U-R-G On the Go
An informative podcast for the United Recyclers Group. Each week we will feature an entertaining guest that will share their knowledge and information with you, providing you with tips and tools to help you become a more profitable business.
U-R-G On the Go
From Funny Farm to Industry Leader: Shannon Nordstrom's Journey
Few stories in automotive recycling capture the essence of American entrepreneurship quite like Shannon Nordstrom's journey. From the "funny farm" where cows, crops, and cars coexisted to running an industry-leading operation spanning three generations, Shannon's path reveals how vision, faith, and hard work transform businesses—and lives.
Shannon's candid storytelling takes us back to where it all began: his parents turning necessity into opportunity when his father purchased a wrecked Ford pickup, fixed it up, and discovered a $71 profit margin that would change their family's trajectory forever. With characteristic humility, Shannon credits his mother as the driving force behind many pivotal business decisions, including the launch of what would become the nationally syndicated "Under the Hood" radio show. What started with a 19-year-old Shannon talking cars on local radio has evolved into a multimedia platform reaching hundreds of stations and generating over 5 million podcast downloads.
The bedrock of Nordstrom's success isn't just business acumen but a deeply held faith expressed through their motto PTLA—Praise The Lord Always. This principle appears across their operation as a reminder that gratitude remains central to their mission of serving customers, employees, and the industry. Shannon's passion for automotive recycling extends beyond his own facility to his work developing a unified quality assurance program that combines the best elements of ARA and URG certification standards.
As Shannon prepares to be installed as the next ARA president in Birmingham this October, his enthusiasm for giving back to the industry that shaped him is palpable. Whether sharing how he met his wife of nearly 30 years when she came to buy tires (he kept her phone number from her father's check) or explaining the transformative impact of industry connections, Shannon exemplifies how relationships build successful businesses.
Want to see what three decades of industry reinvestment looks like? Visit nordstromsauto.com to explore their URG-designed website, subscribe to the Under the Hood Show on YouTube to help them reach 10,000 subscribers, or better yet—experience their customer service firsthand by ordering quality recycled parts from a family that's dedicated their lives to excellence in auto recycling.
Welcome one and all to URG On the Go podcast. You're there, we're here. This is the true voice of the automotive recycling industry. We are here for the pros that have a need to know that are on the go. I'm DJ Harrington, better known as the cardiologist. I'm the co-host, but the real co-host of this program is the very talented Amanda Morrison, who is director of member and vendor relations for URG. Amanda, how are you this beautiful day?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great, DJ. I'm finally back in Texas. I've been traveling like crazy the last month and a half or so, but it's been great. It's been good I'm getting lots of different touch bases with either vendors or members, and so it's been awesome. How are you, DJ?
Speaker 1:I am doing excellent and we have the guest of guests today we do. This is a guy who, well, you start interviewing him, we don't have to say more, but he is really Mr Industry. He knows inside and out, so I would refer to him as Mr Industry and it's such an honor to have him on.
Speaker 3:I agree, I agree. Thank you, Shannon Nordstrom, for being on today. We've got you. I wanted to bring you in. We had you speak at the URG conference with DJ a little bit, and I loved hearing you talk about ARA and kind of the different things that you've been going through and I wanted to get a full episode with you. So thanks, Shannon, for being on today.
Speaker 4:Well, I am honored to be here with you folks in the room, and being on with the cardiologist always brings a smile to my face and you know, I think so much of him as the cardiologist. When we started our radio show, russ and Idy said we needed to be the motor medics. Now that's not quite at the level of the cardiologist, but we get to come in the room during sensitive times let's put it that way but the cardiologist is the real deal. But no, we're excited to be here, love to talk about our industry. I get excited and passionate about it because it's been so good to our company and to our family and we love giving back and it's part of our mission statement is to give back to the industry, give back to our community, give back to the faith-based organizations that have supported us and so we can support them. It's all a big circle of helping each other.
Speaker 3:I love that. Yeah, and it's so funny. We go out on these yard tours and you're so well known in this industry. You're a pillar in this industry, for sure. You know. If we say that we've been on yard tours, they always ask have you seen Nordstrom's yard? We're going to be making our way up there here soon. Eventually Chrissy's over in South Dakota, so one of these days we'll make it up to view your yard. But I wanted to hear about how you guys got started at the yard and with your radio show. Can you give us a little background on your origin story?
Speaker 4:How much time do we have?
Speaker 3:As much as you need, Shannon.
Speaker 4:No, I get accused of talking too much, but you know what? There's been great people in my life that have helped me to be confident about presenting myself and presenting what I'm proud of, no matter what that might be. I'm speaking about whether it started in FFA in high school and doing the extemporaneous speaking contest, where they give you a subject and you got to go in a short period of time with limited preparation and give a presentation to now being on the podcast, or every week when we record our live radio show. People have given me the confidence to get out and talk about it. My mother and my father were the first ones to do that and that kind of goes back to where everything starts and my mom and dad start off at the top. The most important part I'll start with the foundation of everything. When they were just out of high school, their opportunity in life was thrown right at them.
Speaker 4:When my grandfather passed away, who I never knew, I never got to meet him. His name was Walt and that is my middle name and also my son Riley's middle name. But Walt passed away and Grandma Leona, love her dearly. She passed at 92. Love her dearly. She passed at 92. She asked. Basically, you know, art marie, are you guys wanting to take more responsibility here at the farm? We need you to. Dad's gone.
Speaker 4:And so my mom and dad were hard workers. They were working different jobs in town. My dad would work a milk route for lando lakes dairy or terrace park it was at the time, and my mom worked in the meat packing plant in their business office, and they loved to work. They also loved to play, and the neighbor ladies at their bible study used to always pray that if those Nordstrom kids could be as good as they are bad, they could be something special, and that's kind of a play on words, but they were always trying to bring them in.
Speaker 4:And my mom got brought to a Christian business women's conference as a young lady by my grandma, leona, and she gave her life to the Lord and became a Christian. And my dad came along about six months later in the same faith decision. And us kids. We came right along with mom right away, because I would have been three years old at the time, in 1972. And so we all grew up in this crazy incubator which became what we called the funny farm, and the reason it was the funny farm was because there was cows, there was crops, there was cars. Because we grew up around the racetrack, we went to the dirt track, we went racing every weekend.
Speaker 4:And then my dad was a hot rodder in high school and he just loved cars and so when grandma needed, or when they needed a pickup for the farm, grandma had already said you know what I've helped you, how I'm going to help you. You got to figure this one out. He went and found a wrecked pickup At the time it was Arntz Wreck King in Sioux Falls. They're now a development property and they were the biggest operator around here for the longest time and he bought this wrecked Ford pickup and fixed it up and realized after using it for a year that he can make some money on it.
Speaker 4:I have the original books.
Speaker 4:He made 71 on it and that pickup was kind of the incubus for what would become a true funny farm.
Speaker 4:As he and my mom and us kids working right with them, I have two sisters and we started what would become the funny farm by rebuilding Ford pickups, grain trucks and things that he could sell to the neighbors and the demand started getting kind of crazy and that led to one thing leading to another and I guess the biggest chapter after the faith base because I guess I don't want to lose what I was just telling you about there that gave my mom and dad and our family a confidence that everything was going to be okay, family a confidence that everything was going to be okay, no matter how stressful things were or how crazy things got.
Speaker 4:There was always a bigger picture at play and it was going to be okay because God had our parachute. And it was also the fact that you think about others you don't just selfishly think about yourself, you also think about others and so we learned to be good hosts to our customers. We made sure that anybody that came out to this farm was treated like royalty, you know, whether it was free cans of pop in the refrigerator, or always having a candy dish, or you know, just really trying to become customer centric, not knowing how well that would serve us for a business that would grow here on the farm.
Speaker 4:At the time it was just all a crazy, crazy sideline to survive and to try to grow a family and pay for, you know, a young, young married couple with three kids, and so, while I'm a second generation, and so while I'm a second generation, I grew up with the first generation as it formed, and so you know, I was here through every bit of it, and actually I'm told that I cried when I went to kindergarten because I didn't, I wouldn't be able to follow dad around and go down to the junkyard and go see Marv, because that's what I love doing.
Speaker 4:And so that was kind of the beginning roots of the business here, and today, when you come visit Nordstrom's 2.0, it is on the same dairy farm that everything started on and that's why it's always been called the funny farm.
Speaker 4:And so we are so proud of what we've built here, with a great team of employees that have joined us through the years and some that have been with us for all the years to build something we're very proud of. It's not the best around. You hear a lot of noise about Nordstrom's because DJ taught me how to get out in front and talk about it, and so if you're proud of something, you talk about it, and you talk about it with pride, and I've always done that, no matter what stage in business we were at, and it's led me to meeting a lot of people and having a big voice in the industry. But I will guarantee you that we are not the best operators in the industry, but we are very proud of where we're at and we do have a very nice facility that we're very proud of, and we give a lot of tours to as we have time, and we'd love to have the URG folks out here to to show you around, that's for sure yeah, no, we definitely want to come out there.
Speaker 3:We've heard, like I said, and, and I agree, you've been such an advocate and and getting yourself out there, and you know being ARA past president as well and you know just representing the industry. So well, no, I'm an area future.
Speaker 4:I'm an area future president, I'll get him still, I'll get installed as the president at Birmingham right now.
Speaker 3:My great friend.
Speaker 4:Wilbert is the president it's a you know. I'm in the succession of a five-year commitment with a RA that ends with being past president for a year. And I'm very excited for that opportunity and I've also been very involved with URG through the years. I was cleaning out an old office and I found an old cork board from our old office and it has got one of the very early URG stickers on it. That looks like a nuclear reactor, you know, or like a nuclear fusion symbol.
Speaker 4:Well, that Bolton board is going to be archived we don't need that one for that one, but the URG has been a big part of us too. It's been. All those organizations that have been, are so valuable to members are what we're wanting to give back to, because they've it's been so valuable for us all. The people we've met within these groups.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well, and that I think that's why I was thinking you've been, you've been working with Chrissy for so long now on the certification process. So that's where my mind was, but and it's been so cool to have you know ARA and URG come together and work together. Oh it is.
Speaker 4:It is a dream come true because we have so much talent in our industry and there is no place in our small industry for us to be divided in any way or trying to take on the same mission. I think we can split it up well with the different people in the industry and come together on the things that make sense. I've been the chair of the certification committee for I don't really know how long it is, but we know it's over 20 years.
Speaker 4:I can find a piece of paper somewhere that would probably show me, but the certification has been. I'm sorry if I'm rambling here, but it's been huge to us and that's as part of that growth on the funny farm tying it all back together again, one of the first things that I did and one of the first things that I did. Well, I'm skipping a big chunk in the middle there, but in 1996, my wife and I got married in 1995. Tammy and I will be celebrating 30 years anniversary this June.
Speaker 4:So we're excited about that and her and I drove to Denver in 1996, I believe it was we were driving a 95 Buick Riviera that I did as a repairable. I remember that.
Speaker 4:And we were going out there to our first ARA show and when I got out to that show I remember listening to some folks talking about this certification program. Art Herber was a name at the time and he was talking about this program. And I had just came back in 1988, full time with my parents. I had left to go to school for a little bit because I didn't want to farm. We were still farming, the cows were still here. I wanted my parents to not have to milk those darn black and white, as they would call them, a-holes sometimes when they would get out, and so I wanted to really start a parts business. But I didn't want to farm. So I went to school for electronics and telecommunications and I quit.
Speaker 4:When we got into the part about what was inside of a semiconductor, I realized I really didn't give a shit about that anymore and where my passion was was what I grew up with with the cars. So I prayed. But I called my mom back up and I said mom, I want to come back into the business. And she goes what would you do? Are you sure you want to do that? At the time there was five employees in 1988. And I said I just want to come back and help however I can, and I think we can do something with a parts business. And so that's a big gap. And that's when I came into the picture. Full-time was 1988.
Speaker 4:After just a short stint in telecommunications and electronic school. Always loved technology, always enjoyed that stuff. But I'm a car guy at heart. I love being around the stuff and learning about it, knowing about it. But so my wife and I, after we got married in 1995, I said let's go out to Denver. We went out to this conference. It was a big, big deal and the people were there. We heard about the certification program. I said you know what? This is what we need to do. We got to do this and I made a goal of getting certified by 1998. And we made it by 1999.
Speaker 4:But with that certification journey we learned what we needed to do for our business. It taught me things I had not even thought about of what we needed to do to have a solid business that could pass a little bit of rigor if some bureaucratic people came in or or, if you're, environmentally, because we've always wanted to do the right thing environmental. We were farmers, we lived off the land, but we wanted to do the right thing environmentally. We were farmers, we lived off the land, right, but we wanted to take care of stuff. And that certification program was just right up my alley. It gave me a roadmap, so we did that, and it put us on a short list of people that had done that at the time.
Speaker 4:And that list, of being on that short list, gave Nordstrom's Automotive at the time Nordstrom's Auto Recycling an opportunity to be a dismantler for vehicles that were brand new, coming off of DITs, damage and transits, buybacks, different things, distressed vehicles, and it gave us an opportunity for that that I would have never had if I would not have been certified. And it gave us an opportunity for that that I would have never had if I would not have been certified. And it's an opportunity that I probably should have never gotten because we were so youthful in our business. But we took a run at it. I outpounded my coverage once again in my life I've done that a ton of times and we got. First time was when I got my wife to marry me and we really, really were able to just get an amazing opportunity for our company and that was a huge, huge growth point. But it started from going to conferences, meeting people, listening, paying attention and then the certification. That's why the certification is so passionate to me, because it puts your business in the right place.
Speaker 4:And now what we're working with with, with URG, is taking the the remnants of the gold seal program, of ARA's certification program and the remnants of the URG 9000 certification program that URG had created, which is so good and so many people had worked on.
Speaker 4:We're going to smash those together like that nuclear fusion reactor of that symbol that we saw, and out of that is going to come an amazing quality assurance program that the two of our groups and others can join together to promote the best operators, not just from an environmental standpoint, not just from an operations standpoint, but from a standpoint of what they deliver to the customer, and do it with consistency and scoring systems that make sense, so that we can promote this to the collision industry, to the mechanical industry and and make a make a symbol that means a ton to those that want to do the rigor, to get involved.
Speaker 4:And that's what. That's something I'm sorry I digressed to that, but that's when I talk certification and bringing this all together. I just can't stop being involved until we get to one of those ultimate goals of winning that battle. And so the combination of my desire to raise my hand to join the executive committee with ARA to this work that we'll be doing with URG as part of the process that we've engaged with, so excited to give back to the industry and all those that have given to us for sure 100% yep, and kind of making sure everyone knows that we are those, those cutting edge recyclers that are providing those quality parts and and also the customer service piece behind it.
Speaker 3:I love, love, your passion behind it. It's awesome, yeah it's a lot of fun yeah, it sounds like it and and yeah, christy's having a blast working with you and she's told us all about it and we're really excited about the collaboration that you guys are doing, and just awesome to see the two companies working together for the benefit of the recycler, for sure.
Speaker 4:Well, and you know what, Her and I had kind of got to a point where we had agreed but we were kind of spinning our wheels and hadn't got anywhere. And my daughter got married through last summer and we didn't get all the way we wanted to get. But we got Vince Edivan involved, the executive director for ARA, and you know, vince and Christy and myself have been able to get the framework put together. The legal teams have gotten all the legalities ironed out and now it's time for the joint development committee to have one of its first meetings coming up here real soon. Pat from PAMS is going to lead that committee and we'll start putting the building blocks together and there's some really good people involved to be able to help bring to the reality a joint quality assurance program for the industry.
Speaker 3:I love that. That's awesome. All right, dj. Is it time for our first break?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's take our first break and listeners, we'll be right back. First break. Yeah, let's take our first break and listeners, we'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Urg can help you streamline your business for maximum efficiency and increased profits. Access powerful software and unique tools. Receive top-level training with industry experts. Network with hundreds of recyclers. Employ e-commerce solutions to boost business. Receive support, resources and discounts Starting at just $150 a month. It's the smartest investment you will make for your business this year. Go to u-r-gcom and click on becomea member. Your path to a profitable future is just a click away. That's you-r-gcom.
Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you know you're listening to URG on the Go podcast, tj Harrington, amanda Morrison and the great Shannon Nordstrom, but I want to remind all of you if you would like to be part of this podcast or you want to hear another industry expert like Shannon Nordstrom, by all means you dial our hotline number and Amanda will do her best to get you on this podcast. Dial 706-409-5603, and Amanda will do it. Without further ado, Amanda, I'll pass you over to the number one guy in the industry, Shannon Nordstrom.
Speaker 3:Thank you, dj. You're always so good at those intros. You've got all those little taglines. They're so great. I love it. So, shannon, I wanted to talk about your radio show. When did you guys start that and kind of what gave you the idea and motivation to get that started?
Speaker 4:He nailed it.
Speaker 3:It was mom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, my mom's got her own special parking spot out front and it's it's reserved for the VIM, the very important mother.
Speaker 3:I've seen a photo of that. That's adorable.
Speaker 4:She has earned that spot a million times over. She was the best room mother. She was the best mother of all the employees around here. She was the best mother for us three kids. She is a superhero to all of us and mom was when dad was milking the cows and when dad was out doing car deals and trying to get cars fixed during the day, it ended up that mom was the one that was out in the field doing the field work. She was running the field, uh, uh, harrow. She was running the cultivator to cultivate the weeds Now you don't even do that anymore Hardly. The cultivator to cultivate the weeds you don't even do that anymore, hardly. And she was the one that did also to make some extra money custom alfalfa windrowing on a swather, some people might call it. And she was also the one to raise all the baby calves in a confinement building that we have, and then we would sell the bull calves to the neighbors and we'd raise the heifers and take them through school. They go from uh freshman to sophomore. So we we had, we took the calves through school and my mom was the one that did all that. We helped them together and that we learned to drive in the bomb with my mom that was the old 62 suburban that we'd bring the calves from the freshman class to the sophomore in and then let them out so they could run for the first time and kick all over. And it was just craziness. That's the funny part.
Speaker 4:But anyway, one of the times mom was out wind rowing, she was listening to the radio and listening to our local radio station, wayne Pritchard, and she all of a sudden had this light bulb moment where you know we should do a radio show to talk about our business. And she had rode with my dad. They would drive to Kansas City quite often to go to the auto auction down there. After they'd get done milking the cows, they'd drive through the night and go to the auction, buy cars, have somebody milk one milking and then come back the next day. But she would talk to all the guys that were wandering around because they always enjoyed talking to my mom she just loves to chat and she remembered talking to Frogs Import Salvage in Kansas City and they did a local access TV show where they talked about their salvage yard. And so she thought well, you know, we should do something with this car talk or with our radio show.
Speaker 4:So she went into the local radio station with my dad and he knew some people from the fair, from the races and from the tractor pulls and the demolition derbies. And they said, well, we want to talk to Wayne Pritchard. And so they talked to Wayne and Wayne said well, I'm not the guy, I just talk on the radio. You need to talk to the sales department. So they talked to the sales department and the sales department said you know, we've been talking about this talk format.
Speaker 4:There's some stuff going on and we wouldn't mind putting a car show on the air. We've talked to some of the dealerships and they don't really want their service advisors gone. But could you guys help us out? And so they talked and they said, well, who would do the show? And she goes. Well, my son would do it. And they said, well, what experience does he have? And she said trust me, he can do it. And at the time I was 19 years old, august of 1990, uh, maybe 20, I got to think about the math, but August of 1990. And so they put a 19 or 20 year old kid on the air and, um, we did a half hour car Nordstrom's cars and parts show. We did a half-hour Nordstrom's Cars and Parts show and that has turned into a two-hour Nordstrom's Under the Hood show. That has now been on radio in our market for 35 years.
Speaker 4:Wow, it is now syndicated on Westwood One Radio and goes out to close to 250 radio stations and syndication that take either one hour or two hours of the show every week. We are also on podcast on all the major podcast sites you can find under the hood show and I think since we've started doing podcasting for four and a half or five years ago I think Russ tells me we've had 5 million downloads in that period of time and so it's about 30,000 an episode, 20, 30,000 an episode that get downloaded. And we've got now since COVID. We redid the studio that we have in our business and we just started playing with YouTube in the last year and a half or so here and so we're doing video at the same time. So when we sit down we do two hours of production and during that time we're able to broadcast live out of our own studio to our local radio station live on the air. They trust us to do that.
Speaker 4:They do have an eight-second delay button for Shannon because he's probably going to say something stupid.
Speaker 4:There is a capturing all the audio digitally so that our producer can take from that the two one-hour productions of satellite radio and the two one-hour productions of podcasts and then we're taking the live video feed that's going out to YouTube, I believe, instagram X, facebook simultaneously, and my partner, russ Evans, who's been with me since after year number eight, who also runs our service center up in Garrison, south Dakota. We have a small service center that we do work for people on installing engines and transmissions. It's a small part of our business. He's super smart guy, super good guy, and he has engineered all of this himself with the help of our vendors to make it all work like that. And so it's all homegrown, all self-syndicated. We had a ton of good help, but Russ has been a real kingpin of that.
Speaker 4:I made him a 50-50 partner in the radio show, and then Chris Carter, who is a local radio celebrity that sits down with us when we're all together to form what has now become the nationally syndicated Under the Hood show, and so now it's its own business within a business. We sell advertising on it and it is self-supporting. And I would have never imagined it, but it's one of the things I always wanted to do. When I was in high school I looked at going to Brown Institute in Minneapolis for radio, but I found out the people that were in radio didn't make any money, and I like nice cars too much for me to not make any money, so that probably wasn't what I wanted to do, so that's a long short version of the radio show.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of things that happen in the middle to get where we're at now, but that's that's definitely the most fun part of our week, that is for sure.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That's incredible that you guys have grown that so much in 35 years. That's impressive.
Speaker 4:It's a 35 year overnight success.
Speaker 3:I love it. That's. That's perfect. That's cool that you guys are getting out on the different platforms as well and getting the video out there. That's kind of the new thing in podcasts and radio too is just getting the video out there. You'll probably end up blowing up on YouTube too.
Speaker 4:Well, our first goal is 10,000 subscribers, and we're just short of that right now. So, if you're listening right now, hop on to YouTube and, even if you don't watch it all the time, subscribe. We don't send out a bunch of odd notifications, just subscribe to the Under the Hood Show and help us out. Get us to 10,000, because we've heard that's kind of a big number for YouTube with subscribers, but we're just short of that. I think we're in the 8,000s right now.
Speaker 3:All right, yeah, so hurry here, go, follow on YouTube and get into that 10. Be awesome, we always want to support our fellow auto recyclers.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, because we don't talk. Here's the thing when we're on the show, it's just like I talk to you. Now I know where the professional auto recycler has so many good things to offer the consumer and the dealer and the professional repair facility, and so when people call in with questions, we help them with their cars. We don't always tell them to go buy a used auto part. There's times where we tell them to go to their local big box store because that's the best place to get that water pump, but there's so many people that call in that we're able to tell them about. Hey, you know, go to Car Dash Park, go to the websites that you use for used auto parts URG's website and wherever it might be and look for the used auto part option in your area, because that's what you need to do.
Speaker 4:And so we're also telling them you know this one here you really should go to the dealer because we, we sit in the middle of that automotive universe, that automotive ecosystem, and we're able to give people really good advice, and we that's what we do.
Speaker 3:We try to make people good, good, great consumers of the automobile. That's what we do. I love that. That's perfect, definitely needed too. I feel like there's not enough people that are educated on that process. Either you know whether you get in a car accident or you're just needing a different part. It's something that needs to be widely educated, because I specifically didn't. You know, I came into this industry not knowing anything about cars and I had no idea you could choose a recycled part. You know that's. That's one of the biggest things I think is educating the consumer about the options that they do have.
Speaker 4:Oh, most definitely. And, and people you know, I, we do this every day and I have to remind my employees, I have to remind others around us that do it every day, that most people you talk to, they don't even have 1% of the knowledge that you do. And so every time you meet somebody, they probably have a question that you could give a simple answer, for they're going to think you're a genius.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 4:So I don't have to be that smart. I can just be kind of average and look impressive if I get out in front of it.
Speaker 3:Exactly, you don't have to be that smart. I can just be kind of average and look impressive if I get out in front of it. Exactly, exactly, I love it. So I did have a question. We had someone ask for the podcast. What does the PTLA stand for? I know you have it in all of your emails.
Speaker 4:That goes back to where we started with the Christian roots and our faith-based foundation and the PTLA is on everything and it's praise the Lord always and no matter the situation, whether it be you're having a glorious day or you're having a gut-wrenching day, give it to God and that is what we've grown up with, and when we first were living that life as a family, I talked about going to the racetrack all the time and in the lobby of Nordstrom's 2.0, you're going to see one of the coolest 1951 Ford 8N tractors you're going to see in the world.
Speaker 4:And it's not the coolest because I saw one at SEMA that was like, oh, that's pretty cool. But this is our cool tractor and it's got a 390 Mustang V8 that my dad and my uncle shoehorned into it back in 1969, the year that I was born, and that tractor was our rallying cry as kids at the local racetrack. My dad would use it to push the race cars and it's a safety vehicle. He ended up being inducted to the hall of fame after helping at the racetrack as a volunteer for 40 years almost, and the first thing that he did when he became a christian and he wanted to give a testimony is he put the ptla on the back of that tractor and never told anybody what it meant and so all through the race season people were guessing.
Speaker 4:One time he broke a wheel on the tractor and the local racing news had it that push tractor loses a wheel PTLA. But as the year closed down, one of the local firemen that was there as a volunteer also, dave Renly, who's now retired from our prestigious Sioux Falls Fire Department said Art, there's something different about you, and I know what that means. He said that's praise the Lord always, and I know what that means. He said that's praise the Lord always, isn't it? And he said yep. And so ever since then, as the business grew, from my dad collecting 57 Chevy's to Nordstrom's used and rebuilt trucks, the Nordstrom's auto recycling to now Nordstrom's automotive, incorporated with all the things we've got going on, everything that we've advertised, everything that we've built, every concrete we've poured, you're gonna find a PTLA Easter egg on it somewhere. And that's what it's about to us is knowing that our mission statement, that you can find on our website at nordstromautocom. That's what it's all about, our foundation of faith.
Speaker 3:Agreed. I love that and that probably just kind of gives your customers and your employees kind of something to follow as well, you know, creating that loyalty and also just having that to create an environment of you know thanking God for everything that they've been blessed with, as well as the trials, because I feel like you know, god a lot of times gives us trials just to be able to learn from them. So I love that thing.
Speaker 4:DJ Harrington, who's on this call, this podcast call. He does not realize probably all the things that he taught me.
Speaker 3:I became a.
Speaker 4:DJ groupie when I was young and if he would have had rock concerts I would have been in the front row. And to me his rock concerts, the seminars that he did that when I first met him as a youngster at the Upper. Midwest Auto Recyclers Convention in Minneapolis and I got to tell this story to get to the rest of my story. But, dj, well, dj, why don't you tell the story? You haven't met, you haven't talked, I've been talking 100 miles an hour. You tell the story, dj.
Speaker 1:So lead in. Dear sister, I'm Alamanda I am the speaker for that convention Sitting there like they were raising money for their scholarship program, just like URG scholarship and ARA scholarship. Well, this group was raising money, so they had this 57 Chevrolet and I started bidding on it.
Speaker 4:It wasn't a car.
Speaker 1:It was a neon poster, yeah, of a 57 Chevrolet.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:His father collects them. He has to tell that story before we end. There's a young voice behind me overbidding me, so I'll bid $400 or $500. Some guy says $700. And I thought who is bidding against me? And I meet Shannon Nordstrom for the very first time. And we are all friends since then.
Speaker 4:Ever since.
Speaker 1:He took a sign to his dad and I went up to his father. When he tells you that his dad collected Chevrolet, he needs to tell you how his sister auctioned off hundreds of 57 Chevrolets that his father owned. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4:Yeah, as my dad had built the business with us, he always had a passion for the Tri-5 Chevys, and so this is not unusual in our industry that somebody collected something along the way. I was just at Badger Motors and I found out that they had a bunch of AMCs hiding in the back. You know, matador, cool matadors and stuff, but the 57 Chibis were getting collected. He would buy something with a bad engine or a fender bender. At the time they were just coming off the street. He didn't really know, but he just never did anything with them. He just stuck them back in the trees because it was so busy. He never had time to do anything with them. And eventually, all of a sudden, he had a bunch of them. And so the collection grew and grew and the fable grew and grew because people would come out and try to buy parts and he wouldn't sell them to them.
Speaker 4:They would try to buy, buy parts and he wouldn't sell them, to them, they would try to buy cars and he wouldn't sell them to them. He had one of every kind except for a Nomad, and he would just hoard them and along with other collector type of cars that were just cheap he never paid a lot of money for any. They were always things that he'd buy pretty cheap.
Speaker 4:And so my sister Yvette somebody may have asked about Vanderbrink Auctions. My oldest sister is a nationally known auctioneer, vanderbrink Auction Company. She has been on the map all over the country selling collections and one of the first big collections that she got to sell was her dad's and one of the first big collections that she got to sell was her dad's and so she sold some other stuff but that was one that really put her into like Hemings Motor News and got her name on the map. That type of attention gave her the opportunity to be the auctioneer that made the History Channel with the Lambrecht auction in Pierce, nebraska. She had 25,000 people at that sale in the middle of a field at a small town Nebraska dealer that had never sold a bunch of their new cars and it was a fable that had been around forever but it was true and she got the opportunity to be the auctioneer for that auction and it ended up on the history channel and that really put her on the map and now she sells collections for people all over the United States. So whoever asked that question, that story wraps back to her and she's got a story all on her own.
Speaker 4:My sister Yvette is a cancer survivor. She has had somebody try to kill her. She had a prophecy from a prophetic minister that brought her into the industry of auctioning, from the medical industry, as a phlebotomist. She's got an amazingly wonderful story and but you know, yvette has survived it all and she is a world renowned now. I'm so proud of her. But that one of the first bigger sales she had was selling my dad's collection and it was a two day sale. And who else showed up to surprise us at that sale but dj herring?
Speaker 4:our cardiologist the cardiologist was in the house and my. I've got another sister suzette that lives up in minneapolis and and she is a professional in the potted plant industry. She's uh, she's well known through the midwest for selling to the nurseries for all their gardening needs for Monrovia Nurseries out of California and Oregon.
Speaker 4:And so all three of us kids were supercharged by this incubator that we grew up on the farm here and it's fun to see us all together doing well, and my parents are so proud of us and we're so proud of them because they gave us the opportunity and literally my mom and dad gave us so much self-confidence when we were kids. It was almost dangerous. Our friends, our friends, would make fun of us because we were just, we were not scared to do or try anything in front of people, or if there was a challenge, it can get me in trouble. Sometimes too, I've got a wild side and they can get me in trouble sometimes.
Speaker 4:We're all kind of adrenaline junkies and I got to be careful and the Lord has to temper me sometimes because I you know how it goes. You just, you work hard, you play hard and you have fun and but we that? That's the environment we grew up on, but just the, the, the constant one-liner jokes um, the uh. My dad used to tell us stories about how things were invented and they were all completely false and he would make them up from the start to the end. And it we just the zany creativity that ran wild in our house. Uh, it's going generations now and we're excited about that.
Speaker 3:You cultivated the entrepreneurship spirit in all of you. It sounds like.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I had to sell my ag instructor a car when I was 13 years old or 14 years old, and that's how I got an Atari If I could sell Marty Strasburg a Mustang. And so he was our new ag instructor and I ended up selling him a 1982 or three or four Mustang GT T-top that we had as a repairable, that we got fixed up for him, and Marty's a friend of mine for life now too. But I was 13 or 14 years old and I sold him a car, but that's how.
Speaker 4:I got my Atari 2600. And so we got to go out and meet the customers and try to sell stuff while dad was changing units on the milk parlor trying to milk 60 cows. It's just, when you think back about it, just crazy and a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah Back to DJ.
Speaker 4:Back to DJ. I don't know how much longer I can go here, but DJ taught me some things. Yeah Cool, they couldn't do it, so they talk about it. But there's some things I'm like, oh, I don't quite do that perfectly, but I'm going to talk about it. But DJ taught me some things.
Speaker 4:Have regular reviews with employees. Schedule them every month. Make a calendar of events. Whether you remember telling me that or not, dj, I've done it for 26 years with the employees. Once I got into a point of authority where I was the one doing those things, so that people always know that you're going to sit down with them at some point. Make that review 80% preview, 20% review. Look forward to how they're going to help you in the next year. Spend a little time talking about the shortcomings, but make it a positive event. If that employee is that bad or you're going to chew on their butt the entire time during a review, maybe you should fire them and promote them to another company instead of doing that, and so we try to keep everything on the positive. Nobody should ever be surprised they're going to get fired with something else DJ taught me Make sure that there's always communication, that there's written warnings, so nobody should ever be surprised. Let them fire themselves by the things that you clearly warned them about.
Speaker 4:Be, positive with people, recognize their birthdays, have regular employee meetings. We've done that the first Tuesday of the month at an odd time. It was originally 7.04 am every Tuesday the first Tuesday of the month People remember appointments at weird times. These are all DJ things and how to answer the phone. If you call me today, you're going to get my voicemail, most likely. But at the end of my voicemail DJ, we have not scripted this. What do you think it says at the end of my voicemail on my desk phone? Thanks for thinking Nordstrom's. It says thank you for thinking of Nordstrom's, because DJ Harrington taught me that a long time ago in one of his phone seminars.
Speaker 4:And it says that to this day, and make your voicemail personal every day. I change my voicemail every day. I tell what the weather is, I give people my schedule, so they're not surprised, unless I'm a little behind on my game, which it gets hard nowadays with all the ARA stuff, but I have a new voicemail every day on my desk.
Speaker 1:These are all things that DJ Harrington taught me hey, amanda, we can make this our number one podcast if we ask them one final question all right let's go. The question is I want you to share with our listeners and we're over 8 000 and we're trying to get to 10 000- so here's what I want to ask you how did you meet your wife?
Speaker 4:I get giggly when I talk about this it still makes me giggle a, she's awesome I.
Speaker 4:I'm yeah, she's fabulous yeah, I know I tell you what she is like my rock. I probably get emotional here because, well, I've been doing all this crazy stuff. She's been the one back at the house with our family and I have been very dedicated to my family. But I do miss time because of the things that I do and I know early in our marriage it put a strain on it. Time because of the things that I do and I know early in our marriage it put a strain on it and I didn't realize how much of a strain it put on it when she was first raising the kids with me on the road and taking off a lot and I don't know, maybe I took it for granted.
Speaker 4:But we made it through some of those early years of sorting through all that. I think some good books like Fireproof, a good Christian book for a young married couple, was really good for me. I ended up reading the whole thing and going through all of it and I think she realized partway through I was the one that needed the most fixing. But we're going to celebrate 30 years here, coming up June 17th. Got engaged on her birthday, got married on my birthday, so I wouldn't forget the dates.
Speaker 4:It's exciting, but together we've raised three wonderful children. My son, riley, is now in the business. We've got three generations of Nordstroms working in the business at the same time amongst our 80 employees.
Speaker 4:But how I met my wife, I've done some pretty good sales pitches in my life and if somebody, if I had a top 10 sales pitch list, this would go up towards the top of the list and right up towards the top of the list also would be convincing my dad to sell his 1964 Chevy super sport that us three kids all went on the honeymoon together with when they renewed their vows in the church after they became Christians. They wanted to do a Christian wedding because they eloped originally and I convinced my dad to sell that. I had gotten it out for prom my senior year and it rained and I couldn't take it because the window wouldn't roll up and this car was a wonderful car. I'd like to have it back today too. Anyway, I convinced him to sell that car to buy our fast parts computer system that a guy came around selling in the back of his car when they were gone one night on an overnight. That's all he ever did was overnights. They never left this place and I. This guy came through and I I said, oh, my God, we need this and that was our first computer system. Uh, and I have the. I found the receipt for it.
Speaker 4:My mom did in 1989.
Speaker 4:Uh anyway, that was one of my best sales pitches, um, convincing my dad to sell that. So we get the down payment for that computer system. Game changing for us. Game changing for me, though, is when Tammy Piper walked into the office with her dad as a senior in high school that has just graduated and her dad's friend, larry, had told Roger.
Speaker 4:He said you know what? You should have Tammy come with when she comes to buy tires for her Mercury towpaths, because we'll probably get a better deal to have Tammy come with when she comes to buy tires for her Mercury towpaths because we'll probably get a better deal.
Speaker 1:And my gosh, were they ever right?
Speaker 4:I was working the parts counter and I was smitten from the second that I saw her.
Speaker 4:she's beautiful and, um, I don't know, I was probably retarded completely trying to talk to them at the moment, and I'm just at the time, this, this puny little guy and I'm still a puny little guy that's a stick man with my nickname racing Um, I raced ATVs. There's a sidebar. I can tell you something about that too. But um, I was, uh, I was smitten and uh, I sold him some tires and for dirt cheap, thank goodness. Thank goodness, her dad wrote a check. I, I ended up taking the phone number off of her dad's check and I called her up and asked her out for a date later and she, she and I debate the first thing she said to me. But it goes something like this hey, do you know who this is? And she says I don't know. It sounds like the guy from the junkyard.
Speaker 4:So it may not be exactly like that and she was extremely shy. She's still shy.
Speaker 4:She just assumed to be behind the curtain and look beautiful and has a beautiful heart and she's helped us her and I together raise an amazing family.
Speaker 4:I've said that already, but she was too shy to say no and I'll tell you anybody else if you're younger listening to this, always ask for the sale, because what I've learned later is that one of her old friends from work that had dated her one time, that was also smitten with her, that she didn't really want anything to do with, was following us around that whole night on our first date because he was jealous like a stalker type guy. There's this vehicle that was behind us, like what are they doing? But anyway, when I let her out at her house, which was only four miles away, and I did not know she existed up until that point she went to a different school, a bigger school In my little Garrison High School. I graduated with 28. She graduated with like 150. And so when she got out of the truck here's where the key is I asked her. I said would you like to go out again?
Speaker 3:And she told me.
Speaker 4:She said she probably wouldn't have if I wouldn't have asked that question Because she was so shy. But she enjoyed my company because I never shut up and I made up for her shyness by all my crazy weirdness and it's been a great combination. I've come to find out that she'll talk plenty, she's got plenty to say, she's very opinionated, she's very strong-minded. She also is extremely funny and witty. Our kids have got zaniness to boot from both of us and, yeah, it's a true love story. That started at the junkyard and I hate to use the word J. We got to sign right on our counter and says don't use the J word.
Speaker 3:We got it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so she can say it, but nobody else. But that's how it started, because at the time when she saw me, I think it was a junkyard.
Speaker 2:That was a fair assessment at that point.
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh, I just looked at the clock. We're going on 50 minutes here.
Speaker 3:This is supposed to be a half hour. No, that's okay. Honestly, one of our biggest episodes with Snyder's was about this long as well, so I don't know Do you want to try to take another break, and then we can just come back real quick for talking about ARA.
Speaker 1:Let's do that, Folks. We'll be right back with Shannon Nordstrom.
Speaker 2:Hang tight, we'll be right back. The URG Scholarship Foundation was founded in 2014 in honor of individuals who give their talent, time and, very often, their own finances to ensure the growth and success of the automotive recycling industry. We understand college is not for everyone, so each year the foundation offers substantial financial scholarships to auto recycling employees and the children of employees that are attending four-year and technical or trade schools, to assist with their education. Don't leave money on the table. If you have a child or if you're interested in attending continuing education, this money is available to you. Go to u-r-gcom and click on the Scholarship Foundation tab. Urg keeping our industry strong through education.
Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Amanda, I'll pass it on over to you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, DJ. Yes, we have an awesome guest on, Shannon from Nordstrom. We wanted to touch base too. We just completed your new website. We want to kind of shout that out and make sure people are coming and looking at your new website from URG. How's that been going for you?
Speaker 4:You know what we are extremely happy with our new website shiny new website from URG. How's that been going for you? You know what we are extremely happy with our new website shiny new website from URG. It's Nordstromsautocom. You can check that out Full e commerce. We had brought some technology to the table that we had had at our previous website and they helped us improve upon that, and so some new technology coming your way from URG. And so check out nordstromautocom. You can see all of our inventory. You'll see some of the unique things we've got there, like vehicle accessories and a tire search and and just check some of that out and play with it and then URG can do the same thing for you. It takes a little work on our end too, but to make it all the magic happen on the way we put things into inventory. But pretty neat systems that they've got there and we're excited with what they've done for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was great working with you and getting those enhancements in place and we're excited to, you know, bring that to the ARA conference that's coming up in October. We'll definitely bring some examples of of what that looks like and be able to discuss that there. I wanted to touch base on ARA and how that's going to go for you guys here in October. How's the planning going?
Speaker 4:for y'all. You know the planning is going wonderful. We're going to be in Birmingham, alabama, for the 82nd annual ARA Convention and Expo. Our theme is Game On Winning Together and the dates are October 15th through the 18th. Registration should be open soon. We had hoped to have it open by Memorial Day but a couple things snagged us up there. So we'll have it open very, very soon for for registration, for vendors, for attendees.
Speaker 4:And that is going to be a special conference for me because that is where I will be instilled as the president of the association and it's something that I've always wanted to do and now I get an opportunity to do it. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be busy, as can be. I've just finished my 12th year on our local school board. I finished that in a month, 12th year on our local school board, and I finished that in a month, and so I'm going to check off school board president and insert National Trade Association president, it looks like. So I must have a thing for not wanting to get too much downtime, I don't know, or sleeping or whatever might have to be.
Speaker 4:so it's exciting though we're game on in Birmingham, alabama, october 15th through the 18th. It is going to be a great time. I know I'm planning on bringing a lot of family down there to celebrate what will be a big moment for our business, our family, and I want to be able to help be a president for the members, because for me, our trade associations, whether it be ARA, urg now we're a member of Team PRP those people we work with, we all build each other up. We've had a group that we've been involved with called the VRG, the Vehicle Recyclers Group. When I mentioned earlier about the newer vehicles we get to dismantle, that group has been a huge pillar for me, with our other family-owned businesses in that group, with SRAM Auto Parts, stricker Auto Parts, gnr Auto at Oklahoma City, spaulding's out of Spokane, and ourselves.
Speaker 4:I think of those folks that I've worked with. I think of all the people in ARA, all the people in URG, all the people in PRP. It's just the list of mentors and friends that I've built in this industry is I don't know. It's just incredible. I know we have times where we've had family members that have been broke down in a weird part of the country and and they call me hey, shannon, who do you know in new mexico?
Speaker 4:you know it seems like we can always. We can always phone a friend in the industry to find somebody that can tell me some advice, or to help and say, hey, who can help us? I got somebody broke down, um, or hey, who can help me? You know that's. That's what this industry is all about. So many people have shared with me and I love sharing back, and it's my turn to give back a big chunk of my time as ARA president, starting October 15th through the 18th in Birmingham.
Speaker 3:That's very exciting. Yes, and I agree, this industry is incredible and it's such a different industry than any others and you know we all band together when someone's in need. And these conferences as well. You know I feel like URG kind of is in April and then ARA is in October, kind of closing out the year. So it's great to kind of touch base at both of these conferences and learn and bring your teams and, you know, bring your salespeople, bring your dismantlers. They can talk and network with all the other people that have been in the industry for years and it's such a cool way to be able to network as well as have some fun. So I'm looking forward to it for sure.
Speaker 4:We just your guys' URG conference was so successful the joint URG team, PRP conference in the spring and, like you said, the ARA conference in the fall. It gives us a couple of bookends on both ends of the year to get the industry together and I think people should get to make it a point to be involved in both of them, and it's awesome, I agree.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much, shannon, for being on today. We enjoyed talking to you and learning lots, so we'll have to have you back on, and I know you have tons of stories about the industry, so we'd love to have you back here one of these days as well. So thank you again.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we could do a whole episode just telling stories about DJ, but I think we'll get that taken care of. But thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be a guest. Tune in to Under the Hood Show, buy some parts from Nordstrom's, you know. Just celebrate being happy and realize that no matter what's going on in life, you're going to have great days and you're going to have challenging days, and make sure you know where your foundation of faith is at and you will not be rocked and hopefully you can walk through whatever it might be. Agreed.
Speaker 3:Yep and go like on YouTube. Go follow us, so we can get them there. We go Agreed, yep and go like On YouTube. Go follow, so we can get here we go.
Speaker 4:Let's get up to 10,000 For Under the Hood Show, that'd be perfect.
Speaker 3:Exactly Alright. Thank you so much, shannon.
Speaker 1:Thank you. You did great, shannon. So, amanda, my parting shot To all our listeners. If you listen To Shannon Nordstrom. He'll tell you Don't try to build A life with no problems and no stress. You build yourself to be a person who can handle stress and solve problems. That's Shannon Nordstrom in a nutshell. He's a great guy and a great representative. So, amanda, I'll turn it over to you for your ending close and a very representative.
Speaker 3:So, Amanda, I'll turn it over to you for your ending close. Yes, we enjoyed having you on today and we are looking forward to ARA here in October. So we'll see you there.
Speaker 4:We will see you there too.