Not a little stumble. A full send. Went down hard enough that my phone left my hand, cleared two steps, and kept going. I watched it bounce away like even it didn't want to be associated with me. Hand torn up. Leg torn up. And the first clear thought in my head, before any of the pain registered, was not "am I hurt." It was "how many people just saw that." The answer was a lot. The beach was packed. And the stretch right in front of me happened to be a row of very attractive women in bikinis, because of course it was. That's just how the math works when you're bleeding and trying to locate your phone. I'm not gonna lie to you. The version of me from a few years ago grabs the phone, does the fake "I'm fine, totally meant to do that" wave, and speed-limps straight to the car. Workout canceled. We don't talk about this again. But I'm standing there doing the math on the slink-away, and it just hit me that walking off bleeding would somehow be more embarrassing than what already happened. Like the fall was an accident. Quitting would've been a decision. So I got up. Wiped the blood on my shorts. And finished the run. In front of everybody. Looking exactly as graceful as you'd imagine. Anyway. We've all got a moment like this. Fell flat, whole world watching. What's yours? Tell me I'm not the only one. P.S. Phone lived. My dignity did not. Pics below after I got home and swabbed the wounds with iodine, you're welcome.

Let me tell you a quick story. A few months back, I got a text from Jeff Lee. He and his wife Amy own J&R Service Center—three shops, including a motorsports division. His message? "That ad got five responses in one day. Between 15 and 30 years of experience. You might wanna spread that around, bud. It definitely hits the buttons." Two minutes later, another text: "Two more just came into the inbox. That's seven. Over 10 years experience." Now look—that doesn't happen every day. That's an outlier for sure. But here's what's NOT an outlier: Ads that stand out get responses. Ads that look like everyone else's get ignored. Go search Indeed right now. Type in "automotive technician in [your city]" You'll see 380+ jobs that all look EXACTLY THE SAME. Same boring headlines. Same "requirements first" structure. Same invisible, forgettable copy. Meanwhile, the techs you actually want? They're scrolling past all of it. So I put together something special for you. Inside the classroom, you'll find: → A 16-minute video walkthrough showing you exactly how the ad that got those 7 responses was built—section by section → The actual swipe-and-deploy template you can customize for your shop → A custom AI tool (Mini Travel Brochure) that writes the relocation section if you're open to hiring outside your area → Another AI tool (Tech Ad Tuner) that diagnoses what's wrong with your current ad and shows you exactly how to fix it Your ad is usually the first impression a technician has of your shop. It's the highest-leverage thing you can work on if you're serious about attracting real talent. Go grab these tools and write something that makes a tech stop scrolling. 📍 Find it all in the classroom under "Grab a technician ad template that works!" Remember—techs aren't reading every word. They're scanning. They're deciding in seconds whether you're worth their time.

I'm about to hop on a plane after two amazing shop visits in Washington and I got this text from a shop owner in Iowa. Just a reminder of the power of a well-written ad.

Ask it what a 15-year diagnostic specialist costs in your market. It won't hand you a useless "average." It hands you the floor, the ceiling, and the number to actually put in the ad. That's the new Technician Find Co-Pilot. As of last week, it's live for every EasyBench member. Last Thursday's clinic was a working session — how to put it to work, plus a second tool for resurrecting the candidates you already paid to find. Here's what we covered: → The Technician Find Co-Pilot — a 24/7 recruiting strategist that lives on your phone and knows your shop. It doesn't spit out generic advice. It asks the questions a sharp hiring partner would ask before answering, then hands you a play built for your bays, your market, your situation. → The 5 questions that teach it your shop's DNA — your hard numbers, why you got into this and where you're headed, your real answer to "I've got two other offers, why you?", a profile of the best tech who ever worked for you, and the one I like most: what your top producer would say if I secretly asked them why they really stay. Answer those five and the Co-Pilot stops guessing. → A live salary run — Augusta, Georgia, unicorn tech. The Co-Pilot walked through why the "average tech wage" you find online is worthless for that hire — it lumps the lube guy in with the 30-year BMW master — then gave the floor that gets him to pick up the phone, the ceiling that signals you're serious, and the range to advertise. The line that landed: a guaranteed pay plan with no flat-rate trap is your sharpest weapon against every dealer in town. → A live growth-roadmap build. A tech asked his owner for a path forward. That's not a headache. It's one of the strongest retention signals you'll ever get — he's telling you he wants to build something, not collect checks until something better shows up. We built the answer: skill milestones on your shop's standards, a pay number attached to each one before the conversation, and an honest ask about whether he wants a role beyond the bay. One page. Three columns. Worth more than any bonus you could hand him today.

A shop owner just got a $125/day sponsorship recommendation from Indeed. That's $3,750 a month. Here's what that money is actually doing — and why the conversation Indeed wants you having is the wrong one. Three things to take away: - The number isn't a fee. It's a bid in an auction against your panicked neighbors. - You're paying premium prices to fish in a puddle while the ocean is ten feet away. - Indeed is the world's best applicant tracking system. It's not a recruiter. Most owners are paying for the wrong job. The right question isn't "how much should I bid?" It's "where do my techs actually live?" Read time 4 minutes. Short on time? Listen to or watch the video explainer below. ________________________________________________________________________________ A shop owner forwarded me an email from Indeed. Subject line: Increase your sponsorship to stay competitive. The recommendation? $125 a day. That's $3,750 a month. To do what, exactly? If you read that and your stomach tightened, you're not alone. More of these quotes are landing in shop owners' inboxes every week. The numbers are climbing. The applications aren't. THAT $125 ISN'T A FEE. IT'S A BID. You're not paying Indeed to find you a tech. You're paying to outbid every other shop in your zip code. All of you fighting over the same small group of techs who are on the platform actively looking for work. It's an auction. The price goes up because more shops are bidding, not because more techs are arriving. When Indeed quotes you $125, that number is a thermometer for how panicked the other shops in your market are. That number going up isn't good news about the platform. It's bad news about your market. YOU'RE FISHING IN A PUDDLE A small slice of working technicians are on Indeed. Some are out of work. Some are job-hopping. Some are actively looking. That slice is who Indeed shows your ad to. Everyone else — the employed techs, the satisfied techs, the ones who haven't updated a resume in six years — they're never going to see your ad. They're not on Indeed. They're on their phones scrolling Facebook between brake jobs.