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What's going on, CarGuy's and CarGuy's?
It's Lou Ramirez, the CarGuy.
And it's Felonard's subprime hero.
And we are excited to be bringing you a five-liner.
We're going to have some fun with a little bit of CarGuy Coffee
today.
And we are excited to have blowing things up
with C4 and analytics, an individual that
is hanging out inside of Cali.
We got a California girl up inside of the building today.
And we are excited about it.
Fred, I'm pumped up.
I'm way pumped up, man.
We just had a little speak right before this.
We got to talk and learn a little bit more about her
as we were going.
And I already know this is going to be dynamite, man.
We have some really great guests come on the show.
And the energy is always infectious,
but this one got me hyped up, bro.
Like, I'm over here, been sipping on my coffee,
ready to go, ready to just have this conversation,
my friend.
And I have a feeling this five-liner
is going to be dynamite, like I said.
So let's get the explosions going, bro.
Let's go.
I'm ready to get things popping.
And for those of you that are ready to get things
popping with us, you got to help us out.
Make sure that you do tag a CarGuy.
Tag a CarGuy.
And share, share, share, share, share.
Get this out there, everybody.
And if you're listening to this on the podcast,
make sure that you do lean in, listen in.
Turn it up, everybody, because we know
that you're going to learn a little something new.
And you might be a little bit inspired.
This is a fun cup of encouragement
that we are excited to bring to you today.
And we are pumped up to have for the first time
on the show from C4 Analytics.
She is making things explode inside of the car business.
She's got some time in the biz, everybody.
And we are proud to bring to you for the first time
the one clean.
Only.
No way.
No way.
Oh, welcome to the show.
Good morning.
Good morning, team.
I need to bring you all with me everywhere I go.
Goodness, what an introduction.
We are hyped up with C4
and all of you awesome people that are over there.
There is a lot that's brewing,
but welcome to the show.
Welcome to the party.
Where are you jumping in from?
Where are we talking to you from?
San Leandro, California.
Yeah.
Told you she was a California girl, everybody.
Told you that.
Thank you all for having me.
Awesome.
But Noel, there's a lot that's brewing,
there's a lot that's cooking inside of the business.
Just about every single conference that we've been to,
especially from the beginning,
from us first going out as Car Guy Coffee,
we've been running into the C4 Analytics crew.
We have a friend that is a hilarious person
who always makes their way around,
whether they got bright, flashy, shiny shoes.
We are excited to have friends inside of the car business
and over at C4.
But for those that don't know you
and don't know about C4 Analytics,
please tell us a little bit about yourself and C4.
Yeah, absolutely.
As you said, my name is Noel Ong Robinson.
I've been in the business for 15 years.
Started in the box as a finance manager.
We'll actually start on the line
and then in the box and then over to C4.
And it has been quite a journey.
Yeah, I started with C4 during the pandemic.
And wow, what a company, what a time.
They have given me a platform and opportunity
to travel around the country and just like support dealers.
So we are full service marketing firm.
And I hate to even say that
because truthfully what we are as a partner,
we come in to support dealers all sizes.
And it's such a pleasure to work with the team
that we have.
We have a team of really amazing people.
That's awesome.
And we do have some amazing people.
Shout out to everybody over at C4.
We're excited to get this five liner underway.
Now, this five liner Noel,
this is a simple five liner
for those of you that are in the car business,
you understand, you can't get a car deal done
without having a minimum of a five liner completed.
Just telling us a little bit about the person
and some things that are specific to the person now.
None of these are gonna be questions
that you do not know the answer to.
And these should usually be something
that others can lean in, listen to,
and learn and actually adapt to your story
and be able to use some of the things
that you've gone through to apply to their life.
Now, we are excited to get this party started.
And Fred, why don't you go ahead and kick this off?
Man, I love to kick these things off.
And this first question,
really it just drives at the heart of me.
It's every thing that I do every single day.
I look at this first, it starts with my gratitude
and they aren't the very first part of my gratitude.
It's my family.
But for you, your why, what is your why?
What drives you?
What makes you say, you know what?
I'm taking it to the next level.
You know what?
I'm gonna take a jump in the middle of a pandemic
and go do something more.
What is that?
What drives you?
I would say personal growth in community.
And I don't want that to sound like cliche,
but yeah, automotive has been such a special community
to me.
And I think when I left automotive briefly
during the pandemic,
I thought maybe I'll go into real estate.
We won't do that.
And then I got in contact with C4 Analytics.
I'm like, I can't leave it.
I can't leave it.
And if I could use and leverage the knowledge
that I have similar to what you all are doing, right?
And be able to leverage that into supporting
in growth in other ways
and like sharing that messaging
and like being out of that like that dealership structure.
And then when I was in automotive,
it was my community of my clients.
Like I worked in Richmond, California.
It was a really like low income demographic
immigrant communities.
And I'm love to hear you spy-fy hero
because that was like my day in and day out.
It's like you have that difficult deal
you're gonna get done and you get to experience
like the joy, like the joy of them.
A lot of these people really needed cars.
So it's like, you're working really hard
to get this thing done at an affordable payment,
which like, again, I don't want to sound cliche,
but it was like that driving force
every day to get up early to stay late at my dealership
and ultimately like just get things done.
All of that tied with the bow of competitive nature
that I have.
Yeah.
It's like your icky guy, right?
What you're good at, what you love to do
and what serves your community.
And I think that's definitely what it is for me.
Wow, that's an awesome one.
And being competitive is crucial
for this particular industry, this particular business.
There is competition all over the place.
And we're always really like competing
for the attention of our customers.
And when you team up with a dealership,
you're helping them to have that competitive edge.
And you can also do way worse than having somebody
like C4 Analytics helping you out.
But I absolutely love the name C4, love it
because it just to me,
I'm always using different wordplay.
But to make things blow up
is what it is that you guys are doing.
You want a business to blow up,
you need some C4 in it, right?
And you guys actually do help to advance people
on a different level and you do it consistently.
But welcome, your why is awesome
and it is inspiring for those of you that are listening
or those of you that are watching.
What is your why?
We do challenge you with what is your why?
Consider that.
If somebody was to ask you that question
or you made it onto the Car Guy Coffee Podcast,
which if you wanna be on the show, just let us know.
We definitely wanna brew
with some great Car Guys and Car Gals.
But Noel, it is inspiring to know
what it is that's driving you
and definitely not cliche.
I can't say that anybody actually described it
the way that you did.
Please continue to share that story.
We're gonna make sure that we keep sharing this out.
But there is a little bit more to the story.
So you explained a little bit
of what you did in the car business,
but we gotta know.
This is a very important question on this five liner.
What brought you to automotive?
This is a loaded question.
I would say a little bit of necessity,
a little bit of circumstance.
I was 17 years old,
got my first job,
but not my first,
my first real selling retail job.
I was working in a sprint store
that was right next to the auto mall.
And the guys lose their phones all the time.
Young finance managers, sales managers,
and they'd come in the dealership
or come into the sprint store
and need to get new,
whatever, all the new stuff,
like new phone, cash.
And they're like, you keep,
like you're a closer man.
Like you need to get into this industry.
Like you do so well.
I'm like, no, I'm okay.
And then I really thought about it.
One of, he's actually still friends
with this gentleman named Antonio Mejia.
He came in with one of his sales people's
like commission vouchers.
And he's, if you want to go to school,
you want to do this, get in this business.
And so the rest was history,
but funny thing, side note,
I'm actually adopted
and I found my biological family three years ago.
My biological parents met in a car dealership
and worked in a car dealership
together in Oakland, California.
And my entire biological,
many of the people in my biological family
are also in the car business.
So...
You were meant to be a car gal.
It was in the snow.
Literally DNA, literally.
DNA, DNA.
Yeah.
That's pretty strong.
Crazy.
So I guess I'm stuck.
This is not in a bad way,
but I guess this is like what was destined for me.
And I'm here.
It sounds like it.
Yeah.
Wow. I absolutely love that.
I love that you gave us the side note
of your biological parents meeting there
and you have even blood family
that are automotive people.
And that's pretty amazing to see
that you did that blindly.
Just happened to fall into it.
We all do this by accident.
You, somebody saw a skill in you
and they showed you something much did for Lou, right?
Did for me is they basically said,
here's my paycheck.
Here's a paycheck you can make.
You want to go to school.
This will pay for your school real quick, right?
You want to go do this, this will do that.
You want to be in a rock band
and you can buy all the instruments you want.
Come in with a little hunger.
Come in here with a little bit of closing skills,
personality, right?
That one, that DNA though.
You had it in the blood.
You know what I'm saying?
But it's pretty awesome.
That's a cool story.
Yeah.
It's a really cool story.
And that, but I want to just a little bit deeper
or you got into a dealership.
I got to ask what made you make the move
during that whole situation
during the pandemic saying,
hey, you got out of automotive,
you said you mentioned that, right?
You got out and you were thought about real estate,
but what made you say, you know what, C4?
It was really a short, it was maybe a few months break
and the real estate thing was more again, necessity.
Like my family, my mom does it
and she needed some support
and I don't do things halfway.
So I'm like, can't do finance halfway.
I miss it.
Like I can't do half.
I need to just commit to what I'm doing.
And I'm like, I don't know
if any of you have experienced this,
but when you're used to like instant gratification
of closing business as a sales and finance finance,
especially because you're in the box, your closing deals,
you get that ser, like that serotonin adrenaline,
like good feeling, like I accomplished something today.
And that like, I was really struggling with, wow,
this is hard.
This is hard to not have that every day, it's pandemic.
And so I just started browsing around
and came across C4.
And when I was looking at their website,
I saw something on their website
that I'm like, first and foremost,
big fan of Ricky Bobby, if you're not first or last,
I saw that and I was like, oh, this is a sign.
Then I saw leaders lead leaders.
And I'm like, oh, I love that.
I love that and I live that.
Absolutely 100% leaders lead leaders.
And I wanna work with a company
where I have people around me who have that mentality.
Like that first and foremost, it's not about the money.
It's not about, it's about how we're serving people
and how we're serving our clients
and how we're leading them to success through leadership.
So that for me, I was like, this is the right fit.
And then I talked to Maria Terrio, who is there
at the time she's like, their head of recruitment.
And I'm like, oh yeah, done, I'm ready.
These are my people, I'm ready to go.
Look, now it's time to go by, hasn't it?
You've been there for a little while
and you've been blessed.
So just be around some really great opportunities
and even go back and find out about your blood.
Know all that stuff throughout this whole journey.
I think it's been a great journey for you
and it's still just the beginning.
And you got so much more left in you
to be able to do inside this industry
and whatever you end up doing.
I know that the lessons that you've learned from this
are gonna take you there.
Much like the people in our lives
that give us lessons, right?
One of the greatest things that I have throughout my life
is I've had some pretty good mentors.
Some I listened to really well.
Some I wish I listened to more
and I start to try to remember what they told me
and I'm trying to put those in my life now.
But made impacts no matter what.
Even if it was just a smile that they gave me
every single day, just to encourage me to be better, right?
Or to have a business partner like my bro Lou right here
who just really every single day he pushes, I push,
we push each other.
That's mentorship in the finest way, right?
And then our biggest mentor, our God, our one God.
And that's huge to see that.
That being said, for you,
who has been your greatest mentor
or mentors along your journey?
That's also a really loaded question
because I feel like you don't get to this place
in your life without having a lot of support.
You meant to that though.
I would say probably my first mentor would be my dad.
So a recent piece to him.
But my dad was avid entrepreneur.
He had multiple art galleries growing up
and I just got to watch him.
He had art galleries and car clubs.
So did a lot of community events
and gave me the opportunity to like curate events
really young and learn about balance sheets of business
and just got to meet really amazing people
and always supported me to just do my very best always.
And so I would say my dad, number one,
number two would be the automotive dads
that I had along the way.
And my management team at Hilltop Ford,
like Leon Thomas and Mercy Jones and Garnett Thompson,
like those three people.
And there were many others on that team
that like took a really young, unfocused,
just working through the business by sheer charisma
and taught me to dial it in, it's focus.
You're young, you have all this opportunity, focus.
And if you focus and you walk in with us,
we'll continue to grow you.
And I would say those folks,
they sent me, gave me all the opportunity
to learn everything that I need to learn
to have the tools to be the most successful
that I could be from a finance standpoint
and within the automotive industry.
And I feel like I continue to like lean
on all of those lessons that those folks taught me every day.
Yeah, that's awesome.
And having those people, there's a part of you
that just carries on the legacy
and the seeds that they sowed into you
then create fruit down the line.
And as you continue to find other people to lead,
they're going to benefit from what it is
that you've had mentored into you.
That's awesome.
Especially being a dad of daughters
and I have two granddaughters, a third on the way
and just loving of the girls.
I have a coffee mug that says,
you can't tell me what to do, you're not my granddaughter.
And today, it has been some great example of that,
just getting around this morning with my grandbaby
and her just telling me what to do,
where to go, what we're doing right now
and just having fun with that.
But that is something that does speak to the heart,
but nothing is like having a good father
or a good person to be able to lean in
and to teach you some of the things
that you do carry on into business.
There is what's called the law of first impressions.
When you learn something for the first time,
it's very hard to take your mind off of believing
that's the way that it is, right?
No, my daddy said this, right?
This is how that is,
just like all of our mentors in the car business, right?
When we were shown how to deliver a vehicle,
when we were shown how to work a pencil,
do a worksheet, do any of these things.
The first mentors that we had,
a lot of the times we're still doing those things today
because of the way the first person showed us how to do it.
And it is so hard for us to unlearn those things,
especially if we ever find out,
maybe we shouldn't have done it that way.
Or maybe we shouldn't have done this, right?
But it is awesome to be able to have those people
and you're right, there are so many core guys,
dads or so many core dads and moms in the business
and I'm so very thankful for them
and obviously you are as well.
Now these mentors, these people that have helped guide you
through the life that you're living right now,
you're thriving and you're growing
and you're making things happen
and you're helping to lead leaders ultimately
because you deal with decision makers inside of stores.
You help them to achieve big things
based off of their vision
and what it is that they wanna do.
But you probably had a bit of struggle at different times.
You probably had a few challenges at different times
as we all do.
And for those of you listening and watching the show,
it is very important that we do remember
some of the hardest things that have shaped us
into who it is that we are.
It's not easy for us to become great people
that do great things.
We have to actually have trials.
We have to be bent into shape
and sometimes we need to be cut down to size.
But with that, what would you say has been
the hardest lesson you've had to learn year to date
or life to date?
Life to date, we don't have time for that
but I couldn't speak in the context of,
in the context of business and specifically automotive,
I would say when I first started in the industry
being a woman in the business,
I really thought that I need to model myself
after these people.
I think that I had maybe one other at max
one other woman in the dealerships
that I was with at any given time
besides the controller and the business office.
So being in sales, I need to be tough.
I need to model myself after what I see
when I was really young.
But what I learned very quickly is that ego
that comes with that kills progress
and it kills longevity.
And then the second piece of that
is that you can't replace discipline and consistency.
And there's no, when you combine those two things
in this industry or it's in any business,
if you can have a little bit, like you need some ego
but the team aspect and collaboration aspect
of everything that you do,
whether it be on the retail side
or whether it be on the vendor side or the partner side,
your ego will get in front of you
and ruin your ability to grow.
You're never too good,
whether that meant when I was working in the dealership
I had to clean the toilet sometimes
or replace a tissue paper, whatever it is,
help out in service.
On the C4 side, it's cross-functional organization
getting down and dirty and helping to do things
that maybe aren't in your scope of work
but that are gonna help your clients to get things done.
I find that when I was younger,
it was like, oh, I'm in sales
and like we got put on a pedestal
and I don't need to do those things.
And as long as I close business,
that's all that matters.
So it was very like short-sighted
and that wasn't how the business,
like leaning into that hard work ethic,
authenticity of who I am as a woman
and allowing myself to be authentic in that
and dealing with people differently
than maybe my male counterparts would.
And like really, that was when I really saw growth.
And I think before that,
it was almost like you're forcing yourself
into a place where you feel like maybe you don't fit.
It took a long time,
and I think probably until my like mid-20s to be like,
I had to change the way I'm doing this.
This doesn't feel right to me.
And then that discipline piece,
again, when I was really young,
I thought I'd come to work and just shake hands
and I'll make a few phone calls
and I'll get business done.
But are you doing your customers and your team
a disservice by not putting in the hard work,
being consistent and having that discipline
and what kind of team dynamic are you creating?
You guys worked in automotive.
So you always have those high performers
that are bad apples that bring down the rest of your team
because they have natural ability,
but they're not putting in the work
and other people think that they can do the same.
And then you always watch yourselves go down.
And I think at one point I was,
I had to have a talking to by my team
because I was that person
and had to really help myself out.
You saw something to hit that.
No, seriously.
There were a couple of us.
It was like, you have to put in the hard work
and the discipline.
And I think once I started to be consistent,
then my entire career took off.
And I'm like, shoot, why didn't I do this sooner?
I was holding myself back.
And I still think about that sometimes.
Yeah, I wish I, I almost wish I could go back
and I could be who I am now then,
but just continue to move forward.
That's such a great lesson to learn.
I think we all go through that at some point in our lives
where we get in our own ways.
A lot of times we do mimic the people that we see
because that's what's happening
and that's where I see success happening.
So I need to be that in order to be successful,
but then it gets in our way and we don't feel right.
You start to really hate what you do.
I've been there too.
I know what that's like.
Lou, I know you've been there too, right?
You get stuck.
Lou was a little bit more stubborn.
He stuck to his ways
probably a little bit deeper than most people,
but yet it still gets there.
You start to act as if
instead of being the person who you are, right?
Authentic truly.
No matter man, woman, doesn't matter.
Don't get me wrong.
I know it was definitely more difficult for women.
It still is.
There's just not enough of you all in our industry.
I wish more of you all would go in
and try to be part of our industry.
I think that the more women we have
and just shout out to all women out there
who are watching this, spread the word.
This is a great industry for everyone.
And you ladies are really making a huge impact for us.
It's way better because of you all.
So that being said, we need more,
but there's not a lot of role models there for you.
I love that you saw that
and that you had to get out of your way
and say, you know what?
I'm still, I'm a badass.
I'm the best in here.
I know what that's like.
I'm never being like pounding my chest like,
you can't out close me, you can't do this.
It did, it brought people down
even though I thought I was just being the man
because it made my boss love me,
but everyone else hated it.
But usually, as a leader,
when you become a leader, people like that now
and you try to coach them
and you're like, hey, you shouldn't do that.
You shouldn't act like this.
This is crazy.
I appreciate you selling these cars
but my team's falling apart.
I need you to lead by example.
And that being said, I love that you saw that
and that's great that you were able to admit that.
I have to admit that all the time, still all the time.
So let's go.
Pickleball doesn't matter what I'm doing.
I'm always got it.
I'm competitive too.
So is me.
So it's like whatever.
You can always tell those high performers
that need a little bit of humble pie
or they need to be able to notice
that somebody is doing greater than them.
But when you actually make the adjustment
inside of your heart to recognize,
I'm really not above anybody.
I'm not better than anybody
on the scale of a more important as a human being.
But inside of sales, you're absolutely right.
Our industry is great at doing that.
Whether it's an entire department,
sometimes sales will have its glitz and glam to it
and we above having to do this cleanup.
We above having to do this rearrangement.
Why?
Because I'm a performer
where inside of the military we were trained,
hey, if you see the trash, pick it up.
I don't care what you are.
And when we were actually able to see
the people that we're saluting
do the exact thing that they're telling us to do,
that's when it became, hey, that's right.
We do need to take personal responsibility
for all of this.
The whole area needs to be beautified
and all of us can pitch into that.
Especially when noticing
when we're contributors to the problem, right?
Whether you're a salesperson,
you're flicking your butts out onto the lot.
There's a place for you to put those, right?
If not, cash it out, throw it in a garbage, right?
Whatever it is, remember that what it is
that your customers get to see,
you do that you don't have to do,
helps them to recognize what you're gonna do for them
even when you don't gotta do it.
And it's very important that we communicate that
to our customers, to our community.
But at the same time, we also recognize
that if we were moming or dadding ourselves
or in any way, just trying to coach ourselves,
what would we say to ourselves
if we saw ourselves acting out of line?
And it's awesome that you can admit that though
because sometimes people, they don't wanna highlight that.
There was a time in the car business
that I was, and we got there, right?
But we were making more money
than we ever knew in our life.
And can't nobody tell me nothing.
We get to that spot where ain't nobody gonna tell me
nothing, especially somebody on the outside
or somebody that I make more money than.
And that was so arrogant, so silly.
And it also showed a lot of the maturity that we have.
And as time goes on, we mature into smarter people
that do recognize that.
But I'm sure that those listeners out there
know exactly one, two, or maybe 10 people
that were in that spot.
And some of them might've been you,
but it's awesome that you can admit that and know it.
I gotta say it's the truth,
but it also points out the fact
that one of the things is that because you know that
you're able to help dealers recognize that inside themselves,
right?
Like when you're dealing with somebody, it's, hey, look,
your store's doing good, beat your chest.
But man, there's room for improvement here.
And let me show you how, let me explode it up in here
for you with the C4 a little bit.
So that means, I'm sure examples of that all the time.
Don't you?
I do.
I mean, it's, I'm willing to admit that
because it's such, I think you get a lot of people
when you talk about like the money,
people who are young, they come in,
you're making money hand over fist.
And you, maybe you don't have the strongest role models
around you and you just aren't doing the right things,
but that, I think that vein, as you go into ownership
and you know, what I do consistently see is like that fire,
that tenacity is still there,
but maybe they're a little bit more removed from the business
and they're just looking at a balance sheet
and they're like, we're fine, we're doing good.
And so when I talk to a dealer,
I love this when I'm, when I ask them like,
you're doing good, do you want to do better?
Do you want to do better?
Are you content?
Are you complacent?
Because truthfully, if you're just complacent right now,
then it's probably not,
it's not a good time for us to have a conversation,
but from you, where we are now,
or where I am sitting now, to where I was sitting
and F and I, I never knew dealers to be complacent,
but it is something that I have surprisingly run across
as you, you'll run into.
It's like, things are fine.
They're fine.
There's plenty of dealers out there
that are afraid of growing too big.
They understand more money, more problems, more fat,
or I'm going to have to buy a bigger building.
I'm going to have to stretch out my lot
if I'm going to put more cars on it.
All these different things that come with truly growing
and some people are okay with that.
And that's where you often find,
like the, a lot of great car guys and car guys
go sour because they don't have a way to grow.
They don't have a way to advance up.
They just kind of, it's like still water
and it starts to create all of this other look and junk
just because there is no advancement.
And some people are okay with that.
It's like, if they're doing good,
if they don't require much more
when all the bills are paid, right?
We've seen plenty of dealers in that.
Luckily for us, we get the chance to choose
who it is that we work with.
And we want, we definitely want to be inside
of a culture of people that want to keep growing,
keep growing, just like Fred Sherrick says, right?
We want to keep growing all the time.
And sometimes you do run into people that aren't that,
but that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with them.
They just found their niche and they got a bunch of people
that want to stay where it is that they are
then more power to them.
But we are a little different on that
because we're always trying to advance.
We're always trying to find a way to grow
and find someone else to grow.
And that's the one thing about leading leaders
is that when you start to see them take the lead,
when you start to see them truly grow and to build,
that's for filming.
And that's why we're so thankful to do what it is
that we do.
We see countless sales pros and managers
all throughout the industry, all throughout the country
and being able to see the light bulb come on
and start to see the habits start to change
and then start to see them enjoy the rewards
of what it is that they've changed into.
That's always a great benefit
because seeing the reward is a great piece
of the rules for change.
You got to be able to see the rewards in it.
And I love that you've advanced where you are.
It's important that you see the rewards.
And speaking of rewards, that gets us to the last question.
Good lead up, Lou.
So that being said,
absolutely been a great conversation with you.
Noel, it's been a pleasure.
We look forward to having you back on the show again,
maybe to talk a little bit more solutions, right?
I could tell that there's plenty in there
that you want to share.
I can't wait for that.
We do have a solution session coming up soon.
I'll probably invite you
and the team that's looking forward to come through
on that.
But that being said, rewards.
We've talked about your why.
We love what drives you.
We talked about what brought you to industry
and then also that it's in your DNA
that you find out once you get in.
That's pretty cool.
We talked about mentors
and I loved how you started with your father, right?
It all starts there.
And then you just,
you moved it up the chain
and talked about your automotive fathers.
And it's just been a blessing for you.
I'm sure now you're mentoring others
and that's a beautiful thing.
But always remember,
even as a mentor, be a mentor-y.
It's always a good thing to be that too.
The next thing we talked about
was your hardest lesson learned.
And it's hard to admit that
for a lot of A-type people, right?
And that's nothing wrong with being A-type
but understanding that the room for improvement
is amongst all of us
and we all fit inside that room.
That's powerful.
Glad you recognized that.
But let's talk about your reward.
Let's talk about what's been good for you
up to this point in your career, in your life,
whatever you wanna call it.
What has been your greatest reward
for all the hard work that you put in?
I would say probably the flexibility that I have now
but also the relationships that I have.
I never could have thought in a thousand years
when I started in this industry
that I would breed the kind of like rich relationships
that I have.
My general contractor was my client.
I helped him to build his credit seven years ago
and I'm friends with his entire family,
like spend some cohab holiday with them,
go to Tahoe with them.
My, just there's countless people that I can think of
and my life is just so much more rich
from the relationships that I've gained from this industry.
Whether it be clients, new clients on the C4 side
or even those networking opportunities
potentially that grow into like really strong friendships.
It's just such a beautiful community of people
who are so driven
and it's like sharpens iron that.
It's like I constantly, even this conversation,
the people in and around you
are constantly helping you to grow and to be better.
And so I know now that 15 years in
that another 15 years looking back
like those people are gonna help me to reach
where I am at that point.
And I think that's just really special,
the relationship piece.
Oh heck yeah.
The relationship that is what makes us rich
is having good solid relationships.
That's awesome reward.
I appreciate that well.
And I'm sure those of you that are listening
are banking on some of those relationships that you have
and are so thankful that you have those
for the hard days, for the great days.
You want somebody to celebrate with
and you want somebody to cry with.
You want somebody to learn with and to grow with
and you also need somebody to keep you in check,
keep you in place and to remind you
that there's a whole other side of you
that may not necessarily be done growing yet.
And it is awesome.
And just sometimes for the friendly banter,
me and Fred do it all the time.
We are highly competitive individuals.
So especially getting on a pickleball court,
even a basketball court,
we definitely love getting some of that competition in us.
But you know, a lot, we kept it going
while still trying to see each other succeed
and become our absolute best.
But Noel, that's exciting stuff
and love, love hearing about your greatest reward.
Love hearing about everything
that you just described about you.
We look forward to learning and hearing more about you.
Is there anything that you have for a listening audience,
those that are considering coming in the business,
those that are considering getting out of the business,
those that are considering whether or not
this business is for them or not,
any words of encouragement you would have for them?
Absolutely.
This business, this guy is the limit
and you're gonna get whatever you're willing to put in.
I love what you said there.
Simple as that, that is factual.
What we do for a living is you get back
what you put in 100%.
So keep putting in, you'll get back a ton.
It's literally the work shows inside your paychecks.
That's just the way it goes.
That's why I love about automotive.
Great answer on that.
Absolutely.
Car guys and car gals, we're so thankful
for each and every one of you tuning in to the podcast
and for those of you that are watching this
on any of the social channels on YouTube,
make sure you subscribe and make sure that you do.
Send some love to Noel, give her a coffee cup emoji
or maybe ask some questions.
We'll make sure that the questions get to her
if she doesn't see them.
But for those that really wanna know
how to be able to work with you, Noel,
tell them how to reach out to you.
You can reach out to me by email
at noel.ong at c-4analytics.com
and I'm happy to support.
Heck yeah.
And support, you will get everybody.
C4 is an incredible group of individuals
that are doing some big things for automotive.
Those of you that have actually used C4
inside of your business,
you know what we're talking about.
So please make sure that you do share this around,
let other car guys and car guys know
about some of the people behind the scene
like Noel that are making big things blow up
for the automotive industry.
We're so thankful for the time that you spent with us,
but there is yet one more thing that we need to do.
And that is drop F-bombs, everybody.
Now, as you all know,
these are the F-bombs that don't offend the moms
and we're gonna make sure that we do forgive,
focus, fly and we keep growing all the time.
Noel, help us out.
Go ahead and get those hands on your shoulders
and let's forget, focus, fly on three, one, two, three,
forgive, okay, fly and keep growing, keep growing.
All right, everybody.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'm Lou Ramirez, the car guy.
Now, Frelinart, subprime hero.
And you've been brewing solutions
on the Car Guy Coffee Podcast
with the one, the only, Noel.
Noel, I'm coming soon.
All right, we will see you soon.
Keep brewing solutions, everybody.
We're out.
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