like, well, I came through, I understand it.

So we're doing a great job. And it's like, man, I have spent thousands, 10,000 hours hanging out with Todd. And I can confidently say that our business is, you know, one of the most fun companies in the world to work for in car repair and the whole industry. And a lot of that has to do with just our entire culture is obsessed with the model and they speak it.

They breathe it. It is part of their identity. So let's back up. You, Charlie Zalakos, relentless in your pursuit, have not always been the easiest student for Todd.

You have a, he calls you his hardheaded Greek family. Can you walk me through like, you know, we're talking about the transition from master tech to millionaire. Like, why do you think that you were maybe a little bit stubborn? What do you think has been one of the hardest lessons you've had to learn to get through this transition because it's a hard one?

Do you have any thoughts just generally on that? Yeah. So a couple of things here. And it wasn't Todd's fault.

It's my fault and the industry's fault, whereas what I was taught already. So because I didn't trust anyone, that was number one. Right. I obviously automatically didn't even trust Todd because I didn't know him well enough.

Secondly, nobody, nobody I ever spoke to before spoke the language that Todd speaks. Yeah. So it's a whole other world and it's like, can this even be real? What this guy is talking about.

And then thirdly is nobody likes change. Okay. Change in life is inevitable. And if you, anything else you want to do that's better, it will require change.

And you have to lose your old self. and I think as Mother Nature, automatically we go back to our old habits because that's just comfortable. So it's very, very uncomfortable. I mean, the whole business concept is really relied on people. That's our pride and joy.

Our number one thing that we have is great people and teaching great people. Now going into that and being able to, train great people, you have to get uncomfortable because there's going to be uncomfortable conversations. So tell me the stop story. The first day Todd's in your shop, he said this is the most important day of your life.

And that can sound cocky when you hear that from a grown man telling you how to run your business, but you're running around, chicken with your head cut off, hardest worker in the world. What did he say to you? So he's in the shop. First time he came in my shop, the little shop in Watertown still.

I didn't have the second location yet. And I'm running around. As I said, I'm doing everything, right? Looking at the cars, selling the job, ordering parts, all of it.

And I'm running all over the place. And he just looks at me. He's like, stop. He really yelled it out.

Stop and listen to me. This is the most important day of your life. And nobody knew why he did that either. He says it's a God thing.

It was a God. for sure. So nobody knew, but I stopped and I listened. He says, I will change your life. I will teach you stuff.

You have no idea. And again, what you don't know, you don't know, right? What's the phrase say? You don't know what you don't know?

Yeah. You don't know what you don't know. You don't know. So, uh, I started working with him and he started, uh, coming into town and working with me, you know, like periodically, I can't give you a timeline how frequent it was, but it was a couple of things going on.

First of all, I couldn't afford to pay him all the time, And Todd used to be all over the country at the time. He was flying from state to state working. So fast forward, I'm learning stuff again, little by little. And I'm starting implementing stuff.

And it wasn't, I didn't implement everything. There's other people that basically take it nowadays and they go for it. Can I give a shout out to JJ? Oh my gosh, JJ, dude.

Shout out to JJ. Congratulations to him and his team. He is a partner now in the Houston-Boston partnership. He was doing $150 a month two years ago, walked into a room in North Carolina, met Todd Hayes, met our team, and he's doing $450 a month now, putting major money to the bottom line.

So congratulations to him and his team, but continue. Yeah, and there is, I want to give a shout out to JJ, because JJ just took it and ran with it. Oh, yeah. I didn't do that.

I did the opposite. So obviously, he slowed down my process. You know, right now, we're in a great point. obviously we're doing very well, but I could have gone in here much faster if I just listened to Todd and didn't challenge the concept, right? It is really a playbook.

It takes not that long, 90 days, instant. Overnight, you can double your car count if you just listen to how you sound on the phone and start answering the phone right. But I've seen people, man, I made a post on LinkedIn about it yesterday. It's June 19th or 20th today.

It's like, double your sales, 5X your bottom line. That's pretty much the typical owner experience. And JJ is... A perfect example of that.

I mean, he 10X his bottom line. It's literally so, so crazy. So I want to, I want to just, Oh yeah, go for it. Okay.

So Todd used to come around and train me and Bill separately. And, you know, we're all kind of learning. And then move forward. Uh, Todd's brother passed away from leukemia and Todd, uh, disappeared from planet earth.

You couldn't call him, text him, uh, send a message on Facebook, nothing. And eventually I want to thank bill again and all of us should thank bill again we really should because he was relentless in the pursuit of getting todd back in the business and todd came back around and he goes on the phone with me one day and i'm driving home i'll never forget these days there's certain days you don't forget i'm turning into my driveway home and my phone rings like seven o'clock seven thirty at night he's like hey charlie it's todd i'm coming back in business he's like uh would you want to work with me again. And I say, you couldn't have called me on a better day. I had like employee problems at the time or whatever else is going on.

Cells are down. And I sat in the car and I spoke to him about 45 minutes. And a week later, he's in Boston. We entered a hotel room space and we brought my team at the time and Bill's team at the time and Todd ran a class again.

And that was probably a year or two since his last class. Cause like I said, he was out and it was so good. It was absolutely amazing. And from there on, we kept going forward.

And then move forward to our most recent stuff that we've been working on the last five years together. What I want to get to is at the time, now we had to make a deal. Hey, guys, let's build this big company. Let's build something amazing.

And who wants to be part of this? And I want X, Y, and Z to be as a paper structure. And at the time, the reason that's very important, at the time, I thought I knew enough about the business that I could have very easily said, no, I'm good. I'm just going to work it by myself.

I have enough knowledge by now. So I could have very easily said no to that, but I said, no, I need to follow what Todd knows and learn more and look at where we're standing today. I mean, so there's certain times, that story is very important too. There's certain times in your life that there's like a crossroads, right?

So you decide which direction you're going to go. And thankfully I went to the right direction. man you took the words right out of my mouth the next thing i was going to bring up was the last five years i just wanted to get your perspective i've literally sat shotgun with todd and in the houston market we've been holding it down here but you man you're our partner and you've been in boston just cranking and i'm not going to reveal your your number projections yet i'll wait till the end of the episode but man the last five years have been such a crazy ride and i never would have believed any of this is possible todd tells us he's like this is a very lonely experience Not that many people get to experience this. And Todd has been frustrated over the years, getting us to try and see out of his eyes. So just walk me through your experience of that transition in mindset to really believe all the things that he says and he preaches about with his big personality.

And is it true? And just what has it been like from your experience to just literally watch the last five years happen? So again, Todd talks, big numbers, big customer service, changing people's lives. I mean, that's the only things you're going to hear from him.

And again, even, even till today, it's probably hard for people to believe him. Like it was hard for me to believe him back then. Right. But what I did in between you, you touched on it a little earlier.

I have been a student of everything and following successful people and stories. Yep. So I've been following a lot of successful people. And thankfully, the day that we live in now, the age that we live in, YouTube and podcasts and everything, you can learn a lot about people and a lot about any project you want to learn.

So listening to all these other people, now it's starting making more sense and validating what Todd is saying. Because when you listen to somebody like Patrick B. David, somebody like Grant Cardone, all these big, super successful people, Ed Milet, and you're like, wow, man, it's not that different the story they describe from what Todd is describing. And it really is not that different.

And now it validates what he's talking about. And you're like, wow, maybe I should listen. The guy really knows what he's talking about. There is a direct path of getting there.

And, you know, so obviously me and your partner is in this right now. And Bill and Todd, and we're building something spectacular. So Todd is the, you know, he draws the chart, you know, which course are we taking. And now we just do the steps.

And obviously, it went from back in the day, me challenging everything he said, even our call center, right? I mean, it's a major part of our business right now. Major, major part. You can't take it away.

And back then, I used to try and do it myself. And I used to try and sit there on the phones and just randomly call people. And it wasn't systematic. I mean, right now, we have a full-blown professional...

Department that takes care of it every day, seven days a week. It's amazing. Shout out Gary Walker and Monse and their amazing team. We're so blessed to have them.

Hey, this is a perfect time for a advertisement for auto shop callbacks. If you want more cars and more revenue, man, please reach out to Gary Walker. You can find him on LinkedIn. We call every single one of our customers and say thank you for their business.

And it drives major revenue. I think they had an all-time record of, they generated $1.5 million in the industry last month. Amazing, amazing. And these are your best customers.

You know, $1.5 million of callbacks that converted to pre-booked appointments for oil changes, inspections, and shops all around the country that run our business model. And that converted to, you know, $1.5 million in revenue. So shout out to Autoshop callbacks. Please find them on LinkedIn, find them on autoshopanswers.com.

But let's get back to the story. So you're trying to see out of Todd's eyes. I got a couple more topics that I want to cover, but yeah, any more final thoughts on that on just the last five years? Any more thoughts?

I mean, I think we covered it all. Basically, I was my own worst enemy for the early time. Yeah. You know, like I said, I could have accelerated the process.

Other thoughts, again, everybody has a life. Let's touch on this a little too, because this is very personal to me as well. So during this process and when I didn't have money and when I had to work, you know, I've worked actually my longest shift. So, you know, it's almost 37 hours.

I slept at the shop for 20 minutes. That's crazy. Okay. Yep.

So there's a lot of people out there that probably work as hard, but you have to have a system and make a successful. And in this process, I have to bring this up because a lot of people probably go through this right now. It was a time we almost got divorced with Vula because I was never home. I didn't have any energy to spend time with the kids, spend time with her, any of it.

And we figured it out. We figured it out. And right now, every three months, we take a three or four day vacation. We've been in the last five years, I don't even know how many places.

We call it work-life integration. I'll still wake up in the morning early. I'll still listen to the take fives. I'll still, you know, send a message to the team, even when I'm away.

So you can integrate all of it and have a successful life. So it doesn't feel like work. And it's so much fun. And we've changed so many people's lives.

And, you know, the team is really what keeps it together. I can't say I can do this by myself. Todd cannot do this by himself. You know, he's relying on other people that he has around him.

But you just have to listen and follow what he's teaching. Like the future can be so amazing. Your future from, if you listen to this podcast today, you take my advice and you go to Key2Key and you start implementing it immediately like some other people did, not like me. In five years from today, you will be living a completely different life, which you can't even dream of right now.

I can't explain it. Like, do you guys hear the words that he is saying? And it is 100% true and I can vouch for it. it changed the trajectory of my family's life forever and ever. And all of the people that work in our amazing family business are changed.

They go home every day and they're winning and their wives and their husbands, they notice that they're winning and they come home different and they're making more money and they start to buy houses and they start to get out of debt. It is, I don't want to get choked up. It is the most gratifying thing on planet earth to be able to win and be in your lane and know what industry you're competing in. And I just, Charlie, I love that you brought that up because it's a choice.

It's a choice. Anybody can hear this. Anybody can go on Google. Anybody can find us on LinkedIn and you got to sign up.

Shameless plug. It sounds like a sales pitch. It's not. It changed my life and it will truly change yours.

So Charlie, what do you have to say? So I have so many stories to say. I'll pick a couple. Okay.

So last, man, it's about two weeks ago because I didn't even know this was happening. So I have a guy working with me for about 12 years now, Matt Dock, who's an absolute beast. That's his nickname. Give it up for Matt.

Yeah, dude, beast. So Matt's been with me. And Matt is, you know, again, I love hustlers. I love people that have something that they want to prove on.

I love people that have a chip on their shoulders. And Matt is a very conservative guy. And Matt, probably about a year ago now, born Mercedes AMG E-Class, which is what technician, because he's basically a technician, what technician drives an AMG car? Jeez.

And it's not, look, it's not about the money. It's like, we believe in living under your means and taking care of other people's and being generous, but man, I love to play golf. And so I spent some money on that. And that's like my little treat.

You know, you work hard, you play hard. If you're a technician and you're in the trenches grinding, That is a dream. I know, Charlie, I know you've got a nice little red car in your garage. That is a dream come true.

That's like what you, that's your biggest passion and biggest interest. Most people buy these cars to flex and it's a status symbol. But man, I didn't know that story. That's incredible.

Who gets to say that? So wait, so it gets better. It gets better. Okay.

So... Matt gets the car, and Matt, like I say, he was very conservative. I mean, before that, he had an old Acura, which he bought in here, an engine. I love that.

With an engine in it, and he drove that car for over 10 years. I love that so much. He put well over 300,000 miles on that car. So he wasn't, you know, if you saw him today, oh, Matt drives a Mercedes.

No, you know, he didn't used to drive a Mercedes. So a couple weeks ago, I get a text message, and there's another AMG, similar color park next to Matt's. And Ed sends me the video. And I'm like, whose guy is that?

And it's this other kid working with us, Ephemia. He's been with us for like three years now. And Ephemia started as a GS. His father's been working with me for eight years.

And then he started, you know, working there and he's saving his money. He shows up to work every day. He's learning a lot. And this is what it's all about, man.

This is one of the stories. When I saw that video, I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, that'll make me start crying, man. How do I get out of the emotional thing?

So we keep this going. Here's a good tangent. Okay, so this is a tangent on sales. This is a sales tip for all you service advisors out there, managers.

Okay, if I have a customer objecting on price, I, in that situation, would point to the Mercedes AMG in the parking lot, and I'd be like, Mr. Customer, let me tell you something. We pay our people what they're worth, and we make a lot of money at this, and our team members make a lot of money at this because we're really, really good. Do you see this full parking lot?

We take really, really, really good care of our customers in the community for the last 45 years. And what a shame that it would be if one of our team members had a car issue or they broke down and they couldn't afford the repairs at our shop. We pay them what they're worth. We give them benefits in a 401k and an amazing place to work where they can.

Accomplish their dreams. Every technician's dream is to drive an AMG. And then I would go ahead and assume the sale and I would say, so I'm going to go ahead and order the parts and get started on it. You don't want to go anywhere else.

We take care of people like you every single day. Can I update you later on the progress of the repairs? Boom. It's like leverage that.

I've heard people in other industries say that. They say, yeah, I make good money because I'm really good at this. We are the best in the world at fixing cars and taking care of customers. And we got thousands of five-star reviews.

So why would you want to get your car fixed anywhere else? Anyway, let's move on. This podcast is going to go over, but the content, this is so fire. I'm having so much fun.

So let's continue. Very quick, 30 seconds. Go for it. Another guy who works here in Houston, right?

And this person used to work at this location and then moved to Siena when we started up that shop. And then a few months later, now what, a year with a company? Yeah. He ended up buying a house.

And it's like, wow, man, that is the most gratifying thing for us to see as leaders. It's not just about us and making money. It's being able to provide for a team. And yeah, we have very high expectations because we need the concept to run 100%, but the concept will yield better customer service, better customer experience, and will yield results in changing lives for everyone.

It's truly remarkable. It's... Can't make this stuff up. I hope you can hear the passion of my voice.

It's the most gratifying thing in the world. I think the worst thing in the world is not being connected to your labor. I think humans were designed to build and to work and, you know, feel the fruits of their labor. And most people are in corporate America and they just work for some giant corporation and they just, they look forward to the weekend, you know, and they look forward to that Netflix show.

And it's, that sucks. Like, that's fine. And you can have work-life balance and an amazing life and stuff, but there is nothing on earth, in my opinion, more gratifying than seeing all of your hard work. Convert to actually influencing people's lives.

So we're going to go overtime on this podcast, but I don't care because this is sick. I've got a couple more things I want to talk about. You took the words right out of my mouth earlier. You said, you know, it takes a team and I don't want to get emotional again.

That's a common theme of this podcast, but I wanted to talk about Vula. You said you almost got divorced because of just really how stressful this can be. And, you know, I think she has massively supported you through probably your entire life, but I've seen it for the last five years. She is, I think she's a partner in our business.

So do you want to just talk about what's your secret? How did you, you work a lot of hours. We all, we're trying to provide economic security for our families forever and change lives. And I think it takes a really great partner to support you.

So what's, what's y'all secret? I'm, I'm getting married next year. What's the secret? So first of all, again, nobody, you know, life doesn't come with a manual, right?

So nobody has it perfect. We all make a lot of mistakes. Like I said, I didn't tell her I had no money to put gas in the car for years later, because I was a man enough to tell her. But, you know, I understand the woman's point of view, and women are very important in your life and your success.

And, you know, they require time and attention. When I'm at the shop all the time, I used to go home. Vula has a folder on her phone. This is crazy.

I am not kidding, you guys. I'm going to start crying. She has a folder on her phone. I was so tired, I couldn't make it to the bedroom upstairs in our old house, and I used to sleep on the stairs, because I was so exhausted.

But that's what it took. I'm not saying it's right. There is a better way. If you just listen and do it, there is a better way.

I just did it wrong in the beginning, okay? But those, I still wouldn't change anything right now, because that makes me better today, right? But, you know, she is a woman, and she's like, your kids never see you. And she's right.

She's right. So figure out a way to make sure that they, you know, give the wife the game plan up front. Just tell her what you're going to do. Like when it comes to the car right now, we know what the next play is going to be.

So we prepare the customer of what's going to happen. How about do that with your wife and your kids? My kids right now, so we're working on estate planning and I tell my kids what's going to happen. So tell them what's going to happen.

So they're not guessing, right? So right now we integrate life and we do stuff like we're about to go to Vegas and do business. Actually, in Vegas in September, it's our anniversary. Oh, wow.

So I say... Would you like to go to this business slash anniversary trip? We can integrate both. Last year, we went to California and we did something very similar.

And we, it was, you know, we went to these couples there. We met some amazing people and then we celebrated our anniversary. So you can integrate life and business together. And it's, here's something I'll touch on, man.

You can be the CEO of your business, but man, a job that is equally important, if not more important, is to be the CEO of your family. It's like, it is the number one investment, you know, if you want to think about it that way that you'll ever make in your life. And, you know, behind our family success, do you know who it is? My mother.

It's like, she is the heart and soul of our business. And man, you have to be the CEO of your family and put the time in. And, you know, I've talked to Glenn about this. It's like the little moments with your children and with your family and with your wife and with your spouse date night are massively important.

And they're just as important as running your business and nothing, you know, nothing happens at the store if you are having problems in your personal life, in your family, and I think we can all be, I've been victim of it. I think it's so important. We're changing lives and the business is so important where I'm not where my feet are. And I'll be spending time in my personal life and I won't be engaged.

I'll be thinking about stuff at the business or I'll be totally consumed by it, which is great. And I love that part of my personality, but it's something that I need to work on. And I'm really proud of you as your partner too. I've witnessed your work ethic and And just, I'm so proud of Vula to be supporting you the whole way.

Like what an achievement you guys have grown into to be able to find the balance and juggle all the plates. Can I say one more thing? Absolutely. What happens after that, after you teach them and then you show them, not teach them, show them what you do.

And then once they start supporting you, guys, oh my God, this might be the best compliment you can get from your wife. If your wife comes up to you and she says, I am so proud of you, it is so rewarding. I'm just going to post this podcast on LinkedIn and say, get the tissues out. Like, wow.

There are no words. Yeah. Let's continue, man. All right.

Here's some final topics. Here's some final topics I want to cover. Let's get the tissues away. But Todd calls you the number one operator in the country.

Okay. You are going to be the CEO, excuse me, the COO, chief operating officer of our strategically backed private equity company in the future. You have the concept in a retail unit down pat better than anybody on planet Earth. And I have personally witnessed it in our stores in Houston, which I'll get into.

It's crazy. Actually, I'm going to get into that right now. So one time, here's the story. We talk about this concept of immediate impact on sales.

If I put LeBron James on any high school basketball team, they would win the state championship immediately undefeated, right? He's six foot eight and he can dunk from the free throw line. He's a beast. They would start winning games.

The same thing applies for Charlie and our business. He's got 30 years of master technician experience and he is the number one operator with a consumer mentality on planet Earth. So he comes into our business, Adams Automotive Barker Cypress. The store is about a year and a half old at this point.

He wakes up at three in the morning and he lands and he gets to the store about 12 o'clock noon. And correct me if I'm wrong. We busted it for about seven hours. No decision fatigue at the end of the day.

We know the process. Sales go straight through the roof. All time record day, 44,000. And it still has not been broken yet.

Next day, Charlie crushes out a take five, 27,000 in revenue. It was a Thursday, Friday combo. Immediate impact on sales. One day, one and a half days, and it's like 70 something thousand dollars in revenue.

It's like the number is a byproduct of executing at a high level. What changed from day to day? Did the advertising change? No.

Did the time of year change? No. Did the location, did the demographics, did the people change? No.

One person. And I want to, you know, I want to just lift you up here publicly. Like you are maniacal when it comes to running a retail operation. So I want to ask you for everyone to hear what's the secret you, you, you, when you got to the story, you just wanted me, you wanted to find the hook.

So I want you to tell that story. What's your secret? What do you do for a living? Charlie's Lackos.

You're a machine by the way. Yeah. So everything, I mean, everybody, if you go wake up in the morning, you go to the shop and you find a car that was stored in last night. It's a broke car, it came in for a flat tire or a starter or an alternator or anything like that, anybody can diagnose, sell and fix that car.

All the money in your business, I'm in talking, all the money in your business is in the PMI process. What does PMI stand for for those that aren't informed? Preventative maintenance inspection. Okay.

Basically inspecting the vehicle. Right. And some people call it MPI, whatever you want to call it, but all your money is there and it's also in a great presentation. And that is what I master.

I master PMIs. I have now trained a team of people that master PMIs. Actually, my Newton team is led by my son, Dimitri. Give us a good round for Dimitri.

He's a stud. 19 years old, grinding in the trenches. Dimitri is 19 years old. He's probably better than a lot of people in 40 and 50 years old. Yeah, yeah.

So I've trained people now how to do that. I have a great team in Waratown, great team in Newton. We have great teams in Houston. But the story you want to go to is really all the money in your business.

And if you want to know what's going on with every car in your shop, you have to be in the inspection bay and touching every car. So we're going to that location. As you said, I woke up 2 a.m. I worked out.

I took the dog out. 2 a.m. Worked out, you psycho. Packed my stuff, went to the airport, landed. I was at the shop at noon, and then we start cranking it out.

And when I got there, I'm like, where is the hook? The hook. And Joe takes me to the office and he's opening the drawers and he's showing me, oh, these are completed. These are to BQC, I'm like, I don't care.

I say. You're like the Terminator, bro. Okay, keep going. So I say, I don't care.

That is not my job. I say, where is the hook? Where do the cars come in? And where do we put those tickets?

And then he shows me the hook and I say, all day, Joe, my job is my eye just looks at the hook and the minute there is a car on the hook, I run for the car. And you're like itching. If there's no car on the hook, you're like, what do I do? What do I do?

And then when there's a hook, you're just a machine. You're like a buzzsaw. Like, give me a hook. Give me a car.

Give me a car. And then the second something's on the hook, it doesn't have to be in the system. He's like, give me the car. Give me the car.

Let's say we had a car and it was a 2017 Lexus something. You want to walk me through that one? How did you? It's so predictable and you're so fast now.

You want to walk me through that story? It's so cool. The story. So we're working on a different car.

I don't remember what it was, but then there's a car that just got dropped on the hook. And I say, what's that? They say that it's a Lexus. I say, what does it need?

They're like, it's got a coolant leak. I'm like, it needs a water pump. Go bring it in. Write it up.

Write the estimate. So it becomes, and there is one that's not, you know, being cocky, excuse the language, but it's because if you do the same thing every day over and over, and if you pay attention, it's called pattern recognition, right? So if you pay attention to what's happening every day in your shop, what's happening with every car, you will know. And it will become so predictable.

That's why I said it. It becomes so predictable. You don't have to guess anything. So guess what?

We'll bring the car in. What did the car need? A water pump. Duh.

We didn't even lift the car up because actually this one, you could see it very clearly. We'll bring it in. Open the hood. It needs a water pump.

Who was it? Chaz, right? It was Chaz, yeah. Chaz takes the video and I say, go and sell it right now and I'll PMI the rest of the car.

So by the time we raised the car and we inspected the rest of it, that job was already sold. Most people, that car would be sitting out in the parking lot for two or three hours. We did it in like five minutes, the whole thing. It was diagnosed, written estimate and sold to the customer in five minutes.

You could do it that fast. And then you get time with the rest of the vehicle to inspect the rest of it and send pictures and videos and get additional work. Whereas traditionally, it's 50-50 in the industry on broke cars because you're not going to get the sale in like three hours. Speed of service is one of our number one things.

So here's a concept we touch on all the time. It's called decision fatigue. Your brain is a computer, and throughout the day, you get worse at making decisions because of, you know, we're humans. But Steve Jobs understood this concept.

Mark Zuckerberg, they wear the exact same clothes to work every single day. Steve Jobs famously wore a gray T-shirt because it was one less decision that he had to make in the morning so that he could, you know, effectively operate his computer and his mind better. So we do the same thing. You know, when we're up there training or we're doing stuff and it's random, we're meeting with bankers and all this stuff, it's very draining, very exhausting.

It's very, my fiance, she is a psychologist and that's a very demanding, you know, brain intensive job. She has to be completely focused and engaged and everything is new. Our job is super easy. It's so predictable.

The Lexus water pump is going to break the same way every time. The Audi control arms are going to break the exact same way every time. Customers are going to say that they're selling the car and they need to, you know, they don't have the money. They need financing every single day.

So we left that store and I'll never forget it at seven o'clock at night, pumped to the nines and we're taking selfies with the team. All time record day, 44K, put it on the board. And I'm driving home at 730 wired. Like, how fun was that?

Because there was no decision fatigue. It is literally car comes in, you inspect it, you know what's broken because you've done it a million times. You take pictures, you sell it to the customer with your script, and you do it over and over and over again. So the last thing I want to touch on before we wrap up here is just a little bit more detail, Charlie, from the GOAT.

You're the COO, man. You are the operator. So just on a rack attack process, can you give them a preview for our audience out there? Just like what do you do when the car comes in?

When something's on the hook, walk me through that process. Yep, absolutely. First of all, you have to learn the process, which I'm about to talk about, but you have to become absolutely obsessed with perfecting it. Yep.

And everything you do, you have to say, how can I make it faster, better? Like I'm working in the Sienna store a few months ago, and I taught a kid how to touch the air gun only one time. So that's time saving. See, it's a little trick, but you learn.

I'm like, why did you put the wheel on? you tighten that up and now you're going to put the next wheel and get the gun again from the floor you touch the gun one time so anyway the way the process goes is like this guys. You bring the vehicle in and no matter what the vehicle is there for if it's a broke water pump like the Lexus example or if it's an oil change you PMI it's the same exact way so as the car drives in wait what if it's a check engine light, Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Decision fatigue goes on the speed rack.

So keep going. Sometimes I have to say I've PMI'd cars now and I don't know what they were there for. Yeah. But I found it on the way during the process anyway.

You run right into it. Yep. So it happens. So you PMI the same way and I want you to think about it.

Just like when you go to the doctor, it doesn't matter when you're there for it. It will take your vitals the same way every time. So that's exactly what we do. So is a hospital like committed to a certain process they have or a doctor's office?

So we are committed to this process. So the car comes in, we're going to run you right through it. There's a person outside the vehicle and a person that drove the car in. And first thing we do, check the lights, check wipers, check the horn, all the basics.

Open the hood, take a look at engine mounts. Certain vehicles that engine mounts are very common to fail. And obviously, if you have bad engine mounts, it can cause other components to fail. Correct.

And then we do what we call an under hood, mid-rise, full-rise. Again, we're running out of time, but you inspect anything under the hood, filters, batteries, belts, stuff like that. You raise the vehicle halfway in the air, you shake the front end, make sure you check the steering system. If the vehicle is no mileage, I'll let you cheat on the brakes.

If the vehicle is questionable, then all wheels come off. We inspect the brakes very thoroughly. Inspect any oil leaks from the sides of the engine or actual sear, stuff like that. And then we raise the vehicle, we'll go a full rise and we'll basically start on one end of the vehicle from the front per se and walk all the way to the back, you check for radiator leaks, oil leaks.

Exhaust systems, again, suspension, anything that's underneath the vehicle, and that whole process could be run in anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes. During the process you take pictures and videos of everything, and by the time the car is basically up on the air, you have inspected the whole vehicle, there's nothing missing. Okay, so this job is actually tremendously easy. The biggest bottleneck is the inspection process for most shops, and it's very difficult.

You have to master it, but the biggest bottleneck in the business is extracting all of the sellable work, and you might think I'm an evil shop owner thinking about the money, but seriously, all of the things that could possibly be recommended, whether safety, maintenance, or otherwise, put them on a piece of paper, put them in your inspection and then put the car in the parking lot because guess what? I sold, not me, but Chaz, our amazing team, they sold that water pump. And where was the car? In the parking lot.

I don't have to actually fix the water pump right there, but I can sell it in approximately five minutes. So you get all of the work written down on a piece of paper out in the parking lot. Next car is ready to be PMI'd. You're going to move the customer around the bases, come to Houston to find out about our concept.

But what I want to highlight here is that Bay efficiency, everyone looks at my family's business, we've got 50 bays. That's why they're doing a million. Okay. The industry's got these goofy KPIs that they have you focusing on, like effective labor rate and bay efficiency.

Like, well, I had a guy tell me one time, I don't even remember who it was, but you know, he was doing, I think it was 200,000 a year out of five bays. And he was like, well, I'm actually doing way more than you because of per bay, I'm doing way more. And I was like, okay, man, that's awesome. Like I'm going to, he was doing 200,000 a month, excuse me.

Like he was telling me per bay that he was doing way more. And I was like, dude, we have one phone number. It's crazy up here. We have show me the bottom line, like show me the number.

So how, how does bay efficiency work into our world? Okay. You, you get all the work out of the car, put it in the parking lot, sell the job, sell the job, sell the job. Where's the car in the parking lot.

When you fix the car, then you put all the parts in front of the technician. You fix the car all at once. Charlie, how long does it take you to fix? Let's say, let's say a $4,000 repair, 14 hours of labor, and it's all, you know, predictable stuff.

It's not crazy diagnostics. You're a master technician. How long does it take you to do all of that work? Basically, whatever book time is.

Don't forget, this is not selling engines and transmissions. Correct. Those are. The back braking jobs.

This is normal stuff, suspension, brakes, exhaust systems. So usually it's one third of whatever the time is. Usually one third. So let's wrap things up here with bay efficiency.

Let's go for it. Let's freaking go. Two bays, four lifts. Two bays, four lifts.

Guys, I've been to this shop. You actually have a fifth lift around downstairs now, but it's still, it's like in an alley. Two bays, four lifts, six total parking spots. You're renting driveways driveways down the street.

Look it up. It's called Watertown Pleasant Car Care. Look it up on Google Street View. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.

I do not know how this is possible. And I've been there and I've seen it myself. And I've literally seen the guys have knocked out a 20K revenue day in sales and all the work is knocked out by two o'clock and the guys are having lunch because there's no more work. They can do more.

Charlie Zalakos, moment of truth, 20,000 in freaking June of 2010. What are you tracking out of that little store, biggest small store in America? Tell the people, Charlie, what are you going to do this month? 15-year anniversary. So again, this is very important to me. 15 years in business in the little shop and I have to first, before I say the number, I have to give it up to the team.

I got an amazing team. Like I said, my dog is there. Ed Herbert is leading the pack. He runs the office.

I have some amazing staff. Technicians are big with me forever. They are tracking 410,000. Wow.

Wow. That's freaking low. I hope I didn't blow anyone's eardrums out there, but 400 bay efficiency. What's that freaking bay efficiency?

That's $100,000 a month per bay. Well, I guess you got five bays, but dude, it's not about fixing the car. People think, oh, if I have more lifts, I can do more work. That's not how it works.

If I have more front of the house people, I can sell more work. And once this job is incredibly easy. Once you sell the work on the car, If you sell a safety concern on a customer's car and get the maintenance sold... They want you to take your time with it.

It's on your pace. The afternoons are chill. The phone's not ringing for crazy updates. Where's my car?

Where's my car? 411,000 tracking this month. They just sold 28,000 yesterday. That store's crazy. And let's not forget about Newton.

You've got another location. So you went from 20,000 a month pre-concept, pre-Todd. Now you're a partner in an $80 million a year business. You've got another store down the street, Pleasant Car Care Newton.

You know, Tim and his amazing team. You've got amazing superstars over there. I've been there myself as well. What are they tracking this month, Charlie?

All right, so I'll show you. Look at the number. Oh my God, I'm about to read this. No way. $609,000.

Come on. Dude, that's crazy. They cashed out $27,000. Hey, Charlie, is that over a million dollars?

So basically, the two Pleasant Car Care locations are tracking over a million dollars this month. So let's go. That is, hey, Charlie, are you going to make any money on that? I think I'll do okay.

I think I'll do okay. And it's not about the money, but man, we get paid big money on earnings for every dollar that we put in our pocket. And for you to be able, you know, 15 years later to go from $20,000 a month, $240,000 a year to a million dollars a month. That is remarkable.

What's the math on that? That's a 20X. That is a 20X in revenue, and that is probably a 300X in profit. So congratulations to your amazing team.

It's not about the money. It's a byproduct of executing the business model. Charlie, I love you to death. Do you have anything to say before I wrap things up here?

No. So thank you for the opportunity to tell the story. My advice to everyone is, again, please, please, please, if you want to leave a legacy, If you want people to love you, if you want your family to be proud of you, if you want your wife to come up to you and say, I'm proud of you, just do the concept and surrender to it. Well, I think that's the pod.

We went 18 minutes over, but my goodness, was that worth it? I'm Joe Adams. This is Adams Automotive. We're the biggest shop in America.

Charlie's got the biggest small store in America. He's the number one operator in the country. This has been Master Tech to Millionaire, episode four, presented by Autoshop Answers. If you want to find us online, look us up, autoshopanswers.com.

Share the podcast with a friend. Give us a follow. Turn on post notifications. Follow me on LinkedIn.

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn. And man, come down to Houston. Join the cult. Join the culture.

It is really a life-changing movement. I've had so much fun with you, Charlie. I care so deeply about you. Let's go change the world, brother.

I think that's the pod. Can we get a boom on three? One, two, three. Boom.

Later, players.