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What’s Ahead for WrenchWay in 2026
What’s Ahead for WrenchWay in 2026
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About this episode
Mark Wilson and Jay Gannon discuss WrenchWay's exciting partnership with ASE through the ASE Connects program, aiming to unify the automotive industry and schools to address technician shortages and improve career pathways. They highlight the launch of a virtual community connecting schools and shops, a new data exchange for industry insights, and collaboration with iCar on collision career tools. The conversation also reflects on 2025 wins like team cohesion and product improvements, while emphasizing the importance of realistic technician training and long-term industry investment.
Topics:
ase connects partnership
technician career development
industry and school collaboration
industry data exchange
collision career tools
technician shortage solutions
school assist platform
workforce development
team culture and remote work
long-term industry investment
Cars:
Cadillac BLS
Mark Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO of WrenchWay, joins us to recap 2025 and share what’s ahead for WrenchWay in 2026. They discuss the growing partnership with ASE and the launch of ASE Connects, efforts to collect better technician data, and key wins and losses from the past year.
Check out the full video version of the podcast on YouTube!
About the Episode
- Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
- Guest: Mark Wilson, WrenchWay, [email protected]
Links & Resources
- Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
- Register now for Introducing ASE Connects: Building a Stronger Technician Workforce Together webinar on January 15, 2026 at 12pm ET / 11am CT.
- Check out Collision Careers’ job board to get connected with shops hiring entry-level technicians and apprentices.
About WrenchWay:
- For Technicians & Students: wrenchway.com/solutions/technicians/
- For Shops & Dealerships: wrenchway.com/solutions/shops/
- For Instructors: wrenchway.com/solutions/schools/
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Cadillac BLS
"... or collision programs and then they cite the the BLS for what people can make and then you scroll down..."
Select text to request an explanation
The main things we're starting with are, make it super simple for industry and schools to work together,
and then get data in the hands of decision makers that can make sure they're competitive or improve
their offering to their technicians.
Welcome back to Be On The Wrench. My name is Jay Gannon, and I am your host. On today's show,
we welcome back my co-founder at Wrenchway, Mark Wilson, for a conversation on everything
Wrenchway and what's going to happen in 2026. Some exciting news there that we was just
recently released, maybe a touch on some of the stuff that we went through in 2025.
Welcome back to the show, Mark. It's been a while since we've had you on.
I know, it's crazy. I think last year's recap show was the last time I was on, even though
I'm usually on at least one call a day with you for something else. I think this is our
third one today, but I haven't actually been on the podcast in quite a while.
Yeah, it'll be good to get you back on. What I'll say about this is that this episode
is the least amount of preparation that I've ever put into an episode. We kind of
are doing this on the fly, doing it as a way to just have a fun year-end show that I think
will be a fun listen and just Mark and I talking back and forth. So it should be fun.
Yeah, I agree. Let's do it.
So let's start with kind of the big news that just came out with ASE and the new
ASE Connects program. Pretty exciting in what direction we're going as a company.
This news was huge for us.
Yeah, I mean, that's a big statement and I still feel like it's an understatement.
I don't know how huge it is for us. We'll have more details to come at the webinar in a couple
weeks, but it's massive for us. First of all, we're honored to be selected by ASE to help
with this project and partner with them. It is an ASE-led thing, but in partnership
with Wrenchway. So that's a little different for us, but some of the team members and partners we have
when we talk to them about it were a little taken back on kind of what happens with the
Wrenchway brand and things like this. And that Wrenchway is still a thing. Don't get me wrong,
but if we get a chance to partner with ASE and lean into their brand and help them
do things industry-wide, we are not idiots. We're going to jump at that chance for sure.
And I just think everything goes back to our mission from when we started this to promote
and improve technician careers. And we can do that in a much better way as part of ASE Connects
going forward. And it's just a much bigger megaphone that we can do all the things and
then some that we've already been doing. So we can get into what it is specifically in a
little bit, but I just want to start with that statement of it's really cool that
they've trusted us to partner and in some ways lead some of the things we're doing together here.
I agree. And I've mentioned this before. This is something that we probably I won't speak to
when we actually do the webinar is just when we talk about ASE as a whole,
me growing up in the industry, this was such a big thing. ASE was such a big deal to me
growing up and just always knowing about it for my entire life. And I think they've
gone through their ups and downs over the years and they've they've really
come out, I feel like stronger as a result. Dave Johnson, who took over a couple of years ago,
I think has really changed a lot there already. And I think what he always talks about is
blowing the dust off the brand. And this partnership is an example of that. There are
other examples of that throughout ASE and a lot of the things that they are doing.
And so I think what it's shown not only us at Wrenchway, but I think the industry as a whole is
that their door is open to partnerships. They're open to really doing whatever in the best
interest of the industry. And I can't I can't say how important that is to me,
or it's hard for me to put into words how important that is to me to see this really
iconic brand in one that's that's very much at the center of our industry
be kind of in that position to be able to do some of this stuff. And when I say
center of the industry mark, that's one of the things that I think was really appealing to us
with ASE is that it isn't just dealers. It isn't just independence. It isn't just one side of
our industry. It's everybody, right? That's definitely true. I mean, literally the name
is ASE connects, meaning ASE is connecting different people within the industry, different
entities within the industry for that shared goal of not just helping to solve the technician
shortage, but other industry topics. This is a long term thing. And for us,
it only made sense to work with ASE on this. There's a million other great
for profit entities, nonprofits, all the above. But I think ASE is kind of like that
gold deluxe approach of they're the perfect ones in terms of they work with
auto diesel collision within each of those, it's independence, it's dealers, it's fleets.
They're not competing for talent. They're not hiring. We gave up on our recruiting or
shifted away from that a while ago. And frankly, some of the job board stuff we do
will probably get phased out as well. And again, we'll go through some of that.
But ASE is that perfect, like connected to everybody, not in competition with people,
and just a great facilitator or way to bring these things and entities together. And
it's a big undertaking. All the objectives we're going to be doing with ASE connects,
it does take that approach of kind of many hands and everyone needing to come together.
And I saw David posted something on LinkedIn today of how they've noticed the shift in the
last couple months of more and more inbound activity reaching out to him. And it used to be ASE
when he first started telling people, we want to work together, we want to work together
and more outbound. But now groups are coming to him. And I think it's a combination of,
one, him and he and his team have done a great job of letting them know ASE is open
for business and does want to work with people. But then two, I think groups are just realizing
we can't be in a silo, we can't do this alone, we need to get more kids in the industry, we need
to keep the technicians we have. And something kind of magical I think is happening. And we
just couldn't be positioned at a better time or with a better partner to be launching this at
this time with this partner. Such a good point. And I think at some level, it's being able
to get people to put the swords down for a little bit and really fight for the greater good and
really trying to make sure that these schools are healthier, make sure that these shops have
maybe some data to be able to analyze to run their operations better than they typically would.
And as you mentioned, ASE being kind of that entity or that business that's the one that
can do this. I don't know that there is any other business out there that can do it, non-profit or
for-profit. And for us to tie some of our technology and what we've built over the years into this
ASE Connects program, I think makes it really, really beneficial to everybody in the industry.
And for us, it's, you know, I think you mentioned it, but going back to our promoting
improving technician careers, the entire point of our business in the first place
in the entire mission, this aligns so perfectly well with everything that they are doing with this
ASE Connects program. And just has me really excited about what's to come in 2026.
Yeah, I could not agree more in a better, we're betting a comfy on it basically.
You and I started this thing and we put a lot of time and effort to get to where we are.
But now, once we saw this opportunity and kind of we're asked to build it and help manage it,
I think you'd agree. It's fair to say we put all the chips in the middle and
we're pushing hard with this thing. We truly believe this is needed for the industry
and ASE is a perfect one to do it and we're happy to be along for the ride.
I think we absolutely did put our chips on the table, but I also think it's a testament to Dave
and the entire team at ASE because if we weren't confident in the direction that they were going
as a company, there's no way we would have done that. And it was just having that level
of confidence and that level of relationship with these folks that as we've really gotten to
know them, what we've been in true partnership with them for about a year now or just over a
year, but in that timeframe, being able to really get to know these people and know how genuinely
they care about this industry and the shops in it and the schools in it and the technicians in it
and wanting to see all of it get to a better place. I think that's what made it evident that
a partnership was not only likely but needed in that we're all kind of rowing in that
same direction. We're all trying to help everybody out and without that confidence level in them,
I don't think maybe we would have been as interested in this as well.
Definitely, yeah, not to the level we are now and not to kind of jump off the cliff in a good
way and figure it out on the way down. That's kind of where we're at. There has been a lot
of planning and we're not just reckless with this, but we are putting ourselves out there
a little bit and I wouldn't have done it a year ago for sure. It's exactly right. It took all the
things you're talking about and then honestly it took us not just getting to know them as a company
or as an entity and the individuals, but understanding the problems they face. I think you and I
were a little guilty of kind of Monday morning quarterbacking some things and thinking,
oh, this is so easy. Why don't you just do that? I do think they have a lot of
solvable problems that we can help with, but you realize as you dive in, there's a lot more to it
than maybe meets the eye and they are now with our help on the path to get this done, but I don't
know. As with everything else in life, it's a little more complicated than your first thing
going into it. At 100%, there's a lot going on with ASC and being that kind of connector of
everybody entails a lot of relationships. I feel like I travel a lot for work. I don't think
what I do pales in comparison to what Dave and George and even Mike, like the amount of travel
that they're doing to go out and attend these conferences and talk to these key players
throughout the industry. They're doing so much good in that feed on the ground type of effort
to be able to really build these relationships up in a way that's not artificial. They're building
true relationships in ways that are very impactful. Couldn't agree more with that. Now, as people
listening might be wondering, and I don't know how much we can share here because we do have a
webinar that's coming up a couple of weeks after this. I believe it's on January 15th,
and we'll dive into all of the nuts and bolts of this new ASC Connects program,
but what can we share today about the program, even maybe some high level type stuff?
Yeah. I mean, at a high level, we're building a community, mostly a virtual community, but there
would certainly will be in-person events throughout the country and throughout the calendar year.
It should include really everybody that wants to see technicians' careers be improved
and get more kids in the industry. So, important to us and to ASC was to include all schools in
this and to keep it free for all schools, not just ASC accredited schools. We have a lofty goal.
We're going to sign up every school in the country over time. Now, that takes a while.
Every high school, every post-secondary that has an auto deceleration program,
and then high schools don't have to have a program. Some of them will be very active.
Some of them will just make sure we find out how many students you have in your program or in your
school that might be a fit for this career and can we get materials to them even if you don't
have an official program, but that is number one on the community side is building the schools,
and then the other side is industry. That takes the shape of shops, dealers, OEs,
vendors that service the industry, kind of all of the above, but we first are focusing on shops
and dealerships. We have some experience with this growing our own community for a while,
so a lot of what we've already built is rolling into this. The main thing being school assist,
which we already have I think about 3400 schools participating for the listeners that don't
know what that is, it's a simple way for schools to go in and just ask for stuff, whether that means
a shop to if you have six kids that need to tour a shop or do a job shadow, or you want someone to
come in and talk to your classroom or donated tools, part-time jobs for your kids. Any of
those things that you're looking for from industry, we give you a place to just post
what you're looking for and then we'll get local shops and dealers to scroll through those
things and see what they can help with and raise their hand to do so. So shops get access to all
of that for schools. We'll be adding even new features to that, which I'm really excited
about. I think we'll touch on more in January about that. So the school side is very important,
but then a really cool data part, we're calling it the industry data exchange.
It is what it sounds. We're not always the most creative here. It's exchanging industry data,
big shocker, but the complexities of that, I think there are a lot of groups trying to gather data,
but they don't really always trust each other and we work with a bunch of different OEs. So I'll
just say as an example, Ford isn't going to volunteer their data with GM and vice versa,
or dealers don't want to share their data with either other dealers or independents and
NADA is great, but it's primarily dealerships and then there's similar things on the
independent side. So again, going back to what I was saying earlier in this episode,
ASC is just really well positioned that with our help, we'll gather the data on
what do technicians actually earn, what shops offer, what benefits,
what labor rates are being charged, and then we can build tools that share that information
with shops and dealers yet retain the privacy or keep it anonymous so no one can figure out
this shop pays their technicians this amount or they charge their customers this amount.
And I think we're just scratching the surface of what can be done on that data side. Everyone
we talk to kind of lights up and everyone wants a thousand times more data than we can start with,
but our point is always we have to start somewhere and starting to gather this in a simple form and
it's kind of progress each month, each quarter, each year will make more progress on it.
So that's kind of some word salad there, I apologize for rambling a little, but the two
main things we're starting with are make it super simple for industry and schools to work
together and then get data in the hands of decision makers that can make sure they're competitive or
improve their offering to their technicians. Yeah, and I think we had already seen the growth
with the school assist side. What's exciting to me is that data side, right? Like obviously
the school assist side is exciting to me as well, but you love data, you love diving
into this stuff. I think this is something that our industry could greatly benefit from and
you know, we've done our technician pay tool. We've done like the voice of technician survey
just got finished up with that. That's 5,500 responses from technicians that we've verified
our technicians and that data is so helpful, maybe not so specific to the voice of technician
survey, but more so just getting real data in a way that is easy to read, maybe even a little
bit more real time and not having to wait for it. I think from my personal end, I'm excited to be
able to see you dive into some of this data and some of the other talented folks on our team
because I think we can do some stuff that hasn't been done before in our industry.
Yeah, I mean agreed 100% but even before that it's exciting and kind of for it's a combination of
like logistics and user experience and just gathering the data on how do you do this without
making it too cumbersome or too complicated for people and you don't want to have to
have them take two hours to submit all the data. It's got to be pretty easy,
but yet meaningful. Even on the school side when we say we want to get every single school
I love being able to say like as you know we're very deep into going state by state and first
getting a list of every single high school that's out there and figuring out in every
single state what are different requirements and CTE programs are not the same from state to state
and what like maybe their technical colleges have tuition reimbursements but just become someone
on our team becoming experts about every single state and what's out there and that part all
started with us you and I being kind of frustrated going to multiple ASC board meetings in a row and
the question came up of like well how many programs are out the automatic programs are out there and
nobody could answer and it's not just ASC and nobody can and so it's like well let's
we should be the ones and really ASC you should be the ones and now we're helping them
to figure that out and get that and the same thing with the data we took it as far as getting a meeting
ASC hooked us up with a meeting with the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find out how they gather
their data and our jaws dropped with how bad it is at least for our industry and not represent
we all knew it wasn't representative of what technicians can make but I think that call helped
us figure out why it's so bad and it works in other industries for them maybe I don't know I
probably said it wouldn't for that too or would say it doesn't as well but they're not going to change
so instead of just complaining about that there needs to be a more credible source with verifiable
data and again ASC wrenchway maybe we could do that on our own but with ASC's name and their
reach we can actually tackle that problem and be the one that schools reference and as an example
you've heard me say this sorry Jay for repeating but I'm sure some listeners haven't I get so irritated
when I look at school websites promoting their automotive or diesel or collision programs
and then they cite the the BLS for what people can make and then you scroll down and the
next program is a different skilled trade and the numbers are 50% or more higher
and I just it's not true over the years we have worked with thousands and at least hundreds but
probably thousands of shops and dealers and those numbers are not accurate at all so why not
be the one to show accurate information like these are big problems I think that's why ASC
chose to work with us is we positioned at how I just did of like well what are you doing about it
you guys need to be the ones doing it and if you don't want to partner with us like we will roll
up our sleeves and do it and not to toot our own horn but I think they were pretty impressed
with that and now we have to go do it we sold them on that we can do it and we will but now
the fun starts so you sorry to bring it all the way back yes I'm excited to dive into all
the data I'm excited just to the tackle the project of gathering all the data like just that part is
super fun yeah I it's funny because you had mentioned how we had been frustrated with going to some of
the the board meetings for ASC and that conversation came up pretty consistently and and really just
understanding how many schools are out there how many schools are out there with automotive
programs how many schools are out there that are accredited how many that aren't accredited but
offer the program like just there's so many different ways that you could go with this and just
understanding the broader scope of all of this and I think my assumption was the data was out
there for schools and so I I didn't really think too much about it until we started to dive into
it and you know you start even using like a chat GBT or using some of the other stuff and
it is shocking how little data is out there I mean there you know we obviously tried some of the
some of the lower hanging fruit things first but as we dove into it you started to see that
there was no good data about this and it's to me just it was so surprising to me that there is
so little data around the school side of not only just our our trade but all of them and it was uh
I don't know it seems so weird to me that there just wasn't wasn't the data out there
super weird but I also see how it happens and see how daunting it is that nobody wants to
tackle it because it's not a one-time thing once you do all this organization and get it
you have to get the data again next year and people you talk to to get it left or retired and
they don't always update everything and it's an ongoing thing I look at kind of your background
and I see some books on the shelf I compare it to just like walking into a giant library of you
know tens of thousands of books there that are just in piles and we have to find a way to
organize them and then make sure people can figure out how to find them and then each year we'll get
10,000 more dumped on a plate um but I don't know that that's that's fun to me and it is something
that we're going to do but we're going to need the help of a lot of other people with this too
that's why you and I are good business partners because that sounds really fun to you
that sounds really really uh not fun to me so that that part is really hard and it does take some
nose down hard work and it does you know when we look at our greater mission does
truly impact impact everything because you know I talk a lot about the scenarios that I grew
up in and being able to articulate what starting salary is what salary once you're in the trade
for five years or 10 years what what that looks like and do it in a sense that's not lying to
people I think I've said the opposite is true at times too where maybe that trade school
that's out there trying to get kids in their program might overemphasize what that beginning
salary is and so you almost set that unrealistic expectation for a beginner but then at the same
time you're like no you can make really good money in this industry in as a technician
but it takes just like anything else I think we've talked about this before with your
background as a CPA like it took work to become a good CPA it takes work to become
a good engineer a good lawyer like it's not like you just automatically hop in and know everything
and that everything's easy like there is a progression just like every other industry
and it just you know if we can get a better understanding so we don't have to overemphasize
the beginning salary and then maybe accurately depict what the salary of a person that's
been in it for a while is I think we're telling the truth more to that student that's out there
and and they don't expect that they're gonna make a hundred grand a year right off the bat
and they do understand that you're gonna kind of you're gonna have to work hard to work your way
up just like any other industry there are barriers with tools there are barriers with with
sometimes education but I think my point is in all of this that we do have a really great
industry and if we can tell the truth and still be confident that
young people are gonna want to come into our industry which I think they will
I know they will we're much better off because you're not you're not setting this kind of
fake foundation for a young person coming in they they I want somebody to know the whole
picture of what it's like yeah and that goes for the other side of it too shops and
dealers need to realize even if a kid graduated from this program even if they already have
some OE experience or ASC certification like this they're not going to be experts
everybody's going to need training you had mentioned doctors lawyers CPAs like
before I ever stepped foot into my profession when I started I work on in software now
I started as a CPA I mean I had a bachelor's I had a master's I thought I knew everything
I go in there and very quickly realized to be blunt I didn't know shit like I knew the book
parts of it I didn't know how to do things in the real world but I went to a very large well
respected firm that taught me all of those things and they knew there were 10 other kids also my
age starting just like me that think we know it all and they humbled us really quickly
but they also taught us what needs to be done I have to assume doctors do the same lawyers do the
same we need shops to realize that too and for the most part they do I mean we were in I won't
say the name but we were with the OE a couple months ago and they were talking about a change in
their approach on some of the schools they promote that need to scale back a little and
focus on the basics because too many kids were coming in maybe you remember some specifics
without saying that we but like they couldn't even do this and they were trying to teach them
way too complicated things like let's just give them to do the basics and we and then the shops
and the dealers can teach them the other things going for it I don't know if you want to add
to that or not yeah I think I do remember that conversation and I had several of those
conversations now where I think there's a disconnect between that's one disconnect
between industry and education in that I think a lot of industry over the years kind of kept going
back to the schools and saying well we need more electrical die egg uh tax and we need more
electrical we need need more electrical well I think for schools you automatically tend to go
to oh you need people to be able to to advance the diagnose something and then ultimately you
do but you also have to be realistic about what a young person's going to learn at a two-year
technical school it's not like they're going there for four or six years like there there is
a transition period over and you know I I always use that example that you had kind of getting
into the accounting world in that you went through all the schooling you learned maybe theory you
learned the the book side and then really application side happened once you were in
the field I actually think our industry could learn a lot from that of you know you're
in school to learn the theory and maybe how things work and how you know how you know how a system
how an electrical system works how to use basic tools but it really should be then the shops
an extension of that into bringing them into a real-world experience and I had a younger tech
a while back come to me and say you know I go and apply at a lot of these shops and they
they say that they won't hire me unless they have unless I have experience but how am I supposed
to get experience if they won't hire me until I have experience and I'm like that's a really good
point but you know as a whole I think that that's hopefully something we can dig into with data
down the road to to kind of identify some areas that shops can can refine and and maybe even
schools can refine a little bit right and we can rather than going into every advisory committee
meeting and saying we need more electrical skill we actually have some specific things that they can
work on uh as they're as they're kind of getting ready to come out into the real world yeah well
sad and we're not the only industry with that issue the whole like you need this many years
of experience I've hired a lot of software developers over my time and I I've seen some ads asking
for specific uh language like coding language experience and that language had only been around
for like four or five years and they're asking for 10 years experience it's kind of funny of like
okay what HR person posted this ad because clearly they have no idea what they're talking about
that that happens everywhere and I mean also I'm going off the rails a little bit here too but
that's all right think of all the times you and me included we've complained about
just this generation and our parents complained about us I guarantee it and their parents
complained about them and maybe this time it's different whatever but all these things recycle
or it happened again we got to learn from history but I just think it's funny how like I think
you and I are probably about the oldest millennial and that was such a dirty word for a while and
now I don't even know what is Gen Z or whatever but it's just it's all the same crap over and
over all the same complaints and yes it is different yes I get very frustrated I hear anecdotes about I
think you had one where some kid's parents showed up with a job interview like that's crazy to me
but the just as a whole taking away those like exceptions I always say don't let the exception
become the rule most people want to work hard want to be challenged know that they're going to
have to you know not be handed it on a silver platter it's just these crazy stories like the
one you have people then try to represent that as a generation entirely and it's just not true
like I always use the example of a shop hires one kid from a specific school and they don't have a
good experience with that kid and then they just assume that entire school is that way I'm
like no like it's you gotta they're all different people and everybody learns different everybody
you know they're just different people so don't make one judgment on an entire school in my example
on one student like there's there are there are plenty of good and bad and everything in between
at every school every industry every you know every everywhere right it's just different people
so yeah fair point really good point to summarize all of that we are so excited about 2026 about
everything going on with ASC connects our partnership with ASC as a whole I do want to
take a second to reflect on some things in 2025 one of the things that I thought was really
exciting was a partnership we had on the collision side of things with iCar and kind of
similar vein to ASC in that just a lot of great people that we've gotten to know over the past
year some cool projects that we've worked on with them what can you tell me about that about
the the iCar the iCar partnership and maybe some of the stuff we've been working on there
yeah it's crazy that's coming up on a year maybe over a year I know you guys had talked at
was it SEMA last year yeah in 2024 so that would have been Halloweenish time
but then from there we all met in Chicago iCar us ASC and CRAF and started a series of
meetings throughout the year that turned into some things that you know we're all
for still working on some other things have been announced it turned in some direct partnerships
with us in iCar they launched well they've always had collision careers but we built them in my
opinion a better version of a job board for entry-level students on the collision side
so that's something that's out it's live now it's powered by Wrenchway but it's an
iCar thing or it's a collision careers thing we're happy to help with that they also
have a new student profiles where students can go in and just answer a few questions
it'll automatically pull in all of their iCar badges and classes and skills that they've had
you can enter your work experience things like that but then we'll create a very professional
resume for them but more importantly that profile is then published to a ton of collision
shops and dealers i mean nobody works on the collision side with more people than iCar
so that gets shown and then those hiring people at those collision places can kind of scroll through
the student profiles they can message them they can convince them to come in and interview or
check out the shop and it just it makes it easier to connect and some of those elements we're
going to add on to ASE Connects and others will stay separate with just iCar but the willingness to
work together out of iCar has been really cool i know our dev team has liked it in the two main
projects we've done with them we had weekly meetings and then twice a week meetings for a
while during crunch time and it's just really cool to see what's going on with other entities
with the clout i don't know the right word but that again just like ASE everybody knows iCar
and they do a phenomenal job at what they do and it's fun to learn from them and be part of it and
get people that realize we don't all need to create the same thing or fight against each other
like on the job board side rather than them building their own you know we kind of just
powered their job board for the collision side for entry level collision people
yeah and the profiles are awesome like i you know as somebody that i'm not directly involved with the
actual build out and you're so much better at that with the the ability to work with our dev team
and the marketing team and just design and UX as a as a as a whole and as i go through it
i'm like one i really wish this was around when i was going through school because that would make
life a lot easier and two i i think we're scratching the surface on making the lives of
instructors easier to kind of navigate some of these industry relationships as a whole and
as you're seeing more and more instructors utilize the platform i think they're starting
to see that more and more as well and when i said we're just scratching the surface on that
student profile side i truly think when it gets in their hands it you'll be able to see that it's
making their lives easier and hopefully it does yeah definitely i mean we have both countless
stats and anecdotal stories supporting that of the good we've done with these things and it's
just scratching the surface and up until this point it's mostly been instructors and administrators
at the schools in 2026 will be adding students as well that they can directly do some of these
things we talked a little about the student profiles but even before that if a kid wants to find a
place to job shadow i was shocked how hard it is uh or to go to her and right now we let
instructors post that they have six kids looking for a job shadow but we're going to make it where
students of the schools can kind of post here here's who i am here's a few things about me
i'm i'm looking to just see what it's like working in this industry and they can post those and shops
can see that and it sounds simple but there's a lot like under 18 and there's laws in different states
on what can be posted what information can be shared like we that's our wheelhouse we take care of
all that to make sure you know we're following all the rules there um but adding a student side
to it is just one example of the things we can do with asc connects going forward and with icar i'm
really excited about that you were the one that taught me because your family shop does a great
job of bringing in kids for job shadows and i talked earlier about don't let the exception
become the norm well like in this case the exception you should become the norm it was
crazy to me that not not enough people are doing that and that's where your technicians come
from like maybe no one wants or you don't want to share that with your competitors because that's
in my opinion i think that's where you've gotten your last like three or four really good texts
it is and i don't mind sharing that with my competitors in fact i've had direct conversations
with competitors and told them about it because even for our small part of wisconsin that we're
in i think the more we work together to help a school out and help you know the kind of for the
greater good the less we're going to be taking each other's people and the less we're going to be you
know i it just feels healthier to me and it kind of goes back to what i always said when i was a
kid when my dad said you don't take texts from your competitive shops and and that always
kind of i think when we were transitioning from even back to find a wrench to wrenchway
that was one of the things that really stuck out to me it was like my gosh like
even the job board it's you know ultimately the whole thing is to take a tech from one place
and put them in another and you're not solving anything then and so for me at even at our
local level i'd love more local shops to get involved with the schools and and could we be
arguing over one student at one point maybe but i would much rather have a stronger program
that's putting out a lot of future technicians and and even you know i think this is more
maybe just a me thing than than other folks in in our business but
i also don't want the kid that's not going to be a fit coming into our shop in for that kid's
sake because i don't want them to come spend a bunch of money on tools and come you know
spend a bunch of money on training and everything that they're they're going to invest to not be in
this and and so i think the more exposure you get to them the more trust you earn with uh with
the the general public who by the way end up becoming your customers at some point in a shop
so you know i i just think there's so so much value in getting young people into your shop
in one way or another i also think the more you do it the more comfortable your team gets
with having visitors in the shop and if it's only once a year you know i i like to do job
shadows multiple times a year because i think that helps our team understand what their
responsibilities are and and when when a new person comes in and it's hopefully not as awkward
as it would be if it's just the one time a year where somebody's coming in and they're
a little bit more conditioned to welcome that person in so just so many things where i look
at this for the greater good of the industry and the greater good of the industry is going
to personally benefit us at some point it has when when we're really involved with schools
yeah if you're a leader at a shop and in dealership and at this point you don't see
the importance of helping schools and growing your own i mean sorry you're probably not
going to make it yeah you're probably struggling with a lot of parts of your business
actually the i think about it's not even this industry any industry you have to bring on entry
level people even in sports you need to grow through the draft a little bit you can't just sign
every big name free agent like it should be common sense but the amount of people that
say i don't have the time i'm not going to invest in that well that's one of the things
we're trying to do is make it more efficient for you and easier for you but you're still going to
have to put a little time and probably a little money into it but if you can't see the bigger picture
that in the long run that's going to save you a ton of time and money like i said you're
you're probably putting out some crazy fires and it's just a matter of time before
your shop or you personally aren't going to make it and i know that sounds harsh but
that's the reality of it i don't look at it and apologies to those sports fans that are out there but
in our backyard are the milwaukee brewers and and for baseball fans that are out there they don't
have a big budget they're never going to be able to spend as much money as the other teams
but they were in the nlcs last year they develop people i in my opinion as good or better than
anybody else and they've come up with a system that works for them i think the equal thing
can be said for shops it doesn't matter if you've got the most amount of money it doesn't matter if
you've got the best systems in place it does matter if you are trying to improve and you're
trying to get to a better place in terms of staffing and looking at it beyond this month's p&l right
like looking at it through a long-term lens that's one of my biggest pet peeves that i was guilty
of when i was in the industry where when working in shops every single day was that i was
solely focused on a monthly p&l because that's what i was judged on by our ownership group right
and so you you kind of are conditioned to behave that way but that's maybe my call out to those
shop owners and dealer principals that are out there that you know maybe if you can help your
team understand things beyond that monthly p&l i think there's a lot of benefit in that and maybe
they'll look at the long-term growth a little bit more seriously whereas if they're solely judged and
paid off of that monthly p&l you're gonna have a tough time with long-term growth and and kind of just
the stability and in my opinion the enjoyment that goes with stability and not having a tech leave
every month or every other month and continually trying to fill the gaps in that sinking ship
that plug the holes in that sinking ship it's it's really coming up with a system that makes
your business pretty enjoyable if you can do it right yeah definitely like i said earlier i started
as a cpa and you look at you talk about monthly p&l investing in your future tax although technically
is an expense should be an investment or an asset that really doesn't even hit the p&l or if i'm
my owner or principal like i'm excluding that because you're crazy i mean we were on a call again
with the president of a 60 plus location place today they they don't need to do any recruiting they
have more people coming to them than they can deal with and it's because for 15 years they've invested
in culture and they've invested in schools and they're doing things the right way but they're
he's also smart enough to know once he stops doing that stuff like all the good they're doing
is going to go away and so he's investing heavily in the asc connects going forward and going to be one
of the you know flagship companies that we tout in the next year about this and we just need more
people like that and i'm excited in 2026 to be able to fully tackle this and promote those and share
those great stories even more so than we have done so far yeah me too i as we're kind of getting
closer to the end of this i am curious if there are other maybe wins throughout 2025 not to put you on
the spot because we again did zero preparation for this but it felt like we just had a really good
year and there were a lot of really cool things that happened but anything in particular that
might stick out to you the icar thing was huge asc progression has been huge but anything
over and above that that you want to point to that you feel was pretty awesome yeah you
covered the big ones already we have some other emerging partnerships we won't talk about yet but
the big ones i think we covered so i'm going to shift gears to the like the smaller ones
we do a good job in my opinion of listening to our users in the community and
taking what works in one area and trying to get it and others and from a product side a very
small thing is in the past we would ask instructors like what do you need help with
and we would give them categories and that's it well now we gave them actual templates of like
here's 10 specific things that you can type up your own if you want or you can just click a button and
maybe tweak a few words in this one but it's 90% done for you and that helped a lot to get
more people asking for things it's shocking how many how hard it is all these instructors
need help and well what do you need help with well i don't really know or i'll type it up later
so we made it easier for them so much so that right now we have 2000 open requests
from schools that we need to get fulfilled here in the next several months and we will
one specifically that i want to highlight though one of those templates was asking
local shops and dealers if they have any female technicians that could come in and
talk to their class or their like junior high or lower level classes to inspire to get more
females in i thought that was a cool idea at the time i thought we'd get a few doing it
whoa like great response on that uh kind of shame on us for not doing that earlier we've
done over the years a lot of things on getting more females but that simple thing of like making it a
click button thing of is that something that would help your program the amount of instructors
that oh i didn't even think to post that blew my mind and so anyway a great example ambling again
you covered all the big things but that's a that's a very minor thing and i want to just
keep stacking up small wins like that and i think that incremental changes are in
increment incremental wins are how you make these big changes that we're talking about i
couldn't agree more and i think that's where we've shown the most growth as a company is
willingness to adapt and listen to the customers and listen to the schools and really try to identify
those ways that we can make their lives easier and and so i very much agree with that
what about you uh what are their wins for you you know it's it's funny we as we're going
through our own employee reviews here over the last few weeks we had gone fully remote as a
company and we have some people from out of state we have you know our teams really kind of spread
out now uh both you and i lived close to where our office was before we each moved in opposite
directions and it just didn't make sense anymore to have uh that central location and so we had
a get together where we hadn't seen everybody in in a while and uh got together in madison
wisconsin where we're at or where we're around and um it was so fun just to to hang out we had
some drinks with our team like just played games like kind of silly games in a in a
boardroom at one point and it was just so fun to see our team and and was just as i was looking back
over the course of the year one of those things that where when when we got together you just
started to really appreciate and not that we don't or i haven't but like appreciate how talented
our people are how nice our people are like just how much they care about one another and
how many friendships go beyond what we even do at wrenchway now like that that have evolved and
i say that a lot that the people side of business is what makes it so fun for me
and uh just that that uh that week was you know a lot of fun and so that was i said i think my
favorite day of the year uh this year in general and um so that was it's a small thing but it
was a really big thing to me yeah again now people listening are just gonna think i bring
everything back to accounting but when we decided to go remote and for a quick backstory jay and i
used to live like 10 miles away and then he moved an hour or so one direction and i moved the other
direction and it was frankly a lot to each of us to drive to our office to just be on zoom calls
all day anyway so like we don't have a shop that's not our business so when we did decide to
go remote the accountant in me was like oh wow we're gonna save all this money and we did but
seeing that interaction like we don't save money you you spend that money in other ways to fly
everyone here and take them out to dinner and do team building stuff like we're really not
going to save any money it's just spent differently um so that's really cool and then
as you were talking i i meant to say this to you earlier but doing these reviews we didn't
have one person leave the company this year like that's never happened for us nor any company
i've ever worked for there's always i mean you get retires people's spouses leave and get transferred
or life happens you know maybe someone becomes a stay-at-home mom or whatever so part of it is luck
but that is pretty crazy and pretty cool uh we also had two people that did move that if we weren't
remote we probably would have lost um so this isn't like uh everybody go remote speech because
that's not practical for a lot it does have its challenges and downsides but more importantly
i'm going to change my answer one of the big things for 2025 is i don't think i've ever
been at a company that and we're a small team but still to not lose one person
is pretty awesome hadn't thought about that until you just said that and that is really really impressive
total credit to our team and and something that was a common theme as we were going through is
just how adaptable and willing our team is to to do things that are even outside of their job
description and just roll up their sleeves and go to work and uh it's i think so it's such a
testament to our team right like they they go out and any any of the listeners that work with
any of our team probably know this they they're a fun group they like to have fun they like to uh
they like to get stuff done they're just like the most ideal group and i i want to brag them up a
little bit just because they're they're awesome and it was uh it's funny as you look back at a
year that's one of the things that really stuck out to me and that was before i even knew that
nobody left this year so well i think of that rolling up your sleeves we talked earlier about the big
lofty goal of getting every school in the country i mean we got some questioning looks from our team
when we told them we were going to do that and it was going to be a combination of AI and some
new people but you guys are also going to be emailing calling researching all of the things and
at first it was kind of like whoa that's there's no way we're actually going to do it
and then we break it down and start looking at state by state how it's actually achievable
and i i think the team's fully bought bought into that and it's been almost like a rallying cry of
having this big lofty goal that all right when you break it down it's doable i want to be part of
that i think it's pretty cool yeah it's a it's a big goal but i think one that our our team is
for sure all on the same page and and wanting to to really tackle so i think those are all i mean
2025 as i look at it as a whole in my opinion was probably the most successful year we've had in
business just not even from a monetary standpoint just really of gaining traction and getting to
break down silos throughout everywhere you know when i talk about we talk about a c we talk
about icar we talk about some of the oems we talk about really just being being a center
central figure amongst all of it i think we we really made a lot of headway in 2025 that i think is
just set such a great foundation for everything that we're going to see with ac connects moving
forward that we should be able to hit the ground running in 2026 and and really do it
from from the time we do that webinar on i think we're going to be rolling as fast as we can
yeah i would agree um i don't know if we have time for we said all the wins we want to share
any l's any losses that without throwing anyone under the bus i knew that was coming
you have to go first on this one oh that's so hard i i think you can do personally in business
or both if you want hmm there was a lot that went into this year we finally moved into our house
and i think this is a progressive l but how long it's taken me to get my office in order at the
new place we literally built an office in a shed that's at the property and it just taken a long
time and it feels like it's still not where it needs to be and i need more cabinets and just
in general i feel a little out of sorts with this so it's kind of a soft l but it is one where i
spend a frustration for me so i don't know if i've got a better answer than that i don't how about you
on the personal side i sit here about a month away from a beach vacation and i sit here at an
all-time highway so i had to cliche like i'm gonna get in shape and that definitely did not happen
and is only gonna get worse in the next week for the holidays but i need to do better on that so that
maybe that can be one of my goals again for next year on the business side we talked a lot about
good partnerships there are some that i think we could have done better and will do better in the
future um we're not perfect nor do we claim to be um so we have some things to figure out and then
also um i personally could have communicated better to the team everything that's going on like with
ASE even our small team i couldn't share some of the things going on but i don't know going to maybe
it's fresh going through our performance reviews now but i'm like me yeah i should have i should
have updated that person more give them a pat on the back a little more and we get so busy and
excited in some of these things and you're much better at the team management side of it than i am
but yeah that would be my l i would think is just needing to be a little better in that area
yeah i think that's something all of those things are things that i could work on the weight loss
plan hasn't worked for the last 20 years so i i'm really uh needing to focus on that
there and dameron that who's probably listening right now uh shout out to you because you always
remind me of that but you know i the one last thing i was gonna jacked in and yes
also college football players so that that helps but i um you know i i think the one i
did want to share one story that i thought was my favorite story of the year which was
because we were at the a c board meeting in uh indianapolis and it just happened to be
during the mba finals and so all of espn and all of the sports crews were kind of staying
at the same hotel we were i remember having to wear your badge all the time otherwise you
couldn't get back to our conference room because you had to go through mba security
all that kind of fun stuff but we stayed up late one night mark i think you missed out on
this one but we got to meet charles barkley and that was uh that was a random super random thing
and i told jenna a c the the expectation has moved up to where now every time you plan a meeting
we need it to be at the same time of as some major event because we had such a fun time down
there it was just fun it shout out indianapolis too it was a great time down there great city
yeah i definitely should not have gone to bed early that night it's the one time we're
going to bed early didn't pay off you're right yeah yeah but no all and i'm not that guy as you know
usually you and i are the last ones to leave i think i had to give a speech the next day or
something but yeah uh but all at all i i such a memorable year so many great things it went
so fast like that you know you're you're looking at as we record this is almost christmas day
we'll be releasing this new year's day or just before that and i uh it feels like we just did
our last podcast talking about the recap and and um but it's been awesome with you again this year
it's been awesome with our team 2026 looks to be very very exciting with the asc connects news
and um just uh in general uh i hope everybody that's listening i wish you all great luck for
2026 uh hope you start off with a with a bang and and um and just uh hope everybody has a good year
yeah i agree and especially to you thank jay for everything you do and you and i are guilty of
being workaholics so hopefully over the next week and a half we both can enjoy some downtime and
not think too much about work even though i'm sure we will our wives will report back if we do
and that's most likely going to happen we'll work at some point but we'll uh we'll get through
it but no uh thanks again to everybody thanks to all of our listeners everybody that supports
not only wrenchway and what we're doing with asc connects but beyond the wrench and and uh can't
wait to get on and record more episodes next year so take care everybody happy new year
that wraps up another episode of beyond the wrench if you like this episode please
show your support by rating and following the podcast you can also watch the video interviews
on wrenchways youtube channel speaking of wrenchway did you know beyond the wrench is managed and
produced by the wrenchway team wrenchway is an online community dedicated to promoting and improving
automotive and diesel careers we help technicians find the best shops to work at and we also help
auto diesel and cte instructors get more support from local industry you can learn more by visiting
wrenchway.com
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