Hi. This is Paul Zellizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Thank you. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to another New Mexico rock star.

I welcome Jesse Jackson, and our title today is crushing misogyny and building an auto repair empire.

Thanks, Paul. I love your late night radio DJ voice.

You like it, Okay. Well, good. It it helps to have a nice podcast, Mike, Dusty. I've been doing it long enough that I decided to invest. Jesse, you have not always been in auto repair and building an empire in that space. We're gonna get into all these awesome things you're doing, but, like, tell them, what what did you do before you got into auto repair?

In my deep background, I used to be environmental engineer, and then I was in product. So technology startups as chief product officer for for many years, which grew out of sort of a a career in user experience design. My the last software that I worked on was in the automotive space. And while I was in that space, I saw this huge opportunity to move into the brick and mortar space. Automotive repair is in the owners are an aging demographic that are looking to retire 6 out of 10 of them sometime in the next 10 years. And with sort of electric vehicles coming on to the the field, They've already undergone automotive trans or transformations, like the carbonated engine transformation, and a lot of them feel not up for the next transformation. So it is a space ripe with opportunity. And my both of my grandfathers had shops.

1 had a hitch repair shop, and 1 had had an aviation repair shop. So I happen to feel very comfortable in the back of a dirty, greasy automotive repair shop. Not that mine are dirty or greasy.

Well, we're gonna talk about that in a second. Yeah. So from, like, mobile apps and user experience to bricks and mortar and cars. And in addition to, like, seeing this demographic of, like, auto repair owners aging out and all the technology, our cars are, like, computers have wheels on them now. Right? Especially EVs. But there was another piece for you. There was a particular segment that you were like, you know, there are some people that when they go to get their car repaired, they don't get treated so well. Tell us about that part of the story.

Yeah. This is what's, well, so cool about working in the automotive space instead of technology, and probably cool about working in other services space is it's just right for transformation. So you have this space where over 65% of decision makers and aftermarket automotive repair is women. Yet, when you walk into most automotive repair shops, you don't want to sit down because the chair is so greasy. There's a pot of bird coffee, and probably 5 year old Sports illustrated sitting on the counter that you don't wanna look at. So going from that, you know, environment and saying, okay. Like, this in many ways, it certainly doesn't feel like the experience we should be offering in the year 2024 to all humans, you know, let alone women who do not wanna see your pinup posters in the shop.

Yeah. And so almost 2 thirds of decisions major decisions about car repair women. And your research as you were doing some market research and, listeners, hold on. I'll tell you how Jesse and I know each other in a second, and I I remember you telling me this when we met, that you did some market research and that, you know, women were charged more money, were not necessarily feeling like their questions were being answered. They weren't being treated with respect. Like, this was also it was, hey. Look at all these people who wanna get rid of their shops, and look at all these people that are having, like, a terrible experience with auto repair. And most of us, unfortunately, in 2024, 2025 need a car, at least in the US.

Our public transportation isn't very good in many cities. And you were like, that constellation of things made for an opportunity, to use your words, to build an empire. Is that fair to say?