Wrench Turners Podcast

Bobby Beltz didn’t leave because he stopped loving the work. He left because everything surrounding the work slowly stole the joy from it. In this episode of the Wrench Turners Podcast, Bobby shares what dealership life was really like, from flat rate pressure and favouritism to unsafe decisions, bureaucracy, burnout, and the lack of teamwork inside the shop. But this isn’t simply an argument agai...

Flat rate teaches technicians to treat every minute like money. But what happens when that thinking follows you home? Bryan Collins is a BMW Shop Foreman at Braman Miami and a former Lexus technician with more than 15 years in automotive. He shares the early mistakes most technicians are afraid to admit, how a supportive shop helped him learn instead of quit, and why he left Lexus to pursue a grea...

There’s more to automotive than the bay. A lot of technicians spend their careers seeing pieces of this industry. The repair. The RO. The part. The customer concern. The comeback. The warranty line. The job in front of them. But automotive is a lot bigger than what we see from inside the shop. In this episode of The Wrench Turners Podcast, I’m joined by Jacki Lutz, Content Director at the Auto Car...

Everyone complains about paperwork. The best technicians, advisors, and managers understand something different: documentation isn't paperwork... It's profit. In this episode of the Wrench Turners Podcast, Justin Gonzalez shares his journey from Apple and Lexus to leading warranty support for a growing RV manufacturer. Along the way, he learned that documenting repairs, telling better stor...

What’s the biggest expense inside a dealership? According to CFO Pete Fisher, it’s people. Not because people are the problem, but because payroll, compensation, benefits, and personnel costs make up one of the largest pieces of the dealership P&L. In this episode of Wrench Turners Podcast, Pete breaks down dealership finances in a way service managers, fixed ops directors, advisors, and techn...

What happens when a dealership develops an exceptional technician but gives them nowhere to go next? Nicholas Martin began his automotive career pushing a broom, cleaning tools, and learning from every technician in the workshop. He eventually became a Mercedes-Benz Certified Diagnostic Technician before moving into OEM technical support and dealer advisory, helping dealerships solve difficult tec...

Jamie Robinson almost left the trade in his first year. He hated it. He felt like he wasn’t good enough. He wanted out. Then everything changed. Jamie found the right people. He asked for help. He chased the hard jobs. He learned diagnostics. He got better one day at a time. Years later, he won the UK skills contest and went to Seoul to compete for Hyundai on the world stage. He finished second in...

What separates a great shop from everybody else? Patty Ruggia has spent years seeing dealerships from the recruiting side. Jade Price sees the industry from inside the workshop. Their answers point back to the same things: leadership, recognition, communication, customer experience, and the culture created inside the shop. We also get into why constantly correcting people can destroy trust, why gr...

We spend a lot of time talking about what’s wrong with the automotive industry. So Jade Price asked a different question: What’s actually gotten better? Patty Ruggia talks about the growth of dealership support teams and the increased respect being given to technician education. Jade shares what she’s seen from more women entering the trade and how social media has created a much bigger community...

Being the best technician in the shop doesn't automatically make someone ready to lead it. But across the "we fix things" industries, that's often exactly how shop foremen are chosen. They're great diagnosticians. They're productive. They're experienced. They know the vehicles. Then one day they're responsible for leading people. In this episode of Earned Influenc...

Dealerships have added BDCs, technician videos, digital inspections, AI, warranty processes, new software, and more administrative responsibilities. So why does the customer experience often feel the same—or even worse? In this Ten Mil Mastery conversation, Marshall, Josh Arnold, Brent Osmond, and Joshua Taylor compare automotive and heavy-duty service departments, examine how the service advisor...

Attilio Guidetti has gone from automotive school and race-team work in Bologna to leading Ducati service operations across 15 Asia-Pacific markets. Along the way, he’s worked as a technician, service advisor, international trainer, business owner, and aftersales leader. In this episode, we discuss why skilled technicians can still struggle inside poorly managed shops, why customer experience and p...

Your customer doesn’t experience your dealership as service, parts, sales, and BDC.They experience one dealership. When an appointment is mishandled, a call isn’t returned, a part update never arrives, or departments blame one another, the customer doesn’t care which team caused the problem. They only know the dealership failed to solve it. In the season finale of Earned Influence Season 3, Mindy...

Who loses if you don’t win? That question changed how Mindy Williams thinks about leadership, responsibility, and every decision she makes. Because when a leader isn’t performing at the level their people need, the consequences rarely stop with the leader. Employees can lose. Customers can lose. Families can lose. The business can lose. In this episode of Earned Influence Season 3, Mindy, Wendy Re...

Parts can make or break the rhythm of a service department. In this episode of The Wrench Turners Podcast, Shawn Parrett joins me to talk about the real life of the parts counter, how parts leaders support technicians, and why communication between parts, advisors, and the shop matters more than most dealerships admit. Shawn has nearly 30 years in automotive parts, from wholesale parts to parts ma...

AI can improve your writing, organize your thoughts, analyze reports, and remove hours of repetitive work. But what happens when everyone starts sounding the same? In Season 3, Episode 1 of Earned Influence, Wendy Reeves, Mindy Williams, Kaylee Felio, and Joshua Taylor discuss how leaders can use AI without losing their authenticity, judgment, privacy, or connection with the people they serve. Kay...

The parts department is expected to identify the right components, manage inventory, prevent obsolescence, handle warranty returns, navigate supply chains, source emergency parts, and keep technicians productive. Yet in many dealerships, parts people are still treated like an afterthought. Marshall, Brent Osmond, and Josh Arnold discuss what changes when parts becomes a recognized skilled trade ra...

In this special panel episode of Wrench Turners Podcast, we sit down with Dale Pettigrew and Nicholas Martin, two former technicians who moved into OEM technical support, to talk about what actually makes a support case easier or harder to solve. This conversation gets into the stuff technicians deal with every day: vague repair orders, skipped diagnostic steps, intermittent concerns, “no fault fo...

What if you’re not stuck because you lack talent, ambition, or discipline? What if you’re surrounded by people who cannot help you become the person you’re trying to become? In the final episode of Earned Influence Season 2, Kathleen Long, Kelli Verdi, and Kaylee Felio share the hurdles that forced them to rethink their careers, environments, health, relationships, and definitions of success. Kath...

What happens when showing up online begins taking more from you than it gives back? In Episode 3 of Earned Influence Season 2, Kaylee Felio opens an honest conversation about social media burnout. After years of consistently sharing her career, podcast, and life online, she’s reached a point where she has to ask: What am I doing, and do I still want to do it? Kathleen Long and Kelli Verdi join Kay...

Tanner Neal didn’t grow up dreaming about a career in automotive. In fact, cars weren’t really on his radar. His path started with necessity. From damage appraisals across West Texas to becoming a service advisor with $3.5 million in gross sales and a top-rated CSI, to now leading fixed operations at a luxury store, Tanner’s story is a reminder that automotive can become a career path for people w...

What makes someone trust you? In Season 2, Episode 2 of Earned Influence, Kathleen Long brings that question to Kelli Verdi, Kaylee Felio, and Joshua Taylor. The conversation explores how trust is built through curiosity, honest communication, vulnerability, generosity, consistency, and the willingness to admit that you don’t have every answer. Kaylee explains how providing useful resources helped...

What happens when a business becomes so focused on growth that it stops listening to the people it serves? In Season 2, Episode 1 of Earned Influence, Kelli Verdi asks how businesses can scale without sacrificing customer service, culture, or trust. Kathleen Long shares why leaders sometimes need the courage to walk away from profitable ideas when customers say no. Kaylee Felio explains how PartsE...

Mindy Williams had just come back from having her second baby. One month postpartum, with two kids at home and every reason to wait, she still put her name in for the service manager role. In this conversation, Mindy shares how mentorship, trust, accountability, and one leader’s belief helped her move from receptionist to advisor to service manager at CMA’s Colonial Subaru. Her mentor Ron didn’t j...

Kelli Verdi joins The Wrench Turners Podcast for a conversation about faith, family, automotive, customer trust, dealership culture, and why care is never just a soft skill. Kelli’s story starts long before her career in automotive marketing. Her grandfather owned an automotive repair shop in Tampa, and without realizing it at the time, she was learning some of the most important lessons in the in...