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.

Little hiring reminder from the wife side of the toolbox: When a great tech is thinking about making a move, there’s a decent chance he is not sitting at the kitchen table calmly polishing his resume with a cup of coffee. More likely, he’s buried at work, coming home tired, helping with kids, fixing something at the house, answering three texts from buddies, and saying, “Yeah, I need to update that resume…” Translation: his wife may be the one making things happen. She may be helping clean up the resume. She may be reading your job post closer than he is. She may be asking the questions he forgot to ask: ⚙️ What’s the actual pay range? ⚙️ Are Saturdays required? ⚙️ Is there a guarantee? ⚙️ What are the benefits? ⚙️ Is this place stable? ⚙️ Do they treat techs like grown adults? ⚙️ Is this going to make our life better… or just move the same headache to a different building? So shop owners and GMs, this is your friendly reminder: 🔧 You’re not just recruiting a tech. 🔧 You’re asking a whole household to trust you. 🔧 That first message matters. 🔧 The clarity in your job post matters. 🔧 The way you explain pay, schedule, benefits, training, and culture matters. Because sometimes the person helping him decide whether to apply is the one sitting beside him at 9:30 p.m. saying: “Send it. This one actually sounds legit.” Or… “Nope. This smells like another ‘competitive pay’ trap.” 😂 Good techs are busy. Good spouses are paying attention. Make the opportunity clear enough that both of them can say, “This might actually be worth a conversation.”

In the world of automotive service, we often treat hiring like a "check engine" light. We wait for a vacancy to glow yellow on the dashboard, scramble to scan for a fix (a job posting), and hope the first part we throw at it—the first applicant—clears the code. But here’s the reality: Hiring isn't a repair job; it’s preventative maintenance. If you’re only looking for talent when you have an empty bay, you’ve already lost. Building a high-performing shop—from your C- & B-techs and General Service pros to your lead A-techs and Service Advisors—is a carefully built long-distance relationship, not a sprint. Part 1: Recruiting is Relationship Management The best technicians and advisors usually aren't looking for a job today. They’re working. But they are watching. They are observing how you treat your team, how your shop looks, and what your reputation is in the community. The "Why" Behind the Move People leave shops for reasons that are sometimes tangible and sometimes entirely "perceived." As an employer, it doesn't matter if the grass is actually greener or if they just think it is—the result is the same. They move for: - The Big Three: Money, Benefits, and Seniority. - The Emotional Drivers: Respect, feeling heard, and work-life balance. - The Future: Career advancement, training opportunities, and modern equipment. - The Reputation: They want to work for a shop that customers trust. Your Google reviews aren't just for clients; they are a recruiting brochure for top-tier talent. The Strategy: Always Be Planting Seeds You need to be building a "bench" of talent long before you need them. This means maintaining casual professional relationships with Techs and Advisors at other shops, vendors, and even students at local trade schools. - Listen to the "Secret Agents": Your parts drivers see the internal weather of every shop in the zip code. If a shop down the street is melting down, they know first. Treat your vendors well, and they’ll tell you whose "check engine light" just came on. - Have a System: Treat recruiting like a CRM. Have a central place that all managers use to reach out monthly via a short text check-in (texting is usually more effective). Keep a record of their name, phone number, specific talents, where they work, and a log of every touchpoint.

🎉 We Hit 500 Members! 🎉 A huge thank-you to every shop owner and gm in the Technician Find Skool Community. This group keeps growing because of you — your questions, wins, hiring tips, shop stories, and support for other owners. We built this community to help auto repair shop owners find better techs, make smarter hiring moves, and grow stronger teams. Now we’re 500 members strong. That’s a big deal. 🙌 Here’s to more wins, more hires, and more shops getting the help they need. Thank you for being here! — The Technician Find Team

Most shops blame the market or the tech when they get ghosted. The real leak is usually the person making the first phone call. In this post: - Why ghosting is usually not a candidate problem - What the tech actually decides in the first 90 seconds - The reframe from "screening call" to "audition call" - The Monday diagnostic to find your leak in 15 minutes - The resentment layer most shops never name Read time: ~4 minutes ___________________________________________________________________________________________ The tech isn't ghosting you. He's ghosting the person who called him. And the person who called him is probably someone in your shop right now who would rather be doing anything else. Here's the pattern I see in shops that can't hire. It has nothing to do with the market. It has nothing to do with the ad. It has nothing to do with the generation. It has to do with 90 seconds of phone audio. There's a guy I'll call Bill. He's the GM. He's supposed to be running things. He's supposed to be calling the applicants. He does. Kind of. He calls them the way you'd cancel a dentist appointment. Flat voice. A couple of random questions. Checks the box that he made the call. Moves on. And then wonders why nobody shows up for the interview or why they start screening his calls. Here's what the candidate hears on that call. This guy doesn't care if I take this job. This shop is probably like the last one. I'm not rearranging my Tuesday for this. That's the decision. It takes 90 seconds. He hangs up polite. He doesn't show. You think he ghosted you. He didn't. He decided. You just weren't in the room for the decision. Most owners think the first call is a screen. It's not. It's an audition. And your shop is the one auditioning. The tech is deciding whether you're worth a Tuesday. Whether you're worth driving 30 minutes for. Whether you're worth leaving his current shop — where at least he knows where the bathroom is. You're not evaluating him.