Maximum Octane

Maximum Octane is the high-performance podcast for automotive shop owners ready to accelerate their leadership, culture, and profitability. Hosted by industry veterans Kim Hickey and Jason Patel from Automotive Training Institute (ATI), each episode takes you under the hood of the nation's most successful auto repair shops to uncover the tools, tactics, and mindset shifts fueling next-level results. This season, Maximum Octane brings raw, real conversations from ATI SuperConference 2025 in Hawaii—featuring shop owners who are transforming their businesses by investing in what matters most: people, process, and purpose. From using Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs) to create superfans and elevate trust, to building training-first cultures that unlock loyalty, growth, and long-term success, these are the stories that inspire action. The season explores the shift from technician to technologist, the power of structure and team leadership, and the innovative thinking driv

Maximum Octane is a business podcast hosted by Kim Hickey, with 142 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Kim Hickey hosts Maximum Octane, a business show with 142 episodes published.

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  Episode #145

  You're Paying for Shop Software You're Not Using. Here's What to Fix.

  Aug 11, 202641 min

  Most shop owners who invest in shop management software are using maybe a third of what they're paying for. They swap the old manual process for a digital one, call it an upgrade, and move on. But that's not an upgrade; it's just a translation. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Brett Kinsfather and Zack Buffum from Shopmonkey, a shop management software platform that's been in the space since 2017 and now runs a team of over 220 people. Brett comes from a deep background in automotive and focuses on industry partnerships and education. Zack is the director of training and operations and was there almost from the beginning. Together, they bring both the shop-floor perspective and the software side of the equation. The conversation covers a lot of ground: why shops keep bolting new software onto broken processes and then wonder why nothing changes, what Shopmonkey sees as the most underutilized features across the industry (DVIs and canned services top the list), and how fewer than 15 percent of auto repair shops have a functioning DVI in place despite the technology being available for nearly a decade. They also get into the customer experience conversation, what it really means to map the full customer journey, why a shop's competition for experience is not the shop down the street but every great experience that customer has ever had, and how to make vendor relationships actually work in both directions. Tune in to episode 145 of Maximum Octane if you have shop management software and a nagging feeling you're not getting everything out of it, or if you're thinking about switching platforms and want a clearer sense of what to look for and how to implement it right. Episode Takeaways: 04:15 The Shopmonkey Foundation and "Maintenance for Moms": why the company built a nonprofit from day one and what it says about how they run the business 09:24 The real mistake shops make with new software 12:15 Tools cannot replace processes 17:47 Why DVIs and canned jobs are the two most underutilized features in shop management software 19:44 Less than half of shops use DVIs at all, and less than 15 percent have one properly implemented 21:00 Why Brett recommends auditing your DVI usage every six months, not just at implementation 26:21 A shop's real competition for customer experience is not the dealership down the road 30:27 How to actually get more out of your software vendor 36:39 How Shopmonkey rebuilt its support structure after realizing customers couldn't reach a real person Connect with Zack Buffum: LinkedIn Connect with Brett Kinsfather: LinkedIn Visit Shopmonkey’s website Let's connect: Website LinkedIn Facebook Email: info@maximumoctane.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #144

  If Your People Can't Change, You Have to Change Your People

  Aug 4, 202642 min

  Most shop owners say they want a great team. What they actually build, without realizing it, is a team of people they're too afraid to hold accountable. This episode is a candid, unscripted conversation with two veteran owners who both hit that wall, blew up their teams, and rebuilt them the right way. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel sits down with Woody Howard of Simpsonville Automotive in Kentucky and Fred Gestwicki out of Canton, Ohio, both with nearly 30 years in the industry. Neither of them came in with a list of talking points. They just talked shop, which is exactly what makes this one worth your time. The conversation covers the failure philosophy both owners live by and why letting your people fail on purpose is one of the most important things you can do for their development. They trade stories about teams that quit on the same day, techs that plateaued and couldn't grow, and the hard calls that turned out to be the right ones. They get into hiring for initiative over intelligence, why you should always be interviewing even when you're fully staffed, how to handle extended warranties as a payment method without losing margin, and a simple productivity hack Fred uses every few months that costs nothing and reveals everything. Tune in to episode 144 of Maximum Octane if you've ever held onto someone longer than you should have, struggled to get your team to perform without you standing over them, or wondered why your shop never seems to produce as much as it should. Woody and Fred have both been there, and they are not shy about what it actually took to get out. Episode Takeaways: 01:49 The three-legged stool moment: what a wheel balancer taught Woody about building a stable business 03:12 Why giving your team clear lanes of failure, not just job descriptions, is what actually builds accountability 05:35 The bolt-breaking exercise: how Fred teaches young techs what failure feels like before it costs a customer 08:17 How Woody's four-day work week experiment wiped out almost his entire team, and what he found on the other side 10:23 Fred's hard lesson about hiring for potential instead of who someone actually is right now 14:49 The 24-year-old service advisor who turned out to be the real secret sauce, not the $200K tech 21:50 When Fred fired a tech over a near-accident, his team asked for the tech back, and why he rehired him under a 90-day restart 30:27 Fred's productivity hack: bring a laptop, sit in the shop, say nothing, and just watch for a full day 36:48 How to frame extended warranties as a method of payment, not a fight, and why copying the customer on every communication changes everything 39:37 Fred's closing thought: every day, start with your vision and make sure who you have is actually getting you there Connect with Fred Gestwicki: LinkedIn Fix It with Fred website Fix It with Fred Instagram Fix It with Fred Facebook Fix It with Fred X Connect with Woodrow Howard: Simpsonville Automotive website Simpsonville Automotive Facebook Phone: (502) 385-4735 Let's connect: Website LinkedIn Facebook Email: info@maximumoctane.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #143

  Someone Wants to Buy Your Shop. Do You Know What It's Actually Worth?

  Jul 28, 202630 min

  Most shop owners don't know what their business is worth until someone makes an offer, and by then it's too late to be strategic. Whether that unsolicited call catches you off guard or your retirement plan is quietly resting on a number you made up, this episode is a reality check that every shop owner needs to hear sooner rather than later. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey sits down with Rich Portelance , founder of Pierce Ridge Capital , an M&A firm that specializes in helping independent shop owners buy, sell, and grow. Rich came into the tire and auto space and quickly noticed the same thing everywhere: owners had no real sense of what their shops were worth. Pierce Ridge now partners with ATI to bring professional valuation services to shops that should have been doing this all along, at a price point that makes the old "$200,000 valuation" myth pretty hard to hold onto. The conversation is packed with practical, eye-opening information: how valuations actually work and what they cost, why owning your building doesn't change your business value the way you might think, how personal expenses run through the business affect your sale price, and when you can and can't add your own salary back into the numbers. Rich also tackles some of the biggest misconceptions head-on, including goodwill, blue skies, and the "just multiply my revenue" formula, and walks through a cautionary story about an incredible shop that nearly sold for three times expectations and then fell apart at the finish line because the owner was the business. Tune in to episode 143 of Maximum Octane if you've ever gotten a call from someone wanting to buy your shop and had no idea what to say, or if you're planning on selling someday and haven't actually validated whether the number in your head is real. Episode Takeaways: 01:39 Why most shop owners have no idea what their business is worth, and why that's a dangerous position to be in 03:52 What a valuation actually costs: the $200K myth debunked, with real pricing between $2K and $10K 05:39 How the 2.5x to 5x multiple works and what moves your shop up or down in that range 07:13 Why owning your real estate doesn't change your business valuation, but good lease terms do 09:58 The retirement math problem: why "I'll sell for a million" is rarely based on anything real 12:13 How to handle personal expenses run through the business, and why tracking them actually helps your sale price 14:23 When you can't add your salary back into the numbers, and why working in your business instead of on it quietly kills your valuation 20:44 The shop that almost sold for three times its expected value, and why the deal collapsed the day before closing 25:45 Owner-carried notes: why Rich advises taking the lower all-cash offer almost every time 28:24 Why an M&A advisor is not the same as a real estate agent or a broker, and why that distinction matters when it's time to close Connect with Rich Portelance: LinkedIn Instagram Pierce Ridge Capital Let's connect: Website LinkedIn Facebook Email: info@maximumoctane.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #142

  You're Not in the Car Business. You're in the Relationship Business.

  Jul 14, 202639 min

  Most shop owners think about relationships as a soft skill; something you're either naturally good at or you're not. David Nour thinks that's exactly the kind of thinking that keeps small businesses stuck. Relationships are a system, and like any system in your shop, they can be built, measured, and optimized. This episode makes that case convincingly. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey and Jason Patel sit down with David Nour , founder and CEO of Avenir and author of a dozen books on relationship economics. His clients include Disney, Siemens, and KPMG, but a big part of his work is with small and medium-sized businesses that often have the relationship instincts but lack the systems to back them up. The discussion covers a lot of ground: why internal relationships have to come before external ones, why small businesses default to hiring "projects" instead of peers and what that costs them, and his Human Capital Value Pyramid; a framework to figure out who’s pushing your business to the next level and who AI will turn redundant. They dig into how Avnir's AI platform works, including the "while you were sleeping" dashboard that surfaces relationship opportunities overnight, and a story about a $20 coffee mug that turned into a $150,000 project. Tune in to episode 142 of Maximum Octane if you've ever felt like you're too busy to think about the bigger picture, or you're wondering why the best people seem to work everywhere except your shop. David gives shop owners a practical, no-fluff lens for thinking about people — internal and external — as the actual engine of a profitable business. Episode Takeaways: 02:12 Why internal relationships have to come before external ones; and what happens when that's backwards 05:07 The mindset gap between small and large businesses, and why "I can't afford that" is the most expensive thing you can say 06:06 Why hiring "projects" instead of peers keeps owners trapped in the day-to-day 08:09 The Human Capital Value Pyramid: how to categorize your team from liabilities to superstars, and what AI is about to do to each tier 12:30 What Disney's trash test reveals about initiative, and why you can train skills but you can't train that 13:00 The CFO vs. CEO debate on training: what if we invest in people and they leave vs. what if we don't and they stay 17:44 How Avenir's AI platform works: scanning contacts across every platform and surfacing what matters while you sleep 22:10 The $20 coffee mug story: how a small relationship gesture turned into a $150,000 project 28:51 "Remember information for people, not about them.” The mindset shift that separates useful customer data from spam 31:00 The mobile service opportunity most shops haven't tested yet — and why your most valuable customers would pay a premium for it Connect with David Nour: LinkedIn Avnir Let's connect: Website LinkedIn Facebook Email: info@maximumoctane.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #141

  Why Charging Fairly Isn't Greed: Lessons from a Shop Owner Who Almost Gave It All Away

  Jun 30, 202633 min

  Plenty of shop owners walk in with a big heart and walk out with a struggling business, convinced that charging fairly and taking care of people are opposites. This episode breaks that myth down piece by piece, showing what it actually looks like to run a generous shop that's also a profitable one. In this episode of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey and Jason Patel sit down with David Wostarek , owner of Northwest Imports in Austin, Texas. Before opening his own shop, David spent years as a foreman at a Porsche/Audi dealership, caught between frustrated customers and a service department more focused on hitting numbers than fixing the actual problem. That frustration is exactly what pushed him to go out on his own and build something different. The conversation moves through real, practical territory: why owners need to get away from the front counter so they stop discounting out of guilt, how to onboard even a 20-year tech without sounding insulting, and why skipping that step quietly sets everyone up to fail. They also dig into AI-powered DVIs and estimating tools already saving advisors real time, the growing electronics risk hiding in "cheap" cars, and a smart pitch for consignment sales as an overlooked revenue stream for well-maintained vehicles. Tune in to episode 141 of Maximum Octane if you've ever felt like the bad guy for charging what the job's worth, or you're struggling to get a veteran tech to buy into how your shop actually does things. David proves you can run a profitable shop and still be the generous owner you set out to be; you just need the systems to back it up. Episode Takeaways: 01:30 Why David used to treat profit like a dirty word, and what changed his mind 02:25 The real reason owners need to get away from the front counter 05:16 What happens when you open a shop with no end goal beyond "do it better" 08:05 Why onboarding a 20-year tech matters just as much as onboarding a rookie 11:06 How treating your team as "internal customers" shapes how they treat real ones 13:58 The oxygen-mask problem: taking care of everyone except yourself 17:04 Vehicle health reports vs. courtesy inspections, and why the difference matters 19:09 What AI tools like AutoVitals and Auto Tech IQ are actually saving advisors time on 25:00 Why a $20K Hyundai can hide a $1,400 repair bill waiting to happen 29:48 The consignment sales idea most shops haven't thought of yet Connect with David Wostarek: LinkedIn Northwest Imports Let's connect: Website LinkedIn Facebook Email: info@maximumoctane.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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