Jason Kerstetter shares how the Gear Her Up Foundation is opening doors for young women in automotive and skilled trades. The conversation starts with his own career pivot after a “day in the field” with Toyota, which changed his perception of the industry beyond wrenching. He then explains his path into sales/marketing leadership and fixed-ops-focused work, including navigating the pandemic as a new business owner. Gear Her Up’s 12-week program blends interactive classroom learning, car-building fundraising, field trips, and life skills—plus car-buying 101—aimed at changing perceptions and building a pipeline.
Jason Kerstetter, Co-Founder of the Gear Her Up Foundation, joins us to share how he’s creating opportunities for young women in automotive. Inspired by his daughter learning to work on her own car, Jason explains how the 12-week program teaches hands-on skills and helps break down barriers in the industry.
ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:
"when I did my day in the field with that factory rep at Toyota, where that changed my perception of what the industry was."
Toyota is a big car company. When someone works with a Toyota representative, it usually means they’re seeing how the company works and how careers are supported. That kind of exposure can change how you think about working in cars.
Toyota is a major global automaker, and the mention of a “factory rep” suggests hands-on exposure to how the company operates and trains people. In automotive careers, manufacturer programs and factory visits can strongly shape how someone views the industry.
"Jason Kerstetter is helping kick off the Gear Her Up Foundation, an organization focused on creating more opportunities for young women to explore careers in automotive and the skilled trades."
Gear Her Up Foundation is a group working to help young women find opportunities in car-related jobs. The goal is to make it easier for more people to learn about these careers and get started.
The Gear Her Up Foundation is described as an organization focused on expanding opportunities for young women in automotive and skilled trades. This is central to the episode’s theme: changing the pipeline by improving access, visibility, and career pathways.
"We'll be talking about the mission behind Gear Her Up, why exposure and access matter so much in building the next generation workforce, and what the industry can do to open more doors moving forward."
This means helping people get a chance to learn about auto careers and actually try them. When people can see what the work is like and meet the right people, it’s easier to imagine themselves doing it.
“Exposure and access” refers to giving people real opportunities to see automotive careers up close and to connect with mentors, training, and entry points. In workforce development, this is often a key lever for changing who feels welcome and capable of pursuing skilled-trades roles.
"they take you to multiple dealerships or whatever their day was planned, and you just experience what they experienced on a normal day to day basis. Definitely was nervous for that because again, not a technician in my mind, we're going to be out there looking at cars, fixing cars and dealing with stuff that is just a complete puller opposite of what I am used to doing."
Dealerships are the retail sales and service locations where customers buy vehicles and where maintenance/repairs are performed. In automotive careers, dealership operations often involve both sales targets and service throughput, which can shape how corporate teams support local stores.
"Well, and I look at it for folks out there listening that haven't worked for an OEM or kind of gone through that process. There's a lot of things you can learn there in your dealership, in your shop, whatever type of business you have, that getting exposure to a young person into the industry is never a bad thing..."
OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer—companies that design and build vehicles and sell them through dealer networks. The segment contrasts working for an OEM versus other paths, like dealerships or independent shops, to highlight different career experiences within automotive.
"[809.1s] like you were going out and wrenching on cars. You went a different avenue within Toyota and
[814.8s] thereafter. Yeah, so I was on their sales and marketing management side."
They moved into managing how cars are sold and promoted. It’s less about turning wrenches and more about helping the business sell the right vehicles to the right customers.
This refers to leadership roles focused on selling vehicles and managing how products are promoted and positioned. In dealerships and OEMs, sales/marketing management often ties directly to distribution strategy, regional performance, and brand messaging.
"[828.3s] we launched Scion at the time and just kind of everything in between market representation, distribution.
[856.1s] you could be Toyota, you could be Scion, which is obviously now longer around, but you could also be Lexus."
Scion was Toyota’s youth-focused brand, known for compact, affordable models and a strong emphasis on community and customization. The speaker notes launching Scion and later that it is “no longer around,” reflecting how brand structures can change within Toyota’s umbrella.
"[861.6s] you could be Toyota, you could be Scion... but you could also be Lexus.
[867.2s] so I had a lot of friends that we split off early on and I went down the Toyota road and they went down the Lexus road"
Lexus is Toyota’s luxury brand, and the speaker describes career paths that split between Toyota, Scion, and Lexus. This highlights how the same corporate functions (sales, marketing, management) can apply to different product lines.
"selling it and promoting it and marketing it and ensuring our franchise dealers have the best opportunity to sell and market and promote those vehicles as well."
A franchise dealer is a local business that sells and fixes cars for a specific brand. The automaker supports them with guidance and marketing so more cars get sold in that area.
A Toyota (or other automaker) franchise dealer is an independently owned business that sells and services that brand’s vehicles under the automaker’s franchise agreement. In this role, the automaker’s reps help dealers with sales and marketing so the brand performs consistently across regions.
"Toyota, there was 12 regions at the time. I was in what they called the LA region, so we handled Southern California."
Automakers divide the country into regions so they can manage dealer performance and staffing more efficiently. Toyota referenced having 12 regions at the time, with the speaker assigned to the LA region for Southern California.
"This is a people business. So the more calls you make, the more you can connect with your clients, which are your car dealers that you work with, which are your car dealers that you work with,"
Car dealers are the retail businesses that sell vehicles and provide service and parts for a specific brand. The speaker frames the work as a “people business,” emphasizing relationships with dealers as key to helping them succeed.
"When I first started off as a rep, it was really intimidating to go talk to a dealer principal or it was really intimidating to even go talk to a general manager, right?"
A dealer principal is basically the boss/owner of a car dealership. If you’re trying to build relationships in the dealership world, this person usually has the most influence.
A dealer principal is the top executive/owner of an automotive dealership. In sales and service conversations, they’re often the decision-maker for strategy, staffing, and how the dealership works with outside reps.
"or it was really intimidating to even go talk to a general manager, right? And, and I don't know if you had a similar experience where when you're trying to build those relationships"
A general manager runs the dealership’s day-to-day operations. If you’re working with the dealership, the GM is a key person because they help make things happen across multiple departments.
A general manager (GM) at a dealership oversees day-to-day operations across departments like sales, service, and parts. Reps often need to build rapport with the GM because they coordinate execution of dealership goals.
"Every shop, dealership and business in our industry depends on great technicians. Between the technician shortage, disconnected school relationships and lack of trustworthy workforce data, it makes it difficult for shops to plan higher and grow."
A technician shortage means there aren’t enough qualified people to fill automotive repair jobs. This directly affects shop capacity, scheduling, and long-term growth because fewer technicians can handle fewer vehicles and more work piles up.
"That's where ASC Connects comes in. Created in partnership with Wrenchway, ASC Connects is a membership designed specifically for shops like yours to help you build a stronger technician pipeline by connecting with schools, empowering you with tools and data to improve your recruiting, retention and performance."
ASC Connects is a program that helps auto repair shops find and keep good mechanics. It focuses on connecting shops with training schools and giving them helpful hiring and planning tools.
ASC Connects is a membership program aimed at automotive shops to help them recruit and retain technicians. In this segment, it’s positioned as a way to connect with schools and provide tools and data to improve workforce planning.
"That's where ASC Connects comes in. Created in partnership with Wrenchway, ASC Connects is a membership designed specifically for shops like yours to help you build a stronger technician pipeline by connecting with schools, empowering you with tools and data to improve your recruiting, retention and performance."
A technician pipeline is how a shop keeps finding and training new mechanics over time. Instead of scrambling for hires, you build a steady path from school to job.
A technician pipeline is the ongoing process of recruiting, training, and retaining new automotive technicians. The episode discusses building this pipeline by connecting shops with schools and providing tools/data to improve recruiting and retention.
"You can also access verified data on technician pay, benefits and labor rates through the industry data exchange so you know how your shop compares locally and nationally."
Labor rates are what a shop charges per hour for labor (the mechanic’s time). Knowing local labor rates helps a shop set prices and plan staffing more realistically.
Labor rates are the hourly charges shops use to price repair work. The episode mentions accessing verified data on technician pay, benefits, and labor rates so shops can benchmark how their pricing and staffing compare locally and nationally.
"[1606.9s] bit. And I think my goal was always to just try to simplify marketing for dealers and just
[1614.3s] break through all the nonsense."
They’re talking about helping car dealers market their cars in a simpler way. Instead of complicated programs, the idea is to focus on the basics that actually bring in customers.
The segment focuses on simplifying marketing for dealers and cutting through overly complex programs. In the automotive world, dealer marketing is often a mix of lead generation, brand campaigns, and local promotions, and “convoluted” programs can dilute what actually drives sales.
"[1641.8s] And that's really what it is. And like my focus is, I've always loved
[1647.4s] fixed ops. So my primary focus is working with fixed ops departments"
In a car dealership, “fixed ops” usually means the service and parts department—like repairs and maintenance. It’s different from selling cars, and it often brings customers back over time.
“Fixed ops” refers to the service and parts side of an automotive dealership, as opposed to “sales” (often called “front-end”). Fixed operations typically includes vehicle service, repairs, maintenance, and parts sales—areas where marketing and customer retention can be especially important.
"[1692.5s] to make it a holistic approach. And that's what we've been doing at the company's Arrow Automotive
[1698.3s] Advertising. And I have a lot of great people that I work with, and with a lot of industry
[1703.9s] experience."
Arrow Automotive Advertising is referenced as the company providing marketing/consulting support to dealers. The speaker positions the firm as working with dealership teams and processes, not just sending leads.
"You learn real quick. You don't want to wear leather bottom shoes walking through a shop, right?"
They’re talking about safety in the shop. If your shoes have smooth soles, you can slip more easily on oil or spills.
This is a practical shop-safety point: footwear with smooth soles can increase slip risk on oil and other fluids. It underscores how safety practices and training matter in automotive environments.
"The issue with that is, you know, there's going to be work that needs to be done on it. And that's what that was actually her goal. She was like, dad, I want to let's do this together. [2024.8s] drive it forever."
A “project car” is a vehicle you buy with the intention of doing work on it—repairs, upgrades, and restoration—often over time. In this segment, the speaker frames the Land Cruiser as something they’ll fix up together, which is the classic project-car mindset.
"you are literally a doctor for a vehicle, you're diagnosing the concern, you're determining root causes, you're determining what the right fix is, and then you're applying that fix."
Instead of randomly replacing parts, a good shop figures out what’s actually causing the problem. Then they fix the real cause, not just the symptom.
In modern automotive repair, technicians aren’t just swapping parts—they diagnose the problem first. That means identifying the root cause, then selecting the correct repair rather than guessing.
"And it's like a video game. And they get scored points on welding through this VR tool. And then"
VR is virtual reality—like a computer simulation you can interact with. Here, it’s used to practice welding without needing real materials or a real welding setup.
A VR tool (virtual reality tool) lets people practice welding in a simulated environment. Instead of using real equipment on real metal, the program can score performance and give feedback safely.
"[2906.3s] I go, Okay, now let's go to like one of the big box places. Let's go to so there's a Lowe's by us, right?"
Lowe’s is a big hardware/home-improvement store. The speaker went there expecting gloves, but the gloves they had didn’t fit the person they were helping.
Lowe's is a major home-improvement retailer the speaker uses as an example of where they expected to find gloves but found sizing issues. The point is about product availability and whether stores stock options that fit women.
"So it forces you to really dig into the numbers. And I don't even know, you know, how publicized it is. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of all the technicians in the United States, only 2% are female."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an official U.S. source for job and workforce data. Here it’s being used to show how many automotive tech jobs exist and how many are held by women.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a U.S. government agency that publishes labor market data. In this episode, it’s used to quantify gender representation among automotive technicians and to support workforce projections.
"This week's episode of Beyond the Wrenches brought to us by Jasper Engines and Transmissions. Okay, your customer's engine or transmission has failed..."
Jasper is a company that rebuilds car parts like engines and transmissions. The pitch is: instead of buying a whole new (or newer) car, you can replace the failed major component with a rebuilt one.
Jasper Engines and Transmissions is a remanufacturer that supplies rebuilt powertrain components, commonly sold through installers and shops. In the ad, they position their products as an alternative to replacing the entire vehicle after an engine or transmission failure.
"My dad humored me and allowed me to go in there and ask him what the paint code was for the red. Now, you can buy Ferrari red, obviously, but we got it pretty close."
A paint code is like a recipe number for the exact color. If you use the right code, the paint you buy should match the original color more closely.
A paint code is the manufacturer’s identifier for a specific color formulation. Getting the correct paint code helps ensure the new paint matches the original shade and finish, which is especially important for restorations and touch-ups.
"...pretty active on posting videos and posting updates of where we're going to be at. Like I said, tomorrow night, we're going to be at a welding event. And in a couple of weeks, we're going to be at a big car show here in Huntington Beach, California."
A welding event is where people get together to practice welding—basically joining metal together. In cars, welding is used for repairs and custom metal work like exhaust or fixing damaged metal.
A welding event is typically a hands-on automotive/fabrication gathering where people learn or demonstrate welding techniques used in repairs and custom fabrication. In an auto context, welding can be important for things like exhaust work, metal repairs, and structural fabrication.
"...tomorrow night, we're going to be at a welding event. And in a couple of weeks, we're going to be at a big car show here in Huntington Beach, California."
A car show is an event where vehicles are displayed for enthusiasts, often including themed builds, restorations, and community outreach. For a group focused on getting more people into auto work, car shows can be a visibility and networking platform.
"whether it be low riders or JDM or hot rods or exotics, you can be a part of it or see it all on any given weekend wherever you want to go."
JDM stands for “Japanese Domestic Market,” meaning cars and parts originally made for the Japanese market. Enthusiasts often use it to describe specific models, trims, and tuning styles that became popular internationally.
Select text to request an explanation
Our goal is nothing more than what I told you earlier,
when I did my day in the field
with that factory rep at Toyota,
where that changed my perception of what the industry was.
Our goal is to create a path
that changes perceptions of kids.
And that's what we are hoping to do.
Beyond the Wrench with J. Gannon from Wrenchway.
Welcome back to Beyond the Wrench. My name is J. Gannon and I am your host.
Today we're joined by someone who's passionate about shaping the industry of our industry in a
really meaningful way. Jason Kerstetter is helping kick off the Gear Her Up Foundation,
an organization focused on creating more opportunities for young women to explore
careers in automotive and the skilled trades. We'll be talking about the mission behind Gear Her Up,
why exposure and access matter so much in building the next generation workforce,
and what the industry can do to open more doors moving forward. Jason,
welcome to the show. Excited to have you on. Thank you. Very excited to be here.
We met at a Tedding's event in, was that Beverly Hills? I think it was Beverly Hills.
And 2019, I think. Yes, yes. And I never, I'll never forget. I think I sat next to you and a few
others at dinner down there and just hit it off. It was a great conversation. We had a lot of fun
and it was just a great event overall. Yeah, we had a really good group. I actually,
still to this day, remember that dinner and having a good time with everybody. And yeah,
it was a great, it was a diverse group and a great group of people all over different industries as
well. Yeah, I think I talked to Ted about this a few months ago where it was interesting because
I think that was the third event that he had and that was a in-person event. He does a lot of the
virtual ones now and then some of the other stuff as well. But the amount of people, and I give Ted
a lot of credit for this, the amount of people that I met through those events and have stayed in
touch with over the years, it was really cool. And I think we all knew at the time that there was
some something cool about it. It was different and really just a bunch of smart people getting
together to have a conversation about how we make the industry better. And so I still to this day
really value that and just have fond memories of our time down in California.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And yeah, I'm in the same boat. I did I think three total events with
Ted, two in person. The last one was in February of 20, which was the last of everything, right?
Who knew? And I think I did one of the virtual ones after that. But yeah, I think the biggest that
I gained from that was meeting a lot of different people in our industry and being able to talk about
what they're doing and learn from them as well. It was a great experience for me too.
Yeah, well, let's talk about, I said, down in California, you are living in California,
you've lived in California for a long time. Talk to me a little bit about what got you going in
this crazy world that is automotive. So I was actually born and raised in a suburb of Kansas
City, never had any inclination to get into automotive, didn't know anything about it. I'm
not a mechanic. And in my mind, if you're an automotive, you're a mechanic, you're a technician,
went through high school, didn't really know what I wanted to do, started into college and
started decided shortly thereafter, law school was probably where I was going to end up.
For that reason, I met with the law school and they got me into an English lit program
for the reading and writing ability that you would be needing when you're in law school.
So proceeded down that path, junior year arrived. At the time, my cousin worked for Toyota corporate.
And I was talking to him and I was like, yeah, I need to get an internship this summer.
And he said to me, he's like, why don't you reach out to Toyota corporate? They have a great
intern program. He goes, I know it's not your industry, but it's a great one to learn about.
And you get to stay in California for the summer. So things could be worse. So in my mind, I'm like,
heck, yeah, let's do that. So he put me in touch with HR and I sent my resume through.
Unfortunately, I'd missed my window for signing up. They had already filled all the summer slots
for that upcoming summer, which is fine. I mean, I like said, it was a last minute deal.
It was kind of one of those things. I was kind of fingers crossed to see what happens,
but I wasn't losing sleep over it. I remember talking to the people at HR,
they were very nice, didn't think much about it, moved on, did different internship that summer.
The following fall, so which would have been my senior year of college, I got an email from that
same HR person I was speaking with prior, asking me if I'd like to interview for a job,
which at the time I was not really interested in because the reality is I knew that my path
was going to law school, right? But then I started thinking about it. I was like, you know what,
practicing interviewing is a never a bad thing. So let's just try this out. Let's go through a
big corporate company, obviously a very professional HR department that's just going to give you a
real legit HR like true interview experience. So I jumped in headfirst. First interview was
a phone interview, didn't think much about it, didn't prep at all, don't remember anything from it,
quite frankly, and I passed. So I got a phone call after a did great job, we'd like to move
you on to our second round, which is what they call a day in the field. And so what they do there
is they pair you up with a local factory rep, and you go out with them for the day, they pick you
up, you meet somewhere, they pick you up, they take you to multiple dealerships or whatever their day
was planned, and you just experience what they experienced on a normal day to day basis. Definitely
was nervous for that because again, not a technician in my mind, we're going to be out there looking
at cars, fixing cars and dealing with stuff that is just a complete puller opposite of what I
am used to doing. And I'm not going to lie, that was kind of what kind of gave me a little something
clicked in me at that point of like, huh, this is different. I mean, we didn't deal with cars at all,
other than it was nothing other than a normal commodity that was being sold and repaired,
right, dealt with financial statements, dealt with trying to help dealers sell more cars,
service more cars, and had conversations about that. It was at that point, I was like, okay,
this is not what I expected it to be at all. And now I was kind of interested to say the least.
And, you know, again, I had a cousin that was in the industry, but he is a mechanic. His background
was technical. He had come up as a move through the ranks at Toyota as a technical trainer,
and then moved up to a field technical specialist and then kind of kept going from there
up into management. But, you know, I still thought it was on more of the technical side of everything.
So, you know, I finished that day and I was like, wow, this is different. It's kind of neat.
But still, same old thing, you know, going back. Week later, got a phone call again, hey,
past. We'd like to move you to the third round, third and final round, actually.
We'd like to fly to California. You can do in-person interviews on a Thursday all day.
And as a thank you for going through this process with us, we'll give you a car in your hotel for
the weekend. So, in my mind, another round of interviews, more practice, definitely was interesting,
but I didn't know that I was interested in the job. But free weekend in California,
free car for the weekend, sign me up. So, hopped on the plane and flew out here,
did my round of interviews, had a great time, enjoyed the weekend, and flew back. Shortly
thereafter, I got a phone call that they wanted to offer me a job. So, that was the moment of
truth for me. So, that was where I kind of had to decide what we're doing here. I still wanted
to be a lawyer at the time, but I really did like what I saw, and I knew that Toyota was a
very good company to work for. So, long story short, I took the job, and I thought to myself,
well, I could always go back to law school. Well, here we are, 27 years later, and we're still here.
So, yeah.
I, as you're talking through the story, this is where I think a company like Toyota excels so
much, is you just talked through kind of their way of recruiting people, right, and making sure
they're finding the right people that fit their culture and who they are. And I just love, I had
worked for Bobcat Company and had a similar experience, although it was Fargo, North Dakota,
not California. But the experience of going in, traveling with somebody, like getting a feel for
what it is, kind of getting exposure to the industry as a whole, and seeing that it's not just cars,
there's a lot of people, there's a lot of business in that role. And then as you kind of look at that
progression through, they do such a good job at vetting people and then making sure that once
they do like somebody a lot, that they're kind of rolling out the red carpet for them and bringing
them on. Did you experience that kind of as you're going through that with them, that, you know what,
you almost feel like a little bit of a superstar coming in and they, in the way that they lay out
the red carpet for you? Oh yeah, I think everybody comes in thinking they're going to be the next
CEO, right? Which is good. I mean, they do a great job. Toyota is a wonderful company. I still,
to this day, bleed Toyota Red. But yeah, I mean, I think what they showed me was a path that I had
never thought was open to me. And also, they changed my perception throughout the course of
those interviews of what automotive was. And I think that was the two key things that they did
that, I mean, changed literally the direction of my life. Yeah. And they do a great job.
It's a wonderful company. I mean, anybody that wanted in the industry,
I would highly recommend looking at Toyota. Well, and I look at it for folks out there listening
that haven't worked for an OEM or kind of gone through that process. There's a lot of things
you can learn there in your dealership, in your shop, whatever type of business you have, that
getting exposure to a young person into the industry is never a bad thing and kind of maybe
correcting some level of outside perception that is inaccurate because they drive past the building
and their parents drove past the building for years and just assumed it was one way. But
in reality, the business is completely different than what the perception is.
So I think I give companies like that a lot of credit, but then I also look at our audience that
listens to this and say, okay, what can you learn from that? And what can you do to really
set the stage? Because if you're all looking for a really, really quality talent,
what are you doing to do that exact same thing? What are you doing to
really kind of provide that wow factor so when somebody comes in your doors that
they want to work for you and maybe they didn't even know they wanted to work for you prior to
coming in those doors. So I love stories like that just because I think that showcases
a company's ability to make a first impression and there's not many companies better at that
than Toyota. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think one component I would add to that is
also be willing to try. Like this is not something that I was remotely comfortable with.
Again, I was going in a polar opposite direction and I went out on a limb and lo and behold,
it literally engulfed me and took me over and yeah. And then kudos to Toyota for being the
great company that they are and allowing me to grow and learn under their umbrella.
It was a wonderful experience and there's so many different pivot points under the umbrella of
automotive that the sky's the limit, quite frankly. I mean, we're really in the automotive
industry we pretty much touch just about everything. I couldn't agree more, which
it really kind of leads me to ask about your career thereafter you start then, right? It wasn't
like you were going out and wrenching on cars. You went a different avenue within Toyota and
thereafter. Yeah, so I was on their sales and marketing management side. Yeah,
district service and parts manager, district manager, truck manager, we launched Scion at the
time and just kind of everything in between market representation, distribution. I mean,
pretty much you name it, we touched it at one point or another. I mean, you can flip over to
the financial side and do work for like Toyota financial services and handle that side of the
business. And I had a lot of friends that at different points did do that for different little
bits of exposure. I mean, and even under the umbrella of sales and marketing at the time,
you could be Toyota, you could be Scion, which is obviously now longer around, but you could
also be Lexus. So I had a lot of friends that we split off early on and I went down the Toyota
road and they went down the Lexus road and we're all doing the similar jobs, but just managing
a different product. And that's really what it is. It's a product at the end of the day. It's a
great product and it's a very expensive product, but it's nonetheless, it's a product and you are
selling it and promoting it and marketing it and ensuring our franchise dealers have the best
opportunity to sell and market and promote those vehicles as well. Now, when you were in that kind
of territory rep role, about how many dealers would you cover? I know that's a vague question
across the board, but yeah. Toyota, there was 12 regions at the time. I was in what they called
the LA region, so we handled Southern California. The redistrict thing is a little bit now, but
I would say you probably averaged about eight to nine stores in your district that you managed
when you were a district rep and then you were either on the service and part side or you were
on the sales side, so fixed stops and variable ups. Were they all within driving distance or
are you flying to these dealerships? I mean, I guess you could say I was lucky in the sense that
I was all within driving distance, but in California, that's a very loose term because
there were days that I was in four hours of traffic each way to get to a dealer with traffic jams
and whatnot. You really learn traffic patterns very well when you have to leave the store and or
just get comfy and plan on having dinner in the area and drive it home later. The LA office has two
what they do travel districts, but they're not, you don't fly. You would get a hotel and stay for
a number of days, whatever you needed to in your area, but yeah, I was in a what they deemed a,
you were staying home every night for the most part. I'm trying to think, yeah,
no, there's no other region for Toyota that I can think of that you don't have to get on a plane at
some point. Yeah, and I'm sure there were days where a plane seemed easier than the four hours of
traffic. Honestly, yeah, I mean, you could have been, I could have been a lot of different places
in four hours. Yeah. On a plane, yes, for sure. But you know, you get a lot of phone time. So I
mean, the one thing I will say about being stuck in traffic is you can make a lot of phone calls
and you can create a lot of connections. This is a people business. So the more calls you make,
the more you can connect with your clients, which are your car dealers that you work with,
the better you can get to know them and the better you can help them and serve them at that point.
So you just, you learn to use your time wisely. And I will tell you this though,
you know where all the good bathrooms are along the freeway.
I was talking to somebody about that. I learned that from one of my best friends who I shared
some territories with. I was on the service and part side. He was on the sale side. And he taught
me early that you get comfortable walking into hotels because that was the, that was his travel
secret was I'm not going to the gas stations. I'm going to the hotels because the bathrooms are
clean. And I go to a lot of these hotels. So it's, you know, what I'm going to utilize the
facilities, whatever, whatever I need them. That's right. Hotels, libraries, yeah, stuff like that.
How did you, and this was my experience a little bit. And I'm curious if it was yours as well.
When I first started off as a rep, it was really intimidating to go talk to a dealer principal
or it was really intimidating to even go talk to a general manager, right? And, and I don't know
if you had a similar experience where when you're trying to build those relationships and you can
get maybe that dealer principal that's very, you know, what do you want? Tell me, get out of here
type of relationship. But did, did you have a similar experience there where you're, where you're
maybe a little intimidated at first? So I think, and you kind of talked about it a little bit ago,
you know, Tony does a very good job of building your confidence up. I think to the point that
maybe you are a little naive. And so I think to my detriment, I had a little too much confidence
telling a dealer principal what their business was. Thank you, Toyota HR. And then you get
your hands smacked pretty good. I think that's when you really kind of settle into what the
good partnership looks like and how to navigate working with quite frankly, a businessman that's
done very well in their life has made a lot of money and has done a lot of good for their
community that they work in. And they know what they're doing. These guys, I mean, I know that
our industry and our dealers specifically kind of get a bad rap. But the reality is, I mean,
there's a lot of things that they have to overcome to sell a very expensive item
that's heavily legislated and heavily controlled. So they're very smart people. They deserve a lot
of respect. And yeah, so I, I learned that way. But yeah, but I think a lot of young, young reps
are that way, right? Where it's either or you're either way too confident or not confident enough.
And I think there's dangers in both. But the overconfidence, if you had to give yourself advice,
like looking back at young Jason, just starting off in the industry, what advice would you give
somebody like that and dealing with a dealer principal? I don't think we have enough time to
give me what I needed. But I think going in with a little bit more of an attitude of asking
questions, I think one of the most intelligent things that was ever relayed to me by one of the
managers that worked at Toyota was like, when you're looking at a financial statement, there's no
answers in a financial statement. There's only questions. And I think that's the approach that
if I had it to do over again, I would have wanted to go in with more of that approach,
asking why? What are we doing here? Instead of going, Hey, you're doing this in which, you know,
the overconfident side of you wants to do, right? And tell them how to do their business. So I think
just asking the questions and then getting them to tell you why things were the way they were.
So that's, that's advice, I think I would give any new rep quite frankly, not just me.
Yeah, I think that's outstanding advice and knowing what questions to ask and why you're
asking them, you're not just asking them, just ask them. And just, I think looking back at it,
and I think I was probably a little bit the same way you were, I was intimidated, but also
overconfident as weird as that sounds. I think being able to be humble enough to, especially
as a young person, understand that you don't know everything, you still got a lot to learn.
And just going in with a genuine curiosity about the business and a genuine want to help them out,
I think is huge. You know, I think you'll still run across some relationships where,
you know, the OE and the dealer just don't see eye to eye and never have and never will. And it's
just a piece of advice. I was on both sides. The more you can be transparent, I think a lot of
dealers will hold off from being transparent because they're afraid that they're going to,
the OEM is going to say, gotcha on whatever. But the more I felt like I was on the same team
on either side, if I had a good relationship on that when I was on the dealer side with the rep,
I felt like we were rowing in the same direction that we're trying, we're working for the same
objectives. But if it is that relationship where you're just butting heads and you don't trust each
other and you think that one or the other is trying to hang each other, right? Like, it's not a
healthy relationship and you're really lacking on what benefit you could get out of that. So I'm
just, I'm always fascinated with that relationship because there are so many variables in those
types of relationships and so high of stakes that I think a lot of people mess that up.
Yeah, I think the approach that I would recommend anybody take is your job to be a liaison. Your
job is to help both sides work together for a common goal. It's not OEM versus dealer, dealer
versus OEM. I think as the factory rep, the way I saw it was my job was to ensure that we were,
like you said, both rowing in the same direction. We don't have to always see eye to eye,
but we have to understand that we have a common goal and what do we need to do to get there? So
it's, you know, part psychologist, part business and just making sure that we're all going in the
same direction. Every shop, dealership and business in our industry depends on great technicians.
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show notes. So I left in 2019, had a business plan ready to go or had my clients ready to go
because obviously they were my dealers previously. So it made a nice little landing pad for me to
get out there in the world. Started doing business day to day with these guys and things were moving
pretty well and then all of a sudden a pandemic hits. That's the business plan. Right, so business
school will plan, will teach you a plan for that. I didn't even go to business school, but I guarantee
nobody that did go to business school ever heard about how to navigate a pandemic. But I think
that that's where the resilience kicks in. How bad do you want it? JR, you were obviously in business
as well. So you had to navigate that and it definitely wasn't fun, especially being a business
owner that was only in business for less than a year when that occurred. Because even like the
loans that they were offering to the government, I mean, I applied for one, I got one, but it was
only a few thousand dollars because I didn't have a history and stuff like that. So there really wasn't
much for me at that point. Now, obviously, I didn't have to repay anything because it wasn't very
much money. But yeah, so worked our way through that, brought on some business partners, just weaved
my way through everything. Luckily, I had a good, strong support system of partners to help work
through the business stuff that was going on in the pandemic. I don't ever want to go through that
again. I will tell you, I mean, is probably you know, it's still not fun per se, but it's definitely
better than what it was a few years ago. But yeah, so just kind of navigated that a little
bit. And I think my goal was always to just try to simplify marketing for dealers and just
break through all the nonsense. I had seen a lot of different marketing programs throughout the
years. Obviously, Toyota works with some great marketing partners. But I just think a lot of
times it gets really convoluted. And I'm not saying that they didn't have the best of intentions
with what they were doing. But I think that maybe they got pressured to kind of come up with something
new, some new widget, some new program. And really, you know, you just get back to the basic
blocking and tackling. And that's really what it is. And like my focus is, I've always loved
fixed ops. So my primary focus is working with fixed ops departments, even in the last six years.
And the reality is with that retention is what drives your department. Conquest is not
where your bread and butter is at. I'm not saying you don't want to drive new customers in,
for sure you do. But the reality is most dealers are losing customers that they should be retaining.
And so we've really taken an approach to focus on helping dealers fix those problems holistically,
not just with, you know, leads coming in. I mean, any company can send you leads.
Our job is to get in and work with your people and your processes and also your marketing
to make it a holistic approach. And that's what we've been doing at the company's Arrow Automotive
Advertising. And I have a lot of great people that I work with, and with a lot of industry
experience. So I would love to tell you it's all me, it's not by any stretch of the imagination.
But, you know, I lean on the people that I work with day in and day out to help come up with the
best possible way of helping dealers grow their fixed ops department. You know, the one other
thing I'll say, you know, sales gets all the glory. But the reality is the fixed ops department
is what keeps the lights on. And I am very proud that we are seeing an industry shift
and a more more focus being put on the back end of the dealership now than ever before. And if it's
any time for anybody to want to jump in to the fixed ops world, now is definitely the time
because it's a lot than it was even 26 years ago when I started. So I couldn't agree more. It is
fun to see kind of this positive momentum. I still think we have a long way to go in a lot of the
stuff that we talk about with technician happiness and making sure that we're treating our people well
and the people that are producing the hours and throwing the boxes out at the end of the day,
those are the ones that really, I think, hopefully more attention continues to be
shined on that. But I think it is and I think we're getting to the point to where it is more
more, you know, I don't want to say sexy, because we always talk about the front end
and that part being kind of the really, really cool part. But you are seeing so many more dealership
executives open their eyes to the fact that the fixed upside is a good business and there is a lot
to be had out of that. And so it is fun to see that part. I couldn't agree more.
Yeah, it's been nice to watch it. And honestly, you know, I think the sexiness factor definitely
has also shifted a little bit too, because the reality is, I mean, when I started,
I mean, dealership shops were the equivalent of a coal mine, right? Dark, dingy, dirty. I mean, no
windows. I mean, every dealers or every technician had their own box. And when, you know, when they
lift the lid up, it would be like Pamela Anderson or Camaro or whatever under it, right? And, you
know, in the early 2000s, at least out here, we started to see the shift to the Unibox very clean
looking shop windows so consumers could see in, see what was going on. I think that what we're
seeing is those steps that were taken a long time ago have led to what we're at now where, you know,
I won't lie. I mean, you know, you wear, as a factory, we had to wear a suit every day.
You learn real quick. You don't want to wear leather bottom shoes walking through a shop,
right? I literally thought they probably had money going when I was walking through there
to see if I would slip in the oil that was on the floor, right? Now, I mean, a lot of these shops
that I go through, you could eat off the floor. They're so clean. So yeah, I think it's really
impressive where we have come from and to just in my short stint in the industry. And I'm really
looking forward to see where it goes over the next 20 years as well. Because I think we're going a
lot with this. I couldn't agree more. And that kind of leads nicely into the point of our conversation
here because I love what you're doing with the Gear Up Foundation and just being able to
attract that next generation and specifically females. And one, I think everything we just
talked about is relevant to that, right? Because the more kind of accepting of environments that
we have, especially for a young female to come into our doors and really treat them well and
make them feel like they're truly a part of it, right? Because they are. And we just kind of
need to continue to tear down those silos of any type of worry about that. But talk to me a
little bit about what you're doing with this new foundation. Yeah, so never set out to do anything
like this. It was literally a fluke. It wasn't anything that I had, you know, when I was in
college, I was like, this is where I want to end up. But, you know, my daughter is now 17 years old.
She's like a lot of kids nowadays, they're more interested in iPhone than getting a car at 16.
To them, iPhone is freedom. To us, a car was freedom, right? She was going through her driving
classes last year, early last year, so around this time. And we started talking about cars. Now,
obviously, I've been in the automotive industry, and I'm not a technician. I'm a YouTube mechanic
at best, right? So I watch my videos on how to fix things, and then I go try to fix it. And then
I have to call somebody to undo what I did wrong. But, you know, her desire was for her first car
to have an old FJ60 Land Cruiser, like an 80s. So cool. Yeah, no, like she's got good taste.
Awesome car, right? The issue with that is, you know, there's going to be work that needs to be
done on it. And that's what that was actually her goal. She was like, dad, I want to let's do this
together. We're going to fix this up, which is awesome, right? As a dad, you're like, oh my god,
my daughter, we're going to do this together. This is going to be our thing. And then she's going to
drive it forever. And every time she gets in it, she's going to think of her time with dad, right?
Yeah, the only problem is I can't do that. So I mean, immediately, you know,
it was a little bit of a letdown from internally for me. I'm like, oh, man, I want to do this for
my daughter. So then it kind of went to us like, okay, well, maybe, you know, I can get somebody
to help me help us with it. You know, I know I have a lot of back it, you know, friends from
back at Toyota, that you know, our technicians or field technical specialists that have that
that have that ability to do that type of stuff. So, you know, I started thinking like, okay,
how can we probably get parts, you know, from different companies that I have partnerships
with, things like that. I was like, you know, why isn't there something for kids? There's not
auto shop anymore, right? Not that my daughter would go into it or quite frankly, many females
at all. I mean, shoot, half the in when I was in high school, the only kids that were in auto
shop for the most part were kids that really didn't have a direction. And it was just some place
unfortunately. And even me that that goes back to perception, right? You don't know what you
don't know. You just see that very dark room at the end of the hallway in high school. And you
know that there's kids smoking in there and we're not supposed to smoke. And I don't know what's
going on there, right? So I was like, why, you know, this is silly, like, you know, this is a
great job. This is a great career. And now more than ever, shops are not what they were. I mean,
you're the type of job that a technician does nowadays. I mean, you're an engineer. I mean,
you are literally a doctor for a vehicle, you're diagnosing the concern, you're determining root
causes, you're determining what the right fix is, and then you're applying that fix. I mean,
quite frankly, more women should be doing this than men because they're way more analytical
than we are. I mean, as many murder mysteries as they watch, I'm pretty sure that they can find
the root cause of just about anything in life, right? So we started kind of talking about, okay,
well, why, you know, what can we do to help get this car billed, right? So back to my daughter.
Man, there's got to be something out there like this, that we can figure out how to kind of
learn how to do this together, you know? And I was like, you know what, what do we can create a
charity, right? And so she and I started kind of just brainstorming at the kitchen table about
how cool would that be? Well, being that I am a business owner, I emailed my lawyer that I use,
and I said, hey, what would it take to start a 501c3 nonprofit? And get an email back fairly
quickly, he says, call me. So unfortunately, when you see those words, you just see billable
hours at that point, right? So I called him on the phone and he kind of walked me through
what it would take to do that. But he also helped me, he introduced me to a local company
here in Orange County, California, that they are a nonprofit and their core mission is to help
other nonprofits get off the ground. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's called 10c, wonderful company,
great people that work there. And they have literally been the guiding force to helping us
get this off the ground. So over the course of the last, I mean year, pretty much,
I've rewritten this business proposal, because that's essentially what it is, probably
15, 16 times to try to really fine tune it. It started out where we were going to do one car
build and one kid, and bring in engineers from Toyota, my friends to kind of help on their
spare time to help teach them how to do it. Then it went from, okay, let's not rebuild a car just
with one kid, let's bring in like maybe 10 kids and do a car rebuild. But then that's hard because
you got a lot of kids around the car and plus there's liability along with that. Then it went
from that and it morphed into why couldn't we just do some classes and make this a pathway into
the local colleges. So then we started, and that's more my forte of coming up with stuff like that,
right? Because I can't, even though I want to do it, help them fix cars, I was just going to have
to be asking people, now you start pivoting into a pathway program, now you're talking.
So ultimately, what we landed on is we're going to have a 12 week program where over the course
of 12 weeks, we're going to have multiple nights where we bring the kids into a classroom,
and we do classroom sessions that are very interactive, where they're going to be learning
about the major components of cars, the tools used to fix cars, and simple tasks that are
day to day tasks that we need to know about our cars. We have no intention of them leaving our
program, being a technician, or being able to walk into a shop and learn. Our goal is nothing
more than what I told you earlier, like when I did my day in the field with that factory rep at
Toyota, where that changed my perception of what the industry was. Our goal is to create a path
that changes perceptions of kids, and that's what we are hoping to do. Now we do have
the component of actually wanting to restore a car with them on the side, because the second half
of our program is the kids that graduate our program, we want them for the next 12 weeks to
help us raise money for the upcoming classes. So we are going to be building cars alongside the
classes, kind of parallel, for liability reasons, as you can understand, both for the safety and
soundness of the vehicle that we're going to be taking out to car shows, we have to make sure that's
safer for the people taking it there. Also for the safety of the kids, that they're not technicians,
we have, you know, they've never, most cases never even been around a car, so we don't want them
getting hurt either. So we'll be working on a car in tandem, but parallel to the classes that are
going on, so the kids can kind of see the progress of the car alongside learning in class. And we
have a lot of field trips planned for the kids. We have a beautiful thing about California is we
have a great car culture out here. So a lot of things show them. And we will be able to take
them to a lot of cool things and a lot of events along with the program that we're doing. But then
the second 12 weeks, the kids will be taking the car out, go into local car shows, the donuts and,
you know, coffee and cars and things like that, showcasing it, asking people to donate to the
foundation. And then our ultimate goal would be to pivot this into a more permanent type program
where we can get enough money raised to build a facility and then start providing scholarships
for kids that want to go on. So we have lofty goals. We have nothing but time though. And we
have a lot of energetic people. It's not just me now. Full disclosure, I have a very good group
of people around me helping us. We have former engineers at Toyota that are helping on our
board with this. I actually have the pleasure of bringing in the district psychologist for the
local school district. She's going to help teach life skills to the kids along with what we're
doing. So we're trying to make it a holistic approach. Not only do you learn skills about
cars and, you know, how to safely jack up your car, how to safely remove a tire, how to change
your battery, the basics, right, change your oil, but also life skills as well. How to manage
difficult situations, how to overcome obstacles, things like that. So we're trying to take a
holistic approach to everything that we're doing. So yeah, we're out. We're out pounding the pavement
now. We're out trying to raise money. I have the good fortune of one of the members of our board
is a friend of mine who owns a local welding supply company, Gas and Supply. So Encore Welding,
which is a local company out here, they supply the gas and supplies to all the local
contractors and stuff like that around town. They're letting us use their facility right now.
And they're a part of a lot of things already. So tomorrow night, we'll be at the event for
the American Welding Society. We'll have a booth there. They were nice enough that we will actually,
in our booth, have a, believe it's through Lincoln. Don't call me on that. So I apologize.
Yeah. But it is a VR welding machine. So they'll put on the welding helmet. It has
visual and audio. And then they'll have the actual welding equipment in their hands.
And it's like a video game. And they get scored points on welding through this VR tool. And then
we'll be giving out a gift card to whoever the girl is that scores the most points. Now,
boys can do it too. Boys can get scored. But because we are focusing on bringing females in
the automotive industry, the girls can then, whoever gets the highest score, we'll get that.
And then later this month, so that's tomorrow night. And then next weekend, we'll be at Hot Rods
and Heroes in Huntington Beach, which is a large annual car show. We have a booth there. And we'll
be doing the same thing there. So it's a lot of fun. It is so cool. And I love that you gave
that company a shout out because they are doing some incredible things. And I look at,
I got subbed in. This is kind of on topic with this, where I'm really close with the folks that
do SkillsUSA Wisconsin. And in one of the competitions a few years back, I did run an interview
station where I'm interviewing the students. And a lot of them were going to school for
welding. And a lot of them were young females coming into welding school. And I was blown away
by the skill level, how polished they were, how intelligent they were in the interview
in the interview process. And almost to the point to where I've got a lot of friends that
are welders. And I was, I was like, you're going into welding, huh? And it was, you know,
you could tell they were fully capable of doing whatever it was that they wanted to do in their
lives. But they were choosing welding because they loved it. And I think what you're doing
with all of this introduces people and almost gives them permission to pursue something that
maybe they traditionally wouldn't have. And I think that is so important because there are a lot
of young people and a lot of young women that would love to get into this industry, but maybe
don't have that avenue or don't have that, that visibility to what opportunities are out there.
So what you're putting together in this program really plants that seed and makes them feel confident
in a world where maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. So I just love this.
Yeah. You know, so when I reached out to Ben, Ben, he's the one that founded Encore Gas and Supply.
I mean, he didn't even flinch. I mean, he was immediately, absolutely, I'm in on this. So,
you know, we were, I've been friends with him forever, but we went to dinner, we were talking
about it. And he's like, Jason, I've been doing industry events at our facility for years. And
he goes, you know, it's like everything, it starts small, you know, I bring in all the vendors that
we work with and, you know, let them kind of talk to people that we just want to come in and learn
about the industry. He goes, you know, first time we did it, we have like, you know, five or 10
people that showed up. He goes, now we have two to 300 people that show up every time we do it.
And he said, I've seen the amount of women coming to these events grow exponentially over the years.
And he said, now he goes, honestly, I would say 25 to 30% of all the people coming to our events
are females that are interested in pivoting from a different professional career that they're
already in that they're just sick of. They want something that is different, that they can do
on their own. It's a skill they get to learn. And quite frankly, they're good. Like you said,
they're good at it. So, I mean, he said, this is the right time to be doing this. He didn't flinch.
And I'll be frank. We owe a lot to him and what his company has done to kind of help get us off
the ground. Because I mean, we have a facility because of him for right now. He's getting us
into events that he's already been invited to, to allow us to get exposure. So no, it's been a
wonderful partnership. But it's a like minded partnership. And like I said, the nice part
was I didn't have to convince him of this. He already knew. So a funny little side story. My
daughter and I was, we went to buy her some mechanics clubs, right? To go, you know, we're
going to work on a car here at the house. And I warned her, I go, look, we're going to get there.
They're not going to fit you. They're going to be too big. Even the small is probably going to be
too big because there's going to be men's sizes. I go, but let's just get you up here. And so we
go to the local Riley's or whatever. And this is nothing against any business out there. I,
I'm in business. So I understand you stock what you sell, right? And you don't sell many women's
products. And sure enough, they didn't have them. And then I told my daughter to put them down and
go, come on, come outside with me real quick. I said, Hey, here's what we're going to do. We're
going to create a video for Instagram. And we're going to put on there. And it's going to be the
process of you trying to buy gloves that fit you. So I go, I mean, she's dressed like every 17 year
old, you know, hoodie, I mean, 75 degrees outside, she's wearing like it's like, she's wearing it
like she's in Wisconsin, right? She's got a hoodie up over her head, wet pants, big ugly boots or
whatever she was wearing. And I go, let's go home and put you in normal clothes. And let's come back
here. And we're going to, I'm going to kind of video you trying to buy gloves. And I go, we're
not going to put anybody else's faces in it. This is going to be you thing. And so she asked the guy
a question that she was like, Hey, do you have gloves for women? And he's like, everything we
have is there on the right, which we already knew, right? So obviously we found out they don't have
gloves. I go, Okay, now let's go to like one of the big box places. Let's go to so there's a Lowe's
by us, right? So I go, this will be fun because the reality is I pretty much know what we're
going to get ourselves into here. They're going to have the same selection of gloves like O'Reilly's
did. I go, but they will have another selection of gloves that will fit you. And we'll get a video
of that too. So I didn't, I didn't tell her what it was going to be. So we get there. Sure enough,
you go to the more of the hardware section when they have the gloves, right? Don't fit her. We
videoed that. Then we went to the gardening section where we found the gloves. So it was a great,
I mean, that's where the marketing background kicks in. So we were able to create a fun little
video to create and put on social media to showcase the barrier of entry. I mean, just for safety
equipment, a pair of gloves for a girl. I mean, she's, and she's, I mean, she's 17. So it's not
like she's some little girl. She's a, you know, a fully adult woman, right? And her hands are full
grown. So she couldn't find safety gloves. And this is where I'm going to circle back to Encore.
I texted Ben just jokingly go, we just went around to buy gloves for couldn't find them anywhere. So
we videoed it be fun to, we're going to promote this. And he goes, what are you talking about?
He goes, we have women's gloves because we have a whole women's section. He was 25% of our retail
area is dedicated to women. No way. I'm like, so this is just showing the, the synergy that we had
right off the bat with where we're at. And I'm really excited about what we're doing. I think the
sky is the limit. But yeah, we're just in fundraising mode now. And we have a lot of goals.
The first thing will be get the inaugural class off and running. We're hoping to start that probably
in the next couple of months, it will be a pilot class. We need to raise money to start our first
car build and then facilities and then scholarships. And we're gonna, we're going full steam. We're
going for it. I love this initiative. I love the fact that, you know, and I think I mentioned
this to you in our pre call or our pre podcast meeting where that was a blind spot for me when
I was an industry and had some female technicians working with me. And, you know, we did a round
table at something we had called technician a few years back and it was a all female technician
panel that we had. And one of the ladies on the panel said, you know, one of, one of my biggest
frustrations with being a technician, you know, they were all working technicians.
One of my biggest issues with being a technician as a female is we can never get uniforms that
fit us correctly. It's always a man's uniform. Oftentimes it's oversized and baggy and just
not, not what they wanted. And so I looked back at my career in, in managing some of these folks.
And, and that was a total blind spot for me did not think about it did not. And I told them on
that panel, I feel really bad looking back. I feel really stupid because I didn't know that. And so
I think as you're building this, I think there are going to be more things that you uncover as
well, right? Like things that might be blind spots for our industry. And maybe we've just fallen into
patterns or things the way we do things that maybe aren't, aren't, aren't right, or that we, we are
just unaware of. And so the more we can do that, I think the more likely it is that we are bringing
more in. And the more you put into this program and are able to get exposure to, to some of these,
these young ladies that want, want that, you know, and I look at it, even if they don't become a
technician, having that general car knowledge, when you're going into buy a car at a dealership,
or if you're buying a car off Facebook marketplace, like at least having some background on what it is
that you're about to do is a life skill that, you know, I talk a lot about this, but it's a shame
that schools went away from teaching that because even for those people that aren't interested in
becoming a part of our industry, giving them or, or arming them with enough knowledge that they feel
confident walking into one of our places of business to, to really trust that they're not
getting screwed over, I think it's huge. And it helps the perception of the industry as a whole.
I think it helps maybe create some of that trust level that's been missing for a long time.
Absolutely. In fact, week 10 of our courses is car buying 101.
So very important part of the process. It's, I don't care how many times you've bought a car,
it's intimidating. What I don't care what anybody says, you know, everybody thinks, oh, I got this.
I know how to negotiate. Yeah, you do it once every four years. These car dealers do it five
times a day, six times a day, 10 times a day. You're not going to outsmart them. So the best
thing you can do is just arm yourself with knowledge. And so yeah, week 10 car buying 101.
Going back to what you were saying before about advice to younger people in general,
like when we were talking about the relationship with dealer principles,
knowing what questions to ask, right? I think it's such an important piece in that process.
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, it's funny, I was thinking about when you were talking about,
you didn't think about they can't even find clothing to wear that fits them. And
you can't be faulted for that because we were all in the same boat. And it wasn't for lack of
wanting females in our industry. It's just, you know, I was going through some number of
creating a sponsorship deck for what we're doing, right? So it forces you to really dig into the
numbers. And I don't even know, you know, how publicized it is. But according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of all the technicians in the United States, only 2% are female. Yeah.
And that doesn't warrant us to think about it, right? Unfortunately, right? But we need to,
because over the next five years, again, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
there's going to be a million new jobs under the umbrella of automotive, welding, and electrical.
That's a lot of jobs. And when we're talking about AI is going to take over everything,
we have to think differently. We have to go into it going,
what does the new workforce look like? And when 50% of your workforce is female,
and only 2% are technicians, that math doesn't math.
No, it doesn't. And I couldn't agree more. That's so much of what we've been working on too,
is just trying to figure out, what is the true math? What is the true shortage? And we've met
with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we've had a lot of those conversations just to
almost level set our industry a little bit to say, you know, this is the true shortage. And,
granted, you, I think most dealerships or shops really look at it as what's the shortage in my
area, because that's what's having the greatest impact on me. But if you look at it from that
30,000 foot view, I think you see how that impacts at a local level. And foundationally,
we just need to change the way we go about things. Talking about getting females in the industry,
the fact that we've largely ignored 50% of the population for the entirety of our industry
is probably why we're in the position that we are today. So I applaud you for this initiative,
and I just think it's really, really cool. This week's episode of Beyond the Wrenches brought
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Now, before we end the podcast, we do have some kind of quick hitting fun questions that we like
to ask our guests and just trying to get to know you a little better. So first question
is, what was your first car? A 1976 Super Beetle.
Nice. In Kansas City. Painted in Ferrari red.
Really? So it didn't stick out at all? No. I remember I made my dad take me to the local,
we didn't have a Ferrari dealership where I grew up, but we did have a used exotic dealership.
My dad humored me and allowed me to go in there and ask him what the paint code was for the red.
Now, you can buy Ferrari red, obviously, but we got it pretty close.
You didn't get a good blend. It wasn't going fast, but I felt fast.
That is awesome. That's a good one. What is your favorite type of food?
Oh, gosh, that's a tough one. So sushi and Mexican. I mean, living here this close to,
I mean, we jokingly call it Orange County, Northern Mexico. We have amazing Mexican food here.
But I also love the sushi here too. So it's really tough. I could probably
go either way and live on them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
I'm the same way in both of those regards. Were you a sushi fan before you moved to California?
I never ate it in my life. I grew up in Kansas, man. We are way far from the ocean. I am not
touching raw fish. So honest to God, my first time ever trying sushi was in Redondo Beach
when I worked at the corporate office in Torrance. So friends took me to a local little sushi restaurant
and the rest is history. What last question? What is a good piece of advice you got from when you
were younger? Oh, that's the best piece of advice. This is a tough one. Yeah, you know,
my dad was always really good about trying to teach me to put in the work,
put in the hard work, excuse me, to really learn and master what you're doing
and understand everything about it. Don't go into something half cocked. Don't go into something
assuming, learn, study, really dig in and also be willing to help. I mean, which is,
truthfully, I'm not saying we wouldn't have gotten here with this foundation without my dad the way
he was, but my dad was a really giving person and almost frustratingly giving growing up.
But I mean, if anybody called him at the drop of a hat, he would run over and help
and he could fix anything. And that was kind of his claim to fame was that, you know, if you
needed something, if something was broken, he would come help fix it. But he learned how to fix
it by just studying. If he had to hire somebody, which he hated hiring somebody to come fix something,
my dad was hovering over them the whole time. What are you doing there? What are you doing there?
And so that's what, and now my wife jokes about that to this day that unbeknownst to me, I do the
same thing. What are you doing there? Because I want to learn how to do it. And it's not that I
want to hire somebody again, it's just I want to understand. And I think that that's the best
advice. And that's quite frankly, what I do for my kids, my son wanted one of those gaming computers
in his room. I made him build it. So I've never built a computer either. But for Christmas,
two years ago, I told him he could ask for all the components. And then we hopped on YouTube.
And we we built a computer from the ground up for him for his bedroom that is a gaming computer.
So I think I think that's what I've probably learned the most from growing up. Excuse me.
Man, that is great advice in general. And that sounds like a phenomenal person.
Now, as we conclude here, how do people follow along with what you're doing here? And as if maybe
they want to reach out and want to donate, or they at least just want to follow along and support
the cause? What are the best ways to do that? Yeah, so we have our website, it's www.gearherup.org.
That will have all the information about everything we're doing. It'll have upcoming events.
You have a section you see who's on the board for what we're doing.
You can see how to donate, how to reach out to us. So that's the easiest way. We also have Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn that we're on and pretty active on posting videos and posting updates of
where we're going to be at. Like I said, tomorrow night, we're going to be at a welding event.
And in a couple of weeks, we're going to be at a big car show here in Huntington Beach, California.
The fleet week is coming up for the military. Looks like we're probably going to be at the USS
Iowa celebrating fleet week and we'll have a booth there. So we're just trying to get involved in
everything. But that's probably the best way is our website first, because that's everything
holistically, events and donations. And then Instagram, Facebook, you can also see the events
that we're doing, more of the picture type stuff, right? And then there are links to donate. But
I mean, I'm not big into social media. So some people are and they know how to click links and
follow links and stuff like that. www.gearherup.org is really the best way.
Well, absolutely phenomenal thing that you're doing. And just congratulations on getting this
off the ground. It is such a cool program. And for those of you listening, I hope you do that.
I hope you go out and follow what Jason and his crew are doing because it is some impactful stuff.
So thanks for coming on the show, Jason. Hope to have you on. Maybe as we continue to watch
this grow and follow the progress over the years, because I think you're on to something really,
really cool here. Appreciate it. Really, thank you so much for allowing us the time here to talk
about it. It's little stuff like this that's going to help get us moving. And it's just,
you know, baby steps, we got to crawl, walk, run, right? And I really appreciate the time.
Obviously, pleasure meeting you years ago. And it's just funny how things all work out in the
long run, right? Well, one last, last thing I have to comment on from that dinner that I remember
that we talked about earlier was that you talk about the car culture in that area in California.
I'm super jealous of that because it is awesome. I remember you had a friend there and I can't
remember his name, but he was talking about stories with Troy Lee and the helmets and
all the cool stuff that Troy Lee was doing. And I remember walking away from that being like,
that is really, really damn cool. Yeah. Yeah. There's so much stuff out here. Troy Lee, I mean,
he's obviously a famous painter that does helmets and he was friends and I've met him a hundred times
and hung out with him. And then you hear like he grew up with Von Dutch, which young people just
think Von Dutch is a t-shirt and a hat company. But the reality is Von Dutch was an extremely
famous pinstriper, right? So the car culture is just woven through every bit of society out here,
whether it be low riders or JDM or hot rods or exotics, you can be a part of it or see it all
on any given weekend wherever you want to go. It's really cool. It's so cool. We'll have to
link up the next time I'm in California in your area so I can see some of that car culture again.
Absolutely. Well, thanks again for coming on the show, Jason. Greatly appreciate it.
Yep. Have a great day.
That wraps up another episode of Beyond the Wrench. If you liked this episode,
please show your support by rating and following the podcast. You can also watch the video
interviews on Wrenchway's YouTube channel. Speaking of Wrenchway, Beyond the Wrench is
managed and produced by the Wrenchway team. Wrenchway is dedicated to promoting and improving
careers in the automotive, diesel, and collision industries. In partnership with ASC,
we run the ASC Connects community which empowers shops and dealerships with reliable data,
school connections, and industry insights while helping grow the future technician workforce.
You can learn more by visiting wrenchway.com. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week.
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