THE COMPLETE ORAL HISTORY OF THE CAR MOM

Today's episode is brought to you by Quince. When it comes to holiday gifting, I went to give people things they really love. Beautiful, timeless pieces, they'll wear for years. That's why I'm going with Quince. From Mongolia and Kashmir, sweaters to Italian wool coats, everything is premium quality at a price that actually makes sense. I actually got my mama basic white tea from Quince to layer under sweaters and she's going to love it. She's going to wear it every day and it cost me $20. Quince has something for everyone.

She's going to like Kashmir sweaters for $50 that look and feel like designer pieces, silk tops and skirts for dressing up, perfectly cut denim for every day wear and outerwear that actually keeps you warm. Their Italian wool coats are stand out pieces, beautifully tailored, soft to touch and crafted to last for seasons. I just got myself a chocolate brown one of course and I've worn it multiple times and it feels so quality. I can just tell it's going to last for years. Every piece is made with premium materials from ethical trusted factories

and price far below what other luxury brands charge. I can't get over just the quality of the Quince pieces, all of my Quince pieces and I have a lot of them, have really stood the test of time, have stood washes, have I wear them constantly, they seem like they are brand new. So find gifts so good, you'll want to keep them with Quince. Go to Quince.com slash Carpool for free shipping on your order in 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash Carpool to get free shipping in 365 day returns.

Quince.com slash Carpool.

Welcome to the Carpool podcast with Kelly and I got scammed. I got scammed and I basically paid for sugar water and I cried.

I was so mad at myself. I was so embarrassed. I mean, it was literally like I lit money on fire and a lot of money, a lot of money. The money that teller gave me to start it.

And Liz your mom time all starts now. Welcome back to the Carpool podcast with Kelly, just Kelly today. You guys my poor sister, my poor co host. She's sick as a dog. I talked to her this morning. She sounded horrible. And I said, Liz, go lay down. Go rest. I can record a solo episode. Now how many so episodes have I done. I feel like it's been two or three.

And I've always really gone into it like with a topic, like a specific thing that I want to deep dive on. So that's kind of what I'm going to do today. I'm kind of going to break it up into two parts.

The first part is I want to recap how my December has been going so far and what Christmas notes I have added to my list because I think I have some really good ones so far.

And then I want to give you guys a history lesson on the history of the car mom. I feel like we have a lot of new listeners. I know I have a lot of new people following me on Instagram.

And we haven't really done like a proper, you know, car mom out of glance, car mom history lesson. And we've been going on about five and a half years of running the car mom. A lot of highs, a couple of lows.

And I just kind of wanted to give you the history, give you what I've learned, the mistakes that I've made and hopefully it'll be a good conversation for anyone who's interested in social media, but also just I don't know anyone who feels like they're part of the journey because I really feel like

the car mom is so much more than just me and it is this community. So that's my idea for today's episode. So let me get started. Well, here's the thing. And I'm also kind of like stress today because it's my party. So I'm having a girls night tonight at my house.

By the time this episode comes out, I will be two days post party.

And it is, it's like a makeup themed rob your neighbor. I just like having a theme. So it's kind of like a favorite things party. But everyone brings like a beauty product, like your favorite beauty product.

And I kind of elevate the night by, you know, kind of encouraging like a little bit dressier of a dress code. Like this is, I mean, it's, you know, I was raised by Chris. So, you know, it's the holidays. This isn't like a pajama party.

Everyone gets a little dolled up. And even though we're just coming to my house, I try to make it feel fancy.

For example, we are drinking out of champagne flutes. Like I for some reason registered for so many champagne flutes when I got married. Like what was I doing back then? I have no idea.

So we drink out of real glasses. I make flatbread pizzas for everybody. No one brings anything. I ask that's not true. I ask a couple of girls to bring dessert because that's not my specialty. But like no one is not a potluck. Like I just want to do this.

So I make all these sassy flavors of flatbreads. I have wine, champagne, beer, I have some non alcoholic options too, of course.

And it's just like a three hour get together at my house. Tyler takes the kids somewhere. And I'm really looking forward to it tonight. So I'm going to be doing some serious party prepping after this.

And I'm excited. And I also loved. I've been seen on the Carpool Facebook page. A lot of people hosting their own little get togethers and say that like it was because of our podcast that we encourage them to host these get togethers. And that warms my heart so much.

I cannot express the importance of hosting of gathering with people. And I know it's so much work. But be the hostess. You don't even have to be the hostess with the most is just be a hostess that people's expectations up. That's one of my biggest hosting tips.

If you're worried about how to extend the olive branch or how to host something. I would just be super transparent in your in your invitation.

So like, for example, I set out a proper invitation for this party. So people kind of know it's supposed to be a little fancier. But you could also just say, hey, do you want to come over tonight. I'm going to make some flatbreads bring the kids over.

Let's have a little holiday party. I've loved, loved, loved seeing you guys get together. It's so important, especially in this time of like AI and social media. And I think it's so important for our kids to see two of us just gathering as friends as community.

So good job, everybody for hosting. I'm so proud of you. And it's not too late to host get something on the calendar for the new year.

If you haven't planned a party yet. OK, so back to my Christmas notes. Let me tell you. So it's December 15th at the time of this recording. And I have been making just notes about how I can improve the Christmas season.

I don't have a ton of like notes because I haven't even had Christmas yet. But here's some of the hot. Here's some of the things I've done right and wrong so far.

So first thing is I made a huge mistake. And I did not put my return address on my Christmas cards. So I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't do that.

I also didn't spend enough time in my address book prior to printing my Christmas cards. I obviously I have to print my Christmas cards early because I always work with minted, which I love their Christmas cards.

But like I have to let it get my order in in like October. And I was kind of rushed this year. So I didn't just spend time in my address book. So I put a note on here to just before I order spend 20 minutes reviewing my address book.

Is there anyone I need to add? Is there anyone I know who's moved who I want to like text them real quick and get their updated address. I didn't do that. I got some bounce backs. I like had addresses. I didn't add them. It was it was a mess. I definitely flopped that.

So I put spend some time in the address book and then also make sure you put your return address on there. That was silly.

Okay, another thing that I did this year kind of accidentally, but it's worked out really well is I bought Fred a red long sleeve gap pocket tea. I got it like a resale shop or something.

And I just put my note in here to make sure I get the boys playing red shirts or playing green shirts that are that are nice enough.

That they could like wear it to a casual holiday gathering like maybe even church like a nice pockety a nice Henley that's just a plain color.

Because it's been very easy to like throw together with the girls outfits to keep everybody coordinated but to have the boys in a just a solid color.

So that was a very little thing I did, but I'm telling you Fred is wore the snot out of this red nice long sleeve shirt.

Because then it goes so easy like then I can put Georgian a plaid had in a pattern living in something plain and it just kind of all works really well.

I also love coordinating my kids outfits, which I know is like me being crazy, but that just gap tea has helped a lot. So that's a note that I wrote down.

I also did write the note that I said I need to get all of the kids one fun festive shirt to wear.

I Fred and Libby both had things because they had left over from Georgian had I just kind of like goofed I guess this year and then buy Georgian had a festive holiday shirt.

And there had been times when we were like going like for example this weekend we went to go make gingerbread houses at my aunt's house.

And I would have loved to have put them in a Christmas shirt and like George really doesn't have a Christmas shirt like I don't know what I was doing.

So I wrote that down on my notes I'm going to review these notes like in November and then I will know just to make sure I order every kid.

A Christmas shirt doesn't have to match does not have to coordinate this is just like a fun shirt for them.

And so I thought that was an important note to make.

And then the last thing I put on here is ham and cheese crescent rolls are great for quick filling dinners between events so as chicken noodle soup.

So I wrote this one down because we had a really busy like holiday weekend we had a Christmas party on Friday breakfast with Santa on Saturday and then we had gingerbread making on Sunday and we were running running running in my kids were eating so much freaking sugar.

And you know the new come home and I feel like you're scrambling you're just like dying to get something nutritious in these children nutritious and filling in hot preferably.

And I had ham and cheese crescent rolls which is literally just a crescent roll with ham and cheese rolled up into it like that's all that it is you just bake it till it looks done I don't know.

But it's such a good filling meal and it's hot it's has protein in it the kids love it so I just made a note to myself to just always have that on hand like those are all things that can live in the fridge for a couple of weeks and it's so easy to throw together for a lunch or an early dinner especially on the weekends.

And then I also wrote chicken noodle soup down now kind of same sentiment this is just like a really yummy vegetable full meal that is great for the kids.

After just basically like you know having so much sugar cookies so I also plan to make a big pot of chicken noodle soup for the week of Christmas.

Stick it in the fridge it's easy to heat up I can have the ham and cheese crescent rolls if I want to like make it more of a meal but just having those two things on hand homemade chicken noodle soup in the fridge for the week of Christmas and those three ingredients for the crescent rolls.

You'll always have dinner you'll always have a filling semi healthy dinner so that's another note that I wrote down.

So I'm looking forward to the holiday season for Christmas season I need to get to wrapping.

But I'm very excited the kids the kids last week of school they're off on Friday and oh I'm I'm doing a fun little game.

If you need the last minute game I'm doing candy cane fishing so basically you get candy can and you stick it in a cardboard box.

And then you get a stick and you tie another candy cane to it and the kids have to like you tie the other candy cane to look like a hook.

And then you can fish for candy canes so I went to five below I got like the junkiest candy canes I could find like air head flavor skiddle flavor nerds flavor like disgusting but good for the kids.

And then I like just took a little cardboard Amazon box stuck them in there and then the kids can fish them out so that's like my room mom game which it was pretty like low effort but I feel like it's going to be a high impact I'm hoping the kids like it.

I'm bringing it to haddies class on Wednesday and then I do George's class on Friday.

If I want to make it harder for George's class I saw that instead of doing the stick you could just like tie it around their waist and then they have to like bend down like kind of like squat down to try to fish the candy cane.

And that's kind of sounds weird I don't know but I might try that if I feel like it's too easy for haddies class or I feel like it would be too easy for George's class so that's a little bit about what my December's been up to so we're busy as can be.

But life is great and those are just some of the holiday updates that I had.

Okay so now I want to get into I guess just like the history of the car mom and maybe some of you guys won't care about this but I haven't covered this story in a long time so here you go.

I'm just gonna start from the beginning so when I was pregnant with haddie I was working at the dealership and I wasn't selling cars anymore because I couldn't do the hours with truthfully just daycare and George was.

Young because Georgia had our only 16 months apart so George was a baby basically still I was newly pregnant with haddie and I was doing like direct mail and BDC work at the dealership so basically I was helping answer internet leads and then I was sending out direct mail pieces so like.

We would you know it's called like mining for customers I would like look up customers who bought a car three years ago I'd pull their addresses I'd put together a mail or being like hey it's been three years do you want to come in and buy a new car.

And I didn't really I didn't love the work because I just didn't find it to be very fulfilling.

I also really wasn't making I wasn't making the money I was when I was selling cars and our expenses were going up and up because then you have.

One kid in daycare I'm working part time and I looking at the price of two kids in daycare and I'm like oh my gosh this is not going to pencil.

And my mom was a stay at home mom so I just kind of always assumed I would stay at home eventually but once I started kind of facing that reality I was a little less excited about it because I really did just love selling cars.

And I remember just like being so sad that like I couldn't sell cars anymore and I felt like it was something I was so good at so passionate about but then of course I was also so passionate about being a mom I always wanted to be a mom.

And I always wanted to have a lot of kids so I remember just sitting with Tyler one evening and I was really frustrated with myself because I feel like I just wasn't hacking hacking it like.

I I've just always been a very high I guess you could say the word high achiever like I was senior class president high school I was on the president's board in my college I was holding an exact position in my sorority all four years in college like I've just always done a lot.

And I now I was thinking about like okay so now I'm going to just stay home with the kids and not work and not do anything and I know that there's anything wrong with that but it was just feeling like such a juxtaposition from who I was and I was mad because like I was good at it like I was going to leave a job I was good at because it didn't work with motherhood.

And Tyler's always just been like the best husband like seriously he's he is so supportive and he's always encouraged me to to treat the car mom like a business so it's actually the car was actually his idea or he inspired the idea

because I was talking to him one night and I was getting a little emotional and I'm like I just can't believe I can't figure it out like I've just always been able to figure it out and now I feel so lost.

And Tyler goes Kelly why don't you just focus on the moms he's like just try to sell cars to moms why don't you talk to your dad and see if you can you know work an untraditional sales role.

And just be the mom and St. Louis who sells cars like sell to other moms only work by appointment.

And I was like that's kind of a good idea like I could just be the mom who sells cars and I kind of have like these visions in my head and really as soon as he said the idea.

I knew it was going to be huge and which sounds so crazy but it's almost like God just like kind of like laid out the entire vision for the car mom.

And I was like Tyler that is an excellent idea and that's exactly what I'm going to do I really call Elizabeth that night and I said Liz I think I'm going to start reviewing cars for moms on social media like be up just post on Instagram like post the cars that are at the dealership I'll sell some cars I'll just become a youtuber like a car reviewer and she was like that's an amazing idea.

She both just like knew that it was a good idea which which made it really fun and people always asked me like did you ever think it was going to was going to blow up this big and I I hate to sound overly confident but the answer is yes like yes I thought that it could be this big.

And I think that's actually one of the reasons why it got so big because we treated it like a business from day one like this was you know you could I guess like I kind of it kind of started off like feeling like a passion project but like we just all knew me Tyler and Liz it was going to be more than that so every move we made was to make it what it is today now we didn't know exactly how it was going to look but we knew it was a good idea.

So I kind of sat with the idea for like a day but I'm not one to really sit with things and I guess I thought like I was going to have to do it on YouTube because like that's where the other car reviewers were but I at this point like Liz was working full time at another job so she wasn't working for the car mommy at she was just more like supporting me from the distance she was living in Dallas at the time and I was like okay well all the other car viewers are on YouTube so like I guess I just have to figure out how to be on YouTube.

But YouTube was such felt like such an undertaking because it was so it wasn't on the go it was like do I need a professional camera do I need an editing software how do I monetize on YouTube like I had no idea what I was doing so I remember one night I was like rocking George's sleep scrolling Instagram and I'm like well all the moms are on Instagram like all the moms are doing exactly what I'm doing right now scrolling their phone on Instagram while rocking their baby so I'm just going to do I'm just going to do where where my audience is and that's on Instagram.

So the very next day I was at the dealership I for some reason just knew I was going to call it the car mom.

I secured the handle and then I went live and I said hi I'm Kelly Suntrap Stumpy and this is the car mom.

I've been in the auto industry a couple of years and I'm going to start reviewing cars for moms and that was it and I just hit send and literally that was how the page started.

I like made a logo on Canva and then I started reviewing cars and you know I was very I think like one of my biggest privileges I'll say is I had a lot of resources like I was a mom obviously I had sold cars for several years and I had access to five use car lots five car lots with a ton of use cars if you don't know my family owns car dealerships I don't know if I said that earlier so I.

In a way was like the bosses daughter and like I could just like roll into any dealership and be like hey I need the keys to that you know use Pacifica you just got in so I had such a wide net of cars that I could pull from which I think.

Has really helped obviously with my success because the other car reviewers.

It's very hard to get started car reviewing because.

You don't really the manufacturers aren't going to send you cars until like you have an audience and you don't really like an audience until you have enough cars reviewed.

And then even when you get cars from the manufacturers I'm sure that those reviewers feel like they can't necessarily be as harsh as maybe they would like to be on some of the cars I don't know I'm just kind of speculating but I do not rely on the manufacturers to get me cars they send me cars.

But if I never got another press car in my life like you guys wouldn't even notice because I can just access all of the dealerships cars and my dad has always been so supportive and.

You know he's really he's really never given me pushback I think there's a level of like my dad just doesn't totally understand it and my dad's also smart enough to know like what he needs to understand and what he doesn't need to understand so he knows that I review cars really critically and some of the summer cars that he owns like summer brands of cars that he owns but he's never one time asked me to tone it down or ask me to not do that he doesn't really care to be honest with you.

So anyway I say that where it's just it was very easy for me to start doing a lot of cars and I had an old car seat like an old disgusting grade code that was like expired and I just started putting it in the car and for lack of a words I just kind of started talking out of my ASS like I really had no idea what I was talking about especially in terms of the car seats.

And I quickly got lit up like a Christmas tree on social media which I was grateful for because I was wrong for what I was doing.

And I was just saying like oh this one doesn't fit a car seat this one can't fit three across and I was showing like three of the biggest car seats possible like I was being stupid.

So once I realized how unequipped I was to talk about the car seats I kind of dialed that back for a while and I just started focusing on the cars and car buying tips.

That really seemed to resonate well with my audience and it was actually something that I was at the time probably more passionate about because I didn't really know a ton about cars.

As crazy as it sounds when it got when I got started I had I had sold cars but like I sold BMW's like what did I know about the use Ford Explorer that was on the lot like not not much I just kind of like showed it from a mom's perspective like I just showed it like.

Like I was I mean a regular person for lack of better words.

But I also think that's kind of one of the reasons why my review started to resonate with people.

Because I didn't take it that seriously and I wanted my reviews to be fun and engaging enough and I remember kind of like the motto or the motto I came up with or like the style of my content.

Is I would tell people I want to feel like I'm your girlfriend you're taking car shopping.

Like this is not that deep like I'm just like I wanted to be like I don't know girl trunk looks a little small. What do you think and I was just trying to get people like a first look at a car.

Oh I also mentioned this was like peak COVID like I was doing this in June of 2020. So like it was it was COVID times.

So people weren't really going to the dealerships.

Or they didn't really feel comfortable doing it. So I was like I'm just going to show them the cars like I can go to the dealership I can grab the keys and I can just show people what cars look like.

So I started posting pretty consistently very consistently every day and I remember when I wanted this first start growing my social media.

I would do a lot of trolling and here's what I mean by that any Facebook group I could find that would take my post I would post it and I would try to get sneaky with that.

So like for example I'd go to like Peloton moms on a Facebook group be like hey guys like admin delete if not allowed but I'm starting an Instagram about reviewing cars for moms like what are your favorite mom features.

And I would say it to ask a question rather than just say go follow me because if you said go follow me they would delete you.

So I would ask a question and then at the end I'd be like hey by the way I'm starting this account here it is.

And that honestly for what it was that worked really really well because I remember I would like post like on I would try to post like two or three a day of like literally any Facebook group I get my hands on like.

You know moms of May 2020 babies I did it on you know my sorority page my high school page any page that would take my post.

And I remember I would like go to bed and every night I would log in the next morning I'd be like oh my gosh I got 15 new followers one time and one night when after posting on Facebook group I got like 300 followers and I couldn't believe it.

So that was one of the ways I tried to grow in the beginning and then I would also I would follow every I'd follow so many accounts so many car accounts and then some of the big influencer accounts

and I would comment on every post hey my name is hey I'm review car sure I'm some families check out my page and I was so grateful at that moment that I had made my handle the car mom because it said what I did you know if it just would have said like Kelly stumpy.

It wouldn't have been maybe as catching people's eyes but I'm so grateful I have the handle the car mom and I have a story on that after because if I went on Mercedes post and said hey follow me for you know car tours for moms I would really do that I would do that for hours on my phone just like

comment on every single page and I think that kind of helped me grow and you know one of the biggest pieces of social media advice I give people is like social media is social so if you want to grow on social media how about you start by being social how about you start by making connections and commenting on other creators and not don't even comment to do promotions like that was honestly kind of shady that I was doing that comment to engage people will see the comments and then now you can do like say something funny say or say something funny to the comment or add value

because people read the comments more I feel like a lot more than they even used to

anyway so that helps me get a lot of followers too so once this all started I remember like again I knew it was a good idea so as soon as I had the idea I was like we got to get this thing trademarked

and I you know between the trademarking and then thinking about getting on YouTube and thinking about the cost of a microphone like I go back to Tyler and I'm like tell

it's going to be like $1200 to get this thing trademarked like the camera I won is like $800 like I just we had no we didn't have the money I was like I don't think we can I just I don't know I just like feel like this isn't really going to work

and this is so cute but the next day he came back and he handed me a debit card and he had put $5,000 on it and we

like I didn't even know we had $5,000 and I really don't know where he got the money from but he gave me the money and he was like

I really believe in you and I believe in this and he's like and I want you to I want you to take it to the moon so we opened up a bank account handing me the debit card I bought a camera

for $895 I bought a mic for a hundred and something dollars and I went to go get it trademarked reached out to a trademark lawyer

and a couple weeks later I got something in the mail that said like hey send your send this $2,000 check here

to get the card I'm trademarked and I was okay perfect it had my logo on it it had my name on it it had the

the classes we were filing for I sent the check in uh I don't hear anything I reached out to my

trademark lawyer and they were like what did you pay and I got scammed I got scammed and I basically paid for

sugar water and I cried I was so mad at myself I was so embarrassed I mean it was literally like I

lit money on fire and a lot of money a lot of money the money that Tyler gave me to start it

it was so mad at myself and it was such an expensive lesson to learn but I guess if you I guess

once your lawyers start trademarking something like that becomes public and then they scammers will

just send it to you in the mail and I mean scams are like so like scams are so out of control like even more so

today but that was definitely a low and I was like shoot like I messed up borrow the money for my dad

to pay for the proper trademark and yeah that was that was a crazy time so anyway now we start so

I'm still pregnant had you during all of this and I was still working at the dealership doing the

car mom like like on my lunch break like going out there and like trying to like find one

one car to make content with and I had no idea how it was going to monetize it so this was so I

started this in June had he was due in October and I said I need to try to get 10,000 followers by

October because one you'd get you because at 10,000 you used to get the swipe up which like was

everything back in 2020 on Instagram and I was like if I can get the swipe up I can monetize I can

monetize if I can get the swipe up so I was like by the time had he's born I need to be at 10,000

so I can quit my job and I worked honestly super hard like I spent a lot of time recording content

filming for filming content editing content I was still doing it all myself was wasn't working for

me yet and when how he was born I had 14,000 followers so I had made it thanks to like some small

to medium sized accounts shouting me out like Amy Beth Campbell she had like 8,000 followers and she

was car shopping and she was so generous with her shout outs and like that helped a lot

and yeah that was that was crazy so how he was born and I said okay I think I can do this but

like it's still going to take a lot of time I still had no idea how it was really going to monetize

it but my first idea was to kind of come out with like a car buying workbook back in 2020 when I was

doing this like courses were all the rage like everyone had a course everyone had a course

people were over coursing it they had a course on how to have a course they had a course on how

to wake up in the morning they had everyone had a course but I didn't feel like I had the bandwidth

to record a course at the moment so I said I'm just gonna do like a workbook like a car shopping

workbook it will be a PDF download and that came out in January so I had worked on that

from basically October to January worked on this workbook and I was really proud of it

I feel like now looking back on it it wasn't anything that groundbreaking but at the time like I

really I felt like I was like sharing all of my tips and it was just PDF downloads were also

really a really cool thing back then it's crazy how much it's changed just in like five years

so anyway we decide to launch this workbook and in the first day we launch it we sold like 800

and I was selling it for do we sell like 800 it was a lot it was a couple hundred I think it was

like 800 and we sold it for $10 and I was like oh my gosh oh my freaking gosh I couldn't believe it

but that was January that launch so from June to January I didn't make a send and that's

what I tell tell people about social media when they like want to get started they're like well

you know is it gonna make money and I'm like I don't know I didn't make any money for six months

well I literally I was negative I was in the negatives for six months and I don't think everyone

needs to do that way just don't mess up on the trademark thing and not everyone needs to invest

in a camera like I had to but that was when I was like oh my goodness like this is insane and I

was so grateful for my community at the time because people were buying it just to support me they

were like hey I bought a car last month but I just I you were so helpful and I was looking for a

way to support you so I went ahead and bought the workbook and that was just insane so at this time

I probably had 60 ish thousand followers because I remember in March of 21 I hit 100,000 so I started

in June of 20 by March of 21 I was at 100,000 so from October to January I grew a lot after

had he was born actually which I'd have to look back on my feed to see like what I was posting because

I definitely like still took a maternity leave so I don't really know how I blew up so much

I guess I guess I would have had to have gotten some shout outs or something I'm not sure I don't

remember and also during this time my manager reached out to me and it was like the tech that like

totally changed my life because I used to have my phone number in my Instagram bio this was when I

had like you know 10,000 followers and I was like sure if someone wants to text me like I'll help

someone buy a car I was also still kind of using the car mom to try to sell cars at this point

especially the St. Louis moms so I got a text from this person and it said hi my name is Austin

and in parentheses she put girl so I knew it was a girl named Austin and she goes she's like I

manage micro influencers and I'm trying to get this thing started I think your contents amazing

can we hop on a call and I was like oh I've heard of this I've heard of managers before

but I was so hesitant because I was I didn't want to like give up a percentage of the car mom

and I'm like that's crazy like I so believe in this I was like I'm not giving anyone a percentage

of anything but I took the call with her and it was like the first person who outside of like

Tyler and Liz who I felt like understood what we were doing because in the beginning we got like our

fair amount of like hate or like people making fun of our content um and she like saw exactly what

we're doing she's like you're gonna be big and I'm like I know I'm gonna be big like I think I'm

gonna be big too and she's like I love women who are you know not your typical influencers like

and this is no shade to them but like not the fashion bloggers not the mommy blogger like you are

disrupting an industry and I want to be a part of it she was small she was small she didn't have

I was her biggest account at the time um and I think I'm still one of her biggest accounts

and I've been with her since then so she really changed my life because that's when I started to get

brand deals which was not very easy in the beginning because I wasn't your typical influencer

and the auto industry was so behind on influencer marketing like they had no idea it was going on

like we couldn't get we didn't get our first I'd have to look back but like I don't think we got

our first like auto sponsorship for like a year or two in because like they were so not on the

pulse um my first sponsorship I ever did was with chatbooks which I am still a chatbooks customer

today and I did a story set I think for $200 and I couldn't believe it and product and product

which was like so exciting so that was really fun and then that's really that really started to

take us to the next level um in terms of like getting more income and making it a full-time thing

for me because the workbook sales like were so big but it was like that one drop and then it

significantly petered out like we had that one big drop and then it was you know we'd sell

you know like maybe 20 or 30 a month so it was still good like supplemental income passive income

but it wasn't it wasn't gonna be sustainable but once Austin started once I got Austin

things really started to pick up and I continue to grow a lot and then so in March I hit

a hundred thousand and then in April Elizabeth quit her job and came to work for me full time and

Elizabeth's story it's kind of fun too because Elizabeth had a huge background in video editing

so Elizabeth got her Elizabeth got a degree at Bradley University in television arts and she

was the she was just like the girl in high school who like was always editing videos like if you

needed a video made back in 2012 like it was Elizabeth who did it like she just was good she had

little her little final cut pro on her little Macbook and like she was just a video editor so um

she was working the job she hated she was living in Dallas and she had started like doing some stuff

like part-time for me like helping me just like edit things and I was calling her all the time

it always bound to an ideas off of her and then eventually I was like Liz let's just just quit

your job like just quit your job and come like let's just do this let's just let's go full send

on the car mom together and I remember us being so I guess people always ask me like I was

embarrassed and I think I think there was a level of me that was a little embarrassed

um but I just believed in it so much like I just let myself kind of be a little uncomfortable

with it and I think Elizabeth kind of felt the same thing but I was like it's so much more fun

like we just have to take a chance on this and again we I mean we I can't express you like we

didn't we weren't making a lot of money at this time um certainly not enough like to pay for two of us

to work there but we believed in it enough and we knew if we could get monetized on youtube

things would really start to pick up or at least be more consistent youtube monetization

was very difficult because I remember you need a thousand subscribers which we hit pretty easy

but you need four hundred watched hours to get monetized on youtube and the four hundred watch or

maybe it was four thousand I think it had to be four thousand for the four thousand watched hours

took forever we were posting like one to two videos a week because that was the only bandwidth

we could do at the time and you know we'd be like okay we hit 40 hours that day okay great

like which was which is actually crazy when you think about it because our tours were only like

15 minutes long we were getting like 40 hours worth of people watching it um so the 4,000

watched hours took a while we finally did it we got monetized we couldn't freaking believe it

you guys we could not believe it we would log on every day and check what we made off youtube

the next day and it was anywhere from like 40 dollars some days the most days it was like 40 to

60 dollars and like that was insane to us like 40 dollars a month off of our youtube tours 40

dollars a day off of our youtube tours were like that's like twelve hundred bucks a month like

that's insane and then whenever we would drop a tour uh our views would go up a lot and it was a

hot tour we would like freak out on the word forget we dropped a Lexus GX or LX like Lexus I think

was the Lexus LX 570 and it was a five hundred dollar day on youtube and we couldn't believe it

we were like oh my gosh we made five hundred dollars yesterday off of our youtube video

and that was insane now we would have like one of the one or two of those a month and it was like when

we dropped the hot tour so again it still wasn't like totally ripping but youtube got consistent

Austin got a little more consistent we had our digital products and we also just really worked

on continuing to grow and it's just been such such a wild ride and it's been so fun and I feel

so blessed to do with my sister and I feel so blessed to do with all of you guys because I really

just felt like we were doing it to change the auto industry and the more I started reviewing the

cars the more like fired up I got about it to be honest with you because it was like these

cars suck these cars suck no one's thinking about families when they're making these cars and I

just couldn't believe how these things were getting like scooped under the rug and I would say

that April like once once let's start working for me I was like okay I need to go get CPST certified

because like I don't I took a lot of weight and pressure in what it meant to be reviewing these

cars and I was like if I'm going to be influencing these these purchases like I have to know what

I'm talking about like I have to know what I'm talking about it's too serious of a matter to like

be making to be talking out of my butt for lack of better words so I got my CPST certification

and let me tell you something I could not believe how little I learned and that's like such a hot

take but I was like okay well that didn't really help much because do I know how to install a car

seat shirt do I know how to fit three across do I know what people overlap means do I know what

I had like it wasn't and I hate to like crap on the program but like it just felt I think for

some people it's it was helpful but for me I basically like should have already been certified

because I was already installing these car seats and I was like this was this wasn't enough so I

got the certification and then I still continued to like deep dive into like so many other like

components that go along with car seats and safety and I've met a lot of great CPST's along the way

and now I have Sam who works for the car mom and I'm always so transparent with like I am not

I'm not really not I'm not the world's best CPST but I think Sam is one of the world's best CPST's

and I love surrounding myself with women who are smarter than me in those capacities

because it's just it's I just don't mind relying on other people and that's how a lot of my

team has been built around like I think we have a team of what do we have a team of six now

and every person is smarter than me in their field and like that's exactly what I want and I

have no qualms with just hiring better talent and that's where I love like having moms work for me

because I think like they're just corporate America's most underutilized resources because these

women who are for me are so brilliant and they should like just they're so brilliant and like they

choose to work for the car mom because we offer a flexible schedule because like we're all

moms doing it and I just I can't believe how smart they are and I'm just I'm so blessed with

like such the best team I have Stephanie who works on my website is so smart and she really has

ramped up our website and our affiliates in a major way Matney is like the best assistant I could

ever ask for she is the kind of assistant who like thinks before I even think do you know what I

mean like she's just so great and she's got great customer service skills which was also

important to us and I just can't believe how how excited I am about how far we've come but also

like how far we're gonna continue to go and yeah it's just been it's been a really wild ride and

I'm really so grateful for all of you and I can feel like it's been so fun to feel the shift

in the auto industry and like if I think about like some career highlights I've had like getting

to speak at NADA which is the National Automotive Dealers Association it was a top I've spoken

now there two times and it was an incredible experience because I'm talking to dealers about

how to make the car buying experience better for women like okay like it's giving mission

statement like that's exactly what I wanted to do and like I'm actually in the room um

getting to work with some of these manufacturers not like I've never like consulted with a

manufacturer but like when GM flew me out there to show me that they put head restraints in their

in their cars like pinch me moment interviewing the CEO of General Motors pinch me moment um

I recently got to go on a trip with Ford where they I guess we kind of consulted a little bit

on like future products pinch me moment so it's just been it's been so incredible and I'm so excited to

like get this website out and just really take the car mom to the next level and I think like my

long-term vision for it is I want to I want to eventually like the car mom needs to be more than

just my opinion it needs to be a lot of mom's opinions that's something that's super important to me

because one like I'm one mom I have got one combination of kids I don't have older kids yet I'm not

gonna have younger kids forever so I want to make sure that we're always hearing that you're always

able to hear from a mom that looks like you um and that's what I think the new website's going to

allow us to do and it's gonna take like I want the car mom to be the car mom and I want to be Kelly

Stumpy who runs the car mom but I don't necessarily want to be the car mom if that makes sense like

I want us to be the car mom like we're all the car mom the car mom is the car moms I probably need

to change it to the car moms eventually but for now we'll just do the car mom oh that's another

fun thing so when I for when I picked the name I couldn't get the car mom dot com it was unavailable

but I had already done the trademark thing because I didn't know I needed a website at the time

so I got the car mom official well then a couple years later I had the opportunity to buy the car mom

and I bought it what did I buy it for it wasn't that much money for what it was like I would have

paid way more I think I bought it for twelve hundred dollars the car mom dot com and then just this

past week car mom dot com became available and so my name's the car mom but I was like what

do people just type in car mom like it should go to my website so I also bought that domain which

I paid a little bit I paid a lot more for but I felt like that was important to have those domains

so now I own car mom the car mom and the car mom official they'll all take you to my website

and when our redesign website comes out that's when I'm really gonna rely on a lot of you guys

to go there and review the cars it can be the car you have the car you test drove but didn't buy

your husband's car your mom's car it doesn't matter I want it to feel like rent the runway but for

cars like I wanted to be everyone's opinions on there and my reviews will start being a little

bit more like database and just more informational and like your reviews will be more of the

opinions which is what I want that's what I want so that's a little bit about the car mom

and that felt really good to recap that trying to think if there's any other like crazy highs crazy

lows um it's been I mean it's been it's been pretty consistent growth um hitting a hundred

thousand on YouTube was so exciting I'll never forget that we got the plaque which like George

thinks is the coolest thing in the world that his mom has a YouTube plaque like it's so fun

starting the podcast was a huge endeavor that we've so enjoyed and it's one of my favorite platforms

to make content on I love the podcast I love all of you guys so much you have no idea um

and I mean yeah it's changed a lot like you know what worked in 2020 2021 does not work in 2025

and I think that's kind of what makes social media so exciting is that it's just always changing

um so yeah all right guys well that's this episode so that was kind of fun I hope you guys

enjoyed this specialty edition of the history of the car mom and we will be back on fry yay

back with Elizabeth for a regular regular episode so thank you guys so much for listening to

the carpool podcast and I will talk to you next time love you bye thank you for listening to the

carpool podcast with Kelly and Liz make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode and if

you enjoyed riding with us tell everybody you know there's room in the car for everyone

THE COMPLETE ORAL HISTORY OF THE CAR MOM

About this episode

car seat

Ford Explorer

Lexus GX

Lexus LX 570

CPST

head restraints

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from The Carpool with Kelly and Lizz