From Sweeping Floors to Three Locations, Doug Martin's Leadership Journey

What does it take to go from sweeping floors in your dad's body shop to owning and operating three collision repair locations? In this episode of BodyShop Leaders, host Daniel Burkholder sits down with Doug Martin, second-generation owner of Martin's Body Shop in southern Indiana, to unpack a leadership journey built on hard work, family legacy, and the courage to take action.

Doug shares what growing up in the shop really taught him — even when he didn't realize he was learning. He opens up about earning respect from a team that watched him grow up, the pivotal process change that eliminated the daily chaos of rushing cars out the door, and why he purchased his first additional location in May 2020 — right in the middle of COVID — and wouldn't change a thing.

You'll walk away with insights on building a culture that retains employees for decades, using OEM certifications to boost technician pride and repair quality, creating bonus programs that give your team skin in the game, and knowing when to stop planning and start doing.

Doug also shares why he's spent 10 years advocating for shops and consumers through the Indiana Autobody Association — and why more shop owners need to step up.

If you're a collision repair shop owner looking for honest, no-fluff leadership advice from someone who's lived it, this episode is for you.

The BodyShop Leaders Podcast is powered by BodyShop Marketing, the agency helping collision industry leaders grow smarter and lead stronger.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, if we can spend more time on the front end of this to set us up for success, we're gonna have the outcome we want. We're gonna be able to communicate with the customer better and not have these. Hey, it's 4 30. The customer's in the office is his car completed, and there's five of us in the shop run to the back and watch the vehicle while the customer is standing there waiting for us.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Welcome to Body Shop Leaders, the podcast where we highlight the people shaping the future of the collision repair industry, not just through tools and technology, but through leadership. I'm Daniel Burkholder, and today I'm joined by Doug Martin, second generation operator, owner of Martin's Body Shop in southern Indiana, and a leader involved at the state level through the Indiana Autobody Association. Doug grew up in the shop, stepped away to earn a degree in public affairs, came back as an estimator, moved into management, and ultimately took ownership. Since then, he's expanded locations, invested heavily into training and certifications, and stepped into advocacy when the industry needed a voice. Doug, welcome to Body Shop Leaders.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Daniel, it's great to be here. I really appreciate you having me on and looking forward to just telling the story. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Excellent. I am excited to hear more. So, Doug, we're just going to dive right in. Take us back to high school. What did sweeping floors and being around the shop teach you about work and leadership before you ever had a title?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Gosh, early on, Daniel, it was more about earning some dollars. Wanted to hop in the car and go do the things with my friends and have toys and just be able to have a good time like any high school-aged kid would want to do. At that time, it was really just one my dad and my parents both wanted me to be a hard worker and provide for myself. And they didn't want to have to pay for all my gas and all the things that I wanted to do. And that's always been a driving force for me is to not be reliant on others to be able to provide for myself and now provide for my family. But in hindsight, I didn't really understand what I was learning at that time and building those relationships with the team. At that moment in my life, if I think back to it, it was more about just getting a paycheck and putting some dollars in the bank. But really, it was so much deeper than that, and building relationships and just gaining that insight from the employee perspective to what their leader at the time, which was my dad, and how he did things, and then later on to learn why he did things. And just immeasurable to really help me understand like the leadership perspective now. It's really come a long way since then, for sure, in the thought processes mindset. But definitely wouldn't be here without those experiences and the people that we had on our team at that time.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Understood. That is really cool. And I think you're exactly right. You as a young boy, you were learning more than you realized. You just needed some spending money, but yet you were getting to see the behind the scenes, how your dad was leading, which is I'm sure you're grateful for now.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Absolutely right. Yeah, it's hard to understand that as an 18-year-old kid, but now we think back to that, unfortunately, we have a number of those employees that I grew up with that are still on our team, which is just it's phenomenal to see their growth in it as well, and just to be able to be their leader now as they've been mentors and almost like uncles and older brothers to me for so many years. So it's really come full circle, and I think we all would have the same sentiment with that. So that's what makes it special.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

That is incredible. So, Doug, you went away and went to university. You graduated with a public affairs degree. You really could have gone anywhere. You didn't have to come back to the collision repair industry. Just talk to us a little bit why you came back or what pulled you back.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah. Deep down, I always wanted to do my own thing and be a leader in my own business and be able to help shape whatever that looks like for people alongside of me. Just having that opportunity and being able to work for my parents and work with my dad was just a special thing and was always drawn to that. Going to college, it was a huge thing. It was important to my mom. Obviously, it was important to me too. But not only just getting the education, but really getting out of the house and learn to live on my own was a big piece of growing up. So managing my own finances and doing my own laundry, trying to keep myself and my room clean and all that without someone being on me all the time and just having that freedom was a special experience in its own right. Just in the back of my mind, always wanting to come back home and take the business over someday. It was just something that was always just what I wanted to do. It was what I felt was important. And honestly, at that time, a lot of it, just back to what it was with that spending money. I saw that my parents were successful with it, my dad was successful with it, and I wanted that same feeling and that same success that he had. So I was drawn to that, and it's really come a lot further than that, which I'm sure we're going to get into, than just making a good paycheck. It really is much, much more than that in today's mindset for me and my whole team.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

That's incredible. But to hear that side of your story where you saw your parents, they modeled that success for you, and now you came back, and now you're taking it further and building on that. So when you moved from Estimator into management, was there a leadership moment or time where you realized, okay, this is on me now. The box dots here.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Gosh, there were lots of those moments over the years. And I'm not sure your experience and if you've worked with family or not. My dad was a tough customer, I would say. He was set up to know exactly where he needed to be and the way things would happen, and really just a methodical plan of if we do this and we make this happen and get this number of cars, then this is where we're going to be. And really just not necessarily having a budget that he followed per se on paper, but he knew everything and where it was and how it needed to be. So that was a big hurdle. Helping to understand how we can not just be successful for ourselves, um, but it was really starting to communicate a lot with the team and fostering those relationships that I built as one of them, as whether it was sweeping the floor or prepping, and at the time learning how to trim in panels or helping a technician that got injured one summer and learning how to weld and do a little bit of body work and being in the paint booth, a lot of building those relationships with the team through the years helped shape the moments of understanding to come to my dad and say, Hey, there's some things that I think we can make some changes that's gonna really help us take off like a rocket ship. And those were hard conversations. I estimated for around I would say seven to eight years, I think it was, before I really could make any decisions. I would make suggestions based off of outcomes that weren't as favorable as we wanted them to be, based upon the guidelines that I was operating in that my dad given me. A lot of it was just that communication with him to say what I learned from it was one, not to back down when you continue to have the same challenge. Like it's not going the way we want it to go. We're not obtaining the outcomes we want to see for either our team or our customer. We might need to change some things. And that approach with him, I had to be very clear and cautious at the same time. One to somewhat formulate a plan and then be able to sell the outcome. It wasn't just this is not working, like I don't want to do this anymore. It was more like, I believe if we make these changes, the a big thing that we did in 2014, we actually learned from several different people in the industry about actual blueprinting instead of just giving a technician a vehicle to start on. It was more, hey, if we can spend more time on the front end of this to set us up for success, we're gonna have the outcome we want. We're gonna be able to communicate with the customer better and not have these, hey, it's 4:30. The customer's in the office is his car completed, and there's five of us in the shop run to the back and watch the vehicle while the customer is standing there waiting for us. That those were big things that big hurdles to overcome. And it was really about formulating a plan to have that discussion instead of being a kid saying, This is dumb or this isn't working and we need to do this now. It was learning that process of the communication with with someone who knew what worked for him. So those were some big pieces of it. Blueprint was a huge one. Figured if in learning from others, if we could blueprint cars and schedule, we would fix a lot of our problems that we were having. And just learning to communicate with my dad on the why behind it and the things that would get better around it, and that helped sell it a lot easier than just pupping my chest up saying, get out of my way, let me have the reins. It was a learning process, it didn't happen overnight, obviously, but it definitely shaped how we all operate now. We give our teams those abilities, and that's helped formulate the culture that we have, me listening and helping understand the team's points just from those experiences then.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Man, that's awesome. And I I'm not even quite sure how to recap what you said, Doug, but I think what I really hear you saying, or what I take away from it, is you being able to respect your dad's position and also bring some new ideas to the table and how to communicate that in a way that uh he's receptive to it and willing to let you try it or let you lead that. That's a really big thing for us. Okay, I'm gonna say us young people to learn, but sometimes we do have some good ideas, but we need to learn how to communicate that to maybe the leadership team of our good ideas. Amazing. Let's just keep going down this road. I feel like my next question, you started covering it off already. Family businesses are unique, and I grew up around family business all my life. What was harder? Learning the business or earning the respect of the team that you knew since you were 10 years old, let's say.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Gosh, I'm not sure that either one was harder than the other. I really think it just comes down to putting in the work to earn the respect on both ends. As a young individual coming into it, it's not that I thought I knew everything, I just wanted to fix it now. Change doesn't scare me at all. And in a lot of our generation, I'll say, younger generation, we don't necessarily get just stuck in the rut of this is just how we do things and this is how we operate. It's these are the challenges that we're having. Let's find solutions and overcome that. And just doing those things, and I think with my past experience and growing up in the shop, I think the team it became natural as I transitioned into that more management role, just because I was an advocate for a better workplace. And it wasn't that it was bad, but just to give them some more options, give them, for instance, we built a bonus program. Our technicians have always been hourly, which can be good, bad, or indifferent. But it's really all how it's managed, no matter what pay plan it is. And it's just about how the leadership handles that communicates with the teams, and it just implementing that bonus program to give them some skin of the game. Really, it's instead of we're just gonna go through and put our 40 hours in this week. Now we gave them an a chance to make it worthwhile and not just because Mr. Jones was on the phone and upset because we'd not give them any updates or that we've missed six parts or whatever it might be. It was just now we really we want to get it done because it matters, and not that our teams didn't care about that, they did because we have and always have had amazing people on our teams. But that piece of it and just advocating to help them get something from it too, and that was just one thing. We've implemented a lot of change over the course of years that I've been involved and been a part of it, but it's just going to back for the team, it comes natural to me. Um, and it just was something that it was almost easy, I guess you would say, because I think they realized they know that I had their best interest in mind because I would listen to them and help shape their ideas into where we are now. That piece of it, I would say came pretty natural. The learning the business of it was, I guess, a little bit of a struggle. I don't want to say struggle, it's just the industry changes so so frequently, staying fluid with that, and a lot of that that the help there has just come from being involved, like you said, with the say the Indian Autobody Association. We've been involved with paint groups and different 20 groups over the years, and just integrating myself into that instead of just going through the day-to-day writing estimates and ensuring the customers' needs are met. There's a lot out there and resources out there that we've tapped into to stay in the front of things, and that's helped tremendously learning the business and learning how to be a better leader and a better body shop owner.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

It's amazing. I love that. Let's just talk a little bit more about I think it was in 2019 when the ownership officially transitioned to you from the family business. You bought that. What changed internally? And I'm not necessarily talking operationally, but more in the way you thought about it. Is there anything that you have to share about?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Honestly, just freedom to take the bull by the horns. I was ready, my dad was ready. And it just, I remember the feeling of hiring an additional person without having to go through the, I don't want to say that the hoops of it, but have the tough conversations of the we can't do that. Or well, that it's not worth it at this time, or it's just I don't want to interview people now. It was one of the first things was is bringing on a full-time parts person, as crazy as that sounds in today's world, of how many administrative staff that it takes to operate, just the freedom to make those decisions on my own and own it, right? Just that decision was wrong or indifferent. And then the freedom to pivot when necessary. I really I think of it, it's similar like getting your driver's license, right? You're trapped, you're always waiting on somebody for something to help you get from here to there. But at that moment, when you get the keys, it's your decisions now to make good decisions and run with it and make it what you want.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Incredible. So since then, Doug, you have grown to another location in I believe is it Clarksville. And what did you do with your systems and your culture and your leadership before you felt you were ready to grow into that?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

So we actually have three stores. So the second store, yeah. The second store was our Georgetown location, which operates under the Martins name, also. Really, I would say that was just an opportunity that came in front of me. It really got to the point where we had some amazing team members that if I was the one that continued to write estimates and we just had what we had, those people were going to top out very quickly. So having some incredible people on the team really just pushed me to do better for not just me, but for them. So that second location was our Georgetown store, which we bought in May of 2020, which might sound a little crazy at the middle of COVID. We believed, and it wasn't that we did a great deal of operational change or system changes, which we learned probably would have been a better idea to do. But had we sat in a meeting room or office room and pondered upon what we needed to do, we may not be where we are. So we really just uh I looked at the opportunity as a whole um and just realized how it would help us long term with our goals and where we wanted to be and where I wanted to grow, and I was able to purchase that on my own. So that's another thing for me. It was just that those goals that I have for myself, and it presented itself at at a time when we had, like I said, an amazing staff that was able to rise up and help me conquer that scenario. So a handful of things there, but a lot of it was just the right opportunity was in front and we were ready to go, so we made it happen. Now, the third store with Clarksville did add some complexity, obviously, with it's pretty simple to split or a little bit easier to split time at two locations that are about 15 to 20 minutes apart. And before we went to the third store, it was a similar scenario where we had great people that we were ready to grow again, and then the opportunity presented itself and we put the boots on and went to work again. So it's really been an evolution. And I wouldn't say we put the cart before the her horse per se, but it's one of those things, too, that if we didn't take action on it and just tried to sit and make a plan and make it perfect, how long was that going to take us to do? Would we be where we are? So we like I said earlier, a little bit more of take the bull by the horns, and then we built processes around it. And I think it's been important for us to do it that way to some extent because all of our stores are a little bit different in how they're laid out. So we do have to have a little bit of flexibility in our process just based upon space requirements and the amount of people we have in each store. So our small store, we have several people that do several different roles because they're smaller, so we can't one have the staff and two don't have the space for it. And when you we don't process as many vehicles, you don't need to have as many people, so we just had people wear different hats. We have built process and have much better SOPs now than when we first went on that journey, and that was once again out of necessity. If someone else were asking me if we would do it differently, I would absolutely say no. We would still just strap up and go get to work.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I love that. Action takers are winners. Like you just went and took action and you learned and you reiterated and you made SOPs based on what you learned. You can sit there and, like you said, you could have sat in the office and discussed this for years and never have done anything. So I think that's awesome. I love action takers. That probably just fits with my personality. I know there's different ways of doing it. I'm not saying that thinking about it and taking your time is probably good too. Let's talk a little bit about you. Have really gone down the road, Doug, of certifications, training, making sure that your repairs are OEM repair procedures. Why is raising this standard worth the extra work and the friction that it may cause?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, so that was something that my dad instilled for me from the get-go. It was always about upping the standards and providing incredible quality for our and at the time, I believe the first certifications that we went down that road was when the Ford brought out the new aluminum truck. Uh, Ford and General Motors and Chrysler and Nissan had their certification programs through what was Assured Performance. We believed that at that moment that was the direction we wanted to go to show our customers how important it was that we had the right tooling for a new technology. And that was the way that we we went down that journey and started that journey there. What we didn't realize is how important it was for the culture of our team and for them to then get the training and not just have to do it because we needed some plaque on the wall. It then became part of our culture and who we are to make sure that the cars are fixed correctly. And we always believed that it was correct. But about that was really about the tipping point when we began to understand repair procedures, how important it is to follow the what the vehicle manufacturer tells us to do for the safety and the construction of the vehicle. Really, I can't speak enough about how important that is in our culture and how much our teams believe in it. When we bring in, say, a new employee that's not been in a culture like that, we start to see their mind shift pretty quickly as they understand our why and understand why the repair procedures are important. And then they see what the outcome is and how much more confident they can feel in the repairs because they followed what the engineers who built that vehicle for safety for safety purposes, they understand it better. So it's really gone from what we thought was just okay, we're Going to get this certification because it's new technology to come full circle for our teams to really buy into it and then be able to hang their hat on the fact that they know that they've put out something that they can stand behind and that we know is going to operate like it's supposed to.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Love that aspect that you brought out about the technicians being able to be proud of what they do and the work that they perform. I don't know if I'd ever really thought of that aspect before, but it makes so much sense that they can they get this training and then they go out and they can feel good about these safe repairs they're doing. That's excellent.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yeah, it's it really has a whole other dynamic to our entire culture.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

I can believe that. Let's talk a little bit about your involvement in the Indiana Autobody Association. So you've been active there and around legislative conversations. What did that experience teach you about courage and speaking up for the industry?

SPEAKER_00 22:59

A lot. The IABA Indiana Autobody Association, actually, this is year 10 for me being involved there. A lot of the learning points are that the average person, be it a legislative individual or we live in this world, a lot of the shop owners and technicians, they've been in it forever. So it's natural to us to understand what we're talking about and understand with be it vehicle construction or technology or refinished process, and talking to others, they don't understand that. So being an advocate on not only for body shops, but for consumers is we don't realize how important it is until you get involved there. And I'm just I just felt compelled with the challenges that we see in the day-to-day body shop industry to go to bat, not just for the industry, not just for the consumer, for the industry to help us continue to be able to do the right thing without having that outside pressure that we say this a lot, and that can often make good people do bad things. So it just really was important to be able to go have a voice. And it's obviously this platform that I get to be on each day as a business owner in the body shop industry. Just what better platform to be able to go make a change, make a difference? And to me, that that was just I just felt compelled to do that because of having the understanding of the industry and just we need more and more people to continue to have a voice for the consumers and for the shops.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Amazing. I have a leadership question for you, Doug. So looking back, what decision tested you the most and what did it teach you about who you are as a leader?

SPEAKER_00 24:50

I think that the biggest decision was to grow to a second location, and really it helped instill that trust in my team to know that I could step away, um, to go down the road. It is a long, drawn-out process that's gonna that pulled me away for a lot of time. It might not have been weeks at a time, but half a day here, half a day there. But just to really be able to understand and trust that the people that we have in the places are gonna take care of our customers and take care of each other. That was a huge thing. And once again, we've got such great people, and that's absolutely no joke. So just to be able to step away and make that leap of faith was a big thing. And it went from just taking over your dad's business, my dad's business, to go do something that was fresh and new on my own, really just helped light that fire, right? And once it took off, and you see the fruits of your labor start to grow and grow more great individuals at another location and serve another community, just really did help build that confidence in myself as a business owner, and not just with me, but in and my team. They saw that they were making decisions when I wasn't there and it and not just simple part decisions, but when is to make the decision to do whatever it takes to do just we say this all the time, just to do the right thing and without having to get some level of approval.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Amazing. That was a big decision that you made to purchase another location, but like you said, it was already such an opportunity for you to go out there and grow and the team then the opportunity that gave to them to also try out some leadership and making decisions. There are shop owners listening right now who feel overwhelmed, insurance pressure, staffing issues, economic uncertainty. What would you say to the leader who's questioning whether they're built for this?

SPEAKER_00 27:00

What I would say is stick to what you know is right. So we have three core values that we live by. And the first one is do everything with the best of your ability and perform excellence. And the second thing, I just said it a minute ago, is just do the right thing. And the third is show people you care. And those three things, we can pretty well answer about any question that we're having, and whether it be an uncertainty, whether it be a decision for something that the customers need or something that needs to happen, a challenge that's happening in the workplace. And I think that's a big piece for me and for us is just find those things that you your core values and stick to that. There's so much pressure on a lot of different sides for us. And I think there's more to it than just fixing cars. And what I also say is lean on your team. You've got individuals around you, it's not just you there alone, you know, and not that you have to give them everything and just walk away from it per se, but they're they understand a lot of challenges on their own end, and they have a lot of solutions for us. We don't always do a great job at helping them understand that they do matter and that they have so much to give, not just as a technician and/or whatever their efforts are, working with their hands and their minds. They have so much to help with. So rally the troops, rally the team, and they'll definitely be there to help push through any in those tough challenges.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

That's great encouragement. Just rally the team, stick to your core values, do what's right. Great words of encouragement. Doug, we have one final recurring question that I ask here and the body shop leaders. What does being a body shop leader mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Gosh, being a body shop leader really is it goes back to those core values, right? I we always live on those three things, and just being an advocate for our team, being an advocate for our customers, being an advocate for the industry, being there to support other shops. There, there's so many facets to being in a position of leadership, and that doesn't mean that you have to be an owner, that you could be an estimator and can get involved. You can be a technician and get involved. There's so many things. For me in particular, it's just being there to help others grow and whatever facet that may be. Is it someone that's in exit mode and they're trying to make their business better so that they can sell their business easier? Is it a technician that's trying to find better training because maybe they've not been exposed to it? It's just being there for the other people in the industry and being resourceful to help them continue to grow. So, really, it's all about serving the others, serving the industry, our customers, our teams, employees, however, we can do that.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Ugh, this has been very powerful, and I appreciate your honesty. And I know our listeners will too. So I thank you very much for taking the time today to come on our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Daniel, I really appreciate you having me. I've enjoyed this and glad to get to know you and put a face with the name, actually talk to you. But I really enjoyed it and looking forward to getting to know you better. So thank you. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

You are very welcome. So, to everyone listening, leadership in this industry doesn't happen by accident. It happens in the tough conversations, the standards you refuse to lower, and the courage to keep growing when it would be easier to coast. So if you got value from today's episode, share it with another shop owner who needs to hear it. This is Body Shop Leaders, powered by Body Shop Marketing, helping collision shops grow smarter. We will see you next time.