The BodyShop Leaders Podcast

The BodyShop Leaders Podcast brings you real conversations with the people shaping the future of collision repair — shop owners, vendors, and innovators who lead with purpose. Hosted by Daniel Burkholder of BodyShop Marketing , each episode dives into the lessons, mindsets, and breakthroughs that drive top-performing shops and the leaders behind them. No fluff. Just authentic stories and practical insights to help you grow, lead, and build a smarter, stronger shop. Powered by BodyShop Marketing — where the best shops come to grow.

The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Daniel Burkholder, with 24 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Daniel Burkholder hosts The BodyShop Leaders Podcast, a business show with 24 episodes published.

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  Episode #23

  How a Firing Started a 40-Employee Shop | Kena Dacus

  Sep 10, 202635 minS1

  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.

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  Episode #22

  Doug Higgins on What Your Shop Is Actually Worth

  Aug 28, 202653 minS1

  "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.

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  Episode #21

  Brian von Tress: "We Burned the Ships and Said We're Doing This"

  Aug 14, 202628 minS1

  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.

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  Episode #20

  Brad Green: You Come Second

  Jul 17, 202643 minS1

  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.

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  Episode #19

  From Bankrupt to Bluebird Cafe to Body Shop Legend — David Luehr's Story

  Jul 3, 202650 minS1

  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.

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