When it comes to investing in your people, staff training is where it’s at. It even took the top spot in the Q1 ICA Pulse survey. In fact, 49% of those surveyed shared that they are planning on spending more on training in 2024 and 50% about the same as last year – leaving only 1% that were planning on decreasing their spending in this category. While we've seen an influx of learning and development professionals in this industry, there are a few companies that have made training a priority for ...
Apr 11, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Could understanding the trends of the U.S. economy make you a better car washer? It might. In this episode, Eric Wulf, CEO of International Carwash Association, and Alex Chausovsky check in on the current state of the U.S. economy and how to understand, define and interpret it to make more strategic business decisions. Chausovsky delves into three metrics — the health of the consumer, the cost of inputs and the cost of capital — and gives his advice on economic indicators we should be watching i...
Apr 04, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Membership models and unlimited clubs have become the norm in the car wash industry, but the methods by which we convert visitors to members are mostly restricted to face-to-face in-person sales. This week on the show we explore the question: Could customers join our membership programs online... and could they even do it without even having visited our wash? Marcus Sheridan is a New York Times Official Web Guru, owner of a successful digital marketing agency and author of the book "They Ask, Yo...
Mar 28, 2024•46 min•Season 4Ep. 8
The future of work is not only difficult to predict, it is the wrong question to ask. The question we should be asking instead is: How do we build an incredible team that can help us get to whatever the future of work looks like? Eric Termuende, author of "Rethink Work" joins us with a bold suggestion. He shares that the best solution to talent acquisition and preparing for the ever-changing work landscape is investing in the quality of your work environment for your current employees. Termuende...
Mar 21, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Continuing our content theme from last week, we have another conversation around artificial intelligence. Brian Sathianathan, co-founder of Iterate.AI, joins us to talk specifically about AI in the car wash space. Iterate.AI works with companies across many industries including several big car wash and convenience store brands. Sathianathan offers unique ways AI can be used in your wash like pay stations, maintenance and managing inventory. He also addresses the security risks around customer da...
Mar 14, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Our guest is Terry Brock, who just celebrated his 40th year as a Marketing Advisor. He joins us to talk tech trends which, let's face it, are mostly AI these days. Brock shares with us some thrilling use cases for AI in the carwash space as well as some input on common concerns. Every new technology has brought with it some fear. Brock reminds us that from discovering fire to inventing airplanes each advancement in technology has introduced danger that we have mitigated with regulation. Will you...
Mar 07, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Danka Dubak, director of marketing for AVW Equipment Company, joins us to go behind the brand and discuss the trends AVW is seeing in the industry from a supplier's point of view. AVW is a family-owned business that just celebrated 51 years in operation and Dubak is the third generation. As suppliers, part of AVW's job is both anticipating and tracking shifting trends within the industry. The trends Dubak discusses in this episode fall under the umbrella of customer experience. How can a detaili...
Feb 29, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Tony Sposit always wanted to be a paramedic. And after high school that is exactly what he did. But in between his 24-hour paramedic shifts, he decided he wanted to find more work (he claims he was driving his wife crazy around the house). When the Frenchtown-Monroe Auto Wash opened near his home, he became an attendant loading cars into the wash. A year later he is now the assistant general manager at that location as well as running the PR for all five of their wash locations — and has earned ...
Feb 22, 2024•25 min•Season 4Ep. 3
If you’ve found yourself wondering about how you can better motivate today’s employees … or how to level up your spaghetti … you’re in luck. Our guest, Joe Mull, has some hard truths and expert tips about both in, surprisingly, the same conversation. Mull, the author of Employalty (plus several others) and host of the podcast Boss Better Now, joins us to share his expert knowledge on better management to inspire high performance and commitment in your workplace. You will walk away from this epis...
Feb 15, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 2
If you attended The Car Wash Show in 2023, you undoubtedly saw Quick Dry’s booth with pink carpet. Jonathan and Lindsay Wiles, who run the family-owned business, called it the ugliest booth at the show. But the carpet was to bring awareness to a great cause. In October of 2023, Quick Dry launched its Go Pink! campaign. They sold pink towels to participating customers and donated a portion of the proceeds ($10,000!) to Hospice of the Piedmont and Breastcancer.org. Many of their customers were als...
Feb 08, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 1
This episode closes out season three of CAR WASH the Podcast. We spent some time playing clips from some of our favorite shows from the season and discussing what is coming up next year from the International Carwash Association. The episodes we discussed in order of appearance can be found at these links: Season 3, Episode 1: Gleam Car Wash Colorado Pt. 1 Season 3, Episode 12: Honoring Car Washing's Greatest Season 3, Episode 26: Bringing Car Washers Together in Europe Season 3, Episode 18: So ...
Dec 14, 2023•20 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Claire Moore of the International Carwash Association, Justin Salisbury of Breeze Thru Car Wash, and Michael Schultz of Rich's Car Wash joined Matt DeWolf in an informative live panel at the Car Wash Show ™ 2023 in Las Vegas. They discuss talent engagement, investing in your workforce, and how to effectively let employees know their personal worth and impact on the company.
Nov 30, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 31
In early November of 2022, Jeff Pavone was on the show to talk about what was happening in the car wash industry in a two-part episode called The Great Market Reset. A year later, Pavone is back with his insight on the industry from his perspective as a founding partner of Amplify Car Wash. We discuss the recent market pause, trends moving forward, the added professionalism in the space, and the trends owners should consider to stand out. Host: Matt DeWolf Guest: Jeff Pavone, Amplify Car Wash Ad...
Nov 21, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 30
Claudia Moldovan Crea, CEO and Jessica Price Easter, Director of Marketing join us to go Behind the Brand with Qual Chem.
Nov 09, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Marketing is all about spending money to (hopefully) make money. The trick is knowing where to focus that spend. This week we are playing you a panel, recorded live at the Car Wash Magazine Live Studio at the Car Wash Show™ 2023 in Las Vegas. Levi McClendon of OptSpot, Nick Rodia of Sgt. Clean Car Wash, and Sam Sousa of All American Car Wash joined host Matt DeWolf to discuss trends they are seeing as the best ways to spend a marketing budget. From YouTube to community engagement and fundraising...
Oct 26, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 28
This episode is all about people and is applicable to much more than the car washing community. Justin Salisbury, president of Breeze Thru Car Wash joins us to talk about how Breeze Thru Car Wash has maintained its culture as they have grown to 12 locations. He defines culture, gives great tips on coaching, discusses building trust, balancing staff development and profitability, and the importance of failure. Plus a brief aside on kid’s baseball teams. You are going to enjoy this one.
Oct 19, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 27
The Car Wash Show Europe was held in Amsterdam two weeks ago and we sent a member of the podcast staff to report on the goings on there. He is back this week to play some of those conversations and chat with Matt about his experience at the show.
Oct 05, 2023•34 min•Season 3Ep. 26
This week Matt DeWolf is handing the mic over to four very capable speakers who were gathered at the Car Wash Show Europe in Amsterdam last week. Eric Wulf of the International Car Wash Association along with Bryan Madderson of the Car Wash Association in the UK, Thomas Drott of the Federal Association of Gas Stations and Commercial Car Washes in Germany, and Erik Stern of BOVAG in the Netherlands spoke at a round table presentation on the state of the industry in each of their regions....
Sep 28, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 25
This is a conversation for managers by managers. Iona Kearney of Speedy Sparkle Wash, John Sproul of Camel Express Car Wash, and Shad Valle of Metro Express Wash joined us to discuss their personal management successes, failures, and ideologies. This panel was presented live at the Car Wash Magazine Live Studio at the Car Wash Show™ 2023 in Las Vegas.
Sep 21, 2023•33 min•Season 3Ep. 24
So you collect some data but don't know what to do with it? You collect no data and don't know how to start? You don't know how to get more information from your customers? You want to turn your data insights into a more personalized relationship with your customers? In this episode, we bring you a panel with exactly those insights. Kacy Erdelyi of Spark Car Wash, Anne Mauler of Soapy Joe's Car Wash, and Dylan Von Kleist of Amp, join us to discuss how they are using data, and what they are looki...
Sep 14, 2023•28 min•Season 3Ep. 23
We are continuing our conversations with vendors who will be headed to the Car Wash Show Europe one month from now! In this instalment, we chatted with Jean de Negri. Negri oversees International Sales for Coleman Hanna Car Wash Systems. Jean de Negri told us about his amazing path to Colman Hanna and the importance of regrouping face-to-face at the show. The Car Wash Show Europe 2023 is in Amsterdam, on September 21 & 22. We will continue to air interviews with exhibitors previewing the exc...
Aug 31, 2023•24 min•Season 3Ep. 22
We are continuing our conversations with vendors who will be headed to the Car Wash Show Europe one month from now! In this instalment, we chatted with Nate Wellens. Wellens is the Distributor Sales Support & International Sales Representative at Washworld. The Car Wash Show Europe 2023 is in Amsterdam, on September 21 & 22. We will continue to air interviews with exhibitors previewing the exciting things on display at the September show.
Aug 24, 2023•16 min•Season 3Ep. 21
This week we bring you an important conversation between Dorielle Birnkrant COO/CMO of PetroCal Associates and Megan Ragsdale COO of Soapy Joe's. Ragsdale is also the founder of Risky, Inc and the author of the book: "Risky Women". Birnkrant interviewed Ragsdale about her book, women in leadership, and the benefit of diversifying your company's leadership teams. This conversation was recorded live from the Car Wash Show™ 2023 in Las Vegas.
Aug 17, 2023•17 min•Season 3Ep. 20
In this episode, we discussed the Car Wash Show Europe with Robert Andre. Andre is the Senior Vice President of Innovation at Sonny's The Car Wash Factory. The Car Wash Show Europe 2023 is in Amsterdam, on September 21 & 22. This is the first of several interviews we will air with exhibitors previewing the exciting things that will be on display at the September show.
Aug 10, 2023•12 min•Season 3Ep. 19
So you are thinking of selling your wash? In this episode, we bring you a panel that could not be more informative on the subject. In 2022 Zips Car Wash bought Jet Brite with the assistance of Amplify Car Wash Advisors. Dave Dalesandro the former owner of Jet Brite, David Miller of Zips, and Jeff Pavone of Amplify join us to talk about the process, decision-making, and experience of selling and buying. This panel was presented live at the Car Wash Magazine Live Studio at the Car Wash Show™ 2023 ...
Aug 03, 2023•28 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Dan Gingiss is a customer experience expert, who believes that a remarkable customer experience can be your best marketing. Gingiss argues that in car washing the wash itself isn't that different from location to location. "People want to drive away with a clean car that isn't scratched". That makes the product difficult to compete on, so the area where one needs to stand out is in the customer experience. Gingiss joined us to discuss how we can show our employees what good customer experience l...
Jul 20, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Sarita Maybin is a keynote and inspirational speaker. Maybin shows her audiences how to transform uncomfortable conversations into constructive communication. With real stories, real solutions and a relatable presence, she breaks down barriers to reveal how to work together better. In this episode Mayin shares with us tips on language to use in conflict, how she decides to confront an issue, and how to address a frustrated customer for a productive result. Sarita Maybin was a speaker at The Car ...
Jul 13, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Jason and Claire Cunningham are the husband and wife team behind Big Splash Car Wash and Spotless Wash Solutions. They are, as many in the car wash space, scrappy entrepreneurs. What sets them apart, and why we are telling you their story, is a step further than that. They approach car washing with innovative technology. Technology that they have both adopted from other industries and invented themselves. Innovations that are so good, other people are buying them. We bring you this episode from ...
Jul 01, 2023•24 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Sterling Hawkins is an author, investor and entrepreneur, and most importantly the founder of the #NoMatterWhat movement. In short, Hawkins shows people how to achieve the results they want regardless of the circumstances. In this episode Sterling tells us his story of going from a multi-billion dollar startup to collapse and coming back to launch, invest and grow over 50 companies, and the lessons he has learned from it. It turns out that getting results comes down to pushing past your comfort ...
Jun 29, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Alex Chausovsky is the Vice President of Analytics and Consulting at the Miller Resource Group. He is a highly experienced market researcher and analyst with more than twenty years of expertise across subjects including economics, industrial manufacturing, automation, and advanced technology trends. In this episode, Alex provides some big-picture analysis of the state of the economy, job market, and labor trends with new generations coming into the workforce.
Jun 22, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 13
