The day I stopped trying to fix my shop and started fixing myself.
When I was growing up, one of my favorite Looney Tunes was Marvin the Martian. If you’re old enough to remember the Looney Tunes cartoons, you may remember one episode where Marvin had what looked like a giant gumball machine with a sign that read, “10,000 Martians… Just Add Water.” As a kid, I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen because it made creating an entire army look ridiculously simple.
Looking back now, I realize I unknowingly carried that same philosophy into my first years as a shop owner. The only difference was that my imaginary machine had a different sign on it. Mine read, “Successful Repair Shop…Just Add Vic.”
At the time, I honestly believed it.
Like so many shop owners, I entered business ownership with an abundance of confidence and very little understanding of what it actually took to build and lead a successful company. My confidence wasn’t based on arrogance as much as it was based on success. I had spent years becoming a Master Technician, solving some of the most difficult problems that rolled through the shop doors, and developing a reputation for fixing vehicles that other people couldn’t. I genuinely believed that if I could solve the toughest automotive problems, running a business would simply be another challenge to diagnose and repair.
It didn’t take long for reality to prove me wrong.
The first lesson I learned was that businesses don’t break the way cars do. A vehicle doesn’t have emotions, personal goals, financial pressures at home or differing opinions about how something should be done.
Employees do. Customers do. Vendors do. Cash flow certainly does.
There isn’t a diagnostic connector hidden under the dashboard of your business that allows you to plug in a scan tool and instantly identify why profits are shrinking, why employee morale is slipping or why your service advisors struggle to communicate value to customers. Business ownership requires an entirely different set of skills than repairing automobiles, and, unfortunately, no one had ever explained that to me.
That didn’t stop me from believing I already had the answers.
Like many owners, I attended management seminars whenever I could justify taking the time away from the shop. I’d fill notebooks with ideas, listen to talented presenters, and drive home convinced that I’d finally discovered the missing piece. I was a true DIY during those years.
I also received phone calls from trainers, consultants and coaches who offered to help me become a better business owner. More often than not, I politely thanked them for their time, told them I was busy, and went right back to doing what I had always done. Looking back now, I realize I wasn’t rejecting coaching because I thought those people had nothing to offer. I rejected coaching because I really believed I already knew enough to fix it on my own.
Confidence Disguised as Competence
The interesting thing about confidence is that it often disguises itself as competence.
At that point in my life, no one had ever challenged my thinking enough to help me understand the difference between knowing how to repair vehicles and knowing how to build a business. Those are two completely different professions that simply happen to exist under the same roof. One requires technical expertise. The other requires leadership, communication, financial understanding, hiring skills, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and the ability to influence people toward a common purpose. I possessed the first set of skills in abundance. The second set had barely begun to develop.
Then came the day when everything seemed to come off the rails.
I’m not referring to one catastrophic event. It wasn’t a single customer complaint or an employee unexpectedly quitting. It was something much more subtle than that. I began to realize that despite working longer hours than ever before, sacrificing evenings and weekends, and carrying the weight of the business on my shoulders every waking hour, I wasn’t creating the company I had imagined when I first unlocked the front door. The harder I worked, the more frustrated I became because effort alone wasn’t producing better results.
The Morning in the Mirror
One morning, while getting ready for work, I happened to catch my reflection in the bathroom mirror.
It wasn’t one of those dramatic moments you see in the movies where everything suddenly becomes crystal clear. In fact, the mirror didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. It simply reflected the person standing in front of it, and for the first time I was willing to look beyond my appearance and examine something much deeper. I wasn’t looking at a tired shop owner. I was looking at someone who had spent years trying to fix every problem around him while refusing to admit that the greatest opportunity for improvement might actually be the person staring back from the glass.
That morning I said three words I had resisted saying for years: “I need help.”
Those words changed my life, not because hiring a coach instantly transformed my business, but because admitting I needed help transformed my attitude.
Until that moment, I had believed the answers were always somewhere outside of me. I needed another seminar, another process, another employee, another marketing idea, another piece of equipment, or another management system. What I finally discovered was that the business wasn’t waiting for another system. It was waiting for me to become a different leader.
Looking back today, I can honestly say that the coach never fixed my business. The coach helped me fix my thinking.
Engine Sealing: Building Customer Confidence
When customers hear the words “engine gasket,” they often assume the worst. For repair shop owners, however, engine sealing repairs represent an opportunity to demonstrate expertise, build trust and increase the value of every repair order. The key is helping customers understand that replacing the right sealing components today can prevent far more expensive engine damage tomorrow.
Not every engine repair requires the same level of service. A complete engine overhaul may call for a full gasket set, while smaller repairs may only require replacing a head gasket, valve cover gasket, intake manifold gasket, or front and rear main seals. Explaining why a specific repair is recommended – and why additional sealing components may be wise while the engine is already apart – helps customers make informed decisions rather than feeling like they’re being sold unnecessary parts.
One of the biggest customer relations challenges with engine repairs is managing expectations. Customers often focus on the immediate repair cost without considering the labor involved in accessing engine components. Taking the time to explain that replacing related seals during the same repair can prevent future labor charges positions your shop as a trusted advisor instead of simply a repair facility.
Quality also matters. Inferior sealing products can lead to leaks, repeat repairs and unhappy customers. Using premium sealing components engineered to meet or exceed original equipment specifications helps reduce warranty claims and reinforces your shop’s reputation for dependable repairs.
Service advisors can also use engine sealing inspections as part of every vehicle evaluation. Oil seepage around valve covers, coolant leaks near cylinder heads, or evidence of deteriorating manifold gaskets provide opportunities to educate customers before minor leaks become major failures. Visual inspections, photos and clear explanations help customers understand both the problem and the value of preventative maintenance.
Ultimately, successful engine sealing repairs are about more than replacing gaskets. They’re about protecting engine performance, preventing costly failures and strengthening customer relationships through honest communication and quality workmanship. Shops that educate customers throughout the repair process are more likely to earn repeat business, positive reviews and long-term loyalty.
For more information about professional engine sealing solutions, visit Fel-Pro.com.
Becoming a Different Leader
As my thinking began to change, the decisions I made each day began to change, as well. I started listening more carefully before speaking. I became more intentional about developing people instead of simply directing them. I learned to ask better questions instead of believing I already knew the answers. Most importantly, I became willing to challenge my own assumptions before challenging everyone else’s performance. Those changes didn’t happen overnight, but over time they fundamentally changed the trajectory of my business because they first changed the trajectory of the person leading it.
After being coached and now coaching shop owners, I’ve come to a conclusion that surprises a lot of people. The hardest person to coach usually isn’t the service advisor who struggles with communication, the mechanical specialist who resists change, or the manager who needs additional leadership skills. No, most often, the hardest person to coach is the owner because owners spend so much of their lives solving everyone else’s problems that they rarely pause long enough to honestly evaluate themselves. I know, I was that guy.
That realization led me to a series of critical questions every owner should ask. I’ll leave you with one thing to think about this month and then we’ll dive into those questions next month.
Reflection #1: Am I the Leader My Team Deserves?
Every shop owner has expectations for their team, and most are entirely reasonable. We want our service advisors to communicate clearly, follow up consistently, sell value rather than apologize for price, and treat every customer interaction as an opportunity to build trust. We want our mechanical specialists to stay productive, embrace new technology, document their findings properly, and continue developing their skills as vehicles become more complex. We want our managers, if we have them, to lead with confidence, solve problems, and help create an environment where people know what is expected of them.
Those are fair expectations, but they lead to a question that most owners don’t ask nearly often enough.
Am I modeling the same level of growth, discipline, communication, and accountability that I expect from everyone else?
That question is uncomfortable because it takes the spotlight away from the team and places it directly on the person leading the business. It forces us to consider whether we are asking others to become more professional while excusing our own inconsistency, asking others to communicate better while avoiding hard conversations, or asking others to accept coaching while quietly resisting feedback ourselves.
A team will rarely rise above the consistent example of its leader for very long.
Come back next month and we’ll explore this and other tough questions. The answers may surprise you – and they’ll definitely inspire you.
Vic Tarasik has been an independent auto repair professional for more than three decades and is the former owner of Vic’s Precision Automotive in The Woodlands, Texas. He is the founder of Shop Owner Coach, a coaching and training organizat