You’re hired… now what? In Episode 60 of Fixed Ops Focus, Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw dig into the part of the dealership nobody seems to get right: what actually happens after the offer letter. As always, this one takes a lot of twists and turns.

Today we’ve got a powerhouse panel. We sit down with Jamie Rellis — co-founder of Dealer Focus and CEO of ME Technologies & Consulting — and David Securia, Service Director at Benzel-Busch Motor Car, NADA Academy graduate and NADA Show speaker, to talk about the one thing every dealer wants more of: GROWTH.

This is the full conversation on how you actually grow a fixed operations business — not theory, real moves. We get into technician development, OEM training, investing in your people, NADA training, service advisor training, mobile service opportunities, and everything in between. If you want to know what the top dealers are doing to grow right now, this is the episode.

Some people coach. Some people train. But almost nobody in our business has a real, structured coaching and mentoring program — and in Episode 58 of Fixed Ops Focus, Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers dig into why that’s one of the biggest missed opportunities in the dealership today.

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers crack open one of the most honest — and weirdly hilarious — topics in this business: getting fired.

It starts with a friend of Steve’s who just got let go. That one story sends Dave and Steve straight into the Wayback Machine, where they relive the times THEY got fired from the dealership, what those moments taught them, and how they came back stronger. Then they flip the script to the other side of the desk — the associates they’ve had to let go — and the part nobody likes to talk about: what happens to the whole organization when a manager gets fired.

It’s raw, it’s funny, and it’s loaded with leadership lessons every dealer, GM, and fixed ops leader needs to hear. Because how you handle a firing — on either side of it — says everything about your culture.

It seems like everybody and their cousin is selling service contracts — on TV, on YouTube, on TikTok, you name it. These days even the customer can go buy their own. So how is a dealer supposed to handle the flood? Do you charge extra? Add a processing fee? Hire a dedicated extended-warranty expert just to keep up with all the paperwork? This is the discussion no one is having right now — and it’s costing service departments time, money, and CSI.

One message. A dozen detours. Dave delivers an all-time rant about oil changes. Steve fires back on everything that’s broken about dealership training. There’s even a little conspiracy talk (hey, it happens). And buried in all the chaos is a genuine fixed ops masterclass on the monsters every service leader is fighting right now: employee retention, building a real career path, and the customer service challenges crushing the drive.

This live episode features two power-hitters. Ed Kopec of Paul Miller Audi walks us through his career — from service manager of a small four-technician Porsche store to building a $1.5 million+ fixed ops gross powerhouse, and his trajectory from service manager to general manager to vice president. Then the Profit Partner Spotlight goes to Michael Scorcio, MBA, Vice President of Traxtion, on how modern training tools and technology are helping the best dealerships grow.

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw tackle one of the most under-trained skills in the dealership: the art of diffusing a hostile customer. They cover why most associates have poor customer-diffusion skills, what to do when a customer drops the F-bomb, how to define your line in the sand BEFORE the conflict starts, and a set of practical diffusion strategies for the service drive.

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw expose what they're calling The Pseudo Warranty Conspiracy: a 25-year, quiet financial shift by automotive manufacturers that transferred billions in warranty cost off OEM books and onto dealers (via reinsurance liability) and customers (via repair bills). The mechanism: extending service intervals so that wear-and-tear failures fall outside warranty coverage, while vehicles also fail sooner. The episode connects warranty cost, planned obsolescence, used car mechanical liability, and dealer reinsurance plans into one unified financial picture.

Episode 50 of Fixed Ops Focus Live tackles the difference between management and leadership—and what really separates a good service manager from a great one. Guest Bob Orozco of Wilmington Land Rover shares his path from service advisor to service manager to general manager, while Profit Partner Michael Keene of Chameleon shows how the right data helps managers grow into true leaders. Tune in for real stories from the bays, one immediate-impact idea you can put to work today, and practical takeaways to make your dealership better.