Advertise on podcast: The BodyShop Leaders Podcast

“I have no idea how to repair a vehicle.” It is not what you expect from one of the most respected collision repair operators in the Northeast. But it is exactly how Elias Akiki explains real leadership in this industry. Elias took over his family’s shop at 19. He built Akiki Auto Body into a multifaceted operation rooted in people, culture, and doing things the right way. In this episode, he explains why his job is not to decide how a car gets repaired. His job is to follow the manufacturer’s directions to the letter. And he is blunt about why so many shops and insurers still refuse to do the same. Daniel and Elias cover a lot of ground. How to build a low-turnover team in an industry that struggles to keep people. Why Elias says making money is not the most important thing. The painful decision to “call his own baby ugly” and rebuild the business the right way. His take on OEM certifications, ADAS, and being the last true advocate for the customer. Own a shop, manage one, or just getting started? This conversation will challenge how you think about safe and proper repairs, culture, and leaving the trade better than you found it. What does being a BodyShop Leader mean to you? The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

"Fear is a mile wide, but an inch deep." That's how Logan Martin, co-owner of Mr. Dent Collision Repair, describes the leap most shop owners are too scared to take. In this episode of The BodyShop Leaders Podcast, Logan shares the story of a true family business — three generations of Martins fixing and painting cars in West Plains, Missouri — and how he went from a three-month stint as an accountant to running a growing multi-shop operation now building its fourth location. We get into the real work of scaling a collision MSO: why processes make or break the jump from one shop to many, how to find and keep great technicians in rural markets (including the apprenticeship program that dropped Mr. Dent's average tech age to 36), and why culture, trust, and the right people in the right seats matter more than any building or piece of equipment. Logan also opens up about the leadership mindset he calls "leading with a servant's towel," the surprising skill he carried over from his days as a championship dirt-track racer, and why watching his people win is what drives him. A must-listen for any shop owner thinking about growth. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

Josh Piccione started his collision career manning a pressure washer. Today he's the general manager of Tom Wood Collision Center in Indianapolis, running one of the most heavily OEM-certified shops in the country — more than 20 manufacturer certifications under one roof. But the turning point in his career wasn't a promotion. It was a question he couldn't answer. At his first 20 group, moderator Mike Anderson called him to the front of the room as "the most certified shop here" and asked how many Subaru steering columns he'd measured that year. Josh had no answer. He went home and tore his own process apart. In this episode, Josh walks through what it actually cost to rebuild a shop around doing it right — the training, the bruised egos, the carriers and customers who didn't love it. He explains why he wants OEM certification audits to get harder, how EOS reshaped the way his leadership team operates, and why he stopped treating insurers like a war and started treating them like an opposing team with a different scoreboard. He tells the story of one hour-long call with an adjuster that moved a stalled supplement by thousands of dollars, without a raised voice. Plus: how to judge which new technology is worth the investment, why he believes the estimator role is headed for extinction, and what rising total-loss rates mean for your business model. Then the question we ask every guest — what does being a BodyShop Leader mean to you? The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

Kena Dacus never planned to own a body shop. She had an accounting degree, a career in banking, and a husband with a dream. Then Chris asked his boss — a shop owner in his late seventies — about buying the business someday. The next morning he was told that if he wanted to be the competition, it was time to part ways. Three months into their marriage, he was unemployed. What they had left was a 3,000-square-foot building on Main Street in Canton, Kansas, a town of about 700 people. They bought a secondhand paint booth for $2,000 and learned the hard way why nobody moves a booth themselves. Chris wrote estimates all day and did body work after he locked the front door. Then the backlog hit twelve months, and they went all in. Three years later, the same owner who let Chris go called. He needed to sell fast. They closed in thirty days. Today Dacus Auto Body runs multiple locations plus a towing company, with more than 40 employees, 16 OEM certifications, and I-CAR Gold Class status. Kena joins Daniel to talk about why she'd be more selective about OEM certifications if she could start over, how she and Chris divide visionary and integrator roles, what leading the Kansas Auto Body Association taught her, why she pushes shop owners toward SkillsUSA and trade school advisory committees, and what she really thinks about where women stand in collision repair. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

"I'm sorry to tell you, the business is worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it." Doug Higgins has watched shop owners fixate on a multiple they heard at a conference and then make bad decisions for years because of it. In this episode, I sit down with Doug Higgins, founder of Collision Advisory, a fractional CFO practice built specifically for collision repair operators. Doug spent more than a decade at Kroger in high-level finance roles, including running the numbers for a $2 billion division and working M&A and strategic planning at the corporate level. Then he left the Fortune 100 behind for collision repair, where he ran a collision MSO and an ADAS calibration company at the same time under the TAG umbrella. Doug breaks down the financial side of shop ownership that most of us never get taught. He explains EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA in plain English, including what add-backs are and why a buyer wants them. He walks through the number one cash flow mistake he sees, why operating out of your checking account puts blinders on you, and why a five percent sales drop can turn into a twenty percent profit drop when your cost structure is stuck. We get into why he pushes back on the 7X valuation talk and the question almost nobody asks: why are you worth that? He also gives three things you can do this week to get a handle on your numbers, and shares a genuinely contrarian take on where independent shops land five years from now. If you own or manage a shop and your books aren't where they need to be, this one is for you. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

At 53 years old, Brian von Tress cashed in his retirement, walked away from a COO role at a 19-shop chain, and opened his first body shop with no private equity and no safety net. "We burned the ships and said we're doing this." In this episode, I sit down with Brian von Tress, the Founder and President of Collision Pros Inc., a 13-location MSO spanning Northern California and Nevada with 170 employees. Brian's collision career started at 15, sweeping floors and washing cars to earn money for his first car. He went on to earn his MBA while working full-time, spent time at Caliber Collision when they had just 15 locations, and climbed to COO of a 19-shop chain before betting everything on himself. Brian breaks down what it really takes to scale a bootstrapped MSO, including why the jump from four to six shops was a nightmare and what infrastructure he had to build to get through it. He shares his acquisition playbook and how it's shifted from buying small underperforming shops to buying market share. We talk about the devastating Camp Fire that destroyed his Paradise location and displaced eight employee families, and how he kept every one of them on payroll. Brian also gets into why he still sends handwritten birthday cards to all 170 employees, what Tesla certification actually costs and how it's changed, and how independent operators can compete against PE-backed consolidators through what he calls guerrilla warfare. Whether you're running one shop or thinking about your tenth, Brian's journey is one you need to hear. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

What does it take to grow a single family shop into a 14-location MSO spanning two Canadian provinces in just seven years? According to Brad Green, Director of Operations at Raydar Collision Group — it starts with recognizing that as a leader, you come second. In this episode, Brad sits down with Daniel Burkholder to unpack the people-first philosophy that's fueled Raydar's rapid expansion across British Columbia and Alberta. From his start washing cars in the rain at a small North Vancouver shop to overseeing operations across 14 locations, Brad shares the real mechanics behind scaling a collision repair business without losing your culture along the way. You'll hear Brad's take on why accountability is really just communication, how to stop managing by gut feel and start using data without overcomplicating it, the biggest mistake shop owners make when scaling from one location to two or three, why he wrote a candid article on women in collision repair and what the response taught him, navigating the "Bermuda Triangle" between shops, insurers, and OEMs, why a safe repair isn't enough anymore — it has to be a safe AND profitable repair, and his advice to any shop owner who says "we can't find good people" — maybe look in the mirror first. Whether you're running a single shop or building toward your next acquisition, Brad's approach to leadership, patience, and playing the long game on your people is a masterclass worth hearing. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

David Luehr started his first collision shop with a $100 bill and a borrowed paint gun. Two years later he had 13 employees and was doing over a million dollars a year — and then he lost all of it. In this episode of The BodyShop Leaders Podcast, David — founder of Elite Body Shop Solutions and co-author of the #1 bestseller The Secrets of America's Greatest Body Shops — shares one of the most unexpected comeback stories in collision repair. From bankruptcy to a touring country band that opened for Brooks & Dunn, to a corporate buyout that blindsided him, to the mission that drives him today: helping independent shop owners avoid the mistakes that nearly cost him everything. If you own or manage an auto body shop, this conversation is full of practical, been-there advice. You'll hear why "more work" can quietly bankrupt a growing shop, the "ownership shift" that gets owners off the shop floor, which business pillar to fix first, and the five things that turn a shop into a magnet for good technicians. David also makes his case for why now is the best time to be an independent. Whether you run a single location or a growing MSO, you'll walk away with ideas you can use this week. Be bold, be learning, be limitless. #AutoBody #CollisionRepair #BodyShop #DavidLuehr The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

What separates the collision shops that are thriving right now from the ones that are barely holding on? According to Dan Carranza, it comes down to one thing: culture — and whether it actually lives on the shop floor or just in the owner's head. Dan is the CEO and founder of Accelerate Growth Partners and one of the most well-rounded voices in the collision repair industry. He spent 16 years building a PBE distribution business to five locations before selling to LKQ, then another 14 years in senior corporate leadership at LKQ and Akzo Nobel. Now he's channeling 30 years of hard-won experience into coaching and consulting collision repair owners on vision, leadership, mindset, and building teams that last. In this episode, Dan breaks down why most shop owners have a culture gap they don't even know exists, why goals without commitments underneath them are worthless, and what it really took to walk away from a senior executive position to bet on himself. He also shares what's coming with Collision Next 2026 and the simple philosophy that drives everything he does: we before me. If you want to lead better, grow smarter, and build something that lasts — this one's for you. Connect with Dan: Website: dancarranza.com Email: [email protected] Topics: collision repair leadership, shop culture, coaching, PBE distribution, MSO growth, technician retention, vision and mission, Collision Next 2026 The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

Sean Guthrie spent 20 years helping build one of the most impressive growth stories in the collision repair industry. Starting alongside his father Jim at Car Crafters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sean worked every role in the shop before stepping into operations leadership. When the family made the decision to partner with private equity, Sean served as COO of the newly formed Open Road Collision and helped scale the business from 5 locations to 37, growing revenue from $35 million to over $140 million. In this episode, Sean shares what that journey really looked like from the inside. He talks about the team that made the growth possible, the SOPs and systems that kept things from falling apart, and how they worked to preserve a family culture even as they expanded across multiple states. He also gets into the details on launching dedicated ADAS calibration centers, building a technician apprentice program from scratch, and why he believes every shop owner needs a calibration strategy. Sean is candid about the harder moments too. He shares the story of almost selling to a major consolidator before walking away at the last minute, the challenges of balancing family dynamics in business, and the deeply personal decision to step away after two decades. His advice for shop owners in early growth is grounded in experience and humility. If you're running a collision repair shop and thinking about growth, leadership, culture, or what the future of this industry looks like, this is an episode you don't want to skip. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

Tim Paap bought a rusty '67 Mustang at 15, discovered his love for collision repair with chicken wire and body filler, and opened Paap Auto Body as a one-man shop in Mattoon, Illinois in 2001. Nearly 25 years later, he's built one of the most OEM-certified collision repair facilities in central Illinois. In this episode, Tim shares the full story. From Nashville Auto Diesel College to painting cars after hours to save money, to building his first shop in a 30x50 pole barn with a homemade paint booth. He talks about the person who told him he'd never make it and how that became the fuel behind everything he's built. Here's what we cover: How Tim went from a three-car garage to a 10,000 square foot multi-location facility. Why he invested over $600,000 in OEM certifications including Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Ford, GM, Nissan, Kia, and more. What shop owners need to know about EV repair and why it's not as intimidating as it seems. The Concierge Center concept and how a converted Jiffy Lube transformed his customer experience. How a luxury hotel scent inspired him to rethink every detail of his facility. His stance on insurance steering and why he refuses to participate in most repair networks. Co-founding Estimating Professionals with Mark Probst and their mission to raise the bar on estimating across the industry. Building a family legacy with his son Zack, from taping wheel wells at five years old to becoming an A-tech. Their drag racing hobby and how it strengthens the father-son bond. His sponsorship policy that holds the community accountable. What being a BodyShop Leader means to Tim. Whether you're running a one-man shop, thinking about OEM certifications, or figuring out how to stand out in your market, this episode is loaded with practical takeaways from someone who's been in the trenches for over two decades. Connect with Tim Paap at paapautobody.com or find him on Facebook. Check out Estimating Professionals at estimatingprofessionals.com. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

"Let us know if we can help you." That's what Jim Lovejoy hears estimators say in shop after shop. And it's not a closing attempt. It's not even close. In this episode, I sit down with Jim Lovejoy, Senior Services Consultant at Akzo Nobel Vehicle Refinish, who has spent over 25 years helping auto body shops improve their profitability, their processes, and their people. Jim has seen the numbers across hundreds of shops, and he noticed something after COVID. Closing ratios dropped 12 to 15 percentage points. Shops got busy, stopped training on sales, and never picked it back up. Jim walks us through what a real sales process should look like from the first phone call all the way through follow-up. He breaks down the assumptive close, explains why follow-up alone can move your closing ratio by 10 points or more, and shares the lean workflow mistakes that are quietly killing your cycle time and profitability. We also get into the metrics that actually matter, what it takes to train and retain good people, and the leadership habits that help owners get out of the daily chaos. This one is packed with value. Every shop owner and manager needs to hear it. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

What does it take to go from sweeping floors in your dad's body shop to owning and operating three collision repair locations? In this episode of BodyShop Leaders, host Daniel Burkholder sits down with Doug Martin, second-generation owner of Martin's Body Shop in southern Indiana, to unpack a leadership journey built on hard work, family legacy, and the courage to take action. Doug shares what growing up in the shop really taught him — even when he didn't realize he was learning. He opens up about earning respect from a team that watched him grow up, the pivotal process change that eliminated the daily chaos of rushing cars out the door, and why he purchased his first additional location in May 2020 — right in the middle of COVID — and wouldn't change a thing. You'll walk away with insights on building a culture that retains employees for decades, using OEM certifications to boost technician pride and repair quality, creating bonus programs that give your team skin in the game, and knowing when to stop planning and start doing. Doug also shares why he's spent 10 years advocating for shops and consumers through the Indiana Autobody Association — and why more shop owners need to step up. If you're a collision repair shop owner looking for honest, no-fluff leadership advice from someone who's lived it, this episode is for you. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

In this episode of BodyShop Leaders, Daniel Burkholder talks with Chase Landers about what it means to grow up in a body shop, step into leadership, and help move a family-owned collision repair business into the future. Chase shares stories from his early days around the shop and the path that eventually led him into a larger leadership role at Landers Towing and Collision Centers. He talks candidly about the early grind of helping build a location, wearing multiple hats, and learning through trial, pressure, and experience. He also reflects on what changed as he matured as a leader — from pushing hard and reacting quickly to learning how to work through problems with more clarity, patience, and perspective.  Daniel and Chase also discuss the realities of growing a multi-location operation: earning trust from longtime employees, creating buy-in around new systems and processes, developing future leaders inside the organization, and maintaining a healthy culture while scaling. Along the way, Chase shares his perspective on the importance of team, responsibility, safe repairs, profitability, and doing what is right for both the customer and the long-term health of the business.  The conversation also explores where the collision repair industry may be heading next. Chase offers insight into how AI, OEM procedures, repair standards, and insurer relationships could shape the future of body shops over the next several years. It’s a thoughtful discussion for anyone trying to grow a shop, lead a team, and stay ahead in a changing industry.  This episode is especially valuable for collision shop owners, managers, next-generation leaders, and anyone building a business inside the auto body and collision repair space.  The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

In this episode of BodyShop Leaders, Daniel Burkholder talks with Todd McGee, owner of Johnson Auto Body in Knightdale, North Carolina, about what real leadership looks like inside a successful collision repair shop. Todd’s story begins in the paint booth and grows into something much bigger: ownership, mentorship, culture, and building a business that puts people first. He shares how his early years on the shop floor shaped the way he leads today, what it meant to carry on the Johnson Auto Body legacy, and why hiring the right people matters just as much as fixing cars the right way. They also discuss some of the biggest issues facing auto body shop owners right now, including navigating insurance challenges, following OEM repair procedures, building better systems, and staying connected to peers and coaches who understand the business. This episode is a must-listen for anyone in the collision repair industry, especially independent shop owners focused on leadership, growth, and long-term success. Topics covered include:  Auto body shop leadership  Collision repair shop culture  Hiring and team building  Shop ownership and succession  OEM procedures vs. insurance pressure  Coaching and peer accountability  Community involvement and customer trust  Body shop growth and leadership development BodyShop Leaders is powered by BodyShop Marketing and created for collision repair professionals who want to grow smarter, lead stronger, and stay independent. The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.