Auto Care ON AIR
"Auto Care ON AIR" is a candid podcast dedicated to exploring the most relevant topics within the auto care industry. Each episode features insightful discussions with leading experts and prominent industry figures. Our content is thoughtfully divided into four distinct shows to cover four different categories of topics, ensuring collective professional growth and a comprehensive understanding of the auto care industry.
The Driver's Seat: Navigating Business and the Journey of Leadership
To understand organizations, you need to understand their operators. Join Behzad Rassuli, as he sits down for in-depth, one-on-one conversations with leaders that are shaping the future. This show is a "must listen" for how top executives navigate growth, success, and setbacks that come with the terrain of business.
Carpool Conversations: Collaborative Reflections on the Road to Success
Hosted by Jacki Lutz, this series invites a vibrant and strategic mix of guests to debate and discuss the power skills that define success today. Each episode is an entertaining, multi-voice view of a professional development topic and a platform for our members to learn about our industry's most promising professionals.
Indicators: Discussing Data that Drives Business
This show explores data relevant to the automotive aftermarket. Join Mike Chung as he engages with thought leaders in identifying data that will help you monitor and forecast industry performance. Whether global economic data, industry indicators, or new data sources, listen in as we push the envelope in identifying and shaping the metrics that matter.
Traction Control: Reacting with Precision to the Road Ahead
Every single day, events happen, technologies are introduced, and the base assumptions to our best laid plans can change. Join Stacey Miller for a show focused on recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean for auto care industry businesses. Get hot takes on current events, stay in the know with timely discussions and hear from guests on the frontlines of these developments.
Auto Care ON AIR
Building a Professional Digital Presence that You’re Proud Of
Ever wondered how to seamlessly integrate a digital presence into your professional life? Join us on Auto Care ON AIR as we promise to unlock the secrets of digital presence with our "Carpool Conversations" host, Jacki Lutz, and auto care industry leaders Kathleen Long, Chief Revenue Officer of RepairPal, and Sebastian Zelger, CEO of Liqui Moly USA. Learn how a digital presence can be a powerful tool to elevate your visibility and differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace. Discover why showcasing the human side behind the corporate facade is the key to connecting authentically with any audience.
Our panel sheds light on the importance of authenticity and self-expression in digital branding, especially for those at the C-level. They share their strategies for creating an impactful online presence, from integrating personal interests into professional profiles to the delicate art of "purpose portability." Not only do they reveal the challenges of staying genuine online, but they also offer actionable advice on how to foster emotional connections that go beyond business goals. Their insights are particularly valuable for leaders who aim to inspire their teams and cultivate a company culture where personal branding thrives.
The conversation takes a deeper turn as we explore the dynamics of personal branding within corporate environments. We discuss the importance of supportive company cultures that empower employees to express themselves while aligning with brand values. From navigating company social media guidelines to overcoming the initial hurdles of content creation, Jacki, Kathleen and Sebastian provide a nuanced perspective on building strong personal and corporate brands. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting, their stories and experiences provide a rich tapestry of insights that can guide you on your digital presence journey.
To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.
To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast
Does everybody feel comfortable with your headphones and everything?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:I've had people like afterwards and we do, like you know an hour episode and they're like oh, those things were hurting my head and they had it on as tight as it could possibly go. I'm like you should have told me.
Speaker 3:Nope, they're super comfortable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whoever was sitting here before also had a big head.
Speaker 1:It was Bezad Rasooli. Okay, I'll make sure he knows that and we're recording, so he will. Welcome to Auto Care On Air, a candid podcast for a curious industry. I'm Jackie Lutz, content Director at the Auto Care Association, and this is Carpool Conversations, where we collaborate on today's most relevant power skills. We're all headed in the same direction, so let's get there together. Welcome to another Carpool Conversation show.
Speaker 1:This subject is really exciting to me. In one of my personal passions, we're going to talk about digital presence, and this was one that I did a survey on on LinkedIn, and this was one that was highly regarded as one that people wanted to learn more about. And that doesn't really surprise me, because I have people stop me all the time talking about digital presence, talking about personal brand. Why is it important? All these kinds of questions, and I always say the same thing, like we're just living in a different world and if you're not there digitally, it's difficult for people to truly understand you and understand your accomplishments at the level of everybody else around you that does have a digital presence, have a digital presence. So it's just really is important, and I found I was kind of picky on I sat on this subject for a while because I wanted to get.
Speaker 1:I had a really specific idea in mind for the type of person I wanted to talk about this. I wanted people at C level because I find that a lot of people who talk to me about wanting to do more with personal brand tend to be people who are earlier on in their careers and one of their biggest struggles is getting the management in their companies to be on board with it. So I think a good way to get past that is to get to C-level people who do have strong digital presence and not only that, they also encourage it with their own employees, and that's going to be a really good perspective. So I have Kathleen Long, chief Revenue Officer of RepairPal, here. Hi, hi, welcome to the show. Thanks, I'm happy to be here. How does it feel to be on the other side of the mic?
Speaker 2:I like it and actually the setup is way more professional than mine. Mine I'm like. My guy is like hey, so do you have the microphone turned the right way? There's like this little knob and he's like, is it facing you? And I'm like, oh, but that's pretty much it. It's just a plug in mic in my computer, it's not this whole thing. Yeah, I get it, it's exciting.
Speaker 1:I actually, when I was kind of not working for three months last year, I did a little podcast with my mother in law just to help her promote something. I did a little podcast with my mother-in-law just to help her promote something and I literally had two $30 lapel mics and it sounds just fine. You'd think it was a professional setup. And I also have Sebastian, and I think I'm going to get your last name wrong, zegler.
Speaker 3:Zelger, zelger, very close, zelger. You're not the only one.
Speaker 1:Most people get it wrong. So Zelger is German, you're not the only one.
Speaker 3:Most people get it wrong. I think so. Zelger is German. Yeah, it's actually from Alto Adice, from South Tyrol, which is part of Italy.
Speaker 1:That's where the name comes from. Oh, you're Italian.
Speaker 3:My dad is partially Italian.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, my family is Sicilian, so Very nice, different though, but he's the CEO of LiquiMole USA.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Which also we just discovered, includes Canada and.
Speaker 3:Mexico, correct, so North America. You were correct initially. So it's Liqui Moly North America, but the company is called Liqui Moly USA, which is a hundred percent subsidiary of Liqui Moly Germany.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, thank you for clarifying that. So you both have digital presencesence, presences, both, yeah, online. And I'd say, kathleen, you're pretty present on LinkedIn and I didn't know this before, but you're present on LinkedIn, sebastian, but you actually have a pretty good Instagram presence since I started following you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I just started having fun with it and I think we talk later a little bit more about being a face of a company or representing a company and showing face. And it's not only about as you might know, I don't only show like products, that contrary, it's more showing the person behind the brand which people connect with. And I think it's very important and it works out super well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think I love seeing you know more management, especially like executive level management people putting themselves out there, because I think it's a really good you know, makes a good role model for other people coming up in the company and it kind of gives permission to other people in the company and that's something that I just love to see that you guys do, and you both do it very differently. And that's something that I just love to see that you guys do and you both do it very differently. And I think that that's something that people struggle with, because they look at people that are doing it well and that they admire in that space and they try to do the same thing and it doesn't always work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's why I think it's great that you said presence and not brand, because people think about personal branding and then they start thinking about packaging, and then, when you think about packaging, you start thinking of whose package do I like and which one do I want to be, where it's more about just your own self expression, like you were saying, as being like the person behind whatever the company's brand is, or in front of whatever you know is happening, and you have your own platform and your own personality.
Speaker 3:It's your presence very much agree and, uh, if you try to imitate someone, it's most likely gonna fail in my opinion you really have to just be, learn to be comfortable, like I mean.
Speaker 3:First of all, you don't have to do it. It's everything is a can, nothing is a must. So if you're comfortable sometimes in front of a camera, hey, just be yourself, because that's what you want to represent, because people smell through. If you're phony, they will call you out on that. So just be yourself. One take, and if you're happy with it, just run with it and uh, wait for the response of the people, and mostly it's positive, like I feel I never had a negative one, but I'm also a little bit cautious about what I put out there.
Speaker 3:So I mean that's, it takes some precaution discretion discretion. There's a lot of topics you just don't want to touch right, yeah and hey, if you film your squirrel in your backyard, you have a cool comment and you actually educate your listeners to oh, squirrels are actually amazing animals. Because of this and this, hey, it's cool content and people surprisingly listen to that and they're actually commenting and they have a story about their squirrel at home.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's really cool it's just like a way to connect as humans. You know, and I think it's okay to show that you have humans behind a brand and it's not just a company is made up of a whole bunch of people, you know. That's really the point of it and sometimes you get caught up in all this corporate jargon and things and social media specifically and having a digital presence and having people in your company with digital. I don't like the plural form of presences digital presences it just humanizes your brand to the point where people can make an emotional connection with it. I think that that's a huge part of it. I did a survey on LinkedIn just a week ago and I asked people what is your biggest obstacle in getting started on building a professional digital presence, and the four answers were concerns for management, lacking the technology skills, discovering your purpose and understanding the benefits. Which do you think was the highest percentage?
Speaker 2:The management probably. The concerns from management, I would guess. Do you guess that too?
Speaker 3:I would say that's one or two, maybe just discovering the purpose.
Speaker 1:Those were the top two.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, we nailed it. I thought concerns from management would actually be the highest, but the highest was actually discovering your purpose.
Speaker 3:Which is funny, because if you have a role in a company, you should actually know what your purpose is, right, your purpose within the role of the company. But sometimes the role is not something you want to portray, but then you just portray yourself behind it so I get it and I don't get it. But then you just portray yourself behind it so, um, I get it and I don't get it. So if you know, don't know your purpose of your role in your company, you want to actually do something with a company social media wise, then you have to first figure out what are you doing with a company I always wonder if it's a little bit of like how do you translate your purpose into this medium?
Speaker 2:you know, yeah or why you're doing what you're doing right, like what's the purpose behind the role? Like my role is to generate revenue for the company, but most of what I portray online isn't like here's how you like make money right. It's mostly like here's leadership, or here's you know mindfulness, or here's something cool that I heard, or something in my backyard, or you know whatever. Because I am trying to humanize, you know that part of it and because one of the things that I want to stand for is, you know, inclusivity in this industry. But a lot of times I think in life we fall backwards into whatever our careers are, and then we think, you know, one day you wake up and you're like why am I doing this Right? Like what's the larger purpose? And then how do I convey that in a way that's going to resonate with people?
Speaker 1:So that's hard. Yeah, there's kind of a balance there that I think people want more answers than there are of like, what's the balance between how do you represent your company? You want to like have a voice for your company and you want to like have a strong personal brand so that it can help, you know, add value to your company and to your role. But also you want to be known for something, a certain skill or something outside of necessarily your role. I always tell people you should have like three or four themes of what you talk about, because you never know when one's going to go away.
Speaker 1:And if people hear you talking about the same thing all the time and it's only one thing and say like I only talk about my company and like that I'm kind of like the face of my company and that's the only thing that I talk about and then I switch companies, you kind of lose a little bit of the credibility that you have to build back because now you're somewhere else. So you just said this place was the best and now this place is the best you know. So like to have other things too. So, like my example is, you know I'm always trying to talk about my company whichever company I'm with and how much I love working there, what the culture is like, showing the people stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I also talk about personal branding kind of things. I also always talk about industry specific stuff and like how to get more involved. I love like encouraging people to kind of put themselves out there. And then I do the working mom thing too. You know I didn't always have the working mom thing that kind of evolved with my life, so if one of those goes away, I still have three other things that you know. I'm kind of building a little bit of a reputation around and I always encourage people to think about your purpose in that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, purpose portability. I like it because you can take that with you wherever you go, you're still going to be a working mom, no matter where you're working. Yeah, and I think that's again, you know, like what you were saying. That's part of humanizing or showing sort of the person behind the role, because we're all our roles but we're also so much more. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I agree. I think you did it perfectly for yourself. I mean, it's you have to figure out what you're good at, what do you like. You need to talk about things you like you. You need to make it sustainable. You don't want to be a one-shot and you just talk today about that and never touch it again.
Speaker 3:For me personally, I love traveling a lot, I love outdoors a lot, I love animals, I love food. So these are the things I constantly talk about because it's easy, because every day I do something which involves that or I can look at something like I'm genuinely interested in animals, so I'm researching what that animals, where they're from, like what capabilities they have, and I just like post about it, which is so random but it just tells a story about who is Sebastian behind the Liqui Moly for Satan. That works out super great for me. That might not work out great for another person, but that other person has other strengths, right? So if these people just piggyback on their strengths but also what do they like to do, report about it, that, uh, just shows the person behind the brand and that makes other people like listen to you more or just being in contact once. Oh, I saw something. I'll comment on that and voila, you have a conversation flowing and then it can translate back into business.
Speaker 3:But it doesn't have to um because I'm I'm really a fan of a natural, organic growth of friendships, partnerships. And if I do business with someone and I know that someone also likes outdoors, like someone which I like, I have a connection and all of a sudden we can establish that I would have never known about that connection beforehand if I would not have followed that person on instagram, for example. All of them we have that connection and if you like somebody a lot, business is way so easier. Business is a side product of you actually like somebody right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. And even though I'm a chief revenue officer and sometimes people look at me weird when I say this not that I'm not attentive to my numbers but at the end of the day, if you do the right thing, you take care of people, you know, you promote yourself and your business the right way like the money just sort of falls out the bottom. I don't spend every day worrying about the money. I spend the day worrying about doing the right things and then the money is an output of that. And I think if we think about our roles that way and we think about bringing the humanity into the digital presence piece, then some of this stuff just grows organically.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing that people probably don't talk about as much, but that they have difficulty when they first get started and this was when I was first starting certainly happened to me. You put something out you feel freaking great about, like you're sharing this thing. That happened that you're so excited and you get like two likes yeah, I know, right, because you don't have a platform yet and you know, while you might do something amazing in the very beginning, that just goes viral.
Speaker 2:Chances are you're not going to do that Very low chance and you're going to go from your one or two likes, You're going to do some audience building, some other things and then you'll get three or four and you know you can kind of keep with some of the same themes and then you're going to start to accumulate audience over time. But it takes a while. It's just like building your career. Usually you can't cram it, it usually doesn't happen overnight and it takes time for you to grow and develop and build, which is sort of good, because some of the early stuff can be kind of awkward Cringy.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I hate looking at my past, looking at my, yeah I look at the past stuff and I'm like did I?
Speaker 2:I mostly don't look at my past stuff, it's just like it's in the drawer.
Speaker 3:It's, it's done. Don't dig, you'll find it.
Speaker 1:Look forward yeah totally, yeah, um, something you know, I always think of too. It's like it's really about being consistent and it's so much easier. I don't know why it's. I know why, but it's so difficult for people to truly just feel comfortable being themselves and just being kind of authentically themselves on a platform like social media, because it feels like the people that are more fake get more engagement and get more credibility somehow you know, you know and get more credibility somehow you know, you know. And it's really difficult for people to just be their authentic selves. But that's actually the most sustainable way to be consistent with because, like, if you honestly felt so confident in yourself that you deserve to be where you're at, that you have something to share with the world and you really did just feel comfortable enough to share it. Naturally, like, however it comes out, that's very sustainable.
Speaker 3:Agreed, you have to like what you do. If you don't like it, you will not do it every day. I'm very much in agreement with that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And once you build that and you build that trust, if you want to, you can actually broach harder topics. So there have been a number of things that have happened over the last few years that people found upsetting or distressing, starting with the pandemic leading into certain political things, all kinds of stuff that people were reacting to in the moment and that they were expecting leaders to say something about. And I am careful about how I communicate, but I'm careful about how I communicate as a leader in general, regardless of whether the world's watching me or not, because what I don't want to do is I don't want to isolate anyone because they believe something different than what I do or because I wear certain opinions or values on my sleeve or whatever.
Speaker 2:A place where it's okay for people to have different views, different opinions which, by the way, if we were all doing this, then you know, maybe we'd be in a slightly less contentious political arena than we find ourselves in today. Right, but I think when you do that and you've built that platform, then you can broach harder things and to the extent that some of that's really important to you. Like, I feel very passionately about certain leadership topics. I feel very passionate that leaders should acknowledge the whole totality of their employees and understand that, like these, world events that are going on affect people and that we care about them. And to ignore and pretend like they're not going on because you're too scared to like maybe say the wrong thing as a leader is missing a really good opportunity to bring people together as a community. So I work really hard on that.
Speaker 1:Is that one of like the platforms you talk about consistently?
Speaker 2:It is, and I also have taken a class in nonviolent communication because I want to, you know, call people in, not call people out, and I try to practice that even when I see, like non-inclusive behaviors, or in my team or, you know, out in the larger world or whatever. I want to stand for the right things, for everybody having a place and not, you know, stereotypes or things like this that are really detrimental to people happening. And I want to say something, but I want to do it in a way that educates, informs and allows people to be part of a solution, instead of, like, shaming them or making them feel bad for it. And it's a dance a little bit and it's an art form a little bit, but the only way you get good at that is really by practicing it and executing it. And I'm lucky because I'm not the CEO of my company.
Speaker 2:I report to the CEO of my company and he's not, as you know, digitally present as I am, but he's been very supportive of me doing that and that's huge.
Speaker 2:And I've worked other places that weren't like. At one point I just wrote something about how difficult it was to be a female executive and I had a reaction from my CEO at the time. It was a blog for Pete's sake and a personal blog. I used to blog on HuffPo all the time and he was like you can't say that. People are going to think that I, you know. And I said, well, I didn't say anything about CEO, anything right. It was just sort of about the reactions people have to female executives, how much harder it can be to have your voice heard things we all know already, right. But he was very apprehensive about the fact and you know, of course it was on Huffington Post, I'd already posted it, yeah, like it's out now.
Speaker 3:You know, Huffington Post. I'd already posted it, so I'm like it's out now you know he kind of felt personally attacked by that he did yeah threatened by it, and so you know it's.
Speaker 2:that's a, you know, number two concern. It's a very real concern.
Speaker 1:It is. It's a good segue into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so you know, and I think that exists in a lot of places, but I think, also, people are afraid that it exists and so it keeps them from expressing themselves, and I think it's a good place for people who maybe want to do that to sit down and have conversations with, you know, their CEO or their chief communications officer or chief marketing officer, whoever's kind of in charge of that, and say, look, here's what I'm thinking about doing, here's, like you, what you were saying, here's the going to be, the focus. Right, are there any watchouts? Or you know what are my boundaries for for doing this? I think it can be really productive for the company and kind of feel that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and managers should really be proactive with that. Like I tell companies in my talks, I do, I do one that's like very personal branding, but I do one that's more geared towards HR or marketing or leaders and like how do you actually empower your people to do this? And one of the big things is like giving them the information and the resources they need to be successful. And a part of that is what can I say and what can I not say. You know, like I used to work for a publicly traded company and I was quite timid to really say anything all that impactful about the company, but because and they didn't have these kinds of you know guidelines in place yet, things like that so you know I really went the route of like culture.
Speaker 1:You know this is my team showing smiling faces next to that brand. You know, at the event that we're at, you know just showing kind of like what it's like to work there, kind of some like employer branding kind of stuff. That's just the route that I went. And for anyone who might struggle with that, you know, just not even getting into product, not even getting into what you sell, but just showing the culture, showing like it's a cool place to work. I love my teammates, you know, and highlighting your teammates and what it's just like to work there, it's just one way to kind of you know, kind of weave around that subject.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and I think if you have people who are actively doing that and I encourage it, as you know then sometimes they're going to step in it. And that's just something, as a leader, you have to feel comfortable about, and so rather again, rather than sitting down and being like comfortable about, and so rather again, rather than sitting down and being like oh, why did? You post that, right it's sort of more like this is a little off. Here's why, and here's what you know might work better.
Speaker 2:Literally had someone post a meme that I was just like what's going on. So I sat him down and I said hey, I love that you're putting yourself out there. This is funny, but you've aimed it at our customers, so maybe not right and like.
Speaker 2:So maybe if you reframed it this way then it can just be funny. And you know it's not referential to anything going on. Do you understand? Like, does that make sense? Turns into a learning moment. Here's where the line is. And he was like oh cool. And so he's still out there now, you know, posting stuff, resharing content, all of that. We have a contest actually at Repair Pal.
Speaker 2:So every month, somebody who's not an executive wins a prize for doing the most you know sort of posts or reposts or engagement with our, you know sort of official social media channels.
Speaker 1:I love that, which has been awesome. Yeah, and people have been responding and doing more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they get a gift card and they get recognized in our, you know, announcements, Slack channel and that kind of thing. So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it seems like you have the right environment in your company to do that. You said your CEO is totally fine with it, which is, I think, the base. You have to have somebody supporting you or at least being okay with it. That conversation needs to happen. Communication after that is very important because it's a learning curve, right? Nobody's perfect. Nobody knows exactly how to do it. So I think you, as a leader, you really need to just have an eye on it, not be completely afraid of it. Yes, things might happen, but it starts with hiring the right people in the first place. If you have people who you disagree with completely on whatever views they have, I mean, maybe you didn't do. If they're bad people, whatever, it's maybe not the right choice of people you have in your company.
Speaker 3:So I'm very fortunate to have had, together with my team, the right decisions. We have an amazing bunch of people with us and have full confidence that their head is at the right spot. Yes, they miscommunicate something, but that's a learning curve, that's a little bit coaching and just like telling them you know what? This is the frame you should move. You could move in if you want to do social media. Just don't talk about certain topics because we don't want to like talk bad about or we don't want to make people feel bad about whatever, and there's just some hot topics you just better just don't touch, because you will lose.
Speaker 3:No matter where you go right, um, and I think, as long as the communication is there and the frame is set, hey, go out and play with it, and you don't have to everything as it can. Nothing is a must. If you feel comfortable doing it, please do so. I'll give you feedback once in a while and it's all good. And then, within your frame, you can choose. Do I want to actually teach my audience about something? For example, you're an accountant and you're really good with numbers and you know a couple of tricks how to actually save money here, save money there, do, hey, you can actually make. Your target audience could be some other accountants and other companies and they follow you and they learn from you. That's perfect.
Speaker 3:Or if you're a sales representative, you can just show who's behind that person representing liquid money or representing any other company, and it's really for me, it's really about finding your own spot, like what people struggle with, which you mentioned before. Do I want to represent me as a person? Do I want to teach my audience something about a certain niche and get a different audience listening to what I say at the end of the day? So if you and your boss have that communication, you find your frame, you find what you do. Have fun with it. If it out, perfect. If it doesn't, well it doesn't. But I do see that it brings a lot of opportunities to the table because people will stay in contact with you.
Speaker 3:People know about certain things you as a person are or you do within the company, which they didn't know. And all of a sudden, oh, I didn't know you have that product, I didn't know. And all of a sudden, oh, I didn't know you have that product, I didn't know you actually offer that service. That's awesome. Let's talk about that. We had that so often the last couple of years that I really encouraged my whole people. We're 77 people right now, with over 60 being in sales. Every one of these teammates we have has an own Instagram channel dedicated to the company, because nowadays people. Let's be honest, going through magazines is not really what everybody does anymore, so most mechanics like we are in contact with a lot of shops. They scroll through their Instagram, through their LinkedIn, whatever, and we want to be part of that conversation with them.
Speaker 3:That's amazing, and if my people and again, it's nothing forced, because if you force somebody to do Instagram and they feel awkward, it's also not the right approach but some actually want to do it or some are considering it and kind of like giving them a little bit of push. Hey, try it out. Some will stick with it and like it and promote their own channel to their little I don't want to say bubble, but in their sales region they connect with the mechanics. All of a sudden they're Facebook or Instagram friends and they will follow each other. So they're updating each other indirectly by just like posting their stuff.
Speaker 3:And there is so much value for us as a company, for me pushing my people to do so, but also valuable for the individual, because I really want my people to grow. And it's like in a relationship if you're clinging too much on your partner, it's like this a relationship if you're clinging too much on your partner, it's like that this partner there's going to be a time where they're like enough. I really want them to prosper, to fly, and so far we have super low fluctuation of people. It really pays off to invest in your people, to push them to go beyond their borders to promote themselves and promote either topics or themselves. As a person, I would say to a lot of executives out there it's an opportunity. It's really not about you losing people because they self-promote themselves. It's about showing them that you support them and you want them to grow and I feel for most part, that is appreciated if you have the right people.
Speaker 1:There's two things that I want to hit on that you said so. One of them when you said you might have the wrong people in your company. That's something you know in the hiring process. Maybe a lot of companies don't do is make sure that their people align with their values. Because if the values are right for the company, then in the employee truly does live and breathe those values. Then you really don't have as much risk.
Speaker 3:I agree don't have as much risk.
Speaker 1:Then like, if one of your values is integrity and someone doesn't have integrity, then yeah, you're going to have a flight risk there, you know, with them putting themselves out there and maybe saying something wrong. But the other piece of it too is for fears of management. One of the common ones is this person maybe isn't great at video or something, they're not good at creating content and you're like I don't want them out there necessarily representing my brand. You know, marketers feel that way a lot, like they finally get salespeople to go out there and create content and it's just low quality. Or they start, you know, making creative decisions with the logo and you know all the branders are like oh cringy, you know.
Speaker 1:But I think I think that there has to be some grace too, and not just with the company and with management, but with everybody else playing on social media. There should be some grace and I don't think people look at that like if content isn't very good, first of all it won't do very well. So like there won't be a lot of eyes on it naturally, so like you can calm down. But also people know that that's a human doing that and they know that that's a salesperson doing that. They know that they're not a graphic designer. They know that they're not a production expert. So them putting themselves out there says a lot of other things other than what you're looking at. So a lot of it too like when I see someone go out there and maybe that's not good quality stuff, I'm still engaging with their content because I know that they're passionate about what they're talking about.
Speaker 3:Or they wouldn't put themselves out there and put in that effort that we did a lot of videos high production, good quality, paid a lot of money for it and they did really terrible on the other hand, we had people in our, like our teammates, doing some not cringe videos, but just some some not high professional videos they were doing way better.
Speaker 3:Why? Because people want to see the truth. Because now there's so many professional videos out there exactly it's. It's overwhelming. And as long as they align with the values and they're not saying anything stupid or like just being not good people about something and just being like open minded, tolerant and like just good people, knowledgeable, it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter what the quality of the video is If it's a little bit shaky.
Speaker 3:they're just expressing themselves in a way which they think is good and the audience mostly likes it. So we had way more good than bad experiences doing so.
Speaker 1:And another one of the fears of management that I talk about is if your people start putting themselves out there and they're doing a good job at it, they're getting better, more well-known, then they're going to get poached and leave. But I always tell people like, yes, that could absolutely happen and, frankly, you should be happy for them. If they end up with a better opportunity doing something else that they think that aligns to their values more, or that they you know aligns to the career, their dream career more, you should hug them and let them go, you know, but also, if you keep your employees from being able to do something like self-expression, which is really what we're talking about, they will leave anyway and find somewhere where they can do that Exactly, you know, if it's important to them. So I think that that one's kind of a double-edged sword. If you're just afraid you're keeping your people really close, like, make sure that you're treating them right and treating them well, and that's supporting them in what they want to do.
Speaker 2:And they won't want to leave because they'll see value in that. And you don't get that everywhere, yeah, usually, and this is sort of a you know mindfulness kind of precept, right, but the harder you resist something, the more likely you are to make that thing happen. That's probably so true.
Speaker 1:I see that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, the tighter you hold, you know, the more likely you are to kill it.
Speaker 2:And that's just you know the tighter you hold, you know, the more likely you are to kill it, and that's just. You know, people crave that freedom of expression and that personal liberty and the opportunity to just unfold at work. They do better work, you know. So Harvard actually did a study where the stronger the mask that someone needed to put on at work or, you know, that professional facade, the less effective they were, because that takes energy. And so the more that people are able to be, you know, creative and expressive and all of these things, the better the quality of work. And so I think you know that's what you're fostering and ultimately, if you're fostering that and people are posting that, sure, maybe that one person finds a different opportunity, but then you're going to get five more people because, they saw that person's content and they're like, oh, I want to join a company that's, you know, going to be right for me.
Speaker 2:So you attract talent when you do that. We've had people. You know we're a small company. We don't necessarily have the biggest reach. There are people who are like I applied to work there six times because you know they had seen like sort of what was going on with other people and they were like I want to be part of that team.
Speaker 2:And you know, honestly, we're smaller. So you know our CEO says this all the time like we don't pay the highest salaries. We're somewhere. We want to be fair, but we're somewhere in the mid-range right, because that's what we can afford and that's what's practical for our business and things like that. But we don't have trouble attracting really really great talent even though we're not paying the most that maybe some of these really amazing people could earn someplace. But the culture and the values and everything that the company sort of allows offsets that.
Speaker 3:For talent acquisition nowadays, where you really need to promote yourself as an employer, it's super important. I 100% agree. We had multiple instances where people in our company approached us and mentioned you know. What it really brought me to you is we listened to the podcast where you were just explaining the story about Lake Morley, about yourself, and we just see the people behind that brand and it just seems like you guys are good guys. You're good people and I want to work for you and that just made me feel so like we're on the right track. We're on the right track putting our people first, them promoting out who they are, who we are as a team, and other people will want to also be part of that, so it helps tremendously.
Speaker 1:This is such a beautiful another segue into the benefits mentioned because I would love to hear from you guys what some of the benefits you guys are finding from you and your people putting themselves out there Hi.
Speaker 4:I'm Ted Hughes, executive Director of AWDA and Senior Director of Community Engagement for the Auto Care Association. We provide our members with numerous avenues for connection and collaboration through our diverse range of committees and communities. Whether you're interested in advancing your career through the Women in Auto Care program or our vibrant Under 40 group, or simply wish to network and glean insights from fellow distributors, shops and manufacturers, we have dedicated committees and communities eager to connect with you. Learn more at autocareorg slash communities.
Speaker 1:I think one of the really big ones is word of mouth is still the best marketing tool in the world, and you can build trust with people you've never met before because of this avenue of social media. Right, that's really what the influencer world is. But I don't think everybody's goal needs to be to be an influencer. But the goal is branding, and branding is not necessarily a sale, but branding is about being top of mind when you're, when somebody is ready to buy, and it might not even be someone in your network. But if, if you sell something and you talk about this company and how much you like to work there, you don't even talk about the product ever, right. But they just happen to know like, oh, there's Jackie, where does she work? Oh, she works at this, jackie, where does she work? Oh, she works at this point, what do they do? And then they look into it one time, right. And then they see them again and they see that company again and they already know what they do.
Speaker 1:But it's just like another brand impression and another brand impression and another brand impression. They might not even be in your industry or have anything to do with anything, but if anyone ever were to come to them needing what you sell, they could say like I don't know, but I do know this company sells what you need. I've never had it myself, but they just happen to know your company. Do that on a very wide scale. It doesn't even have to be one person to thousands, it could be hundreds of people to 10, right, and doing that on a grand scale for basically free. That is the biggest benefit I think that C-level, like executive type management doesn't see is that yeah, it's not tied to a dollar sign, but it's huge in branding and branding usually isn't tied to a dollar sign.
Speaker 3:It's more of an emotion, Often not trackable right. Where did that sale actually come from? Was it because it was in top of mind, because of some instagram posts somebody was doing right or like I think.
Speaker 1:I think the rule is the rule of seven, where it's like somebody you really need. Uh, somebody needs to see your brand seven times before it truly resonates. So doing it on social media really just gives you that many more opportunities to get those brand impressions.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, that's right and you know to share, as we were saying, sort of what you're all about or what really matters, you know. So for me, like the vast majority of what I post is really my love letter to my company, to my team, to this industry, you know, to the people who follow and support me. It's my way of expressing that and I think you know when people feel that from me or that support from me, then you know there's all kinds of other benefits that come from that and I think you know for my team, then they get to hear me saying the same messages inside the company and outside the company.
Speaker 4:Builds some trust.
Speaker 2:Yeah, builds trust, so that when we're going through difficult things, which we do right, then they're like this person is this person, and if they're telling me this, then I can trust that, because it's the same sort of across the board and it also, you know, like you were saying about squirrels in the backyard, it's a great opportunity to sometimes not be so dang serious. Oh, yeah, yeah, which brings back.
Speaker 3:There's a person behind that serious company. Right, and as long as there's good intention and good values, you actually want to actually stick more to that brand in my opinion, I would have one more what value brings it to the table?
Speaker 3:And more what value brings it to the table? And it kind of feeds into what both of you super perfectly laid out. I heard that story and I'm probably going to butcher it right now, but the gist of it was everybody of us wants to find a treasure, right? So there's different paths to find that treasure. And it was that story about the person who wants to find that treasure and he was thinking how can I find a treasure? So he, like you know, most likely treasure are still somewhere in the ocean, so I should go out and just start diving. Well, he started randomly diving at a given space and, of course, he was not finding a treasure because it's rarely random if you find a treasure just randomly diving.
Speaker 3:So he would say you know what? I'm gonna educate myself in diving, I'm going to takeclasses, I'm going to network with a lot of people and I'm going to be an international diver. And everybody knows me that I'm a diver. So he connected with Australia, with different countries, and everybody in the diver connection knew he was an amazing diver, she was an amazing diver. Anyway, one day there is a treasure to be found in New Zealand. He lives in England. All of a sudden, who are these people calling? They need somebody to go with them on the journey to get that treasure out of that boat really deep down, and they need the professional people. Well, because he was doing all the networking, who was the first of mind to your point before? It was that person. So they connected out.
Speaker 3:And same applies to social media, in my opinion. Opinion, if you really show the world, even though it's a small following, but it's still your world and it could be like some, really the people who follow you could be other distributors, whatever. If you show what you bring to the table, they gonna think of you if they need a new product, if they need a new grease, whatever it is. So think of the diver you're gonna. You your. Your chances to find a treasure are way increasing if people know what you're exactly doing. I hope I didn't butcher the story, no you didn't butcher it.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, it's fantastic, it's good, yeah, and really the benefits too, like I think something. Maybe we didn't dive deep enough into Dive, we were just oh shoot, oh shoot what a lead in. Yes, we did it. We're doing really good with segues guys, we are, we are.
Speaker 1:Another one is just building your own network. Like more in a personal sense. Maybe it's not a I mean, definitely companies can benefit from their employees having large networks, but there's a whole saying that I always say, which I think it was Dale Carnegie the Dale Carnegie one, which is people buy from people that they know, like and trust and social media. I see it happen all the time where, like, I never even knew about a company until, like Kathleen, your company is a good example of this for me. I didn't know what repair pal was, I just knew somebody that worked there and I barely I didn't really know you, I just knew you on LinkedIn. So I saw RepairPal and one day looked up what it was.
Speaker 1:I really wouldn't have known anything about RepairPal other than that and the more that you put yourself out there and because you're so consistent, because you know your values and you're very grounded in who you are and you're very authentic, in that way, it makes your audience know you, for one like knows your personality, knows a little bit about you.
Speaker 1:They trust you because you're consistent with it and your actions and your words align consistently and it makes them trust you and they'll make them buy from you eventually, if they ever need anything, and it's kind of like that word of mouth thing all over again, but that's just like one of the strongest attributes of having both your people in for putting yourself out there.
Speaker 1:And something that we mentioned briefly was when I was talking earlier and you said you get to take it with you wherever you go, right, yeah, so if something changes in your career, you know you get to take the Kathleen brand there and that's a loss for your company, frankly, but it's a huge value that you bring no matter where you go. It's kind of like your little backpack of value that you get to bring in. Yours is huge, and that's something that I always encourage anyone, any professional you should always have a digital presence. There's actually a really good way to test it too, and I'm curious if any of you guys have done this have you ever gone into chat GPT and said Give me a short biography of Jackie Lutz?
Speaker 2:I have done that because somebody asked me for a bio that focused on something and I was like, oh, let me see what ChatGPT is going to say about this. Did it kick out something pretty accurate? Yeah, I mean it was. It was interesting because it's a combination of sort of press releases. Because it's a combination of sort of press releases, right? Yeah, so that the company puts out that it was able to find and then, you know, combined with this, you know mindfulness stuff and you know leadership stuff that I do, so it combined the two of them together. It was a little bit funny. I should actually probably send it to you. Yeah, I would love to, because it wasn't exactly like you know. It was a little confused. Like what are these two things?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How do they like chat to be like chat to be like like fizzling, because they can't figure out how to like. It's like she's teaching meditation classes to partnerships, not exactly, but have you ever done it.
Speaker 1:Sebastian.
Speaker 3:I googled my name because I just wanted to see what's coming up.
Speaker 1:Google's another way, but I did not.
Speaker 3:I use a lot ChatGPT, to be honest, but I have not tried that out.
Speaker 1:You should try it. I'll definitely try it. I think it tells you two things. One, if you don't have a digital presence, it'll either be guessing and it won't sound right at all, or it won't have all the details. It will be very small, maybe the press release from when you got hired, you know, and that's all that they had to go on, or it'll it'll be kind of the wrong things right. It might be, you know, it might be like it'll tell you like you're putting out the kind of like the wrong information, because if that's what chat GPT is pulling, that might be what other people are pulling to. And I know when I did it I was actually pretty proud because it actually said like really good, probably at least the last 10 years of my life, but like you know my career journey. It said that I was passionate about personal branding. It said like it was. It was actually very accurate and I could actually just copy and paste that if I ever need to do a bio again. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it makes so much sense because, I mean, it's just a consolidation of what's out there on the internet and if you put yourself out there, um, it will find the right things but, if you don't have that presence, jatt gbt will have trouble finding anything about you and I learned. We had some ai courses recently and I learned that, instead of not giving you anything, jatt gbt hallucinates. So um, if it cannot come up with something?
Speaker 3:that it comes up with something right Because it wants to serve you, want to give you something, even though it's wrong. There's a famous court case actually where one of the lawyers was using JAT-GPT in a big case and JAT-GPT was spitting out some cases. They were all made up and it was presented to the jury but it was all wrong and then they investigated that and Jachibidi hallucinated.
Speaker 1:That's what it says. So be careful using that, because sometimes it just comes up with weird things. So if it's hallucinating, it means you don't have a strong enough digital presence.
Speaker 3:The right information isn't out there Exactly.
Speaker 1:Wow. So, like the last one was technology, which is a little bit tougher to tackle, but I think that that could be a mix of people who don't currently have a social media presence. So that feels like a very big elephant to eat, you know, to get started, and I think part of it, too, could be more on the content creation side. So I'd love your guys' thoughts on this. So, personally, I only ever did LinkedIn for years, like I had a Facebook, but it was more. I never posted on it. It was more like where my friends would tag me in pictures so I would have those pictures, you know, and it was more like a tool than like a social media platform for me. But LinkedIn was easier for me because I can talk about work all day long, like all day. I could easily post every single day if I had the time.
Speaker 1:Instagram I just got in May, which usually shocks people. They think that I love social and I'm all over all social media. I literally just got it in May and I find Instagram extremely difficult and I'm trying to promote the podcast on it, but I find it just because there's so many options on it and everybody has these stickers and like all this stuff that you can do and I find it very overwhelming and that should be comforting to people. I get very overwhelmed with Instagram. If you want to see the struggle in real life, you can go on there and look at my post.
Speaker 1:It's pretty sad, but let's start with, like, just the social media platforms. Maybe people they want to put themselves out there but they're not strong or don't truly understand social media Like where, where can they start?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you can start with just one platform and what I was advising actually, somebody sought me out for mentorship in this area and she was like I just don't know, and I don't know if I want to do video or photos, or da, da, da, da da. And I was like, okay. I said, well, where are most of the people that you really admire, you want to engage with their content, et cetera? We decided that was LinkedIn for her and then I said, well, why don't you just start by like training your algorithm, start following people or connecting with people that you know or you really appreciate their content, start liking their content, start commenting if you have something that you can add and then that way, when you start posting, guess what your audience is going to be the people that you were already engaging with.
Speaker 2:But my son's actually an influencer on TikTok. I'm only on TikTok to follow my son, like everything, and you know he'll show up in my feed and then he's earning money off of it at this point. So I'm like I just gave him like 2 cents by watching his video or something like this.
Speaker 2:But anyway, um, you know, he uh actually gave some advice, which is, you know, only try to show up on platforms you really love and that you feel really comfortable on, because if you're not a TikTok person and then suddenly you're deciding one day that you're gonna start making videos and you've never really engaged with the content there and you kind of don't understand what's going on or what the zeitgeist is for that particular platform, it's gonna be really, really hard for you to break through and it's gonna feel pretty discouraging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm a written words kind of person, right? So even though I do a podcast and I do, you know, video at times and things like that, the fact of the matter is I don't want to be, you know, editing videos, and my podcast is all like sort of one take pretty much. I don't really mess with it that much, and so I don't really want to be on platforms where I've got to really super curate, you know that kind of thing, and I just know that about myself. I'm going to spend 15 minutes, you know, on a given day, and then I'm going to be done for that day, and so I've narrowed it so that it doesn't feel overwhelming, and it's. You know, linkedin is often a place where you know I'm engaging, you know quite a lot, and then I can use the other platforms to sort of cross promote. But yeah, you know, you don't have to be everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I should be really encouraging to people to hear you say that, because your content works and it resonates with people and it's very simple. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So everything perfectly. So you kind of took away a lot, which is good. Maybe something to add? It really depends what you like. I would say the first thing if, uh, you would say you want to get more into social media, I mean, what's your goal? Is your goal the point to create a lot of followers? Is your goal just to self-express yourself? Is your goal to bring a certain message across? So what's your goal? Once you figure that out, again, it should be something you like. If you don't like it, you'll not be sustainable. You're not going to do it every day. You have to do it almost daily, or at least twice, three times every week for the algorithm to catch on like. If you're again, if your goal is to grow followers, then consistency is something which you want to do. In order to have consistency, you actually need to do what you like. So, um, and if you're lucky, what you like is maybe something very cool and very niche. So, for example, I mean for you to grow the Instagram of your specific case, because you mentioned that before.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 3:I'm not giving any hints or whatsoever that it's not what I want, but I know recently it shifts a lot from photos to reels, like to videos.
Speaker 4:Instagram does right.
Speaker 3:Even though it used to be more about photos, now it's really about videos. So if you, if you portray what you're doing a daily life, uh, of your position at the sema apex show and you do a couple of selfie videos, one take bomb, I'm sure that's gonna catch on a lot, because that's really yourself, it's true. I mentioned at the beginning when we met you're super energetic, you seem you like what you're doing and transmit that into the videos and you're definitely going to hit a home run with that.
Speaker 3:So really do what you like. Maybe you're lucky having a niche in that and just constantly do something with it, and I think we're all fortunate to be part of that amazing industry. So we're on a lot of car shows, we're on a lot of trade shows whatsoever, and I think there is a whole lot of car shows, we're on a lot of trade shows whatsoever, and I think there is a whole lot of people out there who would just look behind the scenes. What is about? Why is that person so so happy all the time? Like, why are you smiling all the time? You must do something which is really nice and cool, so let's look behind the curtains and, uh, people would would love to see more of that, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:So, um, yeah, that's something what I would say to someone who wants to get it started.
Speaker 1:That's really validating, because one of the things I say is it can almost be contagious. So like you don't even have to have like these mind blowing, you know, thought leadership ideas, but like really what you do, just getting other people to love and follow what you do, it can be contagious if you love it. If you love it, that'll come out. It has to be authentic. And people will get interested, you know.
Speaker 3:You have to like it, it's really so important that you have to like what you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because this is just going to add to doing more of it.
Speaker 2:So if you don't like it, and a lot of the content that inspires us is actually not, you know, the most unique thing, right? It's not like oh my gosh, I literally never heard that before. It's hearing again something that you've already internalized, that you haven't thought about for a while. And then, oh, that sparks. Right and it's just hearing it at the right moment, when you needed to hear it. That's inspiration, and so you know people worry too much about. Oh, has anybody ever said this before? Is it the most unique thing ever?
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to be, it's so true If it's a genuine expression, it's positive, it puts something good out in the world, which I think should be a goal of all social media should be to do good, just sort of in general. Whatever that means to you, then you know it's going to land on the right person at the right time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I think. Another point I would suggest to someone I don't know if you say that expression in English, don't ride a dead horse, is that an expression?
Speaker 1:I mean, it makes sense. Yeah, so what I want to say with that is… I don't know if it is.
Speaker 2:I've never heard it before, but Maybe it's a.
Speaker 3:German expression which I just translated now. So anyway, what I want to say with that is there are some platforms which are totally saturated with a certain thing, like, for example, very nice photos of landscape. If you want to make it in that realm and if you go to a platform which already has millions and billions of photos of nice landscape, it's not really likely that you will post something and it will catch on. But if you go into a new trending platform like Threads it's not something which is I'm using a lot, but I found if I post something on Threads and I'm consistently doing it, it's in the interest of Threads. It's like the X of meta, right? So if you consistently do that, they are pushing your content organically because they're not too too many people doing that at the moment, so they want some stars coming out of there which collect followers and then other people will go towards that.
Speaker 3:Because if there is, do you have to imagine if you bring out a platform and it's new and there is a million people and everything does a little bit, it's not really enticing, because what will you see? You will see just some random photos and we people want to see other things which already got a lot of attention which is like oh, that has a thousand likes, I like it too. Probably not going to happen that you give a like if something has zero likes. So the platforms are promoting. If you are a content creator, they're promoting you, they're pushing you towards okay, let me just have that person a lot of reach. And I experienced that with new technologies, new platforms. They really give you a chance, a lead in which does not happen with something which is already super established.
Speaker 3:So that is maybe another thing. If you really want to do it and your goal is to have a lot of followers, have a big reach, it is advisable to at least try out the newer platforms which are up and coming, because it is in the very own interest of the platform to promote good and consistent content creators.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good advice. It's very good advice. What are your guys' goals on social media?
Speaker 3:I'm just curious For me. I would say we have a company goal. I have a company goal. That's a personal goal.
Speaker 3:Company is we do put people in the center of everything we do. I think we're the all company with the most sales representatives on our all payroll. So and we take pride of that that we have a lot of people showing face, educating and being in contact and building the relationship right. So I do want my people to just take me as a role model. I'm doing it so you can do it as well, so you're welcome to do it. You're actually encouraged to do it. So I really do it because of company purposes. I want to be a role model. I want to show my own people, but also outside industry partners who is the person behind the brand in order to build the trust, to gain the trust. Who is the person behind the brand in order to build the trust, to gain the trust and eventually have a good business partnership but on the other hand, I just like doing yeah, it's just like yeah, it's just fun and it doesn't take a lot of effort, it's just a one shot.
Speaker 3:I barely have any two shots because I almost don't care. I'm just like whatever I want to say, I'll say it and I'll just post it and that's fine.
Speaker 1:so I just I relate to that. Before they paid me to do it, I just post it and that's fine, so I just like I relate to that Before they paid me to do it. I just did it on the weekends for fun. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well. I got started doing it actually years ago when I was in FinTech, and I did it because money is very personal to people and I thought if people are going to let me in their sort of financial underwear drawer, so to speak, then I owe them some transparency back, because you know, when you're working with people and their money, you get to know kind of a lot about them, and that can feel uncomfortable if there's not a reciprocal relationship. So I started doing it for that reason. And then in automotive it was interesting because I had to find kind of a different purpose.
Speaker 2:People are not nearly so shy about under the hood as they are, you know, sort of in the bank account, and so, you know, in this industry it was more about oh, you know, I don't see enough representation. There aren't enough women in the industry. They're not, you know, enough diversity in this industry, right, and so there's not necessarily enough great leadership role models where people are coming out and being inclusive and exemplifying servant leadership and that kind of thing. So I was like, oh, we really need that, we need a voice who is pleased to represent that, and so I had to switch tactics. It was interesting for me too, because when I made the leap between industries, you know, I had thousands of followers on LinkedIn at the time. They're all accountants. It was funny because I went to a reunion of a former company I used to work at 25 years ago, just a couple of weekends ago, and one of our very first customers an accountant, and she was like I'm still following your content.
Speaker 1:I'm still engaging.
Speaker 2:It was really very sweet, you know, but I had to build like a totally different you know industry audience.
Speaker 1:It's also because you talked about other things too, so you had that foundation that we talked about like different themes, so you didn't have to completely start over. It was the same Kathleen. People know and love that talk about all these things, but now she's talking about auto parts. Yeah, a little in love that talk about all these things. But now she's talking about auto parts. A little bit of a beeline, but right, and you know honestly, I find it fun too.
Speaker 2:It's creative for me.
Speaker 4:I mean.
Speaker 2:I said, you know, my son's an influencer and an actor. You know, if I'd had all the money in the world or different support system growing up or whatever, I'd probably be doing something, you know, wild and creative. Also, I came up through the business world sort of out of necessity, and I find creative outlets, but this is one of them, yeah, and I'm a very expressive person, as you know, yeah, and so it gives me an outlet for that, but also to like manifest that in a way that hopefully lands on people you know, positively.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think a lot of people probably like I. I also feel the same way, like this is one of my few creative outlets, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And, ultimately, I want to change the world. Dang it yeah.
Speaker 1:How are you going to do that? How are you going to do that?
Speaker 4:If you have no voice, no platform, no, nothing.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, I want to make the world a little bit better. If I, you know, croak tomorrow, uh, you know, I want to have been known for something. I want to have made a difference, and this is sort of the broadest way I can do that, particularly because I generally work at pretty small companies. So maybe I'm making a difference for, you know, 50 or 100 employees or something like that. So my way of having a broader impact outside of the doors of that smallish company, that I work at is social.
Speaker 1:That's huge.
Speaker 3:Very nice.
Speaker 1:So, to wrap up, I usually like to just go around and do like a takeaway, like if the audience could only take away one thing from everything we just said. What do you guys think that should be?
Speaker 3:I would say starting is always the most difficult thing. Just get your first two or three posts done and you will get some feedback. Learn from it and you will hopefully start liking doing it. And if you don't, just let it go, but try it. And as always, the first step is the most difficult one and just put yourself out there. I would say, just do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that it's. It's like anything Like. I always compare it to running. No one likes running when you're not good at it.
Speaker 3:Like it's the worst.
Speaker 1:But if you show up every single day, you get better at it, you start to look forward to it, you start to like it, you start to be proud of it and you start to like, you start conversations with yeah, I ran five miles this morning and now you get to be that person. You know. Like you start to, you start to fall in love with it, and I think social media is the same way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you start to feel weird when you don't do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm on that journey too. I think you know, speaking to the leaders out there, you don't have to put yourself out there. That's not something you want to spend your time doing, but you really should support it. So you're going to have to think about it and you're going to have to help guide people around it, Even if you yourself are not involved in it. I think that's the way we're headed and I think it's really important to people to be able to have this outlet so that they can make the posts and get started and do all the things that you were talking about. So I would just urge leaders to talk about it and ultimately, you know, if you just don't even know where to start, like, go on to social, reach out to me. I'd be happy to chat with you about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think mine is around trying to learn about who you are and learn about your values. Like, take the time to do like Google values exercises. There's so many easy ones that can actually help you put into words. Like, if somebody is walking down the street and you'd be like what are your values? Most people would be like I mean, you know them internally, but like, how do you articulate those you don't really know? You've never put the thought into it.
Speaker 1:I would really strongly advise people to do that. Just go on Google and say you know personal values exercise and like, learn those and apply those to every area of your life and in social media. It really gives you a nice guiding map around what to say and what not to say, Right, Like, like I wish I had done that much earlier on. One of mine is spreading love in the world, and when I look back when I first started, there's like not a lot for the hundreds of posts that I've done. There's like one or two where you know I'm like was I spreading love? Like, if I had done that values exercise before, I think I would have been a little bit more aligned with my life and my brands and you should really apply those in every area of your life. Anyway, that would be my suggestion to people is start there, because that might also bring out something that you don't know. You like you know, not being able to know your purpose is really hard in life, and that can bring that out too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you guys so much for doing this. I really appreciate you guys taking the time in the busiest week of the industry and it was nice to get to know both of you so well.
Speaker 3:Also Big pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much, it was fun.
Speaker 2:And now I'm going to go follow you on Instagram Same for me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care On Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review. It helps others discover our show. Autocare OnAir is proud to be a production of the AutoCare Association, dedicated to advancing the auto care industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocareorg.
