For a self-confessed workaholic, one of the hardest decisions Bill Nalu ever made was closing his shop on Saturdays. He had spent years working 60 hour weeks and did not want his internal customers and their families to go through the same thing. That choice says a lot about the kind of leader he is.
In episode 6 of Maximum Octane, Kim Hickey talks with Bill, President of Interstate Auto Care, about building a team that can go the distance. They cover foundational leadership questions, how to inspire a team to rest, why shops really sell customer reactions, and how to encourage people without overdoing it.
What You Will Learn
- Where am I going, and who is coming with me? About some leadership foundational questions
- When was the last time you took unrelated to work vacations? How powerful questions can help us evolve
- How to Bill instilled the importance of taking a break to his team being a workaholic
- We sell customer reactions
- About the importance of considering cultural differences when dealing with clients
Questions Asked in This Episode
- As a self-confessed workaholic, how do you inspire your team to take breaks and dedicate time to their families?
- When you are the business, and that’s what you are seven days a week, you eat, breathe, sleep, and then you have to start realizing the company is not who you are. It’s part of what you do, but it’s not who you are. How do you make that shift?
- What is one unproductive habit that you’ve had that you have exchanged for a productive one?
Where Am I Going, and Who Is Coming With Me?
Bill frames leadership around two foundational questions. The first is about direction: where is the business headed? The second is about people: who is coming along for the journey? A leader without a clear answer to the first question cannot inspire anyone. A leader without an answer to the second question ends up doing everything alone.
These questions are worth asking out loud with your team. When people understand where the shop is going and see a place for themselves in that future, they are far more likely to commit. ATI’s How Sharing Your Vision Targets Results expands on this idea.
These two questions sound simple, but many owners have never answered them on paper. “Where am I going?” includes the size of the business you want, the kind of work you want to do, the lifestyle you want outside the shop, and the timeline for getting there. “Who is coming with me?” means looking honestly at your current team and asking whether each person shares that direction and has the potential to grow with it. Sometimes the answer reveals that the team needs development. Sometimes it reveals that certain people are not the right fit for the next stage.
Leaders who answer both questions can communicate them in every meeting and hiring conversation. Candidates who hear a clear direction are more likely to self-select in or out, which saves everyone time.
The Power of a Simple Question About Vacation
Around the 9 minute mark, Bill talks about how a powerful question can help people evolve. When was the last time you took a vacation that had nothing to do with work? For many owners, the honest answer is uncomfortable. Questions like that cut through busyness and force a leader to look at how they are really living.
Powerful questions work because they bypass our usual defenses. When a coach or peer asks “When did you last take a real vacation?” the answer is a fact, not an opinion, and it is hard to argue with. That clarity can be the push an owner needs to change. Good leaders use the same technique with their teams, asking open questions such as “What would make this job easier?” or “What are you proud of this month?” instead of only giving instructions.
Teaching a Team to Take Breaks When You Are a Workaholic
Kim asks Bill how he inspires his team to take time off when his own instinct is to keep working. His answer starts with recognizing that the business is part of what he does, not who he is. Once a leader makes that shift, it becomes easier to protect time for family and to encourage the team to do the same.
Closing on Saturdays was one visible example. It told the team that their time outside the shop mattered. Shops exploring schedule changes may find ATI’s 7 Benefits of a 4-Day Workweek at Your Auto Repair Shop useful, and Scott Brown shares his own experience with a shorter week in The Power of Decentralization.
Rest is not just a perk. Research on fatigue and performance shows that tired workers make more errors and react more slowly, which matters in a shop full of lifts, heavy parts, and safety-critical repairs. Encouraging breaks, reasonable hours, and real time off protects both the employees and the quality of the work. It also reduces burnout, one of the leading reasons skilled technicians leave the trade.
Owners who model rest give their teams permission to follow suit. If the owner sends emails at midnight and never takes a day off, employees will assume that is the expectation, regardless of what the policy says.
We Sell Customer Reactions
One of Bill’s most memorable ideas is that shops are in the business of customer reactions. A customer does not walk away remembering the torque spec on their lug nuts. They remember how they felt when they picked up the car: relieved, impressed, surprised, or disappointed.
Bill credits Jon Taffer’s book Raise the Bar for this framing. Taffer, known for his work turning around bars and restaurants, argues that businesses should design every interaction around the reaction they want to create. In a repair shop, that means thinking about the greeting, the waiting area, the inspection report, the explanation of the work, and the follow-up call. ATI’s How to Increase the WOW Count at Your Shop offers practical ideas.
Taffer’s approach is to think about the “reaction” a business wants to create and then design every detail to produce it. A repair shop might decide it wants customers to feel relieved, informed, and respected. Every touchpoint can be examined against those goals. Does the phone greeting feel welcoming? Does the estimate explain things clearly? Does the waiting area feel clean and calm? Is the car returned with the seat and mirrors where the customer left them?
When you treat reactions as the product, small details stop feeling optional. They become the very thing customers are paying for, even if they do not realize it.
Cultural Awareness at the Service Counter
Bill also highlights the importance of considering cultural differences when dealing with customers. People communicate, make decisions, and build trust in different ways. Advisors who are aware of those differences can adjust how they explain repairs, present estimates, and follow up. That awareness reduces misunderstandings and helps the shop serve its whole community well.
Cultural awareness can be as simple as being mindful of names and pronunciation, speaking clearly without slang or jargon, and being patient with customers whose first language is not English. In many communities, offering estimates or explanations in another language, or having a team member who can translate, makes a big difference. Some customers prefer more detail before making decisions, while others want a quick recommendation. Some may need to consult a family member first. Advisors who respect those differences build trust with a wider range of customers.
Encouragement Without Creating Praise Junkies
Recognition is powerful, but Bill warns against overdoing it. When praise is constant and generic, people start to depend on it, and it loses meaning. The goal is balanced, specific encouragement tied to real accomplishments.
Bill recommends Gary Chapman’s The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, which explains that people feel valued in different ways, such as words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts, or appropriate physical gestures like a handshake. Knowing each person’s preference makes appreciation far more effective. He also mentions John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus when discussing how hard it can be to talk about feelings in a shop culture built around tough, hands-on work.
Chapman’s five languages of appreciation in the workplace are words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts, and physical touch, which in a work setting usually means a handshake or high five. A technician who values quality time may appreciate the owner spending an hour helping with a tough diagnosis far more than a gift card. An advisor who values words may treasure a written note. Asking people how they like to be recognized, or simply observing what they respond to, makes appreciation more effective and avoids the empty praise Bill warns about.
Building a Team That Lasts
Bill’s focus on long-distance leadership reflects a reality of the auto repair industry: good teams take years to build, and they can fall apart quickly when people burn out. Creating a team that lasts involves a few consistent habits. Hire people who share your values, not just your skills. Pay fairly and explain how pay works. Give people time to rest and recover. Invest in their development. And talk openly about the direction of the business so everyone understands where they fit.
None of these habits are complicated, but they require consistency. Owners who practice them year after year often find that their best employees stay for a decade or more, and that stability becomes one of the shop’s biggest competitive advantages.
Leadership Habits to Build From This Episode
- Share your answer to “Where am I going?” with your team at your next meeting.
- Look at your own calendar and schedule time off that is not tied to work.
- Walk through your customer experience and write down the reaction you want at each step.
- Ask each team member how they prefer to be recognized.
For more on building a team that lasts, listen to Ron Saharyan in Why Aiming for Profit Will Help You Put People First.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my auto repair team to take time off?
Model it first. If the owner never takes a day off and sends messages late at night, employees assume that is the real expectation regardless of policy. Schedule your own time away, encourage people to use their vacation, and plan coverage in advance so taking a break does not leave the team short. Some shops adjust their hours, such as closing on Saturdays, to make rest part of the schedule. Rested technicians make fewer errors and are less likely to burn out.
What does it mean that shops sell customer reactions?
Customers rarely judge the technical quality of a repair directly. They remember how the visit made them feel: relieved, impressed, confused, or frustrated. Selling reactions means deciding which feelings you want customers to leave with and designing each step to create them. That includes the phone greeting, the waiting area, how the inspection is explained, whether the car is returned clean with the seat where they left it, and the follow-up call after the visit.
How do I recognize employees without overdoing praise?
Make recognition specific and tied to real accomplishments rather than constant and generic. “Thanks for staying with that intermittent electrical problem until you found it” means more than “great job, everyone.” Learn how each person prefers to be appreciated. Some value words, some value your time and help, some value a small tangible reward. Asking directly or observing what people respond to keeps appreciation meaningful and avoids training people to depend on praise.
Why is cultural awareness important at the service counter?
Customers communicate, make decisions, and build trust in different ways. Some want detailed explanations before approving work, some want a quick recommendation, and some need to consult a family member first. Advisors who notice those differences, pronounce names carefully, avoid slang and jargon, and stay patient with customers whose first language is not English reduce misunderstandings. Offering help in another language when possible also helps the shop serve its whole community and earn referrals.
Resources and Links From This Episode
- Interstate Auto Care website
- Book: Jon Taffer, Raise the Bar: An Action-Based Method for Maximum Customer Reactions
- Book: Gary Chapman, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
- Book: John Gray, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
Connect With the Guests
- Bill: LinkedIn
