This conversation follows how LMW Auto Repair grew from John Lascuola’s dad working out of a home garage in the 1980s to a three location multi shop operator (multi shop operation) in Maryland. John shares how his father, mother, and brother held down a tiny three bay shop for nearly 30 years before he joined in 2020 to focus purely on systems, branding, and marketing during COVID. He walks through the aggressive timeline of finding a “unicorn” second location in Eldersburg, keeping and upgrading the original Randallstown store, and then adding a third shop in Owings Mills. John explains how consolidating everything into one shared drive, creating 50 to 60 SOPs, and adding QR code training on equipment made growth repeatable and easier on his people. They dive into the realities of family business, including when someone you love should not be in a certain role and how to balance loyalty with what is best for the company. John introduces the LMW Community Foundation, which gives away repaired vehicles to people in need, funds the work with company profits and donations, and hosts youth volunteer events and car care classes. He closes by talking about his wish to understand people more deeply so he can communicate better and lead his growing team with clarity and empathy.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

John Lascuola, Owner of LMW Auto Repair

Show Highlights:

[00:00:00] – Jimmy introduces guest John Lascuola of LMW Auto Repair, a family business now operating three Maryland locations.

[00:01:35] – John shares how his dad started fixing cars out of their home garage before opening the first official shop in the late 1980s.

[00:05:33] – He explains why he’s heavily reinvesting in the original Randallstown store so it becomes their flagship location.

[00:07:34] – John talks about joining the business in 2020 and focusing entirely on systems, organization, and marketing rather than wrenching.

[00:10:30] – The Eldersburg “unicorn” building appears in late 2020, leading to a rapid close and grand opening in May 2021.

[00:11:19] – John details staffing and bay counts across all shops and why he plans to pause expansion at three to strengthen processes.

[00:16:04] – He breaks down how 50–60 SOPs and QR-coded equipment training made onboarding simple and operations consistent.

[00:21:13] – John gives candid advice on the realities of family businesses and having hard conversations about who should wear which hats.

[00:30:06] – He introduces the LMW Community Foundation, which has already given away more than a dozen vehicles to people in need.

[00:39:59] – John shares that his magic-wand wish would be the ability to understand people better so he can communicate and lead more effectively.

Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!

Links & Resources: 

________________________________________

Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, friend, Jimmy Lee here with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. My guest today is John Lascuola, did I say that right, John? Very close. Lascuola Lascuola, John Lascuola with LMW Auto Repair outta Maryland, and it looks like you guys have three locations.

Jimmy Lea: Yes, sir. That is awesome. I'm so excited to dive in and get to the details of three locations and family run, family owned business, because you guys are all in the business. Which goes to the first question, how did you get started? How I, it's probably pretty obvious how you got started, but how did Pops get started?

Jimmy Lea: Where's the start of the business?

John Lascuola: Yeah, so he actually worked for a local Toyota dealership. I think they were called r and h Toyota way back in the mid eighties. He was working on cars and just kind of one day thought, you know, I could probably. Do this myself out of the garage at home.

John Lascuola: And it was probably back in the eighties where that was maybe a little more, a little easier to do.

Jimmy Lea: A little bit more lenient right there. Yeah.

John Lascuola: Right. When it comes to legal issues. So, yeah, he opened a business right out of his garage at our home in Baltimore County. Ran it out of the garage for I wanna say about a year or two.

John Lascuola: And then we got a building I want to say in 88. Then 89 we officially established the corporation that we have today. So, so that's how we, that's how we got started,

Jimmy Lea: bro. And you know, what's interesting about that, John is there are so many, even today that are starting out of their garage.

Jimmy Lea: They're starting out of the barn at the back of the house. They're starting out of a storage unit. I was talking to a guy just yesterday, start out of a storage unit. It was in there for four years. Yeah, before he finally decided to strike out on his own and got a brick and mortar facility. And the guy that he had partnered with, they, they parted ways.

Jimmy Lea: 'cause the one guy's like, man, I'm good. I got this day job, but I'm doing this nights and weekends outta the storage unit. And my buddy and the guy I interviewed was like, nah p piece bro. This has been great, but I'm tired of crawling around on the floor and I'm sure that's what happened with your dad as well.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

John Lascuola: Oh yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean that, yeah. That's how we started. And I'm sure a lot of people get started that way and hey, I mean, you know, hustle to get into it. However you gotta, you know?

Jimmy Lea: That's it. That's it. The hustle. I, and I love this industry. I love the automotive aftermarket because there is so much hustle.

Jimmy Lea: There is work. They're not afraid to work. They know how to work and they know how to work hard and. Smart. And that's what I'm seeing happen here recently is the intelligence, the training, the desire for more knowledge is becoming stronger and stronger. So I love that. So Pop starts, what is the first shop?

Jimmy Lea: What does that look like in 88? And dude, you must have been like. I wasn't

John Lascuola: alive.

Jimmy Lea: I wasn't alive. You weren't alive. Okay. Any pop's First shop? What, do you know what that looks like? Do you know the footprint of all that?

John Lascuola: Yeah. Yeah. So there's pictures. And actually at one of our locations we kind of have like a from humble beginnings wall with a bunch of pictures.

John Lascuola: And some of them include that first shop. It was a brick brick. I don't even know if it was brick. Just these big, heavy, like cinder block stone building. Not high ceilings at all. I think he only had a couple, I think he maybe had like two, two posts in there. It was not a building that you should, that is conventionally used for auto repair, so it was, oh,

Jimmy Lea: true.

Jimmy Lea: Do you know Lucas Underwood? Do you know that name?

John Lascuola: I know the name. Yeah I've seen some stuff from him. Yep.

Jimmy Lea: So his first shop? Mm-hmm. He had three bays. One actually had a tall ceiling, one, another one had a tall ceiling, but his third bay was seven and a half foot ceilings. Oh my gosh. How do you do that?

Jimmy Lea: I

John Lascuola: don't know. That's a flat day if you ask me.

Jimmy Lea: Y yeah. Oh to jack up the cars and try and change out a transmission. You just rested on your chest and tried. You was working on

John Lascuola: creepers. Yeah. Yeah, right.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, no. You couldn't even fit a creeper under there. You were on your, oh my god. Back.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. To. Lucas his humble starting and now he has a garage. Mahal. Oh, it's the big red barn. It is massive. You can pull two RVs all totally inside, have 'em on lifts and plus six or eight different lifts for other cars as well. So he's got like a 10 bay shop and running a three bay shop is totally different.

Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. Than running a 10 bay. Absolutely. So Pops has the first location. Mm-hmm. Few bays. When does he

John Lascuola: expand? So actually they, we, we didn't do any expanding. We were in that building. We, there was some an, a different building came available that was maybe I don't know, half a mile up the road from that fit our needs a little bit better.

John Lascuola: Love it. It was still a three so technically it was one bay door. And we could barely squeeze three bays into it. So it was two, two posts and an alignment rack. And that's what we were from 19, I think we moved buildings in 91, so early nineties we were that until 2020 or 2021. Yep.

Jimmy Lea: No way.

Jimmy Lea: So in 21 is when you expanded and yeah. Did you move locations in 21?

John Lascuola: No no. We Do

Jimmy Lea: you still have the shop?

John Lascuola: We still have it. I've actually poured a healthy, a very healthy amount of money into that location. We've got a building expansion plan. We're adding four more bays onto it. Done a lot of stuff to the property, so I'm trying to make sure that our original home store.

John Lascuola: Turns into our nicest. That's my goal.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, congrats. Dude. I love you honoring the history and the everything that's there, man. Oh, that, that does my heart. Good. Congrats man. Congrats. That's super cool. I. That is very cool. Okay, so you've got the one location, when do you add the other two?

John Lascuola: So, yeah, so that was I don't know if you want a little bit of context, but Yeah. The family business was my father, my mother, and my brother. And they were in that one three Bay shop for, like I said, what was that, about 25, 30 years roughly? Yeah, long time.

Jimmy Lea: Long time.

John Lascuola: So they were there my dad ended up retiring I want to say mid like 20 15, 20 16 ish.

John Lascuola: So it was just my mom and my brother. Wow. And it was just really hard for them to work on the business because my brother was working on cars, he was selling tickets. My mom was doing all the accounting. She was helping with all the administrative, so there wasn't really a lot of time to work on the business.

John Lascuola: Yeah. And in, in late 2020, I kind of got more or less recruited. As the son that went to college. So, I don't really know anything about cars. It's not my jam. My degree is in environmental science, so it's not even super applicable to auto repair. But I really like organization.

John Lascuola: I like systems, I love marketing. I just find it interesting. Yes. So I got in there and I didn't have to work on cars. I didn't have to write up tickets. I was solely focused on how can we improve processes? How can we get more cars in the door? How can we improve curb appeal, you know, branding, creating an identity?

John Lascuola: Who are we, you know? So that was our big focus. And that's when we started to tighten up on our processes. A, a new building became available. And I just, I, it was a unicorn. It was a total unicorn. And I said, this is it. We gotta go for it. This is gonna be everything. And we snagged it when we threw a bunch of Hail Marys and we got very lucky and it worked out.

John Lascuola: So yeah that's how we got store number two. And store number two gave us the cash flow to reinvest back into store one and then also to open store three. So yeah. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: So which one is first? Ralston.

John Lascuola: Randallstown. Randallstown. Randallstown.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Randallstown is first and then Eldersburg. That was store number two and then Owings Mills was

John Lascuola: three.

John Lascuola: Yep. That, we just opened that in November of last year.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. So everybody who's listening to this, let's put this in perspective, your family, mom and dad and oldest brother ran the business for 30 years, and I'm sure that there was a super big fear factor bringing in the college student to run the business.

Jimmy Lea: When the college student came and said, oh my gosh, you guys, I found this building in Eldersburg. You gotta come check this out. We have to move on this for them. I'm sure you are moving the cheese so far out of their comfort zone that they could not even wrap their heads around it. They're like, okay dude, John, we are putting total faith in you on this.

Jimmy Lea: We believe in you. We're gonna do it. Yeah, but you're scaring the crap out of us

John Lascuola: a Absolutely, yeah. That is a hundred percent. What happened? There was a lot of conversations of me and I tried to do as much legwork as I could to show 'em the numbers, look at the demographics, say, look, you know, this is it.

John Lascuola: We can make it, like, look at the projected expenses and say, look, I really think that this makes sense for us. But yeah, they, it was, and I get it. I mean, if your head's not in it, you're not the one doing all the homework. It just sounds super scary. You know our yeah, absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Well, and for 30 years they were a single location, two lifts, an alignment rack.

Jimmy Lea: That was it. Their idea of expansion was working more hours, not actually buying another shop. Hundred percent.

John Lascuola: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So props to you, bro, because here you came on in 2020 and put in perspective, I remember 2020, that was COVID extraordinaire. That was some interesting times. So at what point, from 2020 did you find and close on the second location?

Jimmy Lea: What does that look like?

John Lascuola: Yeah, so I came on board, goodness, I wanna say summer of 2020. We found the Eldersburg store I want to say either November or December of 2020, and then we closed on it in February or March, and then we opened it in eight excuse me, in May, beginning of May.

Jimmy Lea: In May of 21, 21.

Jimmy Lea: Correct. Okay. Wow. Very, I mean, this is fast. This is happening quickly. It was aggressively fast. Yeah. And props to you for doing the legwork, the homework and the groundwork. You were making stuff happen. At what point did you find the third location? Owings Mills?

John Lascuola: Mm-hmm. So, Owings Mills was a bit of a different story that I looked for about two years.

John Lascuola: It's not a unicorn, but it's certainly a great location. I think we're doing fantastic there. We've only been there a little over a year. We're already starting to get cashflow positive in that location. But it's, it definitely was a lot more leg work. We got very lucky with Eldersburg.

John Lascuola: That was a unicorn that fell into our lap and I was very grateful that we found that.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you were blessed right there. That's awesome. Yeah, I gotta look for more of those blessings. So, that's awesome and I love where you're at. How many technicians total, how many service advisors total?

Jimmy Lea: Where are you at demographic

John Lascuola: wise? Absolutely. So we have about 10 technicians for the whole company. So, I have four in Eldersburg. That is a four two post lift, one alignment rack store. I have four in Owings Mills. That is a four two post and alignment one alignment rack store.

John Lascuola: And then I have two in Randallstown at the moment. 'cause currently that is still two, two posts. And rack. However, with the new building that we have planned, that'll add four extra bays and I'll be hiring some extra techs. Yeah,

Jimmy Lea: nice. So you're gonna go up to six lifts at Randallstown

John Lascuola: six plus Rack? Yes.

John Lascuola: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: Nice dude that's awesome. It sounds like you got this four bay four post. Forklift business down pat. So this new one, you're adding a, an extra two, probably a small lift. It won't be that much different for you which is awesome. Congrats. Yeah. What does the future look like? What are, where are you gonna go?

Jimmy Lea: Now that you have the three, are you adding more or what's the goal?

John Lascuola: Yeah, so I've kind of always said that it just depends on if the perfect thing comes along. I was aggressively looking for number three. I'm comfortable at number three. And I really wanna stay here for a while, hone our processes and really dial into systems and making sure that we're just killing it every single day and every way that we can.

John Lascuola: So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Well, and it's good to build the coffers again. I was talking to Dan Garlock Silver. Otto he's in Lac, Wisconsin. I love saying that. Yeah. He's like 7, 8, 9 locations and he is like, no we're gonna pause here for a minute. We're good where we're at. But we're gonna pause and just build the coffers back up, and then we'll aggressively go after some more.

Jimmy Lea: So, you know, yeah, keep your eyes open. Keep your ear to the ground, keep listening for that perfect opportunity, and you'll find another elder Eldersburg. Absolutely. And you'll find that in another unicorn. And what's interesting I heard this from Michael Smith. He talks about when you're looking for unicorns, you've got to put out unicorn bait.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. What does that say to you? What does that resonate to you?

John Lascuola: I don't know. I would love to know what unicorn beta is and get some of it, because that would be great.

Jimmy Lea: Right, right. So if you're looking for and this goes for technicians, it goes for finding the shops as well. If you are looking for unicorn technicians mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: They don't hang out with the deer in the middle of the field there Oh, sure. In the trees and Right. They. Are attracted by different things than the deer or the mule would be. Absolutely. So if you're looking for unicorn, you gotta make a unicorn call. You've gotta put out the bait for a unicorn.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. And you will find those technicians that are the unicorns, you will find those locations that are the unicorns if. You're putting out that vibe and you have that company culture and you're talking even to your technicians, Hey, who do you guys know? Who do you know where, do you know what's a shop that you think would be perfect for us?

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. That would fit our company, that would fit our culture? And it sounds like you've got that down pat, which is beautiful. What I hear from shop owners too is once you get past the three, it just becomes. The almost a rubber stamp e every place is unique in it's unique own way, but it becomes a rubber stamp that you're able to take your current process procedure and just put it in place in the new location.

John Lascuola: Yeah, absolutely. I mean that, that was our big focus for this year after we opened number three, was really honing into. Our organizational structure as a company, and I mean, we got we hammered down we used to have, you know, some processes, paper forms, and some of them were on the Google Drive and we had a OneDrive, a Microsoft OneDrive, and I said, Nope.

John Lascuola: We scrapped all that stuff. Compiled it all in one drive. Organized pathways. We've got I probably made about 50 or 60 new SOPs this year. Nice. I mean, we've got, we've really dialed into, you know, an exact process for almost every part of the job to really just try and make an easily repeatable.

John Lascuola: Valuable resource for the employees too. That way they're not having to constantly stop and say, oh my gosh, how does he want it done Again? They can just, you know, go look at the SOP. You can search for it right in your Google Drive. It's super easy.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And well, and every technician probably has a computer, so it's easy for 'em to look it up.

Jimmy Lea: It's just right there. Yep. And it to the SOPs. Are you doing SOPs for even? This is how we open the shop. In the morning.

John Lascuola: Oh yeah. I've got SOPs on the silliest stuff. I mean, I, well, what I think might be silly, but not everybody thinks that way. I, we also have I, I have QR codes on all my equipment, and we made videos of kind of explaining that way when we have a new hire, they may know how to use a tire balancer.

John Lascuola: They don't know how to use our tire balancer necessarily. So we've got QR codes on all of our equipment where we're, and it's us. It's not some, you know. Other company, it's me with my cell phone and you know, one of my techs and we're just kind of very casually, you know, 'cause we're not Walmart here, but, you know, I still like to use the technology and.

John Lascuola: And try. And I like it. I think it's a nice personal touch, but also super helpful. But that's just,

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So anybody who's listening to this, you just blew their mind with this capability. Really and truly. I, this, that what you are just doing is revolutionary. I have not seen another shop that's doing this.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, wow. Okay. And if there is somebody who is listening, that also does QR code to explain what that. Equipment does and how it works and what's the proper process procedure to, to do that machine or that unit. Mm-hmm. I would love to hear from them, John. That is amazing. That's next level. That's. That's awesome, bro.

Jimmy Lea: And I love that you have all your process procedures into one location and what you talk about a silly process. Mm-hmm. The silly one is the one you've never written down because you think it should be done one way and they think it should be done another way. And until you put it into a process procedure, they're gonna create their own path.

Jimmy Lea: And that's not your path.

John Lascuola: Yeah, absolutely. That is a good point. Yeah, it's definitely exactly like you said the, I totally agree.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Congrats for putting this all in process, procedure. You are doing things that I don't think your brother or your mother would've ever been able to do working on the business to the point of process procedures.

John Lascuola: Yeah. Well, I mean, and a lot of that just comes down to, it's hard, I get it. When you're. When you're working on cars or service writing or working on cars and service writing or working on cars, service writing, managing employee, when you're wearing all those hats, it is so hard to go marketing and then branding and you know, organizational systems and process like I get it.

John Lascuola: The we were very blessed. I don't fault them at all. We were very blessed that I just happened to be in a situation where financially I didn't really need a lot of money. They were able to not pay me a whole lot. Plus it's my family business. I didn't mind helping out. I happen to be not terrible at it.

John Lascuola: That was my only job. You know, it was very easy for me because Monday through Friday, eight to five, all I'm thinking about is, you know, all of the on the business stuff, not in the business stuff. So I get, I totally get how it can be hard to, you know, put in those 60, 70, 80 hour weeks, you know, because you gotta work in the business.

John Lascuola: And then when you're clocked at, you know, when it's not eight to five, now you gotta start working on the business. It's tough. It pays it, it definitely pays off. That's for darn sure.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and what you're talking about, these are the things that keep shop owners up at night.

John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: Is, oh man, I've gotta make policy, process procedures to make it easier for my technicians.

Jimmy Lea: And then they get in the office and they're like, oh, I'm now gonna do my PO process procedure. And you get deep into your inbox or you get deep into something else, or deep into accounting and pretty soon it's lunchtime and you haven't even. The cursor's still flashing. Yeah. You haven't even gotten process one done yet.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. So it's beautiful that you've been able to do that. Question for you with the family run business, there's a lot of dudes and dts, there's a lot of men and women out in this industry who are working in a family environment. What advice would you give to another. Person like yourself in that situation where you're working for the family business in a position of responsibility, how what advice would you give that person?

John Lascuola: I think my biggest advice for anybody in a family owned business, and it's tough and it's tough advice to follow and it's advice that has been hard for me to me and my family to follow at times is. Decide what you want. Do you want a successful business or do you want, or do you want a comfortable family environment and you kind of need to prioritize one or the other?

John Lascuola: There are, I think, compromises that can be made. But a lot of times you have to make hard decisions where you go, Hey, you know, I know you wanna wear this hat, but I don't know if this is the best hat for you to wear. Or you might even have to have situations where you say, Hey I thought, you know, it might be good to have you involved in this aspect, but maybe it's better if we just, you know, let's just see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas and let's leave the B You know, sometimes you have to have those hard conversations, and I think that is a lot of things that, a lot of that, that, that is something that a lot of family business owners struggle to, to face head on, is separating.

John Lascuola: You know, when you're the business owner and when you're the family member. And I think that's my biggest advice for everybody is have those uncomfortable conversations, face those uncomfortable realities and address those things head on. It might make things a little tricky. But it's worth it if you want to grow and have a successful business, and if that's your main goal is having a successful business, then pursue that.

John Lascuola: And if you can do that with family members, that's amazing. And I love that. And there's a lot of amazing perks. There is nothing better than having business partners that you can trust fully and totally. I mean, that is. An invaluable resource. It really is. But just make sure that your mind and your P's and Q's and you're facing reality when it comes to what people are good at and what hats people should be wearing.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. And even in that situation I know of family run businesses where one member of the family in an unscrupulous manner took advantage of the entire family Sure. And really did bankrupt. The entire business and the other members of the family. So even with the family and you have absolute confidence and trust in them, still know your numbers.

Jimmy Lea: Pay attention to your numbers. 'cause the numbers won't lie. Absolutely. Yeah.

John Lascuola: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Pay attention to your numbers. You have to.

John Lascuola: And that is that, sorry. That is an excellent point. Yeah, I, I wasn't trying to insinuate that just 'cause they're family. You never have to, that's one of those uncomfortable things is Yeah.

John Lascuola: You know, there, there is a little bit of, you know, contingency plans that you should put in place, you know, even with family businesses. You're a hundred percent correct. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And there are, there is family that we choose. Yep. Absolutely right. And that family that we choose can be that friend or that confidant or that business partner.

Jimmy Lea: And because you choose them, they're part of the family. So you mentioned something interesting hey, we'll only see you at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: What does that mean?

John Lascuola: Just meaning that if you, I, I have. I talked with a lot of shop owners and I feel like I have talked to some shop owners that are in family businesses that are partnered with people that shouldn't be involved anymore.

John Lascuola: Either they lost the passion for it. They never had it. They just really weren't. One of them's a rock star and one of them's mediocre. And I'm sorry if I'm speaking bluntly, but that's the reality sometimes. And as soon as it's, as soon as you realize that, having that uncomfortable conversation of being, you know, saying as nicely as possibly, you know, I love you, your family.

John Lascuola: I'm always gonna see every year, you know, as long as you'll have me. But you know, maybe you being involved in this business. Isn't the best choice for the business. You know, having that conversation. And it's tough. It's not an easy one to have.

Jimmy Lea: It is a tough conversation in fact, Cecil the founder of the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, his son worked for him.

Jimmy Lea: And it, it took him about a year and a half before he was finally able to let his son go. Ah, yeah. That's tough. Yeah, it is tough. And his son, his namesake, his son is Cecil Jr. Maybe he's the third. I think he's the third. It, it is hard. It is tough, man. It's tough working for family and I applaud you for being able to do it.

John Lascuola: Thanks. I yeah, I mean, it's tough and it's also not tough. Like I get why it's so hard.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's

John Lascuola: just I wish more people could realize if you tried to make me a technician, you should fire me. I'm terrible. Working on co. Like, if I was in that position, I would want somebody to be like, you have no business working on cars.

John Lascuola: I'm just. I'm not good at it. I never was. It's been a family business. I've tried several times and I just don't have the mindset for it. So it's like the old saying, you know, you don't judge a fish by how well he can climb a tree. Like, you know, you're good at what you're gonna be good at.

John Lascuola: And once we figure out that something's not clicking let's face it, head on together. It just can get, I think pride can get involved and ego can get involved, and it sucks when you've got a family legacy that you think you're gonna be a part of.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

John Lascuola: That you're not gonna be, but that's okay.

John Lascuola: You're gonna find your own way in this life, and it doesn't need to be that, you know?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And I love what you're saying there. I love the analogy too. You can't judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree. We're all d. We all have different strengths. 'cause you can't judge a, an eagle by how well it swims in a lake.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. Yeah. A hundred percent. They each have their own strengths. So where are your strengths? Where do they lie and how can they fit in with the business? And maybe they don't. Yeah, right. And that's okay.

John Lascuola: Absolutely. A hundred

Jimmy Lea: percent. Tough decisions to make. I think I'm there's so many businesses right now just running through my head of family run businesses performance place.

Jimmy Lea: Tracy Holt and his sister they own the shop here in, in West Jordan, Utah, or Sandy, Utah. Denny's auto father-in-law started the business son-in-law, took over the business and now his son is working in the business. Oh, that's awesome. Beautiful family dynamic there. And there's so many more. I'm Oh, Colin.

Jimmy Lea: In fact, he's out by you. Do you know Colin? Dude, his last name starts with an A and it has a couple Z's in it.

John Lascuola: I don't know. Is, you said he is in Maryland.

Jimmy Lea: Is he in Maryland? Is he in Maryland? He might be in Jersey. Okay. I'll have to find out. Super awesome family. They, in fact, a similar situation.

Jimmy Lea: They had a three Bay, two Bay or three Bay. Mm-hmm. Sold it and now have a 14 bay shop or a 16 shop. Oh, holy cow. Holy. Yeah. And so he's going through the same learning curves as what? You did and Lucas Underwood did and a lot of other guys. 'cause you don't run a two three bay the same way. 10 Bay.

Jimmy Lea: So I'm sure he's right in the position you are of creating all his SOPs and all his,

John Lascuola: that's a big jump too. That's big.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Yeah. And he basically went across town so. Previous customer base is probably not gonna come into his ah, new place.

John Lascuola: Scary stuff. Definitely exciting but scary.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Exciting but scary is correct. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna attempt this last name. Sure. Holland Emma Za roso o. It does not A-M-M-A-Z-Z-A-L-O-R-S-O. Does not

John Lascuola: sound familiar.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. His mother's name is Beth. Super awesome people, family run business. His expansion plan is extraordinary as well. He wants to grow to a hundred locations within the next 10 years.

John Lascuola: Holy cow. Wow. I felt mine was aggressive.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, no, he, and he already has it in his mind that he wants to be doing. You know, blah, blah, blah, and these are calculations from a couple years ago. He was like no. $6.4 billion per year type of deal. Wow. I'm like, okay, but wait a second. A hundred locations.

Jimmy Lea: Maybe you want to a little bit higher anyways.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Oh, it's fun. It's fun. So what is the future for your shops? What is the future for your business? LMW Auto Repair.

John Lascuola: So the future for our business I know I didn't really get into this too much earlier. We have a nonprofit so we fix up vehicles for community members in need.

John Lascuola: And kind of all of my scale and my growth, I really feel. Stems from trying to fuel that nonprofit. More so, the more locations I open up, the more we grow. The more I can fuel that nonprofit, the more I feel like I can help my community. That really is just coming down to obviously, yes, it's nice to make more money.

John Lascuola: Yes. It's nice to grow the work family and, you know, be able to get to know so many more, you know, lovely technicians and service advisors and managers. I love that. But really what I'm passionate about is getting involved and just really trying to help our community. I think we've given away somewhere between I've got a written down somewhere, 13 or 14 cars and we just started the nonprofit a year and a half, two years ago.

John Lascuola: We're just, we started doing community youth events, getting the youth involved in volunteering. We did some tree planting events. I'm just, yeah,

Jimmy Lea: dude, I love that. That's awesome. John, with your community foundation, are you getting people to donate their cars?

John Lascuola: Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Parts stores to donate the parts text to donate their time.

Jimmy Lea: There's a whole big PR opportunity here.

John Lascuola: Yeah, no, a absolutely. So, most of our cars are donated. I've been trying to work some stuff out with some parts stores. I haven't been as fortunate with that one. However, we've got some really awesome communities that we're in, and we do get a fair amount of cash donations from other nonprofits or very generous individuals that have helped kind of, keep this program going.

John Lascuola: And what I do is. We, the company gives $30,000 a year to this. Wow. And any more that I get in here, I'm just funneling it straight to helping more people. I love it. I'm super into it.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So I would definitely go to your top parts suppliers and say to 'em, this is my program.

Jimmy Lea: This is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it, and I'm coming to you because. I'm gonna need some donations. I want you to donate the parts. I'm donating the cars are being donated. Our time is being donated. My technicians, they donate their time though. You give them the opportunity, guys, I'll pay you to come in on this Saturday to fix all these cars for these families that need a car.

Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. You got it in your budget, right? You got 30,000 that you can use for the technicians if they want to, but when they are part of the cause, they're part of the family now the repair takes a different flavor. Yeah. Now it takes on a whole different mindset and the technicians look forward to this.

Jimmy Lea: And are we gonna do it once a year? Are we gonna do it twice a year? What's the cadence and now they're looking forward to it. And this is when you get the bouncy houses and the food trucks and everybody comes out because this becomes an event that supports the community. So now the community comes together for it.

John Lascuola: Yeah, a hundred percent. No it's, I'm just trying to grow that as much as I can and. Yeah that's been my focus and that's my future goals really. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. So the, what, how many cars per year? What's the goal there for the growth? What, how do you judge success on that program?

John Lascuola: Right. So currently what we're doing is we have three we have three regularly scheduled giveaways. We do one at Christmas. We do one at Mother's Day for a single mom, and then we do one on Veteran's Day for a veteran. Outside of that, we are having people constantly reach out and saying, Hey, you know, my coworkers really struggling or, we fell on hard times, or We had this house fire.

John Lascuola: We, you know, I've had all of these people reach out and I'm, I've got lists and I've got backlogs and I'm trying to get to everybody when I can. And help when we can. You know, so my ultimate goal is to not have to turn anybody away. My ultimate goal is whenever we have somebody reach out, we can get them a car.

John Lascuola: That, that's pretty lofty. So, I'm just as close to that goal as I can get. I'll be happy. And that's what I'm shooting for,

Jimmy Lea: bro. That's awesome. Congrats. And you'll do it. You'll do it. I feel the commitment, the strength, the pattern. You're gonna do it.

John Lascuola: Thanks. I hope so.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Props. Props to you, bro. That's awesome. Thank you. And congrats to your community, or is it a full nonprofit now You got the 5 0 1 C3.

John Lascuola: Yes, sir.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Congrats, bro. That's awesome.

John Lascuola: Thank you.

Jimmy Lea: Very cool. So if anybody wants to donate, where can they go? How can they find you?

John Lascuola: Yep. So, you can go to lw car care.com.

John Lascuola: And if you go to our main Facebook page, we've also got information there. You can find us, LMW Community Foundation on Facebook. I think we're on Instagram as well. I the same handle LMW Community Foundation. So,

Jimmy Lea: Nice. So anybody that wants to donate some money or donate a car.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely.

John Lascuola: Yes, please.

Jimmy Lea: Lmw car care.com. And what about your car care classes? You're doing some classes too, right? Talk about that for a minute.

John Lascuola: Yeah. Yeah. So that's the other leg of this is just also trying to give back in any way that we can as far as education for new drivers. We really feel like, you know when, not even just new drivers, honestly just a lot of drivers, some very basic things about your car that it's, we think would be much safer if you knew how to put air in your tires, change a spare tire rather than waiting on the side of the road for AAA for three hours. You know how to check your oil.

John Lascuola: The amount of customers that have a car's burning oil that we tell them, you know, not a big deal. Maybe just check it regularly. You know, you got that old Honda or whatever where they have that problem. Just stuff like that. So that's what we use these classes for. We've started to kind of design some more involved ones on, you know, brakes, electrical systems for some younger people that are interested in cars.

John Lascuola: Just to try it out, just to see if they're into it. So we're still early stages with that. We've partnered with there's another nonprofit in the area that helps single moms. So we've partnered with them to put on a class. We just recently had a class with them. Yeah we also do a lot of intern internships.

John Lascuola: We have several organizations that work with, young individuals that don't learn in conventional ways that maybe Sure. So, so, we have worked with them to give internships to, to several young men who have done fantastic and honestly could have a very promising career in this industry.

John Lascuola: I mean, they showed a lot of talent. So, I just love, I love doing stuff like that. Just trying to, yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That is very cool. Congrats John. There's also an opportunity within the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of America which their new name is Scouts of America.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. They have a badge that is the automotive repair badge. I did not know that. So yes, it gives you an opportunity to reach out to all the troops in the area to say, Hey, I am an approved Merit badge counselor. Which John, you'd have to get approved. Yeah. Go through their youth protection training and make sure that you're a good, safe environment.

Jimmy Lea: You can talk to them and say, Hey look, if you guys are interested in earning this automotive repair merit badge, we're gonna do an, it'll take one evening and one Saturday morning or something like that. 'cause you gotta look at the badge. Yeah. And reach out to them that, that's an opportunity to expose it even to Cub Scouts in the younger groups.

Jimmy Lea: The kids that are eight to 12 or eight to 10 11. Yeah. Expose them to the opportunities of cars and Yeah and torque wrenches and sockets and, oh man they just totally will love it. They totally dig it. A

John Lascuola: hundred percent. I love that idea. I did not, I didn't know that was a thing, but that is a great idea.

John Lascuola: I wrote it down while we're talking, so I'll definitely be looking into that.

Jimmy Lea: Awesome. John. Yeah. When it comes to the Scouts of America, I'm a big proponent. I was a scoutmaster for 18 years.

John Lascuola: Oh, wow. My goodness.

Jimmy Lea: That's a long time. I'm an Eagle Scout. I've been to the National Jamboree, the World Jamboree, so Wow.

Jimmy Lea: When it comes to scouting and that's the beauty of the scouting program, is exposing these kids to everything that might be their possible future.

John Lascuola: Yeah. No, I love that.

Jimmy Lea: Steven Spielberg, boy Scout. Wow. Photography merit badge. There you go. Wow. Wild. Yeah, true story. True story. A lot of the astronauts are Eagle Scouts.

Jimmy Lea: Huh. So, yeah, there's a long history there of scouting and success in America. You don't have to be a Boy Scout to be successful. I don't mean to say that. I do say that the scouting gets you exposure to a lot of different areas that you might not be exposed to save it. Were the scouting program, so

John Lascuola: yeah.

John Lascuola: No great program. Absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. So, last and final question as we land this plane here, John, you have a magic wand and you're granted a wish you can't wish for more wishes. What would you wish.

John Lascuola: Oh man, what would I wish for? I think if I had, if I could make any wish, you know what? I wish I, I would wish for the ability to understand.

John Lascuola: People better. I think trying to manage staff and trying to deal with the complex emotions and the varying types of emotions and wants and needs. If I could just intuitively always know why somebody was thinking or saying what they were and know the best way to handle that and the best. Approach to that, that would have them understand me the best and make just communication easier between me and my staff.

John Lascuola: That bar none probably would be my wish. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I love that communication, being able to communicate better, more efficiently, more proper, to understand their mindset, their goals.

John Lascuola: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, we in fact, we've got a program at the institute called Leadership Intensive. It's part of our legacy program.

Jimmy Lea: I would invite you to come and check it out. We do, this year in 2026, we have three different intensivess. One in Seattle, one in Ogden, Utah, and one in Tampa, Florida. Okay. So, check out our website. We are the institute.com. Go to the events page and find the leadership intensive. That's what you wanna look at that, that is gonna help you understand why you think the way you think.

Jimmy Lea: Mm-hmm. What are those truth tapes that you have written in your mind? What are the truth tapes that we need to change and to alter because they're not true? You need to alter your thinking patterns and. On day two and day three is when you get into understanding other people and what are their truth tapes and what have they been through, what, why do they make the decisions they make?

Jimmy Lea: So our leadership intensive program is phenomenal. We just had a had one in blowing Rocket, Lucas Underwood's shop. Oh wow. Awesome. He sponsored it and there was like 35 people there. Totally sold out, packed in there. He put up tables and chairs inside of his garage hall, and we took over on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Jimmy Lea: Man it was pretty dang cool. No, that's.

John Lascuola: That sounds like a good thing to check out. I will definitely add that to the list.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Yeah, man. John, it's been a pleasure talking with you and learning about your shop, your business. You've got a bright future ahead of you, brother. I am honored to be able to witness greatness and it, I see greatness.

Jimmy Lea: Thank you.