What's Your Favorite? Creating a Flexible and Fulfilling Life

Jacki Lutz: 0:07

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. This episode is about all things work-life balance. I have with me Trevor Potter, chief Product and Marketing Officer at DMA Industries, and JC Washbush, president of Alliance Auto Parts, and you will soon find out why these two were carefully chosen to speak about this topic and what it does or does not mean to them. Thank you for joining us. Let's ride.

Jacki Lutz: 0:51

I would love to be the supply in the wall at like a family reunion at the Washbush house, just hearing you, at least in your father and I don't know what your other siblings are like or your mother, but like is it just a riff fast, not a lot of big words.

JC Washbish: 1:11

No, don't actually. No, I mean, I think my dad's funny, but he's not. He doesn't riff, he doesn't.

Jacki Lutz: 1:19

Yes, he does. I've heard you guys riff he doesn't improv.

JC Washbish: 1:22

Oh, a little bit, a lot of it, but that's part of the shtick. Yes, he does, I've heard you guys read he is an improv. Oh, a little bit A lot of it, but that's part of the shtick you just got to lean in with. He's not really that good. Low expectations, and then we can get you.

Jacki Lutz: 1:32

Yeah yeah, nice and low, yeah. So we're talking about work-life balance and I'm really excited about you two because there was very specific reasons that I wanted you two. There was very specific reasons that I wanted you to Trevor. You have a very I think it's a very cool take on work-life balance because you've risen in your career, you've always done great things, you've gained all the skills you need to be successful. Yet I've known you for 10 years and kind of watch you on social and things and you're having a ball outside of work and managing to rise in both, you know, taking on new hobbies all the time and prioritizing your health and all that kind of stuff while still rising in your career, and I think it's really inspiring and fun to watch.

Trevor Potter: 2:21

Thank you, I appreciate that. I uh, yeah, I, I guess I don't know any other way to be other than you. Gotta be who you are and I think everything is the best thing ever. That's what my wife always accuses me that that can't possibly be true, but I think if you have that mindset and I do work is amazing and getting to hang out with cool people is amazing, and not working doing other things is great, like I. Yeah, I don't know what to say about that, except it's just who I am yeah, and we can kind of get into it a little bit.

Jacki Lutz: 2:57

But it's funny because, like the different companies you go to, it's it's like you're always going there to to shift the culture and you bring people around you that you actually like to be around and that have fun and that enjoy each other and they have optimism well, look, I mean, there's a, there's a solid group of people in our industry that are super crazy passionate, and those are the people you can plug in to any organization and they're going to make a big difference.

Trevor Potter: 3:26

Yeah, Trevor.

JC Washbish: 3:26

I like I like that, you love everything and everything's the best.

JC Washbish: 3:31

It reminds me when I was in high school I did a economics teacher and part of the high school curriculum was teaching elementary school kids like third graders, like basic economics, and we would lead like when we'd get a new class of children. I would start with, okay, what's your name? And then I'd just ask what's your favorite? Like, what's your favorite. That's awesome, and this exercise with like third graders and the favorite is well, I don't know. I mean, is it pizza, Is it Spider-Man, Is it soccer? Like, what's your favorite? And but every child will have an answer and it'll be different. Some will copy each other.

JC Washbish: 4:06

Go into a room of like 30 adults today and ask what's your favorite. It's impossible, Like we've through because of how we matured and we've lost that infant, that infantile, you know, mindset of just being optimistic and hopeful and having a passion for something, and instead you get a favorite. What favorite? It has to be compartmentalized. There has to be, you know, some kind of rhyme or reason Just an adult can't comprehend. And I think having the mindset of everything is great. That's it. That's a great way to look at the world, because no matter what you're doing, then it is great.

Trevor Potter: 4:40

Well, okay, so answer your own question then.

JC Washbish: 4:42

Oh, what's my favorite, what's your favorite? Well, today was Lake Michigan. Nice, yeah, I got up early and the sun was rising over the lake, and I mean just that was. My favorite was mobility this morning, being able to do it. Last week I was on Washington, uh DC, on the hill, and I ran the mall first thing in the morning and then. So my favorite now is just the ability to go from the national mall to one of America's great treasures and our great lakes and run Lake Michigan and Chicago, and that's for me, that's. I'm pretty lucky to be able to do that. You know, within one week, have a couple of nice, pleasant mornings to myself.

Trevor Potter: 5:18

You know it's. It's funny because, um, I don't run as much as I used to, but that was always my favorite way of exploring a new city and, like you said, you get up before most people and and whether you're with a work colleague or not, it's, it's just a really magical way to start the day.

JC Washbish: 5:35

That was fun. And then we got to come and do this this morning with Jackie behind her. Soon to be most listened to podcast in the aftermarket.

Jacki Lutz: 5:45

The small pond.

Trevor Potter: 5:46

After they delete our episode.

JC Washbish: 5:48

Well, yeah, Well obviously the pilot never makes the cut Right yeah.

Jacki Lutz: 5:54

What's your favorite Trevor?

Trevor Potter: 5:56

Van life.

Jacki Lutz: 5:57

Yeah.

Trevor Potter: 5:57

Yeah, During COVID my wife and I bought a 13 passenger sprinter van and we're both really handy, but no actual skills, just fearless about, you know, making mistakes and giving herself shocks and we built it during COVID on the weekends, and we lived in California at the time and now I understand why people stay there, even though it's unaffordable and has a lot of problems. I mean, we spent, we did 62 trips in four years.

Jacki Lutz: 6:27

Now it's you know you work on the road.

Trevor Potter: 6:30

Yeah, in fact we have a full internet setup and we can bake and we have heat and queen size bed, and it's been amazing like waking up in the mountains, and even if you're on video calls all day, it's still pretty cool. Then you can, you know, take a break for lunch and go for a hike. And I don't get to do that right now, but every free moment we're in the van traveling somewhere but 13 passenger van how many seats though?

JC Washbish: 7:01

uh, so now it has two, so it's a two passenger van yeah, we, we just that you can live in, because I think 13 passenger van I, I need one yeah, you know like, yeah, I'll take one which is a great segue actually because no, it's not.

Jacki Lutz: 7:13

It's not a segue, one of the reasons I wanted jc on the podcast is because he has seven kids and I've never known anyone who that's a weird reason to want someone on your podcast oh, because work-life balance. I've seen you make real sacrifices that I would consider sacrifices to be with your family.

JC Washbish: 7:31

Having seven kids to advance my career.

Jacki Lutz: 7:38

You leave earlier in the morning.

JC Washbish: 7:40

Well, from an employer's standpoint, you know you got to have faith in me. I'm not going anywhere. I need the job. Yeah, I will be working.

Jacki Lutz: 7:48

It's a lot of miles to feed, that's right. But what I really, really admired and you were one of the first people I thought of for this was because last Apex you flew out to Apex and then flew home to have Halloween with your kids what's not and then flew back to have. Halloween with your kids? Let's not. And then flew back.

JC Washbish: 8:05

First I had permission by said employer. Yeah, look, you know I'm lucky, seven kids, I'm blessed, got a great wife, a great family life. And you know, I would say the one thing I don't necessarily like going around and touting that I have seven kids, because I'm pretty sensitive to people that don't have children or can't have children, and you know that's a balance right. And so I would say anybody listening to this look, take what you can get and take what you want. I mean, I think that's part of it. And I never thought when we were first married or even dating, we never really sat back and said you know, we should do, we should have like seven kids, and then never came up. But just as we started to have children and we're fortunate that we have healthy children, that we have kind children and happy children and we have a pretty positive, everything's great Right With in, with kids, with us, everything's great. Yeah, that's sort of the Trevor mentality and there's a lot of favorites in the house. So sometimes, and you want to say work-life balance, I don't believe in work-life balance or necessarily the concept of that. I believe there's life and in life you work and that's just part of what you do. It doesn't. It can define you. It doesn't have to define you. Some people want work to define them, some people don't.

JC Washbish: 9:18

I did skip out on the night at Apex. I would not recommend that to everybody listening. I think Apex is a very important part of your career in the automotive aftermarket, but the reality is I made sure my schedule was clear and had an opportunity. Yes, I snuck home. I could do it very easily. Southwest has a direct flight to San Antonio. It was like $69. Boom in and out. I didn't even bring a bag. What was really rewarding was getting home and then my then at the time 12 year old son opening the door saying why are you here? Oh, happy Halloween.

Trevor Potter: 9:50

I mean trick or treat.

JC Washbish: 9:51

I got a rock like oh great Glad we surprised you and literally got like, took a 6 am direct. The next morning had the cab, dropped me off at the convention center and at the Sands and hit the show floor and like didn't miss a beat People hey what'd you do last night? Oh, I went trick or treating. Ha ha ha. Okay, I went to Caesars. Oh, okay, no, for real, what'd you do? I went trick or treating when Fremont.

Trevor Potter: 10:15

No.

Jacki Lutz: 10:39

No, the candy was better in San Antonio.

Trevor Potter: 10:40

It's important, though, because I think you know a lot of younger professionals coming up. They think they have to give up all of their hobbies and work really hard, and they might. They might have certain values in the back of their head, but they're not necessarily following those early on because they think to get to your cents on that, that's a leadership opportunity. I'd say not a challenge, but an opportunity, and what I mean by that is, whatever organization you're part of, that the leader of your organization is the one that should make you feel like you have the choice. If it's really important for you to modify your work obligations, to make sure that you follow through on your family obligations, because if family's good, work's good, and if family suffers relentlessly or continually, work's going to suffer and you're going to want to make a change, and I so. I think part of work culture is yeah, we work hard and it's a great industry. It's a hard industry, it's challenging, but those are the little things that we should make sure we do.

Trevor Potter: 11:31

No.

JC Washbish: 11:31

I like that, trevor, but I think Jackie prefaced it well and you just reiterated it. You got to work hard. I think sometimes people just think you know, you show up and it's, some stuff gets done, and now I'm owed this, I'm owed this weekend, I'm owed this day off, and that's not the reality. I mean, if you're grinding, if you're working hard, it's really, it's easier, like as a manager, to say, yeah, you can take that day or you can go do that because you're producing. Yeah, um, I, you know, there's some things that for me, there's just no negotiations.

JC Washbish: 12:00

When it comes to some people like, um, religious obligations, yeah, when it comes to some people like religious obligations, I think it's so unfair and I would, I'm willing to leave a job because I practice Roman Catholicism. There's days of obligation when I'm on the road. You know, I like I go to mass every Sunday, saturday at two o'clock, a guardian angel on apex, and like that's to get my obligation fulfilled. That's a non-negotiable like. Like, we're just not, you have to do that. So if I had a Hindu working for me, a Muslim, a Jew, you have these holy days of obligations. We have to respect that. I think that those are like a deal breaker On the other, on the flip side. For me, some things that aren't deal breakers are like your own personal birthday. I don't care.

Trevor Potter: 12:46

Happy birthday.

JC Washbish: 12:48

You might have to work today, and so I think you know there's sometimes you got to look in the mirror and I would say early on in the career that people that might be listening early on you will have to make some sacrifices. I mean you will miss some birthdays, yours or others. You might miss an anniversary, but you got to look at it in the big picture because at some point you're building yourself up to the position where, no, I don't have to do that. That's the lower level guy and this is any career. If you're a pilot, you get the bad. You know you're getting the red eyes out the gate.

JC Washbish: 13:19

If you work in hotel and hospitality, you work the night desk and you, that's where seniority matters, but also that's where you prove your your worth. But some things you know. I think it's important you have to get your own moral compass on and you it's okay to put the line in the sand and say no, I'm. If you are a birthday monger, you have to have your birthday off. Let it be known. It might be career limiting in some aspect. I don't know. Jackie, do you take the birthday?

Jacki Lutz: 13:44

off. Actually, just recently I've tried to start. I don't always get it off, but I try to just because I have toddlers at home. They have daycare during the day and once in a while having a day to myself, and usually sometimes.

JC Washbish: 14:01

I pick my birthday. I thought you had a strategy where, if you just don't acknowledge the birthday, you don't age.

Jacki Lutz: 14:07

I wish Me too. Wouldn't that be nice.

JC Washbish: 14:10

Yeah, I'd have hair.

Trevor Potter: 14:13

So we all agree that the true definition of work-life balance isn't really relevant.

Jacki Lutz: 14:20

Yeah, I don't love the word, just life.

Trevor Potter: 14:23

It implies that, no matter what you're doing it wrong and I think to your point, jc it's what works for you and what works for the organization you're part of. And I say that to new team members all the time, and we've hired somebody new in my team every three weeks. It's been crazy busy. And I say to them like there are days when you know eight to five is going to be great, but when it's not and we've got something that has to get done, there's, there's no option. We that's what makes the difference right. That's the that relentless approach to serving your customer. And I know it sounds hokey, but I believe it. And what's great is we try to hire for that right, and I don't know exactly how we always figure that out, but it's important.

Jacki Lutz: 15:11

Yeah, and I actually. I think you're right, though, where, like you say, it comes like it's an opportunity for leadership. It's an opportunity for leaders Because I remember when, trevor, you first hired me into the aftermarket and you worked with me for two solid weeks.

Trevor Potter: 15:25

I'm so sorry about that. By the way, I like that Hire. And then leave.

Jacki Lutz: 15:29

I took the job not because of how sexy TPMS sensors were, but because I wanted to work for Trevor. And then he leaves.

Trevor Potter: 15:37

And then he left Nice guy At least you didn't recruit her at the new place like two weeks later, oh no, that would have been bad. No, the idea was we needed to create this stable relationship, you know, place within Schrader to be successful, and I knew she could do that, and so, uh, yeah, that was the sad part for me is it was the right choice for me in my career and it was the right choice for you in your career, and so I've spent I spent the next decade, uh, trying to make up for that through, you know, guilty service.

Jacki Lutz: 16:13

Hence the podcast.

JC Washbish: 16:15

How long were you there after Trevor hired you? 10 years I mean that's pretty good job. Yeah, I mean as the employer to bring someone on it like is that's one of your parting gifts? That's pretty good. Well, he's a good good fit.

Jacki Lutz: 16:28

You know he, he got me all the equipment. I wanted to be successful. I thought that was cool, especially being younger, you know, and just stepping in you don't really know what to expect. But I definitely had that mentality where I'm like I'm about to work 24-7. I'm going to get it all done. That was kind of my mentality. And I remember, trevor, one time you said to me mind you, this was like a solid 10 years ago and I still remember it you said I don't place any weight on people who work a lot of hours. That just means that you work a lot of hours. You can get the same amount of work done in fewer hours. That's equally good.

JC Washbish: 17:02

And the smarter, not harder. I think a lot of young people, especially in people new in their career. Look at me, look at me, I'm here early, I'm here late. Look at me. I just want to see at the bottom of that balance sheet, where are we?

Jacki Lutz: 17:17

Or the people that maybe like send an email at night, so you see that they're working and it's like that's fine if you want to work at night, but that doesn't necessarily.

Trevor Potter: 17:24

You know that just means your balance maybe isn't the up. And it's the ESPN steaming cup of coffee. And it was this joke ad where this guy had created a steaming cup of coffee and it would just be steaming for days and it was on his desk and he was never there. It was kind of like a Ferris Bueller day off kind of thing. It's pretty good. And the boss would walk in at seven in the morning and like look at that, Jones is here, you know here early and wow, he's burning the midnight oil and he was like off with the baseball game.

JC Washbish: 17:58

So and I love it, I love this tagline and it's along the lines of just because I'm sending this email at this time does not mean I expect a response from you outside of normal working hours. Basically like relax.

Jacki Lutz: 18:27

That's awesome.

JC Washbish: 18:28

And I love, like, I love that I got it. I'm going to steal it because it's such a great. Why is he sending the email at who knows what hour of the day? Cause that's when that's his balance. You know, he's got a wife, he's got boys, that's when he's getting the work done. And I, to your point, trevor, like, just as long as the job's getting done, and if you're van lifing, you might not be able to crank out that email. If you're passing through the Sierra Madres right now, right, right, I mean, it's so like you're going to get to it when you get to it, right, but as long as it's you're getting to it, and I think that's important for people to to know, so I I.

Trevor Potter: 19:00

I heard someone comment about the difference between the out of office responses from emails for people working in the U? S versus you know somebody in Europe and what is your it's?

JC Washbish: 19:12

like Italy, like it's summer.

Trevor Potter: 19:14

I'll see you in September. Yeah, yeah, and the and the American version of that is um. I am currently in the process of getting my spleen removed. I will be unavailable for about 90 minutes, but I will be once I wake up. Once I wake up you know, I, I.

JC Washbish: 19:30

I'm, I'm, I am anti out of office. I'm anti out of office email not not anti. You can work somewhere else, but I do not like the out of office because we got to make a choice here. Yeah, are we hybrid remote or are we? Are we not Cause? If we're not like, I almost want to throw that edict down. Okay, listen, you can. If you're going to be in the office from 8 to 5 every day, then you're permitted to use an out-of-office email.

Trevor Potter: 19:57

But if we're going to be flexible, no out-of-office emails please, I don't use it at all, because it also implies that you're not available when you might need to be, or it's important to someone to be able to reach you, and they feel like they shouldn't.

JC Washbish: 20:11

You never know when someone's going to reach out to let you know about your car's extended warranty.

Trevor Potter: 20:19

Or that small business loan that you didn't know you needed, or that.

JC Washbish: 20:22

Nigerian prince that needs some help Right.

Jacki Lutz: 20:25

I can confess some embarrassing facts.

JC Washbish: 20:27

What you use, the out-of-office thing. Well, yeah, I'm not embarrassed about that, but when do you use it Like oh, at auto care connect this week?

Jacki Lutz: 20:37

um no, I don't think I have an out of office on right I do like the out of office at apex.

JC Washbish: 20:41

I love that when people say I'm going to be at apex all week, so I won't you know. Duh, yeah, like we needed any, I'm here also.

Jacki Lutz: 20:50

I see you yeah, I think I use it more as like a fy. It's kind of like me signaling to them like if I don't get right back with you, don't think that I'm ignoring you. I'm actually out of office but I end up getting back to them. I'm always on my email. I'm always trying to be responsive. I think the only times I don't use it is like if I'm going on a vacation where I really do need to unplug, but even then okay so I think I would make my exception would be true family vacation and just hey and, but can?

Jacki Lutz: 21:22

we be, but again it's signaling.

JC Washbish: 21:23

Maybe we need to call it something different, just hey, I'm, I'm freaking on vacation, right see when I get back, yeah like why not? I think sometimes too, we have um this tendency to be so verbose in our messaging and emails, like can we just use plain speak people? Yeah, you know, I'm in hawaii, leave me alone.

Jacki Lutz: 21:42

Oh cool, good for you, right yeah like I, I'd much prefer that than I will be gone for seven days well, I remember distinctly on my wedding day waking up and checking my email and but like it never felt like work because I was just passionate about what I was doing and I was gone for the first time for eight days. I'd never taken a vacation that long and wanted to make sure everyone had what they needed for things to move forward. I never felt like it was heavy. I just that was my, maybe that was my system. And I remember the day of the wedding you checked email, yeah, and I remember on about to have a baby, the day I got induced answering emails like laying in bed.

JC Washbish: 22:24

But it's like you know what else are you going to do? It's awesome. I've been through a few of those. Yeah, You've got time.

Jacki Lutz: 22:30

It's just another day, it's a Tuesday, but like you know, you know I'm sitting there anyway and I love my job.

JC Washbish: 22:36

I want it on the record. We're not commenting on labor and delivery and that it's just another day. That was Jackie, I think. I think that's for when you talk life, cause you could always be on and for some people life is work. Just there is like that is the most joy you're going to have. You just want to grind, you just want to count the numbers or whatever it is, and that's that's great for some people. I want to punch the clock and I want to punch out and I'm done. And that's great too, because we can't all just be great. You can't. Not everybody can be the CEO.

Jacki Lutz: 23:10

All right. Should it be safe to say that, like in an interview, like this is the kind of job that I want.

JC Washbish: 23:16

I would love it. I would love to see that because I think it's good for management. Sometimes you want to know you just got a guy that's going to be a grinder, or you got a girl that just wants to come in. Look, I want to do X, y and Z and I don't care. I don't care where we're going with the industry, none of that matters to me. I just want to do well at my job and provide for my lifestyle or my family or whatever that is for me, and I think that that should be liberating for management, for the team members. But you have to know it. I mean, I think you have to identify it as a leader and for the other, like you know, junior leaders on the team recognize what you have there, so you're not extending that person when your expectations are set.

Trevor Potter: 23:53

I totally agree with that. I mean you need those people in your organization and as long as you hire them for the right position and also provide them with some protection because not everyone in the organization will be okay with that right They'll have people that will be frustrated when it's five o'clock and they're going to their kid's soccer game.

Jacki Lutz: 24:13

You know that is something I noticed working for the association is there are a few people on the team who really do have a strict work-life balance like a code. And you know, when I've tried to reach out after hours, because I've always done that before, I don't I'm kind of the same way. Without saying it, I don't expect anyone to answer me if I work after hours, but you're sending the message. Hopefully they don't feel the pressure. But I've had people say to me well, so-and-so, you know, really shuts off at five o'clock, wants to spend time with their family this and that, and I'm like I never look down on them at all. I almost respect them for having boundaries, but I don't think every workplace is like that, where people don't see that as being lazy or not committed.

Trevor Potter: 24:57

Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I don't think it's lazy.

Trevor Potter: 24:59

You talked about working at Natera and I used to travel to Japan for work a couple times a year and I remember, with the time zone, I would get up at the like 4.30 in the morning and I'd go for a long run in Tokyo and you'd run by dozens and dozens and dozens of cars with young workers dressed in suits sleeping in their cars because they couldn't bear the traffic to get in. And those same folks we'd go out and do our business, go out to dinner, you know, a little karaoke, whatever.

Trevor Potter: 25:31

And at midnight they'd be leaving to go home and I was just awestruck at how hard they worked and how that culture, unbelievable culture.

JC Washbish: 25:42

Unbelievable, because they work so hard and they party so hard. Yeah, it was so fun.

Trevor Potter: 25:47

I thought I was pretty good at partying and then I realized I knew nothing Against the Japanese.

JC Washbish: 25:51

No way, I loved it. Yeah, no, I think, jackie, you have the expectation, though, of what your coworkers are doing, and, again, it's just understanding where the team members are, and I think that's fine. What I don't like is I don't like people that didn't put a perception on somebody, like, oh, they'll never pull over a dime or they'll never work late, so they're lazy or they don't want to advance. I don't think it's lazy. They might not want to. I'm on the ladder, the corporate ladder, but I'm comfortable, and that's I mean. That's you know. Some people just have a passion for where they're at in that role, and that's great.

Trevor Potter: 26:28

Did you always feel that way? Because I think you know, for the role you're in, the role I'm in, Well, that that's like cause we're not that way.

JC Washbish: 26:42

Right, so so I want to go, I want to go a hundred miles an hour all the time and just keep going and and and win, win, win. And I think what I struggle with is when people like don't want to win or they're they don't it's not as like it's not that they're not hungry, but they don't appear hungry, and I think that is that does frustrate me. But again, it's understanding those players, but isn't that?

Trevor Potter: 27:00

different, though. Let me sorry to interrupt, but I mean you have people that have a strict code about how they want to operate their life, but while they're there they could be all in wanting to win, but I? Then there's people that don't want to win, and to me those are really.

JC Washbish: 27:15

no, I'm with you and that, but that it's me okay, this is.

JC Washbish: 27:19

This is taylor, swift, it's, it's. It's the problem, it's me. And and identifying that with the people and realizing, no, it's not that they don't want to win, they do want to win. They don't express their passion for it the same way got it? Yeah, because if you're, if you're a bum and you don't want to win, you're not really grinding and you're not working, probably not going to work out in this role, probably not the gig for you, cause I think you should be. Nobody should settle for a job and some have to. I mean, that's the sad reality. Sometimes you're just going to settle, cause that's what's available to you. But hopefully we, those that are in a position to create it and create an environment where people want to come in and do well in any capacity or in any passion level for the job or the career- so for you, you know if you look at somebody, you're an extrovert, they're an introvert.

Trevor Potter: 28:04

Is that kind of where you're coming from? That you know they're really passionate, but they just express it in a very different way or is it something different.

JC Washbish: 28:11

Yeah, so actually I'm not an extrovert.

Trevor Potter: 28:17

So you're an extroverted introvert.

Jacki Lutz: 28:19

I am no.

JC Washbish: 28:20

Oh, give me my house, my couch, my kitchen any night, over anything.

Jacki Lutz: 28:27

Oh yeah, you hide this. Well, I want to see you.

JC Washbish: 28:30

I'd rather be home. I mean that's 100%. I mean I love people and I think the people, especially in this industry, are what make it so, so special.

Trevor Potter: 28:41

That's so shocking to me because I've known you for so long like at least 10 minutes in person and I totally misjudged you.

JC Washbish: 28:48

No, and I'd rather be at home. I mean, I'd just rather like don't be offended, that's just what I like. No, I'm not offended. But if you're in a room full of people, like you're at apex, it drains you. Does it drain you? No, because I'll go find the I know. I'll go find all the other introverts and just dominate their conversation. Extroverts are extroverts are a lot of work. It's hard to get a word in.

Jacki Lutz: 29:08

I thought we were supposed to be truthful on this yeah, really I consider myself as if I don't go dominate a conversation, please I consider myself an extrovert and you can dominate conversations that I'm a part of, but I love it. Yeah, so I. I think we need to take a test. I think so yes, I think you need an extrovert test okay, and so are you married to introverts or extroverts?

JC Washbish: 29:32

intro oh man, my wife is an enigma, she's a super woman. She's an enigma, she's not actually human?

Trevor Potter: 29:40

Yeah, it's true, and I'm sure, like me, I'm sure you've had many of those experiences where you're like oh yeah, right, I'm selling auto parts, I'm not raising a bunch of humans to be amazing beings.

JC Washbish: 29:54

That's what I rather do is raise, so selling all parts and funding and trying to get the family to understand what you do. The other day this is true story I'm at home and we're flipping through the TV and Tommy boy is on and my 14 year old is just laughing and it's like it's the scene where Tommy just gets back home to the office and he surprises his old man and you know David Spade's like you know why wouldn't you get an office? You've been here for 10 minutes. And my son is just he's dying and they do the plant tour. He shoots the, the oil, can you know, through the as he's buffing it through the window and hits his head on the crane and the brake the new brake division. My son loves it.

JC Washbish: 30:34

I was like, isn't this such a great movie? And he looks at me and goes dad, I've never seen it. And I go wait, no, man, like you've seen Tommy boy. He goes no, I've never, we've never watched it. I go how have we never watched it? I've seen it every day of my life. Right what? And he goes. Well, every time you know you meet somebody new at like the soccer fields or school or whatever man. People ask you, what do you do for a living? You just say, have you seen the movie Tommy boy? That's what I do. And he goes and now it makes sense and I'm like, oh, so now I? And I'm like, but who in the film do you think I'm like? The day goes no, you are tommy boy, I don't know how rewarding that is his hero yeah,

Trevor Potter: 31:20

luke, I'm your father.

JC Washbish: 31:21

Yeah, so we need, we need to, uh, we need to watch tommy boy with with my son yeah, I don't think my kids have seen it either.

Trevor Potter: 31:30

It's the only movie I can quote, as well as elf, which is my kids favor. Even they're grown, we watch it multiple times a year.

JC Washbish: 31:36

Do you strike me as Elf?

Jacki Lutz: 31:39

And you started this podcast with it because everything's great. Yeah, that's what my wife said to me Greatest cup of coffee, wow.

JC Washbish: 31:46

He's endearing. I'm not knocking him, I think he's endearing. I think he's cute, he's witty, he's fun. I mean he's awesome. Thanks, man, I think that's great. I'm just like big fat guy.

Jacki Lutz: 32:00

Fat guy in a little coat, fat guy in a little coat.

JC Washbish: 32:02

A lot of people go to college for seven years. That's right, I did.

Trevor Potter: 32:06

They're called doctors. Yeah, well, I know we were talking about this at the beginning, but that was you have a connection the time. We will have a connection. When I was working for uni select in the early 90s in canada, they used our warehouse to film that scene where he was walking through the warehouse trying to sell brake pads, and then also the scenes where he was setting fire to the ambulance upstairs in the executive office, and so, yeah, here comes the meat wagon.

JC Washbish: 32:33

That's right, you guys in the back puking out his guts, oh my.

Trevor Potter: 32:40

God.

JC Washbish: 32:41

All because you want to save a few extra pennies on some brake pads Get out, you're Tommy Boy, that's what I'm saying Thank you. Well, I'll send you the picture. But you met Tommy, Like you met Chris.

Trevor Potter: 32:50

Farley. I met Chris Farley. He had the jacket on and the, and the cool part was um. I asked if I could take a picture with him and his assistant said yes, but make sure you ask him, don't just take a picture. And I thought that was weird, cause he didn't seem like a big star, he just seemed like a big lovable guy. But so I waited for a break and asked him and he came over to me and put me in a headlock, gave me a new gi and then he literally jumped back put me in a headlock, gave me a noogie, and then he literally jumped back and went ah, just kidding.

Trevor Potter: 33:16

And then right after is the picture which I'll send to Jackie, and you can use that as well. I love that.

JC Washbish: 33:22

That was amazing. I love that because you can see it and just Talk about a guy that left too soon.

Jacki Lutz: 33:28

Oh my gosh.

JC Washbish: 33:29

But it's the same, like everything was great for him. And what people don't know about Chris Farley is he donated a lot of his personal wealth to other organizations. He had a really good friend that was actually a Catholic priest and funded a lot of things for his diocese and his church and he'd go work at Soup Kitchens Chris Farley would and nobody knew about this until after he passed and a couple of his close friends said, yeah, that's like Adam Sandler Said, yeah, that's the kind of guy he was, and I think we need more people like that. Wow, More funny people. I think that what was Chris Farley's work-life balance? It was just comedy from zero to 100 all the time.

Jacki Lutz: 34:10

You know what he's? He was different because I think a lot of comedians find humor in demographics, you know, making fun of certain demographics and like that other people find other people where I feel, like chris farley, he was just self-deprecating.

JC Washbish: 34:24

Yeah, it was just it just oozed out of him. That's true humor, I I think so it was definitely the best.

Trevor Potter: 34:30

Yes, like it didn't. I mean, okay, it was an act, he's acting, but it was really just an extension of his it doesn't sound like he was acting like even the way your story.

Jacki Lutz: 34:38

I'm like that's exactly what I would expect him to do totally give you a noogie and you know be joking with you. I'm so happy well and I love it.

Trevor Potter: 34:46

The connect, the. This full circle connection for me is one of my favorite skits, and one of the few times that everyone broke character was when David Spade and Christina Applegate were on SNL.

Jacki Lutz: 34:56

I already know what you're talking about.

Trevor Potter: 34:57

I was doing the you know.

Jacki Lutz: 34:59

Van down by the river, van down by the river, your life, matt Foley.

Trevor Potter: 35:01

And now I'm in a van down by the river as often as I can.

JC Washbish: 35:05

Matt.

Trevor Potter: 35:05

Foley, motivational speaker.

JC Washbish: 35:07

You are the motivational speaker.

Jacki Lutz: 35:10

So he's Tommy boy, you're Matt Foley.

Trevor Potter: 35:12

Okay, is that fair? We both lose.

Jacki Lutz: 35:16

And I'm just David Spade giggling Pretty much.

JC Washbish: 35:22

That's pretty good, that's good.

Jacki Lutz: 35:24

Yeah, I would love to do a round robin and just what's the takeaway what do you want people to know?

JC Washbish: 35:32

what do I want them to know? Uh, I don't know. Just a few things. Okay, you might have to work on your birthday if you take nothing else I. I alienated a decent amount of the listeners by saying you know, don't take your birthday and I recognize that and I probably pissed off a bunch of people saying don't use the out of office, oh, don't use recall, don't use the recall, the email doesn't work. It makes you want to read it so yeah, no, no.

JC Washbish: 36:02

And then, and then you can cause you've already got it, um. But I would say, really, for people that are listening to this, that want to advance their career and like just next level and be great, and they're thinking, okay, there's this, this magic pill or the silver bullet to work life balance, there isn't. I would say there's just not. And you need to figure out what your life is and what's you know for you and I would say, hopefully you, hopefully you work in an organization where you can express that and you can have expectations. And if you're running an organization and you want to be this kind of leader that will allow openness, good, because I think the ROI on that is better than being a demigod. That's just no, we're going to do it this way. Or the highway In life you have to make sacrifices for anything and that's so. When you say like I'm going to work a weekend because I have to have to go to show, I got to go to Apex because it's over Halloween and I'm going to miss it because this is what's good for my career, which will advance other things, you have to recognize you're going to have to do that and that's no different than like you, jackie, come Friday night, you've got 80,000 invites to go do so many things with all your friends from all over. You got to pick one. Right, you're going to have to sacrifice something, um, so don't be surprised if you've got to sacrifice and make a decision in work, um, and I would say, where you, you should also have some non-negotiables that center you and keep you leveled. So, like, maybe you work your birthday, I don't know if you're going to be out of town for some kids' birthdays, and I think we need to respect that. You know anniversaries, that's up to you, you know. But but like you know, if you're, if your daughter's got her dance recital, you should go like that, that in in. We shouldn't be like you should do. You know hell or high water, cause you're, how many of those are you going to get? And don't, don't take that from your kid. So you know it, it and there's you're going to miss. You might miss some basketball games. You might miss some baseball games. I think it's unrealistic sometimes to think you're going to be at every soccer game, but at the major stuff your high school football final night you might want to be there for Billy. So those things high school graduations, things like that, the huge milestones. You cannot miss those and, as an employer, you should do everything you can to empower your people to be there, cause that's life. Those are the life moments, but the life moments that will always be with you and at some point you start looking back in life. You know you get to an age where you, where you start looking back.

JC Washbish: 38:46

I just finished a great book. Um Vic Dirks, mpa, recommended it. He sent me a book and it's the book about this guy, sam Hill. It's named Sam Hill, but Sam Hill, and he was born with a rare genetic disorder where his eyes are red. So instead of like having brown eyes or blue eyes, they're red eyes, they're like red, red, and they call him Devil Boy and it's about his life and unbelievable story. I highly recommend it. The incredible life of of sam hill. Um, thanks vic.

JC Washbish: 39:21

And there's a plug for you, vic, but it in the book it talks about at some point a man reaches, or a woman reaches, a point in their life where you start looking back, and it's not looking back to be nostalgic and not you're going to get to this point in the book, it's, by the end, not taking anything away from the book. But it's not looking back to be nostalgic and not you're going to get to this point in the book. It's, by the end, not taking anything away from the book. But it's not that you're looking back to say, oh, those were the good old days or oh, I missed that, but it's it's to sort of reflect on. It was the little things, it's the day to day. The milestones are great. You accomplish a milestone by everything leading up to the milestone. All right, we're all Peloton users on this podcast. We just alienated a lot of people.

Jacki Lutz: 39:58

They're all gone.

JC Washbish: 40:00

But if you are familiar with Peloton platform, every ride you do, every run you do, every lift you do, it counts as a workout. And then they have these milestones the 1,000th ride that you do, that's an important ride. The 999 got you to that and I think that don't lose that. It's every day. So you know when you can be home for dinner, eat together as a family, put down the phone like, get rid of the screen time, um, you know, be present.

JC Washbish: 40:35

That's why, trevor, I love you living in a van, because you're just how can you? You can't escape adventure if you're in a van. All it is is adventure, all it is is your surroundings and I love that. And I think how often do we enjoy the surroundings? And that that's why I chose to start my day to day by having a moment to go look at Lake Michigan, you know, with the sunrise, and to get a run, because I'm fortunate enough to have mobility and I can walk, I can run. Some people can't. Anybody that's ever lost mobility will tell you man, I wish I had that. No-transcript. And in life there's a lot of milestones.

Trevor Potter: 41:37

Wow, yeah, that's great, that's powerful, and I liked what you said about the non-negotiables and to reinforce that it doesn't matter where you are within the organization, that it doesn't matter where you are within the organization, you should feel compelled and enabled to talk about those, and if they're not brought up by your leader, you should still bring them up, because the worst thing would be to go through a great career for many years and give up those things. That should have been non-negotiables.

JC Washbish: 42:11

Agreed.

Trevor Potter: 42:12

I like that and, you know, savor every moment. I couldn't agree more. I mean, we didn't talk about this on this podcast, but I'm a big cyclist, so used to ride 3,000 miles a year and I got hit by a car and spent eight days in the hospital and luckily didn't die. I got hit by a car and spent eight days in the hospital and luckily didn't die, but I didn't realize. Eight days in the hospital you try to get out of your bed and you literally can't walk, even if you're feeling better. And my wife was so upset and worried from that moment on and it was weird because for me it was the opposite. I was so incredibly grateful to be fine, to be alive. I, you know I had recovery, but I didn't. You know, I still have my mobility to your point.

Trevor Potter: 43:02

And, uh, I'd love to try to figure out a way to make everybody in their lives and in their industry, in our industry, feel that same way every day, feel that gratitude for, like, we work in an amazing industry. I love literally all the people I've got to work with over the past 30 plus years and even if you get a hundred emails a day like you, should take a moment to walk around your office, whether you're a leader or not, and check in with people. Because I think to your point about less screen time. I mean, holy cow, work is a lot of screen time and email is not work. Email is someone else assigning you tasks sometimes, or CCing you or CYAing you sometimes, or CCing you or CYAing you, and I think it gets us removed from the connection that actually makes our industry fun and honestly makes business work.

Trevor Potter: 44:00

We have a rule If you're in our office and it's pretty big office and we have a meeting, you better get your butt to the boardroom so that we can talk face to face and have frank, open conversations, get your input and make good decisions. And it's not everybody wants to do that and we make it a requirement and it's led to some pretty exciting conversations about things and being frank and direct. But that's how you move quick about things and you know being frank and direct but that's how you move quick and we're not a big company but we move quick because we make sure to make those connections and spend that time in person. So the other thing I would say and gosh, you just did such a great job, jc, of just summarizing a lot of the feelings that I have as well is you couldn't possibly thank and appreciate the person in your life that's left behind when you go to work.

JC Washbish: 44:58

I like that.

Trevor Potter: 44:59

You know, I, I think, uh, the sacrifices that my wife has made. She, when we lived in Canada, she made four times as much as I did, Super driven, Like. I've never met anybody that works harder at everything, whether it's parenting or managing me. But the support she gave me is why I'm in the place that I'm in, and so you know, whoever that is in your life, there's no possible way to appreciate them enough, and I definitely could have done a better job when I was younger in my career.

JC Washbish: 45:33

So you know I, love that I try to make up for it now. No, I think that's a great takeaway too, that be grateful and and you need to recognize you didn't do this Right. I mean, there's not a single person that they did it all on their own. No way, I mean. And it's that support at home, it's your circle of friends and your teammates, your leaders, people that work with you, people work for you.

Trevor Potter: 45:58

You know, david Spade couldn't have got it done without Tommy boy.

JC Washbish: 46:01

No he couldn't sell. He couldn't sell things on a troop train, I mean, there's things he couldn't do. So but it's funny when we talk about you mentioned like friends in the industry. You know, growing up my, my father he's he's involved in the industry a little bit and he sold a couple of parts. And when I was a kid I did not understand why my dad had like no friends in our town growing up, like like we weren't doing dinner with the neighbors, he wasn't friends with it because he was traveling, he was working his butt off. I got all that and I and I remember once like getting mad at him and being like you know, I've got all these friends on my high school. Anybody can have friends in high school and for those of you that didn't, I'm sorry and I will be your friend now.

Trevor Potter: 46:44

Call me Um but like easy monthly payments.

JC Washbish: 46:50

For a dollar a day. Yeah, but, like I was like all your friends. I remember yelling at once all you care about are your friends at work, that's all you care about. And he just looked at me and goes yeah, he goes, they, they're my friends. And then I like I've struggled. I'm like, no, they're not, they're not your friends. They're either buying something from you or you're you're buying something from them.

JC Washbish: 47:11

You know, like I, I could not comprehend how you could have your core, how could your core friends be the people that you work with fast forward, like 30 years. It's like, oh man, I don't have any friends in my at home like and it's amazing, uh, how you like genuinely care for these people that you work with, that you compete with, I mean, like, like competitors that are like I want and I want everyone to win. And you started Trevor the conversation with everything's great and like man, that one thing that is so nice about this industry is we can compete and still be great and still be friends and take care of each other, and when we should, whenever we can, however, we can take care of each other.

Trevor Potter: 47:58

You just described how politics needs to evolve. Good luck. That's a different podcast. It's a different podcast, Well, and this will be out of order, but I did want to share one thing with you. First of all, it totally resonates with me having so many friends all over the world in our industry and very few at home. The last company I worked for I worked from home for four years and they're some of my closest friends now because I want people who have all different views of what I'm still going to call work-life balance, Cause I haven't you need to come up with it out a different way but, um, I want them to know that it's okay either way, like if you want to work your butt off.

JC Washbish: 48:43

Do it Like we need. We need it all.

Jacki Lutz: 48:45

Yeah, we need it all and but at a young age I was very, I was brought up in a very unique way and I feel like I spent most of my life in the wild, just more like in a bubble, very, very, very secluded, I would say, from like the like really the world, which isn't a bad thing, but like coming into the world.

Jacki Lutz: 49:06

I think I had this viewpoint that I just needed to figure out how to fit in. So like it's easy to lose yourself at a young age. And then you get to be 35, 36, you have two kids and then you're like what do I actually value, what do I actually want to do? It's kind of like you're trained a certain way and my I was trained to work hard because I wanted to be. I tied my value to that right and I just want young people to know that you can make that decision now and you don't need to make compromises early on in order to get to a certain level later unless you want to. So that's my biggest takeaway, and for leaders, to let let your young people make that choice and don't devalue.

JC Washbish: 49:46

I think that's good, but again it goes back to that expectation, like if you're a young person and you want to be CEO tomorrow, it's just not going to be handed to you? Yes, and like the other thing is kids, you got time.

Jacki Lutz: 49:56

Yeah.

JC Washbish: 49:57

Like enjoy the ride. When I was at NGK I was the lowest level sales guy possible. I was so low. They made a new title. They made a new title News guy.

JC Washbish: 50:08

Yeah, just the guy. But I had this incredible management team at NGK with Mike Schwab. Uh, who's the big shot pulling the trigger there Now? He was just so great and he was so open to like letting you do what you want to do. And, uh, cal Colburn was the guy that hired me and Cal's just the whole man you want to talk to, tommy boy, it's Cal Colburn, just the one of the most beloved people, I think in the industry. Everybody loves Cal and we had so much fun.

JC Washbish: 50:31

But because I was so low on the totem pole, like at Apex, my job was vacuum the booth, right? So all the big shots, it's five o'clock, let's go to dinner. They all go to their fancy dinners and we're just sitting there vacuuming the booth. But then we went out and we had all the crazy fun. And so I would say embrace being crazy and embrace having like. Early in your career you're going to be able to get away with things that you're not going to pull off later. When you're starting out Right, I mean when you're starting out they're not all looking at everything you're doing. Later you get scrutinized for everything. So take advantage of being a knucklehead.

Jacki Lutz: 51:11

And have fun.

JC Washbish: 51:12

It's hard work, but don't yeah, you have a lifetime to get to the top. Eventually, if you get there, you'll find it's desolate, it's lonely. You know like I'm not there, thank goodness, but I've heard that it's a lonely place. And yeah, just one step at a time and enjoy all those rides before you hit that milestone. All right, it's a lonely place.

Jacki Lutz: 51:35

And yeah, just one step at a time and enjoy all those rides before you hit that milestone All right.

Jacki Lutz: 51:37

Well, thank you guys for being here. 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. Auto Care On Air 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.