Auto Care ON AIR
"Auto Care ON AIR" is a candid podcast dedicated to exploring the most relevant topics within the auto care industry. Each episode features insightful discussions with leading experts and prominent industry figures. Our content is thoughtfully divided into four distinct shows to cover four different categories of topics, ensuring collective professional growth and a comprehensive understanding of the auto care industry.
The Driver's Seat: Navigating Business and the Journey of Leadership
To understand organizations, you need to understand their operators. Join Behzad Rassuli, as he sits down for in-depth, one-on-one conversations with leaders that are shaping the future. This show is a "must listen" for how top executives navigate growth, success, and setbacks that come with the terrain of business.
Carpool Conversations: Collaborative Reflections on the Road to Success
Hosted by Jacki Lutz, this series invites a vibrant and strategic mix of guests to debate and discuss the power skills that define success today. Each episode is an entertaining, multi-voice view of a professional development topic and a platform for our members to learn about our industry's most promising professionals.
Indicators: Discussing Data that Drives Business
This show explores data relevant to the automotive aftermarket. Join Mike Chung as he engages with thought leaders in identifying data that will help you monitor and forecast industry performance. Whether global economic data, industry indicators, or new data sources, listen in as we push the envelope in identifying and shaping the metrics that matter.
Traction Control: Reacting with Precision to the Road Ahead
Every single day, events happen, technologies are introduced, and the base assumptions to our best laid plans can change. Join Stacey Miller for a show focused on recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean for auto care industry businesses. Get hot takes on current events, stay in the know with timely discussions and hear from guests on the frontlines of these developments.
Auto Care ON AIR
AAPEX Show Special: Open Mic Sessions
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Carpool Conversations host, Jacki Lutz, is joined by all other Auto Care ON AIR hosts to conduct several 10 minute, speed dating-style interviews at AAPEX 2024 in Las Vegas!
Join them in learning about some of the show's attendees and what they feel are the most important power skills of today!
01:00 - Charles Sanville, The Humble Mechanic
11:33 - Randy Buller, CEO, The Parts Authority
21:31 - Shari Pheasant, Master Axiologist
30:17 - Brian Matthias, Sr. Manager Content Syndication, Dorman Products
37:53 - Don Abenante, Metal Fabricator, Resurrected Rides
44:11 - Rich Keller, CEO, Autoparts.com
53:08 - Adam Malik, Managing Editor, Turnkey Media
01:02:38 - Michael Rukov, Director of Sales NA, CTR America
01:13:41 - Ken Chrisman, President, Highline Warren
01:22:20 - Jacqueline Rodriguez, VP of Marketing, The Parts Authority
01:30:05 - Matt Fowler, Account Executive, Ubisense
01:36:35 - Stefan Feder, Head of Automotive Aftermarket NA, Continental
01:43:37 - John Kairys, Executive Director, AACF
01:52:27 - Autumn Lamb, Marketing Manager, GSP Americas
02:01:44 - Dunya Bulut, Strategic Marketing Manager, ABA
02:09:59 - Mario Garza, VP Marketing, Motorcar Parts of America
02:17:29 - Daisy Tedesco Ruas, Global Sales Manager, Hi-Gear Products
02:23:30 - Mariam Lochoshvili, Sr. Communications Manager, Sensata Technologies
02:31:05 - Steven Ng, Business Development Manager, The Pronto Network
02:37:42 - Steve Dresser, President, Hirsig-Frazier Company
02:42:38 - Alessandro Criollo, Ecommerce Specialist, Hella
02:53:08 - KJ Wilk, Marketing Communications Coordinator, Litens Aftermarket
02:59:55 - Daryl Benton, VP Sales and Marketing Automotive Aftermarket, MANN + HUMMEL
3:01:32 - Danielle Remieres and Nitish Jain, AirSept, Inc
To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.
To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast
Welcome to Auto Care On Air , a candid podcast for a curious industry . I'm Jackie Lutz , content Director at the Auto Care Association , and this is Carpool Conversations , where we collaborate on today's most relevant power skills . We're all headed in the same direction , so let's get there together . Thank you for tuning in to this special edition of Carpool Conversations . Throughout the 2024 Apex show , the other Auto Care On Air hosts and myself held several open mic sessions and conducted 10-minute speed dating style interviews with anyone who was willing to participate . We had so much fun getting to know more of the wonderful people in this industry and tried to tie it all back to the power skills that they think are most relevant of today . It's a long episode , but we have some really special guests sprinkled in there , so I really hope you enjoy it .
Speaker 1Let's ride Hi
Charles Sanville, The Humble Mechanic
Speaker 1. I am sitting here with a very special guest who I've been watching for years and we actually sat on a panel together . Do you remember that ? Like five years ago at SEMA , I'm here with the humble mechanic , or Charles Sanville , who you probably know . You recognize the beard who doesn't ? I want to be known for something else .
Speaker 3That's cool , it's super cool . Anything else other ?
Speaker 1than that . But thank you for sitting down with me . I appreciate you having me . I'm hyped .
Speaker 3Why don't you tell ?
Speaker 1them a little bit about who you are and what you do ?
Speaker 3Yes , for sure . So I actually started my automotive career in car sales , which is not something I talk about all that often . Very , very brief stint in car sales .
Speaker 1Did you have the beard when you were a car salesman ?
Speaker 3No , dude , I was 19 .
Speaker 1Man , I would have helped you no beard .
Speaker 3Yeah , I would have done better , right ? Yeah , left car sales side went to tech school One of those deals where I found out how poor I actually was . When I tried to go to tech school , they're like , hey , you don't have any money to come here . I was like , cool .
Speaker 3So what I actually ended up doing and I think this sort of queued up me having a really great career and being able and willing to really put the effort in is I sold everything I had . I didn't have a car for six months . I'm like what kind of car guy are you without a car , right ? So , basically , if it wasn't like a small set of clothes and a couple of other things , I sold it , saved up money for about a year to go to tech school , did that , trained with Volkswagen and then at the end of my training there we up and moved to a state neither my wife or I had ever been to for a job that I had never done and I didn't know I would like and really took the full gamble of doing that .
Speaker 3But that's one of the awesome things when you're young , right ? You have nothing really tying you down to where you are . So I stepped into a really great dealership with an amazing boss , an amazing mentor and a great group of other young technicians that were kind of on the same path . I was Spent two years just learning and then quickly found myself as the person training the young technicians . So I acted as a shop foreman for much of my career , got paid for a very short amount of it in that time , and then I don't know , 2014 or so I wanted to start making content to show people really that , like that bad mechanic story that you have , it happens right .
Speaker 3We'll all agree that that exists , but it was so different from my experience . My experience was a great group of advisors a great . We'll all agree that that exists , but it was so different from my experience . My experience was a great group of advisors , a great group of techs that we made mistakes , we messed up , we got stuff wrong , but at the end of the day , we all really cared about fixing cars and taking good care of our customers , and so my perception and the perception at large of the industry were night and day different . I just wanted to share that message . So now here we are , 150,000 years later , of videos .
Speaker 1But what made you want to do that , that specifically , and be like I see a gap and I want to do videos . I'm going to put them on YouTube , probably for free , right For at first Did you always think like no someone eventually is going to pay me for this . I'm going to make them on YouTube , probably for free , right ? For at first Did you always think like ? No , someone eventually is going to pay me for this . I'm going to make this big name for myself . This is what I'm going to do . What happened ?
Speaker 3No , no shot . So really sort of the antithesis of all of this was the dealer I worked for was so good and so different , like we were watching kids grow up and customers would come in and we'd work on their car and then the next thing you know they're bringing their 16 year old daughter to you to help them find a car for her . And like what a weight to bear . It's like the most important thing I have help them find something safe . Like oh no pressure .
Speaker 3But that's not what people think of when , like , look , nobody wants to go get their car fixed , nobody has ever woken up and said I can't wait to get my timing belt done today . It's all negative , yeah , and that was just that's part of it , but I wanted to share the story of , like , most of us just really want to fix stuff . Yeah , like we're not trying to take advantage of you . That exists , yes , but at least in our little dealer bubble world , it wasn't that and it was important to me to share that . It was a goal of making the industry easier for customers and better for technicians .
Speaker 1Do you ever picture yourself doing anything else ?
Speaker 3Other than like sitting on a beach not doing nothing . I don't see a world where I'm not doing something like this . You know , from the day I decided , okay , we're going to finally have enough strength and bravery to hit record on the little black box and talk to it , from that day you know what I envisioned my life would be like here . Now , 10 years later , it's not even close . Better in many , many ways , better than I could have ever imagined , but making the industry better . The cool thing about that goal is there's always going to be work to do . It's not a final goal , right ? It's not like one day you can say I've done everything .
Speaker 1The industry is great now .
Speaker 3So , yeah , I'd like to believe that I'll be still trying to help the industry nudge along and get better for a long , long time .
Speaker 1You just reminded me of that . I'll be still trying to help the industry nudge along and get better for a long , long time . You just reminded me of a question because somebody mentioned this to me the other day . Because you know I'll have goals , whether it's in my life or at work . You know , and I achieve them , and I never like sit back for a second and just am proud of it . Or , you know , relax for a minute because we reached a goal . I'm just already before I even hit the goal and I was getting close .
Speaker 3I already , I already set another goal . So , like you just kind of never get there . Like you said , yeah , I , I'm not good at that , so I don't know . Like you know , for me it's like okay , cool , this achievement , we hit it Great , but like the workday is not over . We hit it Great , but like the workday is not over . Yeah , so much of like how my brain works now , either as a product of , or I had an advantage . Going in is the same way it was fixing cars Right . Just because you did a really big job and got it done and made a bunch of money , doesn't mean there's not a next one to go . So , while that's good , that's in the past . Yeah , you got to look to the next one and the next one and the next one . Totally , it's cool because , like it keeps you motivated and going , knowing that like , no matter what I do , there's always going to be a way that we can improve something for all sides of the industry .
Speaker 1Right , frankly , like if you ever didn't have a , couldn't think of a goal , like you kind of lose your purpose . What are we doing ? That actually happened . So that happened to me . What ?
Speaker 3are we doing ? That actually happened . That exact thing happened to me in my career . So , starting out early in my career , my whole goal was to be a master technician . Right , you know , when you're a young tech you don't really know what that means , but you know , like that's kind of the pinnacle for a tech , like master certified , whatever . For me it was Volkswagen , because that's the dealer I worked at , and so from that moment of first starting to when I actually achieved that goal , that was my laser focus . I'm going to do it . I'm going to do it . What I didn't do is that I never looked past that . Right , I never . I just thought , like , once I do this , everything's going to be perfect and great . And what I quickly realized is that no one else cared but me , um , and so I , because I didn't have that next thing . I just got like super bummed out and like man , I just killed myself for eight years to hit this goal and it's nothing's different . Like you know , you're certified on , master certified on .
Speaker 3Monday no one cares , it's not , you're the same tech that you were Friday , so that was tough and so , looking beyond that goal that you have initially , it's so important , yeah , the like sadness creeps in and you're like what ?
Speaker 1am I doing ? Yeah , where's my purpose ? I got nothing . Why do I have to wake up in the morning , right ? So , carpal Conversations , we talk about professional development skills . Yep , what's one that you think is a little underrated these days ?
Speaker 3I mean the . The list is a mile and a half yeah right , but one I think that I would love to see more focus on is really taking to heart training the next generation of whatever right we can sit back and complain about these kids today or like young tech , like Like I come from a technician background , so that's obviously where my focus is going to go , but it applies everywhere .
Speaker 3These kids , they don't want to work hard , they don't want to do the stuff and like , look , if you could do your job and get paid and not work as hard , I would do that too . So be tempted . Respect on them . But I think when we take a look at development , especially from a place of leadership and really focusing on being a good mentor to that next generation , that's what's going to make their generation good .
Speaker 3We're all going to age out . We're going to age out and it's going to happen way faster than any of us really want it to . And if we can look back in our careers and say I did everything I could to give the next generation as much as I could and so that maybe it's better for them than it was for me , then I did a good job . It's like you always want your kids to have better than you do . It's the same exact thing . Yeah , that's such a good one and it gets lost in the day to day . Yeah , that's important , but I got a report to do or a set of tires to put on and it's it's unfortunate that we let the day to day get in the way of those long-term big things that genuinely are very important .
Speaker 1And I think too , for , like that aging generation , it gives you more purpose , right ? And it's something that you can be passionate about until the end of your career and beyond . And there's a whole , you know , there's a whole episode on giving more than you get to and how much you actually get from giving .
Speaker 3And I'll tell you , maybe this comes from a very selfish place , but the high that you can ride from knowing everything you could to build up a generation like whether it's a two man shop or a 50 man shop , like whatever if you can look at yourself and say I gave everything I could to do the best for this generation , I think you can be really proud in your career that you succeeded in that in that small regard . But I don't want right . I look at it this way If I'm a tech and I'm working on cars and I have this group of customers that always comes in and always comes to me , I would never want for me to leave and them to not still want to go there because the techs aren't good , or the service advisors aren't awesome or whatever .
Speaker 3Right , like you want to leave that legacy .
Speaker 10Yeah .
Speaker 1I think it's cool Absolutely . Thank you so much . This was nice to finally get to sit and talk to you for a second . We're always just kind of waving and walking by . That's the SEMA wave .
Speaker 3Yeah , this was awesome , thank you so much Do you have a closing statement .
Speaker 1Don't forget to subscribe .
Randy Buller, CEO, The Parts Authority
Speaker 1Okay , welcome back to the show . I have a special guest here , randy Buller , ceo of Parts Authority . He was on our Driver's Seat podcast not too long ago with Bayzad Rasooli , but now he gets to be on Carpool Conversations . Lucky guy , welcome to the show , thank you very much . Jackie , yeah , this is going to be fun . So tell them a little bit about yourself .
Speaker 11What , they don't already know from Driver's Seat . Yeah , that was like really long . What people said that was a long podcast .
Speaker 1You know what ? I had someone yesterday come up to me and say they listened to it twice . So that's like a solid that's solid .
Speaker 11It either means they loved it or they have no life .
Speaker 1You took a solid chunk of their life listening to you .
Speaker 11So yeah , listen , I'm happy I'm a grandpa , I got a little two-year-old granddaughter and both my kids are in the business and still working hard and get to play golf a little bit , do a lot of walking and still enjoy the auto parts business Pretty good .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's pretty good , not bad . So how old are your granddaughters ? Do you have one granddaughter or two ?
Speaker 11Yeah , one granddaughter , she's turning two on November 7th . Two's a fun age . Yeah , what granddaughter she's turning two on november 7th two's a fun age .
Speaker 1Yeah , what's she into ?
Speaker 11well , she , uh , she's got quite a sense of humor . I can tell you that she's into a lot of different things where does she get that ?
Speaker 1I don't know is it running your family , or skip a generation , or what ?
Speaker 11no , I think it runs to the family . She really does have a a sense of humor . She's quite a ham .
Speaker 1What's her sense of humor ? Does she just like to tease ?
Speaker 11She just likes to laugh and she likes to make jokes .
Speaker 1Aw , that's sweet . She's a happy kid . She's a happy kid . Yeah , my two-year-old's going to be three in like a month . He's into everything his older brother's into . He's too young for ninjas and things like that , but he's like all into that . It's so fun to watch . I love it .
Speaker 11Yeah .
Speaker 1Because I'm awful at it , but I actually enjoy it . I enjoy the sport . I just don't have the attention span for like eight hours of golf on a Saturday .
Speaker 11Yeah Well , you must really suck if it takes you eight hours . So , yeah Well , golf is . You know , when I play golf it really takes four hours at the most For 18 holes , for 18 holes . And usually when I play golf I try to play late in the evening , like 5 o'clock , and when I do that it usually takes two and a half hours or three hours Because , you're right , there's a real time eater and if you try to play like 11 o'clock , you know you're only as fast as the group in front of you . So if you have a slow group in front of you by the time you get to the golf course , hit some balls , go out . You know it could be an eight-hour day and it kind of takes out . So I like to play at the end of the day and get the round in , but where it's not eating too much time , because it can be a big time ?
Speaker 1Yeah , it is . Have you always liked sports that are more like individual ?
Speaker 11I've always been like a big sports guy . I played all sports when I was a kid .
Speaker 1Played team sports too . Team sports , every sport Do you have like a favorite sport .
Speaker 11No , I played a lot . I like baseball , basketball , softball , football Didn't matter , I played a lot .
Speaker 1Were you good .
Speaker 11I think a pretty good athlete , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , so like in basketball , what position did you play ?
Speaker 11Well , a pretty big man , but I could also . When I was playing I also , you know , ran a lot , so I was in pretty good shape . So I would , I'd be able to run a lot better than the big guys that would try to cover me . So I played forward but I could .
Speaker 1I feel that I was always obviously kind of small , but I was very , very fast so I actually could jump really high too . So I was a point guard in basketball . I was a setter in volleyball . I actually blocked a volleyball for the first time on my last game as a senior .
Speaker 11You what ?
Speaker 1On my last game as a senior in high school I blocked a volleyball like , jumped high enough For people listening . I'm like five foot tall , so that was a really big deal for me .
Speaker 11Yeah , for you . Yeah , I'm thinking like that's yeah .
Speaker 1At six feet tall , I used to do all the practices with like 10 pound weights on your ankles to like , try to like build that muscle . Um , I found out later that's actually terrible for you a lot of people used to do that yeah , they used to put weight on their backs too and run , and that's also apparently very bad for you . Yeah , so we do um on carpal conversations . It's all about professional development . So what professional ? What um like soft skill or power skill do you think is like the most underrated in business ?
Speaker 11Well , I , you know , I'm not sure of all of you know , all of you know what that means . But you know , is communication , is that a soft skill ? Oh yeah , like that is a million percent the number one underrated skill . And when I say communication , it applies in so many different ways . I see it all the time and you know , we're always trying to , you know , trace back . You know what's going wrong , even if things are going 100% right in our business . We can always improve . So we're always trying to find what's wrong so we can make it a little bit better . And so communication comes down to know really dialing in . And we just always find that at the bottom of everything , somebody didn't get the message . Or it's like you have young kids . I'm sure you remember they gave a telephone when you were a kid . So when you have a lot of people touching things , you know communication gets lost .
Speaker 11And I , I like to , uh , you know , say , you know , when you have a lot of people touching things , communication gets lost . And I like to say when you go to a doctor , you know you're not feeling well , you go to a doctor and then the doctor examines you . And if the doctor tells you okay , I've examined you and you're not feeling well . Well , that didn't really help . So we tried to get to the bottom of what's wrong and exactly . You know , I don't want to report on what happened , I want to get to the bottom of it , how we're going to fix that . And you know , getting that through the whole chain of everything in our company is a big deal , and I also find that people either have that skill or they don't have that skill . It's like some people are tall or some people are short , Some people are right-handed , some people are left-handed , some people are great communicators and some people are just not great at it . It doesn't .
Speaker 1What do you think makes a great communicator ?
Speaker 11Well , bad communicators are neither good at giving communication or actually getting communication . So a great communicator is one who listens well and understands it and also makes sure they got everything from that person , but also communicates and makes sure the message was received . And you know I have a lot of people over the years . One of my pet peeves is you know I would be talking to somebody and you know after a minute they would say I understand , I understand . Like I didn't even get to say what I meant and you understand it already , and that would really bug me .
Speaker 11I used to have a cup on my desk and it said I understand that anybody who said I understand I'm going to put a dollar into the cup Did it work . Well , it did , but the people who did it a lot got mad at me . Yeah , so you can't understand too much . Communication is a real , you know that's a soft skill and you know another one in our business is passion . I mean , that's a , that's a strong one , and but I don't know that if you , I don't know that you can teach passion .
Speaker 1I don't know if you can teach passion . That's like the one that you have it or you don't . Maybe you need a different profession . If you don't , something , find your .
Speaker 11Find your niche niche , and I'll tell you another one . I was talking to a guy in this business just a couple weeks ago and I was thinking of writing something on linkedin , so I will write it eventually , but uh , he was talking to me . I don't know how it came up , but , like it was , it really dawned on me . He was talking about , uh , tolerance versus acceptance , and so when you , when you talk about a soft skill , is tolerance one , I think tolerance is a really strong soft skill .
Speaker 1That's interesting . I've never heard that one , yeah .
Speaker 11And you know acceptance . You know I don't know if that's a soft skill or not , but you know I'm not sure you have to accept everything . I mean , that was what he was saying . You know , somebody does this , a customer might do this or a coworker might do this , and you don't have to accept it .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 11But you do have to tolerate it . Yeah , Maybe 20 or 30 years ago it was a different story , but today people definitely speak their mind , People are definitely out front with their thoughts and tolerance is really important . You see , even today , today's election day and today's political climate , what's the real breakdown in the United States ? It's not that there's Democrats and Republicans and they have different beliefs . The real breakdown is people don't tolerate the other people's point of view anymore . People are just so dug into their position that they don't want to hear what the other person has to think anymore . And a lot of the issues 50% of the people think there's . 50% of the people think something else and but they're not tolerant of of the other position , and that's . That's something we all need to work on .
Speaker 1That's a really good one . I've never heard that one before , something for people to think about . Yeah , yeah , thank you so much for this . This is such a treat . I really appreciate you sitting down .
Speaker 11Thanks , Jackie . It's always great to see
Shari Pheasant, Master Axiologist
Speaker 11you , yeah you too , shari , pesant let's , riff , let's do this .
Speaker 12So congratulations to you and your husband , jeff , for winning shop owner of the year at Apex 2024 . So excited , super excited . So that's a master mechanic in Sparks . It is close by Absolutely Fantastic . Yeah , seven and a half hours away . Well , I uh at the AV guy at the keynote session . I was talking to him and he's like I really I need a really good mechanic and I was like I know one . She's going to win the award and he goes um . Sparks is 10 hours from here and I thought oh man .
Speaker 10I tried . He drives slow . I tried , wait , not the mechanic . Yeah Right , that's on my side , although I did put an outfit on one time . I put on one of our shirts and stuff and I changed the oil so I could show the guys I knew how to do it .
Speaker 12And that's why you're a badass .
Speaker 2That's my limit man I'm good .
Speaker 10Let me stay in my lane , you stay in yours , we're good .
Speaker 12Yeah , so you're so prominent in our industry . I really love the visibility that you have . You're active in women in auto care . You've been at the legislative summit advocating for right to repair and you also do consulting on the side , so you're a really busy woman , which I really admire . Tell me a little bit about what drives you every day . I love people .
Speaker 10If you want to take it all the way back , the gun violence we have are because people aren't happy and where do you spend most of your time ? At work and if you go home unhappy , it changes your family dynamics . So for me , if you want to get that deep , that's where it comes from , because I know that employee happiness is the ultimate profit driver , but it's also the ultimate driver for people in life to feel satisfied and fulfilled and want to be successful , and I think that's what we need to do with our team . So I have spent 12 years getting a master axiologist accreditation A what Master axiologist ? So I study human value .
Speaker 10I've been doing for 12 years and so understanding not only behaviors right , but understanding what drives you , how you see the world and how you see yourself in the world Dr Robert Hartman's work and in fact I just came back from a conference for Dr Hartman and just understanding the value of people . Because think about it , Stacey without people , where would the Auto Care Association be ? Without people , where would Apex be ? People are our greatest asset . So how are we pouring into our people ? Because when you pour into your people and they know your accountability and they're excited to come to your business and everything's great .
Speaker 12I love that you took the time to dig into this . I don't know anybody who studies people as much as you do and what truly makes them happy . I mean , I try really hard as a manager to figure out what motivates people . Is it title , is it salary , is it time off ?
Speaker 10But it's deeper than that , is what it's sounding like right , sure , and you talk to them right and you're like , well , how can we help you succeed and what can we do ? Think about this Are you talking in their language ? I mean , we all speak English . One way , we don't all speak English , but are you talking in their language ? Slow or fast Things or people , Are you attracting them with the things you're talking to them about ?
Speaker 10I bump into a lot of leaders and , stacey , I've watched you . You're an amazing manager , thank you . I same dig you . I'm just saying birds of a feather . However , how so I would .
Speaker 10How would I take someone like you and level up your management of your people ? Well , I'd show you they're naked . You'd what ? I'd show you . They're naked , ma'am , what that means , right , ma'am ? In our industry , that's showing you who they are from the inside out . That's what I call it , because if you think about standing in front of a mirror naked , it's uncomfortable . I'm not sure about you , but I pose and suck it in . Do you pose and suck it in ? Oh , yes , okay . So then you have to breathe and it all falls back where it is right . That's what employees want . That's what team members want . They want you to be vulnerable and transparent . The only problem with that is sometimes they turn into coyotes right , or hyenas , and so what we have to do I would say if I can change your team in a day , would it be helpful for you ?
Speaker 10Let's go . We're all going to get naked , no clothing removal , we're just going to learn who each other are from the inside out . I like to talk fast . Someone who was listening to me just prior in our interview might've been thinking , oh my God , she goes so fast . Somebody else was like , yes , I love her talking that fast , but when I talk a little bit slower , the person who wants it quicker is like , oh my gosh , is she going to ever speed up ? Quicker is like , oh my gosh , is she going to ever speed up . Someone else is thinking , hallelujah , she slowed down . So it's understanding those things in people that help you , as a manager , to know how to motivate , how to manage and what the ideal environment is for your people .
Speaker 12These are incredible nuggets of knowledge . Honestly , I didn't know that I was going to glean this much in just five minutes of conversation with you . No , I'm lying . I knew I would , which is why I pulled you off the show floor really quickly . You talked just for a second about being vulnerable and transparent . I want to know if you're comfortable talking about health care that you had and how it may have transformed your life .
Speaker 10So that's number two . Yeah , when I was 38 years old my intestines popped . I actually only had a 10% chance of survival . I was septic and peritonitic and so been there , done that already and that was scary . They sent me home wide open . I weighed about 300 pounds at the time . So I mean when I say wide open , I mean wide open to heal from the inside out , and that was very difficult for me . I'm 61 years old .
Speaker 12And fabulous .
Speaker 10Yes , I don't hide it because it's a part of who we are . Right , knowledge is ages , knowledge and experience . So my husband and I volunteer at SkillsUSA State and we were picked to come to SkillsUSA Nationals . I do interviews , go figure . And I had had a hip surgery just last August , a complete hip replacement on my right hip , riding horses and stuff . That's the side I fell off on , stacey , let's just be real , if I come off , that's the side I'm coming off on . So hip replacement . And we flew back to SkillsUSA on a four and a half hour flight .
Speaker 10They tell you , if you ever had that kind of thing happen , that you should always get up and walk every hour on the plane . I don't know about you , but if you ever tried to get out , just go to the bathroom when someone's sitting there . It's the worst . And I don't know . I love the window seat , so the aisle seat's just not my gig , yeah . So I didn't listen , go figure . And I remember on a four and a half hour flight , thinking oh my gosh , and I just kind of pumped my feet , et cetera .
Speaker 10Two weeks after I got home I started feeling tingly about to pass out . I went to the doctor and they decided they wanted to give me a ride to the hospital . Oh gosh , ambulance , no lights , though , no , no , no flashing lights . Okay , but ambulance Okay . And ended up that I had contracted a DVT in my leg and had not one , not two , not three , but four blood clots in my lungs . I'm sorry , a quadruple . A quadruple blood clot . Yes , thing in there . You know little ones like this , but then there were some that were pretty big , oh my God . And so their first thing to me was well , we're just glad you're here .
Speaker 10I said , oh , at the hospital they're like , no , like that you're here , that you're alive , um , let alone that you're talking and asking us questions . And I said , well , I advocate for myself , that's what I do , and so I want to know what are you doing ? Why are you doing it ? What's it going to do to me ? Right , all of those things . And so it really gave me a sit down . I'm slowing down .
Speaker 10My oxygen level had gone to 77 . So my brain capacity is just now coming back , and I'm a pretty sharp cookie typically , but there were words that I just couldn't say . And so the last 90 days and typically it's really just only a little bit past those 90 days I've just really had to make some choices and think about what's important to me . And am I ready to not be here ? What if something were to happen ? Is my family ready ? Have I done all the things I need to do ? Am I ready right To report in right ? Have I done what I need to do here on this earth ? And you know what Stacey I am , what I am . If you walk the walk every day , if you tune in every day to what is my priority , what's important to me and what should I put my energy into , then it doesn't matter what happens , because every day you're doing what you were meant to be here to do .
Speaker 12Oh my God , when you told me the story at the reception , I was nearly in tears , because , one , I'm so sorry that you were going through this , but two , the strength that you have and the inspiration that you provide to me as someone younger in the industry . I want to leave a legacy , the way that you're leaving a legacy , and I'm so excited that you know our listeners today get to take just a little snippet of what you're doing , because you're doing really amazing work . And those two snippets that I heard were sit down , to slow down and just study people . Right , we're in the business of people .
Speaker 10We are Everybody's in the business of people and you are leaving a legacy , stacey . I am so happy that there's younger people like you in this industry that can learn better from us , and I'm excited to see what the future is going to hold .
Speaker 12I will forever be a student of yours in the industry . Thank you , Shari , so much . Thank you , Stacey .
Brian Matthias, Sr. Manager Content Syndication, Dorman Products
Speaker 1Hello .
Speaker 15Hello how you doing .
Speaker 1Good , what's your name ?
Speaker 15Brian Mathias .
Speaker 1I know your name . I probably shouldn't have asked that For the audience . Who do you work for ?
Speaker 15Dorman Products .
Speaker 1Okay . So I kind of know you seen you around and you've complimented our podcast , so it's kind of fun that you were standing around and I could grab you for this .
Speaker 15Yeah , absolutely . I love the podcast . It's given me something to look forward to on Tuesdays and there's a lot of great insights . I something to look forward to on Tuesdays and there's a lot of great insights . I'm a big fan . It mixes my work , which I love the automotive aftermarket and then it gives me something to do on the way to work .
Speaker 1What do you do for work ?
Speaker 15So I'm a senior content syndication manager and because Dorman's a larger company , I have a dedicated role that really handles the data and content , making sure our customers get this information and it gets out .
Speaker 1So for those listening that may not be in your world , can you dumb it down and explain what you do Mostly ?
Speaker 15for me the data and content really means the aces and pies , the application information and product information . When someone wants to sell one of our parts , they need to know what it fits and they need to know kind of the pictures , the attributes , how big it is , maybe some interchange numbers if they're looking it up by an OE number . It's really a way for people to just be comfortable buying a car part .
Speaker 1Is this a hard job ? Is it difficult ?
Speaker 15It's a tricky job . I love it and there's a lot of great resources to learn and there's a lot of people that have helped me along the way . I wouldn't say it's hard , but it's crucial to the aftermarket .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I assume you're very involved with ACPN .
Speaker 15Yep On the ACPN committee for about three years now . That was a committee that I joined because I went to it for the first time and it felt like there was a room full of my people . I wanted to give back . I spent a few years in the industry , learning and absorbing , and now it was my time to give back and volunteer for that .
Speaker 1Have you been in the industry your whole career ?
Speaker 15So out of college I worked at a company called Turn 5 , which is performance aftermarket e-commerce . We didn't really work in the auto care world . I didn't know anything about aces and pies and about nine years ago I came to Dorman and I became fully obsessed with the aces , pies content and this great community .
Speaker 1So Turn 5 is more the racing industry . They don't need aces and pies , or they just don't have it .
Speaker 15It was very specific at the time that I was there and we had manufacturers offer aces and pies but we weren't educated . Okay , now they use aces and pies I know some of them come to the ACPN but we didn't have anything like that when I was there . You went to a manufacturer's website . You kind of figured out what it fit from that . You even copied pictures off their website . There's a whole nother world that opened up to me when I came to Dorman .
Speaker 1That's really cool . So what do you do when you're not playing with data and being smart ?
Speaker 15So I have two daughters . We love going to concerts . Live music is big in my household , um , and then I also love golf live music .
Speaker 1So what kind of music ?
Speaker 15so , uh , anything from Taylor Swift to Zach Bryan to um , when I was younger , just punk bands and little uh like fire halls , yeah , so I always I came up with music kind of DIY scene , and it's something that I've always loved . Do you play music too ? I don't play music . I've always surrounded myself with friends that play music , and I would have been the person back in middle school that built their website early HTML . I was a photographer and I got to hang out with all my friends . Bands . Get into those small shows , for free .
Speaker 1Oh , that's cool . So you just like that era out with all my friends bands get into those small shows for free . That's cool . So you just like that era , that that whole environment exactly . Yeah , golf is kind of a fun one . Yeah , are you like a good golfer ?
Speaker 15you golf often I wouldn't say I'm a good golfer , um , but golf to me is . I grew up skateboarding and that was a very individualistic sport , and golf is to me the same way . I just no pain . I know there's some people my age it's still skateboard , but golf is a new way to just challenge yourself . It's you . You're never going to conquer it , it's just a battle each time .
Speaker 1I was just talking about this with Bill Hanvey and Bezad Rasooli . We were in the car together a couple days ago and they were talking about golf and I was like I really like golf . I was like I really like golf , I just don't have the attention span for it , necessarily , and I think we kind of came up with like the like for me , the best golf game is best ball . Nine holes , but then like often , yeah , you know , like two , if it could do like two weekends a month . Nine holes , best ball . So you're talking like two hours .
Speaker 15Yeah , right , and that's the way to do it . Make golf how you want it to . No one says you have to go play 18 . I mean , courses are set up that way , but there's times where I found that I love going to those small little par three courses and they're short holes , they're made to develop your game , but they're fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , and they're short holes . They're made to develop your game , but they're fun . Yeah , I think it's interesting that you like individual kind of sports and your job is probably very like an individual contributor .
Speaker 15Yeah , it's a very unique role because a lot of companies can't dedicate a lot of resources to this . Dorman does have a team . I do manage a great team in the aftermarket that works directly with certain customers to help , so but it's very individual . Everybody kind of has their direct relationship with their customer and we can't always collaborate within our team because everybody's so different . Yeah , but that lends itself to creative options . If something works for one person , but that lends itself to creative options . If something works for one person , that actually may work for someone else .
Speaker 1Yeah , interesting . So well you know Carpal Conversations . We're all about professional development , so I would love to know what do you think is the most important power skill for a professional in the automotive aftermarket ?
Speaker 15It goes to communication , but I always lean to the communication . I think that's a very strong one , but I would say , just accept being comfortable with being uncomfortable . I think that has gone a long way for me because at events when I first was going , I was quiet , I was in the corner and then I went through a yang a couple years ago and it changed my world of no . This career is about me . I need to drive this , so it was very uncomfortable . Even certain events I go to here I I don't go up to greet someone all the time when I'm like I should yeah , why didn't .
Speaker 15I do that , sure , and it's just be comfortable with that . Put yourself out there . What is going to happen ? People look at you .
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly , you should just go do the talks that I do for me Personal branding . I do a lot of them with LinkedIn and like a lot of people want to do more , but there's just like a little bit something scary about putting yourself out there and feeling like you're in the middle of town square , you know Right .
Speaker 15And I know I've respected that . You've done that and you are , you've talked about it and I think that that's what more people need to do Really share that story of like . What are the consequences ? Oh man , like these people on the internet maybe said something like oh , someone's still trying . That might be an opportunity of even if you don't do great , someone sees you trying and they do want to invest in you .
Speaker 1Absolutely . That's such a good way to look at it . I appreciate that . Yeah , well , thank you , this was fun . I'm glad I got to get to know you a little bit Of course .
Speaker 15Thank you for having
Don Abenante, Metal Fabricator, Resurrected Rides
Speaker 15me .
Speaker 1All right , I am here with Don Ebonante .
Speaker 10That's close . He told me to say it faster than I could pronounce it .
Speaker 1So nice to meet you . You too . Yeah , you sound like an interesting interesting fellow , so why don't you tell the audience what you do ? Where ?
Speaker 18should we start ?
Speaker 1From the very beginning . No , I'm just kidding . Talk about the show . I'm so curious about the show that you just did .
Speaker 18So I lucked out and my ex-girlfriend messaged me on Instagram . She's like hey , idiot , you need to go apply for this . And it was like I don't like you , we're still friends .
Speaker 18but she was like you got to go do this . Yeah , you know , and I don't really think I fit the bill of like some you know tv personality because I'm short , whatever , yeah , I'll cut that . I'll cut that . I feel that I took a chance on it and then I um , I applied for it . So what I do is I'm a fabricator . I do a lot of some of the metal 2 and 3d designs and I build race cars and whatnot .
Speaker 18So I applied , applied for it , and then I called the woman the next day and we talked , we talked and I was like , just told her what I could do and she's like can you create ? I'm like I can create anything if you give me enough coffee . And we just chatted , got to know each other and I sent her pictures of my stuff . I sent her a picture of me . She's like , oh okay , here we go , we're getting somewhere . This question , like do you want to be famous ? I said I don't care about that , I just want to create . And then , bang , that's wild . Netflix called me up and then I got the job and then I drove out to California for four months we filmed Resurrected Rides .
Speaker 1Yeah , so tell me more about Resurrected .
Speaker 18Rides you . It's based around Pimp my Rye , but it's more modern and I would say it's probably a little bit more user-friendly for the kids . Yeah , it's funny , the stuff that we do really works , oh cool . So we didn't just do stuff for the how can I word it ? I don't want to put myself in a corner . We didn't just build it for the off-factor .
Speaker 1There's some weird stuff in there , but we built stuff for people who their cars .
Speaker 18It really has to work like uh . One of the things I'm most proud of is I built an articulating hammock holder with linear actuators for this woman who's a surf fan . You just said so many words that I don't know . Yeah , so it's a . I built this front cradle with linear actuators . Okay , she pulls up to the beach , hit a button , the thing drops down and turns into a seven foot hammock .
Speaker 1Oh , that's what it really works . Yeah , that's pretty , yeah , okay . So yeah , I haven't seen pit my Rides in , obviously like decades . So yeah , they do kind of like some crazy fabrications like that .
Speaker 18Yeah , we take real people's cars and we really put a spin on it based on their personality , but for this show we geared it more towards them actually being able to use the car .
Speaker 1The stuff's still weird , but it actually works , you know so what's a project you're working on right now that you're pretty excited about ?
Speaker 18Oh , so my personal project I've been designing and saving for for four years . I'm building the world's first all-wheel drive 59L Camino .
Speaker 9All-wheel drive .
Speaker 18So I took my favorite car ever . It's a 59L Camino shell . I took the whole bottom of it out and I'm building it all out of chromoly , making it a tube chassis . The motor is reversed and I sit in the middle of it and it's got a Ford Godzilla .
Speaker 1So it's got a Ford motor in it and it's all full-time all-wheel drive . That is wild . What are you going to do with this car when you're finished with it ? Beat the crap out of it , are you ?
Speaker 18I'm going to bring it to SEMA next year , while it's pretty yeah . Then after that I'm going to drive it . All I've been doing for the last four or five years I build , I build and I finally wanted to build myself something , so I can get weird with it .
Speaker 1Yeah , cool . So what else do you do ? Is this your 24-7 ? What you think about ?
Speaker 18I'm a mechanical engineer by trade , but really what I've been focused on lately is getting the shop up and running and getting this car done , so my much time is spent doing the fun fabrication kind of stuff and your personal projects versus the show versus your shop . The show took us four months , so I had to dedicate all my time to that .
Speaker 1So you did four months , and now you're done with the show .
Speaker 18Yeah , so it's edited . It's dropped . For my personal shop . I'm one of the weird guys I show up at like 6 . And I don't have a girlfriend or anything , so I work until 10 o'clock at night , until I fall asleep , ok , then I go take a nap and I do it again the next day . So it's like a 6 to 7 in the morning until 8 o'clock , 10 o'clock at night , and you own the shop .
Speaker 1Yes , well , most of them don't have hobbies .
Speaker 18Yeah , I don't do anything else . It's kind of the joke , I just . All I think about is designing and building and creating .
Speaker 1Actually , I was just talking to somebody else and I hate the question like what are your hobbies ? Because I really , I just I'm always thinking about this Like it's my passion . So this is like really all I think about when I have the time to think you know , yeah , I mean I used to have , like I used to like to read and stuff , but like yeah , not anymore , now I can just , you know , fill that time with something else that's productive . So yeah , so this is Carpool Conversations and we talk about professional development skills .
Speaker 18Okay .
Speaker 1So is there one that you can think of that's maybe underrated these days , or maybe it's For people ?
Speaker 18Be coming to business or keeping yourself on track .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 18Both , both . For me , the biggest thing I think I ever started doing that really kind of got me to the next level was I wake up and go to bed at the same time every day .
Speaker 1Oh , really it's like a tactical one .
Speaker 18Yeah , and I journal and I draw everything out for the week . So I'll make short and long-term goals .
Speaker 1So kind of like having a routine .
Speaker 18Yeah For me , I need that .
Speaker 1Yeah , same . I'm actually like I'm real weird , want to know how weird . I am . I wake up at the same time every day , I eat the same things every day at the same time , every day , so that way I get like my water in , like I just have to like have everything regulated so that I get everything .
Speaker 18Takes away the choices . Oh yeah , I don't like to think yeah , exactly yeah absolutely .
Speaker 1That's a decent one . It's not really a soft skill , but it's good advice . So for people that want to accomplish as much as you have , go , wake up and go to bed at the same time every day .
Speaker 18Yeah , wake up , go to bed at the same time every day . And I think really for me is I have the ability to get hyper-focused . So if I get hyper-focused for too long , so I get myself like increments of time where I can actually change things up . Like I know I got to go do my life stuff here at a certain time . Yeah , cause I'll just get lost in whatever project and I'll just wake up at two in the morning and that's what happens when you love what you do .
Speaker 18That's the craziest thing . I have never felt that before in my life other than the last few years , and when I found that passion and that love for something , it's like I'm on to , the wheels fall off now .
Speaker 1Oh , that's fantastic .
Speaker 18Good . Oh , that's fantastic Good for you .
Speaker 1Thank you for sitting down with me .
Speaker 18This is fun , of course . Anytime Nice to meet you .
Speaker 1Yeah , you too Awesome . Hello , welcome to the show . What's your name ?
Speaker 5I'm Rich Keller . I'm
Rich Keller, CEO, Autoparts.com
Speaker 5the CEO of autopartscom .
Speaker 1Welcome , welcome , welcome . So I know you a little bit because you spoke at Infusion . This year . I actually missed half of your session because I had something going on for work , so why don't you tell everybody what you do ?
Speaker 5Sure . So my background is actually I do large-scale distribution and manufacturing companies . So in a prior life I helped build a premier automotive aftermarket company and then Nick's Cosmetics , Doc Marten Shoes , that kind of stuff like that and I built autopartscom on another one of my companies , which is 1-800-battery and carbatterycom , and I worked last mile back and then digitized thousands of locations and added the rest of the auto part inventory to the already car batteries that we were delivering and installing . It's a tech play more than anything else .
Speaker 1And you started this company .
Speaker 5I started it yeah .
Speaker 1So did you always know that you'd be an entrepreneur ?
Speaker 5Yeah , I got lucky . I started at 19 years old , so I don't know anything different . So I've been doing warehouse management and and own my first software company at 22 years old and I have never done anything different . So I don't know anything different .
Speaker 1So so you've never worked for anyone .
Speaker 5No .
Speaker 1Ever in your life . No , different .
Speaker 5So so you've never worked for anyone , ever in your life . No , that's , I worked for TGI Fridays as a as a uh senior and freshman in college , and that's it .
Speaker 1I'm going to count it , but still , that's crazy , that's , that's . That is bizarre to me . So you will always be an entrepreneur .
Speaker 5I've always been an entrepreneur . I got very lucky , I was right to the C-suite instantly . So my first home run was Doc Martin Shoes and I just I have never . I don't do anything different now , 30 years later , 31 years later , than I did then .
Speaker 1So so how do you go from Doc Martin Shoes to Auto Parts ?
Speaker 5My first customer was K&N Filters . So a high school friend of mine worked for an accounting firm and they hired a new CFO and the CFO had heard about me from what I did at Doc Martin and said , can you help us ? And I said , sure I can , I can help you guys . And I helped blow that company up . So they were small little regional motorcycle filter manufacturer and then they became what they became and I was instrumental in that . I automated everything about their business and got them to really scale and think about how things work differently . So that was my first second home run right out of the gate .
Speaker 1So if you were to kind of dive into it , what do you think is the most exciting and the most fulfilling about this career path you have ?
Speaker 5of entrepreneurship I've made a lot of impact and I've had a lot of companies that might not have survived or , like in 1-800-BATTERY , got thousands of techs running around doing car battery installs , making extra income . I have people call me and go hey , rich , my daughter didn't have her own room , but the extra revenue that you help , now we have a two-bedroom apartment and those type of things . I a I'm a give bet . Give more than you ask for and then the universe gives you more than you ever asked for , if that makes sense . So that's , that's been the most rewarding thing about my career .
Speaker 5I've made a massive change and difference . No matter where I've been , I got very lucky and I was always empowered to do that . To be honest with you , at doc martin and um , I actually wanted to get fired and go home Like I was tired of it . I was holding this whole company like sheer force of will , and so I've always had that do the right thing , fire me tomorrow . I don't care if I'm going to do the right thing and it's never failed me yet . Knock on wood .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's crazy to me that so . So if it's , if the most fulfilling part is like the impact that you have , um , what do you think you know will be what people remember about you , having worked with you ?
Speaker 5Well , they're always think I'm smart , so they're always go Rich is really really a a you know smart guy . So I think that's that's the thing , and I think that they'll always know how I put myself for self behind them , so like the inverse pyramid , so that even if I didn't own the company , I still acted like it . Like that I would do the right thing just for the better for everybody and I would take the arrows . So like it doesn't matter if it was politically , if it was financially , whatever it was , I would take the hit so that the company could succeed , no matter what it is .
Speaker 1So I'm a fighter . So Carpool Conversations is all about professional development skills , so I feel like I might know your answer . I might guess wrong , but so what do you think is the most important professional development skill ?
Speaker 5Listening , listening , professional development , skill Listening and throwing out the thought that you think you already know the answer , because sometimes it changes . Time changes the equation . So today's yes is not the same yes tomorrow or six months . The other thing is to make decisions faster . I think from a professional development is the more you can make decisions , even if they're wrong , and you can review that decision . You're not so married to it that you're just stubborn about it and you can make a change to those decisions and you can do a very small and incremental . You can have 100% success rate because you're willing to change in the moment .
Speaker 5I think that's the thing is a lot of people are afraid to to make decisions or they're not empowered to . So anybody who's a leader in your company , like if you want professional development downstream , you have to empower the people to make decisions , even if that's not the decision you would make . You have to give them the ability to make decisions because no one person can make every decision , especially a large organization . So let people make some decisions . They'll get it right more often than they'll get it wrong .
Speaker 1So I'm a people person . Just earlier today we recorded an episode about critical thinking and that was one of the things that we said is like , critical to critical thinking is that you have to create an environment of psychological safety for somebody to be open enough to ask questions have open minds throughout your whole company , pretend the other person's is right , even though you disagree , and try to get into their shoes and think about things from their perspective and their lens and their environment .
Speaker 5Yep , that's the only way and it works out . And I started warehouse management software so I picked and packed and the software was really optimized for the picker and packer experience . Like you see , so much software is garbage out there . It really is , and so you have to , you have to do the dirty work and you have to go that . Every person in the cog super important . So , um , yeah , that's that's . I love that .
Speaker 1So I don't even know if this is a stupid question for an entrepreneur . I'm assuming you kind of live and breathe your work , but do you do anything else ? I got kids and grandkids . Oh yeah , kids and grandkids , so yeah .
Speaker 5I've got three grandkids and I've got three children . Okay , I'm quite a wrong range . I've got a 27 and 8 and a 2-year-old he's almost 3 . Whoa , then I've got a wide range . They keep me busy .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 5That's really special . I'm really lucky . I live at the beach . I have this spectacular life that's been blessed . The work-life balance there is no work-life balance when you're an entrepreneur . Yeah , I work . I start my day at three in the morning and I end my day when it ends so and you can't stop it . I'm sure it drives my wife crazy that like you can't turn it off , I go .
Speaker 1You can't turn it off like just well , if you started it at 19 , it sounds like she probably knew what she was getting into .
Speaker 5Nobody understands what they're getting into .
Speaker 1That's too bold of a statement .
Speaker 5No , they think they understand , they don't understand .
Speaker 1So one quick question . You said you have a two and a three-year-old .
Speaker 5I have a two-year-old and eight-year-old Okay , a two-year-old and a 28-year-old boy or a girl .
Speaker 1I have a little boy , a two and a girl at eight , yeah , and then your 28-year-old is a girl , girl so you can't even answer my question I have a almost three year old boy and a four year old boy . I was just gonna ask if they , if they calm down , if they get easier no , their boys are crazy .
Speaker 5So , yeah , no , he's , the energy is different , but he's in his . Are your kids in the hot wheel phase right now ?
Speaker 1yeah , they're like they're in every phase .
Speaker 5Oh yeah , so much fun . Yeah , it's so much fun , mom . Well , you , it's so much fun , poor mom .
Speaker 1Well , you know , I actually really enjoy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle . I think , I talk about it a lot . I think I've brought it up on this podcast , so many times , because I'm so ingrained in it . But they just actually got into martial arts . Oh , that's fun Because they just love to fight each other , like play , fight .
Speaker 5And I'm like I feel like we should probably instill some principles , bad skills , so they could . They could play fire , actually hurt each other . Yeah , and my oldest , my middle child , she uh does aerial , so she does like climb the ropes . It spins down . I mean it's incredible , like that's unique , it is super unique and that's you know , that's that's the rewarding part of the whole thing .
Speaker 12It's they're adorable that's amazing it's amazing , so I get I got .
Speaker 5I got blessed from 19 to now . I still feel blessed my entire life that . That's the goal right , I still feel 19 .
Speaker 10Yeah .
Speaker 1That's even a better goal , I still feel 19 . That's awesome . Well , thank you so much . This was really nice to sit down with you . Thanks for coming over , you're wonderful .
Speaker 5You're like a new shining light , like this old , stodgy auto parts business it is . It needs fresh blood and and and fresh thinking and stuff like that . I think you exemplify that .
Speaker 1Thank you so much .
Speaker 10I appreciate that .
Speaker 1Thanks guys . Malik
Adam Malik, Managing Editor, Turnkey Media
Speaker 1. I'm not going to ask him his name because I know him super well . And he actually was already on one of our shows , Not Carpal Conversations .
Speaker 25It was Traction Control with Stacey Traction .
Speaker 1Control . What did you guys talk about ?
Speaker 25We talked about . It was actually when the rail strikes that were going on in Canada and the impact on the auto industry from those rail strikes , which thankfully didn't last too long , government stepped in and said get back to work . Actually , before they even do that , they did reach a deal , so thankfully the rail strikes only lasted a short amount of time , but still , any short amount of disruption is , uh , not great for anybody yeah , totally .
Speaker 1And like , do you ever listen to the carpool conversations ?
Speaker 25show of course I do of course you do .
Speaker 1I already knew that . I just wanted to hear you say it .
Speaker 25Of course I do so tell everybody about what you do so I am the editor-in-chief at turnkey media in the automotive group um . I oversee three magazines and our website . So we have jobber news , which goes to the supply distribution side of the industry , and then we have cars magazine which goes to the shop side of the industry . So between those two top to bottom mechanical repair we cover the aftermarket . And then last year we launched ev world which is our ev repair magazine . Um start off with a different kind of mandate . We were thinking of just going into more almost technical-like stuff . We just found there was a lot of just basic education we needed to give just in EV in general for the aftermarket . So that's kind of how we are positioning ourselves right now . It's an informational magazine for EV repair in the aftermarket . So yeah , those three . And then our website is autoserviceworldcom and that encompasses all that .
Speaker 1So yes , I'm busy , so yeah pretty much , and you're specifically in Canada , correct ? Yes , yeah , we cover the .
Speaker 25Canadian industry . Yeah , I mean , we live on top of the biggest noisemakers , so whatever happens down here , it has ripple effect over there . So we'll always keep an eye on , and report on , as necessary , what happens in the US , because we're so closely tied together , right . So whatever happens down here , we keep an eye on and report on that .
Speaker 1Yeah , so what is the hardest part of your job ?
Speaker 22Oh .
Speaker 1And what is the easiest , that's going to come next , or the most fun ?
Speaker 25The most fun is getting to talk to people like you .
Speaker 1Yes , yes , yes , good answer Right .
Speaker 25You know , and and and this has been this was said this morning at the at the morning keynote is that we're such a it's such a family like field in this industry . That is my favorite part about this industry and it just makes it so fun to be part of it . Um , you know , know somebody who can . You can connect me that way , or I can just do somebody else and it's just I . I've always called it a big , small town . Uh , we are geographically maybe spread apart . There's a lot of , but we , it has that small town feel in there and that's what I love and that's what makes the hardest part of my job easier , which is I'm in , I'm in content generation . Really I'm in , I'm a news reporter , I'm a journalist and whatever's happening in this industry , I got a report on it and what makes it easy to report on is that I have we have such a resourceful industry .
Speaker 25I can go to somebody and say I need someone to talk to me about thing X , and they're like , yeah , let's talk to this person . Or look over there . Or it was kind of when Stacey came to me when we talked about trash control do you know who can talk about this ? I said , well , quite honestly , I could , but do you want me on there ?
Speaker 25and she's like , well , if you can talk about other nuts , let's go yeah , you know , but it's just that interconnectedness of the industry and , uh , it just makes that hard part of of of all the magazines I work on and our website , just all that work that's got to go into it . It's just made easier because this industry makes it easy to get it done .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally . So what do you think is one of the most important power skills of professionals today ?
Speaker 25You know what being nice ? You know it's not hard to be nice to people , and that's particularly why I like this , because everyone is , generally speaking , very nice to one another and maybe you only see someone once a year at Apex , but their face lights up to see you , they're genuinely happy to see you there and just being nice to people can go so far in a person's day . Forget their career , just in their day . Some of them just have a crappy day and that one person who's nice to them just makes a whole difference . I can give you a story from yesterday .
Speaker 1I saw Ted Hughes , heard of this man . You might know him . He works for the Auto Care Association .
Speaker 25for those listening , and he's always been a favorite person on my Instagram , just because he's always been helpful to me . He tells me yesterday he's a fan of mine Aww , he's always been helpful to me . He tells me yesterday he's a fan of mine Aw , and I'm like I wanted to grab him . What are you talking about , ted ? What do you ?
Speaker 1mean you're a fan of me , I'm a fan of you . I look behind you . I'm like are you talking to me ? Yeah right .
Speaker 25And I'm like that was just so nice of him to say he had no reason , he's just a nice guy . But it was just I'm just like you've been getting more of that these days , right well , yeah , and it's because you know it's , it's because thanks to you I have to always mention it's all thanks to jackie , you know that she sat me down and , metaphorically , slapped you in the face , yeah and said you're a moron and why don't you understand ?
Speaker 25the same thing they've been telling you for five years and that is put content on linked doing stuff on LinkedIn . I always wanted to . If this story is being repeated for the fifth time , I'm sorry , but you know , I always like my background was in TV and radio , so I always had an interest in doing something video , audio related and we started doing stuff . I'm like , yeah , that's what I want to do , but I don't know what I want to do . Like , what do I talk about ? Yeah , and finally , it's not exactly quote as the quote that you use , but you said you're an idiot . All you do is it doesn't sound like me , no , but that's the way I took it . Yeah , because you're like this is the fifth time explaining it to you , but all you do is live around content .
Speaker 1Yeah , like , talk about your content people would die to be in your shoes and just have content . I'm like holy crap that's right .
Speaker 25Yeah , I have , like I , three magazines and a Like there's content coming from somewhere all the time . So now I just started talking about it and I don't know what to . I had no expectations of what it would turn into and it's I'm not saying this to toot my horn , but it just like caught on Right and everyone started enjoying it and I'm like what's wrong with you people ?
Speaker 25Yeah , You're actually like a likable person right , I am , oh , you do like me . That's great , you're not just saying that . And so I just caught on from there and it even morphed into , because it was actually at last apex , I think it's before we came here . I did a couple of walk and talk videos , because before I was just doing them in my basement and poor lighting , um , and I did a couple walk a dog .
Speaker 25I came here and everyone said your walkie talk are so much better , like do that . And I'm like oh , okay , yeah . And of course I go home in middle of november when it's cold in toronto and I'm like I'm cold but I'm always walkie talks .
Speaker 25I don't want to be out here , but everybody likes them , so like I gotta get the people right and , quite honestly , I didn't go out with the intention of trying to own it or gum or be like the guy doing it . I I kind of saw it as a way , if I start doing , other people will do it . And you know , and I just because my philosophy is what I do with these magazines and what with the job that I do is to just help educate the industry . Right , I'm not here to see who's fooling around with water scandal . I don't care about that stuff . You know , I I'd like , I love this industry . I want to see it grow , and the way to see it growing is by spreading information to everybody else , and so that's kind of what I want to do with the videos . And so I thought , hey , if more people started doing this , that would be awesome . So can start , jackie's not alone out there , I can start , you'll make me along too but it's fine , it's not for everybody .
Speaker 25That's really important to point out . Doing a video online it's not for everybody . You know , like I mentioned , I have a background in that stuff , so it comes kind of natural to me , but that's not your thing .
Speaker 1You're also putting your own spin on it and you're letting your personality shine , like what I get a lot in my talks and stuff is people will be like I see you do those videos and I try to do it and I just don't sound natural . I'm like that's because you're trying to be me .
Speaker 25Yeah , exactly , and you're not me . Be yourself , yeah , find your own thing . I mean , I'll give you old the sound of your own voice . Yes , no , that's guaranteed . You're going to hate the way you look . You are going to be the biggest critic of yourself .
Speaker 1Yep who cares ? And everyone else is going to love it .
Speaker 25Everyone else is going to love it . Exactly , you know , and just be yourself . Being comfortable is a different story . You may not be comfortable in front of a camera or you , but I think I like the advice of just just do something . You know whether you just write something out dip your toe in the water stream of a stream of consciousness . Put it out there , you know , and nobody likes it . Who cares ? You're doing it for yourself . I find right , like I just you know you do it for you , do it for yourself Before .
Speaker 1I got paid for it , I just literally did it because it was fun .
Speaker 25It was enjoyable , yeah , you know I mean , hey , it adds more to my workload , you know , because I got to now edit videos and go out there and record it and all this sort of stuff . But for me I enjoy it .
Speaker 2It's fun , exactly .
Speaker 25So , like it's not , yeah , okay , it takes a couple hours out of my day whenever I do it . I got to catch up on that to do actual work , but I enjoy doing it .
Speaker 1It's nice to meet another . It's like a soul brother right . Totally feel what you're saying .
Speaker 25Thank you so much for sitting down with me . I'm going to change my name with the phone here . It's a soul sister , soul brother , soul sister .
Speaker 1You better .
Speaker 2I'm going to check .
Speaker 6Thank you for being on the show .
Speaker 16Thank you for having me , jackie , it was awesome .
Michael Rukov, Director of Sales NA, CTR America
Speaker 1Welcome to the here . I've been friends with him actually for a while . How long do you think I have known you ? I will say , please , 10 years , you think ?
Speaker 23I've been in the .
Speaker 1I've been in the aftermarket 11 and I feel like I met you early on yeah , yeah , especially yeah , yeah as soon as you join , you'd be probably mad yeah so tell the audience a little bit about you and what you do .
Speaker 23Well , you know , I sell a lot of parts .
Speaker 1Yeah , like all of us . That's all , that's all .
Speaker 12I do .
Speaker 23Right now I work for a company called CTR , CTR America . It's a global OE chassis supplier and you know we're pushing really hard to sell our brand name here in North America . It's something new , something challenging for me . I actually started there about a year and a half ago , but I've been in this industry for around 14 , 15 years now . Love it , it's all about , you know , friends and family and passion and second , third , fourth generation owners . You know that's basically my friend group , right ? You ?
Speaker 10know , that .
Speaker 1Yeah , you know , we Carpal Conversations , we talk about professional development skills and I feel like I'm going to know your answer . So I'm just curious if I'm going to be right . I might surprise you , what do you think is the most important professional development skill of today ?
Speaker 23I think wearing the nice dress .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , I did not guess that no it's networking .
Speaker 23Yes , yes .
Speaker 1I knew it'd be networking . No , it's networking . Yes , yes , I knew it would be networking . So you obviously have a pretty hefty past when it comes to networking , because you were one of the founding fathers of Yang , our young auto care .
Speaker 23I was the only founding father of Yang .
Speaker 1Well , maybe you should tell the story , because the story I know is that you guys were all at a bar .
Speaker 23Yeah , so it's a cool story . I think it was quite interesting . Yeah , so it's a cool story . I think it was quite interesting . When I started my career in automotive aftermarket , I think my first meeting that I went to was with AutoCare Leadership Days . I won an award from AWDA . It was a scholarship . Right now , yang actually carries on that scholarship to go to Leadership Days , one of the Next Step program . Right At that time we had five young people that joined that meeting and that was pretty much it . Nobody else was under 40 in that meeting . That's about goes about 12 , 12 , 12 years ago I will say maybe 13 years ago . So we're just hanging out . It was me , chase backs , lealina van cleef , uh , ryan samuels . Um , we're just talking , you know . Uh , hope I didn't miss anyone . Actually , now that I think about , it no pressure .
Speaker 23Well , you know if I did sorry , so we're just hanging out . This is our age group , right ? Five of us , or four of us for the most part , and I was like , guys , this is something that you should think about . I mean , we really want to talk to peers of the same age without the pressure from the bosses . And I'm coming in from nowhere , right , I'm not a family member of anybody in the industry , my name is not not known at that time . Right , I'm like I'm a nobody , I'm starting from scratch .
Speaker 23I'm grateful for fred myers , who hired me at one stop part source , a traditional small w , relatively small wd , in southern California . He saw potential and he started sending me to this thing and I'm like , okay , great , but what's next ? How do I keep the network with peers of my own age ? So we sat down in a bar and basically kind of on a napkin with Alina and those guys wrote out a plan to create a group that will be geared towards people under 40 in the industry , which at that time we thought there were only five of us , because really , that's who showed up , right ? So my thinking from the start was I need to bring in top last names of the industry . Alina is a family business owner in Detroit , so her and I actually initially that was our , her and I collaborated a lot together so we were the first , I guess , co-founders . So that's why I said I'm the only co-founder and father Okay , she's the mother , I guess .
Speaker 1Interesting dynamic .
Speaker 23Yeah , but then Ryan Samuels I wanted to make sure he was semi-involved , but his name was always on it , Chase Baxley , because everybody knew who he was too . And then , as we started growing , we started getting Walsh Bishes etc . Bishop , you name it , Everybody who is everybody started joining it and because of that , they started bringing more and more young people into the industry . Now , if you go to Leadership Days today , well , I think I had some small part in it and it's humbling and amazing to see so many young people . And I feel like , maybe because of what we did , maybe I don't know , but maybe .
Speaker 1I think it's very possible that that attributed quite a bit to that .
Speaker 23But it's great . It's awesome right , and it's great to see some of those trends , especially with younger generations , coming in . Pretty cool , even Bezat now dresses down a little bit .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , Sometimes he rolls up his sleeves .
Speaker 23Yeah , I know , crazy guy .
Speaker 1Isn't that awesome , crazy guy .
Speaker 23I told him , next step was , you know better kicks . Crazy socks , no socks .
Speaker 1Oh , kicks , let's start with kicks . He doesn't even wear our matching orange auto care ones . Yet , exactly , he doesn't even wear our matching orange auto care ones .
Speaker 23Yet Exactly I told him he should .
Speaker 1So we'll see I'm a bad influence when it comes to networking , which you're very passionate about , what do you think is the biggest tip that you can give somebody who's trying to build their network in the industry ?
Speaker 23Well , there are a few . I guess my biggest thing is integrity . Right , be honest . If you're saying something , make sure you're not pulling it out of a place you shouldn't be pulling it out of you . How ?
Speaker 23I did that I just do yeah , anyway , but yeah , yeah , just if you're , if you're part of networking , if you're talking to someone , just make sure you're honest and fair and and don't say something that you shouldn't . You know you will regret , because people in this industry we're all friends , really good friends . People also remember things really easily . It's very hard to earn trust . It's very easy to lose it , and trust is a big piece of networking . That's why I feel that I've done a decent enough job for myself as my own personal brand , like Michael Rukoff right , because you know I have that I feel that talking to different people , connecting with different people , you know , always smile , try to remember little things . My memory is not as good as it used to be , so I write things down . If someone tells me something interesting about themselves , I always write it down and next time I'll see them I will try to bring it back up .
Speaker 1Did you ever write anything down when you first met me ? Do you know my birthday .
Speaker 23Do I know what ? My birthday , your birthday ? No , good luck .
Speaker 1Do you know my kids' names ?
Speaker 23I have it all written down . Seriously , I want to see the Jackie Lutz page .
Speaker 1Yeah , I have it . Seriously , I want to see the jackie lutz page .
Speaker 23Yeah , I have what is on it .
Speaker 1I'll show it to you one day when I'm really old yeah , so when you're not working and not networking , and not just , you know , overall being a badass in the industry , what do you do when you're at home ?
Speaker 23oh , my kids are like . They're very involved in our kids life me and my and my wife both and they have a lot going on . My son is a musician . He sings professionally . He's a 15-year-old , six foot high , that's so cool .
Speaker 23Which is kind of weird , because both me and my wife are 5'5" . I don't know where that came from , definitely not from our side , so I don't know . But yeah , so we have to drive him a lot of different places . It's actually pretty cool , because sometimes we get to go to amazing concerts . Yeah , it's so cool . He sang in a choir type of situation with Pat Benatar recently .
Speaker 1Oh my goodness , that's amazing .
Speaker 23It was a benefit concert and I was able to , like I sat there behind and it was a really high-end , hush-hush kind of concert . I don't know why they let us kind of parents be in the back .
Speaker 23They'll let anybody in the prizes that they were , that they were raising or the funds that they were raising . I should say , I mean , I've seen it . Basically it's hollywood level , right 50 , 60 , 70 , 80 , 100 , 000 , that's . That's , that's what they were auctioning off , that's the ap VIP experiences , beating stars . But anyway , he was there . It's an amazing performance . So we do a lot of that with a lot of driving around , so putting a lot of miles and our daughter the same thing . She got a lot of activities going on , so that's- .
Speaker 1Playing chauffeur and supportive parent . It takes a lot .
Speaker 23Oh yeah , Basically I'm an Uber driver . Yes , but I raised my son . Well , he knows how to drive already . I shouldn't say it legally , but he knows how to drive even a stick shift . He loves driving a stick shift and he can't wait another four months before he gets his learner's permit .
Speaker 1It's the best thing People need to like… .
Speaker 23I don't need to drive anymore .
Speaker 1People need to learn how to drive using a stick .
Speaker 23Yeah , 100% . It's a really good tool and you know , I went to Germany recently for infusion as a north of University and then my wife and kids flew over and we had a little vacation there . So I rented a stick shift car I always do that and we did a road trip in Bavaria . It was amazing . I let him drive for a while to practice . It's just kind of cool .
Speaker 23We did Nurburgring . I can't pronounce it . I'm sorry , christoph . Christoph , I apologize for my . If you're listening to this , don't call me responsible for what I say , right ? But yeah , it's amazing and he learned it and he's interested , he's actually so I'm not a cars guy .
Speaker 1I'm a parts guy .
Speaker 23I love parts . That's what I'm passionate about . That's what we're selling , right ? I love doing this . I'm not a cars guy . I mean my car . I mean I have an electric car , believe it or not . People don't like it about me , but whatever , the other one is not . The other one is BMW , but we're . You know , I don't care what I drive , as long as it's in the same way it has what it needs .
Speaker 23You know good enough technology inside . You know stop , brake and all of that fun fun thing , because I am a little bit of a crazy driver . My son on the other side , he knows , he knows cars I mean he can he can tell me oh , look at that 74 , blah , blah , blah . I'm like how do you know it's 74 ?
Speaker 1well , I'm sure he's going to be like a famous musician someday . But if he decides to go a different route . Maybe this is a good one for him .
Speaker 23Yeah , I mean we always tell our kids , you know , have a plan B and actually for everybody our industry , what ?
Speaker 1was your plan .
Speaker 7B .
Speaker 23You know I stumbled upon this industry , so I mean I did not have a plan B .
Speaker 1I'm the same way .
Speaker 23I stumbled face first . Yeah , it's the same thing . I graduated from uh college . I uh did my it work marketing stuff and then all of a sudden I find myself in this amazing industry that's like now is my family it's been really good for me you know all my friends it's like an amazing industry I can't imagine in uh automotive aftermarket without my crew cops .
Speaker 1So you're doing something right making up .
Speaker 23You're making a big impact . I do appreciate it . I mean , I don't know how to take that For better or for worse ? Yeah , for better or for worse .
Speaker 1An impact one way or the other .
Speaker 23Yeah , you know , I mean you have to have a little bit of fun , right ? Sure , that's where I come in .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's where we get know .
Ken Chrisman, President, Highline Warren
Speaker 1Thank you for being on the show , michael .
Speaker 22Ken , I'm Bazod . I'm with Auto Care On Air . You're Ken from .
Speaker 21I'm Ken from Highline Warren .
Speaker 22Ken , thanks for doing this with me .
Speaker 21Thanks for making it seem like I had a choice . This is good , perfect .
Speaker 22Well , you're really good at reacting on your feet here . So how long have you been with Highline Warren ?
Speaker 21Been here two years . What do you do with Highline Warren ? I'm the president of this business , so I have the opportunity to essentially herd all the cats . How hard is that job at Highline , you know we have . The cool thing is and I'll be serious for a second we have so many cool opportunities . There's herding all the time because people our team is coming forward with all these different ideas , and most of the ideas that we have now are multidimensional . It's not like hey , x , then Y . It's like I've got A . Okay , I need to figure out B , c , d and E . And that's really what makes us unique is that we tend to be glue right . We could take a lot of different combinations , companies that would not normally work together with each other , and we end up being that glue that kind of puts them all together and delivers extra value . So it's a pretty cool combination .
Speaker 22How do you field all those ideas and what's your power skill in that area ?
Speaker 21My biggest thing is that I would like to say that I'm probably the most open-minded and enthusiastic person on the team when it comes to that idea . I mean , mostly people are trying to talk me off the ledge from okay , well , we didn't really do that . I think it's important , if you're going to be the leader of a business , at least in my experience , to be the person who is the most enthusiastic about ideas when they come , because ideas are fragile . They will die if they're not nurtured . And so if you move it up the ladder and you're like okay , I'm going to bring it to Ken and he's not going to like this at all , so you start by saying it's an interesting idea , can I build on that with you ?
Speaker 21Right , even if it's not the best idea , you want to lean in and say , hey , can we help invest this ? Because it's not just the idea itself that's valuable , it's more valuable . The people that are bringing the idea are valuable . So you're like , ok , this is an opportunity for us to collaborate , think a little differently together and say , ok , how do we ? Can we nurture something here ? And even if the idea doesn't work , the experience , that collaboration , that's , that's culture , transparently , and that's a big part of our story .
Speaker 22Uh , you sound like the kind of person that I love to have an idea shot down from , so you let me down really gracefully .
Speaker 21Well , again , part of the idea is not every idea is a negative . Again , you want to start with an idea . Not everyone sees the entire picture , but every journey starts with that first step , and so I think it's so important to be able to give people encouragement , to say that's a cool idea . We may not be able to do it like that , but can we think about this differently ? I just think that what happens people tend to be so quick , right , we have this idea . It's almost like the Shark Tank mentality is wrong , where you're just going through , you're pitching ideas and you want somebody to immediately say yes , no , right .
Speaker 21But some of these things do actually require you to lean in and build on it , because I can come to you with an idea and you'd be like okay , do I want to give energy to help this idea be something , or do I say no because I'm just tired ? I don't want to give this idea energy and it isn't fully formed Most ideas aren't so it's a matter of do you care enough about the people to lean in and actually try to create something , and that's ? I think that not only is that culture , I think that's the only respectful way to interact with people is to say , let's give some time . You had an idea . The best thing I can do to flesh that out more , to lean in , to add to it , to give it some ideas , to bring other people into the loop . If you can do that , you create something special for the business and within that person .
Speaker 22There's a book by Daniel Kahneman called Thinking Fast and Slow and he talks about , you know , system one thinking or system two thinking . System one thinking in the brain is that reactive thinking , that emotional , quick reaction thinking , and system two is that laborious , challenging , hard . Let's actually sit back and process this decision and think about all the merits of it . So it sounds like you do a lot of system two thinking .
Speaker 21We do , but only because the system one gives you the energy to do two right If you don't have the idea . That's why those things have to go together in a mesh . Otherwise it's like everything's a slog . Every idea is oh my gosh , I'll take this idea . I got to lean in . I got to . You know , let me unpack this . I need reams and reams of data . No , let's start with this initial idea . I like it . It's got a spark . I have some energy . I get behind it . Now I have the motivation to lean in and do the harder work of saying , okay , can I back up these stats , can I back up these assumptions , can I create a new fact set ? And so I think you need to have both . Best idea is people want to be inspired . Even leadership wants to be inspired . I want to hear a cool idea , and then I want to be able to riff on it and say , okay , what can we do with this ? But then you've got to get down and do the work .
Speaker 22I love your passion around getting to the best idea and getting good ideas out . Getting back to herding cats do you actually have any cats ?
Speaker 21I do not . No , I have a dog but no cats . I had cats when I was growing up . My wife's allergic to Dogs are easier to herd .
Speaker 22They just kind of come to you so you herd . Enough cats at work , just get a dog at home .
Speaker 21You don't have to worry about it , and I think the whole idea with the whole herd cat mentality dynamic is cats are absolutely unwilling to be herded .
Speaker 22Yeah , that's why I used to have a cat growing up , because I didn't have to worry about it . It was just going to feed itself and take care of itself .
Speaker 21No , I grew up in Vermont , so our cat would . Honestly , I didn't even realize we're in nature .
Speaker 22Yeah , it was just dropping on your doorstep looking for a pat on the head .
Speaker 21I'd be like this thing is like three times your body weight . How'd you do that ?
Speaker 22Yeah , yeah . Oh , we had shared experience with a cat . That's good . How long have you been in the industry ? Two years , two years , yeah . Where'd you come from before the ?
Speaker 21industry . Prior to that , I ran that business for several years and then I never worked in private equity and I honestly got to a point where I was a little bored with it . I knew that business inside and out . I enjoyed the people in it , but I didn't have that spark . I couldn't get up every day and go , wow , let's go and do this again and do it differently . That's why it's been exciting to be part of a whole new space and be able to take some of those ideas and energy and be able to apply that . I mean , life is too short not to do stuff that you enjoy doing , and I think sometimes we can get into a rut because we fall into a routine .
Speaker 22Picking up on that . You know , 10 , 15 years ago , maybe seven years ago , you look like a young guy when you were coming out of college . What did you end up ? Or school what did you want to do when you grew up ?
Speaker 21I wanted to be a left-hander relief pitcher for the New York Mets .
Speaker 22Did you ever try that ?
Speaker 21No , I'm right-handed , so it became a real problem If you had a ball right now .
Speaker 22Would you be able to throw it ?
Speaker 21I could , yeah actually , yeah , very good . If you had a word of advice back to your younger self , what would it be ? It's a counterintuitive advice . I should have been more aggressive and more patient . I know it sounds silly , right ? No , not at all .
Speaker 21I needed to hit an eight run home run , but it would cause me then to take actions that were not bold enough , right ? So I was like , okay , I want to do something extraordinary . I've got to build all this resume in order to be able to do that extraordinary thing , and I'm looking at this going well . I should have just taken more shots just right out of the gate in order to be able to move things along faster , but I was so excited to move forward faster that I , frankly , was a little too methodical about it . I know it seems a little weird , but , yeah , I felt like I had to basically build it almost like one brick at a time and , honestly , in today's environment and society , you can make step change and you have to be bold enough . You can make step change gains professionally if you have the right attitude and mentality about it .
Speaker 22I'm not a golfer but I feel like I got that advice playing golf . Once in my swing someone said like fast , then slow or slow then that's exactly right .
Speaker 21Like that's exactly right . If only we knew someone that was like a big golf talent yeah , looking at a golfer , near us and , yeah , they're not giving me any . No , no relief right now . She is , no , she's , she's not .
Speaker 22If I talk to Ken 10 , 15 years from now , what's Ken going to tell me ?
Speaker 21I'm going to tell you that the time that I spent in the automotive aftermarket was the most energizing and inspiring time of my career , and that I only wish that I'd found this industry earlier , but that I am so grateful that I did .
Speaker 22Well , ken , the five , seven minutes I've spent with you have been great , so I appreciate it . Thanks so much . I look forward to seeing you again . Likewise , take care .
Speaker 21It's a pleasure .
Jacqueline Rodriguez, VP of Marketing, The Parts Authority
Speaker 1Okay , I am here with another Jackie , as if we need more than one Jackie Rodriguez from Parts Authority , someone that I have known for a few years now and always a smiling face at our events . Welcome to the show , thank you .
Speaker 12What do you do here ? I work in marketing for Cars Authority . Do you like it ? I love it .
Speaker 1Do you like your CEO , Randy Buller , who was just on our Driver's Seat podcast ? Oh he's great , he seems amazing , he is 100% . Do you get to work with him pretty closely ? I do , yeah , yeah . What do you ? What do you like working like ? What is it about him that you like ?
Speaker 12his personality . Yeah , you know , I think if he's a straight shooter , yeah you know , he . What he says is what you get , um . So it's kind of refreshing to have someone like that that you work for , because 100% that's him You're going to be able to get him , and he tells you what he wants .
Speaker 1So you were an acquisition of Parts Authority . Right , I was . Where did you ?
Speaker 12work . Before that I worked for Metro Auto Parts in California . I was there for 10 years before we got acquired , okay , and then I did start it as a receptionist of that location and then , of course , I started . I love the industry , how it was just so fast paced . I ended up doing a bunch of different things before I decided to like , oh hey , go to customer service , oh do purchasing , oh do pricing , and then landed in marketing before we got acquired and that was just that's so cool that you did all those other things too .
Speaker 1Do you think that that makes you better in your job now ? Just because you , because you work with all these people right , you work with pricing people and customer service and all these people .
Speaker 12So yeah , I think you know how a lot of people say . You know , in our industry they start as drivers and then they start from there . Even Randy himself started as a as a driver , um , and then like , you need to learn the warehouse . And the whole thing about the industry is that once you learn every aspect of the departments , it's going to make you better . So you understand the whole concept of what you have to do .
Speaker 1So how did you land in marketing ?
Speaker 12So I was promoted several times , you know .
Speaker 1This was in Parts Authority At Metro .
Speaker 12So then I landed marketing before it was sales and marketing before Parts Authority bought us . And then , once Parts Authority bought us , you know , overall it was a very interesting time because you know , uh , metro , we were part of a bankruptcy , so it was like the unknown . Okay , here comes this parts authority company from new york , you don't know who you know these people are , and uh , so it was always the unknown . But , um , ended up just being understanding how parts authority did the business overall and then I kind of stick with marketing there . So they kind of left me there to do my thing what do you like about marketing ?
Speaker 1about what about marketing ?
Speaker 12our industry is always changing , right . So same thing with marketing , right . You have to come up with new things always . Make sure that you are the top . You know industry leader . You know everything's changing and you always have to evolve within that marketing . You have to do the same thing every single time something's changing . You got to be up to speed of what's happening , what's out there in the market right now , who needs it ? You know everything . That right there , having that challenge every day , that's what drives me .
Speaker 1Yeah , and so what's like , what's your favorite part , my favorite Like , what task do you actually love to do with ?
Speaker 12marketing . In the marketing department I actually love a lot of things . Oh really , that's so good , I do , I do .
Speaker 1So what do you hate ? What are you like ?
Speaker 12Oh , you're pushing it off .
Speaker 6Um , I do push off a lot of things about .
Speaker 1Well , I mean , let me think , if you don't hate anything , that's an answer too . I'm telling you like meetings with Rob Blitstein , do you push those off ? I'm telling you like meetings with Rob Blitstein , do you push those ?
Speaker 12off . Rob is pretty entertaining , so no , but there's other meetings that I will definitely push off 100% every day . I'm like you know what that's too many meetings on that ? Let's move on , let's get to task , yes .
Speaker 1So when you're not working for parts authority , what do you do with your spare time ? I have two kids .
Speaker 12What are their ages ? 14 and 11 . Okay , are they boys or girls ? A boy and a girl ? Okay , and my son just started football , freshman football .
Speaker 1Woo so . So there goes your weekends .
Speaker 12It's been so much fun . Oh good , I wouldn't believe that . Like I started watching football for him and now it's like my house is so my , my son's , a Raiders fan . Okay , but you know my husband , you know he is a Rams fan .
Speaker 12Okay . So then the house is divided and then of course it's like mom , you need to be with me . And then dad is like , okay , well , I have Jocelyn , so we kind of watch football now , ever since he just started doing football , so that's been what you said he's a Raiders fan , my son .
Speaker 1And what's your husband ? He's a . He's a Rams fan . He's a Rams fan . Ok , so who tends to win ? I don't even know who's the underdog in the situation .
Speaker 12I don't know .
Speaker 1You don't know either .
Speaker 12No , I don't , I'm just learning football because of my son . Okay , so that's pretty fun .
Speaker 12I haven't learned football , yet it's very cool . It has changed him in different ways . Very funny story is that his last game was last week and one of the things that caught my attention . So he's not a starting player , so he's second string and so what that means is that when someone gets hurt or anything like , he's a backup player , so he doesn't get to be on field time all the time . But what he made me learn that day is that he was so pumped that he was able to play on the last day . He played a couple of games before . Like I said , you're not a starting player , so you're not 100 percent there , and by him being , you know , so happy , so pumped , being on that field that day , it just show like he was all the times that he practiced the persistence way that he just he was just being resilient , being there , and it's a lot of teamwork , so ended up being a great thing for him . He's teaching me along the way .
Speaker 12Great life skills . A hundred percent . That's awesome , so it's been lovely with that . You know , my daughter still hasn't got a thing that she does , but she's doing a play and that's going to be fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's amazing . Yeah , so Purple Conversations is all about professional development skills , and do you know what I think is one of the most underrated development skills ?
Speaker 12You say what , what Courage ?
Speaker 1to do things that are really , really hard , things that we're not comfortable with . And what people didn't see is me dragging you over here to do this interview with me , and I think it's pretty cool that you just did this .
Speaker 12You did a great job . Yes , a hundred percent courage . I agree with you because , um , yeah , this is new for me and uh , how'd you feel ? Feels good . You actually make it feel very , very nice . So anybody that wants to do this and don't have the courage to do so , I would tell you that you make it pretty easy . Oh , thanks , I would tell you that you make it pretty easy . Oh , thanks .
Speaker 1All right . Well , thank you for being on the show . Thank you , I hope you feel good about it . We'll see , because you did awesome . All right , thank you . So I'm here with Matt
Matt Fowler, Account Executive, Ubisense
Speaker 1Fowler . You all know him , you all love him . He was our second Carpool Conversations episode . He was the extrovert . The extrovert . He stands here today , chair of Yang . Actually , I'm sitting . Well , that's true Shoot . Should we cut ? Should we go back ?
Speaker 20No , no no , let's keep it , let's keep it .
Speaker 1Well , how's that going ?
Speaker 20It's going great . You know we've got a lot of fun stuff in Yang this year and know we've got a lot of fun stuff in Yang this year and really we're still doing quarterly YPSs , we've got Yang Professional Series and then we have our mentorship program . So if it's nearing the end of the year , go ahead and sign up and get ready for the next year . So we're always looking for mentees and mentors and all that fun stuff .
Speaker 1And then the mentorship program is pretty cool because I love that you guys have like small groups that are kind of like . You got to call them a circle right , With one mentor , you have like five mentees and those five mentees get to be with that mentor for a full year . It's a really cool way to like really get to know five people in the industry really well and like be on the radar of some of the goats of our industry too .
Speaker 20And I mean if you're really liking where things are going and the topics kind of change with your mentor . I've had mine for two years .
Speaker 1So you've done it for two , the same mentor for two years .
Speaker 20Same mentor two years and the group a couple of us stayed after year one because you know we were really liking the topic all around marketing yourself and how to build yourself up , and so it's just been a really good time . And you know you meeting every quarter with these people minimal is gives you the time to kind of really connect with people . And then you've got people that when you're in industry events like this one or anything else , you know somebody and you know , somebody quote unquote important .
Speaker 1Yeah , and you don't just know them , you actually have a relationship with them and they know a little bit about you and your work and what you do , and it's just kind of like a nice little safe space that you start to create for yourself at these events and you have someone to talk to .
Speaker 20I mean that is just an instant face to recognize Not only your mentor but also all of the people who are in your group . You know the other four mentees .
Speaker 1Yeah , and so what else ? You said YPS which is Young . Professional Series . Those are webinars .
Speaker 20Those are webinars . We do them quarterly and basically we get industry professionals for 45 minutes . We do a fireside chat style asking them questions . Typically we'll release the signups on LinkedIn . So if you're not following us on LinkedIn , that should definitely be something that you do . But we release whatever topic they're most confident in and we chat with them for 45 minutes . They're not recorded . You can only see them if you show up . So it's a really good opportunity to hear kind of some candid feedback from some real industry professionals , and some of them are even in Yang . So we get to hear from people who've really moved up the ladder fast and it's a really interesting thing .
Speaker 1And you also have an annual conference .
Speaker 20Annual conference . It lines up in the spring with Connect Week , but we do our whole programming session on Yang alone , so we're a whole track . We start typically in the very beginning , a day early , and then we roll in . So that way , if people are coming and they want to get the young professional content but they also want to get some industry specific content , there's still an opportunity to do that on the back end of the week .
Speaker 1This all sounds very expensive to be a member .
Speaker 20It's actually free . No , yeah , I know For the low , low price of being a member of AutoCare .
Speaker 1So if people are a member , if their companies are a member of AutoCare , they can join Yang for free .
Speaker 20Yeah , if you are an AutoCare member and it's your company that's a member . So , as a result , all of the employees that's the thing that I think a lot of people don't understand is all of the employees If there's anybody in your organization under 40 years old , no matter what they're doing , they are eligible to be a member of Yang and they can show up to regional meetups , which is where different industry events we have meetups where it's all of the young professionals that we know meet up in one place . Typically it's a restaurant . We may have a cocktail or two and then it gives you again somebody to know and kind of a home base . At some of these events , you know , you get the young professional series , you get the Connect Week mentorship program and a whole bunch of friends .
Speaker 20LinkedIn , our newsletter . So it's definitely something that we really want to push this year so that people realize that it's already included , it's being paid for .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's amazing . So what else is going on with you ?
Speaker 20Oh , with me , my puppy's still fine .
Speaker 1Oh , that's good , Romeo's doing well .
Speaker 20Romeo is crushing it .
Speaker 1Does he ever talk about me ?
Speaker 20He , you know he does miss you from time to time . We can pick that you guys are about the same height , so you've got that going .
Speaker 1This is a Datsun , by the way .
Speaker 20Miniature Datsun .
Speaker 1His legs are literally two inches , so I'm going to try not to be offended right now . Have you started a new job or anything ?
Speaker 20exciting . I started a new job . I am with a new company called UbiSense , so primarily working with manufacturers now and trying to help their manufacturing facilities .
Speaker 1And lastly , the question I've been asking . You're familiar with Carpo Conversations . We do professional development skills .
Speaker 20I am familiar .
Speaker 1What is the number one professional development school school ? School skill for a professional today .
Speaker 20Listening .
Speaker 1It's a good one .
Speaker 20I think that not a lot of . I mean it's . We talked about this .
Speaker 1It's interesting , coming from the biggest extrovert I know .
Speaker 20You know I listen a lot more than people might think from the biggest extrovert I know . You know I listen a lot more than people might think and that's something that I think that a lot of people overlook in conversations is , you know it's conversations should be bi-directional , and a lot of times you've got so much to say yourself that you forget to kind of open that up .
Speaker 1It's beautiful , that's a good one . We don't get that one a lot . Well done , thanks . I'm kind of awesome . Well , thanks for , and you're humble and I think that that's it's so important .
Speaker 20It's really one of my better qualities .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's my humbleness I would argue it's a really important professional development skill I I would , I would agree you're like the pinnacle of it we can all look up to you , you should thank you for being on the show again
Speaker 12all right , I'm stacyacey Miller . With Auto
Stefan Feder, Head of Automotive Aftermarket NA, Continental
Speaker 12Care Association . I host the Traction Control Podcast . We are live at Apex and we're with my good friend Stefan Fetter . He's the head of automotive aftermarket for Continental , a huge company and a really massive role . Welcome , stefan .
Speaker 2Yeah , glad to be here .
Speaker 12Tell us a little bit about what you do .
Speaker 2Well , I recently became the head of aftermarket for North American Market inside Continental , so I'm leading that business now . That's my primary job , and then , in addition to that , I'm also the vice chair of the sustainability committee of the Auto Care Association .
Speaker 12And what drove you to apply to be a vice chair of this new committee ?
Speaker 2I think I was kind of told into that role , yeah , so I think what really ? I think the question is , what drove me on being on this assembly committee ? And I think it's been a very personal motivation . Um , yeah , personal motivation so , and um , it's been back in when was it 2022 or three , when , um , I was at my first spring leadership days and I felt there's one big topic missing . That I mean , we talked a lot , of , a lot of important topics and then right to repair was the most important topic , and it still is , yeah , but I felt like there's one super important topic which is missing and that was sustainability . Yeah , so then I got together with Ben Spitz , with Michael Sismor and with Joe Steven and we reached out to Bill , we reached out to the Auto Care Board and we pitched them the idea of founding the sustainability company Fast forward . One year later we were able to put it into reality , and then here we are now , almost two years later .
Speaker 12Yeah . Oh my God . And the aftermarket is not new to sustainability . Right , we were the first green industry . We like to say . We've been recycling oil and tires and all these things for a really long time , but when I think about sustainability , I think recycle , reduce , reuse , circular economy , green economy all these things come to mind . Tell me about what that means in the auto care industry , though yeah .
Speaker 2So I think we came up within our committee with that slogan maintain a sustain , and it's really , I think , as you said , taking it , taking at the core of what our industry is doing . So we are keeping the cars on the street as long as possible and in the best condition possible . So and if you think about that is I mean we , we truly believe that if you keep your cars on the street as long as possible and in the best condition possible , that's better than producing a new car . So it's less , you're issuing less emissions , and also , if you keep it in the best condition possible and keep the car operating in the best condition possible , it reduces also the emissions of the car . So that's , I think , the core of what our industry does , which , as you said , makes it basically sustainable by default . And I think what it also does is it also there connects strongly to the core thought of right to repair , which is keeping car repair as accessible and as affordable as possible , because if that's not the case , then you're not able to maintain your car .
Speaker 16Right .
Speaker 2So , and then you're not able to contribute to sustainability .
Speaker 12I'm so glad that you said that To maintain is to sustain , but that there is a connection between right to repair and sustainability , and I think traditionally we thought of those as two different things but we didn't realize that they were connected . And there's so much focus on sustainability right now to preserve our earth and our environment and reduce sicknesses and all the issues that we're causing .
Speaker 2this is a really , really big deal yeah , it's still not enough for my taste , but I'm glad we will .
Speaker 2We were able to really create the sustainability committee and also use that to provide to the membership base information , create the awareness , provide educational resources . Because if we're creating this awareness , then I think we also will get the results from it and getting more members involved in that wave . And it's not only looking at what regulation is out there that you need to follow in order to be compliant , but also what can you do in order to become more profitable , because that's also a piece of sustainability . So if you , as you said , if you reduce , if you reuse , if you recycle , you also have the chance to get a payback from that . So I mean if you reduce , you also have the chance to get a payback from that . So I mean if you reduce , you have less cost , so you increase your profitability . But also if you recycle , there are companies out there that take your used drum rotors and they recycle the steel out of it and they pay you for that , so you actually get a real payback if you are more focused on sustainability .
Speaker 12Yeah , and I love that . I think that's such a cool thing that we do . Most people don't know about it , so we're going to work on campaigns for industry awareness here . You know , the one question I have for you is , you know , for someone who doesn't know a lot about sustainability , or if there's like one thing you would really want them to know about sustainability that maybe they don't , there something in particular that you would share with them I think the main thought is sustainability is not about you , and it's really ensuring that the future generations have the same possibilities that you have .
Speaker 2That's that's what's driving me and what I really think is the core of sustainability ensuring that the future generations are able to live in the same way that you are able to live .
Speaker 12Absolutely Such a cool conversation . We're not going to get into legislation , regulations , compliance those are much deeper topics . But on Auto Care On Air we follow all of this on the Traction Control Show . We've got a show coming up talking about those regulations at the state level everything from chemicals to packaging to emissions . There's so much to dissect and there's going to be a lot more content coming from the Auto Care Association Sustainability Committee on this topic . So stay tuned to Auto Care on air for more . Stefan , if people want to connect with you , where can people find you ?
Speaker 2Well , they can be . I mean , when hear it , a pic is probably over , but I mean , that's where you could have found me . So , yeah , too late , sorry for that , but they can find me on LinkedIn . If they have questions on sustainability , I , as you said , I recommend them to go to the out of care website out of court , out oforg slash sustainability . They can learn a lot there and we also have our auto care liaison listed there , danielle Thomas-Pollard , and they can reach out to her . Her contacts are listed there and they will be able to connect them with us as well if they need to . But yeah , reach out to me on LinkedIn if you have any questions . I'm always happy to help .
Speaker 12Perfect , learn about it , get involved . I'm always happy to help Perfect Learn about it , get involved . We can't
John Kairys, Executive Director, AACF
Speaker 12wait to share more with you .
Speaker 1I'm here with John Carey Hello .
Speaker 4Hey , jackie , how are you Good .
Speaker 1He is the executive director of AACF , the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable .
Speaker 14Foundation , which I am privileged and honored to sit on the board for .
Speaker 1Yes , and we're proud to have you as a board member . Thank you for that . Yeah , thank you . Yeah . No , it's so much fun , Even just like our meeting the other day . We get to get together one time a year . I just love being in that room with those people , because it's the biggest hearted people in the industry .
Speaker 14It's almost like a family right , I mean you look around those that are represented in the industry . It's just a great group of people with a lot of great minds for great ideas and certainly great hearts for , for doing what we do , and that's giving back to people in our industry .
Speaker 1Why don't you tell them a little bit about what aacf does ?
Speaker 14sure ? So the aacf is the automotive aftermarket charitable foundation and we began in 1959 , so this year is our 65th anniversary and very excited to celebrate that . Actually , the additional thing that we're doing in that celebration is we're getting ready to give away a classic car and a classic car sweepstakes a 1965 .
Speaker 1Mustang convertible , not just any classic car . Let's throw that out there .
Speaker 14Check us out on our website at aftermarketcharityorg and you can gain some more information about that . But yes , the foundation . What we basically do is through the generous donations of our sponsors and donors , we provide financial assistance to those in our industry and very unique in the fact they're only within our industry when they encounter life's hardships . So you know , if somebody has an illness or someone has a death in the family or a house fire or worse yet and some of the examples we've seen , most recently in the third and fourth quarter here with the natural disasters , those are the people that can reach out to us for financial aid and help and we're certainly glad to assist and very grateful and thankful for those that help us do that right . So those in the industry , a lot of great companies within the industry , individuals as well that provide us with donations to help support the cause .
Speaker 1So yeah , it's very big .
Speaker 1It's fantastic and what I just love , I just love the concept of it , that really the people that give to AACF you're kind of keeping it in the family , right , it's going to stay with and in our industry is just all about relationships , it's all about people . We , you know , we want to see people succeed here and when people when , when hard things happen to people in our industry , we all kind of feel it . So this is a way that you can give back and keep it in the family and really make a difference in someone's life .
Speaker 14You know it's funny you mentioned that because I've heard a couple of times already in certain meetings about the closeness of this industry .
Speaker 14And you come to Apex and SEMA and you see how immense the show is , how big the show is and how many people are here , not only as exhibitors but as attendees as well , and you think about how many people are here .
Speaker 14But you understand that there is this bond that we all have that keep us close together , like I said , almost like a family . And the funny thing is you run into somebody you haven't seen in years and the first thing you say to them well , who are you with now ? Because it just seemed no one's leaves this industry either . We all have a great passion for it and that's where I think the passion and the big hearts come into play to helping those within our industry . For me , I spent 40 plus years in this industry and I couldn't be more grateful for what it provided me and my family . And now , with this great opportunity as executive director being on the board for four years along with you as well but now with this role , it's just so gratifying to be able to be in a place where we're giving back .
Speaker 1Yeah , and make such a huge impact . Yeah , and there's just so much opportunity with AACF . So what did you do before ?
Speaker 14So again 40 years in the aftermarket and I began my career with NAPA on the part side I heard of them . I'll refer to it as the dark side , but it was a very pleasurable experience . I got into the tire business and went to work for Pirelli and then Cooper Tire and Rubber Company , and that led me to a position with TBC Corporation and TBC . If you don't know who TBC is , they have a lot of retail brands that they're responsible for and they own . They're the franchisor for Midas and Big O , isor for Midas and Big O , and they also at one time , up until June of this past year , owned Tire Kingdom and NTB of which were sold to Mavis , which Mavis again , another great partner for us , the ACF .
Speaker 14So again you can see the tightness of the industry . Everybody seems to know everybody , right ? But yeah , with TBC I ran Big O Tires and I ran a wholesale tire distributor arm of the company Carroll NTW and most recently I was in their purchasing department and I retired in June and was retired for about a year still on the board of the ACF and was so fortunate to be able to have this opportunity to become their executive director .
Speaker 1I love that you retired and then immediately got pulled back . You failed retirement Congratulations .
Speaker 14Well , it was that purpose and that passion thing and as I'm looking , my wife is here with me at the show and I'm looking at her and she quite frankly wanted me to get out of the house .
Speaker 1Please go back to work . Yes , exactly . So what do you guys do for fun outside of AACF these days ?
Speaker 14Well , we live in Florida . So obviously , you know , besides dodging hurricanes and tornadoes and things like that , unfortunately I golf a little bit and we have a boat and love to get out on the water and love to go to the beach , you know , during those spare times . So yeah , and we , you know , just do a lot . We have two adult children , that one's in Pennsylvania and one is actually in Florida but moving up to Ohio , so I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to come and go visit them , as well as being some of the things that we do in our downtime .
Speaker 1So Very cool . So this is Carpool Conversations that you're on and we talk about professional development skills . So is there a professional development skill that you think is a little underrated , or a skill that you think is just the most important skill that people should have in the professional environment today ?
Speaker 14Yeah , you know that's a really great question and I've had several conversations with folks about this because , again , being in this business for 40 , I hate to admit 40 plus years building relationships and understanding how to leverage relationships , manage relationships , nurture relationships , it's so important to the success of you as a professional and it's also so much a part of the success of your company that you represent as well .
Speaker 14And I think that that is something that you know . You mentioned it being underrated . I don't want to say necessarily is it underrated . It certainly is an important thing , but I think sometimes it's been overlooked . And when I say overlooked , it's been kind of an evolution of that . You know , when I first started in my career , it was all about who you know and it was all about those connections that you make . And it continues to be that way . But I think , you know , corporate America , unfortunately , has put some values on some other things , and then we all experienced this little thing called COVID that put everybody in a place where they weren't traveling anymore , weren't seeing people face-to-face anymore , and it really stifled that opportunity to build those relationships . And you had to do it through zoom calls or , you know , through , you know , teams yeah , and it was just not the same , just not the same .
Speaker 14So I think you know , maybe some advice to anybody , even the younger folks that are coming into this industry please , you know , understand the value of that and understand that that you know so much can be had um in terms of building those relationships , and and , um , and again I said , leveraging those relationships for your success .
Speaker 1Yeah and like , honestly , like I think of . You know we always think about legacy . You know a legacy to leave and as the new generation comes up in this industry , most people when you ask , like , what do you love so much about the aftermarket ? It's rarely , you know brake pads , it's usually the people is what they say , yeah , and you can't build those relationships without getting involved , getting yourself out there , doing things like volunteering for AACF or coming to the show , asking your manager if I can go to Apex this year , you know , so that you can see the industry meet the people , start developing those relationships .
Speaker 14Well , you know , it's funny , it is cliche . You've heard this many times where people buy from people right , but , as it relates to even what the AACF does , it's all about people in this industry , and I would just say to everybody that listens to this podcast or Carpool Conversation that if you're not familiar with the AACF , please try to become familiar with who we are and what we do . And if you do , have anyone in this industry that has experienced some hardship and they need some help please know that we're there to help .
Speaker 1Yes , okay , thank you so much . Thank you for sitting down . This was nice oh this is wonderful .
Speaker 14Appreciate it , thank you .
Speaker 1I am here with Autumn
Autumn Lamb, Marketing Manager, GSP Americas
Speaker 1Lamb . Welcome . Thanks for inviting me , jackie . I'm so happy to be here . Yeah , this is cool . I know a lot about you , obviously , because we worked together a little bit on the Women in Auto Care Council . You're their social media guru . I try to be . Oh , you did fantastic . There's such a huge , monumental difference from the moment you walked into the door and started doing more on social it's like Women in Auto Care is everywhere .
Speaker 13It's awesome . I would definitely not say it hasn't been without the help of a team behind us too right . Most committee positions are , you know , a single person and then obviously have a wide range of champions . We have about six champions and I co-chair with Danny Withers , and I swear this tribe knows how to definitely make the presence and make women in auto care proud and loud .
Speaker 1But what you did well is I think that they have a lot of fun doing it . Like a lot of people are kind of proud to be a part of the social media team of women in auto care . Oh yeah , we're vibing and thriving , yeah , and you've got to Like if you don't like social , you're not going to be good at it . Like if you don't love that environment , you don't really enjoy yourself and people aren't really going to want to hear what you have to say . Exactly Right .
Speaker 13But it also brings more . I think also like inquiries or people are like hey let me check this out a little bit more . Um , and also , too , it's just the presence of it . Everybody has been saying you know before they'd be like , hey , I didn't really know about this event , I didn't hear about it . Right now , you cannot go on LinkedIn without seeing women . Auto care in some part , some way , in some form , and that's amazing how much we've grown . It's just such a proud thing to be a part of .
Speaker 1Well , you guys did it perfectly , because what companies do is they use social media as a marketing platform , which it is , yeah , but it's actually like a humanizing platform . You're supposed to make your company feel more human and social , and so you got to break down that . And it's hard to do , especially for marketers , because we're so trained to be corporate , you know when we're talking about our companies or organizations .
Speaker 13And it's really hard to get out of that step out of that and be like what do humans down to service professionals , shop owners and everybody . We're all different dynamics , different situations and environments , and bringing that human element to it , I think , really resonates with anybody Right , and so it doesn't seem so corporate-y , it doesn't seem so underrated . There's just a lot of things that I think when you start vocalizing , you start showing your presence a little bit more . It does allow a lot more people to amplify that voice and connect with you ?
Speaker 1Yeah , absolutely , Because another thing social media does is word of mouth is still the best marketing trick in the book , right ? Nothing's ever going to beat word of mouth . So if you can get more people seeing your brand on social media and talking about it , that's actually where you're going to reap all of the benefits of putting yourself out there on LinkedIn . Is people talking about you , talking about it ? Like that's actually where you're going to get all of the you know reap all the benefits of putting yourself out there on LinkedIn is like people talking about you , talking about women , and it's something that , if you enjoy it too as well , Right .
Speaker 13So I enjoy women in auto care , and every time I see a woman in the industry I'm like are you familiar with women in auto care ?
Speaker 1You can tell you love it because , like you have the blazer , you look like you work only for women in auto care right now .
Speaker 13You know , sometimes I try who do you actually work for ? So I work for GSB North America . Okay , in marketing .
Speaker 1Yes , yeah , and how long have you been there ?
Speaker 13I've been there for about six years now . I love it Anything . Marketing is pretty much touch pointing through my channels myself and you know I'm not a big car background person but being in this industry and just everything about it , I've definitely learned a lot more about cars and just the general automotive industry and stuff like that . So it has its balance . I enjoy what I do .
Speaker 1Yeah , so I know something else about you . You , I don't know if you want me to say this , but I'm going to .
Speaker 13Oh okay , I guess we're going to find out . I can say whatever I want .
Speaker 1I don't know . Well , you had a little bit of a fear that you're actively working on conquering and it's been really fun to watch it on LinkedIn because you're kind of doing what I love seeing people do , which is like bring people into their journey right and like have people kind of watch you conquer fear is really , really fun .
Speaker 13So you uh used to have a probably still do have a bit of a fear of public speaking . So I remember when I first joined women in auto cares council , we came up stage and we had to introduce ourselves .
Speaker 13My hands were so sweaty I can hear the shakiness Like it was just horrible and all I was doing was saying , hi , I'm on a lamp , I'm working to speak , you know , um , and just at that moment I just realized that , hey , I want to get more involved , but I don't want this to stop me from being whatever I want to be . Yeah , and so recently I moved to South Carolina about two years ago , and so now I'm kind of a little bit more rooted in there now . So I joined Toastmasters .
Speaker 13So , you know what I have to shout out ? Jonathan Larson , because he was kind of , you know , seem , you know , seem like that . And then I'm like , okay , I'm going to do it . You know , I'm just going to do that . And also , too , is I have another coworker , morgan Cassidy , and she's like I want to do it . So I'm like , fine , you know , I guess I'll join too . And so we did . And you know I'm a part of it .
Speaker 13I'm a part of their done , speeches there and stuff . And then I actually had to present at CWA's dinner gala for the first time and I could feel the difference of being on that stage in comparison to where I was . So , just to be able to acknowledge the growth and development of sometimes you don't realize that you have until it actually has been put in that situation , and when you do it's just like , okay , I had to feel good , it did , it did . Now it was just only like two seconds , you know , but it does allow me to understand , okay , what I'm doing , I'm on the right path , we're getting there Right and you know I didn't die .
Speaker 1You should feel so proud . Honestly and I don't know if you've ever heard the statistic and I'm not I'm going to get the number wrong , but there was like , like most people's biggest fear is public speaking , even more so than dying .
Speaker 13I heard that I definitely have , and I'm serious like it does feel like that , though . Yeah , like I know that anytime I still get on stage , I'm still gonna have the butterflies , I'm still gonna have the palms sweaty , I'm still gonna have certain situations , but I've learned how to be in control of them a little bit more , and I I haven't allowed it to also stop me either and , look , we are going to mess up , we are going to have those things , but there's always room for improvement . Right , that is totally okay , but it's better to start it and do it than to be in fear of the unknown Right Absolutely . And so being able to at least take that first step is already 110% more than just not doing it yeah , absolutely , and like 110% more than just not doing it yeah , absolutely .
Speaker 1And like showing up again , too is is huge , like I don't . I listened to a podcast once about public speaking and the guy was like a coach and he said the one thing I see the most is that people don't show up again the next day Like they . They get all worked up , they work on their presentation , they get all prepared , they do the thing , they did it , they're excited about it , but then they don't do it again . They're kind of like check it off their list . He's like you just have to keep working at it and it gets better , it gets easier . Something that really helped me .
Speaker 1I don't know if this helps you , but when I started recording video , I hated it , hated it . It took me hours to do like a three minute video . I just hated myself on the screen . I hated watching myself . I hated the sound of my voice , just everything . And because I just kept doing it , though , it made me a better public speaker , because I watch myself talk all the time and so I know what I look like , I know what I sound like , I'm familiar with that , so like it just makes me not have to focus so much on that when I'm on stage .
Speaker 13And you know , jackie , I will have to say that this is where I'm going to have to shout you out , because actually you have been an inspiration for me that , like you've always done the videos for women in auto care , you just do videos in general and just everything about it . Right , it's like , wow , jackie , you're so amazing . I know we've had this conversation before and I always say I'm your biggest fan . But also just behind the scenes , is I remember you telling me about that too ? Like , oh , you said you start feeling a little bit more normal about it , and so that's kind of where I am . I'm like , okay , let me just think about Jackie and be like , let me do that . And like I did a video for the CAWA scholarship fund because of you , because .
Speaker 13I'm like , okay , if I'm going to amplify my voice , I need to do the things that I'm not comfortable with in order to do that Right . And so I did do it . I'm like don't look at it , autumn , just hide it . I don't know , I'll go back . But even as I continuously do things to get more involved and start talking a little bit more , I can feel that it's coming a little bit more natural , but it takes time for all that .
Speaker 1So don't worry .
Speaker 13Maybe like 10 years .
Speaker 1But what you said , that I did for you , now you are doing for other people and because you are confident enough to share that , it scares you , people will look at that and be like this scares her and she can do that . That means that I can do this , whatever that might do . So you are doing the same thing for so many people .
Speaker 13I hope so . I mean , I'm not trying to be like you know the , the , I don't know the , the oh Holly person . That's just going to be everything . I want to be able to do , something that allows people to understand that I was there one time .
Speaker 13I was in your shoes and I'm still in those shoes , right , but I want to walk together . Right , you're not alone , and one of the things I was just telling somebody else is that , you know , a lot of times we have people in our corners that you don't even know , and I genuinely , authentically , 110% support people and just doing what they can do , right , because it is an uncomfortable feeling , but I have mad respect for that , because you're putting yourself out there , yeah , yeah , we can do hard things , it's just hard , yeah yeah , exactly right , this was awesome I know .
Speaker 13Thank you so much for your time . Thanks for inviting me , yeah this is fun .
Speaker 1We'll
Dunya Bulut, Strategic Marketing Manager, ABA
Speaker 1do it again . Great welcome to the show . Hi , thank you for doing this with me . Do you want to introduce yourself ?
Speaker 16yeah , of course , my name is dinia abut , uh , I'm from turkey and I'm with ada automotive . Um , it's a company based in turkey and , uh , I mentioned , I'm turkish too , I've been to turkey .
Speaker 1Oh for , like literally a second , I did a cruise , like a mediterranean cruise , and uh , we did . We started in rome , we did sicily , creterete , athens , and then ended in Ephesus . Oh , ephesus is beautiful .
Speaker 16Which was so cool . It's so historic and I'm really happy that you got to enjoy the beauties of Turkey . Especially the Mediterranean coast is just out of this world .
Speaker 1It was so cool . But you know , my favorite part was the markets . Yes , they were awesome , vibrant too , yeah , and they're very I don't know the word but they really grab you and they're like come by ourself and at first I was a little intimidated but kind of had fun like bartering and stuff and we had a . We had somebody with us who could speak turkish and was like helping us do it , so I just had a , so you got a lot of discounts , because the guy or well , I mean I think I did .
Speaker 1It's hard to . It's hard to really know , but in my head yes , yes absolutely Always negotiate when you're in Turkey , yeah yeah , oh , it's a beautiful country . From what ?
Speaker 16I've seen .
Speaker 1When was this ? Oh , that would have been 2012 or something someone in that era ?
Speaker 16Have you been to Istanbul ? No ?
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 16So next time you should go there too .
Speaker 1That's the thing with cruises . It's like you get to see like a little bit of certain areas and then you don't get to stay and , like you know , if you , if you really like the place , you still have to leave . It's kind of a bummer that way , but you get to see a lot of things , just not for a very long time .
Speaker 16Yeah , so you're also involved in women in auto care ? I am , yes , so I joined . This is my third Apex and I joined on my first one and it was definitely a great way to make me more comfortable in the industry because , coming from Turkey and I did came from Turkey at that time my first Apex . Now I'm based in the US , but I really wanted to get myself familiarized with industry . The people in the industry and Women in Auto Care certainly did that for me . I know a lot of people , I know a lot of faces , I feel comfortable , confident and the Connection Circles within the Women in Auto Care . It is an amazing source resource and Elonia and I we run a Connection Circle that also helps me get more involved .
Speaker 1Which Connection Circle do you run ? It's the Woman of the World .
Speaker 16Okay , I wondered yeah , that's cool , so we talk about , we discuss stereotypes , or if you're working with global teams , like what are the best practices ? Or if you have a diverse background , what are your challenges ? It's totally a safe space . Or if you have a diverse background , what are your challenges ? It's totally a safe space and , again , it's a great network that's going to last a long time . Yeah .
Speaker 1So this is for women who are from outside of the US ?
Speaker 16No , no , not necessarily , but we do have people joining from Germany , but most of our audience is from the US and they don't have a diverse background . But it's totally okay , because they want to know more , they want to expand their knowledge or , again , they work with global teams and they want to understand what is the best way of communication .
Speaker 1It's just broadening your vision . Yeah , because I was in a global role in my previous life and I think something like that . That's a great resource .
Speaker 16So if you're working in global sales , you've interacted with a lot of people with different backgrounds .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's wonderful , that's so cool . So when you're not working and traveling , what do you like to ?
Speaker 16do . Well , as you said , I travel a lot . That's part of my job and I love it If I'm not working or traveling .
Speaker 1I'm at home . I love being at home .
Speaker 16I just purchased a new home . I just got married last week .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh , I thought you were going to say last year , okay , congratulations .
Speaker 16So this is your honeymoon , or what ?
Speaker 1yeah , I'm alone , okay , at Apex . It's kind of sad , but it's a great place to be it is um , I really enjoy Apex .
Speaker 16Uh , I get to meet with a lot of people , um , but , yeah , in if , if I'm not working on traveling , yeah , I , I do , archery , I do , oh , archery , yeah , wow , how long have you done that ? For about a year since we moved to Charleston , south Carolina . It's a really outdoorsy place , and before that I was in Dallas , and Dallas is really hot during summer .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 16We couldn't do anything outside . Archery has been a great way of relaxing , detaching myself from everything being in the nature .
Speaker 1So what is a professional development skill that you think is underrated in the workplace there ?
Speaker 16are so many , but it definitely has to be a soft skill and , for example , I think the most underrated one would be going out of your comfort zone . It really opens a lot of doors for you . For example , me doing this is definitely out of my comfort zone .
Speaker 1This is fantastic .
Speaker 16Yeah , me co-hosting the Connection Circle is out of my comfort zone , but once you start , it comes with it , so you have to start . Yeah , that co-hosting the Connection Circle is out of my comfort zone , but once you start , it comes with it , so you have to start .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's amazing . I couldn't agree with you more , because there's just so many opportunities you're missing . If you're just trying to stay comfortable , you're not growing into these other opportunities .
Speaker 16Let me ask you while you're running one of the podcasts , how was it for you , Like , how do you feel when you were first starting ? Did you feel that comfort ? Oh my gosh Terrified . No , no comfort at all .
Speaker 1I remember when I mentioned the idea , I kind of thought they'd come back and be like yeah , yes to the podcast , but let's do it this way . Other ideas , because I'm sure there was nuances I didn't understand yet . I think I was two weeks in when I when I pitched that idea , um , but they loved it and we kind of just moved forward and we launched three months later and I had to learn how to do every part of the like , like how to produce it , how to record it , how to edit it , how to like all this new software .
Speaker 1I had to learn how do you get it , you know , to Spotify and all these platforms , like there's just so many questions . Oh yeah , I'm like , how do you interview somebody and how do you like not sound monotone ? And oh yeah , I forgot , I hate my voice . You know , there's just so many things . And we really built , we built the plane while we were flying it and it made us move quickly and luckily , auto care has like the most powerful team I've ever seen , like they just put their heads down , they just can get it done for you and all of that combined . Man , july was such a stressful month just because I wanted to see it do well and luckily it did and it's catching on and it's so much fun . I never would have done that if I would have been like , yeah , we should do a podcast , but I've never done one .
Speaker 16So so you went out of your comfort zone . Yeah , how do you feel now that you said you , you pitched it . Three months later it was live , yeah , and now it's . I think it is doing amazing , like you guys have a great success , thank you . I've seen how , um , uh , how it increased , like , how , uh , people know about it . Yeah , about it . Yeah , love it .
Speaker 1So how do you feel , from beginning to now , the success . How does it make you feel ? It feels amazing and it's funny because I was just talking to our previous guest and and we talked about how I'm totally one of those people that you set a goal and before you even reach it , you're kind of getting close . You already set the next goal , so you don't even sit there and just think about you know what's being built , yeah , and um , I , um , I . I couldn't be happier and I love that . This is such a huge part of my role . I feel like the luckiest person in the world , so I'm really glad that I got out of my comfort zone and thanks for interviewing me . I don't usually get interviewed .
Speaker 16Yeah , that was fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , I wanted to learn more about you , you know like this is an open uh open mic , but still , since I had the chance , I wanted to ask . No , thank
Mario Garza, VP Marketing, Motorcar Parts of America
Speaker 1you . I appreciate you asking thanks for doing this with me . I'm glad you got out of your comfort zone . Yeah , thank you . Thank you for the opportunity . Yeah , I am here with mario garza welcome thank you .
Speaker 26We've been wanting to get you on for a little while . We've been talking about it for a while a lot of talk , no action here we are brainstorming yeah , just brainstorming ideas , brainstorm to do it .
Speaker 1So tell the listeners a little bit about you . What do you do ?
Speaker 26So currently I'm the vice president of marketing for Motor Car Parts of America . Cool Been in the automotive aftermarket for north of 24 years . I'm kind of dating myself there . I'm just kidding . Started out delivering parts from a store , worked at AutoZone for a great 16 years , spent another six years working for XL Parts in Houston , texas , and then the last six years at Motor Car Parts of America .
Speaker 1I didn't know all this . So you've actually worked at every level of the distribution chain .
Speaker 26Yeah , I kind of have a unique perspective , working for a major retailer , one of the largest WDs in the South Southwest , and now working for an industry leader with Motor Car Parts of America that does everything from starters and alternators to undercar categories .
Speaker 1What do you think ? That having that experience that most people are never going to have , having worked every single level , what do you bring that's different to your day job ? Because you have that perspective .
Speaker 26Um , I guess the way I always think about it is I have a unique perspective on the consumer . So , having worked at AutoZone , I saw what the culture was and what it meant to customer service for not only DIYers but also DIFMers . But also DIFMers , you know , going to XL Parts , I got to see the laser focus that they have on focusing on the DIFMer and what it meant to those small shops and the large shops and then at MPA , being on the supplier side , what it means to supply the retailers , the WDs , and kind of understanding that relationship . So it's kind of given me a really good 360 perspective on really the whole ecosystem of the automotive aftermarket . So at least that's the way I think about it .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's fantastic . I didn't know that about you . You just seem like such a natural supplier .
Speaker 26Well , I'm also a girl , dad , so I know a lot about gymnastics , yeah .
Speaker 14I can probably bend your ears .
Speaker 26Should we get into it ? It's my new passion outside of being a baseball fan .
Speaker 1You're a baseball fan . Who's your team ?
Speaker 26Houston Astros . Oh , naturally yeah a little disappointed in this year , but we'll be back . Can't win it every year .
Speaker 1Okay , yeah , that wouldn't be fun for everybody , right ? You got to let other people play , right ? Play the game . Um , so how many daughters you have ?
Speaker 26So I have two daughters and a and an older son .
Speaker 1Okay , and both daughters are in gymnastics .
Speaker 26Both of them are in gymnastics , so do you like help them do hand springs and no , I basically just hold their handstands and I'm their chauffeur .
Speaker 1Okay , yeah , yeah , I've actually been on , uh , some meetings with you and you're almost always at the gym .
Speaker 26At the gym , yeah , it's , uh , yeah , I mean it's 16 hours a week .
Speaker 1Is it ? Is it like competing competitive ?
Speaker 26gymnastics . It's competitive gymnastics , olympic style scoring . Wow , um , she , just this is her . She's entering her second year of competitive gymnastics at the age of eight . She swept districts . When I get back , we'll be at South State and then State , so Texas is a very hotbed for gymnastics .
Speaker 1No , I never knew that .
Speaker 26Competitive gymnastics .
Speaker 1Yeah , and then you said you're a baseball guy . Did you play baseball ?
Speaker 26I did Played baseball all throughout high school . I had aspirations for college . It didn't work out , but I played competitive softball , just like being a sports guy , sports person .
Speaker 1I played softball in church league . How ?
Speaker 26was that .
Speaker 1I was absolutely awful .
Speaker 26Did you play third base your first days ?
Speaker 11If they let you play catcher , I stood the field okay , and they tried to avoid me probably .
Speaker 1Um no , but what I was the worst at is I would . I would hit the ball . I'm pretty athletic . I played sports my whole life , but more of like running sports and like team sports and soccer and basketball and volleyball , but um softball it's like all on you .
Speaker 26So it's just I hate sports like that it's one of the hardest things to do .
Speaker 1Hit a round ball with around yeah , well , yeah , and I could hit the ball . I was good at like hand eye coordination , could hit the ball , but it would like be a nice little bounce pass to the pitcher .
Speaker 26You know , like every single time as long as you move the runners and you're doing your part of the team yeah , as long as they get me out and somebody else hit a base , you know , fine , yeah , we digress .
Speaker 1So , um carpal conversations , we talk about professional development skills . So what do you think is a soft skill ? That ? Um is a little underrated today .
Speaker 26Um and it's something that all right . So I think one of the skills that is hard to do , that we all talk about , that I think is important is and I think everybody says it is being an active listener and really processing , yeah , and then not reacting too quickly . So in other words , listen , digest , process and then speak , sometimes and maybe not even speak in the moment , maybe it's an hour later .
Speaker 14Yeah , after you think about it .
Speaker 9The next day or a follow-up .
Speaker 26I've done that . That's something I've had to learn .
Speaker 3Kind of like listening to understand Exactly .
Speaker 26I've had some great mentors at AutoZone at Excel Parts at MPA . So it's always about mentorship and just learning something from somebody , somebody different , and they have different perspectives .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's a great one . We haven't heard that one yet . Yeah , yeah , that's a good one . Um , we get listening a lot because in communications in general , like obviously it's huge , but , um , some people can talk very , very well , but if you can't listen , then what ? You're talking about usually isn't very relevant .
Speaker 26Well , well , like you know , one of the things I've learned from , like my daughter's gymnastics coach is , you know , because she's at some point she's going to come to the level where she's going to go collegiate potentially , hopefully pay for college , yeah , or potentially go elite , depending on how good she is . And one of the things that their coaches talk about is , you know , I'm not going to drag a gymnast to want to work .
Speaker 26They got to drag me where they want to go , but part of that is being coachable listen , listening to your coaches , executing what they expect and getting feedback and I think about that and it's it's applicable in all different avenues , whether it's automotive aftermarket we heard Erin Andrews talk about that , her process with Gronk and Jerry and Jimmy and all those it's applicable everywhere .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's a really good one . Thank you for that . And I just realized you are holding on to a baseball right now .
Speaker 26An MPA stress ball , so we had to come up with booth items . I was like oh , baseballs , everybody wants to squeeze them and then throw them at each other .
Speaker 1There you go . You can throw them at people as they walk by . That's right , make it a game , baseball game . If you throw it at me later , I'm going to try to hit it with my hand .
Speaker 26Catch it first . Catch it or hit it back .
Speaker 1Well , thank you so much for joining us .
Speaker 26It's nice to sit down with you .
Speaker 1Good to see you All right .
Daisy Tedesco Ruas, Global Sales Manager, Hi-Gear Products
Speaker 1So I am here with Daisy Ruiz . Hello , did I say that right ? Yes , ruiz , thank you for sitting down with me . You're welcome . She's one of those ones that was reluctant , but I promised her it's going to be a blasty , blast . So tell them what you do .
Speaker 6So I'm a global sales manager for High Gear . High Gear Products is our brand , but we also private label and it's chemical manufacturing . We we do um fuel additives , oil additives you name it . A juice in a bottle yeah anything from car care products as well , and oh my god , there's so much , and what do you do for them ? Um , so I'm a global sales manager , okay , but but like , full territory Europe , asia , the world , the world .
Speaker 6All over the place . Yeah , so we export a lot . Okay , a lot of our business is outside of the US . Domestically , our core business is private label .
Speaker 1Oh , very cool . So you travel a lot . Yes , what's your favorite place to travel to ? Or your favorite place to travel to , or is that the worst question in the world ?
Speaker 6No For work . I've been to many places and , surprisingly , I really enjoyed Panama . I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did . What do you like about it ? I just felt very safe there and welcomed . It was just a good trip .
Speaker 1So is Panama . I've never been there . Yeah , Is it like beaches , like that kind of place , or is it more like industrial ? What is it ? No ?
Speaker 6it is . There's beaches , but there's like the old town Okay , you know downtown areas Okay , older and just nice to what's like Panama food . Oh , I had some great ceviche there . Ceviche , yeah , it was really great . I always thought it was Svici .
Speaker 1Yeah , do I say it wrong this whole time ? No , I think I do , that's fine , we'll never know because we're not going to look it up . No , we don't need to know who's wrong in the end . Yeah , so what do you do outside of work ?
Speaker 6I play volleyball .
Speaker 1Oh , really , I play volleyball . It yes , I am I always .
Speaker 6it's funny . I always make a joke . I'm like , yeah , you can't miss a seven foot avatar , I'm just not blue .
Speaker 1So what was your favorite ? Like favorite like do you like doing the back row ? I'm assuming they always had you up spiking and hitting . I was a setter , which is funny because I'm like half your height , but no setting is great .
Speaker 6But I loved setting . You can't spike without a good set .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I kind of felt like there was , you're always a part of the play . Oh , I think that's what I liked about it , because I don't like to sit around and wait .
Speaker 6So gotta be on your tiptoes yeah absolutely so .
Speaker 1We have volleyball in common . That's fun . Yeah , I actually miss it a lot . I tried um beach volleyball for a little while . Oh , that's tough , but like the only thing that saved me from my height was that I could jump really high . Like I worked really hard all the time on being able to jump in sand .
Speaker 6It's like luckily , um . So I'm not good at jumping . Luckily I'm tall , and that's why , why , why ?
Speaker 1wouldn't you be good at jumping ? I don't know Like .
Speaker 6I'm not , I just luckily I'm tall , oh , okay .
Speaker 1You've never had to jump ? Yeah , I never had to jump . I have to jump every day .
Speaker 6I guess I never practiced it as much as everybody that needed to yeah short .
Speaker 1people have to learn how to climb , jump all kinds of things to reach the glass you want in the cupboard in the morning .
Speaker 6It's a whole thing . Yeah , I just raised my hand . Yeah , exactly , I just walked the ball that way . No , I'm just kidding . I mean I jump , it's just not like everybody else Must be nice and you don't have to look up people's noses all day .
Speaker 1You have all kinds of things . You know , I actually saw a TikTok thing I shouldn't say TikTok , because I don't have TikTok , but a reel where people were putting their phone at the height of , like their husbands to see what you look like through their eyes . And it is so funny because I'm like , why does he ever take me seriously ? Like , even if I'm mad , I'm like I'm just the way he's looking down at me . It's like why would you ever listen ?
Speaker 6to me . Yeah , I get the whole . Oh , how's the weather up there ?
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm like , oh , it's great .
Speaker 6Oh , I never heard that before .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally so . Carpal Conversations we talk about professional development skills , so what is one that you think is really important or something that's undervalued ?
Speaker 6I would say really important would be communication . For sure , I try to be as thorough as I can with my clients . Let them know where we are at every stage of their yeah , very detailed .
Speaker 6Yeah , so from beginning to end of their projects , whether it's bad news or good news , because you know everything can happen in between and hiccups here and there . But communication doesn't matter if it's , you know , a good thing or a bad thing . As long as it's happening and you're acknowledging things and letting them be a part of that process , they feel more secure and they trust you . And it's all about relationships at the end of the day .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally , you , and it's all about relationships at the end of the day . Yeah , totally , and I think something that people get wrong is like if you have bad news for a client , like no news is almost worse than bad news . Yeah , yeah , yeah , and that's probably something .
Speaker 6Yeah , I always say no answer is an answer .
Speaker 1Yeah , oh , that's a great way to put it .
Speaker 6And I I really hold onto that because I , even if it's bad news , I'll deliver it as well as I can and re-ensure that you know that I'm here for them . Yeah , you know , and it's going to work . Yeah , Just give me a little bit more time .
Speaker 1Absolutely . That's a great one . Yeah , thank you . Thank you . Aren't you glad you sat down ? This was fun ? Yeah , I am , yeah Good , and now you , so you can add that to your resume .
Speaker 6Thank you . Yeah , I actually just applied for the International Trade Committee . Oh cool , so maybe I'll update my resume . Oh totally .
Speaker 1Do it . I'm a podcast guest speaker , call it whatever you want .
Speaker 6I really appreciate you . Yeah , thank you For pulling me out of my comfort zone .
Speaker 1Yeah , that was actually one of the skills somebody mentioned . So here we are practicing it .
Speaker 6Yeah , I was . Uh , I also did a guest speaking session for women of the world . I will say I was like I can't do this , I can't do this , and then I did it . And here I am . I didn't think I could do this . And here I am . Yeah , that's amazing . I really appreciate you .
Speaker 1Cool Thanks . Welcome , miriam Locoshvili
Mariam Lochoshvili, Sr. Communications Manager, Sensata Technologies
Speaker 1. So me and Mariam used to work together in my previous life , so this is really fun that I actually get to interview now . How cool , I know . So welcome , so excited . Thank you for having me . Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about what you do ?
Speaker 7Yeah , so my name is Mariam . I work for Sensata . I'm doing senior marketing communications at Sensata . I used to be in Jackie's team . Actually those were the days . Yes , those were the days A lot of fun , a lot of great projects . So yeah , that's me and that's what I do for .
Speaker 1Sensata , I always tell well , I used to tell your story when I hired you . Yeah , because I was in Europe for something else . I used to have to go to Germany quite a bit and I was going to Austria for the weekend with Zenaida Perez , who's been on the show , and we were in Austria and Miriam took a train from Paris . You lived at the time . How long was that train ? Like four hours or something . Four hours , yeah , to sit down and talk to me for probably 30 , 45 minutes or something . It wasn't the longest interview . I liked you immediately . You reminded me a lot of me , so obviously I was like you were great and it was like perfect hire , one of my first global hires too .
Speaker 7Oh , yeah , it was a great day and I just said yes right away and I left and I kept thinking . I was like what did I just do ?
Speaker 1You like barely know anything about the job you just said yeah , yeah .
Speaker 7And then I moved from Paris to Germany .
Speaker 1Yeah Well , I always tell people you were one of my best decisions at Sassata , because you're just so fantastic , thank you . Your leadership style is amazing . You're so good with people so many things and it's so fun to watch you because now you're getting more involved in associations and things in Europe , so that's super fun to see you do kind of like on your own and like starting your own brand over there . It's amazing . So what are you working on over there ?
Speaker 7Yeah , and first of all , I have to say that you definitely have been an example and an inspiration for me for that . Let's not cry here . No , really , honestly , watching you do all these things made me also want to do the things . So , over there in Europe , I'm currently a chairwoman of NAG , which is the New Automotive Aftermarket Generation is the new automotive aftermarket generation , but also , together with one of my other colleagues , we are currently founding AWN , which is Aftermarket Women Network . That we are launching , actually just now , and it's gonna be very similar to what Women in Auto Care does over here . So cool . So we are just trying to create a community of like-minded women in the industry , because we don't really have a chance to get together over there in europe .
Speaker 7So , yeah , I know there was a really big need . Every time I meet someone they are always like we should do something , we should do something . So finally we're doing something . Oh , that's so cool , so very excited about that , uh .
Speaker 1So it's neat too that you're going to be able to be a part of it from the beginning and really watch it grow , and I'm sure it'll thrive because you'll be present . So anything you touch turns to gold , so I'm sure it'll be amazing . So what's been like the biggest challenge ?
Speaker 7I think the biggest challenge is like finding the time .
Speaker 1Yeah , because obviously like , like you know , I have the job , yeah , and this is the side job and a big job at a big job . You have a big job , your global marketing it's it's kind of never ends . I remember like when I was global at that role . It's like you wake up and Europe's been awake for six hours , china's about to leave for the day , so you're already behind , yeah , before you even get started for the day constantly , and then , obviously , you know , there are always like longer hours with time zones .
Speaker 7So I think the biggest challenge is finding the time , but , honestly , like it's a passion project . So you know , where there is passion , you'll find a way .
Speaker 1What you're going to do . This is what happened to me when I was like on the member side and very involved . It just it became my only hobby . Yeah , because was like on the member side and very involved . It just it became my only hobby . Yeah , because I did love doing it , um , and it did help me in my career too . So it was kind of nice that way . But you know , people would ask me okay , what do you do outside of work ? And I'm like I mean , do you consider that work ? Because I , that's what I do . Technically it is work , but yeah , I don't know yeah , so don't ask me a question about hobbies .
Speaker 7Yeah , I have none .
Speaker 1I hate that question . The only thing I can talk about is , like all , parenting . But it shouldn't be a hobby , right ? It's like a kind of you need to do that . It's a necessity . But I always talk about gardening , but I'm so bad at it I don't even like to bring it up .
Speaker 7Yeah , like it's the hardest question for me right now .
Speaker 1Yeah , I basically have no time for yeah , yeah , but , and you just got married , yeah , congratulations , thank you . How's it ? Congratulations , thank you .
Speaker 7How's it going , awesome ?
Speaker 1It was the best day of my life . Has he learned that you're always right ? Yet he knew that already . Oh , he did Good , that's perfect . That's how he got you to the end of the aisle . Yeah , smart , smart man , yeah .
Speaker 7So Carpal Conversations , we talk about professional development skills , so what's one that you think is underrated today ? I think the . I can probably say two things , and it's it's always a combination of the two . For me , it's like being flexible and then also understanding that there is no single point of view , like trying to look at things from other people perspective perspective , really , that helps a lot . Like you know , things sometimes are not black and white , yeah , and I think the ability to like be a bit flexible and then trying to understand that you know there might be another perspective from where this other person is standing from , like that is really important . Yeah , and it has helped me a lot personally in my career . That's fantastic . From where this other person is standing from , like that that is really important . Yeah , and it has helped me a lot personally in my career that's fantastic .
Speaker 1I think that's a great one . And I've seen you , you know , really be able to break down people's walls . You know , like on the team , if there was like like a little difficult person or or someone who just kind of closed off , like you're somebody that can , they'll end up trusting at the end of you know , you building a relationship with them and you're one of the few people that can really get through to that person at the company . So , like , I think that's a perfect one to mention . And flexibility is tough . We actually just did an episode about critical thinking and that kind of kept coming up is just remember that the person you're coming , coming to you with a different point of view or a disagreement . They're coming to you with a completely different lens a lot of times and if you can't take yourself out of your lens and look at it from their point of view , you don't learn . You know , and if we don't learn from each other exactly , then we're doing something wrong .
Speaker 7That's kind of like the progress right . Yeah , you can't just be , you know , always right , always have , yeah , always do things the same way , like that's just not going to work . Yeah , yeah , that's a great one . That ability , I think , helps a lot . It's hard , though , sometimes .
Speaker 1Yeah , absolutely , yeah , yeah . And then you know there's the whole conversation around having biases , like we all have . Naturally we have biases um , big and small . You don't even realize half the time when you're relying on a bias , right ? So it's so important to get into somebody else's lens .
Speaker 7Self-awareness is actually like really difficult , like it's really difficult to do that , yeah . But I think when you do and when you try to practice it and you know there's going to be good days and bad days and non-self-aware days and self-aware days , yeah , I think that's really great in the end it works out really well .
Speaker 1Self-awareness is actually another really really good one . Thank you , this was so nice to sit down with you this way .
Speaker 12Thank you for having me .
Speaker 1Absolutely .
Speaker 12All right , we're back
Steven Ng, Business Development Manager, The Pronto Network
Speaker 12on the Apex show floor . I'm here with my good friend , stephen Ng . He's the business development manager at the Pronto Network , a really amazing support of the Auto Care Association . And one of the reasons I wanted to talk to Stephen is because he recently aged out of Yang . Sorry to say it , and for those who don't know it , yang is our Young Auto Care Network group . It's our industry group for folks under 40 , which provides leadership , professional development , networking , all to foster the future of the rising stars of our industry . And we have such a fun time with that group a really valuable industry group . And we get a lot of crap sometimes when folks age out . Once they hit 40 , they can't really participate in the events anymore and we thought what a great opportunity to turn our over 40s into mentors . So Stephen is one of those mentors . So , stephen , tell me about your mentoring experience at Yang and how many people are you mentoring ?
Speaker 9Thank you , stacey . Yeah , right now I'm currently mentoring four individuals up and coming , rising leadership stars , leadership stars . It's been a very amazing journey so far because it helped . It made me actually reflect a lot on how my development and I'm currently still developing- as we all everyday is a learning experience , but kind of somewhat some of the hurdles that I went through myself in the last you know before aging out of UJ until present day .
Speaker 9I see that a lot in my mentees , and also being able to just be there for them , yeah , during whether it's a huge , a huge help , or it could just be a they needed to hear what they , what they heard , that's all they needed . Um , it's still a blessing , honestly to be able to to move from that I'm a yangster to a okay , now I'm a mentor so uh , yeah , it's it's been it's been an amazing
Speaker 9experience I recommend anybody who's actually in yang , um aged out of yang or never been in yang and could be a mentor , to sign up .
Speaker 12It's pretty cool it's such an easy way to give back , to spend some time with some folks and just share your experiences . Is there a hurdle that comes to mind for you that's like particularly memorable that you would share , that maybe a mentor helped you through ?
Speaker 9So I have a lot of mentors . Thankfully , I have good , really good people in my life to mentor me . I think one of my experiences that's most memorable Mike Moeller .
Speaker 16Yeah .
Speaker 9Being one of my true mentors . He took me under his wing and when I was most lost , I think , being presented with a project that there was no way I was gonna be able to get this done , he says hey , give me a call , whatever you need give me a call . I was like should I call him ? I was like you know what ? I'm gonna build up the courage to call him and , as promised , he came through and walked me through and never , never , forget that experience and shout out to Mike Mohler .
Speaker 12I feel like he's everyone's favorite . I just passed him on the show floor . He was busy doing another interview so you'll have to wait for some nuggets from him , but I promised to catch him for one of these open mic sessions . So in your mentoring experience I'm sure you're getting to know the younger generation . They're not that much younger , but they are different . So is there any like leadership skills or traits that you're seeing that are coming out of that group , or maybe an underrated trait that people don't ? Maybe we don't necessarily always put a lot of emphasis on , but like is really important , especially today .
Speaker 9I think , due to COVID and all that , I think everyone's super used to your teams and Zoom and being in front of a video Still know that it's very important to be there , present in person and have the eye contact . Eye contact is super important .
Speaker 7Yeah right .
Speaker 9And know that this is a people's business . Right , we're in the industry . I mean , it's the people that make the industry . So , always remember that , no matter what , always be present in the present .
Speaker 12That's such a valuable nugget . It's so simple , but we tend to forget it sometimes , like I'm looking you in the eye today , but , like if we were on a Teams call or a Zoom call , sometimes , like your camera's the wrong angle , you're not really looking at the person on screen or you're on another window typing , and I do think that we've lost some of that connection . That's why it's so important that we're here doing things with Yang . We're here doing things with yang . We're here doing things at apex uh , such an amazing benefit . All right , so , um , give me one other leadership nugget , because you're doing a fantastic job in the industry . I see you everywhere . Um , one of the things that I think that's really admirable about you is that you're an advocate , right . Like you advocate for the industry , you advocate for the companies that you work for and the people that you're with . So why are you so passionate about advocacy ?
Speaker 9So I think , because I actually joined the aftermarket kind of late , I didn't have a lot of time in . Yang , I tried to do my best to kind of you know , figure out how much time I have , where I can help , where I can learn , where I can network . But I would say to any of the youngsters out there , it honestly doesn't take too much of your time If you want to advocate for like legislation or if you're just passionate about getting the younger even younger than you generation to get involved in the aftermarket .
Speaker 9There's so many uh organizations , uh non-profits , uh charity type uh avenues that you can go and help out . It doesn't cost you anything like maybe a little bit of time once a quarter or what have you ? Um , this coffee club . Shout to Jenny CEO Mike buzzard , you a a club UAF , you know like I , like I'm part of the subcommittee there , that doesn't doesn't really honestly take much , and you're already talking to everybody anyways . So if you want to just drop , why , hey , have you signed up for the coffee club ? If not , go sign up .
Speaker 19If not see you next time .
Speaker 12See you next time . It's the same . Yeah , super , super solid advice , easy nuggets of wisdom from Stephen Ng . Thank you so much , stephen .
Speaker 9Thank you , everybody .
Steve Dresser, President, Hirsig-Frazier Company
Speaker 1I'm here with Steve Dresser . Welcome to the show . Why don't you tell them a little bit about what you do ?
Speaker 5Absolutely , steve Dresser . With the Herzog Fraser Company , we're headquartered in Dallas , texas . We have an eight-state footprint . We are a rep agency . We've been in business for 95 years . We were established in 1929 . Wow , so I think that speaks volumes to our credibility and our sustainability as an agency . I'm a past chair for the Auto Care Manufacturers Rep Council . I'm a past chair for the Auto Care Manufacturers Rep Council and I'm currently migrating into the position of AWDA liaison to the Rep Council .
Speaker 1Oh , very cool , that's fun . So what is it about reps that you wish people knew that they don't ?
Speaker 5Yeah , I honestly believe we are the very best value in the industry . What we're really paying your rep for , if you're a manufacturer , is our local relationships . We have a variety of great manufacturers , but they simply can't afford to put a man in every state that we cover , not to mention every city that we cover . So in the eight states that we're covering today , we have 17 associates that are on the street every day on behalf of our manufacturers , and that's an expensive proposition from a manufacturer's perspective . So if we offer a fixed cost of sales , we cover our own expenses and we certainly have the local relationships that our manufacturers need to develop their products through the distribution channel .
Speaker 1Oh , that's fantastic .
Speaker 5Yeah .
Speaker 1So what do you do for Herzig ? Are you sales ? We are sales . I am the president of the company . You're the president , yeah . So what do you do for Herzig Freight ? Are you sales ? We are sales , I am the president of the company .
Speaker 13You're the president .
Speaker 5Yeah , I have two partners in the business and we actually have three divisions within the company . So we have a heavy-duty division which serves as class 6 , 7 , and 8 channel . We have a retail division which is O'Reilly's Bass Pro , and then we serve the traditional channel . So , and then we serve the traditional channel .
Speaker 5So my role is traditional channel and payroll and taxes and legal the fun stuff yeah , the fun stuff . And then one of the partners takes care of retail and then the other partner takes care of the heavy duty channel . So that mix of serving different channels I think has really added and helped us with sustainability for the last 95 years . So we're a great organization . That's awesome Kind of a family feel to it . There's no family actually involved , but we know our associates , we know their wives , we know their kids and we're we appreciate that kind of relationship .
Speaker 1It's not just another person on the payroll , that's fantastic . So what do you do when you're not doing all that .
Speaker 5Yeah , well , we have family , we have grandkids . So , our family's out west , so we travel quite a bit .
Speaker 1Okay , yeah , where west ?
Speaker 5Boulder , colorado , is our youngest son oh , that's awesome . Oceanside , california , is our middle son , with two granddaughters , and then I have a daughter and two grandkids up in Vancouver , british Columbia , my wife's Canadian .
Speaker 1Oh , that's fantastic . Yeah , so I am a big hiker . Do you do hiking when you go visit either of your two children that live in ? Have you hiked in Boulder by chance , in Colorado , no ?
Speaker 5Okay , well , outside of Boulder is the Flatirons . Oh yeah , and my son climbs rocks for a living .
Speaker 1Oh , that's awesome .
Speaker 5We're not sure where he got that gene , but a couple years ago he told me we were going to go for a hike and he took me up the Flatirons I I was literally hanging out the side of the road . Oh , that's wild , scariest thing I've ever done . Woo .
Speaker 1Would you do it again ?
Speaker 2No , you know , you should try everything twice , right ?
Speaker 17Yeah , okay , all right , you're probably right , Jackie .
Speaker 1I had a conversation yesterday when I tried snowboarding and I never tried it again , and now I feel like I should probably try it one more time . I couldn't figure out how to go sideways down a mountain .
Speaker 5I like to eat . I like to eat . It's not the most natural thing , yeah for sure .
Speaker 1So , on Carpool Conversations , we talk about professional development skills . Yes , so is there a skill that you think is a little underrated these days .
Speaker 5Yeah , I think really it's relationship building . The skill set's needed for that . I don't know that you can learn that in a class . So a lot of the mentoring that we do , particularly with our younger associates Matt's over here somewhere is we'll go out and spend time with them in the field , get to know their families in the process , but also let them understand the dynamic between the manufacturer , us and the distributor .
Speaker 1And .
Speaker 5I think it's probably underrated , not a hard skill set to develop , but I think if you spend time and focus on that in particular , you're going to be successful at this business .
Speaker 1How does somebody develop that skill if they don't have it today ? How do they go about ?
Speaker 5that .
Speaker 19I don't know .
Speaker 5I honestly don't know the answer to that , because it's almost like you're born with that , jackie . We've hired people certainly that interviewed very well . And then when you put them in the shoes and they walk the walk , they just are uncomfortable . They don't feel comfortable with what they're doing and , consequently , you may try and nurture that and get them going in the right direction . But I really believe this is something people are born with and it's difficult to find sometimes . But , boy , when you find the right guy , the right lady , it's perfect .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , that just means that if anybody listening has that skill , they should talk about it and make sure people know yeah , exactly , or run .
Speaker 4Yeah , exactly , yeah , absolutely .
Speaker 1Thank you so much for sitting down with me this was fun .
Speaker 9It was nice to meet you .
Alessandro Criollo, Ecommerce Specialist, Hella
Speaker 1Nice to meet you as well . Thank you , hey . Have you caught a ?
Speaker 4carpool conversations episode yet yeah , a little bit .
Speaker 1You can tell me I won't get mad which one , which one ?
Speaker 4I don't remember . No one ever remembers it's so funny .
Speaker 1Okay Well , I'm here with Alessandro and I'm going to . Is it Criollo , criollo ? It's just I know .
Speaker 4I'm saying it very American , criollo's good Is it with L's Criollo , I know , but it's not yo .
Speaker 1You could say Criollo , but C Vox . And where do you work ?
Speaker 4Currently I work at Hella , hella . What do you do there ? I am the e-commerce manager . Four months now so far , so I just started . How are you liking it ? It's been great .
Speaker 1Good , they're going to listen to this . So you have say you love it .
Speaker 4I do love it .
Speaker 1How many apexes have you been to ?
Speaker 4This will be my third apex .
Speaker 1Okay , what do you think ? Is it different from cause ? You said you took a year off from apex , or a year or ?
Speaker 4two . Yeah , I think I missed the last two . Okay , if I go back far enough , it's how I remember it . It's busier though , cause I think when I we're just coming out of COVID .
Speaker 16Yeah , okay , so Aless a little quieter then yeah .
Speaker 1Okay , so Alessandro and I worked together for was it two years ? A year and a half A year and a half two years ? I think A year and a half , something like that he did e-commerce at a company I used to work for , so we got to work together for a bit . It was kind of fun . Yep , you're Awesome boss . Oh thanks , I don't even I don't like have a team or anything in this job . It's kind of strange , but I like it . It's so fun , it's so different , like wildly different from what I did before .
Speaker 1Um cause I was , you know , I had my hands in so many areas at my other job , um several different teams , and this is literally even though , like I don't have like a team that I like manage , the team works so well together . It feels like you have the support of a team behind you even though you're just kind of like an individual contributor , but having a blast with it , I cannot believe they pay me to do this . You having fun ? Um , I am . I can't stop smiling . I love stuff like this .
Speaker 4It's perfect role for you , so thank you yeah , thank you .
Speaker 1I love it . How are you liking your role ? Like doing e-commerce , you still ?
Speaker 4liking it , so I'm working with stephanie my colleague um . She's amazing yeah and I'm just happy to be back and doing what I do best e-commerce and bringing it to automotive what's the hot topic in e-commerce right now ?
Speaker 4oh , good question . Was it tricky question ? Yeah , um , well , at least for me , we're trying to work and have a good relationship with amazon . Was it a tricky one ? Bunting question ? Yeah , well , at least for me , we're trying to work and have a good relationship with Amazon and Walmart and eBay Motors , and just having that conversation between our traditional brick-and-mortar business and e-commerce , making sure all our content's up and having the best class content possible , is most important for us . I think that's always been the discussion , but even more so now because I think I just was in a session , uh , with todd campo this morning . Um , uh , about the aftermarket and we're having a younger audience buying vehicles .
Speaker 1So having good e-commerce strategy is very important so you said that , um you , you took two years off of apex . Did you leave the industry for a little while ? Yes , I was outside of the industry for a little while .
Speaker 4Yes , I was outside of the industry for a little while . I was working for a telecom tool company .
Speaker 1What made you want to come back ?
Speaker 4It's good people here . Yeah , the people . I'm a car guy myself . I just like this community , this environment .
Speaker 19Yeah .
Speaker 4I don't know . It was calling to me , right .
Speaker 1Well , they always say aftermarket is very sticky and once you're here it's really hard to leave .
Speaker 4I kind of love when people leave and they come back .
Speaker 1I'm crawling back .
Speaker 4I've met a couple of friends and colleagues here today and I'm like oh well , welcome back . We knew that was going to happen . We knew you'd be back . I'm happy to be back .
Speaker 1That's awesome . How are things outside of work ? Things are good . Doing anything fun . You make hot hot sauce , right I .
Speaker 4You know I missed this year because I forgot to plant early .
Speaker 1But yeah , I make hot sauce yeah , we used to talk about gardening a little bit . You would uh , I haven't told stephanie . So stephanie's our old colleague . You work with her now at hella , um , but she was a . She's an avid gardener amongst a thousand other hobbies , but I started a garden kind of under her wing and I've decided that I love to garden . Okay , like I find it very therapeutic to like grow vegetables and pick them , whatever I don't actually love to eat them and I don't like to make anything with them , so I literally have to like hide the vegetables . Like , if my , if my kids don't eat them , I'll like call people and be like does anybody need tomatoes ?
Speaker 1Cause I planted 10 tomato plants and I don't need them , it's still pretty wasteful , Um , so if anybody needs , you know , tomatoes for sauce or anything and you're in the Brown city area , come to my house in the summer because I love to grow them .
Speaker 4I'm a little bit of a ways away .
Speaker 1Yeah , not you so much , but you said you didn't plant early enough .
Speaker 4No , I didn't do anything . Usually I do some habaneros jalapenos .
Speaker 1What's the key to your hot sauce ? What's the secret ingredient Besides love ?
Speaker 4That's the most important one . Sometimes a little pineapple in there really interesting , or is ? That common pretty common .
Speaker 1I feel like it's my secret what else do you do outside of work ?
Speaker 4what else do I do ? Hobbies , hobbies . Right now I don't have too many hobbies . It's winter season , so hopefully I'll get some snowboarding in snowboarding .
Speaker 1I tried snowboarding once how'd it go ? And it's funny because my motto is to try everything twice okay and I've only tried it once .
Speaker 4So that's how it went well the first time . It hurts a lot it does well , I don't blame you it was being sideways .
Speaker 1I'm a little bit ambidextrous , so like like I really couldn't feel like which was my good leg . I couldn't figure out like which side was the most comfortable . Like neither one was comfortable .
Speaker 4Did you give skiing a shot too , or no ? No .
Speaker 1Okay , no , I was pretty discouraged but I would try skiing . I think there's actually like there's a couple of my friends in the industry that go skiing together every year . I would love to learn so that I could hang well , actually I was gonna .
Speaker 4I was thinking this year I'd pick up skiing because my dad skis okay and he's always like you snowboarders , so maybe I'll try isn't there like a little bit of like ?
Speaker 1skiers look down on snowboarders and little elitist the skiers oh , they're elitist don't tell me I feel like I should try snowboarding again . You gotta try everything twice , right we ever ? Tried anything and then never wanted to do it again because it went so terribly wrong . The problem is is they don't teach you to stop before they teach you to go yeah , they just kind of push you out there and yeah figure it out .
Speaker 4Well . See , when you're younger though it's , it's easier , because if you fall it doesn't hurt as bad .
Speaker 1Yeah , so as you get older , I mean you might you won't , I won't push you to try twice I just need like a like when you say bunny hill , I mean like no hill , just like a little slope , barely a hill .
Speaker 4That'll just keep me going well , you can get like padding too , so that helps , yeah , I didn't have that .
Speaker 1I didn't even have snow pants . When I tried what it was , you went into it all wrong . I know it's true . Now that I think about it , I should give it another shot .
Speaker 4I can help you .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 4I have a little mountain near me , so it's perfect for learning .
Speaker 1I'm going to ask you a question that I've been asking everybody .
Speaker 4Oh , no , okay .
Speaker 1So Carpal Conversations since you don't really listen is about professional development .
Speaker 4Okay .
Speaker 1Different professional development skills . So what is a professional development skill that you think is underrated ?
Speaker 4Underrated .
Speaker 1Like a soft skill .
Speaker 4What are the answers so far ?
Speaker 1Oh , what did we say ?
Speaker 4There was a listening being nice um public speaking communications I I want to lean towards public speaking because you helped me out a lot with public speaking oh yeah , you spoke at the conference . Five for five , five for five . Yeah , so I'm gonna go with the public speaking one you did awesome , you uh .
Speaker 1What did you compare to stepbrothers ?
Speaker 4uh , the e-commerce as a whole , I think . It was like e-commerce in something else , oh so what e-commerce has in relationship with auto care or automotive in general .
Speaker 7Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 4E-commerce is like , you know , the new guy or the other step brother . They don't get along right yeah .
Speaker 1Regular automotives . They should work together , exactly they need't get along , right yeah , regular automatics , they should work together Exactly , they need to become best friends and go do karate in the garage . That's basically what your message was . Have you done any public speaking since ?
Speaker 4No , I have not .
Speaker 1You know what really helped me and I know that's probably not something you're going to do , but doing video really helped me with public speaking , because you obviously hate your voice , you hate how you look on screen . You feel like a doofus , you know . But if you do it enough and you see yourself enough , then when you actually are on stage you feel like you're used to hearing yourself and you know what you look like and you know how you sound .
Speaker 1So you just I feel like that made me . Yeah , you get way more comfortable . So like , even if it wasn't something that you publish or put on LinkedIn or post or whatever , and you just like do more video . That helped me immensely with public speaking .
Speaker 4So doing the video , the in-person video like that , that helps with , like the more formal standing up . Yeah , that too .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think so , Like presenting it helped me a lot .
Speaker 4I yeah , I think so , like presenting it helped me a lot .
Speaker 1I always tell people if they're trying to do that you were already an awesome presenter .
Speaker 4no-transcript , just not thinking about the content , I think I was looking for content for something and one of those videos came up and you're like shut it down , oh my gosh .
Speaker 1Wait , was it the AutoZone one ? I ?
Speaker 4think it was , I think it was .
Speaker 1That one was terrifying , that was good . No , it wasn't . Thank you , you're nice , but no . Well , thank you for being on the show this was a nice way to catch up . You're going to have to tune into an episode now just to hear your segment .
Speaker 4I will make a point of doing this Well thank you Thanks for having me .
KJ Wilk, Marketing Communications Coordinator, Litens Aftermarket
Speaker 19All right , I'm Mike Chung . I'm with Auto Care Association . Pleased to meet you , kevin . You're with Leighton's Aftermarket . Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company , if you don't mind .
Speaker 17Yeah , absolutely , so I go by KJ .
Speaker 19Okay , KJ .
Speaker 17Yeah , we're part of Leighton's Aftermarket . We just did a rebrand , so we were . So lightens aftermarket is well , we're technician friendly , so we're creating parts and we're creating aftermarket parts that are really dedicated to technicians . We have specific features that technicians are really enjoying , like the easy button , and we have tech assist pins and things like that . That just makes the job easier for technicians . So , yeah , that's a little bit about us . That's great . And what do you do for lightens ?
Speaker 19so I'm with , uh , I'm marketing coordinator , um so you're helping to develop marketing uh collateral and keep relationships with existing and prospective customers I would imagine yes , absolutely yeah .
Speaker 17Um , you know , some of the things we're doing now is we're working with other media companies and we're creating videos and just some hype about the brand . Ok , so yeah , no , but it is an exciting time because we've totally , like , rebranded ourselves . We've got a new website with a parts feature , so if you want to look up specific parts that might be on your car , you can do that on our website as well . So , ok , yeah , well , there's some cool stuff going on . For sure , that's great .
Speaker 19And I see Are you coming from Dublin , Ohio . So we're .
Speaker 17We have a office in Dublin , Ohio .
Speaker 19OK , that's Columbus area .
Speaker 17Columbus area . Right , I'm actually from the Detroit office near Farmington Hills , but we're all over . But yeah , we have a lot of distribution that's in Ohio , okay .
Speaker 19Yeah , and how are you enjoying Apex so far ?
Speaker 17Apex is crazy . This is my first year , okay , well , welcome to Apex . Yeah , thank you . This is our biggest conference that I've ever seen . So this is . I want to check out SEMA as well . Okay , get some time over there as well , but Apex has been really good . Like we were saying originally , it's a lot of hustle and bustle , so far but no , it's also been pretty steady too , like just meeting people and networking and connecting .
Speaker 19So I'd imagine you and your team are meeting existing customers , prospective customers , prospective customers business partners and so forth .
Speaker 17Is that fair to say ? Absolutely , yeah , absolutely yeah . There's been lots of meetings going on . I just feel like the whole day's been packed . You know Right .
Speaker 19When it's busy , it's good that way .
Speaker 17Time goes fast . Yes , it does , it does .
Speaker 19Have you gotten a chance to explore Las Vegas at all ? Then have some dinners and outings with some of you .
Speaker 17Yeah , yeah , last night we went to uh the Guy Fieri's place oh , how was that that was good . It was good .
Speaker 19Uh , the burger was outstanding there right , um , I mean , I would expect it to be because he does what diners dive-ins and drives flavor town baby , yeah , okay so did you get a good burger then ?
Speaker 17burger was great it was awesome , yeah , um , and then we went out , yeah , the I've kind of just a best more and just like the strip and just kind of seeing some of the different casinos and stuff .
Speaker 19But it's fascinating areas , and it easy to get lost , oh gosh , yeah , even the apex floor . I've gotten lost just walking the floor and have you had a chance to explore the rest of the trade show and see other vendors ?
Speaker 17just recently I started kind of venturing out a little bit and just kind of checking out some of the other booths . It helps me out a lot too , because of the marketing aspect . I'm looking to see how other people present their products and stuff . We've got our display case and we've got arrangements for our products and things like that . But some people have really cool . Well , some of them have a magnet . Magnet , that's like spinning their products around , Just doing like floating and like doing something cool .
Speaker 19Sure , rather than just having it sit there , yeah exactly .
Speaker 17Some have like some like beam of I don't know . There's just cool ways that people are presenting their products .
Speaker 19There's a lot of innovation , I think even in booth design , right ? I mean , I'm looking at your booth , it's very open airy . It's very open airy , it's accessible from three sides so you can get traffic from a lot of different directions .
Speaker 17Absolutely yeah , but , like I said , yeah , no , it is , it is . It's an exciting time for us . You know our tensioners from what I've now learned is like we are , we are , oh , we were top of the line . We've got really good um , quality , um , and , like I think just our main focus right now is is really just driving home the fact that , like we are , we're technician friendly , like we , we create products that are designed for for shops , just to be more efficient and just to be able to get cars in and out , and , um , we do have some features that we're applying to not just one product but like a lot of our products now , okay , that are coming in the line with our most famous one being the easy button .
Speaker 19I was going to ask you about that . You mentioned that earlier . What's the easy button do ?
Speaker 17yeah , so the easy button is it was almost like a gimmick at first , but we decided that no , it's actually genius just to have a pin that's actually stuck on the tensioner at all times .
Speaker 17Okay so it's an aftermarket part , and the pin that's on the tensioner um simply just holds the tension in place as you're installing the tensioner okay so when the technician's ready to route the belt , he can simply do that just by himself , by just setting the button and then being able to route the belt himself . He doesn't need like a second technician to help come in and be able to do that . He's able to do that with just one simple button , route the belt and then , when the reset is ready , to just undo the button , and now the tension is set .
Speaker 19Gotcha , yeah , and that makes things much more efficient , because if you're working on it yourself , you don't have to wait for me to come , and that's valuable time on the clock , yeah absolutely .
Speaker 17And that's good for not only technicians , I mean , it's a little bit safer , it's a bit easier , but the shops . They're able just to be more efficient and kind of just fit . And it lowers the cost to the consumer .
Speaker 19Yeah . Fantastic Anything else that you're looking forward to while you're in town , either on Apex , from a learning perspective , or meeting people you haven't seen for a while , or exploring the city .
Speaker 17Yeah , yeah . No , you know I have some friends that I've met through the ACC from different conferences and stuff as well . I think Jackie's a part of your team .
Speaker 19Oh yeah , jackie Lewis , definitely .
Speaker 17Yeah , so I'm excited . I haven't been able to find her yet , but it's so big .
Speaker 19Well , we'll point her in your direction .
Speaker 17Yeah , for sure . So , um , yeah , I think that , and just probably just exploring the rest of Vegas .
Speaker 19Fantastic . So much for taking the time to talk to us . We hope you and your team have a great time at Apex and successful conversations with all your business partners . Thank you , yeah , I appreciate it .
Speaker 17Thanks guys All right
Daryl Benton, VP Sales and Marketing Automotive Aftermarket, MANN + HUMMEL
Speaker 17.
Speaker 1Hi , what's your name ? Hi , I'm Daryl Benton . Daryl , nice to meet you . Are you familiar with Auto Care On Air ?
Speaker 24A little bit .
Speaker 1Yeah , have you ever listened to an episode .
Speaker 24I've listened to a few episodes .
Speaker 1Which episode .
Speaker 24Oh , you expect me to remember which show . Do you know what show ?
Speaker 1No , I can't remember . Was it Carpool Conversations ? Yes , okay .
Speaker 22That's what you're on right now believe it or not ?
Speaker 1So we're just doing like speed dating style interviews just to get more people involved in the podcast . So Carpool Conversations actually is about professional development skills , yep , and we try to grab some of our members and show a little bit of personality on it and help our members get to know each other through the podcast .
Speaker 24Sounds good .
Speaker 1That's what you're doing today . Okay , so who do you work for ?
Speaker 24I work with Mann Hummel , a filter manufacturer .
Speaker 1Okay , do you like it ?
Speaker 24Yeah , I've been with Mann Hummel now for about four years . I'm the vice president of sales and marketing for North America for the aftermarket , and you know it's been a great place to work and great business with a great mission , so I really enjoy it .
Speaker 1Where were you before ?
Speaker 24Before I was with Castrol and I spent seven years with Castrol , so I think of Castrol and lubricants as being aftermarket adjacent Okay , as opposed to true aftermarket aftermarket . So I actually have been coming to Apex and SEMA shows for the last 11 , 12 years .
Speaker 1Why do you consider it adjacent ?
Speaker 24Because for the most part the distribution networks are different and it's not a hard . There are no real hard parts , it's just basically a fluid thing , and so it's just a little bit different than the way I think the traditional aftermarket works and I didn't really learn that until I joined Mann Hummel . I assumed that the lubricants companies felt more part of the aftermarket . Like I said , the distribution network , the route to market and often the end users are the same , but the customers , the intermediary customers , are often different .
Speaker 1What did you do before you came to the automotive aftermarket ?
Speaker 24I actually did marketing and sales roles for consumer products and food and beverage companies . I worked with Mars , the chocolate company , Diageo , the beverage alcohol company , and PepsiCo and Frito-Lay Did you get free product . Of course .
Speaker 1What was your favorite ?
Speaker 24perk ? That's a great question and I'll actually tell you one of the things . When I worked at Diageo in the beverage alcohol business , I'll actually tell you one of the things when I worked at Biagio in the beverage alcohol business , I never waited in a line at like a nightclub or anything like that . I could show my card , say I'm here for business .
Speaker 1That is so baller .
Speaker 24So that actually was something that I kind of miss about being in the alcohol industry . You know , here in Vegas , yeah , you know the lines . It can be very difficult to get into some of those places .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's kind of like celebrity status . They just kind of get the stanchion for you on your way in and you pass all the people in the line .
Speaker 24Oh yeah , and people would often say wonder , I'm sure , yeah , what's that ? How does he do ?
Speaker 1that Could you bring people with you ?
Speaker 24Yeah , like a couple of people , okay , not like a crowd .
Speaker 1Some like unspoken rules with that . So if you could do anything , what would it be ? Anything from a career perspective .
Speaker 24Well , I've given up on like professional basketball player .
Speaker 1Oh , you gave up .
Speaker 24Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , so soon , so soon , so soon . But I actually I really do love what I do . I enjoy most of what I do is marketing or some of the sales , but I really enjoy understanding people's needs and trying to find ways to fulfill them profitably . Nice , so I think that's a lot of it's a lot of fun .
Speaker 1Oh , that's great . So what do you do when you're not working ?
Speaker 24When I'm not working , one thing I've been trying to do is learn languages .
Speaker 1That's cool .
Speaker 24I've worked with our team in Mexico , and so I've been particularly focused on Spanish lately , but I've also in the past , when I was with the beverage alcohol company . I lived in Kenya for a couple of years , and so I was learning Swahili , and I could probably still say a few words in Swahili . I've been learning Portuguese , and now Spanish is where I'm from .
Speaker 1That's incredible . So what's your favorite language to speak ?
Speaker 24English . Is it Because it's the only one I actually know ?
Speaker 1You know , spanish was my minor . Oh really , in college , yeah , and I used to like . In order to graduate , I had to do a one hour conversation with my professor .
Speaker 24Oh really .
Speaker 1And I used to be able to actually do that , and now it's like you know , asking for a beer is hard .
Speaker 24I understand , and so , with learning Spanish , it takes me a couple of minutes to actually adjust my ear to Spanish , and so when I'm listening to native speakers speak and I'm trying to communicate with them , if we're speaking English and someone walked up and spoke in Spanish , I'd be like I have no idea what you're saying . Yeah , but if I spent just a couple of minutes , I'm like , okay , now I can actually participate and be more of a Spanish speaker .
Speaker 1Oh , that's awesome . Yeah , I think speaking Spanish is so much fun . I used to love it , but you don't use it , you lose it .
Speaker 24Right , absolutely , absolutely . Don't let that guy take pictures of you .
Speaker 1Yeah , I just saw that you got some fans , okay . Last question yeah , so I mentioned that Carpool Conversations is about professional development . Yes , so what skill ? We call them power skills . Uh , so soft skills . Do you think is the most important for a professional in the automotive aftermarket ?
Speaker 24yeah , so . So I actually I know you said one , but but I'm gonna , actually I'll give you two , you're gonna allow me , allow me to say two . So so the the first thing , um , that I actually wanted to mention about that . One of my neighbors when I was growing up was the head of nuclear operations at the power company that was close by or for the area where I live . One of the things that he would tell to me , and also all the other kids in the neighborhood , not just me is that you should really strive to be an expert in something , so , and that that actually is one of the things that allows you to have the credibility to start to have conversations . The more senior you get , the more you have a broad range of things , and you're not going to be an expert at everything , but you should always be an expert .
Speaker 1That's a great one . I haven't heard that one .
Speaker 24That's a great one heard that one . That's a great one . And then the other thing that I wanted to mention , where I think it really helps from a career perspective , is getting comfortable speaking in public . I read a statistic and I'm sure I'm going to get it wrong that 65% of executives do not spend time preparing for presentations before they do them and actually preparing for presentations . Being comfortable speaking in public allows you to be noticed and recognized and also for people to , for you to be influential and help to drive people in the decisions that they make , and I think that's very valuable for someone who is trying to develop in their career .
Speaker 1That is an incredible one . Those were both really good . They would both make great episodes actually , so thank you so much .
Speaker 24Okay , so it was really so . You want to do a longer episode ? I think we should talk about it Absolutely .
Speaker 1Yeah , this was so much fun . Yeah , I really enjoyed meeting you .
Speaker 24Yeah , same here .
Speaker 1Yeah , you have to listen to more Carpool Conversations .
Speaker 24Yes , I do yes , I do Okay .
Speaker 1All right .
Speaker 24Thank you
Danielle Remieres and Nitish Jain, AirSept, Inc
Speaker 24so much , bye .
Speaker 19Hi , I'm with Danielle and Nitesh of AirSep . Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at AirSep .
Speaker 27Well , I live in St Petersburg , florida , and I am the art director for the company , and this is Nitesh .
Speaker 8Yeah , so I'm Nitish , so I'm the operations manager at Aircept , so we are based out of Atlanta , georgia , and we design tech-friendly products for the automotive sector and it's like we have things starting from air conditioning to power steering and protection compressor filters , and also we design products to help mechanics , to protect equipment as well .
Speaker 19Okay , and you mentioned your operations in Atlanta , so does that mean you have a manufacturing facility there ?
Speaker 8Yes , so we assemble all our products in Atlanta . Everything is assembled and packaged in our facility in Atlanta , georgia .
Speaker 19Okay , and then Danielle , you mentioned you're coming from St Petersburg and I hope you were not affected by Hurricanes Milton or Helene and so forth . Well , thank you for that , I'll leave that there , OK .
Speaker 16OK .
Speaker 19So OK , well , I'm sorry to hear that , but I hope things are recovering well for you . And you mentioned you're an art director , so are you part of the communications and marketing team then ?
Speaker 27Yes , Everything , everything that you see and put together that is visually produced , that's all Okay and so I'd imagine you're here at Apex .
Speaker 19Is this your first time for you here , or have you both been here before ? We've ? Both been here multiple times . Okay , and how are you ? How is Apex going for you this year ?
Speaker 27Oh , it's always a great show for us . Obviously we enjoy coming here a lot .
Speaker 19I would imagine you're able to meet your existing business partners , prospective business partners . Is that , fair to say ? Yes , very good . And in terms of the show itself , is there anything that really caught your eye , either from a product standpoint or maybe something you heard that was shared in a learning session ? I guess for both of you , what kind of stands out this year ? If anything .
Speaker 8So this is the advancement of technology . We get to see like so much innovation going on in this industry . So it's a good learning experience , I would say . And then we can use those learnings to like develop or innovate our current products . So in the AC industry , for example , we have this new reference coming up . So are existing equipment , so we're trying to make some changes in them so that we can accommodate them more , automate them more , make it easy , user-friendly and with the volumes and everything , so it brings awareness of what's going on in the world and with the different regulations coming up , so it's a really great experience to come here and , of course , connect with a lot of people . That again helps us in a big way .
Speaker 19That's terrific , and anything you'd like to add to that , danielle .
Speaker 27Oh , and everything looks wonderful all the time . I love walking through and seeing all the different additions . I saw the podcast booth , sure , that looked lovely . Wonderful I love to see those things and how technology in the display space has also affected everything . Every year , it's always continuing to move forward .
Speaker 19That's really great to hear , because even as I walk around the floor , just the innovation in the booth designs , how products are displayed , it's really quite captivating and I think , as an art , you're probably very attuned to those developments as well . Yes , yeah , so is there anything you're looking forward to while you're in Vegas , while you're here ?
Speaker 8Yeah , just like Apex for that sobriety . And of course we're in Vegas , so once we're done with work , so maybe some fun walking around . And of course a little bit of gambling in there , you know , in Vegas .
Speaker 19Yeah , and you know , there's a wide variety of restaurants and the weather has been quite lovely this week as well . Absolutely .
Speaker 8That's a big plus , I would say , during this time of the year . So I mean it opens up more opportunities to go around . So , like , since we're from the East Coast , so we really don't come out on the west coast , so this is our opportunity to explore more around .
Speaker 19So okay , anything else you'd like to add to that , daniel ? Oh ? I'm here for food , okay what's your go-to type of meal around here ? Oh , I love all the asian flavors .
Speaker 19Oh , okay , and then I , oh , we ate at an excellent mexican restaurant oh wonderful right close by and that was wonderful I was able to bring my wife this year and we went to chinatown , so it's just like a three mile drive . If you go during rush hour it can be very long cab ride , but there is a wonderful variety of Korean , japanese , chinese restaurants there , so if you like Asian , that might be some place to stop by as well .
Speaker 27I will keep that under my pro tip category , all right .
Speaker 19Fantastic . Well , anything else you'd like to add while we're about Apex , any improvements you'd like to see or anything that we should keep on doing while we're here ?
Speaker 8I mean the improvements , like they keep on coming every year . So really happy about like what , where we are , what we are doing and looking forward to do the next year again and again .
Speaker 19Fantastic . Well , thank you so much for spending part of your day with me and for being a longtime exhibitor here at Apex . We hope that everything goes well from you and it was so nice to meet you both Same here .
Speaker 1Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care On Air . Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode , and don't forget to leave us a rating and review . It helps others discover our show . Auto Care On Air is proud to be a production of the Auto Care Association , dedicated to advancing the auto care industry and supporting professionals like you . To learn more about the association and its initiatives , visit autocareorg .
