Maximum Octane

You’ve owned your shop for years and are booked solid, yet you can’t take a vacation without constant phone calls and emails. Or maybe business has stalled, making the dream of a second location even further away. Sound familiar? Walter Bond calls it playing backyard business: lots of effort, no structure, no system, and no plan for how you’re going to win. In this episode recorded at Super Confer...

Customers rely on repair shops and techs to keep their vehicles running smoothly. But information doesn’t always flow as seamlessly, especially with inspection results. Oftentimes, customers are fed reports full of tech jargon that leaves them confused. From giant blocks of text to blurry images and hidden notes, the important information becomes just another annoyance on top of the pile. Calls to...

A new car with 15 fault codes comes into your shop. Your best diagnostic tech is booked solid, and the available staff has never traced a network fault. What do you do? This scenario is common, as master technicians and specialized expertise become increasingly limited. In this episode recorded at Super Conference 2026, Jason Patel sat down with Elie Massabki of Mechanics Marketplace to discuss ho...

AI in the workplace is nothing new. From bookkeeping to customer relations, the technology is helpful for shop owners. But Josh Oberlander saw a gap on the technician side, where AI can boost efficiency and productivity. Punching in notes into an iPad one finger at a time slows down the day and increases the chance of information getting lost along the way. But what if there was a more effective w...

Is your inventory an asset, or is it slowly draining money from your business? Think about that for a second. This small, yet meaningful question can make a big difference in your shop’s daily operations. Most importantly, it lays the groundwork for a conversation about organization and productivity and how companies like Imperial Supplies can help. In this episode of Maximum Octane, hosts Kim Hic...

Most shop owners assume back-office losses come down to surface issues like bad hires or outright theft. But the real problem is much deeper. As Alex Saladna , co-founder and CEO of Wicked File , explains, complications arise when back-office processes slip, and you can no longer ensure where your money is going. Unfortunately, he learned the hard way when his family’s 10-shop operation lost $180,...

As a shop owner, you tackle big issues like bay efficiency, DVI compliance, marketing, and advertising spend. But what about phone calls and operational communications? While it may sound mundane, recording your calls is one of the single most important factors in maintaining a healthy customer connection. In this episode of Maximum Octane, host Jason Patel sits down with David Boyd , an expert in...

Customer communication is essential for success. But what does that really mean? Too often, shop owners are relying on outdated software installed on day one. It’s not the best, but it works, right? Wrong. This episode is all about learning to utilize multi-channel communication strategies that actually help you and your customers stay connected. In this episode of Maximum Octane, hosts Kim Hickey...

Money can make or break your dream, but securing it isn’t always easy. SBA loans, KPIs, and retained earnings? It can all sound like gibberish to the untrained ear. Instead of sifting through the acronyms like parts at a chop shop, enlisting a specialist can be the key to reaching your goals.  In this episode, host Kim Hickey chats with PJ Scalf from Seacoast Bank to get to the nitty-gritty o...

At some point, every shop owner questions the keys to success. Is it customer retention? Good leadership? Or maybe it’s having a strong digital footprint. The good news is you don’t go at it alone. Enter: KUKUI, the California-based auto repair shop marketing platform, working with shops to grow in every capacity. In this episode of Maximum Octane, hosts Kim Hickey and Jason Patel sit down with Co...

Human resources often gets a bad rap. It’s been stigmatized as the last resort for managing harassment claims and inner office conflicts. But the department and the people behind it do so much more. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Lindsay Kvasnik , an HR veteran with over 17 years of experience and founder of Rosebud Consulting HR. She’s held almost every position in...

Most collision shops have spent the last 50 years letting insurance companies bring them work and calling it a strategy. It worked for a long time. It's working a lot less now, and the shops that haven't built any presence outside of their DRP relationships are starting to feel it. This episode is for every body shop owner who has ever said "we don't need to market" and is now wondering why the ba...

Most shop owners who invest in shop management software are using maybe a third of what they're paying for. They swap the old manual process for a digital one, call it an upgrade, and move on. But that's not an upgrade; it's just a translation. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Brett Kinsfather and Zack Buffum from Shopmonkey, a shop management software platform that's...

Most shop owners say they want a great team. What they actually build, without realizing it, is a team of people they're too afraid to hold accountable. This episode is a candid, unscripted conversation with two veteran owners who both hit that wall, blew up their teams, and rebuilt them the right way. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Woody Howard of Simpsonville Autom...

Most shop owners don't know what their business is worth until someone makes an offer, and by then it's too late to be strategic. Whether that unsolicited call catches you off guard or your retirement plan is quietly resting on a number you made up, this episode is a reality check that every shop owner needs to hear sooner rather than later. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey sits down...

Most shop owners think about relationships as a soft skill; something you're either naturally good at or you're not. David Nour thinks that's exactly the kind of thinking that keeps small businesses stuck. Relationships are a system, and like any system in your shop, they can be built, measured, and optimized. This episode makes that case convincingly. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey...

Plenty of shop owners walk in with a big heart and walk out with a struggling business, convinced that charging fairly and taking care of people are opposites. This episode breaks that myth down piece by piece, showing what it actually looks like to run a generous shop that's also a profitable one. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey and Jason Patel sit down with David Wostarek , owner o...

Most shop owners complain about finding technicians but do nothing to fix it. They ask, "Do you have ten fingers?" Get a yes, and hire them tomorrow. No interview, no vetting, no onboarding. Just panic. Lisa Coyle heard this enough times to build a solution. She created Promotive to bring a professional recruiting process to shops too busy fighting fires to build one themselves. In this episode of...

Ninety percent of third-generation businesses fail. It sounds like a doom-and-gloom stat, and it should. But Dan Garlock didn't treat it that way. When his dad said second-generation businesses fail at a super high rate, Dan heard it as a challenge. Now, as he prepares his two sons, Noah and Luke, to potentially take over Silver Lake Auto and Tire Centers, he's facing those same odds again. The di...

Your team reads your body language before they hear your words. A bad morning, a lost deal, traffic on the way to work. It takes one thing to set the tone for the entire day, and suddenly your frustration becomes your team's problem. Sam Richter learned long ago that the moment you step on stage, none of that matters. You flip a switch. Most shop owners never figure out how to flip that switch, wh...

Shop owners know Q1 is slow. So they wait until December to panic and throw money at ads, which is the exact opposite of what works. While most shops treat marketing like an emergency room visit, the ones pulling ahead are treating it like preventive care. They market 365 days a year, plan quarterly trends a year in advance, and understand that your customers' decision-making happens months before...

There are four core aspects of business development in auto repair: in-person, email, phone, and social selling. In-person relationships will always matter most, but they only scale so far. Harris Fanaroff , founder and CEO of Linked Revenue, explains that shops lean on email because it is easy, avoid cold calls because they are uncomfortable, and dismiss LinkedIn because it feels difficult to mas...

Most shop owners think their hiring problem is a technician shortage. According to Matthew Strom , founder of AutoShop Media , the real issue is visibility, messaging, and how shops present themselves in a crowded market. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Matthew to unpack what is actually working in automotive marketing and technician recruitment right now. Matthew sha...

Most shop owners do not fail at marketing because they lack effort. They fail because their efforts have no clear purpose behind them. According to Carrie-Lynn Rodenberg , CEO and founder of Turnkey Marketing , effective marketing is not about doing more. It is about doing the right things with intent, strategy, and a measurable goal. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey and Jason Patel s...

Most shop owners open their doors because they want to fix what was broken in the last place they worked. But once the dust settles, many realize they built themselves a job, not a business. According to Brian Hammond , one of ATI’s newest coaches and a lifelong entrepreneur, real success begins when you stop thinking like a shop owner and start operating like a business owner. In this episode of...