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.

🎉 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

What happened in the industry. What it means for your shop. What to do about it. Read time: ~9 minutes. Short on time? Watch the video recap below. ______________________ The shop you've competed against for 20 years may not be the shop you've competed against for 20 years. Same sign. Same name. Same owner out front. Different ownership. Different warranty. Different recruiting machine. Your customers can't tell. Your techs can't tell. That's the entire 2026 PE playbook in five lines. THE ONE-LINE TAKE The big guys are getting better at hiding how big they are. The reason matters more than the pattern. A single-shop independent sells for 2 to 4 times what the shop earns in a year. A 10-shop platform sells for 7 to 10 times what it earns. Same shops, different multiple. PE earns the spread by stapling them together — and the staple only holds if the local brand survives the integration. That's why they keep the sign. The sign is the asset. When Sun Auto, GreatWater, and Straightaway all decide — independently — that the most valuable thing on the building is the original family name, they are telling you something the entire industry should be reading on a billboard: The local brand is the single most valuable asset in this category. They are paying premium dollars to fake what you already are. Most independents are reading this as defense. It's offense. Hold that frame. Everything below sharpens it. SUN AUTO: THE EXPRESS BAY IS NOT A COMPETITOR Two confirmed moves this week. Owensboro, Kentucky — 89th Plaza Tire Service location, 8th in Kentucky alone. Illinois — two Checkpoint locations including a Checkpoint Express Lube Center. Illinois count now 15. Most owners read "express lube acquisition" and file it as tire-and-lube expansion. Wrong frame. The express bay is a customer acquisition funnel for higher-margin mechanical work. 4 to 8 oil change visits per customer per year. After visit 3, the upsell into brakes, suspension, drivability, and diagnostics goes into the same database.

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.

In order to get acquainted and and help fellow community members, please share: 1. The name and location of your shop. 2. Your biggest frustration with finding techs. 3. How you found your last tech.