Car Guy Coffee Mar 11, 2026

Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Christene Addis

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

33:39

Term

CSI score

A CSI score is a number that shows how happy customers are after buying or servicing a car. Dealerships use it to see if customers liked their experience.

Concept

NADA

NADA is a big event where car dealers and people who work with cars get together to learn and share ideas.

LIVE

Hello and welcome to the CarGuy Coffee Podcast. This brew has been brought to you by Certified

Solutionaries and if you want to consume more brews or want more information about how to

build your brand on our podcast and want to see how you can sponsor the brew, go to CarGuyCoffee.com.

Let's brew! What is going on, Car Guys and Car Gals? It's Lou Ramirez.

And this Fred Lynn Arts is a subprime hero. And we are excited to bring you the CarGuy Coffee

podcast for the first show in 2026. Brewing with you, we are excited to get things popping and

locking everybody. But happy new year. Happy new year, Fred. Happy new year, Lou, man. What a great

year. It's already been. I've already had some great memories. We had great training sessions

this morning. You have a clean bill of health. So that's some great news, right? A lot of great

things are happening. 26 is already lined up to be the best year ever. And we're kicking it off today

with our first five-liner of the year, the first show of the year, with the highlight of somebody

that we met at Digital Dealer, I believe is where we met her, right? And we got a chance to interview

her on the side. I don't think we've even released that one yet, but met her passion for what she

does, her community, for her family, for everything that she's surrounded by. We couldn't help but say,

hey, come on for this five-liner. So why not kick it off with her? I'm pumped, Lou.

I'm pumped up and I'm excited because we are just getting the year started. And what better way

than to brew us a fresh cup of CarGal coffee and get this solutionary on the screen with each and

every one of you. So if you're watching this on the live, help make sure to give us a little bit

of assistance and tag a CarGal. Tag a CarGal and share, share, share, share, share. Get this out

there. Get the word out there, everybody. We got to go ahead and get a few people in the cafe. So if

you want to help us out, make sure that you do put some clapping hand emojis in there, maybe a couple

coffee cup emojis, maybe a couple of thumbs up, but either way, help us to make welcome for the

first time for a five-liner on the CarGal coffee podcast, the one. The only Christine Adams. Let's go.

Hi guys. Welcome to the cafe, my friend. We're excited to have you on the show. Again, I mentioned

it a little bit ago. Your passion for what you do, the fun that you bring behind it, and also what

you get to do inside the community and connect all the dots. I can't wait to get more into that,

but just to learn more about you and what drives you and what brought you to where you're at today.

I think a lot of people in our audience are going to be excited about that. This is another woman

in automotive doing big things, right, Lou? That's right. And because she's doing big things, we want

to be able to make sure that we give her a couple moments of explaining of where it is she's doing

these big things and where she's jumping into the cafe from. So Christine, please tell us where

you're working at and where in the geography are you actually jumping inside of this show?

Well, thanks for having me, first of all. And it's good to see you two again and happy new year.

Right now, I'm in our Charleston location, so Charleston, Illinois. It's southern Illinois,

about three hours south of Chicago. So that's where my base office is, but I have several of them.

Awesome. Awesome. Welcome to the party. Excited that you're here. And for those of you that are

not familiar with Christine and what she's brewing out there, she's making some big things happen and

trying to help make sure that she's getting all of the great stuff from whether it's conventions,

whether it's podcasts, whether it's community, she is trying to make sure that she trickles in and

she drips some of that good stuff inside of the culture of her store. And we want to make sure

that we do get a five liner of this extraordinary solutionary that's out there making things happen.

So let's go ahead and get this party underway. I believe we do have five questions for you. These

are very simple. You're going to know the answer to all of them. And we're going to shake it up

just a little bit. And we're going to go ahead and ask you the very first question on this five

liner. So Christine, you as the solutionary that you are, the cargo that you are, the professional

that you are, what is your why? Why do you do what it is that you do?

I would say my why. It's pretty easy, actually. It's faith, family, and passion. So my faith

keeps me grounded and guides my values, reminding me to lead with integrity and purpose and gratitude.

Family is my consistent source of motivation, simply put. And then my family, or sorry, family,

or finally, my passion is what fuels me every single day. So I deeply believe the impact of

my work and the people I get to work with and collaborate with. Everything I'll put together

between my professional and professional life is, you know, the journey.

Absolutely. You know, I love that you look it down to faith, family, and passion.

Passionate about what you do inside all of that, really, you know. But yes, you are,

you're very passionate about what you do at work, the way you connect your workplace

with the community, right? And that's massive. You know, that's what really brings everything

together. I think community is where it all starts. And us dealers out here, we should be

ingrained in our community. We should be part of it. We should be out there promoting it. We

should be out there supporting it, right? And you've been able to do all that. You're an

integral part of that. You know, and having that as your why, you say family, you know,

faith, I love that you talk about faith. Faith is massive passion, passion for all those things,

you know, so FFP, that's the acronym. I know Lou likes acronyms, that kind of stuff.

Definitely love me a good acronym. But I really do appreciate people like you that

are so intentional about being able to make sure that they are connected into the community,

being a whole person means that we are engaged with our faith. And why do anything if we can't

do it passionately? If we can't put our passion and our heart behind what it is that we do, goodness,

why do it, right? Nobody wants to really just go through the motions. We want to be able to

actually build something that means something rather than just exist. And that's awesome that

you have it laid out there like that. I'm starting to wonder if you watched a few shows and you're

ready for these five liners and these questions as they come to you, but we are excited to hear

that. But I'm sure there's plenty of you that are out there that can actually attach to this,

can actually say, you know, these are particular values that I do hold close to me,

but we do encourage you, lean heavily into that passion. And that is one thing that we did recognize

with you just inside of passing and having our first conversation with you was your passion

for seeing excellence inside of this industry. And you gave us some great words after we did our

keynote at Digital Dealer. And it was very, very encouraging for us. And it is, it's that passion

that has actually led us to this moment right now where we're having this conversation, we're

communicating with you, and we're trying to encourage car guys and car gals with your story.

So again, appreciate you, Christine. And we'll absolutely believe that.

You know, and you're sorry, your keynote was really good, I will say, and it was passionate as

well. And that's why when I saw you two, you know, at Digital Dealer, I had, we had to talk

because it's just, it's, you guys talked about sharing and just sharing within communities

and helping each other out. And so I think that's what drove that connection. So you guys did a

great job. Well, we appreciate that. It meant a lot to us, you know, and then as we were talking,

you were talking about your store, I looked at Lou, I remember that, I remember going,

dude, we should, we should get this on camera, right? This was, she's, she's got passion. This is

a be, and you were a very weird first interview of the year, you were a very first interview at

Digital Dealer that we went around and did, because we were on our way into the expo hall

when we ran into you. So again, I want to thank you for doing that. Let me ask you a really

quick question about your why, you know, when you're, when you're in those days where you're

struggling and you're piled up with all kinds of things and errands and stuff that you have to

take care of, what do you, how do you use your why to drive you? How do I use it? I would say,

just knowing at the end of the day or at the end of maybe an event or something, just

it's such a reward to see the community as a whole come together. And it's not necessarily just

personally just for me, but you know, it's, it's something bigger. So I guess that's, that would

be mine. It's always bigger than just one single person. It is. And that's, and that's huge, you

know, and I think that's where that whole family thing fills in your heart, you know, you have that

core value inside you, you know, understanding that this is bigger than just me. It's all of us,

you know, and I love how you again, transform that into the community. But you, before automotive,

you did other things, you know, you've been in automotive for a while now. I see that, right?

You know, you got some experience in here. You're not just some rookie that's just jumped in here,

but what brought you? That's the next question I have for you. What brought you

into automotive? So automotive was not on the list at all. It found me, I like to say, because

if you ask my parents when I was a kid, you know, when your parents asked you,

what do you want to be when you grow up and from people like, I've got a doctor or a lawyer or

something like that. I told them I wanted to be, work at a dry cleaners. I wanted to operate the

carousel. I thought that was the coolest thing for some reason. So right now I'm not doing that,

but that's what I wanted to do. And so the automotive world definitely found me. And I think it was

driven by curiosity and just the opportunity itself. And so I have a background, yes, in

non-for-profit and corporate world before this. And so I was hesitant to get into the automotive

world, but oh, I just, I fell in love with it. You have to be able to adapt and zig and zag,

as you know. And so that's just, you know, being on your toes all the time and the people that you

work with. It's just, it's really neat. And the marketing aspect of it, how powerful it can be

in the industry and this space specifically. So I think, you know, for me, all that together,

it just feels like home. It feels like home now. Wow. I believe it. You definitely are in your element

there at the dealership. We've had a couple of conversations with you right there at your desk,

doing your thing, talking about how to help take your dealerships to the next level. But there is

definitely something about you that feels at home in your element right there. So that, that is

definitely something that, that isn't just for the show, folks, not just for the airwaves,

for those of you listening to this on the podcast, she really is what she's describing. And that,

that's really awesome. That's really awesome that you are in automotive. Welcome, welcome,

welcome to automotive. So glad that you're here in that. So how long have you been in automotive now?

About five years. Five total years. Okay. And so let me ask you this, because, you know, we,

we definitely try to get this answer from everybody, but you've been a professional

longer than you've been in automotive. This just happens to be where you are now. And we're so

thankful for that. But throughout this journey, throughout this time, we do have some great

people that get to come in our lives and we have some other people that, you know, maybe kind of

pass through, but it's very important that we do get something from everybody that we come in contact

with, whether we're pulling something in their cup or they're pulling something inside of ours.

But who have been some of the mentors throughout your professional development? Who have been some

of the people that you have looked to? Who are those key mentors in your life?

That's a great question. I would say the easiest one for me, I would say there's two that really

stand out, but the easiest one would be my father. So I'm adopted and he raised me. And so he taught

me what I would call the foundation, foundation of life, right? So like him being married to my mom

for 35 plus years and managing, you know, what a family truly is and what that's like, going, I

guess, back to the family aspect, but then also managing a career, like a long-term career,

building that and the work-life balance and then still being able to instill those pillars of advice

and wisdom. And as I've grown up now and stuff, but he's still that main pillar of those basic

foundational, you know, at the core, you know, so I would say my dad. And then the other one,

his name was Craig Lindvall. And there's a difference between a boss and a leader and that

man was a leader, phenomenal leader. And he just, he was so humble and he was a people magnet,

he just attracted people. And he always pushed me to be outside my comfort zone. And he just,

he was so good at trying to figure out the movers and the shakers in the community. And that's

what I love to do now. And just to work for a bigger cause, to get us all together and see what

we can do to do better out there and create, you know, goodness, right? And so one of my favorite

things he always would say was, who will be better because of what I do today? And so he was just such,

such an extraordinary person. And I actually, one of the best life lessons with, he has a book

and it had life lessons all in it. And so one time I was late for a board meeting and the tire

blew out on this truck I did not want to drive. And I didn't know, and it caught on fire. But

long story short, I got over and called for help. And while I stood there stranded late for this

meeting, this lady offered to drive me to my board meeting, which you're not supposed to get cards

of strangers, but that day I did. And I walked in that board meeting and, you know, everyone's

around waiting for me. And, you know, Craig just leaned over and instead of, you know, scolding

me or yelling or anything like that, he just whispered in my ear, you know, nobody cares about

your storm. So I've held that with me forever. No one cares about my storm. They don't care

why I'm late. They don't care what's going on. All they cared about was, what's the strategy?

Where are we going? You know, point A to point B, what's going on? And, you know, I'm alive,

I'm always okay, but they just, it's stuck with me and it still has and I live by that.

Nobody cares about my storm. So it's profound. It's good. So yeah, let that go and just do your

thing. That's what they care about, what you know, what you're going to present. And that's huge.

That's awesome that you had those mentors along the way that you had people starting with your

father, what a good person to have in your life to be able to show you what a real man is and does,

you know, to love you, you know, that's amazing and to really show you what family is and passion,

right? That's pretty awesome stuff, you know, and then of course, Godly, what words of advice

to give you when you're walking in and something that may feel so embarrassing and you're so like

overwhelmed with like, Oh my God, I'm embarrassed that I just happened. But you walked in, he says

that and you just go, that's amazing. And to this day, you hold that inside your brain. I love that.

And that's that's some really, really great stuff, right, Lou? Oh man, so good, especially,

I mean, I'm a dad. I know you are. What is and I definitely want one day for my girls to be getting

interviewed somewhere and for them to drop that answer of my dad and then a couple of key things.

I mean, Lord knows that we pour our hearts into our children and that we passionately love and

care for them, but the for them to really take on and be exposed to so many great people and

then still say my daddy, I love my dad and I appreciate what he did for me and what he says

to me that of course that makes this daughter dad excited and pumped up. But also recognizing that,

you know, that there are some people that are going to also cut on you and highlight certain

things to you like nobody cares about your storm. I don't know about child folks, but you need to

write that down. And if anything, you need to put that in your cup and sip on that. That's right.

Oh, nobody care about your storm at the end of the day, especially your customers that no matter

what ends up happening inside of your professional day, your customers aren't worried about anything

other than you being the one that can help solve their problems. And you got to check your baggage

at the gate and make sure that you don't go on carrying anything extra. Remember,

for you to be able to forgive, focus and fly and get over other things,

you need to find yourself in the proper seat, buckled in right and ready for whatever comes

your way. And nobody is going to be affected by your storm. And I'm going to remember that.

Thank you for that, Christine. It is, it is so important that you recognize that,

that storm is something that could distract you too. If you give too much attention to the storm,

the storm might just get bigger itself because of your attention to it. And I'm a firm believer

that death and life is in the power of the tongue and is in what you give faith towards. So,

so many times we bring a storm to us just because we're worried about one. And that,

that is a great lesson that you are sharing with everybody. Thank you for that.

Wow. No heck of a story. Great lesson flows right into our forgive, focus, fly. And I

appreciate that, you know, and we're going to close out with that later. Not quite yet, but,

you know, first, we're going to teach you some dance moves. You saw us do, you saw us do on

stage. You're going to have to learn how to do it today. It's really simple, but I promise you

you'll have fun doing it. Right. But, you know, as we go, you know, we've, we've talked about some

really cool stuff here, you know, what brought you on a mode of your why your mentors, you know,

some things happen in, in, in to us, you know, not everything is roses and beautiful.

Right. Sometimes we run into walls, smack. Sometimes we, we fall down into a mud pit.

Right. You know, I'm using, you know, terms here, but you get what I'm saying, like life happens to

us and we can easily give up. We can easily be like, I'm done. But for us, sometimes they're the

greatest lessons we could ever had. What's been one of the hardest next question? What's been

the hardest lesson that you've had to learn up to this point in your career? I would say that

that's a tough one. It is a tough one. I didn't really think about it. The hardest lesson in life,

thus far is that you can do everything right and still lose. So how do you

get past that? If you can continue to move forward, you know, so push through it and move forward.

So love that. Man, interesting.

Wasn't that hard? You came up with a hell of an answer really quick just thinking.

I think I've told you this. If you're not, if you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing,

but then when something sometimes happens to you, like you don't have control of it,

it's just how do you handle it? And so I've had to really learn that having grace and how to push

through and be resilient, right? And that's hard. That's really hard. That's so hard for me every

day. I don't like to lose. I don't like to hit the wall. I don't like to fall. I don't like to be

told. I don't know what I'm talking about, right? But it happens to me every day in small ways, big

ways and every way, right? Sometimes it's just God talking to me, right? And that's the most valuable

one. And that's the ones you have to listen to the most. Like, oh, that's not for you, buddy.

Don't do it. It is, but those are the lessons that we need to learn. And having that lesson,

that's massive. I'm glad that you said that because it's the truth. It's the absolute truth.

Because I mean, car guys, car guys, those of you that are out there on the lot working with your

customers, doing the thing, even every single day that you do the thing, and you do it right. And

they still say no. You go over and above and they still say no. You give them the discount that you

didn't feel like giving them. And they still say no, or they say yes and then have nothing good to

say. They give you a bad survey. Anybody ever have that happen? You did it absolutely right.

You did it fast. You did it quick. You did it easy. You gave them the extras. You came out of

pocket to give them a couple of little accessories. And then they gave you a bad CSI score or not the

best CSI score. I'm sure plenty of you know a little bit about that. But that doesn't mean that

it can't be still used for your good. And that's the one thing about these hard lessons in life,

is that we recognize that all things are working together for our good. Sometimes it's when we

end up on our back and we have to fight our way up that we find out what we're actually made of,

that we find out that there's something in us that needs to grow and needs to push past. I was

having a conversation with one of my close friends at church and he's a coach to many,

many children. His kids are championship wrestlers out there. But he helps to teach a generation

how to actually adjust when they lose and then how to get better because of it,

how to get off their back and still get up and not be defeated just because they had a loss.

There is a completely different posture for us when we're defeated or whether we take a loss.

We want to encourage you all that are out there that are listening. Don't live a mindset of defeat,

but take any time that you've maybe failed or fell or maybe fallen short

and use that to sweep the corners in the biggest room in the world, the room for improvement,

to find out how can you actually make better. But each and every one of those things are making

you a better character. Christine, you're brewing something hot right now and I'm-

It is. It truly is. Folks, I just wanted to tell you, the true character tell of somebody is when

it is a failure. It'll show you who you really are. It'll show you who somebody is too. If you're

paying attention to them, you'll know. The ones who give up will tell you really quick,

that's not somebody I would like to surround. I like to surround myself with people taking it

to the next level, people that I want to become. You show me your five closest friends, I'll show

you your future. I'll show you who you are and it's such a massive thing. I love that Lou talked

about the room for improvement here because that is what it's all about is that we all need to be

thinking about that. Everyone of these questions is designed to get you there, but these last two,

this one with the hardest lesson and then of course the next one that's coming up, this right

here is for us to learn something from and to be able to sweep the corners. I love that. Man,

the hardest lesson learned, my friend, it is. We've got to hit those walls.

Listening, write it in the comments. What has been your hardest lesson? Go ahead, Fred. I'm sorry.

No, I'm sorry, man. I don't mean to- I'm excited, but it always reminds me of that song,

some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. You know, sometimes everything we do,

everything right, relationships, whatever it is and just, it doesn't work and it just,

and it's the worst thing in the world at that moment, but we move forward to your point. We

keep going, we keep growing, we keep looking at light. We believe in our faith that we know

better things are along the way and guess what? That was actually the best thing that could have

ever happened in a lot of cases. You go back and you're like, man, that felt so painful,

but you know what? That's not where God wanted me to go this time. He had bigger things for me.

I just didn't know it, right? But I had the faith. You know, that's the stuff you learned

and I love that. This has been really, really good stuff here. Vendors, you know the deal.

Sometimes that's the same thing that you run into is you're doing everything right. You lining up

everything for the dealership that you can. You set them up for success. You paid attention to

the numbers for them. You monitored them. You stayed up with them and then they just cut the

cord and you didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything bad. Remember, it's not necessarily

you that is the one that's being defeated. It's just a situation. And always remember

that some of your hardest lessons come to building up some of your strongest muscles.

If we don't ever have the opposition, we can never build the strength. But then we get the

opportunity to have the strength to hold up some big trophies, to hold up a big crown,

to hold up a big victory, to hold our hands up like Rocky at the top of the steps or the top

of the mountain shouting out Drago. Whatever the case is, we have so many of these different

rewards, whether they're little, whether they're large, whether they're massive,

they're important to us. But just like the hardest lesson, we also want to know for you,

Christine, what up to now has been your greatest reward?

Hmm. Is this a slow drip? You can let this one simmer just a little bit. Let the aroma

come on. Let it cook. Well, it's crazy because I feel like I always go back to family and then

work and I would say mine would be my daughter. That's a given. But then work wise is just some

of the campaigns, initiatives we've launched in our communities and how much success that they've

been. But it's really a true testament to the community itself. So we might have received

rewards or awards or what have you. But it's really, it's to them. But that to me means more

than anything because like I said at the beginning, it's more than one person. It's a bigger picture

and a lot larger scope. So yeah, that would be my biggest. I love that. You talked about

good things. Talked about your daughter. I know how amazing and how much of a gift that is for

you. That is the biggest reward ever. Having being a parent was the greatest gift I've ever

was given from God. Like literally that changed my life. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't

for my son being born, right? It's the greatest thing. It's a miracle of life. That is amazing.

Then you talked about community. But imagine what that does for your daughter. Seeing you be part

of the community the way you are. It all ties together. That's what's so beautiful is you're

raising her to be part of the community. She sees what it does. She sees the impact that you're

making with the team and seeing that what I love about automotive children, she's only five years

into it now, but she sees that we're good people, that we're not the dirtbags that people think

that car guys and car gals are. We're not the liars, thieves and cheats and all that stuff. We're

actually out here trying to make a difference. Being a big part of that, knowing that you literally

are in a position where that is what you do for the dealership, right? For the auto group.

And I think that's phenomenal. And congratulations on all that. Being able to share that in the

community. Being able to see the rewards of people getting better lives. Seeing people smile

because a dealership was involved doing something. Seeing people smile just because people were

involved. That's what it's all about. Community, again, family, which filters it all into

greatness and rewards. I love it. Love it. And there is so much that could be said for each

and every one of you all that are listening. When you really recognize and you do pay attention to

what are these great rewards? It's not just the paycheck. It's not just the things we buy with

the money. It's not the places that we go. It often is the relationships that we end up gaining

as time goes on and then the depth of those relationships. It is something that this business

has been so blessing, so much of a blessing to us. We are so rich in relationships and it is so

awesome to be able to continue to grow those and now have even a deeper one with you, Christine.

I'm so thankful that you've taken the time to spend with us today. I know that you're busy.

Anybody at the beginning of the year is busy, busy, busy, especially on the first Monday of

the new year. You are definitely going all gas, no brakes. And we are so thankful for you taking

a moment to be able to brew some solutions with us. You are making some things happen inside of the

industry and we can't wait to hear more about your story. With that said, we want to connect with you

and we want to connect with you other solutionaries throughout the month. So for those of you that

don't know, we have a newsletter that you can be a part of. Make sure that you do comment on this

and just say, send me the newsletter and we will give you the instructions and find out how to get

you the newsletter and the easiest way for you. We also are going to be at NADA this year. You

know the deal. The Super Bowl for Automotive is coming and it's coming to Vegas. So I'm pretty sure

we're not going to get snowed out. So with that said, everybody, we look forward to seeing you all

out there. Make sure you're excited about it with us so that you know where it is that we're going

to be because we are going to be doing a whole lot of bouncing around at this particular event,

aren't we Fred? We'll be everywhere. We'll be anywhere. You know, we're excited. We're going

to be at the after events. We're going to be emceeing some good parties. It's going to be a

great time. Do not miss any of it. If you guys want to know where we're going to be, tune into our

newsletter or just reach out to us. We'll be happy to tell you where we're going to be. I'm sure

we'll be putting out posts before NADA. Next week, we have another great show. I can't wait. It's

another five liner. No, actually, it's not a five liner. It's a coffee and a conversation, but we

have two people, two guests on the show that day, two of them, and we'll announce that as the week

goes by. Be staying tuned for that, but be looking for the shows. Be looking for everything in daily.

Lou, I'm sure you saw my post. I am dropping a daily, every day around six. I can't promise

at six. It might be 5 58. It might be 603. I don't know. It's going to be around that time.

It depends on how my computer and my phone works at that moment, right? But I'm going to be live

right around six o'clock every day with something different. If you guys haven't seen the post,

check it out. But it's out there today is going to be motivational Monday. So check it out. I'll

see you guys at 6pm Eastern time. Now, Christine, you have graced us with an awesome five liner.

And we know that there is there's so much more depth to you. Again, this is what's kind of

connected us the passion that you have for life, the passion that you have for this business,

and just for elevating yourself and the people around you. I know that there's a wealth of wisdom

within you. And if there's anything that you have to share, please, by all means, your microphone

is open to automotive right now. If there's anything else inside of your heart, you want to

share with those that are trying to find their way, trying to make their way inside of automotive,

because not most people, I got to say, are just like you. They didn't think that they would be here.

And now that they're here, they're trying to navigate the water. So any wisdom that you have,

please share it while you still have the mic. I would say just like I said earlier too,

the adaptability just learned a zig and zag if you're not good at it already, you know,

that was the fastest thing I had to learn here. And but it's really awesome. It truly is. And also,

you know, I've been blessed and fortunate that the owners here, the creativity, letting me have

creativity and run with that. So if you have an idea and you guys touch on this in your keynote,

if you have an idea, approach and give those ideas and thoughts, even if you don't or you're not sure

and it might not be a good one, still step forward with it because it could be extraordinary at the

end of the day. So if you have those thoughts, step up, be a voice and don't be afraid to back down.

So yeah, I love that answer. Step up, people. Step up. You have a good idea. Bring that idea up.

That is some great advice. Yes, we did touch on that. I think leaders all you out there should

have an open forum for anyone to bring ideas to you. Be innovative. Be different. Allow people

to be innovative and different inside your stores. You don't have to do what they say,

but acknowledge it and let them know that it is a good idea. That's 90% of it right there,

my friends. People just want to know that they're, they're valued. That's it. And if they bring you

value, don't dismiss it. At least acknowledge it and give them some love for it. Let's go. That's

and one line. If anybody looking for a word track out there to keep people motivated and excited,

even if it is not the greatest idea that you ever have, use this line. You might want to write this

down, everybody. Hey, that's a great idea. Let's come up with a better one. And it'll get people to

smile. It'll get people to move. It'll be fun. Use that a few times. It gets people to smile.

But with that, everybody do make a place for you to be able to brew solutions,

upshift and uplift on a daily basis. Happy 2026. There are many dreams that are going to get

dreamt this year and many dreams that are going to get lived, but the ones that don't are the ones

that don't get any steps in those directions. So make sure that you take massive action and

make things happen this year. And because solutionaries need to be adaptable, like Christine has

been articulating today, we do make sure that we keep adapting by dropping those f-bombs and that's

forgive, focus, fly and to keep growing all the time. So Christine, help us out. You are no stranger

to this. I do believe you know the groove to these moves. So go ahead and put your hands on your

shoulders and let's forgive, focus, fly on three, one, two, three, forgive, focus, fly, and keep

growing, keep growing. That's right. As I brought my arm up, I noticed it said adaptable right there.

Folks, so be adaptable, be fun out there, enjoy life, just do more and don't be scared to stand

up for what you believe in and go out and speak what you know. Let's go. I love you Christine.

Thank you so much for your time and thank you Car Guys and Car Gals for your time.

Make sure that you keep brewing solutions. I am Lou Ramirez and I'm Fred Lynn Arts and you've been

brewing solutions on the Car Guy Coffee Podcast in 2026 with the one, the only Christine Adams.

We'll see you soon everybody. Bye. Thank you.

About this episode

Christine Addis shares her journey into the automotive industry, emphasizing her core values of faith, family, and passion as her driving forces. She discusses how automotive found her and how she’s embraced the community and culture within her dealership in Charleston, Illinois. Christine highlights the importance of connecting with the community and leading with integrity, while reflecting on how her diverse background and passion fuel her daily work. The conversation captures her enthusiasm for the industry and her role in fostering collaboration and excellence.

CSI score NADA

Original notes

Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Christene Addis

Welcome to The #5Liner, the show dedicated to the individual journeys that power the automotive industry. It's not about the company; it's about the individual, their career, mindset, and personal story. In each episode, we sit down with a high-quality selection of Car Guys and Car Gals to get beyond the title and into the hard earned wisdom they've gained. Join us as we uncover the wins, challenges, and #5Liner takeaways that have shaped today’s top talent.

In this episode of The Car Guy Coffee Podcast, hosts Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz welcome Christene Addis. Christene shares her “why” as faith, family, and passion, with a focus on serving and uniting her community. She explains that automotive wasn’t her original plan—she came from nonprofit and corporate work—but fell in love with the industry’s fast pace, adaptability, people, and marketing impact after five years in the business. Christene highlights key mentors, including her adoptive father and former leader Craig Linvall, sharing lessons like “Who will be better because of what I do today?” and “Nobody cares about your storm.” She names her hardest career lesson as learning that you can do everything right and still lose, and her greatest rewards as her daughter and successful community campaigns and initiatives.

📲Stream it. Share it. Let's Brew.

Don’t forget to share and subscribe!

carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com

Car Guy Coffee

Car Guy Coffee Podcast

View classic page →

0:00

33:39