Episode #167 - Tech School Programs: The Gateway to Success w/Colby McLaughlin -Trim Illusion

Episode Notes: 

Can Trade Schools & Technical Programs truly be the gateway to success in the automotive aftermarket?

If you had any doubts, I think after this episode you will agree… the answer is YES!

This week, I’ll share the journey of my guest Colby McLaughlin, from a student in a middle-college Autobody Repair Program to a leading figure in the automotive aftermarket. Buckle up as we ride shotgun through Colby's fast-paced career, navigating the twists and turns from hands-on custom car building to the helm of Trim Illusion and the Professional Restylers Organization (PRO) Board.
 
This high-octane episode isn't just about cool rides and chrome—it's a celebration of craftsmanship, dedication, and the drive to succeed. Check out the transformation of raw talent into industry leadership, and how mentorship can turbocharge a career from the garage floor to the executive suite. Colby's story serves up not just inspiration, but also practical wisdom for anyone looking to accelerate their own career trajectory in the automotive world.
 
Finally, we pop the hood on SEMA's vital role in advocating for the automotive aftermarket industry, diving into the nitty-gritty of legislation and the Right to Repair Act. It's a candid look at the challenges and victories in protecting our liberty to tinker and tailor our vehicles. Whether you're a trade school student with grease under your nails or a seasoned pro looking to reconnect with your roots, this conversation will fuel your passion and maybe even spark your support for your local tech school programs.

Guest Info: 

Colby McLaughlin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/colby-mclaughlin/

Trim Illusion – https://www.trimillusion.com/

Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrimIllusion

Washtenaw Community College - https://catalog.wccnet.edu/current/courses/abr.php

Custom Cars & Concepts Program at WCC - https://catalog.wccnet.edu/current/courses/ccc.php

Info links: 

Link to SEMA site to help: 

Chapters

• 0:00 Success in Automotive Aftermarket Industry
• 11:56 Unique Opportunities in Custom Car Design
• 16:28 Career Progression in Auto Industry
• 19:23 Auto Show Preparation and Perfection
• 23:13 From Sales to President
• 35:22 SEMA's Impact on Automotive Industry
• 49:29 Ask Questions in Trade School
• 55:05 Skilled Trades and Automotive Success

Transcript

Rick: 0:00

This week. My special guest has not only had an incredible success in the automotive aftermarket for the past 15 years since he left the Custom Cars and Concepts program at Washtenaw Community College, but his passion for all things automotive was ignited. He's now fighting the good fight for our industry on many fronts. He has absolutely fast-tracked his career through the automotive aftermarket to a strong position in the Professional Re-Stylers Organization or PRO Board, and he's proactively working with many others to protect things like ICE vehicles from bans supporting the Right to Repair Act and the many other threats against our current ability to customize our vehicles as we see fit.

Rick: 0:50

Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast with your host, rick Sellover, where minor adjustments produce major improvements in mindset, personal growth and success. This is the place to be every Monday, where we make small improvements and take positive actions in our business and personal lives that will make a major impact in our success, next-level growth and quality of life.

Rick: 1:14

Hey, what's up everybody. Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast. I'm your host, rick Silover. Thanks so much for stopping in. If you're a returning listener and haven't done so already, please take a minute and click the follow or subscribe button, and then rate and review the show. When you rate and review the show, the algorithms for Apple, spotify, google Podcasts, iheartradio, amazon Music and all the other platforms will see that it's valuable and show it to more people that have never seen it before, and hopefully it can help them too. I would really, really really appreciate your help, sharing this word with your friends and family as well, and if you're a brand new listener, welcome. I hope you find something of value here that helps you in your personal or professional life as well. Please make sure to click the subscribe or follow button so you never miss another episode.

Rick: 1:58

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with a young man whose intense passion for this industry can truly be seen in the actions that he takes.

Rick: 2:06

Colby McLaughlin is currently the president and managing partner of a growing accessory company called Trim Illusions. This week, my special guest has not only had an incredible success in the automotive aftermarket for the past 15 years since he left the custom cars and concepts program at Washtenaw Community College, but he's now fighting the good fight for our industry on many fronts, as well as working hard to earn an influential position on the senior board. Since I first met him back in 2009 at Washtenaw Community College, where his passion for all things automotive was ignited, he has absolutely fast-tracked his career through the automotive aftermarket to a strong position in the Professional Restylers Organization, or PRO Board, where he sits as chair, and he's proactively working with many others to protect things like ICE vehicles from bans, supporting the Right to Repair Act and the many other threats against our current ability to customize our vehicles as we see fit. So please join me in welcoming an old friend of mine, colby McLaughlin, president and Managing Partner of Tremolutions to the MindWrench Podcast. Colby, so glad you're here. Welcome to the show.

Colby: 3:19

Thanks, Rick, and happy to catch up, man. It's been a long time.

Rick: 3:23

Yes, it has. So it was kind of cool seeing you the past two years at SEMA. First time I saw you there I was just shocked. I came by your booth. I'm like dude man, you really got it going on here. You know, I was really impressed with that. So just from that point I thought, god, what a great story. I thought your little success story so far for our industry.

Rick: 3:51

And this is kind of you know, as we get through this, I kind of want to frame this around. This is kind of a testament to the value of trade schools or technical colleges. It's kind of like a gateway to some pretty successful careers and influence within this industry in a lot of different aspects. You know somebody sitting like you were sitting in 2008 or 2009,. You know, going through the classes and learning the custom cars program which was just, it was a kick-ass program. I love that thing. But you would have never guessed it a million years, 10, 15 years from now, you'd be sitting as a president of an accessory company, right, and making strides and making movements and being involved in this industry at levels that guys have been in this business 25 years haven't touched yet right.

Colby: 4:37

Yeah, and I mean a lot of it. I love networking and it's because I truly have a passion for people in our industry and you never know, when you have a conversation or give somebody a call or whatever, where that conversation may lead to, and so I attribute a lot of it and that comes down to my mentors. My mentors are some of the best networkers I ever met, and so I learned very early how well you become connected is how successful you and your business can be in the industry.

Rick: 5:02

Absolutely. I've done several podcasts just on networking alone because I've seen the value of it over a lot of years. But yeah, specifically when you go to something like SEMA, that's the place to go into networking, right? So, anyways, I want to dive in, Colby, a little bit into your background I know a bit of it and just share it with the audience.

Colby: 5:24

You had some interesting cars even before you got into that washington program right, yeah, so my, you know well, me, I was broke so I didn't have anything.

Colby: 5:32

I had 95 neon, you know, with a five speed on it and I thought it was the coolest thing after fast and furious came out. You know, uh, but my dad had a 67 camaro. Growing up we had some Fox bodies and stuff, but cars were always. It was always. You know Hagerty on the or you know Jegs or Summit it was always something on TV and so you know watching Mecham and Barrett. So it was everything at home.

Colby: 5:58

And you know, I went to, as you mentioned, washtenaw Technical Middle College. That was a phenomenal opportunity for me because the state was investing in kids to get into trade schools, because in the US we have and it's getting worse a bigger imbalance between trade schools and trained technicians compared to what they consider the IT. Years ago, australia had one of the best balances between trade schools, and that because they recognize that we need to make sure trade schools are working. We still need plumbers, we still need welders, we need all these positions that are highly skilled and highly trained, but they're not this glorious IT you know, southern California IT position and so I went into the technical middle college. They basically accelerate your last two years of high school into about two semesters at the college course, and my parents, once I got done with all of my high school courses over at Washtenaw.

Colby: 6:51

My parents wanted me to get into white collar All my family's blue collar. My dad was a mason, my mom was a nail tech I've seen what years and years of abuse can do that and they wanted me to go into white collar and so I went into the business management courses and I absolutely hated it. And then, you know the same place that you and I met I go over to the garage over at Washtenaw community college and seen what Gary Sobrey and and Tim V and all them were doing on cars and I was like, holy shit, this is, this is me, this is fast. Motorcycles, lowered magnums, custom paint jobs, sound systems, I, I, I fell in love with it and I said, I, this is the path I'm going. My parents were, uh, my parents were pissed, uh. Needless to say, now we've made amends on that they've gotten over it now yeah, they've gotten over it now but,

Colby: 7:38

at the time they were like we don't want a grease monkey because there's this huge stigma behind uh, mechanics or technicians that you know is from the 70s and 80s. It's far surpassed that. What I love about the automotive, as you've seen, there's it doesn't matter. I have friends that are just in social media or they're accountants or they're technicians or, you know, they're photographers or journalists, but they're so passionate about cars but they don't necessarily work on them for a living. There's a room for all of these things with our environment, and so it doesn't matter what you choose to do professionally, it can still be tied to cars in a way, and that's what I seen at that time.

Rick: 8:23

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Rick: 8:32

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Rick: 10:11

I got involved in that just in the outset. I already had a job and but I was so intrigued by what they were doing because you know most of my career, I've always tried to encourage other people to get into this industry. I've made a great living out of this industry. I've always tried to encourage other people to get into this industry. I've made a great living out of this industry. I've enjoyed it. There are so many cool people to meet and I've always tried to encourage others and I know there's a bigger movement beyond me trying to get more techs, more kids involved into this industry, because we really need them. But when I saw what they were doing there, I'm like man, this is out of the box. These guys are building, you know, custom rides for celebrities. They're going to the auto shows, they're going to SEMA with these things and they're teaching these kids along the way and they're getting them actively involved and I thought what a cool thing, I need to be part of this.

Rick: 10:58

So I went down there and just took a tech assistant job, and part time, just so I could be part of that. You know environment and that's where I met you and several other young guys down there that were just digging the shit out of what they're doing, and you know some really, really cool things came out of there. A lot of great people have made some relationships that are still going strong after 15 years. So it was great to see you there, colby, and I think it was a great learning lesson for you. But, man, you kind of jet-setted right out of there into like next level stuff that I was really surprised with. So as you were going through Washington number one, did you complete the whole automotive program there? So this is I'll put you on the spot and get you in trouble.

Colby: 11:44

No, no no, this is good. Actually, this is good, it's arguable. Now, it was a lot of stuff going on at that time. I'll answer the question at that time. But to preface that, so Custom Cars and Concepts was called an advanced program. So what Gary and Tim and all them did is said all right, we need the best welders, we need the best mechanics, we need the best welders, we need the best mechanics, we need the best body. Guys, let's create a group of students and let's let's build the custom cars and concepts program. So we had a good balance to consider what we would be a hot rod shop or custom shop. So we go through that and I get a call from Gary and it said and he says hey, gm performance just approached us because we were in the backyard of the big three, which made things really easy with oem relations and a lot of aftermarket relations. And he said they want to build a 70 chevelle, they're releasing the 572 crate motor and they want to have the college build this 70 chevelle to put this 572 and we're going to do the hot rod tour. It's going to be on the cover of gm performance parts. We're going to send you guys out to SEMA.

Colby: 12:47

And for me, I was the youngest in the program so I couldn't even sign the release for me to be on TLC rides. For this my parents had to release it for me and it was a really cool opportunity. Really showed hard work in the beginning, a lot of hours, a lot of us. You, you know we were entry-level students. It's not like we've been doing this for 30 years, so there's a lot of learning along the way, a lot of fuck-ups that happen when you're 17, 18 years old and uh. But anyways, fast forward that we go out to to see my we're in the GM performance parts booth and I'm in the booth and and a couple gentlemen approached me and he was the owner of special projects. They're in Plymouth, which you and I were familiar after I graduated from college. It was a concept car for seven years, so at that point in time they offered me a position. Now I had gotten my associates, but I hadn't gotten my certificate for CC star for the custom cars and concept program.

Colby: 13:43

So Gary still gives me shit about that. I never finished the program. We're all good, we're good friends, we talk to each other constantly, but that was always kind of a thing that we joked about. Is me never finishing the program?

Rick: 13:55

I was just curious because I never had asked you that before and I know a lot of guys get really involved in there and then some things kind of fell apart before some got to graduate completely through that program too. So that funding the government was doing it ended and, man, the headcount just went down drastic and all the part-time guys like me had to get let go.

Rick: 14:17

But anyways, I know you did a good job while you were there. You had a lot of fun. Gary was a fantastic guy to be around and to head up a project like that. So that program is still going. But I still haven't seen anything like that in any other technical school, at least in Michigan. Maybe in some other states that there is, but I'd really like to see that thing fire back up again. I think that would be great for the students that are out there that really need to see firsthand the excitement of getting involved in those kinds of programs and what that can do to get somebody interested in this industry.

Colby: 14:53

So there's not many positive outlets, to your point where you can take, you know late teen males and get them to work a hundred plus hours for free because they love it. You know, I mean, we were all driven by passion. The TV was cool, all that was cool, but at the end of the day it was, you know, we were at college, you know, in courses, working at midnight standing on cars and we did a ford. It's ugly.

Colby: 15:18

But if you google it, ford, uh, when ford released the, the ford 500 you know yeah, I'm from the the up, whatever you want to call it the change from the Taurus to the Ford 500, it didn't do too well. They basically took a GT, a Ford GT mule, brought it to us and they said we want to, we want you to put this in a Ford 500 and basically make a sedan drift car with a GT powertrain, and you know that's a mid engine car. I mean it was, it was wild, but I think I it was not practical. I probably I worked on the on the hood vents, on that, and I mean there was probably at least 15 pounds of Dura-Glass in that hood, so it was not practical, it was heavy, it didn't.

Colby: 15:57

it was still was a four or five hundred, but it was just. It was crazy stuff that we got to do that you know I'll always cherish it. I mean a rough time, even for a young kid, but it was fun, man, we loved it.

Rick: 16:09

Yeah, so fast-forwarding through that. Like I said, you met a couple of people at SEMA from Special Project. I know who you're talking about. I was one of my customers for probably 20 years. I called on them. Great people, really cool stuff that they did there as well. So how did you end up? Because I know last time I saw you at Washtenaw, versus the first time I saw you at SPI, it wasn't a big break. So I know you got over there fairly quick from Washtenaw. So how did that come about with the SEMA trip?

Colby: 16:44

Yeah. So Terry Steller and Ken Yanez some of my first mentors came up. Ken Yanez owns, uh, special projects. Uh, he actually worked for the Alexander brothers, uh, going back to when he was 15, 16, sweeping floor. So he had been, I mean, ingrained in the hot rod industry in Detroit, worked at, you know, american Sunroof Company AFC, so a lot of those early on concepts and stuff.

Colby: 17:07

And him and Terry came to me and they're like same thing you mentioned they're always looking for young technicians and I think that that's something that kind of parents dissuade kids from is they don't want you to go in the auto industry, but there's not many industries where we're begging for technicians. We will train you, just come in, just shadow our people, shadow a technician, we will get you a position that you could. You know, if you're hustling you could make really good money and a really good living. And so Terry and them, I came in for an interview once we got back from Vegas and Terry asked me some questions and at the end of that interview he says all right, you're ready to start. I said, yeah. He says all right, you're going to be making $14 an hour. And I almost cried right there because I was expecting $12 an hour. I was so excited, yeah, and I started immediately and it was an amazing learning curve for me.

Colby: 17:59

As you know, special projects they build concept cars, so everything from glass, from sorry from clay modeling, from the inception of the vehicle all the way to a driver. So Ford Lincoln were big customers and actually I was there in Detroit a couple weeks ago clay modeling, from the inception of the vehicle all the way to a driver. So ford lincoln were our big customers and actually I was there in detroit a couple weeks ago and I got to go see the guys and tour all that and take some people, uh, from pro over there and got to see all you know, the ford super chief, which you know that that truck that truck that was ford's largest concept um the lightning concept, the bronco concept, a lot of the Bronco concept, a lot of cool stuff.

Rick: 18:30

Yeah, they did a lot of neat stuff there over the years and I made a lot of really good friends that I still have today. So it's an interesting job, interesting type of work they do. Now you had a little taste of what prototype was like at Washtenaw with some of those builds right, was this like a little bit more intense? As far as it's not the 14 bucks an hour, is it? It's the time you have for the next 80 hours after that.

Colby: 18:58

Yeah, my overtime hour checks were nice.

Rick: 19:00

Yeah.

Colby: 19:03

I mean one, the talent of the guys in that building that do what they do to get a driver, a vehicle that's ready to go off for you know the black tie event or the media event for Detroit Auto Show.

Colby: 19:16

I mean that was. You know, we see what OE Auto Shows over the past few years have kind of really tightened up since COVID or for one reason or another. But at that time if you were in southeast Michigan and you made the trial for the Detroit Auto Show, I mean that was the mecca of auto shows around internationally. And so seeing what people did in order to get those cars, how every vehicle there is perfect, even what we consider the pre-production cars. So if Ford already had fusions or focuses out, the auto show wasn't just taking them off, the deal a lot and putting them on. You know, on the showroom floor at the auto show we were taking them in pulling doors, I mean grabbing 40 grit as soon as these cars came in, because we were splining and gapping these cars. They had to be perfect. It was basically the whopper in a commercial compared to what you get and so every car was gapped, splined, um all the way.

Colby: 20:06

But the concept side of things was crazy because everything was one-off, everything was made specifically for that vehicle and 3D printing at that time wasn't so accessible to consumers. So for us that was huge if we were getting headlight bezels in or seat bucks or whatever it may have been, and everything was perfect.

Rick: 20:23

Yeah, whether they were finishing spraying it in the trailer on the way to the show or not, it was perfect. I remember guys would get it so close and an engineer coming and go.

Colby: 20:34

you know I need that line probably about an eighth of an inch lower, you know and they'd have to resurface yeah, and that's what we would call them line reviews and the designers would come in and we would have the paint team from the OEM come in and they would give us and your technician friends will find this funny, but you know, like you said, we'd have a car in 400 grit ready to paint and what we would do is we'd have these huge walls that had horizontal um lights on it and we would set them up next to the car. Everything was well lit and we would run wax grease remover on it so it obviously would get shiny, just like it was in clear coat and the amount of angles. They would look at this car to make sure that every highlight track, that the lines were exactly how they wanted. And, like you said, there are many times where these cars are ready to spray. We were going to spray them. That you know that day they come in and by the time they've left we've already got 40 grit and dirt glass out because we have to move an entire line down. And uh, it was.

Colby: 21:35

It was a lot of work but for for your, your collision friends, it was funny because they would come to us with a speed card and you know these are people that know color palettes and all that. They don't know the application of paint, right, and I know we've had these conversations. They come in with a card and they'd say hey, hey, there's 35 and a half layers of base on this and that's what it takes to get this color. And it's like I don't think you realize how base coat works, because 35 and a half or 34 or 30, it doesn't make a difference. But to them you would take those cards after the car was painted. They say it's not right, and it's like you supplied us the base coat. There's no way that this could be wrong. Yep, and it's like you.

Rick: 22:07

you supply it as the base coat there's no way that this could be wrong. Yep, no, I remember that I talked to plenty of painters that worked their way through there, just shake their head like I can't believe. They come here and they tell us that that's how they want us to apply paint. It's not, you know, 600 or 800 percent reduction and you know it's, but they would get the effect that they want and the guys would get through to work and these cars would be like nothing else when they show up at the show, and it's just amazing how that works. So obviously, most men, most women, can only take so much of that work. So you were fortunate because you got an opportunity out of there. I don't know how many years were you at Special Projects A little over seven, seven years, okay. I knew you had a nice little stint there, but it wasn't too long. So how did you transition out of there, colby?

Colby: 22:54

So I wasn't even really looking to leave. I did love what I did and I still do and I look back on those years as great years. But it was rough, like you said. I mean show car season there's no soft deadlines on a on a vehicle to the detroit auto show. So it was 110 hour weeks, a lot of time sleeping there, toothbrush there, you know um.

Colby: 23:13

But my uncle calls me because he was working he had done tile before and he calls me. He says hey, I'm working for this company now where we sell chrome accessories to car dealers and we install them. And he's like they're looking for somebody in southeast michigan and I said, oh, okay, he okay. He said are you interested? I said I'm working on multimillion dollar cars and hot rods. You want me to come sell chrome accessories to dealerships. Then you break and he says just try it.

Colby: 23:37

So I go to Terry and I said, hey, terry, I kind of want to try this out. And he says listen, colby, if you don't like it, you've got your position. You can bring your toolbox. Everything's here for you already, which was a big power of always making sure you're leaving on the right foot. You never know when you end up having to have a relationship with somebody again and so I loved Terry and Ken and I went out and tried this and in Southeast Michigan I did really well with this. Basically we would go out with exterior trim accessories. Go go to a car dealer, help them sell used cars because we can make their base levels look like higher trim levels. Ltz's and uh had really good success with it so what happened from there?

Colby: 24:18

because, uh, you didn't, you weren't there very long, yeah so uh yeah, it was chrome illusions, right it was chrome enhancements yep, close yep, and so I was I was at, I was was Chrome enhancements Yep, close, yep.

Colby: 24:28

And so I was. I was at, I was with Chrome enhancements in Michigan for a year and then I got a call from management because I knew I wanted to move South because driving on car dealership lots in Southeast Michigan in February was not great and car sales obviously they take a decline and says, hey, we know you want to move South. And I said yes, I do, and I'm thinking savannah, charleston, miami, you know anywhere over there. And they said we want you to move to alabama and open up a territory there and I was shocked because I was like I'm ignorant when it comes to alabama.

Colby: 24:59

Do they have running water? You know what's going, what? What a yankee going down to alabama is not going to go too well and flew down here. I fell in love with it. I was totally wrong. Birmingham my wife and I still live here. I've been here for 11 years. It's lush, it's gorgeous here, People are amazing here, Food's great. So, yeah, we've stayed in Alabama and then fast forwarding. I stayed with Chrome Enhancements for around six and a half years. You may be noticing a trend and Trim Illusion, which was our largest supplier at that time. Najee Fatouche, a mentor of mine. He needed some support in helping grow Trim Illusion. He is the brain behind it. He's nailed on the head every single trend we've had and he just needed somebody else to help kind of run the day-to-day and so we talked and that was about five and a half, six years ago. So there's timers up.

Rick: 26:02

I'm just kidding they know that too, don't they?

Colby: 26:06

Yeah, no, I love Trim Illusion, I love our team and so basically came on to run, you know, day-to-day long-term growth for Trim Illusion as a manufacturer of accessories.

Rick: 26:19

Okay, excellent. So when you came in, did you come in in a president capacity or did you come in at a different level and work your way into being president of the company?

Colby: 26:33

Great question. So, yeah, no, I did not come in as president, I came in as a COO role, so mostly to overlook at operations. We're small and we're still small, but we're growing rapidly. I mean, our growth year over year has been phenomenal, always double digits. Some years we were up 37% year over year. So I came in mostly as operations and sales. You know, again, najee is the brainchild of it. So basically my role is to support him, make sure that what he wants to make, that we create a market for it, if there's not already a market, and keep scaling from there.

Colby: 27:06

And you know, I attribute a lot of my success, one to my mentors, but two to reading. I'm an avid reader. Rod Bennett, who was my first mentor, sent me my first business book. I hated reading as a kid too, and now bookshelves are full. I think it's one of the things that I think the trend is is that people don't read as much, especially after they leave college. I think there was a study out there, probably now 15 years ago, but it was something along the lines of 57% of college students don't pick up a book after they graduate, and the amount of information out there that you can learn from an expert for $15, $16. And all of my early on books I bought used off of eBay. You know a couple of dollars here, a couple of dollars there.

Rick: 27:49

Right, yeah, it's not an expensive hobby. It really isn't. But yeah, to your point, I think I saw somewhere that the average adult American reads less than one book a year. But you look at CEOs, they read 60 books a year. So there's some high value to success that comes with reading.

Rick: 28:10

I didn't read any. I mean, by the time I left school I'd never cracked a book unless it was a motor manual or something like that, when I was working on something at home. But probably in my 40s, I believe, I started. I think my first self-development book was Mind of a Millionaire and ever since then I just started I'm still a slow reader. It still takes me forever to read a book. But man, I've got shelves and shelves and shelves full of nonfiction books and I just love them. I'm currently reading the Gap and the Gain, which is an excellent book as well.

Rick: 28:49

Okay, very nice, because a lot of us, especially in this industry and it's not a knock against this industry, but most of the guys that work with their hands don't read. They just don't. They'll listen to something, maybe on Audible, or they'll watch YouTube videos to learn things, which is great. I mean, every kind of learning is awesome. But to sit out and actually read a paper book. I think it's got just. I think it sinks in better. I really do when you read each word. I think it sinks in your head a little bit better.

Colby: 29:20

Yeah, and you pointed it out. I mean, for me, a lot of our sales guys are on the road, you know, and so they use Audible on the road and it's phenomenal. I mean, you know, I coach them, I said don't be reading a book right when you're walking into a sales pitch, put on your favorite song, get pumped up for it. But in those 30, 45 minutes that you're driving you can knock out a book in a few weeks, depending on the size of the book, and it's done really well for the guys for sure.

Rick: 29:48

Or a podcast. I know of one really, really good podcast. It's easy to knock out a 20-minute segment before you go do something, but anyway. So now you're at Tremolusions, you're president, now you're also managing partner, which is excellent, and congratulations on that. I know that was fairly new. I think when we talked at SEMA this past year that had just kind of happened, right, yep. So some of the things I learned about you when I saw you this past SEMA was that you're on the PRO board, so the Professional Restylers Organization, which is impressive, and you're I mean you're the chair of that board, so you're involved a lot in SEMA. But for the guys in the collision industry that don't know what PRO is, what is PRO? What is a professional restylers organization? What is it and what do they do?

Colby: 30:42

Great question. So SEMA if you look at SEMA is this huge overreaching umbrella of all automotive aftermarket. It's racing, restoration, collision restyling, overlanding, refinishing, there's just it's a broad umbrella. So what they do is there's councils and networks that fall within SEMA, volunteer leaders that really narrow down and focus and say, okay, what do we need to do for restoration? Or what do we need to do for hot running, or what do we need to do to make sure that there's future leaders and young entrepreneurs or women in the industry? And what Professional Restylers Organization does is exactly that we look at.

Colby: 31:19

If you go into SEMA now and it's the West Hall that traditionally is going to be a lot of what our companies do.

Colby: 31:25

So that may be wrap, ppf, vinyl and maybe lift kits and maybe 12-volt like stereo. So essentially you know if a car dealer is selling accessories, what our hope is that it was one of our restylers that installed those accessories. So a lot of what the pro represents are going to be people who work on new vehicles chances are they're not even sold yet or sitting on a dealer lot or they're going to put accessories on soon after and then the manufacturers that also manufacture those accessories. And so what pro is is the compilation. It's an elected position for volunteers, but we have a a group of people that are in different parts of the industry, whether they're manufacturer, restyler or they're in, you know, media, and we meet together and we take our company hats off and says, okay, where do we see the industry going? Is there anything that we can do with SEMA resources or putting ourselves together as volunteers to make sure that the restyling side continues to have, you know, a business for all of our members? And so that's really what Pro does.

Rick: 32:31

Oh, okay, great, and so did you get involved in that, like right away when you started working with Trim Illusions, I had no idea about it when I first started working with Trim Illusion, I'd really only known that this part of SEMA was for the past maybe five years and I got on selfishly.

Colby: 32:49

So what we met, what Trim Illusion manufactures is exterior accessories. So we manufacture mostly a large segment of our businesses to help shops or restylers or people chrome delete their vehicles. So they're either going to vinyl wrap it or they're going to paint the chrome, which neither are going to last very long. So we actually make molded ABS cloth spot products that are either clip-on or overlay with adhesive and so, selfishly, when I first joined I said, okay, this is my entire customer base, I need to get in front of them so I can sell more of a product. That's how I first got it Okay and then, once I was, in.

Colby: 33:26

I just I fell in love with the people around, the passion behind wanting to make sure our industry keeps going down, and so that's what really sucked me in after that.

Rick: 33:34

Okay, so how do you contribute Now? You're chair on that board, so how does that allow you to contribute to what I say the greater good or the bigger fight?

Colby: 33:46

Yeah, so you know what we do, and what we did in Detroit a week or so ago is the restyling side of things is evolving very quickly because we're on the new vehicle side. So as new ADAS technology comes out, regulations, oem or dealer supply chain all of that stuff affects our business on a day-to-day level, and so what my job is as chair is really to we've got a lot of passionate, smart people in our group and it's just to support those people and what they want to do and try to figure out how we can get their ideas in an actionable plan. So chair means nothing else except that I'm the old guy, uh, and then now I've been on here so I try to get them in and then also try to to work with staff and and the sema board in order to get them done.

Rick: 34:30

all right, I'm not buying the old guy bullshit. But I got to help organize the masses to be effective in what they're doing, which I totally get that, and you guys work on a lot of the governmental issues too, right.

Colby: 34:45

Well, governmental issues affect SEMA as a whole. Some things specifically to pro, some things not. I serve on the PAC board specifically to pro something's not. I serve on the PAC board. So really what our goal is is to make sure that we're I mean it's a necessary evil in the US is that a lot of laws get done with money. So I, you know I'm passionate about the DC side. I'm passionate about people, you know our freedom of choice and our freedom to do things as Americans, and so that's what draws me over to the DC side. So we, you know I again serving on the PAC board we get a little bit inside.

Colby: 35:22

Baseball is what SEMA is doing, and what a lot of people are unaware of and understandably so is that SEMA is not just a four-day trade show. Right, that's what people, even if you go to SEMA, will do polls. Hey, do you know SEMA's association? Do you know what they're doing another 600 or 361 days out of the year? And a lot of people don't know that, and I didn't know it, you know, four or five years ago.

Colby: 35:40

And so, um, when you look at what we, what we're doing as far as the dc team and I say we is in sema staff dc, southern california, from a federal, from a state, to a local level, to a grassroots level, is is making sure we're educating consumers, because a lot of consumers don't know what's going on. They've got busy lives. They're worried about, you know, making their paycheck or paying their bills. They're not worried about people being able to lift trucks or not or have the telematics information, and so what SEMA does is they work on it constantly with lawmakers to make sure we're progressing, and that's funded fully by SEMA membership. So a lot of people ask you know, what do I get for my membership dues? Or why do I exhibit at SEMA? It's more than just a B2B trade show, but it's really. It's this huge overarching thing to make sure that our whole industry, you know, keeps moving forward. You know, keeps moving forward.

Rick: 36:32

That's a great point because most people that attend you know they just pay an attendance fee would have no idea what SEMA does.

Rick: 36:43

But, more importantly, you've got a lot of people that you know sponsor booth every single year and probably a lot of those folks don't understand why does it cost so much for a booth? To begin with, right, where does all that money go? And that's really a bigger picture conversation. If they're looking to really keep our way of living consistent with anybody in the automotive aftermarket, that makes a lot of sense, because I know there's always governmental pressures against things like ICE motors and being a lift vehicle and all the other things that come into play and the Right to Repair Act. I know you guys are active supporting that as well. I think it's good that you brought that up so people at least in the collision side of business they'll start to maybe hear some of this and understand a little bit more that there's a lot of great people trying to do the right thing through SEMA and through things like PRO to really help our industry retain what we've worked hard for all these years.

Colby: 37:44

And if you look at right to repair, you know one of the things that's unique about our industry is that we are a lot of small to medium-sized businesses, which is great, because that gives diversity and you know we're not just made up of the top three, but we have diversity. Also, the challenge is you have a lot of small business owners that really it's only when they mobilize that we can get things done, because we're fighting call it against the big guys in the room, right? And if you look at when right to repair was initially put on, the initial people fighting were, you know, apple, john Deere, a lot of the OEMs, tesla, because they want to be able to sell you a John Deere part 50 years later. Or they want to make sure your iPhone gets fixed by, you know, at the at the Apple store. They want to make sure that your F-150 gets repaired at a Ford dealership, and so there was a lot of money against us.

Colby: 38:39

And in the wording of right to repair when it initially came through, it did not call out the auto industry, right. People thought about agriculture. If that farmer wants to be able to work on his John Deere, he should be able to do it If somebody's Maytag washer breaks down, they should be able to fix it, but the automotive was left very obscure and they backed it by security because of autonomous vehicles and a lot of the technology that goes into it. They thought that was a security threat if we allow the telematics to get accessed on these vehicles. And so it's been a lot to fight. Auto care has done a lot on the right to repair. What SEMA is doing is saying right to repair is absolutely necessary and crucial that we continue to be able write to modify, not just write to repair back to factory. We need the ability to write to modify because we can prove that through all this, all of our testing and data on the backend, that it's okay to modify that vehicle.

Rick: 39:45

Didn't I realize that Probably most don't either.

Colby: 39:48

So and it's, it's, it's an uphill battle. I mean, when we look at all of them and this is is what's very unique with SEMA, because they're overarching, like you had mentioned, ice bands on internal combustion and the EPA just had their release a week and a half ago about the updated. But ACC2, which was an upgrade from ACC1 out of California, was basically CARB pushing their mandates as far as by 2035. There were 17 states attached to that and a lot of the voters in those states didn't know that they were following acc2 and so we started running a lot of media. Sema started running a lot of media in those areas to educate those voters. Hey, understand, this is coming down the line and it was only at that point in time. Everybody's like wait, hold on, we're following California. Ohio State law should be written by Ohio voters, not somebody across the country.

Rick: 40:44

Right, oh, that's good. Well, good thing that SEMA brought that much attention to that, because I think that is what government kind of hopes for. As they slide those things right by, nobody really notices what's written into it, so that's fantastic. Well, I'm glad to hear that you guys are working on it. We have some people in our industry that are actually working positively towards good resolve on these issues. So, you know, we talked a little bit. We had a call the other day. You mentioned this economic output report, which I thought was fascinating. If you can share just a little, a couple little snippets of that, I think that was really good information.

Colby: 41:20

Yeah, so the economic output report was our way of again. We're a bunch of small businesses, so trying to aggregate that data is a challenge when you have so many different businesses. But what SEMA did was they went out and did this full economic report and you can I'm sure you'll send the link over. I sent it over to you and what SEMA did is on a dashboard. You can go from the state federal, you can go from federal to state, even from your voter district, to understand what the economic output of the aftermarket is. And so when we look at economic output, it could be us. If we ship via UPS right, our products because we're legally able to sell a grill to somebody, that not only is feeding our own people but that's keeping a UPS driver or FedEx driver, parcel driver, whoever it is, and so it's our entire output into the industry. And it was really telling how large the automotive aftermarket is.

Rick: 42:15

I mean, we're $366 billion in economic output and that is Billion with a B, not billion Billion with a B yeah.

Colby: 42:25

And so the amount of output we have is unbelievable and really shows so now when we go. We'll actually be in DC in May where we can use this to understand when we're talking to lawmakers and if they make these knee-jerk reactions, we can show them. If you make this, you pass this law that may impact all these small businesses. Understand that there's going to be jobs lost and bloodshed over here in your state by your constituents, and it's amazing the amount of eyebrows that go up now when you can show them hard data in their congressional districts what that makes a difference to them.

Rick: 43:00

I think that would definitely sway some decisions then.

Colby: 43:03

Yeah, and sorry, I correct myself. I said $366 billion. That's actually $336 billion, so $30 billion is a lot of money, but it still shows substantially how large the aftermarket is, right.

Rick: 43:16

Yeah, I don't think anybody would ever guess over $300 billion for aftermarket.

Colby: 43:20

So that's a lot of money we actually employ, more than the US aircraft industry. Okay, yeah, and again just shows we're nothing to shake a stick at. I mean, we're a serious force. We just have to make sure that we can mobilize all of our, our members right.

Rick: 43:39

So, which brings me to my next point, you know, with this information, like I said, you know, one of the reasons I do this podcast is I like to try to share as much information as I can with others in this industry. So, with that said, what can others do that'll help? What can a body shop owner do? Or a manager, a service manager at a dealership, or an owner of a tire store, anybody else in this industry that wants to actively be part of things or be part of positive change, or even holding on to what we have? How can others help?

Colby: 44:16

Great question. And again, I was a lonely small COO of a small manufacturing company and the people within SEMA. It's not like we have these as far as volunteer leaders. We don't have these big titles. We may not be running billion-dollar companies, but what we are is we're passionate, and that makes all the difference. And when we, when you get these people together that are passionate about driving something forward, we can accomplish things. And so if somebody is interested, I you're going to put my contact information out there reach out to me, say hey, I want to get involved.

Colby: 44:48

We are always looking for more people to get involved, and maybe it's not with pro, maybe it's with a different segment, but you know we'll find a spot for you if you want to make an impact or a difference. You know, again, I'm partisan on the legislation side. So if you're interested in getting involved in the legislation side, there's a great newsletter that goes out from the SEMA Action Network where they let you know what's going on in different states. It allows you to send letters If you disagree with it. They make it very easy. So we you know SEMA has done all the hard work on the back end to make sure the infrastructure is there to make sure your voice is heard, even when it comes to going to the DC rally next month. It's open, like you can come.

Colby: 45:26

You need to RSVP, because what SEMA staff is going to do is then set up a meeting with your lawmakers so that you can come in and tell them what you're passionate about. If you say, hey, I run a body shop with X amount of employees, and if you don't allow me to access the telematics of that vehicle after it's been hit, all my guys go away, that's real. That's real to lawmakers. And so if you're interested in coming to DC maybe you're in the Northeastern, you want to travel all that's possible, so shoot me an email, I'll put you in contact with the right people. But really we need voices. When we got, when we were fighting so RPM Act was a couple of years ago and, for those familiar with the RPM Act, this was a big push for SEMA, because EPA came out and said if you're going to have a race car, it has to be a purpose-built race car. You can't take that car that was decommissioned and make it a race car.

Rick: 46:20

Even though it's going to have a fuel cell in it.

Colby: 46:22

You're not going to put it on the street, it's strictly for the track. But to the EPA that wasn't good enough. They only wanted purpose-built race cars. Well, those are very expensive. So the father and son that are going out dirt track racing, they can't afford a purpose-built race car. They're doing this as a hobby. It's something between them. And so we went out with rpm act, and I may get the number wrong, but I think when we mobilized and we got members, I think we had one and a half million letters sent telling people that we do not agree with you not allowing us to make our own race cars or work on race cars, and that was huge. That made a wave in mobilizing our membership, and so that really, at the end of the day, is a big push for us.

Rick: 47:06

Absolutely yeah. Anything those in this industry can do to help is I know there's several out there that want to be involved, probably more than they are now, so I think that'd be great, yeah, if you, if just connecting with you, can help get them on their way. Or if there's a link to, like you said, the sema resource, share that with me. I'll put it in the show notes as well.

Colby: 47:29

So perfect, yeah, and and at the end of the day, collision is the fastest growing segment among exhibitors at SEMA and really that's how we make a difference. And if there was enough collision members that say this is something that is really would impact our industry for good or for I mean, we don't want to be looked at as the firefighters all the time.

Colby: 47:57

We want to know that even impacts that we're making are because there's opportunities out there and if we had enough people within Collision saying there's a huge opportunity for us if we were able to accomplish this or if we could get resources and put this together. That's something that we're here for. Sema is a nonprofit organization. Sema's only intent is to make sure that our industry keeps moving forward.

Rick: 48:19

Excellent. Well, listen, we're going to probably wrap this up shortly here, so I just want to ask you about a couple more things, Colby, I really appreciate everything you've shared so far. This has been a great amount of information and hopefully everybody can appreciate it. This all started, like I said, with my feeling that the trade schools and the technical colleges were a gateway to a lot of success in this industry. So if you had a couple of words for 15, 16, 17 year old men or boys and girls that are looking to become men and women of this industry and they're thinking about the future in automotive, what kind of advice would you give them?

Colby: 49:03

I would say you know, one of the things that always stuck with me and I and still to this day is is always dress for the job that you want. When I met Ken and Terry Speller, I was in a suit and tie. You know all I did? I was a college student. I learned to paint cars not saying I was in a suit and tie to paint cars, but I knew that I wanted to advance in this, and so to me that's always something.

Colby: 49:29

And then, don't be afraid to ask questions. Some of my biggest call it blunders or mistakes is I would go to a mentor because I'm so excited about something, right, I tell them what I'm going to do, like, okay, awesome, good for you, colby, and it was end of conversation, right. And then along the way I screw up and I go back to them. That man, I can't believe I didn't think about it Like you could ask me. Yeah, I've had that experience, but you didn't ask me, so I wasn't going to tell you. I needed you to know that it's all right to ask. So asking questions, being willing to raise your hand, say I don't know, is a challenge, right, and a lot of people inherently don't want to feel like they're a drain on somebody or that they're always the one trying to grab from more. But if you find the right person, the right mentor, mentee, whatever it may be, they want to share their knowledge and their experience with you. And so asking those questions and I think that's what's so great about about trade schools is that you know, one of the things is it's a skilled labor that's never going away.

Colby: 50:34

You know we will need skilled labor at least in our lifetime. We're gonna need skilled labor and you don't get. You know, we all have poor experiences of knowing people that have insane amounts of debt from going to school in a degree that they don't use. They're basically getting a mortgage at 17, 18 years old. That can never be forgiven. They have to pay it off. And so I think that you already are crippling yourself. And just look at the trade school and again, whether you want to be a welder, you know there's a lot of highly skilled technical positions that people make really good money welding, and so just keep your options open. There's a lot of opportunity within our industry and the automotive as a whole. And you know, just don't be persuaded if your parents say we don't want a grease monkey, because there's opportunities for you.

Rick: 51:29

Great advice. I will agree with the. You know, don't be afraid to ask questions. And I go back to my younger years and I think about that and I know a lot of younger people. I think it's more. They're almost embarrassed to ask Like they don't know. Right, their little egos go. You know enough. You don't need to ask somebody else, right? Just figure it out and do it. But I am telling you for all those younger folks out there, there's guys like me, guys like Colby.

Rick: 51:59

There's hundreds of thousands of men and women in this industry who have been doing this for 10, 20, 30, 40 years that are just dying to be able to tell somebody all the secrets that they've learned about that job over those years. It's no good if we die with that knowledge. So us sharing that knowledge is a stronger passion than you would believe. So feel free to ask. You're not going to irritate anybody, and if you do irritate somebody, then you're talking to the wrong person anyway. So I'm going to ask you one more question what's the lead? What's the greatest lesson that you've ever learned?

Colby: 52:35

one of the lessons that I still learn today is is um, and this is something that I know that my uh first mentor allowed me to do. He put me in positions that I could fail, you know, as a leader, but I had, I had to fail in order to learn, and a lot of the times, even with our people, I may I try to harbor them from from failing, because I don't want them to feel bad about failing, but then I don't give them opportunities to grow either. And so for me, you know, when I first came on at Trim Illusion, I was 27. So I mean I was making mistakes constantly. I mean, whether it's how I talk to my people, how I sold product, what products we released, what we did. I made mistakes constantly, but they put me in a place that I can make those mistakes, kind of in a safe space.

Colby: 53:24

I wasn't going to blow up the company, right, and it's only through that. And so one of the things and this is something I fight on a daily basis is delegating off to somebody and saying you're smart enough, you're going to figure it out, and if you don't, we'll talk about it. Make sure you don't make those mistakes before. So what I would encourage is, if there's business owners out there that have those technicians, that are those shitty 20 year olds who are going to make mistakes, allow them to make mistakes. If you feel like somebody in your company is willing to be the next one to take on or the next one to be a manager of your shop, get, start giving those opportunities out, because if you find the right people, they're going to surprise you.

Rick: 54:02

Great advice. I couldn't agree more Excellent. Well listen, where can everybody find you? What's the best place to get a hold of Colby?

Colby: 54:13

LinkedIn. If you use LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook constantly. I'm probably one of those people that probably post too much political stuff on Facebook, so I'll leave that caveat, but it is something I feel like we all need to be aware of, so it's something I'm passionate about.

Rick: 54:25

But, yeah, linkedin and Facebook no-transcript, and thank you to the listeners for being here as well, and hopefully you learned some things today that you didn't know before.

Rick: 54:56

So always feel free to reach out to me. You can reach out to Colby, but thanks again for being part of the show today. Well, I hope you enjoyed my interview with Colby from Trim Illusion, as he is proof positive that great careers can come from just taking an interest in your local trade school or technical college and choosing the wide open opportunities in the skilled trades where your talents can provide a lifelong career and great income potential. I'll leave links to Trim Illusion's website, how to get in touch with Colby McLaughlin, as well as links to SEMA's newsletter for those of you that want to learn more about how to help support your particular sector of the automotive aftermarket. I'll also include a link to the recent economic output report we mentioned in the show. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and I hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at wwwrixelovercom, where you can find all my social media links, podcast episodes, blog posts and much more. Bye.