From Dream to Drive: How Ashley Jo Bloom Built PNW Automotive on Grit, Transparency, and Vision

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produced by Endeavor Business Media,

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bringing you strategies and inspiration

for auto care success.

["Bad Boy"]

Ashley Jo Bloom knew at 16

that she wanted to own an auto repair shop,

but the road there was anything but conventional.

In this episode of Ratchet and Wrench Radio,

she shares how early lessons from her father,

time in the Navy, and a career in engineering

shaped her leadership style and technical mindset.

Bloom also opens up about creating

a transparent customer experience,

supporting women in the trades,

running a successful shop alongside her husband,

and her bold vision to grow PNW automotive

into a five-shop legacy for her children.

Let's listen in.

Hi Ashley Jo, thank you so much

for joining us today.

Thank you for having me, it's a pleasure.

Yeah, you're welcome.

We had a lot of interest after the story

that we ran about you from Dream to Drive,

so we thought we might follow up

and learn a little bit more about you.

Ashley Jo, co-owner of PNW Automotive,

which stands for Pacific Northwest.

And Ashley Jo, you kinda got into this industry

pretty early on.

You had a dad that was willing to share with you what?

So growing up, I always felt like

maybe I wasn't the same as everybody else

because my dad was a, he was an engineer

before they really had like a term for it back then.

So he was always working with like PLCs and electronics

and building his own equipment

and then taking it to the printing presses

that he worked at.

Eventually he ended up traveling worldwide

and working for huge companies like Frito-Lay

installing his creations.

And I think that that's kind of where my passion came from.

He didn't like section me into

the more feminine side of the world.

He just let me tag along with him in the garage

when he'd build computers,

when he was pulling the engine out of the Pinto station wagon

and rebuilding it and swapping it.

And we had like three Pentos.

So there was always an engine somewhere, you know?

And he's had the same boat since 1975.

And so that's also required upkeep with the engine.

So like I remember when I was in middle school,

that's kind of when I learned about carburetors and stuff,

which is not really something

that a lot of girls have an opportunity to do.

And then the other really cool thing

about being able to be around my dad so much

when I was younger is that when I was younger,

take your daughter to work day was a really big thing.

And so I got to go into the industrial environment

and be around printing presses and like,

you know, true mechanical type stuff back then

when I was really little

and I think that that fostered a love of it.

So by the time I could have my own car and work on stuff,

I kind of had like a fundamental understanding

of how X went with Y

and how different systems work together.

So it made it a little bit easier to, you know,

troubleshoot stuff back then

when I didn't have access to all that or identification.

So he definitely encouraged you to tinker.

Yes.

My mom wanted me to do pageants and cheerleading and dance,

which I did, but now I kind of do all of it,

which is a little odd, but that's okay.

And it's just 16 years old.

You decided you wanted to be an auto repair shop owner.

Yeah.

Why auto shop?

What sparked that?

I was always working on my own car

and my best friends were primarily males.

So Chris and Chris actually were like my two besties

in high school and then there was Matt and Mark

and everybody always was, you know, tinkering with things

or working on Chris's car

or working on the other Chris's car

or talking about cars.

And I had my own, you know, cars to work on

and it just was something that I really enjoyed.

Like you find something that sparks your interest

and like drives you to learn more about it.

And then that's one of those things where you're like,

well, hold on, okay, so this works this way.

What if we alter this?

How does that happen?

If we alter that, how does this affect that?

And for me, it just like got my mind going

and I really loved everything about it.

And I wanted other people to have more

of an opportunity to do that.

So when I was 16 and I wanted to have my own shop,

it was more like, I wanted bays and then toolboxes

so people like me could have somewhere to go

because my dad was not okay with me working on the cars,

you know, in the driveway and in the garage.

So it's not what I ended up with is not even a little bit

like where I started, except for,

I love helping people get into the field.

So working with interns, having apprenticeships,

being on the college board,

working with SkillsUSA this past week,

that's like really where my passion lies

at this stage in life, which if you think about it

is kind of where it all began.

Like I wanted to be able to help other people

work on their own cars in a professional way

when I was 16.

Interesting, so you've kind of come full circle,

but way back in the day,

it all started with a labor of love

called a Volkswagen Dasher.

Yes, the Dasher was, it was an adventure.

What did working on that vehicle teach you about yourself?

That if I wanted to do something, I could find a way.

At the time, my dad was traveling a lot.

My cousin was really, my cousin Trevor

was really into Volkswagen.

So he was, you know, a source of information for me,

but he was also my age.

So learning alongside me.

And there's definitely a difference

between working in your garage and working professionally.

So professionally, you have all these tools available to you.

Right, you have all these resources available to you.

Working on your own stuff in your own garage,

you kind of have to figure it out,

especially if you're a young woman

who doesn't have a shop to go to

and those sort of resources.

So it taught me deep diving.

The internet was really new back then.

So trying to find information on the internet

was a lot more difficult than it is now.

So I learned some research skills

that I probably still use now and stick to itiveness.

Like, you know, because it gets really frustrating

and overwhelming working on that car was so hard

because there just wasn't like anybody to ask for help.

So when my dad would be home, I'd ask him for help

and he would kind of show me a direction to go.

But he wasn't like a do it for you kind of person.

He was like, here's the tools.

This is the direction you got to go.

Now you do the rest of the work.

Those early days on the internet were not easy either.

It wasn't just put in your tool and find it.

That was a whole other world

that you were diving into.

Trying, searching to find any answer,

but nine times out of 10, you really didn't find it, did you?

No, I don't think so.

You know, I did find some of my best friends

that I'm still friends with now.

My friend Andy and I were actually just talking about it.

We met on live journal what 20 years ago

and we connected over cars.

So it's funny how those connections early in life,

working on that beast of a project still has ties to me now.

And as far as ties to you now,

you had a brief stint in the Navy.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

It didn't last very long, you're welcome.

Unfortunately, it didn't last very long

because you had a serious injury.

Yeah, I fractured my hip during a part of boot camp

called Battle Stations.

And it took a really long time for them

to figure out what was going on

because it was a fracture in my hip

and it was a hairline fracture.

It's just, there was a lot of ibuprofen and hydrate,

ibuprofen and hydrate, you know?

And several months, like eight months of walking funny

and being like, there's something wrong guys.

There's something wrong guys.

And they finally found it.

And so that's all in the past,

but I had the amazing opportunity

to complete, you know, tech core in a school.

And that really gave me,

it's funny because even back then, you know,

back in 2002, when we're using oscilloscopes,

that was something that I could also touch base

with my dad about because he had experience,

which is really unusual back then.

But that basis that I got in that short time

that I was in the Navy,

I feel like really helps me with troubleshooting now.

And then you had this sort of decade

where you were a field service engineer.

At Intel.

What skills do you feel like translated from that field

as far as where you are now?

I think that one of the things that translates the best

is reading diagrams and schematics

because I'm reading, you know,

things that are created overseas.

There's some foreign language interpretation

that's involved in that.

So I've always mentioned in classes

that I've taken with instructors.

For me, the diagrams that are on German cars

and European cars in general are really easy to understand.

And I attribute that to my time at Hitachi High Technologies

because they're very similar.

So from wiring to chemical delivery,

all of that kind of stuff,

I feel like translates really well.

And then on the equipment that I worked on,

specifically the edge equipment.

So there's RF generators,

there's microwave generators,

you've got turbo molecular pumps,

and all of those have to work perfectly

in order for the system to work perfectly.

And that is not very different

from working on like a Vano system, you know?

It's really similar where you can't just

tune one part of the car.

All of the things have to work together

to get the correct fuel delivery,

to get the correct combustion, the correct swirl.

So I think that that level of troubleshooting

those problems with the edge machines

really translates into the performance vehicles

that I'm passionate about.

So you took all of this knowledge

from the military to field service,

and you finally decide to pull the trigger

and open your own shop.

What did you want to do differently in your shop?

What was your goal when you first opened?

Transparency.

Major transparency.

And treating technicians different,

changing the way that technicians are paid.

When Jeremy and I first got together

and he would be building transmissions one week,

and he would be replacing injectors in a diesel

the next week, and then he'd be working on gas rigs.

And it's like, when you're working in semiconductors,

you're working with dangerous equipment,

big equipment, high tech equipment,

but you're working with the same equipment

pretty consistently until there's,

the next iteration comes out,

and you're doing upgrades and changing it.

But generally speaking, it's the same equipment.

Technicians have to know so many different things,

especially in general repair,

not as much in a specialty shop,

but if you work at a general repair shop,

you might be working on a Honda one day,

you might be working on a Jeep another day,

you might be working on a BMW,

and they're all completely different.

There's not very much that crosses over

when you're talking about high level troubleshooting.

You know, yeah, you've got powers, you've got grounds,

but if it's a performance issue,

if it's a drivability issue, they're not very similar.

The concepts change from vehicle,

or the concepts are the same,

but the delivery of the concept changes

from vehicle to vehicle.

So you have all these really highly skilled people,

highly skilled technicians that aren't being paid

what I feel like they should be paid for the knowledge

and the education.

And we really wanted, I wanted to change that.

And as far as transparency as a consumer,

I feel like it's not that different

from when you go into the doctor

and you have your blood work taken,

and everything is laid out digitally now, right?

You can log into your health app

and you can see what all of your tests say.

Why would we expect a consumer to pay a similar price

to a repair shop and not have all the details?

Why are we shrouding it in a shadow?

Why are we not just laying it out there?

Because there's nothing to hide,

either the car has a problem or it doesn't have a problem.

We don't need to be sneaky about it.

Do you feel like you're still trying

to fix this reputation of years gone by?

Like I hear many people say these days.

Definitely, and I think it's gonna be

just an ongoing battle.

It's a mindset that was created so many years ago.

It's gonna take twice as many years

to pull that mindset in the other direction.

And also in the line of mindset,

you've talked before about being the only woman

in a technical training room or in a technical setting period.

What's that been like for you?

How do you feel like that shaped you?

I think that my experience is probably gonna be

a little bit different than other people's

because I've been primarily in a male-dominated industry

my whole life.

I mean, even back to like my first jobs in retail

or in the men's department at my arm prank.

So for me, it doesn't feel weird or abnormal.

It feels unfortunate that there are not more women

that are given that opportunity.

And I'd like to see more women given that opportunity.

And a part of that opportunity is recognizing

that the struggle is gonna be different.

Whether the person has the same skill set or not,

their confidence probably isn't gonna be there

because when they look around,

they don't see what they may feel like as their peers.

For me, I don't really care.

It doesn't matter to me because they're all my peers anyways.

But a lot of the young women that I've mentored,

they don't feel that way because they weren't raised

in a primarily male-dominated industry.

They didn't have a father that, you know,

put them into that industry at a young age.

So it didn't feel weird when they got, you know,

to be in their 20s and they're sitting in a room

of 30 male technicians and they're the only female

and no shade to any instructors.

But it usually gets called out.

They'll be like, good day, gentlemen and lady.

And that's not, it's not meant to be rude.

It's meant to be inclusive, you know,

but I could definitely see when somebody mentions it

that it does make you feel singled out.

Again, to me, I don't care.

But some of the young ladies that I've mentored,

they say stuff like, oh yeah, they called me out in class

and I don't think that the instructor meant to do it,

you know, in a rude way, especially because I've had

so many instructors and they're all fantastic.

But I don't know how to overcome that, you know.

Yeah, do you feel like that's something the industry

is still kind of getting wrong in the way

of supporting women then in this industry?

I'm not sure what the right way to do it is

because I think that the instructors are trying

to be inclusive that way.

Sure, sure.

And it might be odd if they said, ladies and gentlemen,

if there's only one woman in there.

So I'm not sure what the right answer would be to that.

And I think that that might be a mindset

to change with the female technicians

just by increasing their confidence level.

Like, I think that that's just a supportive level

that the female technicians need on that level.

For shop owners in general,

was there anything you would suggest on ways

to make their business more welcoming or inclusive?

The owners that I interact with,

I don't think would need to change anything.

So I don't really have any advice in that,

treating each customer the same is really important.

Everybody should have the same information.

Everybody should be spoken to the same way.

There shouldn't be a change.

And that goes along with following SOPs, right?

And having procedures for your delivery.

And if everybody's doing it the same every time,

then there won't be any difference.

Then Miss customer is treated the same as Mrs. customer

who's treated the same as they customer and he customer.

And we do live in that world where we have to be conscious

of we don't know who we're talking to at this point.

So we don't wanna make assumptions

and it should be the same whether you're talking

to someone who appears male or appears female.

As long as SOPs are followed, that won't matter

because everybody's getting the same service every time.

That's a good point.

If you follow your internal guidelines,

it shouldn't have an impact.

That's a very good point.

Yeah.

You run your business with your husband

and there's a lot of shop owners out there

who run a husband and wife team.

Some people would bristle at that.

Some people say the same that they've ever done.

So what makes it work for you guys?

Cause I know you've said that it's great.

You guys have great synergy.

What makes it work?

I think that for us, it's a mutual respect.

I mean, he's my best friend.

We do everything together.

We hunt together, we fish together, we camp together.

So there's like, we spend all of our time together.

When we're not at work together,

we're outside work together.

So that best friend vibe is really important.

But at work though, I'm a big proponent

of work is separate from home life.

And that goes for, you know, our relationship too.

Like I'm managing shop operations

or I'm helping with diagnostic.

And so if I'm managing shop operations,

then he respects that I'm managing that.

If we're doing diagnostics, then we work together,

you know, as a team of technicians.

And I think that being able to compartmentalize

and have those separate lanes that you're able to stay in

makes a really big difference.

A lot of the training they talk about,

I'm doing auto academy right now.

And one of the trainings that Cecil was just talking about

is that each person has a defined role.

And we're really working on honing in on that

this week and last week.

And part of that is making sure

that the rest of the team also knows

to go to Jeremy for specific things

or me for specific things

so that we can not overlap and then butt heads.

Because even if we don't mean to,

we might have a different like view of something.

So, and that of course goes back to SOPs.

Like I write the SOPs.

So it's easy for me to remember all of that.

He may read them, but he may not read them every year.

Maybe some stuff like our handbook,

like I don't think he's probably

read the newest iteration of it.

So if somebody is coming to him asking him

about something in the handbook,

that would be something he would handoff.

And I think that's why it works with us

is that he's not trying to juggle my job

and I'm not trying to juggle his job.

So pretty definitive lines on what you guys handle.

Yeah.

Sense.

You have five kids between the two of you.

Yeah.

That's a big brood,

but you did mention to me

that your daughter is potentially interested

in getting involved in the family business.

Yes.

What would that mean to pass that off to her?

It would be so exciting.

We always thought that we would pass it off to the oldest,

but he left the automotive industry

a couple of years ago, which is great.

You know, whatever he's passionate about,

he should definitely do.

My son is, he's our service advisor.

He works remotely.

He's about to leave to go to college full time.

And so we don't know if, you know,

he's gonna circle back or not,

but our two daughters, Amelia is the youngest

and she's always said that she wants to work with daddy

when she grows up.

And Daenerys has recently said that she wants to,

you know, work for the business growing up.

And that would be really cool.

And I think that probably the most important thing

that I've learned about running the business

is that I would run the business better

if I had gone to college and taken some courses

in business management and in accounting.

So I think that that's where I would like to head

both of the girls, just in cases, you know,

in case when they turn 18, they do want to,

or when they turn 30, they do want to, you know,

just prep for the future.

But that's a really exciting

because it was really disappointing

when Lane left the automotive industry.

It kind of broke our hearts a little bit.

And then when Fries came into it, it was really exciting.

And I'm excited for him to utilize his drafting skills

because he can CAD like no one else.

Like he can throw together a building schematic

in AutoCAD in like no time.

So I think it really is his wheelhouse to explore that.

But maybe he'll come back someday.

Here would be the ultimate test.

Would your girls, let's say both of them decided

to come back into the auto industry,

would they be able to work together

as well as you and your husband to pick up this ball

and run with it, or are they gonna fight like sisters?

Well, they are more of a handful if they're getting along.

So I think maybe if they had their own lanes

and they weren't able to like hang out, it would be fine.

If they were able to hang out, it would be a mess.

They're in collab, they're in cahoots.

Yeah, yeah.

But the plan, I was actually talking to Kent about it

in the round table last week.

My plan is to hopefully in the next 10 years

have five shops open.

So open four more.

Wow.

Yeah, and the thought behind that is that

my best friend who worked for us for about eight years,

almost 10 years, on and off,

she would like to manage a shop

and the girls would like to have shops.

And what if my son comes back and wants to have a shop

or one of the other two, you know?

Then there's something set up for them

someday in the future.

You can just dole them out accordingly.

After they've had training and can handle it

because it's a lot of stress.

Sure.

So when you look at your overall journey back to,

all the way back to your dasher and to owning a shop,

what are you most proud of?

I mean, my first thought is my kids

because I'm so proud of them with everything they do.

But I think that building a shop

where I have the freedom right now to homeschool the girls

is really, that's definitely somewhere

where I wouldn't have thought I was,

would be a couple of years ago.

To have a shop that can run itself without me there

because I have processes and procedures set in place

for how to handle specific situations.

And it's always evolving.

So it's not perfect by any means.

But just being able to check in with them

throughout the day or help them out periodically

throughout the day.

I think that that's something that I'm really proud of

that we've gotten to that point where we can do that.

For someone who's listening,

who dreams of opening their own shop,

what advice would you give them?

Or what would you tell them?

It's hard.

It's really hard.

And it's a really big commitment

for the first couple of years.

Find a community of peers and listen to them.

Even if you don't agree with them, listen to them

because if it doesn't apply now,

it could apply down the road.

And when we first opened our shop, just like most people,

we wanted to be like the go-to.

We wanted to help people afford auto repairs.

And what we learned was that most people

just wanna fix their car right the first time.

They don't wanna come back and see you every three months

because they're doing like a chunk of repairs

and then a chunk of repairs.

So let the customer decide what repairs they wanna do

instead of you deciding what they can afford.

I think that is the biggest piece of advice

I wish I could have absorbed when we first opened.

So finish the sentence.

Success in this industry means what?

Something different to everybody.

It means it used to mean to me to be the best at diagnostics.

We could diagnose anything.

Now it means having the happiest customers.

That's the goal now.

Not necessarily to diagnose everything.

Not that I don't feel that we could, cause I do.

But it's not like bring in all of the difficult work,

which is what we used to do.

We used to actively market to the hardest work we could,

to the most challenging work,

to the stuff that other people couldn't do.

So it means something different to everybody.

It's kind of a hard question to answer.

Well, that's okay.

I think you did a great job anyway.

Ashley, give a bloom.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

We enjoyed talking with you.

Oh, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

That's going to do it for us today at Ratchet and Wrench Radio.

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Pinto station wagon

Volkswagen Dasher

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