Yesterday I got a text from a number I didn't recognize. (786) 481-4680. Miami area code. The message? "Hi Christopher, right?" Three words. That's it. My first instinct was to reply. Be polite. Say "wrong number" and move on with my day. I didn't. And that split-second decision might have saved me thousands of dollars. Here's what I almost walked into. That "innocent" text is the opening line of what the FBI calls a "pig butchering" scam. Weird name. Devastating consequences. HERE'S HOW THE SCAM WORKS They send thousands of these texts. "Hi [name], right?" They're fishing. Waiting for someone polite enough to respond. If you reply—even just "wrong number"—you've confirmed two things: 1. This phone number is active. 2. There's a real person here willing to engage. Now you're a qualified lead. The scammer apologizes. Strikes up a conversation. Maybe mentions it's "fate" that you connected. Over the next few weeks—sometimes months—they build trust. They become your friend. Maybe more. Then comes the hook. A cryptocurrency opportunity. A trading platform. An "investment" that seems too good to pass up. By the time you realize what's happening, your money is gone. And I mean gone. Think I'm being dramatic? Last year, text message scams cost Americans $470 million. That's five times higher than 2020. These aren't Nigerian princes with bad grammar anymore. They're sophisticated operations using AI to manage conversations with hundreds of victims simultaneously. The Miami area code on that text I received? Spoofed. Could have come from anywhere in the world. The fact that they used my first name? Probably pulled from a data breach. Or my LinkedIn. Or anywhere else my info exists online. This isn't random. It's targeted. It's patient. And it's designed to exploit the one thing most of us were raised to be: Polite. So here's what you do when you get one of these: Do NOT respond. Not even "wrong number." Silence is your best protection.

Zappos does something most shop owners would call insane. During onboarding, they offer new employees up to $4,000 to walk away. No hard feelings. Just take the cash and leave. Their thinking? If someone takes the money, they were never committed anyway. Better to find out in week two than month six when they've poisoned your shop culture and you've wasted thousands on training. Here's what got me thinking... Most of you already have 90-day probationary periods. You're already doing the "trial" part. But what if you added a financial incentive for the uncommitted to self-select out? And there's another angle here that's unique to our industry: The toolbox. Some shops pay to move a tech's box in. What if you also committed to paying to move it out—no questions asked—if either party decides it's not a fit during that first 90 days? Think about it: A tech's toolbox can cost $500-$1,500 to move. That's real money. But what's the cost of a bad hire who sticks around because leaving feels too expensive? I genuinely don't know if this would work in our world. That's why I'm asking. Three questions for the group: 1. Would offering a "quit bonus" during probation attract better candidates (who see it as confidence) or worse ones (who see it as an easy payday)? 2. If you guaranteed to pay a tech's toolbox in AND out during the first 90 days, would that make you more attractive to committed A-players... or just make it easier for flakes to bounce? 3. What's the REAL cost of a wrong hire who stays too long versus one who leaves too soon? 👇Drop your take below. I want the honest answers, not the polite ones.

Why Sometimes The Nicest Thing You Can Do For Your Team Might Feel Mean Alright, I'm just going to say it... Your "positivity" might be setting your team up for failure. I've heard this story dozens of times over the years: An employee at a shop gets let go—and they're completely blindsided. "I had no idea there was a problem." How does that happen? A few years back, I was working with a shop that had a young tech. Smart kid. Good hands. Showed up early. But he was paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. Every diagnosis, he second-guessed himself. Every repair, he'd check and re-check. He'd hover near the service writer hoping someone would tell him he was doing okay. Nobody did. Not because they didn't think he was doing okay—but because they assumed he knew. "He's doing fine. Why would I need to say anything?" Meanwhile, this kid is drowning in silence. Interpreting "no feedback" as "I'm probably screwing up." He quit. Not because the job was too hard. Not because he wasn't capable. Because he couldn't stand the pressure of not knowing where he stood. A simple monthly 1-on-1 could have saved him. Here's the distinction many shop owners and managers miss: There's a difference between a coach and a cheerleader. A cheerleader says: "Great job! Great job! Great job!... Okay, you're fired." A coach says: "Here's what you're doing well. Here's what needs work. Here's how we're going to get you there." Cheerleaders make people feel good in the moment. Coaches make people feel secure—because they always know where they stand. When I onboard a new shop, I always ask: - What's your 1-on-1 meeting cadence? - What's your team meeting rhythm? - How do you remove obstacles for your people? - How do you get in front of problems so they don't cause drama in the shop? Most of the time? Crickets. Or else it's sporadic and inconsistent. And I get it. You're busy. You're in the weeds. You assume if something's wrong, they'll tell you. But here's the truth:

Give yourself some credit. Every comeback you ate the cost on because it was the right thing to do. Every Friday night you stayed late because the customer needed their car for the weekend. Every tech who walked out and left you scrambling. Every estimate that got shopped. Every "I'll think about it" that never called back. You're still here. Here's what nobody tells you about running a shop: Those aren't failures...they're reps. They're training. Every hard conversation with a tech who wasn't pulling their weight. Every time you had to figure out how to make payroll when the money ran out before the month did. Every moment you wondered if you were cut out for this. That's not evidence you're falling behind. That's evidence you're being forged. Brick by brick, bay by bay, you're building a version of yourself that doesn't break. So before you lock up tonight—stop. Look around at what you've built. You're not behind. You're becoming. Have a great weekend.

I have to get something off my chest. Back in 2017, I was invited into a small conference room in Burbank, CA to speak to a group of shop owners about digital marketing. After the presentation, this generous group of shop owners invited me into their 20 group, showed me how this industry really works, and trusted me enough to hire my small company for digital marketing. A few months later after working directly with a half dozen shops from that group, I realized that marketing wasn't their real problem. They were drowning trying to find and keep technicians. So we tried things. Hundreds of things. Some worked. Most failed. But over years of testing, the Technician Find process got better and better. Here's what I know now: The process works. It's worked hundreds of times for hundreds of shops. But I still lose sleep when a shop we work with doesn't make a hire. I take it personally. It bothers me in a way that probably isn't healthy. And after thinking long and hard about whether to post this, I realized—what's this community even for if we're not being honest about what's working and what isn't? SO HERE'S WHAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF 👉Shops that hire us, then appoint a busy or disengaged manager to coordinate hiring. Someone who has a dozen priorities higher on their list than hiring. 👉Shops that hire a consultant, then don't return phone calls, emails or take our advice. 👉Shops that don't follow up on applications within 24 hours. 👉Shops that don't leave multiple messages when a candidate no-shows—then give up. 👉Shops that never ask for referrals from every single person they interview. SOME SHOPS ASK IF I OFFER GUARANTEES I tell them I'd love to. The problem? I don't know if they can hold up their end of the bargain. Here's the truth no one wants to say out loud: Hiring is a partnership, not a vending machine. We've worked with shops that roll up their sleeves and consistently hire within 2-3 weeks. It's like clockwork and it's beautiful to watch. We've also worked with shops that sit back, fold their arms, and wait for a unicorn to walk through the door.