The BodyShop Leaders Podcast | Podcast Guru

Details

The BodyShop Leaders Podcast brings you real conversations with the people shaping the future of collision repair — shop owners, vendors, and innovators who lead with purpose. Hosted by Daniel Burkholder of BodyShop Marketing, each episode dives into the lessons, mindsets, and breakthroughs that drive top-performing shops and the leaders behind them. No fluff. Just authentic stories and practical insights to help you grow, lead, and build a smarter, stronger shop. Powered by BodyShop Marketing — where the best shops come to grow.

Recent Episodes

How a Firing Started a 40-Employee Shop | Kena Dacus

Kena Dacus never planned to own a body shop. She had an accounting degree, a career in banking, and a husband with a dream. Then Chris asked his boss — a shop owner in his late seventies — about buying the business someday. The next morning he was told that if he wanted to be the competition, it was time to part ways. Three months into their marriage, he was unemployed. What they had left was a 3,000-square-foot building on Main Street in Canton, Kansas, a town of about 700 people. They bough...

34 MIN

Doug Higgins on What Your Shop Is Actually Worth

"I'm sorry to tell you, the business is worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it." Doug Higgins has watched shop owners fixate on a multiple they heard at a conference and then make bad decisions for years because of it. In this episode, I sit down with Doug Higgins, founder of Collision Advisory, a fractional CFO practice built specifically for collision repair operators. Doug spent more than a decade at Kroger in high-level finance roles, including running the numbers for a $2 billi...

53 MIN

Brian von Tress: "We Burned the Ships and Said We're Doing This"

At 53 years old, Brian von Tress cashed in his retirement, walked away from a COO role at a 19-shop chain, and opened his first body shop with no private equity and no safety net. "We burned the ships and said we're doing this." In this episode, I sit down with Brian von Tress, the Founder and President of Collision Pros Inc., a 13-location MSO spanning Northern California and Nevada with 170 employees. Brian's collision career started at 15, sweeping floors and washing cars to earn money for...

28 MIN

Brad Green: You Come Second

What does it take to grow a single family shop into a 14-location MSO spanning two Canadian provinces in just seven years? According to Brad Green, Director of Operations at Raydar Collision Group — it starts with recognizing that as a leader, you come second. In this episode, Brad sits down with Daniel Burkholder to unpack the people-first philosophy that's fueled Raydar's rapid expansion across British Columbia and Alberta. From his start washing cars in the rain at a small North Vancouver ...

43 MIN

From Bankrupt to Bluebird Cafe to Body Shop Legend — David Luehr's Story

David Luehr started his first collision shop with a $100 bill and a borrowed paint gun. Two years later he had 13 employees and was doing over a million dollars a year — and then he lost all of it. In this episode of The BodyShop Leaders Podcast, David — founder of Elite Body Shop Solutions and co-author of the #1 bestseller The Secrets of America's Greatest Body Shops — shares one of the most unexpected comeback stories in collision repair. From bankruptcy to a touring country band that open...

49 MIN