From Garage Beginnings to Master Tech: Ly Khoa’s Hustle and Humility

All right. This is Glenn Piccolo here with Adams Automotive, bringing you another episode of Master Tech to Millionaire presented by Auto Shop Answers. Today, man, we've got a special guest in the studio. I've got Lee Koa, AKA Master Lee, a superstar technician in our industry. I mean, just an absolute stud. Uh, we have known each other for such a long time and I'm so excited, uh, to finally get to, uh, to get you in here. So how are you doing today? I'm doing great, man. Yeah, you excited to be on here? Yeah, this is my first time, so it's great. Yeah, so, um, yeah, and you know, like, Lee, just for you guys out there listening, a lot of people on our team obviously know who Lee is. He's just— I mean, he's an amazing, amazing technician. I mean, just a, a massive producer. He always has been. I mean, ever since I've known him, and you know, we're probably going on close to 20 years now, uh, since Lee and I

met. And, um, yeah, just a major producer. So we're starting to bring on our technicians. We're just bringing our whole team on, you know, just to let everybody kind of just, just kind of learn, you know, about our culture, about our concept, not only from the, you know, the front of the house perspective, from— but from the back of the house perspective. So, uh, Lee, you know, you've always been an amazing, amazing producer, uh, in our industry, but, uh, what got you into turning wrenches in the first place? So back in, back in the days in high school, how I started was, uh, it was before Fast and Furious came out, so So I started lowering Hondas. That's why I was driving in high school. Started lowering Hondas for friends and fam— friends around high school, and I was doing like aftermarket upgrades for them at, you know, no charge because I was just doing out of my garage. And I just started growing from there,

and I just had a passion to like, you know, I wanted to build a race car, which I, I ended up doing. I actually got one I built, and I was able to push like 400 horsepower to the wheels. And I was like my pride and joy. And then I made it into a profession. So, and then, um, what I did is in high school they had an auto tech class. I took that. And, uh, when I graduated— before I graduated, they had, you know, recruiters out there trying to recruit you to UTI and stuff like that. So I, I, I saw it. I saw the presentation. I didn't take it right away after high school. I kind of went to college for a year, and then I decided, man, it's not for me. So I went to trade school, which is, uh, I completed UTI And then after that, I was working at like a little mom-and-pop shop and, and, you know, to get started as a helper. I was being a technician helper doing a lot of the— his work for him so that way I can grow and learn. And then eventually, once I had enough experience,

I, I started venturing out to like a corporate, uh, job instead, like a, a bigger company that has multiple stores. And then, uh, that's where I landed, was my first one was, uh, Louetta Automotive. A little while back, you know. So that's— so you were, you were with Luweta. So for those of you that don't know, I was with Luweta for, you know, almost 15 years. And so you were there before I was there, or at least before I was at that location. Yes. Right. So you were there and then you left. Why'd you leave? I left, uh, because they moved me to a different store which I didn't like. And then, um, another job offer came and then, uh they wanted me to make a move, so I went over there instead. And I went over there for a few years, and then somehow, uh, somebody reached out to me and I landed back at Loetta. And that's when the first time I met you. Yeah, so what— this is crazy. So whenever I took over that store, the Huffmeister store, um, I was

at the Lake Houston store for like 2 years, and then they wanted me to go run the Huffmeister store. So I transferred over to the Huffmeister store, and I'll never forget that day I showed up because Um, you know, you had left and they didn't have very good technicians at the time. And my— the first 7 cars, I'll never forget this because we use orange highlighter to highlight rechecks. Yeah, the first 7 cars that day were rechecks. And I was like, oh my gosh, what am I getting— what am I getting into? Uh, but that was an amazing store for us. And so, uh, somewhere along the lines, you know, I was recruiting and, uh, I think Paul told me that you may be interested in coming back or something along those lines, but The crazy part about this story, I love to tell this story. It's a, it's a wild story. You came over on your lunch break. Yeah. Um, and you're a grinder. I mean, you were working, you were just finishing a job or just started on a job or whatever. Came around,

came over on your lunch break with a bag of pork rinds and you pulled a bottle of Tabasco sauce out of your pocket and started, started pouring it on the pork rinds. And I'm like, this guy's, he's a hustler, man. He's literally just going to eat lunch real quick and get right back to work. And so then, um, you know, we were able to, you know, bring you back onto the company. But, um, tell me, tell me a little bit about that company and, you know, why you kind of jumped ship and then were, you know, quick to come back. Uh, this— the other company, they, they had lack of benefits, you know, and most of the pay, uh, it was great, but there was no insurance. There was nothing, uh, you can do like, uh, for benefits-wise. Yeah, there was no, uh, retirement and all that stuff was not there. And when Loetta had to offer was, you know, the 401k package match and healthcare and all the other benefits that you need. And, uh, then that's what kind of made me decide to go

back, you know. But I was young at the time, so at the time when I was jumping back and forth, I was just more like getting experience with the other company and learning, you know, what they got to offer versus the other company. And once you find out it's not enough what you you're looking for it, you know, and then some other great offer comes, you, you take on, on that offer. Yeah. Um, and I remember a lot of people that came from there, and we won't mention the name of that company, but, um, you know, one of the funny stories— or it's not even really funny actually— but you, uh, you got a 1099 at the end of the year. Yeah, it's just crazy how it is. Like, they, they 1099 you at the time you won't find out to the end of the, the year when they were taking tax out of your check. You're assuming that you're going to get a W-2, but at the end of the year when it's time to file tax, you get handed a 1099 in the mail and you get shocked because like,

wow, you know, well, what happened to all those taxes I paid? Now I'm getting 1099, so I owe the IRS money. Yeah, and that wasn't just you, that there was a lot of people that came from there. So I heard one guy getting paid half cash, half you know, you know, the correct way. And so you think you're getting a W-2, you are— you, you know what your hours are multiplied times your flag hour, and that's not what your paycheck was. So they were taking out like what the taxes should be, but then at the end of the year you get hit with the 1099, you owed a bunch of money, and I owed the IRS some money, and that wasn't fun. No, that's, that's never fun. That's crazy, man. But that's, man, that's our industry. For those of you listening out there, I mean Gosh, man, we hear these stories all the time and you think, how could that actually, uh, you know, how could that, how could that be? But we hear these crazy stories all the time. So you come over to Loretta,

man, I remember, uh, you may not even remember this, but you did a clutch on a Toyota Matrix one day. Yeah, I did. Like, very fast. Do you remember that? Yeah, I remember that one. That, I mean, we're talking about, guys, we're talking about going back to probably 2008, 2009. Uh, I remember that job. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was like, wow, um, that paid 20 hours, I think. If you remember, it was a 20— I think 15-hour job, something like that. And I just remember you got that thing done, uh, so fast. So I was like, wow, this guy's definitely something special. And, um, you know, we used to talk about it back then, we're going to grow old together. Yeah, you know, and, uh, that's kind of funny because we— the, the, you know, the life has taken us different directions, but, you know, we're back together now. And, um, it's been a little bit of a, of a roller coaster, right, for both of us. And Um, you know, when I came over here to Adams back

in, um, you know, 20, right there, right, right in COVID 2020, um, you know, my goal was to start, you know, assembling, uh, an all-star team. And obviously you're on the top of my list, uh, or right there, up there with, with the best of them. So, uh, you came up— what year did you come over here? I think around COVID. I was here during COVID I think '21. 21. So you came over in '21 and, um, you know, doing really well. And, you know, we had some growing pains and some challenges, you know, here as well, just like any shop, you know, for those of you listening, uh, growing pains and challenges. And, you know, you, you had decided— this is, this is why this, this is such a great interview, is we're going to be able to give perspective to everybody out there listening to exactly what we talk about, where technician, uh, goes to you know, run their own company. And if, you know, if they're not 100% set up to do that, that there could be some, some major,

you know, pitfalls, uh, with that. So you left here in— well, I want to back that up for a second. Before that even happened, uh, you, you had the fastest return after leaving until not that long ago. Somebody beat your record. You left for 2 days. Do you remember that? I left for a day. A day. Yeah. So I went to the— so I left, going to this other company. I, I don't want to mention their— the name, but I went there. They, they made promises, you know, like they were like, hey, uh, I gotta get rid of these 2 guys, uh, I'm gonna hire you on, you know, you're gonna replace these 2 guys. Because I told them how fast I am and I'm a— I need those, you know, like they said, they want to get rid of these 2 guys. And when I showed up I was there for like a day and I cleaned their parking lot and they gave me all the work that they had there and I finished it all that day and we were all sitting around, you know, playing with our thumbs again. And then, uh,

the 2 guys that they said they were gonna get rid of, uh, were still there the next day. So I was like, man, I'm too old for this. I don't wanna— I don't wanna wait around, you know. They broke their promise when I landed my box. So, and then That's when I came right back, and then you saw me come right back. You're not very old, by the way. No, I'm just saying. Yeah, you came back. So I remember you called me, I think it was like a Friday night or something, and you're like, hey, can I come back? Now here's the crazy part for those of you listening, uh, I had hired 2 technicians to replace you, okay? And remember, we had moved some boxes over, and the spot that you were at was now occupied by a couple other technicians, and Did that bother you? Did that— did you fear coming back knowing that there was 2 technicians that were here? No, I'm not, because I know what I can do and what I can produce. Other guys won't—

not gonna really matter, you know. You always get yours. Yeah. Um, and you know, like I tell people all the time, and I tell technicians this, that if you want to make good hours, like, you can find the hours. A lot of people want to wait for, um, you know, just people to come and just hand them work. And you understand how to go get work and how to produce. Yeah. Explain a little bit about that, what the difference is, what you do versus what you see others do. Yeah, others, they like to, you know, wait for the work laying on their box, or they like to, uh, when the part shows up wrong, they just sit around and say, oh, wrong parts. My mentality is a hustle, is to, you know, find what I need to do to get this job done, get, you know, on time, and where I can find work, what's, what's needed, and try to execute as fast as I can. And then, you know, try to get the ticket closed out, and that way we get paid. Yeah, I, you know,

like one thing that you do that I notice is you keep parts, like a drawer in your box of stuff that you know is going to be a common issue that we're going to have to order for a customer and we're going to need to complete a job. And so you like inventory these parts and then you ask us, hey, I need this part, or you come and tell us, hey, I need this part to finish this job, and then we order it for you. And we're basically replacing something that you already bought with your own money. Yeah. To keep the job moving. Yeah. So I don't want any downtime. Any downtime is just, it's just wasting your, your own time to finish the job quicker. Yeah. And so I, you know, I've talked— efficient, you know. Yeah. And I've talked to a lot of people, like everybody has different skill sets and different speed and, and different you know, like just ways of operating as a technician. And, you know, for you, I know you

always figured out and find a way. And so you're coming back over to the company. I just put 2 toolboxes in the bays that you occupied. And so we ended up building you another rack. We added a rack for you, 2 lifts right here. We took out that old alignment machine, we put 2 nice racks, and boom, you had a new area. And man, you didn't miss a beat. I mean, you just came right back and got right after it. But just for those of you listening, I mean, we're talking about one day. Left the industry. You know, we, we talk a lot about, uh, this, this bubble, this Moneyball bubble that we're in. And sometimes you can be here and you can forget what it's like out there. And so you left for a day and you're like, wow, this isn't for me. Can I have my spot back? Well, I can't give you your spot back, but man, how about I just make you a new spot? Boom, we give you 2 lifts and, and then you're off and running. And so

you were there for a while, and then, you know, became the time where, uh, you decided you were gonna go venture out and open your own shop. Yeah, um, open my own business. Open your own business, going partners and opening up a— opening up a business. And so, um, kind of walk us through that because I know you have a whole new perspective now after doing that and now coming back. Tell us, tell us about that. Yeah, the, the perspective is what I did learn is, um, it's a whole different world, you know, opening your own business, running it. It's not, uh, being a technician, having your own shop. It sounds great But it's at the end of the day, it's like, man, do, do you really want to run a business or do you want to, you know, uh, focus on mastering your craft, which is working on cars? And I mean, it's great experience for me because I learned the other side. I learned what it takes to run a business. I understand all the, uh, the necessary things

that you need to keep operating and to scale it, you know. And my experience is what I learned is that wasn't something I was looking for. You know, I always wanted a shop, but the, the what I was imaging, imagining, or what I thought was gonna be, uh, when you own your own shop didn't come out the way I expected it. Because the business side is like a whole different type of industry. That side of— I don't, I don't have experience with, you know. It's great, I learned it, uh, I understand everything. But I understand that at the end of the day, what I do best is, is to work on cars. And that's what I'm very good at and master at. And then putting me in a side where I'm not good at, you know, I'm gonna struggle a little bit. And it opened up my eyes too, because I finally understand what a service advisor, they have to go through and what an owner has to go through. And then it really humbles you more. You know, I got more— it humbles

you more. You start learning more things, and then you start understanding what it takes to be a leader and what you had to do. And then coming back as a technician, I didn't really mind it because this is what I do best, you know, and I, I can focus on making sure the car is done right versus being an owner, a service advisor, accounting, billing, you know, all that in one time. And then I can't really focus on getting the car done correctly or putting out a good product because I'm trying to be too many people at one time. Yeah. And then I'll start losing focus and it just pulls me away from what I do best. And then I found out that this, this ain't for me, you know. I mean, it's not meant for everyone. No, it's not. Yeah, I mean, just like being a technician, like for me, like I've never been a technician, um, you know, and I think it's amazing what you guys do. And I've looked at technicians, and some of them I'm like, wow, I would never want to do that just

because I look at the way that they operate. And, you know, just kind of whether it be like inefficient, messy, unorganized, dirty, like, you know, some technicians will get a job done and it's like, wow, they look like they've been just knee-deep in that thing. And then you get the job done and you look like a pro. Um, most people, I could guarantee you, if they see you out, you know, eating dinner, uh, with your family or bump into you, you know, at the mall or whatever it is, they would never know you were a technician. And, and what I found is, you know, some of the just greatest technicians, like, they're just so— they're so professional that nobody would ever know, you know. Nobody even would ever know that. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love that. I, matter of fact, I'm a fixer. Like, I actually, believe it or not, I fix stuff. I do projects around the house all the time. I build stuff, you know. A lot of people may not

know that about me. I love doing that stuff. Like, if I could be an amazing technician like you, like, that would be really cool. I would— I think that's amazing what you do. And so, um, you know, it just comes down to like being really, you know, like figuring out what you're great at and then doing it, doing it at the highest level. And, you know, you obviously flag like insane hours. Um, you know, you make more money than most business owners. A lot of our technicians, by the way, make more money than most business owners. People think that if somebody owns a business that, that All of a sudden that, you know, like they can look at the revenue number and say, uh, like as an example, a store— like not our stores, but there's a lot of stores out there where their shop's doing $100,000, $150,000 in a month, right? And you know, when you learn and understand a P&L, uh, and you owning a business or running it, you know, when you own your own business, probably realize that

that money gets sucked up pretty quick. It gets sucked up pretty quick. Not only that, the IRS takes some of that too. Sure. Oh yeah, yeah. So if you make like, say if you broke even that month, the IRS doesn't know. They, they, they look at it in the year. You profited, say, $200,000. They want 30% of that, right? You know, if you don't write it off correctly, they're going to take more. And then, then I feel like being a business owner, I was the middleman of my own money. Like, I have to manage, uh, uh, what I buy and what I need to write off so the IRS don't tax me. And then I understand why a lot of business owners start putting money back in the shop, like Perry. He redid the floors again. I was like, why you need to redo the floor? Oh, because he has to spend it. If he doesn't spend it, he's gonna have to pay it. So the IRS will end up taking your money if you don't, you don't spend it towards the business.

It has to be a business expense write-off. Yeah. And so, and then, and then you've got the shops out there that are just kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And so they're, they're taking your money and they're using it to make payroll, they're using it to pay the parts vendors, and, and you think that money's getting uh, you know, sent to the IRS, and then you wake up at the end of the year and you owe a bunch of money, right? So as far as, you know, owning, owning your own shop, right, Todd talks about, talks about it all the time. I could go and buy a toolbox today and I could fill it up with all the best tools that are out there, but that doesn't make me a technician, right? And so for you being a business owner or, or you know, just talking to somebody out there that's listening that thinks, hey, I'm a great technician, right? Um, what advice would you give someone that's thinking about going to open a business? Um,

it really got to be your, your, uh, what you really— there's that— you— what really drives you, you know? Like me, I wake up every day, I, you know, I'm working up 6 o'clock, 6:30 sharp, get ready to work, come to work excited, go to work and do my thing. I'm a master at it. And do you want to wake up and run a business every day? Does it drive— give you that drive? You know, that's what I think is important. If it's really something that you're really driven to do, then you can go ahead and chase it. But if it's not something you're good at, you know, I don't, I don't recommend it just because you, you see all these other companies making these big numbers. But all these big numbers doesn't mean anything because at the end of the day, it doesn't show you what they net. You know, after expenses, paying everybody off, and then, you know, paying taxes, and then what are you really left? It's like, is that even worth it? You know, being an entrepreneur is

really, really a different field. You know, if you're a technician and entrepreneur, then chase it. But if you just want to be a technician, master that, and then the rest will come, you know? Yeah, I mean, if— and, you know, like, this, this podcast is called Master Tech to Millionaire, and you know, a lot of our, you know, leadership here, whether it be Charlie and Bill and, you know, Perry, they were master techs, right? And they are a different breed when it comes to, you know, entrepreneurs. But Charlie, even Charlie, uh, you know, he had to take off that technician hat and he had to go and become the CEO of his company. And it's a totally different skill set. And he loves fixing cars. I mean, he's a great, great technician. I would imagine you guys are very similar. When it comes to your skill set and, you know, what you guys do. I mean, you both operate at the highest level, but he had to make a

decision that, okay, if I'm going to grow this company and I'm gonna make my technicians better and bring these younger guys up, that I have to stop being a technician. Because there was a time, and, and, uh, you'll hear it on his podcast, where it was kind of an aha moment for him where he did— I don't know, he did like a bunch of clutches or something like really quick, and, uh, Um, he went to Todd and he was telling Todd, he was like, hey man, like, I just did this clutch in 6 hours. Or I don't even know the story exactly, but, uh, you know, and Todd was like, okay, and? Right? Yeah. Like, he's like, look, let me, let me teach you what you need to do, which is one, you took some time away from technicians that could have flagged those hours. Yeah. Okay. And you may have you may have thought that it was a better thing for the company, but it actually, uh, wasn't, and here's why. And he kind of goes through the whole story on that.

And so Charlie had to make a decision that, like, I'm not a tech anymore, you know. I— because you get— you have to do one or the other. You really can't do both. And so he went a different direction. But you are a master tech, and you— but you don't want to do the, the ownership deal, which is perfectly fine. Because look, I know I— hey, I, I know what hours you flag, I know how much money you make, and you'll be a millionaire. I know that, right? Yeah, you're on your way for that for sure. So, um, you can do it either way, but I think the biggest thing is finding what best suits you. Finding out what best suits you. And what, what's funny is what you said about Charlie was, um, I did work for another company when I'm younger. The owner was a technician. They were there in the shop working And since you mentioned Charlie, this is part of why they never scaled to Charlie level was because there were times I was sitting there doing nothing and the owners took a job.

You know, he busted out some gravy work that he could have gave me, but he decided to do it himself. And I was like, man, that, you know, that's nothing. That's not cool, you know. So that's another thing. Yeah, you gotta pull yourself away if you run a business. You can't be a technician and owner at the same time. It's like, yeah, you just gotta pick one side. Yeah, it's just like you said. I mean, it's just, it's, it's a totally different, uh, skill set. So, um, you know, one thing we were talking about, friends and family a little bit too. I know that's, you know, tough when you're first starting out and you're getting in business. You want to kind of, um, kind of drum up some business however you can. I heard a quote, it was, it was, or I read it or whatever, and it said, um, you know, friends and families ask you for a deal, but you— but they'll pay full price to a stranger. Yeah. And I think that's

very interesting because friends and family, working on friends and family cars, it is tough, man. It's like, yeah, it's like they feel— I believe they feel like they— you've been benefiting off of their, you know, money or something, you know. So it's something that they, they see or think, but they don't realize what we're doing to actually help them, you know, being competitive. Actually really help saving them money. They don't see those things. They only see what they spend. And then they start looking at, oh, I'm giving you this much, and then, you know, and then it become a problem. And then, you know, most of my clients is I don't even know them, and I, I give them a service, a product, and they loved it. You know, when it comes to family, friends, they just look at it like, oh, you know, I guess leeching off of them, or I need them, you know. I don't know. I don't know what is— what they think, but it's

just crazy how it is. Yeah. And experiencing it firsthand is really crazy. Yeah. I think it's like something always goes wrong in those situations too. It seems like, you know, something, something's gonna go— something's gonna go wrong. So I try and steer away from that. You know, we've got to run it like, you know, like Todd says, like it's, it's like running a bank, right? It's like if you run a bank, I mean, it's just— this is the way it is, and, and there's no bending, you know, for anything there. Um, but man, so transitioning— so you were doing your own deal and, um, you made the decision to, you know, get out of that partnership and, uh, and come back and be a technician again. Yeah. And so how hard was that decision to make? It was, uh, more like, uh, it wasn't really hard because my family relies on me, you know, so I need to put more time with them. And then it was an easy pick for me because I

have a young boy and I want to spend more time with him and my wife. And running a business, you got, you know, to start off, you got to be there every day, you know. And when you clock out and go home, you're still not done, you know. You still have a lot of worries answering to customers, you know. If somebody give you a bad review, you gotta, you know, you gotta handle all those situations, what take a lot of time out of your, your personal life, and it becomes you know, imbalance. Yeah, you know, so I didn't like it. I mean, for me, I mean, maybe it is for someone else, but for me, I didn't, I didn't like the business side of it. It's not something I was— I should— I didn't like to keep seeking. Yeah. So when you originally wanted to get into business and, and own a shop, what was your, like, expectation? Like, what were you wanting to get out of that? My expectation was, oh man, I own a shop, I own a business. Well, that was just

like a la-la land, you know. But reality check comes in and say, this is, this is reality here. And then, uh, you know, just, I guess it's a status quo. When I was younger, I was, man, I want to own my own shop. Yeah. But I never understand that it's, it's still a business, you know. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it's a shop or nail salon or a hair salon. At the end of the day, it's still a business, right? And that's what a lot of business people fail because they don't have the business mind. You gotta have an entrepreneur mind for that, you know. So Yeah, that's not something I was really good at. And you know, you gotta know your weakness and strength. So my strength is I need— I'm a master tech, and that's what I'm really good at. I mean, the business side, I learned it, it was great, but it just wasn't something I, I wanted to seek, keep seeking. Yeah, it's just like it wasn't for me. I just found out real quick. It doesn't take me long. Yeah,

so you come back, um, when you came back into our world over here, um Man, you just hit the ground running. Yeah, because I knew, um, see, I learned the other side. What made me even more efficient is that I understand the service advisor and the owner side and what they need to get things done in and out and quicker. So once I, I learned that and understand that, and when I come back as a technician, I execute a lot faster. Yeah, I don't know if you notice that. No, I do, I do notice that. Well, you don't wait on us. I know, I noticed that. So we, we move very fast and still Um, one thing that you do is like, if you check a car out, you will look up and tell us what part we need, what parts go with that. You do all— hey, I already built that. Here, look, I already put all the parts. Go ahead and fix the estimate, but I already put all the parts. And we don't expect our technicians to do that. We don't ask our technicians to do DVIs. We don't ask

our technicians to build estimates, find parts. Like, we do all that for our technicians. And if you listen to our, our podcast, you'll know that we try to serve these vehicles to our technicians on a platter. But you go above and beyond. You find parts, you find out who has it, how long it's going to be here. Yeah, because you know that if you do that with speed, that we're going to get that car a lot quicker, get it done faster, and then you're going to get more work. And you keep an eye on that job board, I know that. Yeah, I'm hawking it all the time. You're hawking that job board because you know that if you get your work done and it's ready to go, that you're ready to take on more. And some people work at different paces. Some people can't handle as many cars at one time, and, and that's okay too. Uh, but you move very, very fast through that. So being that you were an advisor— not an advisor, but a shop

owner— but when you're an owner, you're an advisor. Yeah, you're the customer service rep, you're the everything. You're everything. IT, HR, accounting. So you're everything. You have to be everybody, right? So you're everything. And so now you come back, and what is your, you know, like, thought and understanding of the advisors that we have on our team versus what's out there in the industry? Yeah, there's, uh, there's no competition. Our advisor here, uh, what I like is, man, they stay late. They, they, what they promised, they deliver, you know, staying late answering phones, answering customers' needs, and staying on top of it and doing videos. And you hear their voice when they send the video to the customer versus having a technician try to do that, and he's not a sales, you know, he's not good at sales, right? So you don't want a technician doing these videos because the customer looks at it and like, uh, what I'm looking at,

right? You know, and then advisor or advisors, you know, they do a video with their voice and then you have them showing what needed to be replaced and they send that to the customer. And then when the customer see the video and they talk to the same advisor, right, and it makes it like a communication, like a, you know, it's more personal, more personal, and makes them feel more comfortable, right? And the close ratio is higher. Yes, it's a high— do we have a pretty high close ratio? Close ratio is pretty high. Yeah, it's very high because we start with the shop tour, we take them out and then we get to show them, you know, technicians like yourself and introduce you to them, and they get to see that work area. You know, that, that presentation is so important, not just to sell the job, right? When you sell the job, you've, you've given a great video and you've done emotive visuals and you've done all

that. That's all really good. But what led up to that phone call, which is, okay, I take the customer through the shop, they see the clean floors, they see cars that look like theirs, we're busy, the technicians are just pros. They can tell that. And then when we call to sell the job, it makes it that much, much easier because we're going to have a higher close ratio. The better the presentation, the higher the close ratio. And so we get to prove that every day. And, you know, it just takes guys like yourself, you know, that are committed, you know, to, uh, to keeping your area clean. I mean, you've always done that as long as I've known you. Yeah, just kept your area clean. How do you move? How do you move so fast, like, through these cars? Actually, I don't like work fast. I just know how to execute the, um, the work that's given to me at a faster pace. But I'm not really like— you never see me running around the whole shop trying to grab this,

trying to grab that. No, you see me walk at steady speed, and because I will have the exact tool that I need and I know what to grab because I keep everything organized. So if you have a bunch of sockets in one cart and then you need to socket, you're gonna fiddle through the whole thing trying to find this 15mm. But if you have it organized, you know where to grab it. And when something's missing, I can, I can tell something's missing because I have it set up, you know. And it makes your job more efficient if everything's just more organized. Yeah, you work at a lot slower speed, but you get the job done faster. Yeah, that's a great point. I never— like, I don't see you moving fast like that. So that's a really great point, like running and hustling, and like you don't you, you have this steady pace. It's like slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Uh, very, very organized, very meticulous about all your tools, your parts, how you

do it. And anybody that follows Lee on LinkedIn would see— I mean, you take these pictures and they're amazing of like the job that you just did that day. And you make everything look like gravy too, by the way. I don't know how you do that. I, I'm like, well, you have a whole entire dash out and you have all the parts on your cart and you make these great presentations, these pictures, and it's like, hey, just another day at the office. Yeah. And that is really, really cool. But efficiency is so important, right? You know where all your tools are. I've seen those carts, the ones you're talking about, where it's like, yeah, it's everywhere there. It looks like, you know, like a, a bin you'd see at like a garage sale or somebody like selling tools or something. You spend more time trying to go through all that, trying to find what you need to use to get the job done. If you had it all organized, laid out, you can grab it quicker and put it back.

Once I'm done with the job, I put my tools back where it belongs. That way I go on the next job, it might not be a 15mm, it's going to be a 12mm, and at least I know the 12mm is right next there. I'm not, you know, yeah, fishing around for the, the socket. So I try to keep everything organized and makes the— makes everything efficient. Yeah. So let me ask this question. I'm curious on, uh, AI. Do you use— how much AI do you use today? And me, I don't use AI much because, um, that's, that's more like explaining that to the customer. So I mean, I don't use AI as much as I need. Um, I mean, maybe for my personal stuff, like personal title or like questions I need. What about like diagnosing cars? Like, that's a kind of a big thing and a big topic, like as far as AI helping to diagnose cars? And, you know, I mean, us, we try to get into like sticking with, um, you know, what we call TNG, which is totally not gravy. We try and stay away

from those cars. So, uh, a lot of those rabbit holes we're not even going down. But like, people are talking a lot about AI right now with helping to diagnose cars. Do you find that to be helpful at all, or what are your kind of thoughts on AI? I really haven't used AI to diagnose cars because the way I diagnose is totally different than what AI would tell you. Um, I just— I'm diagnosing cars based off what I experience and what I've been through and what I can see and what I know. I don't really use AI to diagnose a car, especially like intermittent problem. You just really gotta, you know, look up TSBs and just look up and chase it down to what the point and pinpoint it out, you know? Yeah, it's not really— I don't usually use AI to diagnose. I use really AI just to explain it, but I don't need— I don't really need it for to diagnose a car. Yeah. And so, I mean, because it comes down to like pinpoint testing something, if you want to confirm a

part's bad, you have to go in with the scan tool and you have to check for whatever, whatever it is y'all do. I don't even know. I just— because the customer doesn't care. Yeah, they don't know. They want to know like, do I like you? Do I trust you? And how much is it going to cost? How long is it going to take? That's really all they care about. All they care about is their time, what it's going to cost them, and when and how, how fast can you get them back on the road? You know, all this other stuff we show them is great. You know, they don't really even care if you have a master certified tech. They just want to know— they want to know if this— how much it costs. How fast can you get it back to them, and what kind of benefits you offer them, you know, like rental car loaner. That's all they really care about, you know. Yeah, they just want transportation. They want to know that they can trust you, like you. Yeah. Um, so let me ask you

this question. You know, we're here 7 days a week. You're not. You're a Monday through Friday tech. I have a lot of technicians that are Monday through Friday. Um, how does the shop being open and auto hospitality 7 days a week serve you as a technician that is a Monday through Friday technician? How's that benefit you? Oh, it's great because like if, you know, I want to finish a job and I can't finish that Friday and we open Saturday and the part's going to show up Saturday, I always like to come in and finish it and that way I get paid, you know. So it kind of— I kind of like it. It gives me the flexibility to come in if I need it, you know, versus I can't come in at all, you know. And then, uh, having the shop open 7 days, it's a great benefit. At least I know that someone's always here, and if I need to come in to do something, is, you know, it's open. Yeah. How does it— does it benefit your out— do you find it benefits your hours in any way?

Yeah, there are days like, uh, man, I want this job done on my paycheck, you know, and that day is the last day of payroll, so I would like to come in Saturday or Sunday to finish it, and then it'll make my check look better. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny, we have a lot of Monday through Friday technicians, and you know, every weekend there's techs here because a lot of technicians on Friday, they leave and they go do side work. Okay, now I know you don't do side work and you haven't done side work for a long time, but there's a lot of technicians out there that leave on Friday and they go do side work because they're trying to make ends meet. They're trying to make a, you know, just put, put food on the table. And so they leave and they go do side work on the weekends. And then the shop owner would say, well, I can't hire technicians that would work weekends. They only want to work Monday through Friday.

Meanwhile, they're actually going and they're working, but the only difference is they're doing it on the driveway versus in a shop. And so I, you know, I always challenge, you know, people that say technicians won't work on the weekends. We don't require that, but you know, like. I know you hawk that screen too, and you'll, you'll text me on a Sunday and be like, you'll be like, uh, I see, I see this big old job sold, and I was gonna like, um, yeah, let me see, I can get that for Monday. You text me, he texts me a screenshot of TechMetric and then 2 eyeballs. That's what you text me. And he's like, hey, can I get that job on Monday? Sure. I mean, look, like I said, there's technicians out there that are gonna make it happen, and there's technicians out there that are going to wait for it to happen, okay? And the high-producing, high-flag-hour technicians, they figure out a way to make it happen. And so if that means on Sunday Lee's on his phone

and he just scrolls through TechMetric, he sees a big job sold that's unassigned, and he asks, hey, can I get that car on Monday? And if we don't have it assigned yet and we're looking at our, you know, our, uh, our tech board and we can give it to Lee, we're gonna give it to him. Um, and I think that's the initiative that it takes for technicians to go out and make it happen. Uh, because see, you always have high hours. You've always have, right? Yes. No matter how many techs are in the shop. When we are— if there's been times we were down on techs, you ran high hours, which everybody would say, well, of course, if they're down on techs, you would run high hours. But there's been times we were overstaffed with technicians and you ran high hours. Still ran high hours. Always run high hours. What do you think it is that makes you run the high hours? And it's not just the efficiency, that's a part of it, but I'm

talking about the, man, the, the making it happen that other technicians— speak to the technicians out there, man. Yeah, what I do is, uh, I go look for it because I don't want any downtime. So I'm driven to go look for work, try to find my hours. I need to get I have a goal set and I need to get there, and I do it every day, and I repeat and repeat and repeat. And some technicians just like coming to work, you know, they just sit around waiting for, you know, something to happen. Me, I don't wait. I don't like waiting. I, I go make sure I go find something to make it happen and then try to speed up the process as fast as possible. Yeah, I mean, um, look, you can either make it happen or you can wait for it to happen. And so what's your hours, uh, your record 153 in one week. 153 hours in a week. And your record month? Uh, 463. 463. Now I'm going to tell a little story real quick. I think this is important for people, for people to understand.

Uh, you post your hours too, by the way. Yes. And I love that. I love that you post that. You post your hours on social media because you're proud of that, and you should be. You work really hard, you're really good at what you do, and you should be proud of that. Well, I did have a technician that approached me that it kind of rubbed the wrong way. Um, do you know that happened? Did you know about that in the shop? I didn't know that. You know, um, it rubs somebody the wrong way, and I had to have a conversation. And the conversation was, look, you can only control what you can control. And you— Lee, Lee runs circles around technicians because he works really hard and he works very efficiently, and he will come in on his day off if he has to, and he will go and help somebody if they need help, and he moves really fast and he's very efficient. And he's very clean and he just does, you know, he's just great. I mean, there's— look, there's nothing wrong

with somebody being really, really great. And I said, look, man, you should really strive for that, but don't ever compare yourself. You know, I don't think anybody should compare themselves to somebody else and definitely shouldn't be upset if somebody else is, you know, maybe making high hours and posting it, because I didn't— I didn't look at that as you were bragging about your hours. I looked at that, that you were proud of your hours. And so, you know, we had this conversation and it was just a— it was a really good conversation because I said, look, man, you're— you are a stud. And if you have a great attitude and you run to the car and you, you know, run to the advisors and, and you're willing to help anybody, um, whenever they need to be helped, it will impact you more than you can imagine. So I, I want you to do this: don't focus on what anybody else is doing. I want you to focus on being the best

version of you that you can be, and I guarantee you we're going to see an increase in your hours. And so that next week, he had a record pay period. The next 2 weeks, he had a record pay period. Now here's the craziest part about that. Because it looked like we were feeding you, okay? And by the way, everybody listening, and if you're on my team, man, we feed everybody. And if you have a great attitude and you run to us and you're like, hey, I need work, we will feed you. We do that. You see that. You understand that everybody's got to eat. We feed everybody. But it was like, man, they're feeding Lee, okay? And that week after we had that conversation, that 2 weeks He had a record pay period. But here's the crazy part about that. You also had your record pay period. Yeah, that same time period. And it was just— it proved it perfectly because when he came up to me and he goes, man, thank you so much for that conversation, um, I just had a record pay period.

I'm like, boom, let's freaking go. Yeah. And I knew that you also had a record pay period, and so I knew it wasn't— it wasn't favoritism. Right? It's not favoritism, but I can tell everybody out there, technicians listening, if you have a good attitude and you are willing to go and help people even when you're not getting paid for it, and you have great energy and you are approachable, you become attractive to the rest of the team that is serving out the tickets. If a technician has a chip on his shoulder and he's in a bad mood and you ask him something and he wants to Yeah, you know, you don't give an attitude. Yeah, why would somebody want to go and approach them? So for technicians out there, if you want to make big money— and I'm talking really big money, man— become approachable, have a great attitude, be willing to help. This technician, this other technician I'm talking about, he goes and picks his

own parts up. He says, hey, how long till the parts get here? Can I go pick them up myself? Because he knows— see, that's something you would do. It's like, if I can go get the part myself and I can get started on this job 30 minutes faster, well, I'd rather just do that. But a lot of people look at that like, why would I need to go pick up my own parts? Or, you know, whoever, whatever the reason is, people look at the roadblocks, they don't look at the opportunity. And I think that's something you've always done, you know, just an amazing, amazing job at. So, um, man, anything else that you want to, um, you know, tell the listeners out there? Um, not really. I think, uh, that's all I have for now. I think it was great having you on today. I mean, I think this was a— this is a lot of fun. I can't wait to get more of our team, you know, to come through and, and jump on and just really, you know, a lot of people hear these names, at least if you're

following our group and you're on Moneyball, you hear the names and you, and you, and you, and you see the pictures on Moneyball, but to really come down to Houston and get to meet our team, get to meet people like yourself, I think is just huge. We hope everybody can come down. Uh, thank you so much for being on today, Lee. Thank you. I look forward to it. Let's do it again. All right. Boom. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerland at 925-980-8012 or visit autoshopanswers.com. You can get more information about key-to-key to callbacks, uh, court outside. We have a VIP Rack Attack Day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team learning this perfected business model. We offer leadership classes, we have an AI academy, and also get more information about auto shop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Once again, that number for Todd Westerland is 925-980-8012.