EP. 115 Muffy Bennett — "You Cannot Do It Alone"

If you don't surround yourself with the right people, you're just doomed and you can't be

alone.

You can't do it alone.

I don't care what you say, you cannot do it alone.

You're listening to Femmecanic Grouch, the podcast that features women in the automotive

and motor sports industries, a community that elevates, empowers, and evolves by smashing

stereotypes and breaking down barriers for women.

I'm your host, Jamie Blossmann.

Buckle up for the ride, Femmecanics.

Muffy Bennett is in the driver's seat today.

Muffy is the first lady of collector cars in the CEO of Bennett Automotive Specialist.

After a fulfilling 17-year career as a paralegal, Muffy took the wheel in the world of cars and

auctions.

She became the operations director at ASAA Auction Company, and in 2013, Muffy was called

upon to open a retail facility for Barrett Jackson collector car auctions.

Then in 2017, she led the charge at Richie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest auction

company, launching them into the collector car auction niche.

Now, let's sit back and enjoy the ride.

Hello, Femmecanics.

This is Jamie B. coming to you, and I have Muffy Bennett in the hot seat today.

Muffy, I am so glad that we were able to connect.

I know we had some family challenges come up, but thanks for making it a priority to get

this interview recorded so that we can capture your story the Femmecanic way.

So I appreciate you and your time.

It is all my pleasure, Jamie.

Thank you very much for having me on the show here to learn more about me and chat with your

audience.

Truly, the honor is mine.

I don't do social media stocking, but I do enough research to figure out if a woman is the right

fit for the Femmecanic Garage podcast, and you obviously fit the bill.

But in that research, there are some things that surfaced that just intrigued me greatly.

You have an interesting story, and it stands all the way back to your 20s.

I mean, I want to let you get into it, but you always had a passion for cars, trucks, motorcycles.

I did.

But anything with wheels, you've always had a passion.

So I'm making an assumption here.

Did you always know you would end up in the automotive industry in some way?

No, I did not.

I had hoped that I'd be in the industry, but it wasn't something that I really explored because

I unfortunately didn't have a whole lot of support from, say, my parents because I didn't

understand that passion.

Not their fault, it just is what it is.

But I actually started out on a restaurant world as my first jobs, and then I migrated over to

the legal world, graduated to a paralegal, and then used that as a segue into the collective

car auction world.

And it's been a hell of a ride.

It really is.

Why paralegal?

Just out of curiosity, what drew you to that?

I was going to school, and I had two jobs at a couple local restaurants at the time,

and I needed to consolidate those jobs or I was going to burn out and not succeed.

So I walked into a law firm, and they were looking for a receptionist, two-man law firm,

and they grilled me, and grilled me, and grilled me.

Now I had the basic skillsets.

I could type, I could answer the phones, you know, I'm not stupid.

I walked in the door after they were grilling me, and I said, you know,

you're talking to me like I'm an attorney here, and this is just an entry-level role.

I'll tell you what, I'll work for you for two weeks for free, like nothing.

And if you don't like me, you can kick me to the curb.

No harm, no foul.

They gave me a shot, and within five years I was managing the firm.

I was drafting almost all of their legal documents.

I had this drive with them, because I didn't want to be an entry-level individual.

I wanted to be something more, but I really didn't know what the heck that was at that point.

But it was a really good way to start off, and I have built upon that ever since,

which is, it's really benefited me, especially the business law and the contract law.

I have to pause for a moment, and I have these insight moments or aha moments.

When I listen to women, when I interview them, there's these little nuggets that each woman

shares, and sometimes they don't even know that it's like golden nugget knowledge.

And what you just said that I found very interesting, and what seems to be a very

common theme with some of the most successful women I have ever had the opportunity to

pick their brains and ask questions. You are not the first woman that I have heard at some point

in their career when they were trying to get their foot in the door, so to speak, somewhere.

And maybe they're doing a career change later in life. Maybe it's their first job.

But this theme is that they offer to work for free or practically nothing to prove themselves.

Now, not an infinite amount of time, right? But a finite amount of time that's defined,

I just find that fascinating. What made you think to do that?

It wasn't fascination in the grand scheme, it was desperation. And sometimes I...

Even though desperate, working for free, right?

Yeah, and it's sad because we have to do it in the industry generally speaking,

and I do it to this very day. I have to prove myself. And it's okay, you know,

but that was one way to get their attention. One way for them to understand that I'm their

world deal and that I'm not just some 19-year-old kid who has a mediocre work ethic. I wanted to

prove to them that I'm something different and that I do have the ability to excel and figure

things out and I didn't need constant supervision. But you're absolutely correct. I mean, I'm not

surprised to hear that. We do sacrifice some of ourselves to get ahead and sometimes it's necessary,

it's disappointing, but it's necessary in order to get to the next level, if you will, to excel,

to reach that next rung in your ladder, whether it be career or your personal life. And it can be

a real challenge and it can be devastating in your self-esteem, but at the same time,

if you don't take any risks, you don't get anywhere, you know?

Yeah, not to kind of go too far down the rabbit hole here, but what's interesting about it to me

is that you are betting on yourself. And there's something to be said for that. I would love to

see more women do that. Like, take a risk and make an offer like that, an offer that they can't

refuse. I mean, any business owner that is being offered basically free labor, it'd be kind of

silly for them to turn down, honestly. Well, yeah, it's not exactly legal. Like, I want to see more

women get in the proximity of the next level mentor or person. And one of the fast track ways of

doing that is sometimes offering your time and service for free in order to get in that proximity.

I think it's brilliant. And for you to do that at 19, I mean, if that wasn't an obvious

sign that you were going to be legendary, I don't know why I said you had that figured out at 19.

Well, I was just being proactive, really. And to your point, you're right. Sometimes we do have to

have some guts and take the first stand and do what we got to do. I've always said that that

ship's not going to come in to get you, so you better get ready to swim out to it. And that's

pretty much the way that I've always been. And it's also interesting, a lot of employees, when

they depart a company, the company, they won't necessarily celebrate that person leaving. It'll

be like a quiet, maybe, maybe there's a cake. Well, you know what, if I have an employee or a

co-worker or a team member, whatever that was leaving, I'd like to celebrate that because

it means you're going on to the next chapter. And it's okay that this was just a partial stepping

stone to where their goal is. It's important to me to see others grow. Mentorship is paramount in

my world. I spent a lot of time talking to men and women about the industry that I'm in, the

collector car auction world, and the collector cars gym, and giving them guidance, because

there's a lot of people out there that make a lot of mistakes. I mean, simply because they don't

know. I spoke to an attorney this past weekend, and he was asking for guidance in regards to

the car. He was concerned and was paramount that it not lose money. And I said to him, you know,

if you're buying a car as an investment, I said, please don't do it. This is not a game

you want to play. Now, there are some cars that will go up, but the whole industry generally

speaking is very fickle. If you're going to buy a collector car, buy it because you love it.

Buy it because you're passionate about it. Buy it as if it's the last one you're ever going to own.

And if you lose money when you sell it, that's just the cost for the memories and the fun that

you had. I'm telling this to probably, I don't know, 55-year-old attorney who's been doing this

a long time and just doesn't really understand because there's some parts of the industry,

and I understand why they do it, that tout these as investments. I mean, let's face it,

you got no ender on stock, but you do have a car in the garage. So talking to people and going out

of your way to help them is paramount in my world. And I wish there was more of that, especially in

this particular sector. Women's racing and in the motorsports generally speaking, irrespective of

their role. It doesn't matter what their role is. I mean, it could be down at the track doing

something relatively mundane, their job is still important, it's a stepping stone, and you just kind

of give them some guidance and sometimes a shove. I mean, let's face it, you don't go anywhere if

you're just sitting in your same old spot doing the same thing day after day. You've really got to

get outside that comfort zone. You've got to get uncomfortable. I'm kind of curious and I'm kind of

let the cat out of the bag, which is good, like where you are now in this journey. So you start

with this 19 year old, it's like, hey, I work for you for free. And you start in my spot, you become

paralegal. What was next? Like you hit that point where it's like, okay, my time here is done.

Well, it's really interesting that you go down this avenue because I'm the girl that once lived

in her car. And now I went from homeless into evaluating some of the greatest car collections

and greatest cars in the world for say liquidation or auction or whatever the case may be. Our

services vary. So now you said kind of fast. And I think the average person when they listen to this

might miss it. Just to be clear, there was a point in time in your life that you lived in your car.

Yeah, really briefly. But I did live in my car. I was married to an individual who wasn't

particularly nice. And I was young. And I was very meek. And I was very mild. And I had a tendency

gravitate towards men who were more controlling. And after a while, this man took away my identity.

And I love him. It starts out slow in the beginning. And this happens to men or women. So just keep

that in mind. I married him, moved to England, moved back. The first time he laid a hand on me,

I told him, you touch me again, and I will leave. The second time I let him go to bed, I took $247

or so give or take my dog a handful of clothes. And I jumped in my Mazda protege and I left.

And I didn't go back. And I left him everything in the divorce. And I was so embarrassed and so

mortified at this particular chapter, because everybody saw about me, and nobody had the

guts to say something or pull me aside and say, Hey, you know, we're kind of concerned about you.

And I think a lot of people are scared to say something. But I am now of the opinion,

if you see something that isn't right, make an inquiry, you know, be careful with the way you

phrase it, but make an inquiry. So I was I think that is because I saw the post that you did on

LinkedIn and is this domestic violence awareness month? That was actually I wrote that back in

November of last year. That was domestic violence awareness month. Okay. But with that being said,

why do you think that is? I mean, there's shame around it. I think that's why I mean, I know this

shame with breeds more shame is silence. Yeah. And soon you find yourself all wrapped up in this,

I don't know, this altered reality, and you're just terrified to ask for help. And I didn't

want to ask for help. And only until my coworkers figured out I was living in my car in the parking

garage with a dog that they all get together and they put a deposit down on a small apartment that

took animals. So me and my dog had somewhere to live. One gave me some dishes. One gave me a small

love seat. I about lost my mind when I got my first bed because I was sleeping on the floor.

But I got out of my car as a result of the people that I worked with. And I didn't,

I didn't have the guts to ask him. And I don't like to talk about this particular chapter of my

life. It's not that it's embarrassing. It's now what's important when you go through something

like this is you learn and you grow and you push yourself even farther into your future.

Because we're the sum total of our experiences. And I wouldn't change it for the world. It has

made me more humble. It has made me more self aware. It has made me more strategic in my thinking,

generally speaking. And it's it really did take me to the next level. Now I'm not saying that's

the only experience that's done this. I mean, but I am forever working to improve myself.

Because I believe that if you just stay still, you die. You always got to push forward. And it's

important too that you what would you tell other women that may be in that current situation,

like knowing what you know now. Women and men are in the situation. But women most notably,

don't be afraid to ask for help. And you got a plan. And if you're not happy, find that next

chapter. You know, it's terrifying. Don't get me wrong. I was absolutely, I mean, I stayed with

them for way too long. You know, I should have left after the first time. But I didn't have

anywhere to go. I didn't have anyone to rely upon at that point in my life. Now I do. But back then,

I was, you know, pretty much flying solo. It's important that you you just push yourself, you

know, and remember, it's scary, but it's not the end of the world. You know, and I am forever

grateful for doing that. It really did show me the importance of friendships and camaraderie among

the women that I work with, because they saw me drop down to 99 pounds. And they saw me

waking up and going to bed. Sorry. Okay. Anyway, it's important that you rip out the weeds in your

life and cultivate the lows and surround yourself with great people. That may help you rip the weeds

out with you. Exactly. Yeah. That's that sisterhood in community. It is. It is. When I listen and I've

heard some pretty difficult stories. I've done over 100 interviews. I've heard stories where the

first time that they shared their story was on the Femcanae Garage podcast. I didn't know it at the

time. And the way that their parents found out about it was by listening to my podcast. Oh,

my, I offered to take it down. They didn't want to because they felt and there was more than one

that the story needs to be told and people need to hear it. And it goes back to bringing me,

Muffy, it's like, there's this notion that women are caddy. Women always compete against each other.

They're always at each other. And I'm not saying that doesn't exist. It does, right? But it exists

for men too. It just may look a little differently, right? But it exists. It's not just women. But when

I hear stories like this, Muffy, we need to get out of our own way and focus on the community

and lifting each other up and being there for each other and focus on the ways in which we are

more alike than different. Then we all get further ahead faster. Yeah, I'd have to agree with you.

One of the challenges that most of us face are gender generals speaking is our logic and our

emotions are all kind of involved into one. And we have a tough time separating them at the risk of

being right over the coals. I liken our brains to that of like spaghetti, you know, logic,

emotion all involved together. And then men's brains tend to be more like a waffle. So you can

pour the syrup and control where it goes and every single little square there. And that's the way

that they think. I'm kind of wired somewhere in the middle. I'm able to extract the emotion on of

it for the most part. And we don't not always have that gift. So if you stop and you take a step back

and you look at the situation that you're involved in, sometimes you're able to compartmentalize a

little better, which I found has been really helpful. But if you don't do that, don't rely upon

other good people to give you the guidance that you need, that you're never going to get to the

next chapter in your life successfully, whatever that is. At least this is just my, my importance

about the subject. And if you're right, we don't ask for help, we're just stuck. And I wouldn't be

who I am today if I didn't have friends. We need to get out of our own way and be open to asking

for help. Like I'm not saying it's easy. Like I'm not misindependent to the, or ever since I was a

little girl. So asking for help, it was more about, no, I'm going to prove that I can do it. And the

older I get, Muffy, the more I realize that the highest form of self love is one, setting boundaries,

healthy boundaries. And two, asking for help, because when you're good people, you're just a

good person, whether you know it or not, you're influencing and helping people. You may never

know it, they may never say it, maybe they do, maybe they don't. But you're actually robbing

the people around you by not giving them the opportunity to help when maybe you legitimately

need some help. Because that, for some people, the act and art of giving is some of the most

fulfilling things to people. And by us not opening ourselves up to ask for help or get help,

we're basically shutting off that line of connection.

You know what I mean? One thing that I've noticed people don't do enough of is recognizing your

friends while they're still with you. I have a creed that was found amongst my grandfather's

items when he passed away. And it talks about the importance of sending flowers to those that you

care about while they're still alive. Because the flowers mean absolutely nothing but to console

your regret after they've passed. And it's important that you let people know that we're

here for them and lift them up. I mean, it takes no time whatsoever. It's easy as can be. I mean,

it's my favorite thing. Especially now in today's day and age, text, email. I mean, there are so

many ways for you to drop a two to three sentence line that says, hey, that thing you did, I really

appreciate it. And I appreciate you. You know, it doesn't take a lot. And when you're dealing in a

career like I've been in, I have had so many hurdles. I swear to God, if I don't have haters,

I know I'm not doing it right. That's a great measuring. So just to kind of push forward,

you get out of that. Is that when you started getting into the car world? I actually got into

the car world when I met my husband, Gary. I had gone out one night for a motorcycle ride. And I was

angry because the individual I was dating whom I had just introduced to half my family left me

for a married woman. So I'm sitting at this biker bar with my Diet Coke and I've got my nachos.

And all these motorcycles are parked in front of us. They're backed in and mine is over on the

other side because I don't normally back in. And this guy comes out of the bar and it's got a V8

car engine in it. This bike is just huge. It's not like a Boss Haas bike. It's obviously a custom

that someone has built love and care and attention to detail. The guy comes out and gets on the thing,

fires it up and blows racing fuel and dirt all over me and my nachos and my Diet Coke.

I am just at wit's end at this point. I look at the security guy at the end and I'm like,

what a jerk. And he's like, yeah, well, I don't think you saw you were there. And I went, that's

fine. All good. So the guy leaves and he comes back 15 minutes later. Same dude. And he comes down

and apologizes for screwing up the dinner. And I found out that he worked at a really large

collective car auction company. He was a general manager at the time. They had 12 employees. It

was Baron Jackson. And we got to talking and I told him that I absolutely love cars, but none of my

girlfriends ever really want to go to any of these car shows with me. I was at car shows every

weekend. I mean, I was so entrenched in the culture. I just loved it. Then he said, well, you know,

we'll have an auction into time. Got one coming up in California. Maybe you'd like to join us

and join. Yeah, you got any openings? So I ended up clerking at the auction block and we've been

together ever since. We're like bookends, peas in the pod. I mean, he became one of the vice

presidents of Baron Jackson Auction Company. I used to oversee their dealership division. But

before that, I used to buy cars and do light restorations and then turn them, resell them.

And I needed a dealers license. So I started up a company in 2006 called Bennett Automones

Specialists. I started to sell cars under that name, usually privately, not in the auction

world. I graduated to that. After a while, I got myself a dealers license and I got entrenched

in the collective car. What was that license you just said? A dealers license, a used motor vehicle

dealers license. And we've had a couple of hiccups. COVID happened. We had both left Baron Jackson

and we were asked by Richie Brothers to come out and start up a collective car sector for them.

And we had, I think it was seven core employees and had an $18 million sale before COVID shut us

all down. So since then, I have rebuilt Bennett Automones Specialists back up again. We catered

to high net worth celebrity individuals. We also do auction consulting. We help folks liquidate

cars. Gary finished a seizure not long ago. We sent $12 million worth of vehicles that a guy

had pledged for a loan and defaulted on that loan. So we sent him all the auction and that's how I

got into it. I mean, it was kind of by accident. I was so desperate to get out of the legal world.

I just, oh, there's nothing more boring in my world than driving a desk all day. And I like

it to having a Ferrari type brain with stock Chevy brakes. I got to keep going. Yeah. I have

something to do and I have to be perpetually challenged or I'll just, I'll go nuts. Yep.

In the paralegal world, while it's a great world, it paid the bills, paid the mortgage,

enjoyed it. That's some amazing people. It just was not really for me. And so I launched off into

the collective car world and it's been nonstop ever since. There's so much to do in this industry.

And that's how I got here. There's a couple avenues that you described that is very unique.

Like being a female dealership owner is one thing. That's unicorn in itself. But you are in a very,

very specific niche. And as a female in that very specific niche, I can only imagine

some of the stories you have. And would you be willing to share any of them? Because it helps

put things in perspective because some people, they know about motor sports and the challenges

women have. They know about skilled trades and the challenges that women have. But what you do

is so specific that there's not a ton of people doing it in general, not alone females doing it.

Yeah, you're right. I think I might be one of two perhaps, maybe three that I'm aware of.

I love what you call yourself on your Instagram profile. Go ahead, share it with the audience.

The First Lady of Collective Cars. One of my girlfriends gave me that nickname,

The First Lady of Collective Cars. I love it. I saw it and I'm like, that is badass.

Oh my gosh, thank you. I thought it was cute. So I just thought I'd use it.

As far as the challenges and some of the things that I faced in this industry. Oh,

it has been so funny. I mean, I almost revel in snarping back to these folks. So I once had a guy

who had a Volkswagen Beetle. Now here's your background information. I at one point held a

racing license. I ride a motorcycle. I drive an H1 Humvee. At the time, I had a Corvette.

I don't remember what else I was driving. I think I might have had my first line for eating that too.

And this guy told me he wouldn't sell me his Volkswagen Beetle because the engine was after

marketing had too much power for a woman. And you ever like take a moment and try and digest

someone's statement and wonder, how the hell do I respond to that? I remember looking at him and

I called him the F-bomb. And I said, I don't think you understand who you're dealing with.

I suggest you sell that car to another male chauvinist, much like yourself. And that's nothing.

I mean, I used to approach people with a gender-neutral email account. And sometimes I still do.

So you don't know that it's a minute at gmail.com. You don't know if it's a male or a female. So you

reach out and you're looking to buy a car and you use this gender-neutral account. And I remember

showing up at someone's house. And this is when I used to deal with cash. I don't anymore. But

I would show up in my H1 and I'd have cash on me to purchase a vehicle. And at the time,

it was, I want to say it was a 57 Chevy or 56 Chevy, something like that. And that guy looked

at me and said, oh, where's Mr. Bennett? And I said, Mr. Bennett's at home. I said,

I'm Mrs. Bennett and I'm here to look at and potentially purchase your car. And he said,

I'm not selling my car to a woman. Flipped in the bird, walked away. That's fine. That's okay.

You can just f off and die. People believe that that doesn't exist.

Well, I can give you story after story after story after story. But it does still exist.

And especially in this industry, I don't know about other industries. I can't speak to them,

but in this particular industry, my business partner and I had about 10 or so cars in an

auction. And I will get there if I'm selling part auction. I will get there and I will

represent that car and answer questions by any prospective bidders. From the time those gates

opened at that auction to the time they closed. And I remember having a guy walk past me and looked at

me and said, oh my God, those car models are getting really old and haggard.

I remember I looked at his wife and I said, I own these cars. Somebody forgot his F and filter

today, didn't he? And sure enough, his wife like ribbed him and said, oh my gosh, he owns them.

You know, and he like apologized and he wasn't going to apologize. But stuff like that,

it makes me roll my eyes thinking about some of the folks that we deal with and it is alive and

well. And honestly, it doesn't bother me anymore. It used to really upset me. There was another

gentleman that came walking around the car and I had a really exclusive vehicles in 1957,

supercharged from the factory, Ford Fairlane Skyliner. Some say they made 14, some say they

made seven. Nobody really knows. The records are destroyed. But a guy walked around the corner and

said, wow, is this yours? And I said, well, yes. And he said, well, you really screwed it up by

adding a supercharger. And I said, well, actually it came from the factory that way. No, it didn't.

Yes, it did. No, it didn't. Okay, sir, have a nice day. I'm not going to bother proving this to

you. I don't have that kind of energy to expend or waste on something like this or on someone like

this. I'm not going to argue. You can just keep on trucking. Yeah. And it happens constantly,

constantly, but you can't let it bother you. If I let it bother me, I swear to God, I'd be in the

closet, pulled up in the ball crying. You got to let it go. Otherwise you'll just go nuts.

And you said that at one point in your career that it would get to you. So for the women that are

in that space and navigating, okay, how do I not let this bother me? How do I get to the other side

so that I can get to that, you know, I'm plateaued. I know I need to get to the other side. And I

think this topic is one thing that can really get a lot of women stuck. And actually, I think

fast track a lot of women out of the industry altogether, to be honest. Yeah, it will. What

did you do? Like, was it like a defining moment? How did you get there? Was it just gradual?

It's like a bunch of defining moments. When people tell me I can't do something, I get angry,

I get ticked off. And then I use that as a motivator, that anger to push forward. It'll

cause me to be more reflective. And I think those experiences strengthen me into pushing into the

like you said, next hurdle for really speaking. There's nothing worse you can do to me than to

tell me I can't do something or that I'm not capable of something within limits, of course.

That's one way to get me to perform, if you will, through to the speaking.

I think that's sound advice. I mean, I'm very much the same way. I remember giving you a call.

Eliza actually connected us. And I wanted to talk to you about women's motor fest. And you and I

just hit it off. It's just like, I get you. There's a lot of similarities. I'm motivated the same

way. Go ahead, tell me I can't do it. Go ahead and doubt me. Go ahead and see what happens, right?

So I so connect with that. And I've also met a lot of women that maybe don't have that same

fire or maybe like the FU fuel. Like, we seem to know how to ignite the FU fuel. You know what

I mean? I'm always curious to try to figure out, okay, for the person who maybe used to be able to

ignite the FU fuel or maybe never have, how do we help those women get to that? And it's more

of a rhetorical question. But that's part of what I love trying to pull out through the stories of

women in these interviews is, is there those moments? What is their mindset? What is your

mindset? And that's what you've beautifully articulated here, where it's like, you have two

choices, curl up in a ball and cry in the closet like the analogy you gave, or you take it and say,

watch me. And do the best you can. That's all we can do, right? There's some people, and I mean this

for any gender, that will not use this as something to put power forward, use experiences, life

experience, generalize people and push themselves forward. And again, that there's some people that

just stall out their development. But that's dangerous. And it can be a real soul crusher,

because after a while, I think that depression would set in, I would imagine. And if you don't

have something to look forward to, and I don't care what it is, whether it be a next phase in your

career, or to be, you know, Friday, I'm going off, or no camping, whatever the case may be,

you got to have something to look forward to something to push towards. And I think that

by mentorship, you can help bridge some of that gap and push some of these.

And it doesn't have to be formal mentorship. Oh, exactly.

But it's something to get caught in their head, oh, I can't afford a coach, or, you know,

who would be my mentor? It doesn't have to be formal. I want to share a story with you, Muffy.

And maybe I shared it with you, but I don't think I've shared it with the listeners at all. But

in what you're talking about here in looking or having something to look forward to, it was an

eye-opening experience for me this past New Year's Eve, going into 2023. We kind of have this little

tradition that we're starting and have been doing for a little bit where we, meaning my kids and I,

we create vision boards on New Year's Eve, right? We get magazines, we get print offs of things we

want and take the time to create a vision board together. Well, my daughter had her boyfriend

over. He's a super great kid. His name's Kean. I just adore him. He's, he's just a good kid.

And he treats my daughter with respect and kindness, like all the things you would want

for your daughter, right? And he got his own board. My son and daughter were off to the races.

Half of its whole, and like, you know, my son was almost done. And I looked over and Kean's was

almost empty. And I could see him struggling a little bit. And I just paused. I walked over to him.

I'm like, I said, what's up, buddy? Is everything okay? He looked at me and he said, yeah, everything's

okay. He's like, this is the first time in my life I've really stopped and thought about what I wanted

for my future. There's very few moments in my life that I could say that I'm speechless or I am

without words. This was one of those moments where these little small acts by him sitting down and

doing a vision board and even thinking about it, even entering in that type of question into his

head, that's a form of mentorship. It doesn't have to be this big fancy thing. But now he's

thinking about that because a simple question in exercise was put in his head. It's always been

about survival, not about thriving. And that's exactly it. You know, I'm sharing this story because

it supports what you're saying and suggesting to the listeners. Always have something to look forward

to, no matter how big or little it is, but have something. Never stop dreaming. If you stop dreaming,

it's over. Every year I sit down and I think to myself, I don't necessarily write them out. Well,

sometimes I write out some goals that I want to achieve that year that are coming. Some of them

are small and some are grandiose. And I know it's probably more of a long term goal, but you got to

do it. And that's exactly the type of mentorship that people need. And I'm not going to ask for it

because they don't know because I've never had it before, just like in this situation. And when

did we stop dreaming? We need to ask ourselves, when did we stop thinking about, you know, when

you're little, you're a little girl, you want to be a ballerina, you want to be a mechanic,

you want to be an opera singer, a doctor, a lawyer. We stopped doing that. And I think it's really

important that we continue to do that because it's all we got. If you don't have something to work

towards, you know, you're just going to stay in the same place and deal with the same BS year in

year out, day in, day out. And why? I want to grow. I want to change. I want to explore. I want to

learn more about myself. You know, it's amazing how much you can change in five years. It's amazing

you think how much you change in 10 years. If you don't surround yourself with the right people,

you just doomed. And you can't be alone. You can't do it alone. I don't care what you say,

you cannot do it alone. My best friend and husband, Gary, is my greatest cheerleader.

That man has taken a beaten, battered shell of a woman and will lift her up into who she is today.

He's done it very strategically, just in the manner in which you just described too. So it's

important that you show on yourself with good people. Like I said, rip out the weeds, cultivate

the lovelies in your life, be willing to disfory pretty much anything that is an excellent

within reason. You know what I mean? To preserve yourself. And accept that there will be a grieving

process around that. I went through that the last 18 months. I've purged people's things, places,

jobs from my life that were no longer serving me. And doesn't make them bad or wrong. It just

makes it not the right fit for me and where I am and where more importantly, I want to go.

There you go. But there's grieving. It's not easy. There's a grieving process that happens around

that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I have a remarkable ability to just shut down sometimes though,

which is almost a gift in many regards. You know, it's a gift and a curse, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, there's some people like, I can't listen. This has been fun. I gotta

move on. My psyche can't handle you. What are you most proud of? At the risk of sounding

self-centered. My self-sufficiency. I went from a little girl, as I indicated earlier, needed to

be controlled and needed to be told exactly what to do at every single turn to building myself into

who I am today, not compromising myself, being able to make mistakes, look in the mirror and go,

screw that up, pretty bad. All right, next. And not be so hard on myself. I think that's

what I'm most proud of. I mean, there's been career accomplishments along the way that have been

phenomenal. I came from nothing. And to see where I'm at today has been a real accomplishment.

I'm really proud of that. I mean, I drive amazing cars. I have great friends. And I remember watching

the Batmobile being sold. Oh, yeah. That's one of the cars that you were involved in consigning.

And actually, no, that was one that I sold after it went to auction. That gentleman that bought it

at auction had decided that he wanted to sell it. So I privately brokered that deal.

No kidding. I was actually on that auction block. I was in the car behind it that was being auctioned

off. And I remember the Batmobile, let me back up. So Gary comes home and he tells me where

all my cars are placed on the auction docket. And I only really care about one.

As for the listeners, this is the original Batmobile from the 1960s show, right?

Yes.

The real deal. And it was sold on Bear Jackson's auction. I remember sitting in the living room

with my brother and watching this and my judge is dropping it like sold for like $4.5 million or

something. That's not about it. I just sitting there like, I know, I know. So Gary comes home

and he's like, he tells me this is where your cars are placed on the docket. And I only cared about

one particular car. And it was that supercharged fair lane that I just told you about. Yeah.

I said, where is that one going? He said, well, I got you a number. We managed to place it on

Saturday. I said, great, awesome. What's it behind the Batmobile? Nobody wants to go behind

like a high profile car or a charity car because all the energy and excitement gets sucked out of

the room when that car sells and the Batmobile sold for over $4 million. So I looked at him and

I was like, do you want a divorce? This is a good idea. He said, what have I always said?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If they want the car, they'll be there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my car.

Anyway, the Batmobile sold. I am behind it in this fair lane and it's starting to overheat.

And so it sells for over $4 million, which was amazing. Mine sets a world record for the highest

hammer price at $330,000 or something, which was just, it blew my mind. I mean, I knew it was going

to do well. I just knew it was going to do that well. And explain what hammer price is because

here we're saying over $4 million for the Batmobile, yours is $330,000. Help the listeners understand

what you mean by that. Okay. So when the hammer's lens down at auction, that is the selling price.

And then there's an additional commission that me as a seller would have to pay in this particular

instance is 8%. And on the buyer's side, they have to pay 10%. So the auction house collects,

at least that auction house collects a significant amount of money on each transaction.

And so when mine sold, it sold for $300,000, but they registered the hammer price is $330,000

because that includes the buyer's premium. Anyway, so about six months or so later,

I get a call from the guy that owns the original Batmobile and he's like, yeah, I talked to you

a bit and I really want to know if you can help me sell this car. Well, it's kind of a really

narrow market, but I'll work on it. Long story short, he consigned it to the Barre Jackson

dealership and it didn't sell there. It sat there for a long time. It was a great

like point of pride for people come in specifically to look at that car. They loved it.

And then I think it was about a year after I left Barrett that I managed to sell it privately.

I privately brokered it for him and it did really, really well. That's the type of stuff

that I've been doing. I've been buying and selling on behalf of others and selling on behalf of myself

on occasion, not too much anymore. But yeah, the Batmobile was definitely a highlight. I mean,

how many times does someone get involved with a car? Just think if that thing could talk.

Just the stories that would tell. I mean, Adam West Grove, it came from the original show. It was

a concept car that George Barris bought from Ford for a dollar and turned it into the original

Batmobile. And now that is the most iconic one out of all of them, in my opinion at least,

of all the Batmobiles. I agree. I mean, there's the Monkey Mobile, but it's nowhere near like

that kicked it all off. That blew the doors wide open for creativity. It's insane. I think this

is a good time to launch into the red line round. It's just five rapid fire questions, no right

or wrong answer, whatever pops into your head is the right answer. Are you ready? Okay. Okay. Who

or what has been your inspiration throughout your journey in the industry? My husband Gary Bennett,

the ultimate car guy, 50 plus years worth of experience in the collective car sector alone.

How long have you and Gary been together? We have been together for 20 years. We'll be turning

18 years worth of marriage this month. Wow. He's the ultimate car guy. He's the ultimate car guy.

That man has forgotten more than I will ever learn. I will forever be a student as will he,

but I mean, he's just he's amazing. And it's not just about the collective car

auction industry. Generally speaking, it's about cars in general. Yeah. I mean,

you can tell you how many luggage pieces are in some of the vintage Mercedes if you ordered

it with a luggage. It's just crazy. I love it. So he's my inspiration on all kinds of levels.

I think it's cool. And you can tell you love and adore him. And it's so inspiring to know that

that exists. Do you know what I mean? In today's world with the divorce rates and all the craziness

that happens, it's a beautiful thing. I think it's cool. I've won the lottery in that regard.

We have the kind of relationship where he'll say, oh, I'm going to the grocery store and I'll be like,

okay, let me get my shoes. I mean, it's just not a matter of are you coming. It's,

let me get my shoes because I'm coming. We do everything together. Where do you go or what

resources do you use when you want to learn something new or you feel stuck? It all kind of

depends. It depends on what it is I'm trying to accomplish. I mean, if I'm looking for values on

a vehicle, there's like, there's about four different resources that I use. I'll use CPI guides.

I'll use asking prices on cars, tend to stray away from Wikipedia. I'll make phone calls to

other individuals who are experts in that particular field. I don't hesitate to reach out and lean on

them because they are the brilliant minds that are directly involved with whatever that particular

mark is that I'm dealing with. I mean, it all kind of depends. There's resources everywhere.

But first and foremost, I'll do my book work and then I'll lean on my people.

Ah, I love that. Muffy, what excites you most about what you do?

The people and learning from them. First and foremost, educating them. Secondly,

sometimes in a sick way, proving them wrong.

There's a little bit of that in me. Yeah, I'll admit. Yeah. I mean, I don't hesitate to

correct somebody. You know, I mean, gently, kindly, mind you, I'm not going to be rude about it.

I mean, we're all students as I indicated that, yeah, there you go.

What is a personal habit or practice that has helped you significantly in the industry when

you feel stuck or discouraged? A personal habit or practice?

I think it would be writing down my goals for the day and prioritizing same,

especially when it comes to things like to-do lists, because I get completely and totally

overwhelmed. It takes a lot of self-discipline to do what I do and I've got a lot of balls in the air.

So I think that organization is a key component of that. But first and foremost,

I've got to keep lists. I've got to keep notes or I'm just, I'm in trouble. I drop balls and I hate that.

And finally, what is your parting advice to other femcanax? Finding their way

in this glorious industry we're a part of. Oh boy, don't ever get discouraged. I mean,

you will, it's bound to happen, but talk yourself out of it. But first and foremost,

wake up every morning, look yourself in the mirror and phrase things differently.

Today, I get to put on my clothes and go to work. Today, I get to brush my teeth. Today, I get to

turn 40, turn 50, turn 60, whatever it is that's happening to you that day,

put it into perspective and realize how many people would love to be in your shoes,

would give anything to be in your shoes. I mean, how many people would love to have another

birthday and they don't because they can't. So it's all about putting things into perspective,

making sure you share on yourself with powerful, important, kind people that can carry you in

your journey. When you get weak and upset and hit a roadblock, whatever the case may be, you

lean on it. That is such sound advice. Where and how can people connect with you, Muffy?

Well, they can find me on my personal website, which is MuffyBennett.com. And although it sounds

very, very hokey, our other website, husbandandwifecarteam.com, we get a lot of business through

there. We're on LinkedIn. I'm most active on LinkedIn. I do a little bit with other social

media, but LinkedIn is probably my first and foremost go-to, especially for career.

There's Facebook, Instagram, Muffy.Bennett. I just started a new thread account, Muffy.Bennett.

Yeah, there you go. First and foremost is MuffyBennett.com. All my info is on that.

Muffy, thank you so much for taking the time to kind of go down memory lane and share your

insights throughout your career. It's invaluable. There's so many golden nuggets in this, but I

appreciate you. Well, I appreciate you and thank you very much. And best of luck to you and your

career, as well as all the other folks who are watching this and listening to it, whatever the

case may be. Remember, just keep reaching, guys. I'm MuffyBennett, the CEO of Bennett Automotive

Specialists, and I'm a Femme Mechanic.

EP. 115 Muffy Bennett — "You Cannot Do It Alone"

About this episode

Bennett Automotive Specialist

ASAA Auction Company

Barrett Jackson

Richie Bros. Auctioneers

investment

collector car

Mazda Protegé

V8 engine

car auction company

light restorations

dealer's license

Ritchie Bros.

auction consulting

Volkswagen Beetle

H1 Humvee

Chevrolet Corvette

Ford Fairlane

supercharged

hammer price

buyer's premium

Batmobile

DC Comics

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