Gabe Christian, Owner of Import Performance Auto Repair in Bend, Oregon and seven-time winner of best shop in the city, returns to break down what shop culture actually looks like from the inside. He and Jay get into the daily habits, team dynamics, and small details that make technicians want to show up and stay.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Gabe Christian, Import Performance Auto Repair, [email protected]

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• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list

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ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
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Anthony Calhoun is an ASE Master Technician with 25+ years in the industry, CEO of A.W.C. Consulting LLC, and author of “Why Techs Leave and How to Keep Them.” In this episode, Anthony walks through what each role has taught him about where the industry is falling short. He covers the mindset that helped him grow as a young tech, the advice he gives to those coming up now, and what pushed him to write a book and build Apex Tech Nation.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Anthony Calhoun, A.W.C. Consulting LLC, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• APEX Tech Nation
• Why Technicians Are Leaving and How to Keep Them

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Joe Hamilton, President & CEO of Vortex Optics, helped build one of the outdoor industry's most recognized and fiercely loyal brands by treating service as a competitive weapon, not an afterthought. In this episode, Joe unpacks the CARE Movement (Create A Rare Experience), why hiring people who already share your values is the foundation of delivering it, and why being genuinely human is the rarest advantage a business can have in 2026.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Joe Hamilton, Vortex Optics, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Chris Craig—Fixed Ops Curriculum Developer at RockED and content creator with 135,000 followers across platforms—has built his following by saying the things most people are afraid to post. In this episode, he breaks down why showing both sides of every industry argument is slowly shifting the culture, from the ASE certification debate to the 30/30/30 myth, what shops get wrong when hiring new grads, and the financial traps that push young techs out of the trade.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Chris Craig, RockED, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Josh Arnold, Recon Lead Technician at Austin Subaru, is back on the podcast for another honest conversation about life in the trade. He opens up about mentoring apprentices from scratch, what it really took to turn around a struggling recon department, and how public speaking and MPI video have pushed him to grow in ways he didn't expect. 

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Josh Arnold, Austin Subaru, Connect with Josh on LinkedIn

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Christian Spell, a recent high school graduate and SkillsUSA National Officer, joins Jay to share how a serious injury redirected his path—straight into automotive class and SkillsUSA. He opens up about competing, leading, and developing the professional skills most techs never learn in a shop.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Christian Spell, SkillsUSA, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• 2026 SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) June 1–5

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Todd Ainsworth, Shop Owner at Swedish Automotive, Inc. and President-Elect of the Northwest Auto Care Alliance (NWACA), joins us to talk about developing the next generation of technicians and why most shops are leaving that opportunity on the table. During the episode, Todd covers his journey from technician to shop owner, gives a closer look at NWACA's apprenticeship program and what makes it work, and why it's easier to grow a technician from scratch than to fix someone else's bad habits.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Todd Ainsworth, Shop Owner at Swedish Automotive, Inc. & President-Elect of the Northwest Auto Care Alliance (NWACA), [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• Register for the Building the Northwest’s Next Generation of Technicians Webinar

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

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Antonio Maldonado and Jake Martin are recruiters for the Service Technician Education Program (STEP) at BMW North America—and they go way beyond just recruiting. In this episode they break down how STEP works for automotive and collision students, what hands-on training from day one actually looks like, and how BMW is nurturing the next generation of technicians from first contact to career.

During this episode we experienced some technical difficulties — we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause while listening.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guests: Antonio Maldonado, BMW North America, [email protected]
  Jake Martin, BMW North America, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• Get Started with TruVideo’s Education Program for Schools

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

Connect with us on social:

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Video inspections are now standard in dealerships and shops across the country, but most students graduate without ever recording one. In this episode, Warner Jones, Sr. VP at TruVideo, walks instructors and program directors through why inspection video is a must-have skill for today's students, how it closes the communication gap between techs and customers, and how schools can get the industry's leading video platform at no cost.

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About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Warner Jones, TruVideo, [email protected] 

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• Get Started with TruVideo’s Education Program for Schools

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

Connect with us on social:

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Dan Paulson, Author of “Escape the Owner’s Trap,” joins us to tackle one of the biggest challenges shop owners face—being stuck in the middle of everything. We break down how to build accountability without micromanaging, fix communication gaps, and create processes your team will actually use. If your shop depends on you to function, this episode shows you how to change that.

Watch the video podcast on YouTube

About the Episode

• Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
• Guest: Dan Paulson, [email protected]

Links & Resources

• Get notified of new episodes --> Join our email list
• Escape the Owner's Trap

Join the ASE Connects Community

ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:

• ASE Connects Memberships for Shops & Dealers
• ASE Connects Memberships for Schools (Free!)

Connect with us on social:

• Facebook
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• X
• LinkedIn
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• TikTok