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Episode #93 — When Is Enough, Enough?  No outline, no prepared notes — just Gene working through something that's been weighing on him. A big Phoenix hailstorm and a few conversations with friends who aren't sure they even want to chase it lead to a bigger question: what drives us to always push for more, and is the growth actually worth it? 00:00 — Intro & the New Background  Episode recorded Monday afternoon, dropping Tuesday morning Panel Beaters Club shirt on the wall — Thad's Discord community. Stickers and merch started after the haul at PDR Expo Keith Cosentino surprised Gene with an LED Dent Repair Now logo sign for the set. It needs a dimmer (blows out on camera); new lights are coming next episode 01:55 — Phoenix Hail  Big, massive hailstorm hit Phoenix and the surrounding area, including some rough Scottsdale damage DRN had a similar storm back home in 2016 — "not a good time," though there are always pockets of good repairable work 02:20 — When Is Enough, Enough?  DRN's default when a storm hits: jump on it and capture as much as possible A couple of friends in the Phoenix area aren't sure they want to capture everything — the stress may not be worth it Throwback reference: on PDR College, Keith and Shane opened the books on a storm in Redding, CA — numbers, damage, and workflow On medium storms where DRN brought in techs: great top-line revenue, but after body shop cuts, paying subs, and all the management, Gene has crunched numbers where he'd have been better off doing 10–20 cars himself "If you're not growing, you're dying" — does that actually hold up after 24½ years in the trade? Words of wisdom from a loyal listener: it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. Live within your means so a storm is a choice, not a necessity Tying back to last week's mindset episode — the "it's all mine" scarcity thinking Hiring rethink: a couple of tech hires didn't work out — in hindsight, maybe the better answer Gene's answer at the PDR Expo roundtable: he wouldn't trade his life, but starting over he might not scale the same way — he might work hard, keep his dollars, and invest in real estate, stocks, or funds instead 09:55 — Capacity & Choosing Not to Chase  Last year's storm: DRN was simply at capacity — Jake was gone, Dave was at reduced capacity, and Mack was 14–16 months greener than he is now Gene's friends are choosing not to pursue the big storm for lifestyle and stress reasons — "maybe they have something figured out that I'm still trying to learn" Honest take: with the training side of the business growing, he probably still can't say no to a hailstorm. "Not my first rodeo" 11:30 — The Simplicity of a Tech in a Truck  Sometimes Gene looks at the shop overhead — payroll, insurance, tools — and misses the simple days The original plan: $3,000 in tools in a gun case in a Chevy S-10, a fog board, a light, a Nokia (Snake!), and an aluminum clipboard with three-part NCR invoices Today he has $3,000+ in hammers alone. "It's a sickness." But the "good old days" weren't perfect — no vacations without the money stopping "Is this my midlife crisis?" At 50, if this is mid, he'll take the run to 100 13:20 — Volume vs. Writing Each Car Right  The same question applies to estimates: take cars as field-written and blow through them (Gene strongly recommends against this), write a really solid sheet, or write every car to the moon and squeeze every nickel Fewer cars for more money, or more cars for a little less — where do you fall? "Deep Thoughts with Gene Fetty" — cue the Jack Handey SNL bit 14:55 — Why No Show Yesterday  A horrible night's sleep and a foggy day — not even a nap (and Gene is an elite napper) could fix it. Rather than put out a bad show, he waited a day 15:55 — Throwback: PDR Marketing Minute, Episode 12  Originally created November 1, 2016 — almost exactly 10 years ago The message: every tactic is about driving leads to you. Own your market with all the branches — website, Google listing, Yelp, Facebook page, and reviews It's a marathon, not a sprint 18:55 — 10 Years Later: Owning Your Market  Back then, DRN held roughly 8 of the 10 first-page Google spots — 100% organic — so Gene turned his ads off Then a customer said they couldn't find him: paid ads (even body shops) were sitting above him. Ads went back on, and DRN has advertised consistently since 2016 You still need the pages — even Yelp still ranks in Google. Just tell them to put you on the do-not-call list 21:05 — AI Search Is the New Frontier  ChatGPT has reportedly started showing paid ad results in search queries (Gene hasn't seen them on his paid plan) Now you need to create content that feeds what the AIs pick up — someone needs to build a masterclass on it Keith did a presentation on this for the 20 Group 22:15 — New Tool of the Week: Milwaukee M12 Palm Nailer  Spotted on Instagram: John Kallenbach from A-1 Tool talking up the Milwaukee M12 palm nailer History: around 2004–05, auto hammers (Gene thinks Craftsman) were adapted for PDR with custom tips. Gene ran a knockoff Ridgid version with tips he made on his own lathe — hard tips, not enough soft ones What's old is new again — TikTok and Instagram have people using auto hammers again A-1's 3-piece set drops right in on the magnet: a large mushroom/planishing-style blunt tip, a rubber cap tip, and a threaded shaft (5/16-18) that takes your standard tips Live demo: the harder you push, the harder/faster it hits Cost: $159 tool-only at Home Depot (Gene already had M12 batteries) + $99 for the A-1 tips ≈ $258 — almost 10% of his original $3,000 tool budget Not a fixer, but promising for big gnarly stuff, wholesale work, roughing, and maybe crown work holding tension while working with big soft tips. Report to come Milwaukee M12 Palm Nailer: https://www.milwaukeetool.com/products/details/m12-cordless-palm-nailer-tool-only/2458-20 A-1 Milwaukee 3 Piece Tip Set: https://www.pdrtool.com/products/dent-slayer-cold-snap-set-of-4-tips-copy 28:05 — MTE 2027  Gene is giving a talk at MTE (after a brief scare that it wasn't on the schedule — now fixed) The roundtable is back for its fourth year: Gene, Matt Moore, Don Kavanagh of Dent Kraft, and Greg Van Winkle of Dent Masters of Arkansas MTE 2027: February 10–13, 2027, Rosen Shingle Creek, Orlando 28:45 — Wrap-Up  Gene wants your take — is enough enough, or do we want more and more? To the Phoenix crew: thanks for the perspective, and best of luck on however much of the storm you choose to capture Thanks again to Keith for the sign. The outro broke again — stay tuned

Gene almost didn't record this week. Between his mom's broken leg, a surgery delayed by a day, and eight-plus hours in a hospital waiting room, he was running on fumes. But you don't only do it when you want to do it. So he sat down, and what came out was a rapid-fire tour of the mindsets he believes separate the techs who make it from the ones who don't. 00:00 Intro: what a week Gene walks through Thursday's X-ray, Friday's 6 a.m. "my leg's broken" call, and Saturday's long surgery. Mom is doing well. A missed duck hunt and some bad Saturday cafeteria food were the price of admission. 04:30 Showing up when you don't feel like it He nearly pushed the show. He doesn't phone episodes in, so the question became: what's the lesson here? The answer was mindset. 05:45 Mindset #1: There is no quit Gene doesn't understand quit. He'll die on the hill first. He believes the reps it takes to learn PDR filter for people who don't give up, and he points to a story from last week's Dent Slayer episode: a group of techs at a restaurant after a toy drive got mistaken for veterans because they looked like a brotherhood that had been through war together. 08:45 "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right" The Henry Ford line, and the Little Engine That Could. If you think you can, you'll figure it out. If you think you can't, you'll find the reasons. 11:00 Doubting a dent, and why your price feeds your mindset Even Gene looks at a dent and starts stacking doubts: tough access, deep, aluminum, sharp body line. He switches himself back to "you're gonna fix it." Then the tie-in to pricing, from the training at The Dent Demon with Derrick: sell a brutal edge repair for $1,200 and the end of a hard day one sounds like "I'm not making anything, I should be doing something else." Sell it near replacement cost (around $3,000) and that same moment sounds like "rough day, but it's coming back. Back-to-back $1,500 days doesn't suck." Same tech, same repair, different dollars behind the decision. 16:15 Zig Ziglar and the moral obligation to sell Gene's favorite Zig Ziglar idea: if you truly believe in your product or service, you have a moral obligation to sell it. He admits he used to think he didn't need that because he "could sell." He couldn't. Once he wholeheartedly believed in PDR, he started walking out the door to every customer, hailstorm, and dealer from that place. 18:45 Believing in what you sell: the KECO system Back when he worked for KECO, Gene still believed nobody had a more complete, well-thought-out glue pull system, and that made it easy to sell. He feels the same about DRN's work. Find your moral belief in what you do, and you can't be stopped. 21:15 Mindset #2: Scarcity vs. abundance Scarcity says hide it, don't show anybody. Abundance says there's enough for everybody: the more techs out there, the more people find out PDR exists. Gene says every decision he made from scarcity or fear went bad, and every time he trusted abundance, he won. 23:00 Chris White and the KECO Tabs 10th anniversary Gene met Chris White at a seminar and got invited as his guest to a training in Oklahoma City, followed by the KECO Tabs 10th anniversary celebration. (KECO Inc. itself just hit 60 years; the tab and body repair division started in 2009.) He booked the flight that day. Chris's abundance-focused speech stuck with him, and Gene credits that mindset as part of KECO's growth. He announced on-air that he's going to get Chris on the show to tell how they hooked up. 25:45 Mindset #3: Burn the ships The pirate flag on Gene's bay wall says "Burn the ships." Land on the island, burn the boats, and now it's win or die. Nobody's actually dying (you can always call Dent Wizard or CarMax), but going all-in changes how hard you fight. MeLissa is the backup-plan person. Gene is not. 28:45 Mindset #4: The Gene Fetty effect MeLissa, Dylan, Dana, Shannon, and Mack named it: Gene expects things to work, and they usually do. Customers come in, the computer gets fixed, it works out. 30:30 The Amsterdam airport story Coming home from Venice on KLM, a delay blew their Amsterdam connection. Kiosk offered tomorrow. A number-and-line desk sent them through passport control (where Gene's passport wouldn't scan) to Delta, which was literally taking the open signs down. What MeLissa didn't know: their daughter had a surprise 25th anniversary party set for the next day. One extremely nice Delta agent and about ten minutes of keyboard-banging later, they had a flight to Boston that night and Pittsburgh the next morning. ⚑ REVIEW: Your daughter is transcribed as "Elena." Confirm spelling. I only used "our daughter" in the public copy. 36:00 Throwback: PDR Marketing Minute #11 An old-school Marketing Minute on professional image: a clean modern website, a real uniform (no cutoff camo shorts and flip-flops), a clean vehicle, organized tools, and a welcoming voicemail. Treat your business like a franchise and people will ask which franchise you bought into. Gene notes Derrick and Grace at The Dent Demon get that same question. 40:30 Tool of the Week: Finesse #155w & #154w Two 7" long, 3/16" diameter hook T-handles from Finesse, sold separately. Gene's purple-and-black one gets the most use (his first one, a yellow-and-black "Bumblebee," dates back to when Louie started). Great through brace holes, in through the end of the door at the handle-release plug, out to the edge, and up through drain and weep holes. Tiny tools, a ton of drive.  #155w (slow bend, tight access): https://pdrfinessetools.com/product/155w-7-long-3-16-diameter-hook-t-handle/  #154w (tight access): https://pdrfinessetools.com/product/154w-7-long-3-16-diameter-hook-t-handle/ ⚑ REVIEW: On air you read "155W" clearly and guessed the second as "154 or 159." Your link confirms #154w. Both listed at $40.00 and in stock as of Oct 18. The site also shows a Black Friday banner (10%/15% off, 11/23–11/27) that may be last year's, so I didn't mention a sale. Corrected "Bonnie" to "Bonnee," which is how the Finesse site spells it. 43:45 MTE and PDR Life updates MTE is coming up and Gene is speaking on glue pull again. Thanks to everyone who's given feedback on the new PDR Life beginner podcast.

t's Wednesday night and Gene's just now recording — but the weekly streak doesn't break. Here's what's in this one. 00:00  Intro — the streak survives — Episode 100 is in sight, and Gene isn't missing a week to get there. 01:00  Fort Lauderdale: The Dent Demon — A few days with Derrick and Grace for advanced training plus a 20 Group mastermind meetup. The crew included Jack Bucknell, Jon Videen, the Dent Reaper, and Nick Prang from Michigan. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Verify spellings: "Jack Bucknell" (and the "Woo man" nickname — keep or cut?), "Nick Prang," and the real name or handle for "the Dent Reaper." None are in the show-links list. 02:00  Sales coaching with Grace — Grace runs the shop side at The Dent Demon while Derrick handles wholesale. Gene spent a day walking her through his customer-interaction and price-anchoring techniques. 03:00  The one-sentence anchor — On significant damage, before quoting anything, Gene asks in passing: "Have you talked to your insurance company yet?" Without saying a number, it tells the customer this isn't a cheap fix. Delivery matters — casual, not loaded. 05:00  Advanced training recap — Carrier plate R&I (a BMW made the glass interesting), lateral tension and unfolding hard-hit metal, sharp creases, shrinky box, aluminum, under-brace and edge repair. Shout-out to Derrick's techs Andy and Paul, and a shop with a seriously good customer lounge. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Confirm "Andy" and "Paul" as the Dent Demon techs. A late-night bar story was mentioned as not podcast-friendly — intentionally left out of all notes. 08:00  Teaching week & PDR Life launch — An advanced collision glue pull class, interviews with potential hires, and the launch of the new PDR Life podcast — 10 episodes on getting into PDR, released all at once. pdrlifepodcast.com 10:00  Listener of the Year: James — A friend and client tagged Gene on Facebook listening to the All Access drop at 7 AM — from the hospital room, the morning after his baby was born. Congrats to James and family. 12:00  PDR College: the labor-rate card — Keith's solo episode on a hard dealer repair with no price set up front. Gene's favorite move in that spot: "What's your shop labor rate? I'll just match it." Two hours at $200 is $400 — and it's hard for the dealer to argue with their own rate. Required listening if you do wholesale. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Gene said "I'll see if we can drop a link" — need the URL for this week's PDR College solo episode. 15:00  Dent Slayer w/ Jeremy Nadeau — Matt Boyette and James Ricci talked content: pushing dents is right-now money; making content is building the commercial that brings future work. Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dent-slayer-podcast/id1763729902 16:00  Play the long game — Dent Repair Now's philosophy from day one: lose a job, lose an account, take one on the chin — the long game always wins. 17:00  Model Y week & the gear trap — Three '26 Model Ys in the shop. Gene admits he gets hung up on multi-cam setups and mics. Meanwhile Mack's phone-shot "my ladies" video is past 42,000 views. Go give Mack's "my ladies" video some love — find it at @dentrepairnow on any social channel. 20:00  Shooting a PSA in real time — Gene walks through the exact Model Y video he shot: hook to camera, flip to the dent, show the buckling inside the aluminum panel, call to action, done. The '26 liftgate is a redesign and doesn't crown up like the '25-and-older. 22:00  Shoot now, edit later — Even if you can't edit, capture the clips. Edit and schedule them when things calm down. 23:00  PDR Marketing Minute #10 — Marketing is everything that happens before the sales call. Take an educational approach so customers show up primed to buy. Gene points to Brice Kelly's edge-repair video as a model. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: This Marketing Minute is a replay from ~10 years ago (the "hailstorm came through town" line is from then). Gene skipped #9 on Yelp. Confirm Brice's YouTube channel is "CFL Dent Repair" and add the edge-repair video link if you want it. 25:00  Education in the age of AI — Gene's take today: educational content matters even more now, because AI tools like Claude, Gemini, Grok and ChatGPT pull from it. An educated customer is the best customer. 27:00  Tool of the Week: Super Straight tabs — Shannon's pick. Black Plague's Super Straight tabs lock into a pyramid-shaped adapter to force a straight pull — and the straighter you pull, the stronger you pull. Thin-face green and thick-face yellow. Not an everyday tab, but nothing pulls a sharp dent sharper. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Pricing (blackplaguepdr.com, checked Oct 14, 2026): Super Straight Glue Tab System $229; individual tab packs $31.99; Puller Adapter $24.99–$25.99; Puller Kit (closed & open) $45; Robo Legs $49.95 (listed sale from $149). Confirm before publishing. Gene also said "deadrattabs.com" as a backup URL — verify it resolves. 31:00  The stretched-tab effect — Veterans know it (even Chris at KECO can't explain it): a tab that stretches without breaking pulls better than anything else from the same box. The Super Straights pull like they're pre-stretched — one-pull results on a sharp door ding. 34:00  Housekeeping — PDR Life is on YouTube, Apple and Amazon (Spotify pending). MTE is about three months out. Anson's toy drive and open house is October 24 — Gene's sitting this one out after a travel-heavy year. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Confirm PDR Life Spotify status before publishing. 35:00  Episode 100 goes live — The 100th episode will be a live stream, likely a weekday evening, with listeners joining in. Want on? DM, text or email Gene.

Ten shows away from 100, still not missing a week, still dropping Mondays at 7:00 AM Eastern. New additions to the set: a pink Dent Reaper shirt from the expo, Mack's second-place trophy, last week's Tool of the Week from Alex at PDR Original, the wood knockdown from Thad at Dentproof, Gene's judging badge, and new Dentproof and Black Plague hats (including the "Make Metal Flat Again" hat).  EDITORIAL FLAG: "Thaddle" and "the pecker" — Gene's on-air nicknames for Thad's wood knockdown. Kept as spoken in the transcript. Confirm whether the tool has an official product name you want used in notes.  01:50  The (short-ish) PDR Expo tool haul  Not a giant haul — a mix of brand-new tools, old favorites, and "old things that are new again." No Tool of the Week this episode because the whole show is tools.  02:30  Dentcraft OG Ultra Thin Whale Tails are back  Dentcraft changed the Ultra Thin Whale Tail head a while back to a design with two little tips instead of the fanned-out shape. Not bad tools — just not the same. At the Dentcraft booth, Jennifer confirmed the original-style head is available again. Gene picked up his two favorites: the 10" and a roughly 30–32" in the OG head. Great for getting down in doors, through tight braces, and out to panel edges; bend in an S-curve to bounce off the glass and get out to the panel.  Original 10" Ultra Thin Whale Tail (OGWT10) — $64.95 as of 10/4/26: https://www.dentcrafttools.com/10-ultra-thin-wt-1.html  Dentcraft Whale Tails: https://www.dentcrafttools.com/whale-tails.html  EDITORIAL FLAG: Dentcraft's homepage lists the OG 10" (OGWT10) at $64.95. I could not confirm a product listing for the ~30–32" OG-head version or its exact length. Gene also wasn't sure if more sizes came back. Verify before naming a size/price for the long one.  EDITORIAL FLAG: "Jennifer" at the Dentcraft booth — last name/role not stated. Fine as-is unless you want to credit her fully.  07:15  VIP Traction Tips  Picked up for Mack after looking at his beginner dent. Screw-on tips with a collar and a small print, similar in concept to Black Plague's micro tips or Dent Slayer's R4-style tip. What makes them special is the cast texture right at the tip — it bites just enough to keep the tool from dragging when you're pushing up and in at an awkward angle. Think micro-hedgehog, but for traction, not shrinking. Gene uses them weekly at minimum.  VIP PDR Tools — Traction Pushing Tips (#2, #4, #6, #8 sizes; from $40 each): https://vippdrtools.com  EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene calls it a "three-piece set" in small/medium/large. VIP's site currently lists the 3/8" Traction Pushing Tips individually as #2, #4, #6, #8 (plus "Mini" versions), starting at $40 — I didn't find a 3-pack listing. Confirm which product to point to.  EDITORIAL FLAG: "Peter" — VIP's founder. VIP's own site references him as "Piotr." Keeping "Peter" since that's how Gene says it on-air; your call for written notes.  10:00  VIP chain hunt + the purple leather knockdown tip  The team went looking for VIP's hanging chain for Mack's leverage point, but Andre, solo at the VIP booth, had sold out. They borrowed one from Anson instead. Then a slightly underused VIP gem: the purple leather tip. VIP labels it a blending tip, but Gene uses it as a knockdown nearly daily — it "murders" medium crowns like a standard fender crown or a hip check above a door body line. It's essentially a pool cue tip: when the leather pops off, re-glue it, or order a pack of pool tips and replace/shape your own. A new set went into Mack's kit.  VIP PDR Tools — Leather Blending Tips set ($75) / Hook Chain & Captain Hook Set ($43): https://vippdrtools.com  EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene says "I think Mack bought like a three-tip set" of the leather tips. VIP's Leather Blending Tips Set is listed at $75; set count not confirmed. Also listed: Leather Heads set ($145) and individual L/XL leather heads — confirm which one is "the purple" tip.  EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript: "Is DBAP still there?" — unclear what "DBAP" refers to (sounds like a glue/adhesive name). Please clarify or cut from written notes.  12:20  OG Glexo full cold glue set (via Anson PDR)  Ironically, for all the cold glue pulling Gene's done, he'd never owned the full set of Glexo steel tabs — he ran the plastic KECO/Glexo tabs from his KECO days. Christina at Anson PDR loaned out a full cold glue spread for Gene's expo talk, and the one item he used that wasn't brand new was the original Glexo set, so he bought it. Skinny crease, fat crease, small round (~1¼") and big round (~2"). Black Glexo is still a weekly shop staple — light creases, finishing, and the right kind of bigger dent. Gene believes he's still on the same black stick he bought in 2019. Reminder: cold glue isn't for starting every dent. Be smart about it.  Glexo Full Set — 4 tabs and cold glue, Anson PDR ($290 as of 10/4/26): https://ansonpdr.com/products/glexo-cold-glue-pdr  EDITORIAL FLAG: Anson's Glexo Full Set page showed $290 and a backordered note when checked. A cosmetic-blem "DISCOUNTED" version was listed at $260. Confirm stock before publishing.  EDITORIAL FLAG: Retailer listings describe the Full Set tabs as 40mm and 30mm round plus 75x30 and 75x15 rectangular. Gene estimated the rounds at "maybe 2 inches" and "inch and a quarter" — 40mm is closer to 1.6". Fine as an on-air estimate; just don't print the inch sizes as specs.  EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene mentions other cold glue tools in passing: Sergio's Bull Kick, a small and large "shotgun," the AR auto-return hammer "from Matt at Dent Slayer," the Cold Snap, and Anson's mini slide hammer kit. Sergio Bull Kick kits are listed on dentcrafttools.com; Dent Slayer lists AR-9/AR-10 hammers and the Cold Snap. Your notes file has James Ricci at Dent Slayer — confirm who "Matt" is. The "shotgun" maker wasn't identified.  15:15  Little birdie: big-tab cold glue upgrade coming  Gene got a text (not from Kevin Bird — a different little birdie) hinting that big cold glue on bigger tabs may be getting an upgrade. Stay tuned to future episodes.  17:00  Gene's PDR Expo cold glue talk — headed to YouTube  The crew at Convexx, who recorded the PDR Expo presentations, is supposed to send a copy of Gene's cold glue talk. When it arrives, he'll post it free on his YouTube channel.  17:45  Black Plague glue-on straps + the new double-wide  Gene's been using Keith's glue-on fabric strap tabs for a couple of years — lots of glue lessons, multiple quarter panels saved from replacement. It grabs two planes and has a metal bar so the KECO tab track adapter (the blue T) slides on, and you can U-bolt it or grab it with lateral tension adapters or Mo-Clamps. Because it's fabric, it follows a door jamb return so you can grab the outside and pull. At the expo he found a double-wide version — every bit of four or five inches of throat — which replaces doubling and tripling up. Perfect for heavy collision and lateral tension pulls (think the Level Up BMW hatch). Reasonably priced: "if you don't pay for the whole order on the first job, you're not charging enough." Gene's wish: a throwaway version, since they're hard to clean.  Black Plague PDR: https://www.blackplaguepdr.com  Black Plague Lateral Tension Tools (edge straps, Big Freakin' Green Straps, adapters): https://www.blackplaguepdr.com/collections/lateral-tension-tools  EDITORIAL FLAG: Couldn't match the exact products Gene held up. Black Plague's Lateral Tension collection lists Green Edge Strap ($29), Yellow Edge Strap ($49.97), "Extended" versions of both, and Big Freakin' Green Straps, 2-pack ($42.76) — the double-wide may be one of these. Most showed "sold out" on 10/4. Confirm product names before linking directly.  EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene says "available at blackplaguepdr.com or deadrattabs.com if you can't spell plague." I didn't verify deadrattabs.com resolves to Black Plague — confirm before printing it.  23:00  Training trip to Fort Lauderdale  This week Gene heads to Fort Lauderdale for a couple of days of training at Derrick and Grace's shop, The Dent Demon. The straps are coming along for heavy pulls. Also on deck: an advanced glue pull training for body men back at the shop with a new junker teaching car.  23:20  Dentcraft x Jon Yeager x Brandon Schmitz collab tools  Saved for last: a four-piece set from Jon Yeager, Brandon Schmitz, and Dentcraft. (Mack opened the box and had them on a hail truck before Gene even got in.) Offset handle similar to Hail's Angels / Excaliburs for good drive left or right, shaved down, same feel as the whale tail material — maybe a hair thicker and a little stiffer than the Ultra Thin, but you can still put an arch in them. Built for driving out toward panel edges, like a Dent Slayer butter knife. Rough sizes: orange ~14", yellow ~16–18", blue ~24", and a ~30" that might shoot through taillights up under the sail panel. First impressions only — feedback to come.  Dentcraft Tools: https://www.dentcrafttools.com  EDITORIAL FLAG: Name spellings unverified: transcript had "Jon Jaeger" and "Johnny Yeager" for the same person — standardized to "Jon Yeager" throughout. Also confirm "Brandon Schmitz." I could not find a product listing, official name, or price for this collab set on dentcrafttools.com — confirm the product name and link if one exists.  EDITORIAL FLAG: "Hail's Angels and the Excaliburs" — transcript rendered "Hale's Angels." Confirm the tool names/makers you want referenced.  28:00  Honorable mention: Anson BLE light stand  Got it right before the expo, launched at the expo, and Vinnie covered it last week. First full week using it: love it, and there's probably a second one in Gene's future.  Anson PDR BLE Light Stand: https://ansonpdr.com/products/ble-anson-pdr-x-portable-dent-repair-lighting-stand  EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript: "my two main stands instead of th

Episode 89 — PDR Expo 2026 and the Competitions  Gene recaps PDR Expo 2026 at the Rio in Las Vegas, recorded the day after a red-eye home, and brings back six interviews from the show floor plus a Tool of the Week and the competition results.  00:00  Intro — Recorded in the basement after the red-eye home. Heads up on audio levels: the on-camera mics were running hot at the show, so some segments may be louder or quieter.  00:01  PDR Expo 2026 at the Rio — Likely the biggest PDR Expo yet and the first at the Rio. Comparison to the Plaza and Fremont Street. Lunch in Chinatown, the food hall, the lobby bar where everyone gathered, and the rooftop cigar bar.  ⚑ FLAG: "Dave Chalotte" (lunch in Chinatown) — first-time name, spelling unverified.  00:03  Shout-outs and the small-show advantage — Thanks to Mike Glidewell (Dent Mate) for the cigar and Jon Videen for the drinks. Why smaller shows give more networking and unhurried education.  ⚑ FLAG: Verify "Mike Glidewell" spelling and whether "Dent Mate" is his company (it's also the name of estimating software referenced later).  00:03  Round table and glue pull talk — Friday round table of about nine techs, led by Keith Cosentino and organized by Kevin Bird. Saturday: Gene's glue pull double session, roughly an hour and 45 minutes with plenty of Q&A. Feels like old-school MTE in the early 2010s at the Caribe Royale.  ⚑ FLAG: "Kevin Bird" — verify spelling.  00:05  Competitions preview — GOAT competition damage was brutal; beginners damage much harder than last year. PDR Marketing Minute returns next week.  00:06  New shaved tools from DentCraft — John Yeager and Brandon Schmitz collaborated on a new set of shaved tools through DentCraft. Gene ordered a set after seeing them in the elevator line; expect a future Tool of the Week.  ⚑ FLAG: Verify "John Yeager," "Brandon Schmitz," and "Deacon" (one of Matt Boyette's sons). Also confirm Matt's surname spelling — the transcript uses both "Boyett" and "Boyette."  00:07  Interview: Žan Vidic — GOAT competition — The GOAT competition is open to top-three finishers from Dent Olympics in Orlando; five competitors. Sixty seconds to view the damage, no lights, no touching, no photos. Two hours of repair split into two one-hour blocks with a 10-minute break. The damage: a hood hit perpendicular to a body line with a tight, sharp crown driven down into the concave and a secondary impact, roughly 8" x 4". No wet sanding. Žan's plan: glue-tab tension on the body line to help the metal flow, with soft pushes, the same approach taught at Level Up. Tension costs setup and cool-down time, but without it push marks are almost guaranteed.  ⚑ FLAG: "Wei Wu" (competitor, won in Canada) — spelling unverified. Žan's "Trying to stay ahead of Jack" joke left as-is — not sure who Jack is.  00:12  Interview: Vinnie D'Alessandro, Anson PDR — BLE X light stand — Debut of the BLE X light stand, a year-long collaboration with BLE, who flew in from England. Height range roughly 3.5 to 9.5 feet, strong locking joint, push-button height adjustment, integrated battery tray and water ballast bag. Works with X-Factor or Stuckey lights.  Pricing (from ansonpdr.com): stand only $849. Combos with Elimadent lights and Never Loose run $1,675 to $1,751. Listing specs a 45" minimum and 9.5 ft maximum height; batteries not included.  ⚑ FLAG: Product listing still says "Available Mid September" — confirm it's shipping. Vinnie says 3.5 ft on-air; the listing says 3.75 ft. The blog says "about three and a half feet" per Vinnie; adjust if you want the spec.  00:14  Battery on board and plug lock — The Elimadent battery on board (previously the Hail Stand Receiver Adapter) is getting a clamp mod to fit the new stand. The plug lock keeps the light's male plug from popping out while you adjust.  ⚑ FLAG: Transcript had "Limidant" / "IllumiDent" — corrected to Elimadent (the brand Anson carries). Confirm "plug lock" isn't the same product Anson sells as "Never Loose."  00:16  Tequila Compact HUB line — Grew from about two tools to around 130–135 in six to eight months, heading past 200. The Econoline handle locks solid with no play, converts to a mini T-handle, and gives a thumb-push position Gene likes on hand tools. 3/8" shaved tools deliver strong drive on European cars.  Swoop Compact HUB Interchangeable (link provided): $99 (17"), $109 (21"), $119 (24"), all 3/8" diameter, with a Black Gold morph tip.  ⚑ FLAG: The Swoop link is a 3/8" compact hub tool. Verify: "Econoline" handle name, "Hail's Angels" (Dent Reaper — transcript says "Hales Angels"), and "Craig Dyer."  00:19  Anson app — Order through the Anson PDR app to get the glue of the month.  00:20  Interview: Noah Hebert, Dent Ops — Match-O-Matic — Built internally to match insurance approvals against your estimate line by line, even across formats (MobileTechRX or DentMate to CCC or Mitchell). Spot the gaps, generate a supplement, get a documentation checklist of photos and invoices needed, and use Payout Splits to allocate line items to techs, glass, or body shop. Works for PDR and body shops; free trial available. Dent Ops estimating and claim services also have free trials.  ⚑ FLAG: Noah said "match-o-matic.io" on-air, but I couldn't verify that domain. Links above point to dentops.com only, per your list. Add match-o-matic.io if you can confirm it.  00:23  Interview: James Ricci — Dent Slayer and Dent Repair Jax — On pronunciation: the family says "Ritchie," but Ricci is the spelling. Dent Slayer started when Matt designed a one-off tool with A1 that turned into a product. Friends for 20+ years; Matt got James into PDR. Matt designs the tools; James handles videography, design, web, and podcast production.  00:26  Color blindness and the gray card — Both James and Gene are color blind. Gene's wedding-photography hack: shoot a gray card at every new venue and set white balance from it in software.  00:28  Making the Dent Slayer podcast — James refused at first because of the editing load. The fix: hire a production company that sets up, films, and edits. Around 22 episodes so far. Gene's approach: no heavy editing, just sit down and talk.  00:31  Glass cleaner for cold glue — James picked up a tip in Gene's cold glue class: clean the panel with glass cleaner. Gene learned it from Ryan Campbell out of Cleveland.  ⚑ FLAG: "Ryan Campbell" (Cleveland) — verify spelling.  00:32  Process over intuition — James on Gene's class: the value is a clear, repeatable process. Gene's veteran philosophy: like a race car driver, you're chasing the tip that gains a hundredth of a second per lap, and it compounds over a career.  00:34  Dent Repair Jax — James's local PDR company. 50K+ on YouTube and about 96K on Facebook. Future episode planned on his social media strategy.  00:35  Interview: Mack — beginners competition — Mack felt less nervous but more intimidated than last year. The damage moved from a hood to a trunk lid on a stand: harder light setup, harder positioning, a bigger and wider dent. His advice to future competitors: be ready for anything, and if you did the best you're capable of in 30 minutes, you won.  00:38  Interview: Keith Cosentino — ClaimConnection — Keith built the company he wanted for his own shop. Scope the car, fill out a simple form, submit photos through the portal. The ClaimConnection team writes the estimate in CCC (catching R&I operations techs miss), submits it, and becomes the adjuster's point of contact, with status visible in the portal. Written PDR or conventional, depending on your preference and state. Working name was Back Office Bulldog.  Pricing (as stated on-air): $1 card verification to sign up, $199 per estimate written, 6.9% of total claim value for full claim support.  ⚑ FLAG: ClaimConnection's site is a login app, so I couldn't verify pricing on the web — figures are from Keith on-air. Also: the estimator's name "Tammy" is unverified, and the site brands itself "ClaimConnection" (one word) — I used that in written sections.  00:44  Thad, Dentproof and the Panel Beaters Club — Sticker haul, T-shirt, hat, and a "thaddle" from Thad. The Panel Beaters Club Discord feels like old-school PDR forums: organized by topic, no algorithm feed. Join: https://discord.gg/7DUezhDBS  ⚑ FLAG: "door ding dot com / doording.com" — the old PDR forum Gene references. Verify the name before it goes in any written copy (I left it out of the blog).  00:46  Coming up — Plans to interview Sheldon (PDR Expo and MTE) and possibly Casey about the shows. Gene will teach glue pulling again at MTE.  ⚑ FLAG: "Sheldon … Convex" — transcript is garbled here. Confirm Sheldon's surname and company, and Casey's full name.  00:47  Tool of the Week: PDR Original custom tool — Custom hand-built, hand-ground tool from Alex at PDR Original (https://pdr-original.com/, https://www.youtube.com/@pdr-original, and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pdr_original_canada). Arched shape for reaching into braces and panel edges, rolling-style tip, custom-stitched black leather handle, copper ends with a Canadian flag, plus a red tool hanger in Dent Repair Now colors. Alex works with Josh Kidd in Canada; Miroslav used one of Alex's tools in the GOAT competition.  ⚑ FLAG: Verify: "Alexander Yefremenko" (Gene says on-air he's not sure of the pronunciation), "Josh Kid/Kidd," "Bryce," "Miroslav/Miro," and "Ken Clark, the Man of Steel."  00:52  Competition results — Honorable mention to Seth for an incredible door repair on stretched, smoked damage. Gene encourages him to enter Dent Olympics.  00:53  Awards announcements — Full results as announced at the show — watch or listen for every placing.  01:00  Wrap-up — Congrats to Vladimir, the new GOAT. Gene did play-by-play with Lee Roth and jud

Episode 88 - Gene's Back to the Future joke included. He and the team leave in a couple of days for PDR Expo, which he says feels like old-school MTE: you can slow down, sit and talk with friends, and not feel like you missed everybody.  Roundtable Friday morning with a stage full of knowledge  Saturday: two-part cold glue class - classroom talk first, then live demos pulling people up from the audience  If you have not bought tickets yet, what are you waiting for?   02:00 - Shout-outs   Eric, the Bearded Dent Guy - Gene picked up some gear from him this week and is wearing the hat  Hat tip to the Ginger Bros, specifically Brandon Schmitz and his wife Mandy. The industry is stepping up to help them; Gene encourages listeners to check out Brandon's social media and lend a hand if they can   03:00 - Topic: mentorship  A 10-year technician came in for a class this week. Good tech, but like so many of us, he went through training and then spent his career trying to figure it out. He told Gene, "You've got this." Gene's answer: he spent 14 years (2002 to 2016) not having it figured out - and is not claiming to have it all figured out now. These are just dent guy problems and we all have to solve the same stuff. 04:00 - Keith Cosentino and the 12-week program   Gene and Keith connected on doring.com, saw each other at MTE, and Gene is a big fan of the PDR College podcast  When Keith announced business coaching, Gene signed up - he thinks it was a 12-week program  Gene calls it perhaps the most formative 12 weeks of his career. Not so much on the physical repair side - on the business side and the life side; it changed a lot of his processes  Big takeaway: you can beat your head against the wall, or you can find a mentor and buy your way into knowledge  He says he would not have made it into the shop with employees without Keith. Hiring Jennifer to answer the phones and take phone work off his plate was 'priceless'   06:00 - Elite performers have coaches  Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan both leaned on coaches. If the elite still rely on coaches to improve and stay sharp, why aren't more of us investing in ourselves? Gene recalls a conversation with a friend, Dave: in PDR you go to school, maybe have a mentor for a while, and then you get kicked out of the nest to figure it out on your own.   07:30 - The student who had never used a shrinky box   The class was all physical skills. The student had never seen or used a shrinky box  Shrinky boxes have been out about 8-10 years (Gene bought his around '17-'18) and many techs still do not know how to use them; most do not come with instructions  Gene credits the Black Plague box for shipping with instructions, and thanks Keith for putting one out there that works so well  Glue pull: on nearly identical damage the student needed about 12 pulls to Gene's one. After Gene showed his technique, the next dent took a couple of pulls instead of a dozen   09:00 - Training options at every level  You do not have to pay for advanced training - but you do need to know you can be better and faster. Gene names a range of places to learn:  Advanced training: a week with Bryce, or a day or two with Gene or Matt Boyett  Hail: a program from 'Jean' called Hail Pro, packed with the tips he uses to be an efficient hail tech. Gene says the guy shuts shops down because everyone wonders how he moves so fast, and a friend said he is like having three really good hail techs in one  Myke Toledo's Dent Trainer - tons of tutorials  Advanced Skills Seminar - Gene has been to all but two. The last one, at Anson, may have been the best yet; he learned a lot watching how Bryce worked. Not sure Keith and Chad will bring it back. Skipped: the first one, and the one at Corey Kleinfeld's shop in Sacramento  Business coaching: Gene's own coach Becky, who was in Pittsburgh for years, has hung it up and is splitting time between Florida and Pittsburgh - so he needs to find a new business coach   12:00 - Discussion: are you investing in yourself?  Gene thanks everyone who texts about the topic of the week - it is why he does the podcast. The question for the week: are you investing in yourself and learning, and if not, what's holding you back?  PDR pays so well that it is easy to think we are better at business than we actually are, and get lulled to sleep  You can make more in a day and work fewer hours by building skills - physical, and business (sales, marketing, advertising, bookkeeping, finance)  The trade gives us a really big shovel (Dave Ramsey line) to make big moves when we are smart about it 14:00 - The rant, and the moral  Gene calls it a ranty episode, but only because he cares. He wants more people to make the changes he sees in his students and mentees - and is not saying they have to come to him. Some conversations have changed people's outlook on business and life, how they run their shop, brought more money through the door, and gotten rid of their head trash. Moral of the story: find a mentor in business and in life, use them, and let them help you be a better human. 15:45 - Tool of the Week: Elimadent X-Factor Flip Light   Warm and cool LEDs, use one or both. Gene says it is still a very misunderstood tool  Yes, it works as an inspection light or an R&I light set on the dash - but its real job is seeing down inside a deep, dense dent  Gene says it is around $219 on Anson's site and will pay for itself on the first job. Regular lights (he names Stuckey and Limit Dent) cannot get down and show the bottom of the dent  How to use: set it on the panel (magnetic ring; suction cup option for aluminum), fold it down, and flood the dent with light so you can watch your pushes  Tech tip: use it to see, not to do too much pushing. Bring the bottom up, move it back a bit, then get rid of it and go back to your regular light - overworking with it takes a little detail away  Available at ansonpdr.com   19:15 - Coming up   Brand-new light stand Anson is carrying: Gene has not unboxed it yet but plans a build video and first look on the Dent Repair Now socials. Christina says he will use one in his Expo class, and they should have them in the booth  A Limit Dent X-Factor setup with the battery  Gene admits that after a two-week vacation and getting sick, motivation was hard to find this week - now back on the regular schedule   21:15 - PDR Marketing Minute #7: ask for the review  Replayed from the archive (Gene listened to it because he had audio problems). This installment of the review series covers the simplest strategy: just ask.  Everyone uses reviews to shop but few of us leave them. Build rapport during the sale and repair, then ask  Pick the platform to match the customer: Yelper -> Yelp; Gmail address -> Google; older, less tech-savvy customers -> PDR Nation   23:45 - Gene on reviews today   Google is where all his reviews come from now  His old text (phone text replacement 'PDRV') thanked the customer for letting him repair the car, and linked to a website page with Google, Facebook, Yelp and (back in the day) PDR Nation review links  No CRM? Set up a keyboard text replacement on your phone. But the best way, hands down, is a CRM - $100/month gets you started, and it can automate the ask and send multiple reminders  In person: when the customer picks up, confirm they love the result, then say Shannon will send a link and ask for a quick review  Hundreds of reviews is run-of-the-mill; the ones killing it are in the thousands. Gene lost his Google listing when they moved into the shop and is behind where he would be  Dad joke: it's the word of mouse, not word of mouth  28:00 - Sign-off  Thanks for all the messages. Next week's show is not live from the Expo but interviews shot there - flying with cameras and mics. Until next week, or when Gene sees you at the Expo.

Timestamped notes for episode #87, “We Need More Passion.” Editorial flags call out anything that needs Gene's eyes before this goes out. [00:00] Welcome back  Gene kept the once-a-week streak alive despite the show going out a couple of days late. He and MeLissa just got back from a trip to Europe, capped off by both of them getting sick with some kind of bug partway through and Gene running a fever for the first time in 15–20 years. [00:02] The KLM/Delta travel saga  A delayed flight out of Venice, a missing bus driver, a plane that “has to kick-start the engines,” and a missed connection in Amsterdam turned a planned Sunday recording into a Thursday one. Gene and MeLissa ended up rerouted through Boston and got home Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday night — and came home to a surprise 25th anniversary party Elena had put together. [00:06] This week's topic — the PDR reach problem  Gene's core frustration: most people who walk through the door have never had PDR before and don't know what it costs or what it can do. He believes that if the world understood what PDR could really do, the industry would need far more technicians than it currently has. [00:08] Story #1 — the Rome butcher shop  On a Rome food tour, tour guide Giordano brought the group to a third-generation butcher shop and deli open since 1970. The grandson running the tasting — passionate, animated, all-in on describing where the meat and cheese came from — is what stuck with Gene, more than the tour guide himself. EDITORIAL FLAG: “Giordano” is the tour guide's name as Gene said it on the recording — spelling unverified, please confirm before publishing.  [00:12] Story #2 — Francesco and the Chianti winery  On a Tuscany wine tour, the first winery felt rushed and unenthusiastic. The second stop, led by a guide Gene names as Francesco, was the opposite — passionate about the wine, the winery's concrete aging tanks, and the estate's aged balsamic and olive oil. Gene called out how engaging and infectious that passion was for the whole group. EDITORIAL FLAG: The winery owner is referred to only as “let's call him Michael” — Gene used this as a placeholder name, not a confirmed one. Also confirm the spelling of “Francesco.”  [00:14] Story #3 — Chef David's pasta class  In Florence, Gene and MeLissa took a pasta-making class with Chef David, who taught using his nonna's recipes. Gene singled out how contagious Chef David's passion for teaching was — especially his enthusiasm for pappardelle, which Gene says he'll now associate with the class for the rest of his life. [00:18] The challenge — more passion in PDR content  Gene ties the three trip stories together: what made each experience memorable wasn't the information, it was the passion behind it. He references a recent content challenge — the Great Yap Challenge, run by a coach he names as Jesse Jean — that taught him hooks and on-camera delivery techniques that improved his video performance. Gene is challenging himself and his audience to bring more of that raw passion into PDR content instead of just before-and-after shots. EDITORIAL FLAG: Coach's name given as “Jesse Jean” — spelling unverified, please confirm before publishing.  [00:20] The Maverick story  Gene shares a recent repair on a customer's newly-purchased Maverick with door damage. When he brought the customer out to see the repair before the door panel went back on, the customer asked for a hug. Gene uses this as the kind of moment he wants PDR content to actually capture. [00:22] PDR Marketing Minute — reviews (rerun)  This segment is a rerun of an earlier PDR Marketing Minute episode focused on reviews as modern word-of-mouth. The four places named to focus on: Google (My Business), Yelp, Facebook, and PDR Nation. The host in the rerun clip introduces himself by name. EDITORIAL FLAG: The rerun clip's host introduction is transcribed as “Gene Fedde” — corrected to Gene Fetty per house style before publishing.  Fresh commentary after the replay: Gene now says to focus mainly on Google reviews, since Facebook reviews are hard to find, PDR Nation no longer exists, and he's not a fan of Yelp. He also shares a tactic from his outside-sales days — screenshotting reviews, printing them at Walgreens, and handing out physical copies in sales folders — along with his standing advice to reply personally to every Google review. [00:27] Tool of the Week — Keco K-Power Gen 2  Gene's pick this week is the Keco K-Power line, with a focus on the Gen 2 full-size lateral tension tool. He prefers the full-size over the mid-size for shop use because it offers more reach, though he notes the mid-size is a better call for mobile techs. Key upgrades from Gen 1 to Gen 2 that Gene calls out: angled (rather than straight) legs for roughly three extra inches of reach on each side, and a replaceable set-screw pin design that fixes a failure point where Gen 1 units would break at the leg threads. He also walks through the tab strap attachments — glue-don't-glue markings, long and short straps, double-wide blades — and an adapter (included with the system) that lets the K-Power pull Black Plague straps (Gene refers to these as “Keith's straps”) for jam and return-edge pulls. EDITORIAL FLAG: Keco K-Power Gen 2 full-size lateral tension tool priced at $944.95 USD on kecotabs.com at time of research — web pricing can go stale, please confirm current price/availability before publishing. Black Plague strap pricing was not independently confirmed for blackplaguepdr.com/deadrattabs.com.  [00:32] Wrap-up — PDR Expo 2026 preview  Gene previews next week's PDR Expo 2026 (September 25–26, The Rio, Las Vegas). He'll be on the Friday morning round table and doing a cold glue talk with live car demonstrations on Saturday morning. He also mentions lunch plans in Las Vegas beforehand.

Episode 86 — Part 3 of the Mobile vs. Shop trilogy. Recorded from the Atlanta airport en route to a vacation in Italy. Gene covers the evolution of the shop over six and a half years: which add-on services worked, what the new location and build-out changed, the biggest operational mistakes, and how the approach to scheduling repairs has shifted. Intro — Live from the Atlanta Airport (00:00)  [00:00] Gene opens from the Atlanta airport, on the way to Rome with MeLissa. Frames this as Part 3 of the shop-vs.-mobile series — after Part 1 (shop vs. mobile comparison) and Part 2 (opening the shop, pitfalls and wins) — now covering what the shop has evolved into six and a half years in. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript renders the name as "Melissa" — corrected to "MeLissa" per house style.  Adding the First Shop Tech (02:00)  [02:00] The first big evolution after opening the shop: bringing on Dave as a technician, which freed Gene up to work on the business instead of just in it. Gene notes he's bummed to have lost Dave as an employee but glad he's still around in the industry — calls it a catch-22. The shop is currently down a tech and actively looking for apprentices. Trying to Supplement the Shop (03:00)  [03:00] No matter the model — mobile or shop — bad weather kills demand. The team tried a few add-on services to diversify revenue during slow stretches, with mixed results. Add-On #1: Ceramic Coating (03:30)  [03:30] High margin, short learning curve — but the shop only had two real working bays, and coatings needed roughly 24 hours to cure. In bad Pittsburgh weather that meant tying up a bay for a full day, the opposite of the added production they wanted. Gene also says he never found a coating brand or warranty program he fully believed in. Ceramic coating was a no-go. Add-On #2: Paint Protection Film (05:00)  [05:00] Gene first tried PPF in Pittsburgh back in late 2006/early 2007 (around when Mack was a baby). Found a good product and got decent at installs, but struggled to sell it — customers balked at a $2,000–$3,000 full front wrap. Years later, with better patterns and materials, he and techs Dave and Jake gave it another shot: Dave picked it up quickly, but low volume meant the team stayed rusty, and selling it was still a fight. They eventually scrapped it a second time. [07:00] At an MTE round table, Matt Moore mapped out the numbers and found the runway to get a tech proficient and profitable in PPF was almost identical to the runway to train a new PDR technician — reinforcing the decision to invest in PDR talent instead. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: "MTE" is used without expansion in the transcript — likely an industry round table/event name. Confirm the full name/spelling before publishing.  Add-On #3: Window Tint (08:00)  [08:00] An employee who wanted hands-on work rather than office tasks tried PDR first but didn't take to it. The team pivoted to window tint, found a trainer about two hours east, and brought in Dave and a team member for the full class, with Mack sitting in on part of it. Tint turned out to be the easiest add-on by far — short learning curve, cheap materials, low-cost mistakes. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript names this employee "Dana" — spelling unverified; not previously confirmed in the roster. Please confirm before publishing.  [09:00] Mack eventually stepped up and took over tint, but once he got fully absorbed into PDR, there wasn't enough tint volume to justify a dedicated employee. The team dropped it as a service and now refers tint work out. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript consistently spells this technician's name "Mac." Corrected to "Mack" per house style.  Growing Into the New Shop (10:00)  [10:00] The move went from roughly 1,500 sq ft total to a shop of about 1,700–1,800 sq ft, plus a customer area and a studio, with better parking and a better location. Location: Reachability vs. Walk-In Traffic (11:00)  [11:00] The prior shop had great reachability but poor walk-in visibility — Gene used to believe you could just advertise your way out of a bad location. The new shop sits on a main secondary north–south route in the South Hills, in a higher-income area with strong schools, next to a busy gas station, Sherwin-Williams, and other retail neighbors. Walk-in traffic matched six years' worth of the old shop's growth within the first week. The Build-Out (14:00)  [14:00] Unlike the short-term-lease first shop, this location came with a 5-year lease and first right of refusal for another 5 — a real runway to invest in the space. The building had 30 years of embedded mechanic-shop grease that took serious scrubbing (one door frame never fully came clean). The team built a proper customer lounge with bar-height tables, comfortable seating, Wi-Fi, plants, and a picture window looking into the shop floor, plus a dedicated studio space for filming and training separate from repair work. [18:00] Gene shares a story about a tricky one-inch dent on an Atlas that took roughly 15 passes to get flat, with the customer watching the whole repair through the shop window — and how being able to watch built trust even though the repair took longer than expected. Go Big If You Can Swing It (20:00)  [20:00] Gene's take: if the new shop's expense level had been attempted back in 2018, the business likely wouldn't have had the runway to survive while still learning the ropes on repairs and insurance workflow. His advice for anyone shop-shopping today is to go big if the numbers support it. The Estimates-Only Phone Mistake (21:00)  [21:00] A previous front-office employee, Jennifer, chose not to continue with the company when the team moved to the new shop. Shannon stepped into the front-office role. Early on, the team tried switching the phone close to a body-shop style — "come in for an estimate" instead of quoting over the phone. Gene calls it the second-biggest mistake in shop history (after a bad Google Ads outsourcing experience), driven by high no-show and cancellation rates on scheduled estimates. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Confirmed against the team roster: Shannon is front-office and non-technical, consistent with prior notes.  [23:30] The team re-trained on phone skills through Keith's phone skills course and moved back to quoting over the phone, which is working well now. Could AI Scheduling Be Next? (24:00)  [24:00] Gene mentions a peer, Dan ("the dent guy" in New York), who's testing a self-service scheduling window for estimates. Gene is intrigued by the idea of a customer-facing qualification chat/AI flow but isn't sold on it yet, especially after how badly the estimates-only phone experiment went. Holding Cars Longer (24:30)  [24:30] Over the last 18–20 months, the shop has shifted from trying to complete every car in a single day to holding bigger or more difficult repairs across multiple days. Benefits: a no-show doesn't wipe out a full day of revenue since the job is spread across days, and repair quality has improved because Gene isn't grinding through smashes while exhausted. He notes body shops rarely turn cars in a single day either. Wrap-Up (27:00)  [27:00] Gene signs off ahead of a vacation trip to Italy, noting the episode may get uploaded from Rome depending on Wi-Fi. Tool of the Week: DJI Mic Mini (27:30)  [27:30] Gene's pick this week is his own gear: the DJI Mic Mini and receiver. He keeps it on the workbench for quick run-and-gun videos where a phone mic alone isn't good enough, especially outdoors or in a noisy shop. The kit includes a charging case, chargers, magnets, and windscreens ("dead cats").

⚠ EDITORIAL FLAG: This episode's Tool of the Week and Marketing Minute segments were intentionally skipped for episodes 85 and 86 per Gene's note in the recording — confirm this should carry through to show notes formatting/template, since those sections are usually standard. 00:00 Cold open — the muted mic blooper Gene opens by revealing that his mic was muted for the entire previous recording session (referenced as the "other episode" — presumably Part 1 of this trilogy or a separate recording). Recording from the basement studio with about 45 minutes before leaving for a trip to Italy. 02:00 Setting up Part 2: the shop move-in Gene frames the episode: Part 1 covered mobile vs. shop pros/cons. Part 2 covers what it actually looked like transitioning into the shop and the hiccups to watch for. Tool of the Week and Marketing Minute are being skipped for this episode and the next due to time constraints. 02:30 The lease problem nobody plans for The shop signed a short-term (one-year) lease and hadn't budgeted mentally or financially for a full build-out. The previous tenant served motorcycles, not cars, so the space (split showroom/small service bay) didn't fit their needs. 03:00 DIY demo on a shoestring budget Wanting to avoid sinking tens of thousands into a one-year lease, the team did the build-out themselves — tearing down walls and scraping grease off the floor left by the previous tenant. 05:00 The occupancy permit curveball An insurance requirement for an occupancy permit revealed a township inspection process neither Gene nor MeLissa knew about. The inspection required an ADA-compliant bathroom (not applicable since it's employee-only), fire extinguishers, and an emergency light. 06:00 Cutting down the custom counter for ADA compliance The newly built custom front counter didn't meet ADA height requirements. The team used a circular saw and Sawzall to cut the countertop down and create a lower ADA-compliant section. 07:00 Opening day: a ghost town Despite finishing the build-out and getting the permit, the grand opening drew almost no traffic. The root cause: Google couldn't convert their existing service-area-business listing (which covered roughly a 30-mile radius and had about 42 reviews) into a fixed-location listing. They had to start a brand-new Google listing from scratch and could not transfer the existing reviews — shrinking their effective organic search radius from roughly 30 miles down to about 5 miles around the new fixed address. 09:00 The Texas hail trip that fell apart mid-flight With business slow after the move, Gene broke his own rule and flew to Texas to help a friend with hail work. The deal changed while he was in the air and mid-flight with no signal; the trip ended up roughly breaking even rather than being the cash injection he'd hoped for. 10:00 First shop wins start to show A small hailstorm about 25 minutes from the shop marked a turning point — instead of renting space or splitting revenue with a partner body shop, the team could keep the full repair margin by handling jobs in-house. As the season progressed and Google's indexing improved, they began landing bigger insurance jobs previously out of reach on a mobile-only basis (multi-day jobs, door removal, etc.). Having a physical shop also changed how insurance adjusters treated the business — described as gaining "street credibility" and receiving less pushback and more referred work over time. 12:00 Traffic purgatory: high visibility, low walk-ins The shop sat in a high-traffic location — right off a major east-west parkway ramp with multiple office parks nearby — but this did not translate into walk-in business. It took roughly three years before walk-in traffic became meaningful. Commuters were described as "tunnel-visioned," with several long-time nearby office workers saying they never noticed the shop despite driving past it daily. 14:00 Why customers didn't want to come to the shop ⚠ EDITORIAL FLAG: Speaker name "Jennifer" (remote scheduler/phone sales) is not in the confirmed team roster — please verify spelling and whether she should be named in published notes, since she is described as a past team member handling phone scheduling at the time of the shop opening. A scheduling hiccup emerged: customers logically asked why they should drive to the shop when mobile service cost the same and was more convenient for them. This forced the team to rethink pricing to incentivize shop visits. 14:30 Building in a mobile service fee To create a meaningful incentive for shop visits without appearing to gouge customers, a mobile service fee was introduced and increased over time: starting at $69.95, then roughly a year later to $89.95, and eventually to $99.95 — a level described as a "pretty good deterrent." 16:00 The company policy that ended the arguments Even with the fee in place, some jobs still got booked mobile when they shouldn't have. The fix was a formal company policy: any repair requiring significant removal-and-install (R&I) work, or any job over $500, is not eligible for mobile service and must come to the shop. Framing it as company policy (rather than a personal decision) removed the friction — customers don't argue with a stated business policy the way they argue with an individual's judgment call. ⚠ EDITORIAL FLAG: Names "Jake" and "Dave" are referenced as former technicians whose departure effectively ended mobile service capacity — not in the current confirmed team roster (which includes Mack and Louie). Please confirm these are accurate historical names before publishing, since they may be misheard in the transcript. 17:00 The double hailstorm and the month-long shutdown In 2022, two hailstorms hit simultaneously — a major storm about an hour south and a smaller one about an hour and a half north. With the team split between locations and MeLissa and staff filling in on multiple fronts, the shop itself had to close for close to a month at the peak of the storm response, with a sign posted explaining the closure. 19:00 The cost of looking closed The extended closure created the appearance that the business wasn't operating, which caused a noticeable lull in bookings even after reopening — customers assumed things weren't busy and looked elsewhere. 19:30 Year one: financially brutal Gene is candid that the first year in the shop was a significant financial setback. His advice to anyone considering a shop move: prepare financially to "take it on the chin" for a stretch, and research in advance whether your existing Google listing can transfer to the new address, or whether you'll need to start over. 20:00 Shop life trade-offs: bigger jobs, less freedom A fixed shop location enables bigger and more insurance-driven jobs, longer hold times on vehicles, and more capacity overall — but it comes at the cost of the flexibility mobile work offered, like being able to travel for hail work on short notice. 20:30 Advice: go all in, or stay off the beaten path Gene's recommendation for anyone easing into shop life: don't half-commit to a retail location on a main road. If you want to test the waters, choose an appointment-only, low-visibility space without a public Google listing rather than a full storefront. 21:00 Wrap-up and what's next Gene teases Part 3, likely to be recorded during a layover in Atlanta, covering the evolution of the business into its current form — including changes to estimating, hiring, and how the current shop's Google listing transition (mentioned as smoother this time) played out.

Gene Fetty kicks off a three-part series on mobile PDR work vs. running a shop, recorded ahead of a two-week anniversary trip to Italy, Croatia, and Montenegro with MeLissa (25 years married). [00:00] Intro  Gene announces this will be the first of a three-part series on mobile vs. shop, recorded in advance because he's heading out on a two-week anniversary trip with MeLissa - 25 years married. Episodes 2 and 3 will be scheduled to publish automatically while he's away. [02:00] Gene's PDR Journey  Gene started PDR in 2002. Around 2013, as PDR College, PDR Facebook groups, and industry discussion picked up, retail work started to become viable. His company, Total Reconditioning Services, was originally meant to be a one-stop wholesale recon shop (wheels, bumpers, dents, glass, interior, paint). He gradually shifted into 100% mobile retail. [04:00] The Case for Mobile - Freedom  Gene's favorite part of mobile work was total schedule control - stopping early, hitting the driving range between jobs, or taking a day off just by not booking cars. He mentions going out to do hail work for six weeks straight in 2016 while Louie ran the shop side, something much harder to do once tied to a physical location. He notes that even eight and a half years into shop ownership, he still misses that mobile freedom more than he minds the overhead of a shop. EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript reference to "Jennifer" (answering phones circa 2016) is a former team member, not a current name on file. Confirm before publishing if any current-team framing is implied.  [07:00] The Turning Point - Weather  Gene explains Pittsburgh's brutal weather (comparable rain totals to Seattle, plus snow and sub-zero wind chills) as the underlying driver behind wanting a shop, even before the specific incident that pushed him to pull the trigger. [11:00] The Snowy Driveway Story  On a snowy, icy retail call at a customer's home, Gene's rolling tool cart tipped and spilled his entire kit down a steep driveway. Digging tools out of the snow was the final straw - right then, he decided he needed a shop. [14:00] Finding the Shop  Days later, driving past a hand-written "Short-term lease available" sign on Campbell's Run, Gene called the number on the spot and connected with the landlord, Don. [16:00] Locking Down the Lease  Don offered a one-year lease with month-to-month renewal after that, at $1,100/month, with the county eventually planning to take the building for a project. MeLissa closed the deal on-site with a checkbook while another interested renter was calling in. First shop opened February/March; the county ultimately took about six years (delayed by funding issues and COVID) to actually reclaim the building. [18:00] Insurance Advantage  With a shop, Gene can bring adjusters in, let cars sit for supplements, and take on more insurance-driven repairs - something nearly impossible to coordinate reliably as a mobile operation. [19:00] Capacity  A shop removes drive time and pack-up/unpack time between stops, letting Gene run bigger jobs (citing a $5,000-$6,000 hail repair) alongside smaller door-ding work, and leave cars partially disassembled between sessions - not practical in a customer's driveway. [21:00] The Overhead Trade-off  Rent, additional insurance, and staffing all increase with a shop. Gene is direct that this is a real trade-off against the capacity and legitimacy gains. [22:00] Legitimacy  Gene frames the shop as a sales advantage against mobile-only competitors ("Chuck in a truck"), while acknowledging a mobile operator can sell against a shop on lower overhead and lower pricing. [23:00] Nearly Building a Mobile Rig Instead  When Gene thought he'd lose his first shop early, he seriously considered a ~$100K tricked-out Sprinter van build (Custom Upfits awning, roll-out generator, infrared heaters, rooftop A/C) as an alternative to leasing a new space, noting even a maxed-out mobile rig costs less than the cheapest shop. EDITORIAL FLAG: "Custom Upfits" / "Custom Outfits" is referenced twice with slightly different spelling in the transcript - confirm the correct company name before publishing.  [26:00] How Do You Know What's Right for You?  Gene's framework: assess your local overhead and market, and consider an off-the-beaten-path garage as a lower-risk stepping stone rather than a highly visible retail storefront. [29:00] Hail Markets & Population  For hail-prone markets, Gene calls a shop close to a no-brainer, since it lets a tech build a year-round retail customer base and CRM ahead of storm season. He also flags population size as a factor, referencing his own 1.4 million-person metro region when he started mobile retail around 2013-14. EDITORIAL FLAG: Speaker references a conversation with someone in a ~20,000-population market discussing hail-focused mobile work - no name given in the transcript, left unattributed.  [30:00] Coming Up in Episode 2  Gene previews next episode's focus: the actual mobile-to-shop transition, hurdles, wins, and surprises. He references a recurring roundtable he's co-hosted the last few MTEs with a co-host named in the transcript. EDITORIAL FLAG: Co-host name given in the transcript as "Matt Moore" for the MTE roundtable - not a name on file for Dent Repair Now's recurring contacts. Please confirm spelling/identity before publishing.  [33:00] PDR Marketing Minute - Episode 4  Topic: setting up a Facebook Business Page. Key points - use a dedicated business/fan page (not a personal profile), match your Name/Address/Phone (NAP) exactly to your Google Business listing, and post 3-5 times per week. Gene revisits the old advice on-air: he now says to get as many followers/likes as possible (reversing the original "don't ask other techs to like your page" guidance), since follower counts function as social proof today. [37:00] Tool of the Week - Fast PDR Shotgun Auto Loading Slide Hammer  Gene reviews the Shotgun Auto Loading Slide Hammer by Fast PDR Tools, purchased through Anson PDR as a kit with PDR Outlet cold glue tabs and Glexo Diablo preloaded dots. Highlights: Trigger-fired action gives a consistent pull every time and is noticeably easier on the shoulder than a traditional slide hammer Magnetic base holds it in place on the panel between pulls Used it to knock out roughly 75-100 soft-nickel dents down a hail-damaged rail on a wholesale job Fits the smaller M6/European cold-glue tab thread (compatible with Glexo, Keco, Dead Dent Tools, PDR Outlet, Sergio's); larger 5/16" tabs like Dent Slayer and VIP are not compatible Gene taped over the safety, which he found himself bumping accidentally during use Grip texture got a little rough on the hands after extended use - he's considering a 3D-printed or aftermarket grip upgrade EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript references "Tool Porn Thursday" from a contact named "Craig," and a separate mention of a group text from "John Yeager." Neither name is on file for Dent Repair Now's recurring contacts - confirm spelling/attribution before publishing.  Product/pricing note: the Shotgun kit is listed starting at $299.99 USD on Anson PDR's site (kit includes case, 3 PDR Outlet cold glue tabs, and a Glexo Diablo cold glue 6-pack). https://ansonpdr.com/products/fast-pdr-shotgun-auto-hammer [44:00] Wrap-Up  Apprenticeship openings still available at Dent Repair Now PDR Expo 2026 - September 25-26 at The Rio, Las Vegas - get tickets at pdrexpo.com Gene will be off the grid for the next couple of weeks on his anniversary trip Follow @dentrepairnow across all platforms Come back next week for Episode 85 - Part 2 of the Mobile vs. Shop series, covering the actual transition from mobile to shop.

Gene opens live from the newly set-up studio. Mack threw himself a birthday picnic over the weekend, and a wicked rainstorm rolled through the night of recording — the studio stayed dry this time, no squeegee duty required. [02:00] This Week's Topic: Pricing A follow-on from last week's episode. Gene notes he could teach a full day on pricing alone, but tonight is a touch-and-go on pricing strategy, pricing techniques, and — most importantly — justifying the price you land on. [03:00] The Problem With Just Running the Numbers Many techs plug damage into a price guide (Mobile Tech RX, PK/Precedence, custom guides, etc.) and hand the customer a single lump number without walking them through it. Gene's point: doing that loses the job almost every time — unless it's a supercar. [04:00] Case Study: '23 Chevy Equinox, Deer Hit Big fender dent, mirror shattered and cap blown off, belt molding dented, glass scratched, and the rear door buckled top to bottom from the impact. Gene wrote the repair for the mid-$5,000s — itemized, with roughly $1,000 in parts (mirror, molding, glass) — and educated the customer on why a full, proper repair made sense on a low-mileage '23, rather than a quick pop-out. [07:00] The Insurance Company Fight The insurer's independent adjuster wrote the estimate low — no blend time on the hood, a partial bumper drop, and only about five hours of repair time on a door that needed a skin or replacement. Gene's stance: insurers aren't obligated to pay more than a conventional repair costs, but a poorly written estimate that ignores real damage is a different problem entirely. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene refers to the adjuster as "Billy Bob" in the story — confirm whether this is a real name, a placeholder, or a joke before publishing if used verbatim anywhere outside the transcript-based content. After additional photos and video documentation were submitted, the estimate came up to a workable number and the job moved forward. [10:00] Why the Big Number Was the Sticking Point Gene priced the fender at roughly $1,972 using his price guide. The adjuster's own numbers landed closer to $1,000. Gene's takeaway: the gap wasn't really about the dollar figure — it was that the adjuster didn't understand how Gene arrived at the number, and was also pricing in cheap aftermarket parts. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: The transcript lists the fender figure as both "$1,972.62" (first mention) and "$1,972.83" (second mention) — likely a transcription inconsistency rather than two different numbers. Verify the correct figure before publishing if it needs to appear precisely. [12:00] The Price Guide Is a Guide Running the price guide's number up as high as it will go does no good if it costs you the sale. Overpricing without a sales foundation makes PDR look more expensive than body shop work — even where the value is genuinely there. Third-party services like Claim Connection and Dent Ops can help write and negotiate more thorough conventional estimates when a job calls for it. [13:00] The Steakhouse Method: Selling Price A La Carte Gene's core sales lesson of the episode: never open with the total number. Walk the customer through the repair piece by piece — like a server describing courses at a steakhouse — so each item builds naturally toward the total instead of landing as one shock number. He even holds sales tax until the very end, presented as its own separate line. The same approach applies to hail work: break the hood, roof, roof rail, glue-pull setup, pre-scan/post-scan, and corrosion protection into individual, explained line items rather than one big total. [18:00] Coaching Availability Gene has openings for coaching — single sessions, multi-session packages, in-person, and in-person on-location. Reach out via [email protected]. [19:00] Recommended Sales Books Zig Ziglar — sales books/audiobooks Dale Carnegie — How to Win Friends and Influence People Nicholas Boothman — Convince Them in 90 Seconds [20:00] Tool of the Week: Stuckey 18" Portable Light Gene's go-to portable/mini light, from Stuckey Tools (Carl Stuckey). Five-strip configuration (cool/warm/cool/warm/cool), push-button controls, dimmer (Gene runs it full bright), and a proprietary rechargeable battery shared with Stuckey's glue guns. Can hang from the end of the panel or reposition to center. Gene uses it for door dings, cross-checking, and outdoor work in direct sun. He recently upgraded to Stuckey's power suction cup, which he charges roughly every week and a half. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene mentions the Stuckey website currently lists him under an old "Kiko trainer" title and asks Carl to update it — this is a note to Stuckey Tools, not something to include as a fact about Gene in published content. [25:00] New PDR Community: Panel Beaters Club Discord Thad Treece (Dentproof) launched a private Discord server for PDR techs called the Panel Beaters Club — a space for experienced and newer techs to swap ideas and talk shop away from customer and insurance-company eyes. Gene cleared sharing the link with Thad before recording. [27:00] PDR Expo 2026 About five and a half weeks out at recording time. Gene encourages listeners to attend, check out the competitions, and cheer on Mack, who is entering the beginner's competition still under his two-year mark in the trade. [28:00] Now Hiring: Apprenticeships Dent Repair Now is still looking for a couple of apprentices. Interested listeners can reach out to [email protected]. [29:00] Studio Background Updates A PDR Cigars sign from Dave Fisher joins the background (Dave had to PDR it himself after it arrived dented), along with Keith Cosentino's "Black Plague — Make Metal Flat Again" hat. [30:00] PDR Universe Shoutout Gene recently appeared on the PDR Universe podcast, discussing learning PDR through glue pull first and related theory. ⚑ EDITORIAL FLAG: Co-host names for PDR Universe are given here as "John" and "Zeeshan." Per prior episodes, these names have appeared inconsistently across transcripts — verify correct spelling before publishing. [31:00] PDR Marketing Minute, Episode 3: Google Business Listing Free to set up at business.google.com. Add full business info (name, address for verification purposes even for mobile-only operations, phone, website), hours, service-area settings for mobile businesses, and photos. Claim the listing once verification is complete to unlock Google Reviews. Gene's live updates to the segment: the correct current domain is business.google.com; mobile management now happens through the Google Maps app; write full URLs as https:// rather than http://; and Google has shifted from postcard verification to video verification for many businesses, which he found to be a more involved process.

Cold Open — A Brutal Week and the Toughest Dent Yet Gene opens with a rundown of a genuinely rough week at the shop — Mack was out on vacation, hard cars kept coming in, and dealers kept dropping off extras. Good problems, he says, but problems nonetheless. The highlight (and lowlight) of the week: what Gene calls the deepest, sharpest dent he's ever fixed — a brand-new Ford Explorer with a two-to-two-and-a-half-inch gash at the bottom body line of the door. He started filming it, the repair started going sideways, and he stopped recording and just powered through over a couple of evenings of work-till-frustration, walk away, come back. He's planning a green-screen breakdown video of the before/during/after footage he did manage to capture. He floats a theory that this might be a "summer of hard dents" tied to a softer economy — pointing back to 2008, when Dent Repair Now stayed busy and grew through the recession by picking up more of what he calls "recession dents." PDR Universe Podcast Shoutout Note for Gene: the transcript is inconsistent on the co-host's name — rendered as both "John" and "Jean" in different spots, and the second host as both "Zeeshan" and "Zsan." Please confirm correct spellings before this goes out. Gene gives a shoutout to the PDR Universe podcast, hosted by John (or Jean) and Zeeshan, available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube via bestpdrtraining.com. He's recording an episode on their show right after this one. Gene mentions he enjoys the non-US perspective the show brings, including past conversations about how hail repair differs between Europe and the co-host's home country of Slovenia. Gene mentions first meeting the co-host at the original GPR PDR competition, and having him on for play-by-play coverage with Danny during that event. This Week's Marketing Minute Setup Based on listener feedback from last week, Gene is bringing back old PDR Marketing Minute episodes rather than retiring the segment. Today's replay is Episode 2, which Gene hadn't listened to in about ten years going into this recording — he and the audience hear it together. Listener Question: Should You Put Pricing on Your Website? Note for Gene: the listener who prompted this topic isn't named on air (referred to only as "Mr. Listener"). No name has been added to any of the content below — flag if you'd like him credited. A listener messaged Gene this week asking his thoughts on posting a price guide directly on a PDR website. Gene admits his thinking has shifted over the years — he used to resist customer texting entirely and now finds it's often the easiest way to interact with a business himself. The listener's approach: a straightforward price guide on his site — starting price per inch, plus factors. Gene contrasts a few different models he's seen in the industry, including the Mobile Tech RX pricing matrix, Dent Repair Now's own custom-built matrix, and a pricing calculator Gene believes lives on dentreaper.com. Note for Gene: you say "I think, I think John Vianden" built the dentreaper.com pricing calculator — please confirm that attribution before publishing. Why a Raw Price Guide Falls Short Gene's first objection: retail customers don't speak PDR. Terms like body line, aluminum, HSS, laminated window, sound deadener, and obstructed damage mean nothing to most people — they might call a body line a "crease" and have no framework for sizing damage the way a technician does. Posting a bare price guide assumes a shared vocabulary that doesn't exist. He also references a pricing calculator he recalls from years back that started at $199 rather than a lower number, on the theory that if a customer wasn't willing to accept at least that entry point, the shop didn't want the call in the first place. Gene connects this to the reality of bad leads eating up front-desk time — Shannon or Gene fielding long, meandering calls that end up going nowhere. His conclusion: the right answer is somewhere between full transparency and full opacity, using price information to filter without oversimplifying. Don't Let Pricing Turn PDR Into a Commodity Gene's second concern with just posting a price list: it risks commoditizing a service that isn't one. He draws a distinction between true commodities — goods like gas or food that move on supply and demand — and PDR, which he frames as a high-skill, high-value trade. It's not cheap because it's costly to deliver real value, not because it should be priced like a shelf item. Checking What the AI Search Engines Say PDR Costs Gene walks through what a customer would currently find by asking Google, Claude, and ChatGPT what PDR costs — revisiting the days when a plain search would return unrealistically low numbers. Google (Gemini) Single-panel fixes: roughly $75–$500 per dent Multi-panel hail damage: roughly $1,200–$4,000+ Small dent (quarter-sized parking lot ding): $75–$200 Medium dent: $200–$500 Large dent or crease: $400–$1,000 Hail damage: $1,200–$4,000+ Notes a 25–50% premium for aluminum panels due to the metal being stiffer and harder Compares favorably to body shops, which it lists at roughly $600–$2,000 for a single panel repair ChatGPT Single small dent: $75–$150 Medium dent: $150–$350 Large dent or multiple dents: $350–$800 Hail damage: $500–$4,500+ Cites factors like size, depth, location, panel type, number of dents, and shop labor rates Gene had also checked Claude in advance of recording and shares those figures too: small door ding (dime to nickel-sized) around $125–$250, medium dent $250–$500, large dent $500–$1,500, plus separate ranges for creases, body-line dents, and hail damage. He notes he told each AI to answer as if it didn't know him personally, though he can't say the results weren't influenced by his prior activity. His takeaway: the AI-generated answers have gotten noticeably better and more specific over time, but they still miss real-world variables — he points to a $5,000 deer-hit insurance job the shop has coming in that week as an example of complexity no generic pricing answer captures. Marcus Sheridan's "They Ask, You Answer" Gene brings in a concept from Marcus Sheridan's book They Ask, You Answer, which argues that businesses build trust and credibility — and drive sales — by directly and thoroughly answering the questions their customers are actually asking, rather than dodging them. Gene relates this to a story from the book about Sheridan's fiberglass pool company, where prospective buyers wanted a ballpark cost early in the conversation and the business had historically avoided giving one. Gene frames this as a version of SEO for the AI era — informally, "AI SEO" — where the same content that helps a human trust you also helps AI models learn to answer pricing questions about PDR more accurately. Gene's Conclusion: Educate, Don't Just Publish a Number Gene lands on an educational approach rather than either extreme. Rather than posting a bare price guide, he wants to build content — videos in particular — that walks a customer through how pricing actually gets determined: starting price, per-inch factors, and complicating conditions like an inaccessible repair area behind a brace, using the same explanation a tech would give in person while inspecting a car. His challenge to listeners: don't just rely on AI and search engines getting smarter about PDR pricing — be the source that teaches both customers and the AIs training on the web. He closes the segment by asking the audience to share their own thoughts on posting pricing publicly. PDR Marketing Minute Throwback — Episode 2: Website 101 This week's replayed Marketing Minute covers the fundamentals of a PDR business website: Get a .com domain if at all possible — customers get confused by .net, .org, or newer extensions If your exact company name isn't available, consider a descriptive alternative (Gene's own dentrepairnow.com came out of this approach and later became his official DBA and company name) Use quality, fast-loading hosting — slow sites lose impatient visitors to competitors Build a mobile-responsive site rather than a separate mobile subdomain — Gene lost search ranking after a Google algorithm update penalized his old mobile-only setup Put your phone number and a clear call to action (Gene uses "Schedule a Repair") prominently at the top of the page Feature strong before-and-after photos shot from a consistent angle, ideally with a tripod, so there's no question it's the same vehicle Include a contact form for leads who'd rather not call or text Build a reviews page that pulls in reviews from Yelp, Facebook, Google, and PDR Nation while keeping visitors on your own site Write original content — never copy from another site, which search engines penalize Listening back, Gene notes the advice held up well overall, aside from the now-outdated mobile-subdomain approach. Tool of the Week: Glexo Blending Hammer Gene's pick this week is his well-worn 4 oz Glexo Blending Hammer from Anson PDR — a tool he calls possibly the perfect blending hammer. He highlights the handle design (a rear grip zone for control and a second bulge for a shorter grip), and the ability to flip to the side of the head for hard, sharp metal-to-metal contact on sharp-tip or VIP work. He and his technician Louie are both repeat buyers — Louie is reportedly on his fifth one, a running joke about how easily he loses tools. The Glexo Blending Hammer is available in 4 oz, 6 oz, and 8 oz versions, with a 15-inch handle across all sizes, from Anson PDR. Wrap-Up: PDR Expo 2026 Gene closes with a reminder that PDR Expo is coming up September 25–26 at The Rio in Las Vegas. He's part of a roundtable discussion on Friday and is doing a hands-on cold glue talk on Saturday, which he's especially excited about. Blog Post Should You Put Your Pricing on Your PDR Website? Man, it's been a week. Mack was out on vacation, the cars co

Gene celebrates cracking 5,000 Facebook followers, then digs into this week's core theme: put the reps in. Whether it's content creation, repair skills, or estimating, Gene argues the only way through is to keep grinding — even when it sucks.   Timestamped Notes  [00:00]  Cold open and welcome back to episode 81. [00:00–04:00]  Gene announces he broke 5,000 followers on Facebook, reflects on the climb from 2,000 to 5,000, and sets 10,000 as the next goal. He credits focusing everything under one brand (retiring AAI) as the turning point. [04:00]  Today's theme: put the reps in — lessons learned from content, repairs, and business. [04:24–05:52]  Gene looks back at his earliest videos — time-lapses set to music, no education, no personality. [05:52–08:00]  Coaching from Keith Cosentino pushed Gene to get on camera. The early "model walk-around" videos at his old Volkswagen store were awkward, but they were reps. [08:00–10:00]  Gene's advice: stop overthinking gear and production value. Raw, phone-shot videos consistently outperform his high-production studio content. He references a tip from Stefan Eschy (UBreakIFix / MyDentShop LLC) about ditching the gear obsession and just posting. Editing apps mentioned: Edits (free, from Meta/Instagram) and CapCut. [10:30–14:00]  PDR Expo 2026 preview: September 25–26 at The Rio in Las Vegas. Friday morning roundtable, Mac competing in the beginners' competition Friday afternoon (dent trials), a possible masters competition, and Gene's cold glue classroom + hands-on session Saturday. [14:00–20:00]  Repair story #1: a brand-new 2026 11th-gen Civic Type R with an 8–11" crease in the quarter panel. The customer didn't want the car painted. Gene pulled the bumper expecting easy reach through the vent — it wasn't. Had to work blind with ultra-thin whale tails and Dent Craft's shaved red-and-yellow set to sneak past a tight brace. [20:00–26:00]  Repair story #2: a BMW X5 with 20+ 10mm bolts holding the wheel liner, a leaking washer fluid bottle routed through the fender, and three separate electrical/liquid connections buried against the frame rail. Gene phones a friend (body shop buddy Jeremy) for tech support mid-teardown. [26:00–29:00]  Repair story #3: an aluminum fender dented by a kid on a bike. Gene missed that the panel was aluminum before starting — a rare miss he owns on air. MeLissa stops by mid-repair to check in. [29:00–30:00]  Takeaway: putting the reps in on hard, locked-up, aluminum panels builds the ability to shift gears and push through tough jobs. [30:00–32:00]  Tech tip: even when a repair isn't perfect by your own standard, don't undersell it to the customer. Let them judge the result rather than setting a negative expectation going in — a lesson Gene picked up from Keith Cosentino. [32:00–34:00]  Update: Keith Cosentino and Shane's AI session with the 20 Group was recorded and will run as a PDR College episode (not on the All Access feed) — keep an eye on that feed for release. [34:00–39:00]  Special segment: Gene found and replays the very first episode of the PDR Marketing Minute from his archive (circa 2016/17) — a retail marketing checklist covering website, Google Business listing, Facebook business page, Yelp, and asking for reviews. [39:00–42:00]  Gene reflects on the archival episode — most of the advice still holds up, though he'd now emphasize engagement over raw follower counts. He asks listeners whether they want more archival Marketing Minute content or a revived series. [42:00–48:00]  Tool of the Week: Anson PDR's new Tequila Econoline T-Handle (locking, zero-play compact hub handle) and the new 9/32" Compact Hub 5-piece hand tool set (8", 11", 14", 17", 20") — stainless steel, sharp precision tips built for aluminum and high-strength steel. [48:00–51:00]  Wrap-up: put the reps in, recap of PDR Expo, and PDR College coaching availability — one-on-one, in-person, and multi-session options open. [51:00–53:00]  Dent Repair Now is hiring: looking for at least two apprentices to join the team in Canonsburg, PA (just south of Pittsburgh). Mack and Louie are both praised as strong technicians on the current team.   Links Mentioned  PDR Expo 2026 — Sept 25–26, The Rio, Las Vegas: https://pdrexpo.com Anson PDR — Tequila Econoline Compact Handle: https://ansonpdr.com/products/tequila-econoline-compact-handle-indexing Anson PDR — Compact Hub Tequila Indexing Hand Tools 9/32": https://ansonpdr.com/products/compact-hub-tequila-indexing-hand-tools-9-32 Finesse PDR Tools: https://pdrfinessetools.com/

Gene gets fired up about knockoff PDR tools, breaks down the real economics of a small industry, celebrates the family-owned companies that keep innovating, tag-teams a botched Denali bedside with Mack, and pimps out the Tool of the Week: the KECO Robo Lifter. Timestamps  00:00 - Welcome back - Episode 80, knocking on 100 before the end of the year 02:00 - Studio background tour: VIP PDR Tools "Trust Me, I'm a Dent Guy" shirt, Piotr's knockdowns and grip tips 04:45 - The Get a Grip cup from Matt and Dad's retirement police badge - miss you, Dad 05:45 - The Porsche cup from John and the goal it represents 06:15 - The limited edition Robo collection: the collaboration Robo, the 60th anniversary, and 10th anniversary #11 of 75 from Chris White 07:30 - 2019 MTE Mentor of the Year and the Dent Reaper bobblehead 11:30 - The main event: knockoff tools, Temu tools, and why Gene refuses to buy even one 13:30 - "I can't even recommend the cheap tools" - budget conversations with new techs 14:15 - Old-school PDR: torsion springs, leaf springs, and bending your own tools at Metal Supermarkets 16:30 - What knockoffs actually steal: the R&D (they didn't even remove Carl Stuckey's logo from the mold) 18:00 - A decade of prototype testing - six near-production hammers before one hit the market 21:00 - How small PDR really is: maybe 15,000 techs in the US vs. 30,000 body shops 24:00 - A "home run" PDR tool sells 1,000 units - Home Depot has over 2,000 stores 27:00 - The innovations that saved Gene's career: ratcheting handles, leverage handles, long kick tools 29:45 - Glue pulling's rise from last resort to first resort, plus cold glue changing the game 31:15 - The families behind the brands: Keco, Anson, the Stuckeys, VIP, Finesse, Dentcraft, Cam Auto, Ultra, Dent Jents, Dent Reaper, Excalibur, Black Plague, Shane Jacks 35:15 - The bottom line: support the companies that support us - and come to PDR Expo 37:30 - The '24 Denali bedside save: cleaning up another tech's locked-up mess with Mack 43:00 - Bonus rant: if the job is outside your skill set, refer it to a real PDR tech 45:45 - Weekly win: watching Mack take PDR by the horns - a proud dad moment and a five-star review 48:50 - Tool of the Week: the pimped-out Robo Lifter 49:45 - Black Plague Robo Legs - adjustable extension for offset pulls 51:45 - The JVF Tools tab adapter - tumbled edges, easier on the tabs and your fingers 52:45 - Crease feet and the offset trick nobody notices 53:45 - The precision plate story: fixing the "impossible" dent that sold Bob a whole system 56:00 - Wrap-up: PDR Expo at the Rio September 25-26, and help us break 5,000 on Facebook Links & Resources  KECO Robo Mini Dent Lifter ($159.95): https://www.kecotabs.com/products/keco-robo-lifter Robo Lifter Precision Crease Feet Upgrade Kit ($84.95): https://www.kecotabs.com/products/keco-robo-lifter-crease-tab-upgrade-kit KECO Precision Pulling Base / Precision Plate ($59.95): https://www.kecotabs.com/products/robo-precision-pulling-plate Black Plague Adjustable Robo Foot Set - on KECO ($50.00): https://www.kecotabs.com/products/black-plague-adjustable-robo-r-foot-set-for-use-with-keco-robo-r-mini-lifter Black Plague Robo Legs for the RoboLifter (pair): https://www.blackplaguepdr.com/products/robo-legs-for-the-robolifter JVF Tab Adapter for Mini Lifter: https://www.jvftools.com/product-page/jvf-tab-adapter-for-mini-lifter PDR Expo 2026 - Sept 25-26, The Rio, Las Vegas: https://www.pdrexpo.com Follow Dent Repair Now: @dentrepairnow on all platforms

Episode 78 of the All Access Podcast — recorded back in the newly refreshed Dent Repair Now studio. This week's format is a random grab bag: no single topic, just whatever's been on Gene's mind, brainstormed with a little help from ChatGPT. Timestamps  0:00  Cold open and a quick studio update — new background, and the Porsche Cup trophy is on its way to the shelf (John, don't get picky, it just didn't make the trip). 1:36  Recapping the trip to St. Louis / Highland, IL with Dan Neltner — golf, catching up with one of Gene's best friends in the industry. 2:49  Visiting Gateway Dent Training with Mike Seewald — a glue pull presentation for students in their final week, and a full episode recorded for the upcoming beginner-focused podcast. Mike's background: started with Dent Wizard in the '90s, trained roughly 2,000 PDR techs before opening Gateway Dent. 5:00  Why this episode is going random — no single topic stood out, so Gene brainstormed with ChatGPT to build the outline. 5:38  Teaser: an AI workshop with Keith Cosentino at the 20 Group on Monday the 20th, being recorded for the PDR College podcast feed. 7:06  Gene's weekly AI workflow: DaVinci Resolve to pull audio, Descript to transcribe (including automatic speaker identification for multi-guest episodes), then Claude to turn the transcript into a YouTube description, timestamped show notes, and a blog post. 10:47  Using Claude as a "coach's coach" — transcribing one-on-one coaching sessions and working with Claude to identify operational holes, weaknesses, and opportunities for clients. 13:03  Talking content: letting personality come through more, and the Great Yap Challenge (Jesse Jean's 40-day content class) — currently on day 18. 14:33  Facebook growth update: 4,916 followers, chasing 5,000, then 10,000, 20,000, and beyond. 15:34  Breaking down the numbers on the Audi 5-point Torx bit rant video: 19,500 views, 480 likes, 120 comments, 4 reshares, 196 sends. 17:30  More content stats: the five dirty secrets post (3,400 views, 13 shares) and the Dent Slayer nickel tip review (29,000 views, 557 likes, 22 sends). 18:49  Asking the audience: what content series do you want to see? Tool tips, tool of the week, tech tips, or more rants? 21:22  What separates the best PDR techs: watching John, Bryce, and Arleson Geddes work. The common thread is deliberate setup and precision — including a story from Italy watching Bryce work a quarter panel, and a bender story from Advanced Skills Seminar. 24:24  "They don't make mistakes" — comparing elite PDR technicians to Mario Andretti, Bryson DeChambeau, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Michael Jordan: same tools, just executed more perfectly. 28:19  The business habit Gene wishes he'd built ten years earlier: consistent, disciplined CRM follow-up. This week alone, thousands of dollars came in from chasing old, dead leads. 30:19  Tool of the Week (a four-for-one this week): 30:47  1) Anson Tequila Compact HUB Door Lord Interchangeable Rods — the 3/8" compact hub rod system Mack (Gene's 19-year-old technician) requested after seeing them at the Anson open house. 35:11  2) The new Anson Tequila Econo-Line Compact Handle — a screw-on handle with zero play, and an unexpected bonus: the screw bit adds extra thumb leverage. 37:11  3) The Tequila curved brace tool set (COMPACT HUB Indexing Arched Hand Tool) — pairs perfectly with the new Econo-Line handle for extra control. 38:19  4) Dent Reaper's Hail's Angels — go with the 6-piece set and add the smaller-diameter tool for taillight-hole access. 39:33  PDR Expo 2026 preview: September 25–26 at The Rio, Las Vegas — a Friday roundtable (emceed by Keith Cosentino) and Saturday's cold glue talk. 40:12  Update on the soft skills seminar Gene is planning for mid-to-late October — location still being finalized. 41:17  Coaching availability, wrap-up, and a nudge to help push the Dent Repair Now Facebook page over 5,000 followers. Links mentioned in this episode  Compact HUB Door Lord Interchangeable Rods (Anson PDR): https://ansonpdr.com/products/tequila-compact-hub-door-lord-interchangeable Tequila Econoline Compact Handle, Indexing (Anson PDR): https://ansonpdr.com/products/tequila-econoline-compact-handle-indexing COMPACT HUB Tequila Indexing Arched Hand Tool 1/4" (Anson PDR): https://ansonpdr.com/products/tequila-indexing-compact-hub-arched-hand-tool-1-4 Hails Angels 6 Piece Set (Dent Reaper): https://dentreaper.com/products/brace-angels-6-piece-set Hails Angels 7/32 x 9" (Dent Reaper): https://dentreaper.com/products/hails-angels-7-32-x-9 COMPACT HUB Hails Angels 6 Piece Set With Handle (Dent Reaper): https://dentreaper.com/products/compact-hub-hails-angels-6-piece-set-with-handle PDR Expo 2026 — Sept 25–26, The Rio, Las Vegas: https://pdrexpo.com One-on-one PDR coaching: [email protected] Follow along: @dentrepairnow