transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:02] Welcome to The Carpool Podcast with Kelly and Lizz.

Speaker 2:
[00:07] Actually, I think that's an amazing idea. The only thing is, I don't think the Car Mom is the right name. So I think we need to workshop the name, but I love the direction you're going in. Anyway, the next day, she sends me a logo, she sends me, she's got the trademark going, we're going with the Car Mom. And you know what? Some things you just don't need to rework.

Speaker 1:
[00:27] Your mom time all starts now.

Speaker 2:
[00:32] Welcome back to the Carpool Podcast with just Lizz today. Kelly and I have some travel this week. So just with travel schedules, child care schedules, we could not get both of us to record the podcast in time. So it's just me today. I'm hoping we can have a Friday episode, but the only way we can do that is if I bring some of our podcasting equipment with me, with us and our four hour car drive to Iowa. So if I'm able to successfully have us record a podcast whilst driving, we will have one on Friday. The likelihood that like technical difficulties arise is kind of high because we never recorded in a car before. So if it doesn't work for whatever reason, that's why we won't have a Friday podcast. But I am going to do everything in my power to try and make it happen. But today, I wanted to give my POV of how the Car Mom started and how I got involved in it. Kelly did this a few months ago when I was unable to hop on a podcast. She gave her POV of like kind of her how I built this. And I was like, well, I wonder if people would be interested in my take on things and how I got involved in just sort of all of that information. So I'm going to give like my story, how I got involved, kind of like where I was in my life. And I also asked on my Instagram if anyone had like specific burning questions about this topic. Oh, we will see. So let's see, the year is 2019. I am two years out of college. I'm working a digital marketing job for automotive dealerships. It's fine. I'm living at home. I'm single, desperately trying to find a man. I'm 24 years old. And I just like I need to do something new with my life. So I decide to move to Dallas, Texas. And I picked Dallas because my sister Sydney was going to school there at the time. I had one of my best friends was looking for a roommate at the time. And my current job there, the job I had then was had an office in Plano. So they were going to let me keep my job. So really the biggest hurdle I had to get through to moving to Texas was telling Kelly that I was moving to Texas because I knew she was not going to take that news very well. And she didn't, but she got over it. She never really got over it, but she dealt with it. So I moved to Texas. I meet Maddie immediately. I meet Maddie before I even moved there. I met him in St. Louis, but he was also living in Dallas. And we start, well, that's a different story, but we kind of we started dating. And then, of course, 2020 comes around, COVID happens, the world shuts down. There's so much uncertainty in the world. And I get furloughed from my job. So I'm now living in a new city. I have no job. And I'm just kind of like, OK, what do I what do I do now? Around the same time, Kelly calls me and tells me she has this great idea. And Kelly would call me out. Kelly and Tyler loved to play this game of like, what's the next million dollar idea? Like if you're sitting around having drinks with them, like you're like doing a shark tank with them. You're like, what's what's the next big shark tank idea? So Kelly, it was it was unusual for Kelly to like call me or like have like new business ideas or whatever. She says, I want to start an Instagram where I review cars just specifically for moms. And I'm like, yeah, that's a genius idea, some genius idea. And like not to flex, well, to exclusively flex on my sister. Like there are people who are reviewing cars from a mother's perspective. Now there was no one doing it at the time. So this was a very unique, a very original idea. And I actually said, I was like, I think that's an amazing idea. The only thing is, I don't think the car mom is like the right name. So I think we need to workshop the name, but I like love the direction you're going in. Anyway, like the next day, she sends me a logo. She sends me like she's got the trademark going like we're going with the car mom. And you know what? Some things you just don't need to rework. So that was like the only thing is I didn't love the name, but the name, the name works, the name tells you what it is, which is very Kelly. Kelly is very straight to the point. She's the car mom. She used cars for moms for families. So it was one of those things too, where it's like when someone tells you an idea and you're like, it's such a good idea and then you start having a bunch of ideas. It's like all we could talk about. So Kelly and I talk on the phone multiple times a day, even back then we did. We would still just be talking about the car mom. We just had so many ideas. It was so much fun. It was such a passion project for her, but it was also just such a passion project for me. I just love talking about it. I love using my brain in new ways. Again, I'm literally furlough. I have nothing going on. I'm saying, well, I had Maddie when we were just dating. I don't have kids. I have literally nothing going on. Actually, COVID was really relaxing for me. I know it wasn't the case for mostly everyone, but I was just chilling. Let's see. Three months pass. I'm still furloughed from my job. I was waiting. They fired some people, but they furloughed some people. I got furloughed thinking like maybe I'll get my job back in a month. But I'm not being paid. So like three months pass and I'm like, okay, like I need to get a job. Like I need to do something with my days. Maddie at this point has, we're still dating. Well, spoiler, we get married. We're dating. He goes off for like a year long deployment. So like my boyfriend's gone. I have no job. I'm like, I need to do something with my days other than just like talk to my sister about her Instagram channel. So I apply everywhere. I get like declined for like as a waiting, like I literally couldn't get a job as a waitress. I eventually get a job with Pepsi as like a virtual assistant essentially. So I worked from home, absolutely hated it, but you know, it was paycheck. In the meantime, like I'm just, I'm coming home a lot because, you know, I didn't have a lot going on in Texas and the world was still kind of shut down. So I'm like kind of loosely helping Kelly with the car mom. We're still talking about it all the time. But then I think like sometime in the fall, she had hit 10,000 followers. And I was like, your videos, like she's literally only posting her tours on like story content. Like it's like your tours are all over the place. Like there's no way for anyone to search these. We need to get you on YouTube. And luckily for you, I have a degree in television arts and like I'm obsessed with this and I want to edit your YouTube videos. That's like my background is like from seventh grade, I've always loved making videos. I was the girl who made videos for my sorority. I was the girl who made videos in high school. And like making videos was not what it is today. Like not anyone, not literally anyone could do it on their phone. It was like you needed software for it. So this is kind of just like something that I was like my hobby and something I always love to do. So Kelly starts filming her tours differently, starts sending them to me and I start up the YouTube channel. And it took a few months for us to get monetized because you needed X amount of subscribers and like X amount of hours watched. Now we'll never forget. I remember where I was. I was coming home from a spinning class and I checked our YouTube and we were monetized and I called Kelly and I said, Kelly, we made $43. And it was the best $43. I've ever made in my entire life. It was so exciting to see Car Mom, the Car Mom, even though she had 10,000 followers, she was making no money at the time. Literally $0. So it was really cool to see something that we just did make money. We're like, wait, we just like got a car, filmed it. It was free for us to do this outside of our time, and now we're $43 richer. That's amazing. That was really exciting. From there, she just continued to grow. YouTube continued to grow. She got picked up by a manager who is still our manager and my manager today, started monetizing in that way. Then, it was 2021 April, and I absolutely hate my job and I cannot get enough of the Car Mom. I'm still living in Dallas. Maddie's still deployed, but the world opened up a little bit more at this point. I loved my time in Dallas. But now I was faced with the decision to quit my job and do the Car Mom full-time, which is what I really wanted to do. But I had a lot of I was really scared to make that jump. And I also because I wasn't making any money at the Car Mom yet, but I knew it would like I could see I could see the path to make money. I just didn't know when I would receive any money. And also, I didn't know how much it would be. And granted, at this time, I had like I was on my parents insurance. I didn't have a car payment. I was paying, I was recognizing my privilege. I was paying my rent and like to live, like food and gas, you know, like just like basics. So I really didn't have that many expenses. So my biggest hang up on actually like quitting my job with Pepsi and going full time with Car Mom was pride, really. You know, when you're 25, you have this college degree and all your friends are working in the corporate world and you're like, no, I just like want to be the corporate girl. Like that's what I want to that's what I want to be. So to just like not have a job and just like chase this like social media thing and like knowing that I was going to have to like get a part time job as a waitress or, you know, in merchandise or something like I applied. Luckily, I applied to so many places and like no one wanted to give me an interview. So I actually didn't end up getting a side job because no one would hire me. It was a really competitive time, guys. It was a weird time. So anyway, I didn't get a second job, but I was trying to essentially. Also a humbling experience to just like literally get declined, like not get any people calling you back. Anyway, I had full support from Maddie to quit my job and to do The Car Mom full time. He thought it was a great idea. Maddie has always been the biggest supporter of The Car Mom. To this day, he listens to every podcast episode. He consumes all the content. He has been so wonderful. And I had friends in a really great community at the time of my life who were encouraging me to do what my parents were like, hey, you girls seem to have a plan. This could grow. No one in my life told me not to. No one in my life thought I was irresponsible. Everyone could see that it was going to be a good move. So I did it. I did not make any money for a few months. I was living off of my savings. But again, it was fine because. I didn't have that many expenses. I didn't have kids at the time or anything. And it was great. So basically how things worked when I was living in Texas is Kelly had a friend from high school of hers filming her tours. And Kelly would, they would upload the footage, send it to me. And like other than that, like gosh, it seems like what even like, we're so busy right now with The Car Mom, but we've grown so much. I'm like, what else were we even doing with our days? You know, helping her with like content ideas and editing stuff. And we were, we like made our workbook. There was like a lot of stuff or a lot of like random little things that I would kind of help her with. We did, we talked about this on a podcast before. We did like settle on a pay structure plan and we settled on it when like there was essentially like $20 or $43 in the YouTube account on the table and it hasn't changed since then. And Kelly was really passionate about having full ownership of the Car Mom. So I don't own any of the Car Mom, which I'm fine with. And I, we also always said, you know, if money ever becomes an issue, if we ever get in a fight over money, like I, Elizabeth, stepping away from the Car Mom, because like no amount of money is worth harming my, my and Kelly's relationship. Like it's one of the most important relationships in my life. It's one of the best relationships in my life. And literally like a dollar amount could not touch it. So we always said, you know, sometimes when you work with family, things can get sticky, which we never saw for ourselves. And it looked like that's true. Like we just are each other's biggest support. Like Kelly wants me to succeed over herself and I want her to succeed over myself. And I think like that's like mutual respect and love for each other. We've never had any issues. But I essentially get, it was like too complicated to like figure out what percentage I was involved in certain things. So we just said like flat out after the bills are paid at the Car Mom, Lizz gets this amount, this percentage. And it's worked out for us and it's been fine. And I don't really see it changing. And I'm happy with it. This episode is brought to you by Caraway. If you're trying to make cooking at home feel easier and, dare I say, enjoyable, Caraway has been a total game changer for me. I've been cooking more, trying new recipes and even just throwing together quick weeknight meals. And it actually feels simple. Their ceramic coating is naturally nonstick. So you don't need a ton of oil or butter. And everything just slides right off the pan. Clean up is fast, which makes a huge difference when you're already juggling a million things. And one of my favorite parts is knowing that it's non-toxic. Caraway cookware is third party tested and made without forever chemicals. 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You deserve to feel like that future version of yourself in a year is closer than you think. Get started today at helloalma.com/carpool. That's helloalma.com/carpool, C-A-R-P-O-O-L. So let's see. Then, while we were still living in Dallas, we, maybe we started the carpool. Yeah, we did start the carpool. So when I was living in Texas, a company approached us and they were like, you girls need to start a podcast. I was like a lot behind this. Obviously, I was fully behind the scenes on The Car Mom, but Kelly would have me on Instagram Lives and I was in town, she would post about me. People who were in depth in the Car Mom lore knew who I was. And so I think if it weren't for this company that kept saying, you girls need to start a podcast, it would be great. We wouldn't have ever figured out and done it ourselves. So they were really pivotal in getting us started. So we actually, it was not always going to be called The Carpool. It was originally going to be called the company meeting because Kelly used to hold these company meetings on her stories, where people would write in their mom wins for the week. So she'd be like, got my oldest to eat broccoli at dinner. And she'd be like, I'm really happy to see that you got your younger associate to thrive in this tricky area. It's nice to see forward movement. She would just award mom wins and make it sound like it was a business meeting. So that was kind of the original thought for the podcast. But, now I'm going to take credit here because I did come up with the name The Carpool. One day I'm like, I think it would be nice if we had The Car Mom and then sub-branding, similarly written out to The Car Mom, The Car Something. But, what is the thing where multiple people are traveling in a car? How do we get multiple people together in a car? So anyway, I was sitting right in front of us the whole time and I'm like, The Carpool. I was so jazzed. Kelly loved it. It was like, no question that was going to be the name after that. Starting The Carpool was awesome, still is awesome. Still blown away by how many people listen to it. Seriously, so thankful for all of you who tune in like twice a week to hear Kelly and I rant about things. It's been a great outlet for us. It's been a really nice way for us to talk about things that don't really have a space on The Car Mom because you know, like The Car Mom is about cars, but like The Carpool is so much, there's just such longer form. Like it's just nice to have a space where we can talk about things that we want to talk about that don't always relate to cars. So starting The Carpool like really kind of got me more involved in like that, like the front-facing side of it, which is really cool because actually the reason Kelly's not on here is because The Carpool is going to speak at this women's conference. This week, which is something that is just the craziest, guys, the craziest thing because like I remember sitting, I went to a women in automotive, women in automotive conference and I was, I was sitting in the, when I was working on my old job, I was sitting in the audience and I was looking at these women on stage and I was like, I like want to be that girl. Like I crave that and I ha, I see no path in which I am going to be on that stage. But I wanted it. I don't know, I don't even know why I wanted it. Like I just like, I wanted to be successful. Like I wanted to make my family proud. Like I wanted to make myself proud. Like I just, I wanted to be one of these women on stage. And the fact that like literally this week Kelly and I are both going to be speaking to 17. I think they said there will be 1700 people in the audience and 500 online. Like that's crazy. That's kind of big. That's kind of bigger than I was anticipating. But that, I'm doing that because of the carpool. Because the carpool allowed me to get a little bit less behind the scenes, but I still stay perfectly comfortable behind the scenes where I want to. But get a pop up on here and like talk in a safe space of the carpool audience. So for that, I really thank all of you. I just briefly popped over to my Instagram to see what kind of questions I'm getting. Kind of some repeat questions are just like, did you think this was another micro hobby for Kelly when she started? Did you think it was cringe? Like really, what were your initial thoughts on the car mom? And I already said this, but I just have to say, I never once thought it was cringe. I always thought it was a great idea. I mean, that's so sincerely. And it was just one of those things. I was prepared to, like when Kelly said, I have this new idea, I was prepared to, oh, no, that's what I was prepared to say. And when she told me it, it was just like this, I just saw this green light go off. I'm like, yes, 100 percent. I just can't even tell you how, how much I thought this was a great idea. And I knew she would succeed at it. So let's see. I quit my job in April of 2021. Went full time with the Car Mom. I think like three months and I finally got a check. So that was good. And it was a little small check, but it grew, it grew quickly. So it was all it was all fine. I never, I never struggled. So now June or July, June or July, Maddie comes home from his year long deployment. In August of 2021, we get engaged. The next day after I get engaged, Kelly and I go on our first brand trip. It was to see the new Infinity QX 60 to Napa. And it was like the most incredible trip ever. It was one of those really like pinch me moments because like we felt like we were being seen and recognized by the automotive industry. We were flown out on this like, we always wanted to go to Napa. We were flown out, got to see a beautiful car, got to go to Napa. Like I was just engaged like literally best time, best time of my life. Like what a time to be alive. So that was really fun. And then like honestly from there, it's been, I mean, from there I've been capturing it all on The Carpool. It's been, move back to St. Louis, still working, still full time with the car mom. Our priorities changed throughout the years. We focused a lot on cars, we focused a lot on partnerships, we focused a lot on growing, we focused on the website, we focused on The Carpool. A lot of things, opportunities we've taken, opportunities we've passed on, just like a lot has happened. But I feel like we've captured most of it on The Carpool. So if you listen, move back St. Louis, married the love of my life, had a kid, had another kid, pregnant with another kid, and just we got the auto show, which auto show has been the most amazing. The first auto show, that was a really, really cool experience. Kelly and I, we had the first auto show, I think in 2022, and we had it at our family's dealership. The reason we really have it at our family's dealership is because from the repercussions of COVID, there was not a lot of inventory. So we were able to really clearly easily clear the lot. So we were able to host it there. And the way that I had a walkie talkie on, because I was going to be working, I was going to be selling merch, Kelly would be working at Manning another station. And when we met people, and that was really the first time that we got to meet people who followed The Car Mom or listened to the podcast. And it was the most fun ever because it was like, oh no, Kelly, sorry, I can't work the merch station right now. People want to talk to us. Or I mean, mostly Kelly. What we were not expecting is people to just want to take photos with Kelly, but it was so cool. And it was so awesome to meet people in person who have been along for the ride and have supported you. Or maybe you've been involved, like help them buy a car. And it's just like, it was really, really cool. And so to see the auto show now we're on our fourth year, having it and just seeing the way it's grown. It's always so much fun. So yeah, so we've got the auto show this year. We got our big website launch, which is like a huge milestone for the car mom. And we're just like gonna, we've got a lot of other ideas, but like a lot of it kind of boils down to our bandwidth, to be honest with you. But we have really great big things coming. We wanna continue to just help families buy cars and find the right car for them. We always said at the beginning, when we were trying to figure out what the heck this was, we said we need a mission statement because we're gonna have to make a lot of decisions. And we need like a guiding light. And if something like does not align with that, we can't do it. And so the mission has remained the same, which is to help families find cars that work for them and that are safe for them and that fit their family. And it's incredibly rewarding and it's incredibly fun. And I'm so thankful, this is my job, I'm so thankful to my sister who I think a lot, I think some people when they achieve a certain amount of success, they would want to hog it and and be the center of attention and not share it. And Kelly couldn't be further from that. Kelly understands she has the responsibility as she is the car mom. And the brand is a lot of this, a lot of it. It's based around her, but she wants to bring in as many people as she can. She, like I said, like literally, I truly believe Kelly wants to see me succeed, wants to see me succeed more than she wants to see herself succeed. Like truly, I believe that she is my biggest champion. She is one of my best friends. And she has wrapped me in open arms with the car mom and has like really allowed me to co-parent this child of hers. She brings in other mothers who need flex, who are looking for flexible jobs like we all are. And she just always thinks like more is better. Like she does not, she truly tries to share this gift with as many people as she can. And I mean, it's evident by the, I don't know what, five or six, five, six other moms that work for the car mom. I mean, it's so cool and it's not, I knew it would be successful. I knew it was a good idea. I never saw it get to this type of success. And that's where maybe Kelly did. I think that the difference between Kelly and I is she is a dreamer and I am a realist. And I think you need both because I would have never been able to grow it to the success that it is. But also I think that if Kelly didn't have me in her corner, she maybe some not so great business decisions would have been made. I have, I do believe, I think Kelly would agree with this, that I have stopped her from moving forward with opportunities because I didn't think they were going to be right, because she gets really lathered up and excited about things. Then I try and bring her back down. So we try and find that good balance of me not bringing her down so much and letting her be a shooting star, but also not being a shooting star so much that you totally miss the objective. So I think that we just balance each other out really nicely and we always have, we've always been close, we've always been best friends, we didn't fight growing up really. Yeah, I don't know, we're just like super lucky, super blessed. And then, you know, just another perk of the Carpool and the Car Mom is I've gotten to grow my own Instagram a little bit and the same manager who has started with Kelly when Kelly had like 15,000 followers. She also manages my Instagram, so I've gotten some cool opportunities that way, and that is all separate from the Car Mom. So I do have like a little bit of like my own personal income off of my Instagram. So Kelly, Kelly is not tied to my Instagram at all. But, you know, I'm not really after it. I mean, I think it's fun to post because I like to like communicate, like I like to connect with people. But at the end of the day, like my number one priority is the Car Mom's Instagram thriving and just like getting the good information out to the people who need it because I don't really have that. I don't really have that to share on my Instagram. So, yeah, that's kind of like, you know, my story. That's kind of my inception, my perspective. It has been an absolute dream come true, something I never thought would happen, something I never saw for myself. But I'm so thankful to be here and I'm so thankful to all of you who listen to The Carpool and who support the Car Mom and who support this mission because, like, you know, waves are waves are being made. We've had a lot of pinch me moments of like, oh, shoot, no, like, oh, like people and things are changing, like for the better. And there's still a very long way to go because there still isn't a perfect family car out there. And there's still issues and that need to be fixed, need to be addressed, but like waves are being made. And ultimately, like Kelly can have her opinions and Kelly can say whatever she wants to say, like without the audience following and the people agreeing. And the proof that what she's saying means something to a lot of people, then her opinion means nothing. So like the Car Mom and like changes in the automotive industry are going to be made because of you, I mean, 100%. So that's my soapbox, that's my story. I hope you enjoyed this. I really hope I can figure out a way to record a podcast on a drive tomorrow safely, of course. And I hope we will be talking to you on Friday, but if not, please forgive us, give us some grace, and we'll talk to you next time. Bye.

Speaker 1:
[34:32] Thank you for listening to The Carpool Podcast with Kelly and Lizz. Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed riding with us, tell everybody you know, there's room in the car for everyone.