SAT #30 - 👀 Eyes Open

Dreams are great, but plans and hard work move the world.

Besides, dreams are for sleeping people, and you’re wide awake on a Saturday morning. Let’s get after it, y’all!

Keep Pushing Back
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHT

Wrapping Around Community with Kristen Walker

Through our Positive Stories link, Kristen Walker from the Coastal Auto Group in Massachusetts shared with us a magical charity that they support, and we just had to know more.

Thanks for reaching out to share your story with us, Kristen! Tell us a little about your role at the dealership and some of the community engagement that you participate in.

Our dealership is first generation. My husband and Tom Norton purchased a Nissan franchise about 22 years ago. We've since relocated that franchise to a larger facility and added a Volkswagen franchise and a collision center (Coastal Collision). We maintained the first facility as our pre-owned and service location (Coastal Auto Sales and Service). So, in total we have four locations across four towns on the south shore of Boston that are all under the "Coastal" umbrella.

We live and work in this community, so after many years of supporting lots of smaller organizations like Little League teams and dance clubs, which we still continue to do, we wanted to find some organizations that we felt passionate about to support more meaningfully. That's when I came across Wellspring. They have a full array of wraparound services to help people in need get back on their feet and restore them to self-sufficiency. They cover a lot of our community’s needs and we've supported them in many ways.

Our largest contribution has been to donate a vehicle to be raffled off for each of the last three years. All the proceeds go to Wellspring. Over the three years we've done it, we've raised close to $90K.

That’s so impressive! Just to backtrack, tell me a little bit about your role at Coastal and how you got started in the industry. I'd love to hear more about your story in particular.

I met my husband, Richard, and our business partner, Tom, while working for Toyota Motor Sales at a Boston regional office. A few years later, my husband and Tom had an opportunity to purchase a Nissan dealership. They’ve since grown from the single Nissan dealership, adding Volkswagen, a collision center, and maintaining the original facility as a pre-owned and service location.

I operate as the Marketing Director. I handle customer-facing things such as the website, direct mail, digital marketing, and manufacturer programs. I’m also involved in the charity organizations and philanthropy.

Are there any other community events that you participate in?

Oh, plenty! We host entrepreneur days where Wellspring students can come and see what it's like to work in a dealership. We have the managers take them through each department and talk to them about what they look for in an employee and what it takes to be successful. We've done that several times.

Have you had any successful stories from that student initiative?

Our big success story is that our Volkswagen Service Manager started as an intern through the local vocational school. We hired him after he graduated and he kept advancing. Now he's running the department! When we have new graduates from Wellspring visit, he's our star speaker.

It's so inspiring to see how people can progress in this industry. What advice might you give someone new or looking for inspiration in the industry?

Keep your eyes open. Keep looking to learn every single day because the industry is changing fast. There are always new hiccups, whether a product or the economy, or financing. Still, if you keep showing up with an open mind and an eagerness to learn, it can be fun and exciting every single day.

📝 Check out our website for the full interview here. 👈

TOGETHER WITH CONNEXION AND TOLLAID

Are you an automotive dealer tired of the hassles and inefficiencies caused by manual toll management processes? 😓

Join us for a fast-paced 30-minute webinar this Wednesday, August 9th, at 2 pm EST to learn all about modern toll management solutions to free you from those headaches.

We’ll share things like:

• Common challenges dealers face that a toll management solution can mitigate.

• Real-life experiences from dealers who have successfully transitioned to an automated toll-handling solution.

• Remarkable results from adopting a toll management solution.

CONTENT RECAP

Quick Catch-Up

EMAIL RECAP

• Beaver Toyota's annual charity golf tournament brought in over $130K for five charities. ⛳️

• Carter Myer's Automotive team brought the community together for their annual Cars and Cans food drive. 🥫

• The Walser Foundation raised over $100K during their annual Shop for a Cause event. 🛍️

PODCAST RECAP

We dropped our 500th episode of The Automotive Troublemaker podcast this past week. 🎉

🎧 Check it out here or any of the other 500 episodes here! 🎙️

SOMETHING FUN

Extreme Off-Roading

Who needs roads when you've got a whole ocean to explore? 🪸

Armed with this very question, a team of divers recently drove a converted electric Toyota Land Cruiser underwater for over 4 miles, navigating Darwin Harbour's depths in Northern Australia. 🤿

Aptly named the “Mudcrab," this orange 1987 Toyota was doused in a layer of food-grade silicone to protect it from the salty sea and equipped with a fancy 88-kilowatt NetGain HyPer9 electric motor before its swim. 🦀

The journey was anticipated only to take 7 hours, but the seabed mud, silt, and sand made the trip much more difficult than expected. Against all odds, they emerged triumphant 12 hours later across the harbor and claimed two world records. 🏆🏆