Publication1 2021 Issue 1

9 KENTUCKY AUTO DEALER We need to continue making progress. Although employing more women in this industry will take a while, someday it will be closer to equal than it is now. The big problem we have is that many women stop for family reasons. We’ve made work more flexible in the last couple of years, and I am beginning to see the results now. You do need a very strong backbone to get into this industry. If you have confidence, I believe you will stand up for yourself, but you should also be protected. I do not allow anybody to be harassed or degraded. Why is the automobile industry an excellent place for women? The industry has had to make changes across the board because the younger workforce is not driven to work 12-hour days. People want to have a work-life balance, and we are willing to have some scheduling flexibility. For example, an employee could have an evening off and a morning off to spend time with their family. We can also give them the weekend off. Now that the work schedule has become more flexible, more women can have industry careers, including sales. Are there any specific individuals who had a major impact on your career? My father was a mechanical engineer, and he taught me honesty and integrity. He would look at problems and try to figure out how to solve them. Because of him, I learned to say, “You can have anything you can afford.” I use my memory of him to direct me in how I treat employees and solve problems. If the computers are not working, for example, I ask myself the same question my father would have asked: “How are we going to solve this problem?” I also ask, “How could this be more efficient?” He showed me how to reverse problems and look at them from where I want to be instead of where I stand. The question is, “ Who do I need where to get something completed?” Working the process backward is also how we get through a lot of the deals. If someone doesn’t have enough money to buy a car, you can’t say, “Oh, just make more money.” You have to look at the person and think, “How would I do it?” When you back it up that way, you come up with ideas. It helps you find the loopholes you are missing. Another important influence is a man my father worked with named Loyd Rawls. He doesn’t work for us. He owns his own company out of Orlando called the Rawls Group; his company does multilayered family succession finance, and he is still around. He can do just about everything you need to protect industry growth. I called Loyd about 12 years ago and said, “I have all these ideas I want to implement.” He said, “Yes, we can do it.” He never told me “no.” Instead, he said, “Let’s think how we can get it done correctly.” We found ways to make all the ideas I had work for us. As a result, he has benefited our company’s growth, strength and succession plan. Almost every aspect of who we are now started with that conversation. What is the most rewarding part of your career? There are so many different things, but I love solving problems and helping other people solve problems. It’s fun to see someone else be ecstatic when they are successful. I would have loved to be an engineer. I have worked on so many buildings and houses and structural things. The first question is always, “How am I going to do this?” I bought a corporate office back in the summer, hired an architect and laid out what I wanted. I even measured and counted file cabinets to ensure the office would meet the accounting department’s needs. When people moved in November 2020, I went to the comptroller and asked, “What do you need to make this more efficient?” She wanted a different style of cabinet. That was no problem; it made their life more efficient. That is what is beneficial in walking the department. You can say, “What do you need? Let me see if I can help you get it done.” I brought my nephew into the business because I saw his potential and knew that he had the drive to do what I wanted. The best part is it worked out. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10