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
UNLOCKED: An Auto Care ON AIR Studio Take Over
Recorded from the AAPEX show floor, this episode features Jonathan Larsen, VP of Digital Products & Standards at the Auto Care Association, and Eric Lough, VP of Catalog & Partner Integrations at NexaMotion Group. They broke into the Auto Care ON AIR studio to talk about the AAPEX Show, leadership, and progress over perfection.
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
Hey, I think this thing's on. I don't know. Is it? Yes. It is on. Oh my gosh. This is going to be awesome. Okay. Okay. So the door was unlocked. Eric and I got in here, and this is going to be amazing. I have no idea when Jackie's going to be back. We might have like 10, 15 minutes. Like, I don't know. We're going to go until like something happens. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I can't wait to like wait till Jackie comes back. Like how she's going to be.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I know, I know, I know. But just you're not going to blame it on you, right? Like, I'm going to like you have to blame it on me. I like I I was the one that like turned everything out. Just it's okay. It's okay. Okay. So I am here with Eric Lowe. Eric, tell us about what you're working on or or who you're working for and what's going on right now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I'm with Nexa Motion Group. It's a fun way to say like Nexa.
SPEAKER_00:Nexa?
SPEAKER_01:But when you say it fast, it's like Nexa Motion. Next emotion. Yeah, everyone thinks like we work for like an emotional support rehab. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Just all those kinds of things. Yeah. All right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's Nexa Motion Group. So it's the Transtar brand that came out of the 70s. Um leader in transmission space. That brands grew and came on with private equity. And from that, brought other businesses in the general repair space together. So put her into this Nex and Motion Group umbrella. Um, I specifically work in the Transend business unit, which is the forward-facing kind of innovative e-commerce arm of the whole business. So we have a solution, we put it for repair shops to find the parts they need the first time quickly and accurately as possible.
SPEAKER_00:That's fantastic. That do you love it?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Well, because I'm working with Eric C Pierre again. So Eric Squared is back. It's Eric Squared 2.0.
SPEAKER_00:All right.
SPEAKER_01:Like that needs to be either a hashtag or a sticker or maybe both.
SPEAKER_00:At least the trademark it so he gets paid for it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna put that in chat GPT because fair enough.
SPEAKER_00:Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01:I'm already getting the the the dreaded Apex cough with like, you know, enough smoking just walking through the casino that you've smoked a pack.
SPEAKER_00:Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yourself.
SPEAKER_00:I understand.
SPEAKER_01:But anyone who knows has their survival kit. What's your survival? What's your apex survival kit?
SPEAKER_00:What's in my survival kit?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, your apex survival kit.
SPEAKER_00:I've added a couple things to it this time. Okay. One of my rules is everyone lots of people take a backpack. I try. People ask me, like, why do you wear a suit the whole time they do this? And I'm like, you get like five more pockets. Yep, pockets are the thing. So uh you can you can put a um battery charger into your in one of those pockets. Uh you can find your business cards. Uh I usually bring a notebook with me. I've even um pared that down. So it's like a three by five uh card size uh notebook and all those things are are there, but make sure they have enough shoes and socks that you can change back out. I mean, I'm trying to take lessons from the military of like keep it clean, keep it moving, so because you're you're moving all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree on the sock part. I bring double the socks and double the underwear.
SPEAKER_00:That's good to know.
SPEAKER_01:Why not? You never want to just never know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They're not interchangeable though, in case you're that's fair, that's fair. But I agree with the pockets though. I like that the that's like that's solid because that's the suits, pockets, they're critical to have. I remember coming my first year, like such a rookie move. You bring like never get a new pair of shoes and like not wear them and then wear them here, like right.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um, always have socks with T-Rex, uh, an astronaut ready to T-Rex.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01:Always have those. Um, but yeah, you gotta have cough drops, eye drops, or throat lockers, eye drops, chapstick. Chapstick desert will just suck every month, get some moisture out of your body, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I brought liquid IV this year. We see how that rolls.
SPEAKER_00:It does work well. Yeah, I have been doing that here in the last two days. So just chug that. Yep, keep it going. Because you're moving all the time. So you're you're yeah, more water, more water. You can't have enough water. So we're in the desert.
SPEAKER_01:We're in the desert.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. So take care of yourself. I I think that's probably the biggest thing because like people just like we're in the desert, we're in Vegas, party, party, party. And it's like we're working, we're we're trying to get stuff done, we're meeting people, new people, old friends, people that we've talked to during the during the year, and we get to get actually see them in person, which is fantastic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I saw I went to when we were DC, I went to your new office, which is amazing, like super, super cool. You guys are doing so much. Like, I love it's like these like generations of auto care, like shift, you know, like you guys come out and you do like you like tear up the rug and redo everything. And like you're it seems like you're in that phase of like we literally tore up the rug. Like tore it up, put it on the wall.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Well, sometimes that's where it needs to be. Uh, some of the things that you're doing uh with the new job. And uh do you have anything on your list of of something you're working on? Is there any um classes you're taking or training that you're doing, or uh anything that you're helping to work on improve yourself?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, personally, it's always um I used to listen to a ton of podcasts. So Guy Roz is probably my favorite. So, how I built this. He interviews a ton of entrepreneurs. Um, probably my favorite, my two favorite podcasts from him. Uh, one was interviewing the founder of PayPal, which is not Elon Musk, actually, it's later in the story. Uh, I forget his name, but he's from Ukraine. He actually did a two-part series with him, and then the founder of GoDaddy, uh, his story was really, really cool. And just love, it's kind of like Wayne Gretzky. Like, I love hearing these stories. Like, you read books that are like very focused on you know, a strategy or speaking to a topic, but just hearing people's stories I find more impactful. So getting back into listening to podcasts and just like I try and focus them on the areas that I'd like to develop. So, communication, right? Like that's the biggest tool we've got. Yeah, um, yeah, you I've leaned into it with you with um Toastmasters. Sure. Um, but I think being able to communicate effectively, and and and I love what Wayne Gretzy said today. He's like, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason, two more listening than you talking, which I need to master that one day.
SPEAKER_00:Can practice it? Yeah, so I don't know if that works well on a podcast, but maybe it's working for them that are listening to this. So that's a good thing. That's not gonna help anyone, is it? So you how do you do some of that stuff? Like, what what do you what gets you to that strategy or vision that you can pass on to your team?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a good question. So I I love like I show up with the energy like every day. I'm just like, let's go. And like your team doesn't always meet you there. Sure. Um, and it's really hard to not let that distract from the energy you want to bring to your team. So it's it's you know, I find like starting your day off right. It sounds corny, but like getting up, stretching, eating, like having breakfast, like doing the basic things for yourself. So you're ready to sit down, engage with your team, bring the energy because the energy you bring to the room, they're gonna pick up. And maybe not every day, but overall, like that's that's it's almost it's infectious, right? So I think showing up, having that energy is is is really critical. Creating the culture for your team, like huge you know, culture-y strategy for breakfast, as they say, is is critical. But you know, I love just building great teams. And I found like probably the most effective component of like team building strategies, just do it, just get in and try it. Like just try stuff. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Like, you're not gonna know unless you get in, just try things on your team. So I've had things that we've I've tried with my team that have been great successes and just total, absolute failures.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. So do you go back and try again? Is that like uh like why did it not work? Do you do that reflection of it to say, okay, what what happened that didn't make it work?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, like probably too much. I'm a Scorpio and we're known for just on everything. So I do all go back, well, there's like things almost like an like a like an autopsy to it, right? To understand what worked, what didn't work. And sometimes the whole thing was just like just just a total fail, like don't even bother. And sometimes it's like, okay, I'll take bits and pieces of that, stitch it here with something else, and just keep keep moving forward. One of the things that I um I really struggled with was perfection over progress. Like I would have I spent a lot of my career like wanting to make something perfect, and I would say probably wasn't until past year and a half to two years, I really started leaning, just just go. Just make make make some progress. And and there's a really cool story actually. So I have a friend back home, she owns a really prominent med spa. And um one of her cars, she has the uh license place is lead. I was like, What why does your license plate say that? She's like, Because frogs only go fully, and the only animal that can't walk backwards. So I have a little glass frog that I keep on my laptop to remind me every day when I get, you know, there's like 8 million things to do. You're swirling, you're like, what do I have to work on? The most important thing, right? Because your time is valuable when you have so much to do. It's like I need to work, make sure I'm working on the most impactful thing or stop and go, just go, just do something, just make progress today.
SPEAKER_00:So doing 800 emails, that's that's not what you're supposed to be doing?
SPEAKER_01:Uh no, 810. Okay, okay. 810 is your list. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So he says sarcastically, but uh it it's focusing on those those pivotal things that are trying to actually move you through the year or through the goal of where you're trying to go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, I I learned learned a long time ago. Actually, I used to live in emails and I don't. I'm probably the worst with emails because I find them distracting. And I find typically if you know your strategy and you have your roadmap, you know what you're gonna be doing, like, yeah, you have to communicate and answer people, but like shouldn't be living in emails. This is just kind of where I agree kind of where my space is. So you tend to carve out a little bit of time for emails and um really focused on just keeping my team focused because there's so many distractions, right? Like, yeah, and I always say, like, the good leaders, you know, they need to communicate effectively. Um, they need to build a great culture, but one thing a great leader needs to do is block a tackle for your team. Like I agree, sometimes just doesn't have the capability or even the the the you know situational, positional the titles or roles to have to say no to somebody. Like saying no is not a bad thing. And I this comes from someone who would say yes to everything. You've seen the stuff I would do in the industry, I would take on anything. And now I I protect my time like religiously.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's great. So I I also try to do that of like what's important. Uh I mean, even taking this time right now is this is important. It's something that I wanted to be able to talk talk to you about. We were able to unlock the door so we could get in here and play around. And um I I like that portion. Like one of my favorite books is uh John C. Maxwell's failing forward. And it talks about you just have to keep going and going and learning from like what you what you what you've done. And I really like your the the frog leaping because it's you're always going forward. You're trying to trying to learn something new that you can add into your toolbox so that you can come back and like it might not work right now, but maybe it will work in the future.
SPEAKER_01:The one book you told me about years and years ago, I was like, it's like you're reading any good books, you're like, Yeah, I'm surrounded by idiots. And I'm like, tell me more.
SPEAKER_00:So did you read it?
SPEAKER_01:Actually, I have not read that book yet. Okay, but tell like tell tell me, remind me again, because you're you're a color, right? But not everyone's one color for the character.
SPEAKER_00:That is correct. So there's there's different colors that that that you can be in this uh in this book, and uh it generalizes into four groups, and people are not just four groups, like they're but they they lean towards one of them, and that's one of those things for from that book. Um, yeah, that's been a while since I read that one. But there's lots of different things to find out like how do you interact with these different people? Because like um maybe you you you bought heads with somebody, and like maybe there's a better way to do that, and and learning who you are and then someone else that really helps figuring out where do we go and how do we how do we move forward? Cause that's where we're trying to get to. So sell more parts, right? So hey, we gotta go. We gotta go. Bye.
