The Art of Succession

and here like I'm working I'm Blood

Sweat and Tears into Pizza Auto Parts

working all these hours I'm working so

hard sun up to sun down I'm working and

U for you know a pretty small celery

comparatively in my opinion right um and

I'm doing it because we keep saying that

this is Sweat Equity right um but

there's nothing in writing and like you

know like anything could happen you know

and so I I went to him and I said like

do you do you see me as the person to

take over this company to buy this

company what are the unique issues faced

in acquiring a third generation business

what are some of the unique challenges

you unintentionally create when an owner

doesn't want to talk about succession

and how do you balance the health of the

business and the assumptions of the

family relationship my name is Barrett

young and this is the AR of succession

podcast my guest today is Amber Kendrick

owner of Pete's Auto Parts an auto parts

Recycling yard near Grand Rapids

Michigan

today we're going to hear from Amber

about the unique and interesting

challenges of taking over a third

generation Auto Parts yard and growing

her team by providing customer service

and care for her team Amber welcome to

the artist

sucession thanks so much for having me

founded by your grandfather correct what

is an auto parts Recycling yard yeah

thanks for asking um because I think one

thing that we get a lot is like oh a

junkyard that's what people usually

think and um in the in the most basic

sense yes if you're imagining you know

automobiles that have been in an

accident um lined up in rows like that

that's right that's us it's a junkyard

but um it's not junk we don't sell junk

we sell quality used auto parts so U we

like salvage yard or Used Auto Parts

recycling facility you know better than

than junkyard but you we buy insurance

company total losses so we're not buying

end of life Vehicles you know if your

vehicle's worn out at the end of its

life then it's going to the Scrapper

right we're buying vehicles that were

fully insured were in a light accident

and so some of the parts are damaged the

insurance company totals the car out

that car goes to an auction we buy it

and then we sell the good parts and

recycle the metals um and all the rest

so yeah that's what we do okay and uh

when did your grandfather found this he

started in 52 and um I usually use 56 as

like the official date because I think

that's when we got like the the license

from the state of Michigan and all that

um but my grandpa was a farmer and he

was farming the land that petza is on

now and he was struggling to make ends

meat in the early 50s and so he put

together he kind of cobbled together a

homemade tow truck and started Towing

vehicles on the side at night after he'd

farm all day he' tow vehicles all night

and to make ends meet for his family and

he ended up with like this mly

collection of of old cars that you know

back in the early 50s like people didn't

even want to pay the 25 to 50 cents for

the toe to get these cars back they were

just abandoning them um and so the

township eventually said like hey you

can't have all these cars just sitting

around here and he was like what am I

supposed to do with them and that they

suggested you know maybe you should have

a salvage yard and so he um he asked the

state of Michigan to come in and help

him and they did they sent a sent a guy

who sat at the kitchen table with my

grandpa and grandma and kind of

explained how it worked and um got their

got their permits and everything um and

then kind of the rest is history he had

a towing operation um through the 7 s

and my dad grew up working for the

family business of course as so many of

us you know in a family business know

you know you get kind of get forced into

working for the family business whether

you want to or not and my dad years old

yeah yeah um I can remember going

through cars um picking all the change

out of cars and then rolling the change

you know in those oldfashioned they

didn't have Coin Star in the 80s you

know so we'd roll the change and then my

dad would let us keep 10% and looking

back that was kind of a small you know

for the change we roll but uh yeah so so

my dad he loved cars um but he he was

Towing you know from basically as soon

as he had a driver's license and so

while he was in high school you know

he'd be going to school during the day

and then at night you know Michigan

winners there'd be cars going in the

ditch his dad wouldd be getting him out

of bed to go tow cars all night and he

did not like the towing side of the

business so he bought half the business

um from my grandpa in the 70s and the

other half in the 80s and he closed down

the toy operation just about as soon as

he could to focus on the parts um and

that served has served us very

well gotcha okay so at the time I mean

was your grandfather looking to restore

these vehicles himself or was he

specifically he saw an opportunity to

sell parts to neighbors and other people

in the community yeah he saw the

opportunity to sell parts and like back

in the day you know the way things

worked is somebody would come by and say

like hey do you have you know Chevy

Caprice I need a tail light and he'd say

oh yeah go out back you know about five

rows back on the left and people would

go out themselves to pull parts um

that's not really how it works these

days there are self-service uh Auto

Recyclers out there there's pick and

pull yards where you can go pull your

own Parts but we're a full service Auto

Recycler so we have trained technicians

that remove all the parts um for you so

if you want a part these days you're not

allowed in the yard you just call or

text or email us and um we let you know

the part availability and then we'll we

go p P apart we um take pictures of it

we clean it inspect it um send you

pictures to make sure it's everything

you dreamed it would be you know and so

it it works a lot different than it did

back when my when my grandpa started

things and when my dad took over but

yeah okay interesting yeah I'm familiar

with the pick and pole model um used to

have classic Volkswagens and it would be

impossible to get parts except like a

pick and pole uh especially on the East

Coast here so so so your model then now

has evolved

to to to the order inventory I mean it's

just sitting out there it's not like you

guys are pulling it all off and putting

it on shelves until somebody says that

they need that part yeah there are parts

that we pull automatically so when when

the vehicle first comes in U my IM first

of all the first thing we do is we have

someone who cleans all the any and all

trash out of the vehicle and then takes

pictures of the vehicle and of all the

parts and uploads those pictures and

then we have a person who inventories

the vehicle they have a tablet and they

walk around the vehicle and they

identify every good part and then each

part that's good they identify what it

is so like you know a Volkswagen there

might be you know a door on a Volkswagen

Jetta the same Jetta sold you know from

Volkswagen in 2017 might have four

different doors depending on the trim

style there might be one that has

automatic up down Windows and one that

doesn't you know or there might be one

that has a molding and one that doesn't

so he identifies the exact part that's

on the vehicle and if it's good um all

the damage codes so like if there's a

scratch on the door we identify that and

we have a code for that that we save in

the description so that we can so that

we know if there's any issues with the

door we can describe those to the

customers and discount it yeah exactly

right um so then we once those parts are

in inventory they can be sold at any

time and then when a part is sold that

triggers dismantling the car is brought

into the building for dismantling and so

our dismantlers remove every engine they

remove every transmission they remove

like the compressor the alternator the

starter there's a whole bunch of parts

that they the wheels they remove every

on every car and those parts get

Warehouse like we put engines and

transmissions and axles and things into

our warehouses and then the rest of the

parts we leave on the vehicle we like to

use the vehicle as a warehouse so then

when a door is sold the door is on the

vehicle and we go remove it from the

vehicle we found that that's just like

the safest place for the door is on the

vehicle if we remove it there's there

and put it in a warehouse there's a

chance we're going to damage it every

time we handle it so we try not to

handle the vehicles more times than we

have to and we try not to handle the

parts more time than we have to but yeah

we we pretty much pulled order and a lot

of good parts um do end up recycled you

know because we don't sell every part on

the car but we do sell sell quite a few

yeah okay interesting now now dad taking

over in the 70s and 80s I mean did he

immediately know this is what he was

going in too yeah you know my dad um

only very briefly worked for anyone else

like after he and my grandpa had gotten

into a fight he like went to work as a

mechanic very briefly but he came back

pretty quickly too um and he is a pretty

fiercely independent guy and uh and

worked for himself all those years um

and then when um I I came into the

family business I see I had originally

kind of ran screaming I I was given all

the most terrible jobs at Pete's Auto

Parts when I was a kid you know when I

first came in they'd say oh yeah you're

going to in you know you're going to go

through the inventory and check all the

parts you know so it'd be August and I'd

be in the third floor of the warehouse

just sweating buckets you know verifying

inventory just the most boring job you

can imagine hours after hours you know

and then or if they need all all of a

sudden they need a part delivered quick

stop what you're doing and go deliver

this part or you know this drain needs

to be shoveled out you know here's a

shovel shovel out the drain like who

would imagine you wouldn't want anything

to do with that business right um I was

just at what age yeah like 14 probably

was when I was shoveling drains you know

middle school high school age I guess

yeah yeah yeah and I can remember like

blasting my music in high school like

being real rebellious you know um not

not wanting to be there really and um

kind of kind of forced forced to do it

but um I so I went to college I got an

English degree and um I just didn't

imagine I would have anything to do with

the family business I was planning on

going to grad school but I had a lot of

student loans and I thought well I'll

work for a little bit and and then

figure out exactly where I want to go or

how I'm going to pay for this grad

school thing and I went to work in

condominium management and I was the

Financial Manager of a company that

managed managed condominium associations

and I helped that company grow and that

was so fun I had so much like so I had

actually I got the job from my

Quickbooks experience working for my

family business so ironically you know

here I go to college and get a degree

and then how do I get the job oh from my

experience working for the family

business I ran from you know um and I

was paying bill and one of those jobs no

nobody wanted to do while you were

growing up was the bookkeeping yeah

exactly yeah give it to Amber she could

figure it out yeah okay so so I was

working at this condominium Management

Group and I was paying the bills and

doing taxes for all these condo

associations 20 some condo associations

and my predecessor had done these little

cover letters that just said you know oh

this quarter this it was X number of

dollars income X number of dollars

expenses it was like a one paragraph

cover letter and if you haven't figured

it out yet I love to talk I and I I um

I'm verbos and so my cover letters would

be like two and three pages long and

they would go into great detail about

how oh we redid 17 decks this summer and

next year we'll redo 16 decks you know

and the condo association just ate that

up they just all these old people got

these you know got their financial

statements and for once they could

understand what was happening with the

numbers because I would do these long

descriptions of them and so my boss

started taking those um descriptions to

new cond of associations and picking up

new clients and we started growing the

business and I just thought that was

like the the most fun I was creating all

more work for myself but I thought it

was so cool and I it was so exciting to

grow the business and I enjoyed that so

much um and so I went to my boss about a

raise you know here I made made all this

new work for myself you know and he kind

of hemmed in hot about it and uh said

I'd get my raise at my one one year mark

I've been working there for like 10

months and we grow in the business like

crazy I'm like are you crazy I'm making

you all this money and I'm working all

these extra hours you know and and

you're not you're not going to like

reward me for my work um and I thought

that was just not to months right um

wait two more months and then we'll talk

about it so I quit and when I quit he

offered to my salary and then I I said I

was like No And he he offered to double

my salary and I was like well now it's

really a no because if you think I was

worth twice what I was making and you

just weren't going to pay me that like

you know I don't really want to work for

someone like that but that was such an

important lesson for me as a business

owner and as a manager later on to treat

to to give people what they're worth um

to not wait for a one-year anniversary

to reward someone for doing a job well

done you know like it was really key for

me to have that job because it made me a

different boss you know it made me a

different business owner today you know

so when when that all happened I went to

my dad's business manager at the time

because I knew him from working with him

and I said hey you know this is crazy

but if you ever have a spot open up at

Pete's that would be a good fit for me

like I'm looking you know I'm not I'm

not happy with the the compensation

situation at my at my job and he was

like well you're not going to believe

this but you know I just talked to your

dad about bringing somebody in in the

office so um I came in to Pete I was

your dad's not your dad's not running

the place then he's got an operator that

you got hired through then so at that

time um my dad was doing all the buy my

dad has been a great vehicle buyer and

he's not been a great manager he's um

okay and I I don't mean to like put him

down by any means that way it's just

like that was never his Forte um he was

much more um like so in in our industry

vehicle purchasing is one of the most

important jobs if not the most important

job in the company and that's where he

was focusing all his efforts and where

he felt like he needed to and then um as

the business grew he kind of recognize

that like management wasn't really his

thing he was more into yelling at people

um than he was into managing people and

that didn't always produce great results

you know so he he brought in a um a

business manager um to help him with

with the company and that's that's who

was um you know that's who hired me in

to pets um in 200 let's see

2006 yeah I gotch you yeah so that's I

mean that solves the problem of you know

a lot of people who are good at what

they do as an employee they think oh I

should run my own business and you find

out very quickly there's a difference

between being a CPA and a business owner

who's a CPA or you know buying parts and

owning a recy recycling center and

running a recycling center how many how

many people were you guys up to at this

point when you came on board in the

office I think we probably had 12 uh 12

or 14 employees in the company um at

that time yeah so um and you're up to

about what now

31 31 okay so triple almost triple the

size of the company yeah at what what

what year was this that you came in and

start working 2006 was when I first came

in um and worked in the office and um

realized that they were bringing all of

the books to the CPA a lot of things

that like should be done inhouse could

be done inhouse anyway they were just

like bringing Stacks and stacks of paper

to the CPA saying like here you go um

and there was a lot of like there was

just a lot of things going on like there

wasn't any daily reconciliation of like

the sales to the cash you know it was

just like here's how much money we took

in this month you know um and so you

know I really changed a lot in the front

office and in the you know I developed a

system of of daily reconciliation so

that every day you know all of our sales

and um monies were recorded into

QuickBooks like we have an inventory

management system um that we print

reports off and then and transpose that

into QuickBooks so that we could keep

track of all that and we just instead of

just writing checks out of a you know

paper checkbook and then handing the the

copies to the CPA started doing it all

through quick started I started doing

all the payroll on myself you know and

just like bringing us into the 21st

century you know back then and uh that

went pretty

well and what size Revenue roughly were

you because I know a lot of business

owners struggle with this our clients

struggle with it they think they can

just always continue to do things the

way they did when they were really small

versus bringing paying the salary and

bringing somebody internal into the

company like a controller um so what

size Revenue were you guys at when you

realized you needed to really focus and

do daily operations in accounting that's

a good question you know I don't

remember off the top of my head that's

something I could definitely like look

up and let you know you know um because

I don't BK though yeah I just hate to

throw a ballpark out there I don't I

don't think it was that many I think it

might have been two million you know I

feel like it it would have been you know

I think we were probably doing at least

$100,000 a month that'd be 1.2 million I

think you know but I'm not sure whether

it was you know 100,000 a month or

200,000 a month at that point you know I

just don't know I don't remember from

2006 but it's definitely a number I

could look up you know uh yeah no

problem my next step from the with the

company was we had a shipping manager at

the time that worked four days a week

and um we really needed someone that

worked five days a week and so instead

of hiring a shipping manager um I became

the shipping manager I replaced myself

with like a office assistant in the

office and became the shipping manager

and um I worked in the in the shipping

department for two years and that was a

that was a a really good experience for

me to work work in production work in

distribution um you know learn learn

some of the nuts and bolts of the

business you know um and and I started

actually during that time I started

managing the dismantlers as well sorry

go ahead what did shipping consist of

back then I mean were you guys selling

on the Internet or was it shipping to

local auto parts stores or what did that

look like yeah both you know so um

Automotive recyclers are incredibly well

connected to each other about half of

the time when people call us for parts

we have the part and about half we don't

but somebody else does and so we will

ship those parts in and my dad and some

other business owners started a trucking

system that would would go between the

yards and so like we would drive a one

of our box trucks to Chicago every night

full of parts for all these other yards

and and pick up and drop off all the

parts for the yards and pick up all the

parts that we had purchased from our for

our customer from those um and that at

the time was just a real local situation

not local but there was a there was

there were two yards in Ohio there was a

yard there were two yards in Illinois

and Chicago you know there were a couple

yards in Michigan it was just like a

small Network now it's Nationwide now

you know now we're shipping in you know

we can get aart from Maine or Texas or

Colorado or you know all over the all

over the country pretty much um on our

internal Trucking system for much

cheaper than what we could send at UPS

or you know a freight truck or whatever

um but back then

the shipping Department what that

consists of was after the parts Tex

would pull the parts and they'd bring

them up into our wash bay and then I'd

be responsible for power washing the

parts um with the large parts or like

wind indexing headlights and mirrors and

that kind of thing cleaning the small

parts um doing the quality control

taking pictures of anything that was not

up to standards and uploading those

pictures into our system um reporting to

the salespeople any problems so that

they could report those to their

customer see if they wanted to you know

take a headlight with a broken tab at a

discount or if that wasn't going to work

if they'd have to get them a different

headlight um and then like routing

delivery trucks at that time I think we

may have only had one one delivery truck

now we have four full-time delivery

drivers on the road all the time that

cover the whole West half of Michigan

and down into Southern Indiana um and so

and boxing up UPS Parts all that good

stuff yeah so yeah I did you know two

years working there and also trying to

improve improve things you know from on

the back end and I I do kind of have

like a heart for for production um I'm

technically the sales manager at pets

now but um I find myself like sort of on

the side of shipping sometimes you know

in those little like the in the push and

pull between uh sales a bit like I

always have a lot of empathy for the

shippers because that's kind of where I

I got my start yeah gotcha so you like

to work your way through the different

operations of a company clearly get get

in there get your hands dirdy figure it

out and then it sounds like going from

12 to 31 people then replace that

position with somebody else and move on

to the next thing is am I getting that

right yeah that worked really well for

me and I think part of that was does go

back to like my experiences you know

like with with my previous boss who you

know he couldn't do what I was doing you

know but I he he was he was my boss he

was making so much more money than me

that that kind of rubbed me wrong right

and so I wanted to able to do the things

and I always feel like I should be able

to do the jobs that I'm managing and so

I I did really like I know I can't

dismantle a car I can't pull apart there

are things there are limitations you

know there are things I can't do but um

you know in the Toyota way they call it

getting into the gima um and and I

really do believe in that like I believe

in hopping in a delivery truck and

delivering Parts when there's a delivery

driver out sick filling in for them

because I find that like it's the best

way for me to know like what the actual

problem are what the struggles are like

you know how can we make this better how

can we do things better is to actually

like do the job you know it served me

well and all my managers are that way

too um you know I hired Jimmy my

production manager I hired uh let's see

it's I think it's coming up on 12 years

now um so I hired him yeah 2011 maybe

coming up on 13 years um I hired him in

as like the lowest man on the totem pole

I found him working at a a dealership

doing doing like oil changes and I hired

him in in our shipping Department he was

like sweeping the floors cleaning out

the drain tables like doing all the

worst jobs you know that we used to give

Amber back in the day and he's worked

his way up and now he has more direct

reports than anyone else you know and um

he's the he's our um distribution

manager now um same Jesse my general

manager um she was hired in as the

shipping manager and then she was the

office manager and then the general

manager um Craig who's my buyer now

who's doing the job my dad used to do

and he manages our dismantlers he

started as a parts puller he was you

know literally pulling parts off of cars

in the yard and has worked his way up

and so you know when somebody calls in

sick we we all all of us know how to

fill in um you know when we when it

comes time to train a new person we we

know how to do the job that we're

training for you know and um Craig can

dismantle a car just as fast as our our

train dismantlers can and they all know

it you know he does it from time to time

and I think that there's a level of

respect there that has has been really

helpful you know I think almost

everybody's had a boss that like

couldn't have done what they were doing

you know and I know I just think that

there's a difference there and it it

feels good to to have a boss who knows

how hard your job is and respects it too

yeah yeah I mean it's a it's a good

reminder there's a you know there's a

lot of activity on the internet right

now about business acquisition and all

you need is a loan or SBA loan and a

funer or something like that and you can

step into anywhere and do anything but

it's like you might own the company but

you can't operate it you don't know

anything about it and you're riant on

those employees to continue to want to

continue working for you um so I mean

you came by it naturally this was a

company you grew up in but it's good to

see that you're also doing that with

with your employees that come in yeah

learn I think kind of thing and work

your way out yeah and I think it's good

for incoming people too to see that like

there is room for growth you know I

think that that's something a lot of

people coming in at an entry level

position want to know that there's room

for growth and we've got proof of it you

know right here so that's that's really

great too yeah yeah so I worked my way

up to sorry I was just gonna say I

worked my way up to general manager and

then um you know I had been growing the

company with my dad and um making it

profitable you know the the year before

I came into the business um they they

lost money the couple years before I

came into the business they lost money

and the first year I I joined the

company they lost money the second year

um we made money and pretty much made

money every year after that and I I was

that was really a big Drive of mine um

and then as the general manager you know

and as I kind of felt like the heir to

the throne you know I wanted to know

where this was going you know and i' my

dad would take me to seminars we go to

Industry events like the automotive

recyclers Association and the United

recyclers group are the two big

Nationwide organizations in my industry

and we go to these events and people

would talk about succession planning and

I'd be like elbowing my dad like hey you

know

succession yeah um and it wasn't

something that he wanted to talk about

you know and at the time um that was

really hard for me you know and I I was

at a um we did some Consulting Group

meetings and those were huge those were

huge for me we did Consulting Group

meetings where we went twice a year met

with other Auto Recyclers from all over

the country all in non-competing markets

shared financials and um went around the

room and talked about our difficulties

and um what was going on in our business

and helped each other and that was like

hugely instrumental in my growth um

there were so many mentors in that group

that just taught me so much and I

learned so much from their mistakes and

from their wins you know and I really

found that that they that was a huge

resource for me and at one of those

meetings um I had a job

offer uh you know so I went to my dad

and I was like you know I don't I don't

want to leave Pete's Auto Parts but like

you know we we never talk about this

whole succession thing and here like I'm

working I'm blood sweating tears into

petza Auto Parts working all these hours

hours I'm working so hard sun up to sun

down I'm working and U for you know a

pretty small celery comparatively in my

opinion right um and I'm doing it

because we keep saying that this is

Sweat Equity right um but there's

nothing in writing and like you know

like anything could happen you know and

so I I went to him and I said like do

you do you see me as the person to take

over this company to buy this company

and and he couldn't say yes he was like

maybe and uh at the time that was really

really tough for me um looking back I

can I can see it a lot more now um you

know at that time I was in my 20s I was

work hard play hard so I was working

really hard but I was also drinking a

lot and I was coming in hung over you

know I was always I was always a

punctual on time person but I probably

smelled like Jack Daniels uh pretty

frequently if we're if I'm being

completely honest and um I can see

looking back that he thought like well

sure maybe you're the right person but

like you know you're in your 20s like

maybe not I don't know 15 years 20 years

from now kind of yeah and I think one of

his yeah one of his thoughts I think was

just like I'm not ready to deal with

this like I'm not ready to retire you

know and I I wanted to know that there

was a plan I wanted like okay we'll

transfer this much ghost stock to you

for this you know every year as a bonus

or you know I wanted some kind of like

concrete plan and he wasn't going to

give that to me and so I said well

that's fine but then I got this job

offer for like literally you know um so

much more than you're paying me like

that I'm GNA take it if you're if like

if you don't want to make a plan and so

he was like all right I guess that's

what we're doing so I left the family

business I moved to Omaha Nebraska

didn't know a soul nobody moves to Omaha

on purpose but it's actually a really

lovely city to live in in my opinion I I

really enjoyed my time there

um and the really cool thing was the guy

who had offered me the job Peter Fink um

he owns American Auto Parts in Omaha

Nebraska but he also owns Certified

Transmission and they're the third

largest Transmission remanufacturer in

the United States and so he owned this

big company with all these managers and

all these stores and American Auto Parts

is this tiny little drop in his business

bucket and um so I would I was 100%

responsible for the p&l of American Auto

Parts I would see my boss once a month

where I would be respon I would be held

responsible for my p&l numbers and I

would have access to all these other

managers at our management meeting and

that was it like I was not that I was on

my own he he was very responsive with

email if I needed to talk to him like I

I don't mean to say like that was it

like I was thrown to the wolves or

anything he was great I just mean like

um that what an incredible opportunity

for me to learn and grow and be like

really responsible for a business you

know and treat it like my own um that

that was really cool that was really

cool okay uh what what year was this in

so that was

2012 yes I moved to elaha in 2012 I've

had been working in my family business

for six years you'd been working with

Dad for six years and we're already

starting to wonder when's the succession

conversation come up yeah so I mean when

you you've always wanted to run your own

business then or at what point in there

did you I guess I mean I guess it's

Dad's company and so the back of your

mind you're always like well it's really

my company someday kind of thing but you

had to have switched at one point from

this is just a job to I want to run this

company I want I want to be responsible

for other people and for decisions and

stuff like that did that come did that

come through the the property management

company was that already in place when

you started working with Dad or is that

just something that developed working

your way up through Pete's Auto yeah I

think you know part of it was like when

I had that experience in the in the kind

ofia management I was like um I wanted a

piece of the of the pie or I wanted to I

wanted to have an impact and then to

like be rewarded for that impact you

know so that was part of it and then

after I started working at pets one of

the things that was kind of happening

was like my dad bless his heart would

not want me to throw things away and I

think this is like pretty common for

some older business owners with like a

lot of inventory you know um is they

don't see like the harm in keeping Old

Stock lying around right and I would

want to like clear out the old stuff

make room for have everything you know

know where everything is and have

everything NE neat and organized you

know so I'd like wait for him to go on

vacation and then like throw all the old

inventory away right and like I do we do

big cleanup projects like as soon as

he'd go fishing we'd all run out there

and start like doing a big cleanup

project because we like we knew if we

did it in front of him we'd get yelled

at you know but if did it behind his

back and it was all like for the good of

the business right like I never did

things behind his back like to get away

with something or like you know I don't

know it was always like because I

thought that was the best thing for the

business but it was like I'd rather ask

for forgiveness than permission kind of

a thing you know um and that I guess

that was where I was like I was always

all about Pete's Auto Parts like

furthering Pete's Auto Parts make

getting Pet's Auto Parts to make money

to to sell more parts to have customers

be happy with us to to make a name in

the industry and it didn't really matter

like what Dad thought about throwing

this old stuff away because that's what

my next step was you know um so I'm not

sure exactly when it shifted but you're

right it definitely did um to where I

did think of it as my company you know

and I still actually I'm technically the

sole owner of pizza Auto Parts now but I

think of it as our company like I think

of it like with me and my management

team I think of it as like just as much

their company as my company because

we've been building it together you know

since

200 I don't know I I guess I hired Jesse

in 2009 maybe um I like I I can't

remember exactly the year but um you

know we we've been building this

together for a long time and like when I

left in 2012 Jesse and Craig and Jimmy

were all working at pets and they all

stayed and continued to build the

business while I left

um and and uh and said you know I'll be

back I'll be back I'll be back and I was

eventually back you know um but like we

we've been a team for a long time and so

it definitely has always felt like this

is something that we're all doing

together okay all right yeah so how long

was so I mean it wasn't a detour in your

mind you you just said you're going to

be you're going to be back this is a

temporary thing that you're doing over

here in NE uh Nebraska

clearly grew you um but this was just I

mean this was a strategic move just to

wait until dad's ready to have this

conversation and then yeah I wanted to

make yeah I wanted to make more money

and I wanted to learn and grow and do

other things you know within the

industry but I thought like everything

that I learn I can take back with me you

know I wanted to learn how to sell

remanufactured product better which

American Auto Parts was great at I

wanted to learn how to broker more um

which American Auto Parts was great at

there were lots of things that I wanted

to learn and and get out of the you know

the situation as well so I saw it as a

huge learning opportunity and an

opportunity to make a bunch more money

and and I just felt like I If I had I

felt like if I had stayed my dad was

never going to give up the reins I felt

like I saw a lot of people in my

industry whose parents were still in

charge when they were in their 50s you

know or like when when the kids were in

their 50s and the parents are like in

their 70s the parents are still should

be thinking about succession planning

they still haven't even had a chance to

take over yet right and I was like

that's not happening to me I'm not doing

that you know and so yeah um you know I

went I I ran American Auto Parts for two

years and it was a great experience and

then I got a job offer to go um to

Colorado and I took that and I'm really

glad I did that because I met my husband

in Colorado uh so that that worked out

really well for me um and so I was

working in Colorado and I was at the

time when my dad called and said I'm

ready um to sell you the company I was

doing consulting work and I was one my

biggest um my biggest client was a a

core purchaser so they buy um Auto Parts

to be to be remanufactured so they could

be good or bad auto parts that they're

going to take apart and put new new part

new you know gears in and stuff and um

remanufacture those parts and so my job

was like to go all over the country and

into Canada to visit Sal V jards teach

them how to sell their cores to this

company um and and make more money by

selling cores um instead of just to a

local buyer to to companies You by

looking up the core values on the

internet and so I got to see so many

different setups and go into all these

different yards big yards small yards

self-service full service family

operations consolidators you know um

corporate owned places all you name it

I've been to so many facilities all over

the country and that was like an

incredible learning experience um and I

love to travel so that was really fun

too to see see a lot more of the country

and then my dad called up and said um

okay I'm ready to sell you know and in

retrospect I think it might have been my

mother that was more ready for him to

sell um it might have been like my mom

was like all right I'm ready for you to

sell you know um the way the way it all

went down um but my dad and I we worked

out a deal um we basically like emailed

back forth extensively um to to make to

make the deal happen um to for me to

purchase the company and then and I had

told him you know like you got to get

this drawn up by the lawyer like the

lawyer the lawyers need to be involved

the lawyers need to be evolved and I was

like begging for lawyers for months and

months um and still didn't have

paperwork we were supposed to close the

deal like January 1 and I bought a house

in December I bought a house in Michigan

and like we still didn't have paperwork

you know and I'm like pulling my hair

out going like Dad you're killing me

like we like this this need like we need

to get this done you know and you're not

GNA do it on a

handshake yeah well I mean it can't be

like when you buy a corporation with

shares like you can't that's not even a

thing you know um like we and we had

like we had emails with agreements but

then once the lawyers had the paperwork

um it was a totally different deal and

he had a whole he had a whole list of

Demands um that were not that we did not

agree to you know before I bought a

house and moved me and my husband across

the country you know um and it was that

part was really hard uh because you know

from I think from his perspective it was

all these were all things that like he

should get you know like um he it's not

too much for him to ask like he said

like oh I I want the company to pay for

my health insurance and your mother's

health insurance for the rest of our

lives and it's like well actually there

are laws about what the company can and

can't pay for and like I can't treat you

differently than other employees and

like um you know there was so there was

some like really sticky hard you know

issues and there were some things where

he would say like well fine then you

don't have to buy it and I'm like oh

okay well now that I've just moved

across the country I do kind of have to

buy it you know I've just bought a house

what else am I G to do you know and I

felt I felt very trapped you know and I

think um and I think he felt like he

wasn't asking for anything more than he

he deserved you know so that that was

hard um and we did we finally like

signed the paperwork in April and we

just backdated it all to January of

2016 and um so the and then basically it

just like all got a lot harder from

there um

because the um so one of the things was

like we had agreed in writing like that

he would have a salary of $75,000 a year

and I not like reduced his Sal like you

know I had not reduced his salary until

we signed the paperwork you know so his

he was making like 125,000 or 135,000 or

something a year and then once we signed

the paperwork I was like okay well you

know you had like here we go like reduce

his salary to the 75,000 year and he was

shocked and he was like this is right he

he he didn't like he just didn't he

didn't really realize like what he had

agreed you know like when he saw salary

of 75,000 he thought that was a lot that

was plenty of money and he didn't really

realize that he was used to living on a

lot more than that you know and there

were there were some other things like

that that um you know he was just like

it that was it was really tough um you

know he would he would yell at me like

oh you want me to live in a duplex and

drive a Volkswagen and it's like Dad I'm

writing you checks for like $48,000 a

month for this business like I'm pretty

sure you're like you're not going to be

living in a duplex like I'm pretty sure

you're going to be okay you know but um

just put a lot of strain on on our

relationship you know and at the same

time um his his performance he was still

buying all of our inventory and his

performance was going down and I started

getting getting him to train another

buyer Craig who's my current buyer I

asked my dad to start training Craig and

he was training Craig but buying is one

of those things that it's like kind of

an art and a science and like it takes a

long time to get good at it and there's

a lot of instincts involved you know and

um my dad was doing things like been

doing it for 40 years at this point

almost yeah yeah and so on the one hand

he's really good at it on the other hand

um you know he do things like he wanted

to go to his Cottage on Wednesday

instead of Friday so like on Wednesday

he'd just buy like $35,000 worth of cars

at the auction and be like see you and

then those car yeah and then those cars

would not perform because like he just

you know he just bought a whole bunch of

hhrs and we already had hhrs we didn't

need any more hhrs you know or whatever

it was like you know it was like dad you

can't do this stuff you know and like I

I don't think that he ever meant to hurt

the company like I don't believe he

would ever like buy a vehicle thinking

oh this car is gonna lose money haha you

know I'm just going I think like I don't

think he ever had any bad intentions but

I do think like when you don't own the

company anymore like you just don't have

the same level of caring you just don't

have the same level you know he was just

like peace out I'm going to my Cottage

like I it just wasn't the the the level

of investment wasn't there anymore you

know yeah especially now you're paying

him half what he was getting paid last

week right right so so other than his

assumptions of what would be fair how

did you guys get a value on the company

did you bring in evaluator and actually

do a full valuation or was it more of

a agreement of what you two thought

would was going to be reasonable how'd

that go well we had we had talked to

some industry Consultants that gave us

an idea of like a profit multiplier that

we should use and then what we did was

we used a profit multiplier and we added

back in some things like he did like a

big building Improvement project in 2015

the year before I bought the company and

so like we added all the building

Improvement expenses that were on the

p&l back into the profit um um and that

kind of thing we also I bought the

company separate than the land so I

bought the business and then I I had an

option to purchase the land once that

was like basically he had to sell me the

land the land for for the appraised

value once the business portion was paid

off so that kind of broke it up for us

too so um we did uh he he held the note

on the business and he's holding the

note now on the land so um you know I I

didn't come to the table with cash he um

he held the note and we we determine the

value and set the rent rate and all that

but yeah we did we used an industry

consultant for some of it and then I I

would take like our email negotiations

and forward them to my business owner

friends that also own Salvage Arts you

know and say like what do you think

about this what do you think about that

you know and um and get feedback on it

to in order to come up with our you know

our

Arrangement yeah gotcha okay yeah I

wasn't sure if there was a process

involved in getting an appraiser on the

Recycled parts or anything like that so

you

guys M about a couple things ated in

yeah gotcha yeah yeah that usually is

going to be dependent on the size of the

on the size of the buyout too so for

sure for sure so also did some creative

things 201 yeah yeah and we did some

creative things like we um built some of

the value of the business into the rent

agreement which is like tax deductible

for me so that um that was very helpful

you know um call it like prepaid rent

did some some interesting things with

that yeah so um I paid off the business

in at the end of 2021 we had I had a

10-year note and I paid it off

early um yeah so we I had a 10year note

but we we paid it off early we just

reinvested the profits into into paying

off the business early and uh had the

had the land appraised and went to BU

the land and then that was a nightmare

because um as we moved to cloes on the

land it was discovered that we have like

seven different Parcels of land that

pizza is on and like three had my my

dead grandpa's name attached and one had

my dead grandpa and my dead grandma's

name attached and one had um you know an

old uncle and one had a bank that the

bank no longer existed and all of those

like all the notes and all the like it

had all been paid and taken care of but

just the township or the county had

never been updated and so uh my dad had

to have like all these Wills or all

these um Estates

reopened and have all this all these

properties unin snarled from each other

and or unin snarled from the the names

that were attached to them and

it was a it was a 2-year

process um and it was it was uh it was

really extra nerve-wracking for me

because you know what happened between

2022 and 2024 is interest rates kept

going like this right and my dad and I

had an agreement you know in writing

that he would match the interest rate I

could get from the bank and I got the

interest rate from the bank and like he

had he had agreed to this interest rate

but I was just sure based on how the

interactions have gone with me and my

dad that what was going to happen is he

was going to want a new interest rate

you know and as I so every month that

went by you know and the interest rates

are climbing climbing climbing I'm just

going like I'm not even gonna be afford

to buy I'm not gonna be able to buy the

land for this business at the interest

rates you know but um thankfully I I was

able to buy the land for the apprais

value at the interest rate that we had

agreed upon we closed down the

property yeah yeah so February of

2024 um I closed on the closed on the

land okay yeah yeah so I would advise

anyone who is buying a business to

before you before you buy the business

you know find out who owns the land and

um exactly what it would take for you to

buy the land um because even with an

option to purchase it may not be as as

easy as you think so back when your dad

bought the company he bought it in two

rounds 5050 in the 70s and the 80s was

it just done more of a back of the you

back of the napkin handshake kind of

agreement is that what you ran into or

did he actually it sounds like your

grandfather passed while owning the land

so the land never really changed tit no

my my um the land did change titles it

was just like um the I'm trying to think

how this went there was a there was a

whole deal between my dad and my grandpa

with their purchase agreement too

because they had my dad and my dad

purchased half the business from my

grandpa and then when he went to

purchase the other half my grandpa had

the business reappraised and he wanted

half of what it was worth now and my dad

felt like oh I'm the one who grew the

business and made it worth this much

more and now you're charging me for that

you know um but and and so that there's

another thing to you know look out for

but um my dad had purchased all the land

he had just purchased it like slowly in

peace meal and like my grandpa had um

had held the notes for him and that was

more of a back back H handshake deal um

where like basically when my Dad paid

off the property then my dad and my

grandpa didn't go to the county and say

like oh okay now the property is paid

off it's free and clear so it's more

like my grandpa was like still listed as

like a guarantor or whatever you know

what I'm saying on the property a lean

holder on the property and then my

grandpa and grandma on one and my other

like my other Grandma had died and my

grandpa had remarried and there was like

uh one of the pieces of property had

like my step grandma and my grandpa on

it and so were just like all these you

know moving pieces and all these

different people involved and the

Estates that had to be opened and and

the bank situation too there was a they

they paid off the bank but then that was

never proven and then the bank like went

out of business and so now you have to

like somehow get the receipts from the

1980s and 1990s showing you paid off

like what you owed on the this land or

the the county won't let you transfer it

you know um so it was a it was a real

mess yeah I think that's one of the

unique challenges of a generation going

into the third third generation I think

it's like only 10% of businesses go from

the second generation to the third

generation and when you're buying stock

in a business you inherit all those

problems along the way and you know one

of the biggest issues just a a business

being solved from one person to another

is documents and record keeping and

making sure that's all cleaned up and

this in this case had just spanned over

60 plus years and it was never urgent

enough to pay attention to it until it

was and you were and you know at this

point getting the land repr praised yeah

you've got to be going crazy because

you'd already started the purchase

completed the purchase of the business

that was on the land so it's not like

you could easily pick it up and move it

to a different lot so yeah how's how's

how's your relationship ship with Dad

now it's not great um he doesn't really

talk to me um I uh I I did fire him you

know and nobody wants to fire their

father but with the way that the buying

performance was going it was just like

we the business couldn't afford to keep

buying the cars he was buying and um at

the time Craig my my buyer now had a

really good relationship with him as

well um we would often go up to his the

my parents Cottage you know um with

Craig and Jesse and and um you know

spend time up there and and Craig and my

dad had a really good relationship and

then when Craig did not want me to fire

my dad he was like I'm not ready I need

six more months like I need six more

months before I can possibly you know um

do this job and I was like Craig the

business can't take six more months of

round buying at at a at a loss like you

know we got to do it so um my dad had

gone on like a two we vacation and when

he came back we let him go and I really

thought he would have seen it coming

from mile away because I'd been talking

to him about the buying you know and

about how the numbers were bad um but he

was really blindsided and I I do feel

really bad about that and so after after

I let him go we did some family therapy

sessions um and I was really hopeful

that we could we could work work it out

um and he basically at the third session

my dad was just like you know what I

don't want to do this like I don't want

to rehash any of this I don't want to

deal with this like I'd just rather see

a couple times a year pretend like

everything's okay you know see at

Christmas and Easter and smile and

pretend like everything's fine and I was

like I don't know why we'd spend

Christmas together if that's the case

you know um and at that time like I was

really hurt I felt like he was he didn't

want a relationship with me he didn't

want to like work on it he didn't want

to I don't know like that that was

really hurtful to me and so like I

stopped talking to him um that was in

2017 I believe um oh wow and then and um

I can't I I've definitely come around to

like I'm very open to having a

relationship with him you know I send

him happy birthday

texts um you know and send him a

Christmas card and when I see him like I

try to be try to be nice to him and kind

to him and like give the vibe that like

I'm I'm it's I'm here I'm open to it you

know but um he's just very both my

parents are pretty much just like they

just don't seem to want to have much to

do with me and I think they were just

like really hurt um you know that I that

I first cut him out of the business and

then I kind of cut him out of my life

you know um and I and I get that I do

it's it is it's too bad I think that you

know at the end of the day you know

family family is more important than

business you know is easy to say um but

when your business is your livelihood

and like you're you're worried that

you're going to be able to make the next

payment you know like a c and you've got

30 families depending on you I guess at

the time it was more like 22 families

depending on me uh but you know when you

got all these families depending on you

you know you you do you do make choices

and I I made the choices that I have

that I have to live with now you know I

love my parents I pray for them every

morning um that's good for me that I

helps me to not be resentful you know I

know I know in my heart that I have this

business because of my dad and my

grandpa and like I wouldn't have it if

it weren't for them not that I couldn't

have worked hard and gone out and bought

a different business you know um I could

have and I have I like you know with my

connections in the industry I have lots

of opportunities but I didn't want

another business I wanted this business

I like I love the people that I work

with I love the place that I work I love

that it's my grandpa's Legacy uh my

grandpa was a really special person and

I love that I get to do this here with

his name on my shirt yeah that's hardart

I'm so sorry thanks are you an only

child also or did you have siblings no I

have three siblings I have three I have

one younger brother who I also

fired starting to see a pattern here huh

yeah unrelated no I fired him much much

before much earlier he and you know what

my brother is awesome he was doing

inventory for Pete's and he was bored to

tears he's a super smart guy and

inventory is like a very detail oriented

task that's boring you do the same stuff

over and over and over again and um

he was miserable it wasn't the right for

him set him free and now he owns his own

company and actually I can see him from

where I sit he um his business is right

next door um to my office I have a sales

and business office that's across the

street around the corner from Pete's now

and his business um Scotty's auto

service is right next door to mine and

he's a great customer of mine because

he's a mechanic and so he buys lots of

engines and transmissions and axles and

computers and things um and yeah so so I

think too back to the when you know when

my dad wasn't sure if I was the right

person to to buy pets he might have been

thinking in the back of his mind that

his son might might buy pet you know and

I do kind of get that like there's

something about a father thinking that

their son will be the one to take over

for them not their daughter you know um

the world is changing that I think that

there's a lot more daughters who are

carrying on the family Legacy than there

used to be um but I could see where that

might be you know he might have been

thinking maybe Scotty will come back

back you know um Scott loves what he

does and he's happy with his own

business you know but then I have two

little sisters and um one sister uh

she's a FedEx driver and the other is

actually in the big truck parts world

she works um for Valley truck parts in

Grand Rapids and she's she is in like

shipping and she does eBay and a bunch

of stuff with with large truck parts and

I might rope her into the family

business someday eventually but I'm also

a big um I'm a big fan of having to work

for other people and be successful other

places and I had told her before I

thought she'd be a great salesperson but

I wanted her to do sales somewhere else

to be successful before she came to work

at Pete's um and so yeah but it sounds

like with your siblings you were able to

separate the disagreement and the

the what was between you and your

parents from your relationships yeah I

have I have great relationships with my

siblings for sure yeah yeah and I have

some great relationships with my uncles

and aunts and stuff too so that's

helpful okay um to that issue that you

just brought up when you were traveling

with your dad to trade shows around

200920 how many women would be at these

trade

shows a lot less than there are now yeah

okay so yeah what's that demograph

what's that demographic shift looked

like it's interesting there's a the

automotive recyclers Association has a

ladies group Lara ladies about of

recycling and I can't believe how many

women show up to the mixers now like at

the most

recent um National event there were

probably like 90 women there and um I

would say in the beginning it was

probably I don't know 12 or maybe 20 you

know that would come to the come to the

Lara breakfast um and you know when I

when I start how many at that conference

how many at that confence a thousand

1200 just under just under 10% now yeah

they come to the breakfast I think that

there are probably more women um more

women at the shows you know but yeah

probably 10% that come to the the ladies

event you know um when I first started

in the industry you would see women

working you know in the front office

like doing the books that would be

really common um you wouldn't that like

you wouldn't necessarily see women

delivery drivers or shippers you know um

and that's really common now and I love

to see that I've had some great female

delivery drivers and it's you know it's

funny it's like

um I I I guess I should be careful of um

how I say this because it could come off

as like sexist or you know something but

when I fill when I fill in as a delivery

driver it's wild to me how um when I

pull up to a shop and I have a large

part to unload you know the guys come

rushing out to help me oh let me get let

me get that door out of the back of the

truck for you you know whereas like if

one of my guy delivery drivers rolls up

it's like oh put it in the back you know

they're not helping him at all and so

like there's some there are some

advantages to being a female in the

industry in terms of like people help

you more um there and I think as a like

in sales I have a female salesperson and

I think sometimes like guys are on the

phone with guys all day and then

sometimes it's nice to hear a friendly

female voice um to talk Parts with you

know especially when they realize that

she knows what she's talking about and

she can help them um just as much as as

the guys can but um now I often see

women running Salvage Arts I see

managers you know controllers

dispatchers you know there's so many

more women in the industry than there

used to be and I love to see

that yeah it sounds just from our our

talk here on this on this episode you've

outworked everybody wherever you go and

you kind of you've proven yourself it's

not ever it doesn't sound like it's ever

been well dad runs the place and so you

have to listen to me you've stepped into

every role and you've outworked it and

improved it so how do you you did say

that you did want to talk about work

life balance uh on the podcast so here

at the end when you are a workaholic

when you do outwork everybody around you

um and you've built that into the

culture of your team what does work life

balance look like for you then well it's

changed a lot for me you know I alluded

to working day in and day out earlier

and I really I really was a workaholic

and when I met my husband in

2014 um that changed that changed pretty

much everything for me he was just like

you know there are other things to life

besides work right you know like you

know there are lots of other things to

do besides work you know there are other

things that are important besides work

you know um and I really like I was just

everything work was everything to me all

my best friends were people I worked

with and people in the industry and like

I just didn't really have a life outside

of work

um and that that's changed that's

changed dramatically and drastically and

um the reason why I like to talk about

it now is because I do think that I have

found some work like balance I I

generally work like a eight or nine hour

day I generally do not work a 12-h hour

day anymore and I work five days a week

there are times I like will pick up my

laptop on the weekend and work but it's

that's rare um and I used to work you

know 12 hour days six days a week and

then also work on the seventh day

sometimes you know and I think it's like

I I thought I was doing my company such

a service by working so hard but what I

found is that when I um step back and I

do have good work life balance when I'm

going to yoga and I'm taking time with

friends and family and I'm going on

walks with my dogs um I have so much

more to give when I'm at work and I get

so much more done in my eight and 9h

hour days than I did when I was like

exhausted in my 12-hour days like I

think I come up with better ideas and

I'm fresher and I respond to people with

more kindness when you know I take good

care of myself and I'm and I'm not be

being a workaholic like as is my my

nature you know and I I used to set my

company up to be very work hard you know

like everybody work work a million hours

you know and it's just not that way

anymore we I I have very few people who

work overtime um not because I don't

want to pay for it or anything but just

because like I don't think that you

should have to work overtime to take

home a good wage you know I think you

should be able to live on a 40-hour work

week and you shouldn't have to work you

know 60 hours to to make a good living

um and I think that we all benefit from

that you know right so has that just

that ability now just come from capacity

you're at 31 people now you're at you

know low 20s when you took over was it

just a matter of we have way too much

work for a small crew and we've just got

to grow the business is that well I

don't know we know we have grown the

business like crazy there is also sweet

spots you know one thing that happened

like right after I bought the business I

was like all right we're going to grow

you know and the way that we've always

traditionally grown is just buy more

cars buy more cars so we made a plan and

we bought more cars you know we went to

six dismantlers and we we're um just

turning and burning you know and what

that meant was that the cars could stay

on our property that much less we only

have eight Acres we can only hold so

many cars so if you're buying 200 Cars a

month you got to crush 200 Cars a month

like you can't you know you can't keep

them for very long and then you're

crushing a lot of really good parts and

what we found as as we had increased

capacity so much is that even though we

were all working so much harder we

weren't making any more money you know

or we were making a tiny bit more money

it wasn't in relation to how much more

we are doing you know so we kind of

scaled back and said okay let's work

smarter not harder you know and so we've

it's we've steadily increased our buying

budget but we don't necessarily increase

the number of cars we're buying in fact

we've we've strategically decreased the

number of cars we've bought um several

years in a row now this year I think

we'll actually buy more cars than we do

out last year but for several years in a

row we bought less cars but for more

money with more expensive Parts with

higher projected sales our sales numbers

were higher but we we had to um you know

dismantle less Vehicles so like in that

sense like I'd rather have two you know

high output dismantlers who are

averaging two and a quarter cars a day

than four dismantlers who are each

averaging a car in a half a day you know

um but again my dismantlers are allowed

to go home when they hit 10 cars in a

week if they want to they don't have to

and so they almost always hit their 10

cars by Thursday so they don't have to

work on Friday and then they get a

three-day work week weekend you know a

lot of the weeks of the year um I don't

I don't know that I even answered your

question but I think that the culture

shift has been has been gradual as we've

shifted our focus and as we've said like

we're going to choose to um to work hard

when we're here but to not be here so

long and the pandemic actually helped

that as well we used to be open 8:00 am

to 5:30 pm. and we had people coming in

at 7 so we had people here from 700 am

to 5:30 p.m. during the pandemic we

changed our customer pickup hours to

from 9:00 am to 4:00 p.m and we never

went back so we still have people that

come in like 7:30 um almost everybody on

site leaves by 4 :30 but we keep sales

people on the phones till 5:30 mostly

because like we have later time zones

like central time zones mountain time

zones they'll still be calling in at the

end of the day but salespeople can still

pick up the phon while the guys at the

back are gone anyway so we just the the

pandemic taught us a lot too about you

know being efficient and putting our

efforts where we really want the to see

the

output yeah know that did help I was I

was just wasn't sure if it was just a

matter of scaling but it sounds like you

also realized you know well you know you

focused on quality in your inventory

rather than you you freed up capacity by

processing fewer cars higher quality

cars getting better Parts out of them so

that's that's interesting

so um well Amber this has been a great

podcast thank you so much for being a

guest I know we can do another one on

this in the future um but our time is up

for for this episode unfortunately okay

um I do have a lightning round of uh hot

take uh questions that I like to ask and

so if you're ready for that we can get

into these

questions okay so these are just uh a

list of questions one to one to two

sentences each no real context uh but

just to give my guests a chance to get

or give my audience a chance to get to

know the guest a little more so uh first

question coffee or tea and how do you

like it

prepared uh coffee Splash a heavy cream

I only drink coffee on vacation I can't

be trusted with it dayto day

all right um pie or cake and do you have

a specific type you like chocolate cake

I'd say Okay um what is a common belief

among entrepreneurs that you would like

to

challenge I'd say um that like people

won't help you or that you can't let

people in I've gotten a lot of my best

ideas from people would be considered

competitors I think there's a lot of

mentors and people that you could find

in your industry Maybe not next door you

know but I think we can we have a lot to

learn from each other and people will

share with you the specifics of how

they're successful in their business you

just have to ask and people are dying to

tell you about their

business yeah that was interesting and

you said you and your dad were in this

these groups these Mastermind groups how

many people would be in a group uh when

you go through it depends on the group a

lot of them were probably um like 12

yards 8 to 12 yards yeah okay yeah

awesome that's what I that's kind of

what I was expecting a little bit bigger

than that not everybody gets a chance to

share so um what is your favorite

holiday and

why uh I love Christmas because it's

cozy and you get to give people gifts

and see their faces light up all right

um would you consider yourself a morning

person or a night person and do you have

a favorite routine I'm definitely a

morning person and I get up extra early

every morning and I take my dogs on a

walk and then I read some literature and

I do um I practice two-way prayer and

meditation uh every morning before work

and that is uh a routine that just makes

me feel so good gotcha okay um what is

one thing that you would want your

successor to remember you for from your

time at Pete's Auto

Parts I'd say that I was fair um being

fair is a big part of our like company

values I always try to be like fair to

the company fair to the customer fair to

the employee like being fair is like

it's real big to me goes back to that

condominium that first job at the

Condominium Association right so our

manager um where do you where are you

finding creativity right

now um probably nature walks and Hikes I

love to get outside and and hike and um

I love music but I think sometimes

silence is is golden too I some some of

my best ideas come when I'm when I'm

just

quiet okay

awesome uh and what do you have coming

up this year at petza Auto Parts that's

got you really

excited well I was asked to be the

recyclers keynote speaker at the

automoto recyclers Association

conference in Reno this fall and so I'm

pretty psyched about that I haven't been

to Reno and I get to go and be a fancy

speaker so that'll be fun wow keynote

that's pretty impressive good luck to

you on that

uh and uh last thing where can everybody

find more information about you and

about Pete's Auto

Parts yeah you can follow me on the

socials you know um pets auto.net is my

business website and um facebook.com PS

Autoparts is the Facebook page and they

post on there regularly but I promise we

won't you know fill your newsfeed it's

like three times a week so if you want

to follow us there okay great well thank

you so much Amber for being a guest on

the artistic session it's been great

my pleasure thanks so much for having me

Barrett

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