Kyriakos Zlatkos
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Kyriakos Zlatkos, known as Charlie Z, arrived in the United States in 1993 with four words of English and $200 in his pocket. Raised in Greece by parents who instilled hard work and honesty, he started as a mechanic and spent ten and a half years running a gas station garage completely alone. In 2010, the day his daughter was born, he quit his job to open his own shop. He later met mentor Todd, who challenged him to shift from a gas-station mindset to "auto hospitality." In 2018, with an empty bank account, Kyriakos wrote himself a million-dollar check and kept it in his medicine cabinet until he could cash it in 2020.
Today Kyriakos leads a $90-million auto group with locations in Boston and Houston, along with a training company, recruiting company, call center, and media center. He coaches repair shop owners through his 10 Trust Points system, teaching them to turn repair shops into hospitality businesses and rebuild operations in as little as 60 to 90 days. His mission is to transform the auto repair industry by replacing distrust with genuine customer care, and to help other shop owners reach millionaire status through his Auto Hospitality platform and "Master Tech to Millionaire" podcast.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
- How Kyriakos Zlatkos turned four words of English and two hundred dollars into a ninety-million-dollar auto group.
- Why hard work and honesty from his Greek upbringing became the foundation of his leadership.
- That spending ten and a half years alone in a gas station garage forged his resilience and discipline.
- How a million-dollar check in the medicine cabinet kept his focus on a bigger future.
- Why Kyriakos calls them Trust Points instead of Touch Points to change customer relationships.
- How the mid-warranty call brings customers back and deepens their trust in the shop.
- That taking control away from technicians at the front counter improves the customer experience.
- How pairing high technology with higher customer contact transforms the way repair shops operate.
- Why Kyriakos can rebuild a struggling repair shop in as little as sixty to ninety days.
about the show
Made It In America is an entrepreneur TV series featuring foreign-born founders, immigrant entrepreneurs, business leaders, and visionaries who came to America and built something meaningful through resilience, ambition, and hard work.
Each episode takes viewers inside the founder story behind the business, showing the challenges, sacrifices, decisions, and breakthroughs that shaped each guest’s journey. From arriving with limited resources to building companies, creating jobs, entering competitive markets, and earning credibility, these stories reveal what it takes to succeed in America.
The series highlights entrepreneurs across industries who turned their background, culture, work ethic, and lived experience into a competitive advantage.
Made It In America celebrates the builders who brought their dreams, skills, and determination to the American market and used them to create business success, personal freedom, and lasting impact.
For featured guests, the series provides a platform to share their journey, build authority, and inspire others through the story of what they built in America.
