Episodi

  • #95 Hold the Line or Make the Deal? PDR Pricing with Keith Cosentino

    #95 Hold the Line or Make the Deal? PDR Pricing with Keith Cosentino
    Nov 9 2026
    Ep. 95: Hold the Line or Make the Deal? PDR Pricing with Keith Cosentino SUMMARY A joint episode with the PDR College Podcast. Gene and Keith Cosentino dig into the original PDR College topic, pricing. When do you hold the line, and when do you deal to fill the shop? They also cover sales skills vs. price guides, why your estimator shouldn't be your technician, customer acquisition cost, the takeaway close, and whether chasing Brice Kelly-level perfection is worth it as a business owner. The episode closes with an archive PDR Marketing Minute on knowing your average ticket. TIMESTAMPED NOTES 00:00 Keith and Gene are on a full show together for the first time in about two years. It’s a co-show on both feeds, and Episode 100 is close.01:45 Gene is heading to Germany. Keith’s advice: book the Porsche factory tour way ahead (the museum is walk-up), and don’t skip the Mercedes Museum, which he says is 10x cooler.03:32 The topic. PDR College has always pushed techs to raise their prices, and markets like Pittsburgh have largely come up together. But customers shop more than ever. So when do you hold the line, and when, if ever, do you negotiate?06:01 Gene’s spin: a tech can plug every factor into Mobile Tech RX, DentMate, or a paper guide and spit out a big number ($10,000 to fix a Camry door?) without the sales skills to support it. Keith: then you think you have a pricing problem when you really have a sales problem.08:33 Some people just won’t spend $1,900 on a dent, and both guys have fixed a thousand of those for $300. On dead days, watching estimates drive away hurts. Shane’s position has always been to fill the shop.09:51 Keith’s son Liam does his estimating, and Gene’s son Mack is working at DRN. Keith tells the Dent Magic story from the late ’90s: Alex, a clean-cut guy in training to be a sheriff who knew nothing about dents, sold jobs at 3–6x what the techs quoted. The lesson: separate the estimator from the repair, because techs carry head trash about how fast they can fix it. Gene sees the same thing with his front desk.14:12 Shrink tools went from rare to a regular weekly tool. Thinner metal is part of it, and so is guys like Brice Kelly showing what’s possible, so techs now say yes to everything that isn’t broken paint.16:23 Make-it-better repairs. Gene loves them. Keith admits he overfixes them, and he’s willing to entertain the idea that they’re bad business, because putting out less than your capability stings.18:18 The collision comparison: DRP shops work inside insurer constraints, and full-OE shops (Kristen Felder, SCRS) follow every procedure and total a lot of cars. Both are valid business models. Then there’s the gray area of a customer who wants a smaller repair on their own car.21:41 Can you take a Brice Kelly business model and run it at a shop in Canonsburg? It took Brice 10–12 years of perfect work and video to get Rivians dropped off on trailers from 4,000 miles away. Keith’s version of the Ronnie Coleman line: everybody wants to be Brice Kelly, but nobody wants to beat their head against a panel for 14 hours.23:11 Gene: after 24 years in PDR, 13 with a retail presence, and about 8.5 with a brick-and-mortar shop, most of his customers still never heard of PDR before their dent.24:20 Michael Scott’s paper company from The Office: “we’ll make it up on volume.” That’s what it sounds like when you take giant jobs in at half price.25:07 Gene’s process. It’s decided per repair, not per customer. Anchor high and establish value (have you talked to a body shop, or your insurance?). Read the customer. If the deal is slipping, find the lowest number you’d feel good about. Gene’s line: “I could tell you 50 bucks, but I’d just pull it into the shop and back out.”26:55 Every walk-in carries real cost: the location, a Google Ads click, social content from Liv, Shannon on the phones. Keith estimates $50–$200 per person in the door. When Gene last tracked it, DRN was around $40, so he ran a $40 coupon to his email list instead of giving that money to Google. Make-better repairs often pay the best per hour, because you’re doing the easy part of the dent first.31:21 AI. AI answering your leads is great if you truly can’t get to them all, but most shops get 10–50 calls a day, so talk to those people. Keith’s live chat is answered by a bot and works great. Gene is looking at voice AI for when the front desk is tied up.34:09 Keith’s estimator doesn’t have a tech’s x-ray vision. That leads into the protractor close: “Stand right here and it’ll look amazing. Walk down the side and you’ll see the $2,000 of work we’re skipping.”35:41 Gene’s recent example: a $3,000 quarter panel on a three-to-four-year-old Accord. The customer could do $1,000, the shop was empty, and it took about 10 hours. It was a losing job, but better than zero.37:15 The other half of the topic. Is holding yourself to the Brice Kelly ...
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    1 ora e 6 min
  • #94 My 6 Biggest Struggles in Life & Business

    #94 My 6 Biggest Struggles in Life & Business
    Nov 6 2026
    Take two. After losing the first recording to a muted mic, Gene gets real about the six things he struggles with as a PDR business owner, and how some of them turned into his biggest wins. Shiny object syndrome, focus, saying yes to everything, letting go of the work, switching it off, and perfectionism. Plus an archive PDR Marketing Minute on video marketing, and the new Dent Reaper Upper Brace Angels on Tool of the Week. A quick personal note: Gene's mom is recovering from a difficult surgery. If you're the praying type, say a prayer for her. If not, send some good vibes her way. TIMESTAMPED NOTES 00:00 Cold open. Seventeen minutes into the first take, Gene realizes the mic was muted the whole time. Zoom warns you when you're talking on mute. Why doesn't this software? 02:12 Why this one's recorded Thursday night: the promise not to miss a week all year. 02:40 An update on Gene's mom and a request for prayers and good vibes. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: I kept the mom update to one line with no medical details, as you approved. Delete it from the summary if you'd rather leave it in the audio only. 04:43 The shop is booked into December. A full schedule, and a weekend off that he needed. 05:25 Studio upgrades: the sign Keith Cosentino sent (now on a dimmer), a moved shelf, a new spotlight, the Reaper and the Porsche cup courtside, and red accent lighting. Some of it was inspired by the Dent Slayer podcast. Got lighting tips, James Ricci? 06:39 Last week's "When is enough enough?" episode hit home, including with several people outside PDR. 08:04 #1 Shiny object syndrome. Not just shiny tools, but shiny opportunities. A Google Ads management service for PDR? A PDR-specific CRM? "Focus, Gene." Gene is a quick start with weak follow-through, and he knows it. 09:52 Teaser: next week is a dual episode with Keith Cosentino of PDR College, dropping Monday on both channels. It's already recorded, and their pre-call produced its own shiny object. 10:33 #2 Focus. John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire uses the acronym F.O.C.U.S.: Follow One Course Until Success. A real-world example: at the end of last year Gene shut down AAI (Automotive Appearance Institute, his training-only company) and merged it into Dent Repair Now. With one brand to focus on, the content, followers, and email list all grew. 12:20 #3 Saying yes to everything. Every yes is a no to something else. Are you saying yes to the crazy hardcore repairs because they're good business, or because you've seen Brice Kelly, Arlison Guedes, or Jay Ma pull them off? 13:47 The flip side: a call from John Highley inviting Gene to advise PDR Nation. Then a yes to speaking at MTE alongside Myke Toledo and John. He hadn't given a speech since grade school and delivered a 20-minute talk in five. Without those yeses, there's no KECO relationship and no podcast. The takeaway: don't say yes to everything, don't say no to everything, and say yes to the things that make you uncomfortable. 16:14 #4 Letting go of the work. "Good enough and done is better than perfect and undone." Around 2010 Gene micromanaged his first full-time tech so hard it held that tech back. He did it differently with Louie, and it worked. The most freeing hire he ever made was someone to answer the phones. Someone whose whole job is the customer will do it better than an owner who's trying to get back to a dent. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: On air, Gene credits the idea "if you wait till it's perfect, it'll never get done" to Jeff Bezos, and he hedges ("I think it was"). I couldn't confirm Bezos said it, so the written materials use Gene's own phrasing with no attribution. Add Bezos back if you want. 20:02 #5 Switching it off. Gene once took customer calls at Disney World. His trick now: when he gets home, he changes out of the Dent Repair Now shirt and any other dent shirt. Vacations should be required. Your dealers, your customers, and the body shops all take them. Also see the mindset episode from two weeks back, especially the abundance segment. 23:03 #6 Perfectionism. It's part of what makes us good at this crazy little job, and part of what holds us back. Be wise about what you ask of yourself. 24:25 PDR Marketing Minute #14 (archive). Use YouTube to educate customers and build a local-celebrity brand. Customers who call already convinced you can fix their dent are the best kind. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: This Marketing Minute is an archive segment. The original plugs a PDR College webinar that's long over, so nothing here promotes it. Gene says the clip ran out of order: #13 airs on the Monday show. 27:21 If you don't have a YouTube channel, go get one. Gene wants James Ricci on the show to talk about how his PDR Jax channels blew up. The only way to get decent on camera is to put in the reps. 29:02 Tool of the Week: Dent Reaper Upper Brace Angels. A variation on the Hails Angels with an extra upward kick for reaching upper-door dents around braces. Alex Harken brought the design to ...
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    33 min
  • #93 When is Enough, Enough

    #93 When is Enough, Enough
    Oct 27 2026
    Episode #93 — When Is Enough, Enough? No outline, no prepared notes — just Gene working through something that's been weighing on him. A big Phoenix hailstorm and a few conversations with friends who aren't sure they even want to chase it lead to a bigger question: what drives us to always push for more, and is the growth actually worth it? 00:00 — Intro & the New Background Episode recorded Monday afternoon, dropping Tuesday morningPanel Beaters Club shirt on the wall — Thad's Discord community. Stickers and merch started after the haul at PDR ExpoKeith Cosentino surprised Gene with an LED Dent Repair Now logo sign for the set. It needs a dimmer (blows out on camera); new lights are coming next episode 01:55 — Phoenix Hail Big, massive hailstorm hit Phoenix and the surrounding area, including some rough Scottsdale damageDRN had a similar storm back home in 2016 — "not a good time," though there are always pockets of good repairable work 02:20 — When Is Enough, Enough? DRN's default when a storm hits: jump on it and capture as much as possibleA couple of friends in the Phoenix area aren't sure they want to capture everything — the stress may not be worth itThrowback reference: on PDR College, Keith and Shane opened the books on a storm in Redding, CA — numbers, damage, and workflowOn medium storms where DRN brought in techs: great top-line revenue, but after body shop cuts, paying subs, and all the management, Gene has crunched numbers where he'd have been better off doing 10–20 cars himself"If you're not growing, you're dying" — does that actually hold up after 24½ years in the trade?Words of wisdom from a loyal listener: it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. Live within your means so a storm is a choice, not a necessityTying back to last week's mindset episode — the "it's all mine" scarcity thinkingHiring rethink: a couple of tech hires didn't work out — in hindsight, maybe the better answerGene's answer at the PDR Expo roundtable: he wouldn't trade his life, but starting over he might not scale the same way — he might work hard, keep his dollars, and invest in real estate, stocks, or funds instead 09:55 — Capacity & Choosing Not to Chase Last year's storm: DRN was simply at capacity — Jake was gone, Dave was at reduced capacity, and Mack was 14–16 months greener than he is nowGene's friends are choosing not to pursue the big storm for lifestyle and stress reasons — "maybe they have something figured out that I'm still trying to learn"Honest take: with the training side of the business growing, he probably still can't say no to a hailstorm. "Not my first rodeo" 11:30 — The Simplicity of a Tech in a Truck Sometimes Gene looks at the shop overhead — payroll, insurance, tools — and misses the simple daysThe original plan: $3,000 in tools in a gun case in a Chevy S-10, a fog board, a light, a Nokia (Snake!), and an aluminum clipboard with three-part NCR invoicesToday he has $3,000+ in hammers alone. "It's a sickness."But the "good old days" weren't perfect — no vacations without the money stopping"Is this my midlife crisis?" At 50, if this is mid, he'll take the run to 100 13:20 — Volume vs. Writing Each Car Right The same question applies to estimates: take cars as field-written and blow through them (Gene strongly recommends against this), write a really solid sheet, or write every car to the moon and squeeze every nickelFewer cars for more money, or more cars for a little less — where do you fall?"Deep Thoughts with Gene Fetty" — cue the Jack Handey SNL bit 14:55 — Why No Show Yesterday A horrible night's sleep and a foggy day — not even a nap (and Gene is an elite napper) could fix it. Rather than put out a bad show, he waited a day 15:55 — Throwback: PDR Marketing Minute, Episode 12 Originally created November 1, 2016 — almost exactly 10 years agoThe message: every tactic is about driving leads to you. Own your market with all the branches — website, Google listing, Yelp, Facebook page, and reviewsIt's a marathon, not a sprint 18:55 — 10 Years Later: Owning Your Market Back then, DRN held roughly 8 of the 10 first-page Google spots — 100% organic — so Gene turned his ads offThen a customer said they couldn't find him: paid ads (even body shops) were sitting above him. Ads went back on, and DRN has advertised consistently since 2016You still need the pages — even Yelp still ranks in Google. Just tell them to put you on the do-not-call list 21:05 — AI Search Is the New Frontier ChatGPT has reportedly started showing paid ad results in search queries (Gene hasn't seen them on his paid plan)Now you need to create content that feeds what the AIs pick up — someone needs to build a masterclass on itKeith did a presentation on this for the 20 Group 22:15 — New Tool of the Week: Milwaukee M12 Palm Nailer Spotted on Instagram: John Kallenbach from A-1 Tool talking up the Milwaukee M12 palm ...
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    34 min
  • #92 All About Mindsets | No Quit, Abundance, Burn the Ships & the Gene Fetty Effect

    #92 All About Mindsets | No Quit, Abundance, Burn the Ships & the Gene Fetty Effect
    Oct 19 2026
    Gene almost didn't record this week. Between his mom's broken leg, a surgery delayed by a day, and eight-plus hours in a hospital waiting room, he was running on fumes. But you don't only do it when you want to do it. So he sat down, and what came out was a rapid-fire tour of the mindsets he believes separate the techs who make it from the ones who don't. 00:00 Intro: what a week Gene walks through Thursday's X-ray, Friday's 6 a.m. "my leg's broken" call, and Saturday's long surgery. Mom is doing well. A missed duck hunt and some bad Saturday cafeteria food were the price of admission. 04:30 Showing up when you don't feel like it He nearly pushed the show. He doesn't phone episodes in, so the question became: what's the lesson here? The answer was mindset. 05:45 Mindset #1: There is no quit Gene doesn't understand quit. He'll die on the hill first. He believes the reps it takes to learn PDR filter for people who don't give up, and he points to a story from last week's Dent Slayer episode: a group of techs at a restaurant after a toy drive got mistaken for veterans because they looked like a brotherhood that had been through war together. 08:45 "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right" The Henry Ford line, and the Little Engine That Could. If you think you can, you'll figure it out. If you think you can't, you'll find the reasons. 11:00 Doubting a dent, and why your price feeds your mindset Even Gene looks at a dent and starts stacking doubts: tough access, deep, aluminum, sharp body line. He switches himself back to "you're gonna fix it." Then the tie-in to pricing, from the training at The Dent Demon with Derrick: sell a brutal edge repair for $1,200 and the end of a hard day one sounds like "I'm not making anything, I should be doing something else." Sell it near replacement cost (around $3,000) and that same moment sounds like "rough day, but it's coming back. Back-to-back $1,500 days doesn't suck." Same tech, same repair, different dollars behind the decision. 16:15 Zig Ziglar and the moral obligation to sell Gene's favorite Zig Ziglar idea: if you truly believe in your product or service, you have a moral obligation to sell it. He admits he used to think he didn't need that because he "could sell." He couldn't. Once he wholeheartedly believed in PDR, he started walking out the door to every customer, hailstorm, and dealer from that place. 18:45 Believing in what you sell: the KECO system Back when he worked for KECO, Gene still believed nobody had a more complete, well-thought-out glue pull system, and that made it easy to sell. He feels the same about DRN's work. Find your moral belief in what you do, and you can't be stopped. 21:15 Mindset #2: Scarcity vs. abundance Scarcity says hide it, don't show anybody. Abundance says there's enough for everybody: the more techs out there, the more people find out PDR exists. Gene says every decision he made from scarcity or fear went bad, and every time he trusted abundance, he won. 23:00 Chris White and the KECO Tabs 10th anniversary Gene met Chris White at a seminar and got invited as his guest to a training in Oklahoma City, followed by the KECO Tabs 10th anniversary celebration. (KECO Inc. itself just hit 60 years; the tab and body repair division started in 2009.) He booked the flight that day. Chris's abundance-focused speech stuck with him, and Gene credits that mindset as part of KECO's growth. He announced on-air that he's going to get Chris on the show to tell how they hooked up. 25:45 Mindset #3: Burn the ships The pirate flag on Gene's bay wall says "Burn the ships." Land on the island, burn the boats, and now it's win or die. Nobody's actually dying (you can always call Dent Wizard or CarMax), but going all-in changes how hard you fight. MeLissa is the backup-plan person. Gene is not. 28:45 Mindset #4: The Gene Fetty effect MeLissa, Dylan, Dana, Shannon, and Mack named it: Gene expects things to work, and they usually do. Customers come in, the computer gets fixed, it works out. 30:30 The Amsterdam airport story Coming home from Venice on KLM, a delay blew their Amsterdam connection. Kiosk offered tomorrow. A number-and-line desk sent them through passport control (where Gene's passport wouldn't scan) to Delta, which was literally taking the open signs down. What MeLissa didn't know: their daughter had a surprise 25th anniversary party set for the next day. One extremely nice Delta agent and about ten minutes of keyboard-banging later, they had a flight to Boston that night and Pittsburgh the next morning. ⚑ REVIEW: Your daughter is transcribed as "Elena." Confirm spelling. I only used "our daughter" in the public copy. 36:00 Throwback: PDR Marketing Minute #11 An old-school Marketing Minute on professional image: a clean modern website, a real uniform (no cutoff camo shorts and flip-flops), a clean vehicle, organized tools, and a welcoming voicemail. Treat your business like a franchise and people will ask which franchise you ...
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    46 min
  • #91 Play The Long Game

    #91 Play The Long Game
    Oct 15 2026
    t's Wednesday night and Gene's just now recording — but the weekly streak doesn't break. Here's what's in this one. 00:00 Intro — the streak survives — Episode 100 is in sight, and Gene isn't missing a week to get there. 01:00 Fort Lauderdale: The Dent Demon — A few days with Derrick and Grace for advanced training plus a 20 Group mastermind meetup. The crew included Jack Bucknell, Jon Videen, the Dent Reaper, and Nick Prang from Michigan. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Verify spellings: "Jack Bucknell" (and the "Woo man" nickname — keep or cut?), "Nick Prang," and the real name or handle for "the Dent Reaper." None are in the show-links list. 02:00 Sales coaching with Grace — Grace runs the shop side at The Dent Demon while Derrick handles wholesale. Gene spent a day walking her through his customer-interaction and price-anchoring techniques. 03:00 The one-sentence anchor — On significant damage, before quoting anything, Gene asks in passing: "Have you talked to your insurance company yet?" Without saying a number, it tells the customer this isn't a cheap fix. Delivery matters — casual, not loaded. 05:00 Advanced training recap — Carrier plate R&I (a BMW made the glass interesting), lateral tension and unfolding hard-hit metal, sharp creases, shrinky box, aluminum, under-brace and edge repair. Shout-out to Derrick's techs Andy and Paul, and a shop with a seriously good customer lounge. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Confirm "Andy" and "Paul" as the Dent Demon techs. A late-night bar story was mentioned as not podcast-friendly — intentionally left out of all notes. 08:00 Teaching week & PDR Life launch — An advanced collision glue pull class, interviews with potential hires, and the launch of the new PDR Life podcast — 10 episodes on getting into PDR, released all at once. pdrlifepodcast.com 10:00 Listener of the Year: James — A friend and client tagged Gene on Facebook listening to the All Access drop at 7 AM — from the hospital room, the morning after his baby was born. Congrats to James and family. 12:00 PDR College: the labor-rate card — Keith's solo episode on a hard dealer repair with no price set up front. Gene's favorite move in that spot: "What's your shop labor rate? I'll just match it." Two hours at $200 is $400 — and it's hard for the dealer to argue with their own rate. Required listening if you do wholesale. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Gene said "I'll see if we can drop a link" — need the URL for this week's PDR College solo episode. 15:00 Dent Slayer w/ Jeremy Nadeau — Matt Boyette and James Ricci talked content: pushing dents is right-now money; making content is building the commercial that brings future work. Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dent-slayer-podcast/id1763729902 16:00 Play the long game — Dent Repair Now's philosophy from day one: lose a job, lose an account, take one on the chin — the long game always wins. 17:00 Model Y week & the gear trap — Three '26 Model Ys in the shop. Gene admits he gets hung up on multi-cam setups and mics. Meanwhile Mack's phone-shot "my ladies" video is past 42,000 views. Go give Mack's "my ladies" video some love — find it at @dentrepairnow on any social channel. 20:00 Shooting a PSA in real time — Gene walks through the exact Model Y video he shot: hook to camera, flip to the dent, show the buckling inside the aluminum panel, call to action, done. The '26 liftgate is a redesign and doesn't crown up like the '25-and-older. 22:00 Shoot now, edit later — Even if you can't edit, capture the clips. Edit and schedule them when things calm down. 23:00 PDR Marketing Minute #10 — Marketing is everything that happens before the sales call. Take an educational approach so customers show up primed to buy. Gene points to Brice Kelly's edge-repair video as a model. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: This Marketing Minute is a replay from ~10 years ago (the "hailstorm came through town" line is from then). Gene skipped #9 on Yelp. Confirm Brice's YouTube channel is "CFL Dent Repair" and add the edge-repair video link if you want it. 25:00 Education in the age of AI — Gene's take today: educational content matters even more now, because AI tools like Claude, Gemini, Grok and ChatGPT pull from it. An educated customer is the best customer. 27:00 Tool of the Week: Super Straight tabs — Shannon's pick. Black Plague's Super Straight tabs lock into a pyramid-shaped adapter to force a straight pull — and the straighter you pull, the stronger you pull. Thin-face green and thick-face yellow. Not an everyday tab, but nothing pulls a sharp dent sharper. ⚑ EDITOR FLAG: Pricing (blackplaguepdr.com, checked Oct 14, 2026): Super Straight Glue Tab System $229; individual tab packs $31.99; Puller Adapter $24.99–$25.99; Puller Kit (closed & open) $45; Robo Legs $49.95 (listed sale from $149). Confirm before publishing. Gene also said "deadrattabs.com" as a backup URL — verify it resolves. 31:00 The stretched-tab effect ...
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    37 min
  • #90 PDR Expo Tool Haul

    #90 PDR Expo Tool Haul
    Oct 5 2026
    Ten shows away from 100, still not missing a week, still dropping Mondays at 7:00 AM Eastern. New additions to the set: a pink Dent Reaper shirt from the expo, Mack's second-place trophy, last week's Tool of the Week from Alex at PDR Original, the wood knockdown from Thad at Dentproof, Gene's judging badge, and new Dentproof and Black Plague hats (including the "Make Metal Flat Again" hat). EDITORIAL FLAG: "Thaddle" and "the pecker" — Gene's on-air nicknames for Thad's wood knockdown. Kept as spoken in the transcript. Confirm whether the tool has an official product name you want used in notes. 01:50 The (short-ish) PDR Expo tool haul Not a giant haul — a mix of brand-new tools, old favorites, and "old things that are new again." No Tool of the Week this episode because the whole show is tools. 02:30 Dentcraft OG Ultra Thin Whale Tails are back Dentcraft changed the Ultra Thin Whale Tail head a while back to a design with two little tips instead of the fanned-out shape. Not bad tools — just not the same. At the Dentcraft booth, Jennifer confirmed the original-style head is available again. Gene picked up his two favorites: the 10" and a roughly 30–32" in the OG head. Great for getting down in doors, through tight braces, and out to panel edges; bend in an S-curve to bounce off the glass and get out to the panel. Original 10" Ultra Thin Whale Tail (OGWT10) — $64.95 as of 10/4/26: https://www.dentcrafttools.com/10-ultra-thin-wt-1.html Dentcraft Whale Tails: https://www.dentcrafttools.com/whale-tails.html EDITORIAL FLAG: Dentcraft's homepage lists the OG 10" (OGWT10) at $64.95. I could not confirm a product listing for the ~30–32" OG-head version or its exact length. Gene also wasn't sure if more sizes came back. Verify before naming a size/price for the long one. EDITORIAL FLAG: "Jennifer" at the Dentcraft booth — last name/role not stated. Fine as-is unless you want to credit her fully. 07:15 VIP Traction Tips Picked up for Mack after looking at his beginner dent. Screw-on tips with a collar and a small print, similar in concept to Black Plague's micro tips or Dent Slayer's R4-style tip. What makes them special is the cast texture right at the tip — it bites just enough to keep the tool from dragging when you're pushing up and in at an awkward angle. Think micro-hedgehog, but for traction, not shrinking. Gene uses them weekly at minimum. VIP PDR Tools — Traction Pushing Tips (#2, #4, #6, #8 sizes; from $40 each): https://vippdrtools.com EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene calls it a "three-piece set" in small/medium/large. VIP's site currently lists the 3/8" Traction Pushing Tips individually as #2, #4, #6, #8 (plus "Mini" versions), starting at $40 — I didn't find a 3-pack listing. Confirm which product to point to. EDITORIAL FLAG: "Peter" — VIP's founder. VIP's own site references him as "Piotr." Keeping "Peter" since that's how Gene says it on-air; your call for written notes. 10:00 VIP chain hunt + the purple leather knockdown tip The team went looking for VIP's hanging chain for Mack's leverage point, but Andre, solo at the VIP booth, had sold out. They borrowed one from Anson instead. Then a slightly underused VIP gem: the purple leather tip. VIP labels it a blending tip, but Gene uses it as a knockdown nearly daily — it "murders" medium crowns like a standard fender crown or a hip check above a door body line. It's essentially a pool cue tip: when the leather pops off, re-glue it, or order a pack of pool tips and replace/shape your own. A new set went into Mack's kit. VIP PDR Tools — Leather Blending Tips set ($75) / Hook Chain & Captain Hook Set ($43): https://vippdrtools.com EDITORIAL FLAG: Gene says "I think Mack bought like a three-tip set" of the leather tips. VIP's Leather Blending Tips Set is listed at $75; set count not confirmed. Also listed: Leather Heads set ($145) and individual L/XL leather heads — confirm which one is "the purple" tip. EDITORIAL FLAG: Transcript: "Is DBAP still there?" — unclear what "DBAP" refers to (sounds like a glue/adhesive name). Please clarify or cut from written notes. 12:20 OG Glexo full cold glue set (via Anson PDR) Ironically, for all the cold glue pulling Gene's done, he'd never owned the full set of Glexo steel tabs — he ran the plastic KECO/Glexo tabs from his KECO days. Christina at Anson PDR loaned out a full cold glue spread for Gene's expo talk, and the one item he used that wasn't brand new was the original Glexo set, so he bought it. Skinny crease, fat crease, small round (~1¼") and big round (~2"). Black Glexo is still a weekly shop staple — light creases, finishing, and the right kind of bigger dent. Gene believes he's still on the same black stick he bought in 2019. Reminder: cold glue isn't for starting every dent. Be smart about it. Glexo Full Set — 4 tabs and cold glue, Anson PDR ($290 as of 10/4/26): https://ansonpdr.com/products/glexo-cold-glue-pdr EDITORIAL ...
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    42 min
  • #89 The PDR Expo and The Competitions

    #89 The PDR Expo and The Competitions
    Sep 28 2026
    Episode 89 — PDR Expo 2026 and the Competitions Gene recaps PDR Expo 2026 at the Rio in Las Vegas, recorded the day after a red-eye home, and brings back six interviews from the show floor plus a Tool of the Week and the competition results. 00:00 Intro — Recorded in the basement after the red-eye home. Heads up on audio levels: the on-camera mics were running hot at the show, so some segments may be louder or quieter. 00:01 PDR Expo 2026 at the Rio — Likely the biggest PDR Expo yet and the first at the Rio. Comparison to the Plaza and Fremont Street. Lunch in Chinatown, the food hall, the lobby bar where everyone gathered, and the rooftop cigar bar. ⚑ FLAG: "Dave Chalotte" (lunch in Chinatown) — first-time name, spelling unverified. 00:03 Shout-outs and the small-show advantage — Thanks to Mike Glidewell (Dent Mate) for the cigar and Jon Videen for the drinks. Why smaller shows give more networking and unhurried education. ⚑ FLAG: Verify "Mike Glidewell" spelling and whether "Dent Mate" is his company (it's also the name of estimating software referenced later). 00:03 Round table and glue pull talk — Friday round table of about nine techs, led by Keith Cosentino and organized by Kevin Bird. Saturday: Gene's glue pull double session, roughly an hour and 45 minutes with plenty of Q&A. Feels like old-school MTE in the early 2010s at the Caribe Royale. ⚑ FLAG: "Kevin Bird" — verify spelling. 00:05 Competitions preview — GOAT competition damage was brutal; beginners damage much harder than last year. PDR Marketing Minute returns next week. 00:06 New shaved tools from DentCraft — John Yeager and Brandon Schmitz collaborated on a new set of shaved tools through DentCraft. Gene ordered a set after seeing them in the elevator line; expect a future Tool of the Week. ⚑ FLAG: Verify "John Yeager," "Brandon Schmitz," and "Deacon" (one of Matt Boyette's sons). Also confirm Matt's surname spelling — the transcript uses both "Boyett" and "Boyette." 00:07 Interview: Žan Vidic — GOAT competition — The GOAT competition is open to top-three finishers from Dent Olympics in Orlando; five competitors. Sixty seconds to view the damage, no lights, no touching, no photos. Two hours of repair split into two one-hour blocks with a 10-minute break. The damage: a hood hit perpendicular to a body line with a tight, sharp crown driven down into the concave and a secondary impact, roughly 8" x 4". No wet sanding. Žan's plan: glue-tab tension on the body line to help the metal flow, with soft pushes, the same approach taught at Level Up. Tension costs setup and cool-down time, but without it push marks are almost guaranteed. ⚑ FLAG: "Wei Wu" (competitor, won in Canada) — spelling unverified. Žan's "Trying to stay ahead of Jack" joke left as-is — not sure who Jack is. 00:12 Interview: Vinnie D'Alessandro, Anson PDR — BLE X light stand — Debut of the BLE X light stand, a year-long collaboration with BLE, who flew in from England. Height range roughly 3.5 to 9.5 feet, strong locking joint, push-button height adjustment, integrated battery tray and water ballast bag. Works with X-Factor or Stuckey lights. Pricing (from ansonpdr.com): stand only $849. Combos with Elimadent lights and Never Loose run $1,675 to $1,751. Listing specs a 45" minimum and 9.5 ft maximum height; batteries not included. ⚑ FLAG: Product listing still says "Available Mid September" — confirm it's shipping. Vinnie says 3.5 ft on-air; the listing says 3.75 ft. The blog says "about three and a half feet" per Vinnie; adjust if you want the spec. 00:14 Battery on board and plug lock — The Elimadent battery on board (previously the Hail Stand Receiver Adapter) is getting a clamp mod to fit the new stand. The plug lock keeps the light's male plug from popping out while you adjust. ⚑ FLAG: Transcript had "Limidant" / "IllumiDent" — corrected to Elimadent (the brand Anson carries). Confirm "plug lock" isn't the same product Anson sells as "Never Loose." 00:16 Tequila Compact HUB line — Grew from about two tools to around 130–135 in six to eight months, heading past 200. The Econoline handle locks solid with no play, converts to a mini T-handle, and gives a thumb-push position Gene likes on hand tools. 3/8" shaved tools deliver strong drive on European cars. Swoop Compact HUB Interchangeable (link provided): $99 (17"), $109 (21"), $119 (24"), all 3/8" diameter, with a Black Gold morph tip. ⚑ FLAG: The Swoop link is a 3/8" compact hub tool. Verify: "Econoline" handle name, "Hail's Angels" (Dent Reaper — transcript says "Hales Angels"), and "Craig Dyer." 00:19 Anson app — Order through the Anson PDR app to get the glue of the month. 00:20 Interview: Noah Hebert, Dent Ops — Match-O-Matic — Built internally to match insurance approvals against your estimate line by line, even across formats (MobileTechRX or DentMate to CCC or Mitchell). Spot ...
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • #88 Mentorship

    #88 Mentorship
    Sep 21 2026
    Episode 88 - Gene's Back to the Future joke included. He and the team leave in a couple of days for PDR Expo, which he says feels like old-school MTE: you can slow down, sit and talk with friends, and not feel like you missed everybody. Roundtable Friday morning with a stage full of knowledge Saturday: two-part cold glue class - classroom talk first, then live demos pulling people up from the audience If you have not bought tickets yet, what are you waiting for? 02:00 - Shout-outs Eric, the Bearded Dent Guy - Gene picked up some gear from him this week and is wearing the hat Hat tip to the Ginger Bros, specifically Brandon Schmitz and his wife Mandy. The industry is stepping up to help them; Gene encourages listeners to check out Brandon's social media and lend a hand if they can 03:00 - Topic: mentorship A 10-year technician came in for a class this week. Good tech, but like so many of us, he went through training and then spent his career trying to figure it out. He told Gene, "You've got this." Gene's answer: he spent 14 years (2002 to 2016) not having it figured out - and is not claiming to have it all figured out now. These are just dent guy problems and we all have to solve the same stuff. 04:00 - Keith Cosentino and the 12-week program Gene and Keith connected on doring.com, saw each other at MTE, and Gene is a big fan of the PDR College podcast When Keith announced business coaching, Gene signed up - he thinks it was a 12-week program Gene calls it perhaps the most formative 12 weeks of his career. Not so much on the physical repair side - on the business side and the life side; it changed a lot of his processes Big takeaway: you can beat your head against the wall, or you can find a mentor and buy your way into knowledge He says he would not have made it into the shop with employees without Keith. Hiring Jennifer to answer the phones and take phone work off his plate was 'priceless' 06:00 - Elite performers have coaches Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan both leaned on coaches. If the elite still rely on coaches to improve and stay sharp, why aren't more of us investing in ourselves? Gene recalls a conversation with a friend, Dave: in PDR you go to school, maybe have a mentor for a while, and then you get kicked out of the nest to figure it out on your own. 07:30 - The student who had never used a shrinky box The class was all physical skills. The student had never seen or used a shrinky box Shrinky boxes have been out about 8-10 years (Gene bought his around '17-'18) and many techs still do not know how to use them; most do not come with instructions Gene credits the Black Plague box for shipping with instructions, and thanks Keith for putting one out there that works so well Glue pull: on nearly identical damage the student needed about 12 pulls to Gene's one. After Gene showed his technique, the next dent took a couple of pulls instead of a dozen 09:00 - Training options at every level You do not have to pay for advanced training - but you do need to know you can be better and faster. Gene names a range of places to learn: Advanced training: a week with Bryce, or a day or two with Gene or Matt Boyett Hail: a program from 'Jean' called Hail Pro, packed with the tips he uses to be an efficient hail tech. Gene says the guy shuts shops down because everyone wonders how he moves so fast, and a friend said he is like having three really good hail techs in one Myke Toledo's Dent Trainer - tons of tutorials Advanced Skills Seminar - Gene has been to all but two. The last one, at Anson, may have been the best yet; he learned a lot watching how Bryce worked. Not sure Keith and Chad will bring it back. Skipped: the first one, and the one at Corey Kleinfeld's shop in Sacramento Business coaching: Gene's own coach Becky, who was in Pittsburgh for years, has hung it up and is splitting time between Florida and Pittsburgh - so he needs to find a new business coach 12:00 - Discussion: are you investing in yourself? Gene thanks everyone who texts about the topic of the week - it is why he does the podcast. The question for the week: are you investing in yourself and learning, and if not, what's holding you back? PDR pays so well that it is easy to think we are better at business than we actually are, and get lulled to sleep You can make more in a day and work fewer hours by building skills - physical, and business (sales, marketing, advertising, bookkeeping, finance) The trade gives us a really big shovel (Dave Ramsey line) to make big moves when we are smart about it 14:00 - The rant, and the moral Gene calls it a ranty episode, but only because he cares. He wants more people to make the changes he sees in his students and mentees - and is not saying they have to come to him. Some conversations have changed people's outlook on business and life, how they run their shop, brought more money through the door, and gotten rid of their head trash. Moral ...
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    29 min