We’ll be interviewing the winner of my Jeep Giveaway today!
Wow, I can’t believe Top Dog 2021 is already over! What an absolutely incredible event. I am blown away at the positive feedback we have received from everyone who attended the event and seeing the immediate, positive results has been inspiring. Christian even told me that a service manager went back to his store and immediately let go an under-performer! It lets me know that our event truly pushed people to make a change for the better, and I appreciate all of you more than you know. On top of the event being a total blast, we got to announce the winner of the 2021 “Service Manager Challenge”, Amanda Hayslett!
Amanda Hayslett, Service Manager at Checkered Flag Honda, shares her fascinating story with us about how she overcame challenges early in her career, and how it accelerated her path to success. At just 17 years old and with no work experience under her belt, Amanda became pregnant with her first child.
Then her father, the general manager of a dealership, put her straight to work to learn some discipline.
I don’t know about you, but that kind of tough love is something that we don’t see much nowadays, and Amanda talks about how impactful her father’s actions were on her career path. Although Amanda might have been a little…resentful towards her father when she was a kid, I know I definitely see the positive impact this made on her.
And I am not making fun of the hardships Amanda went through as a teenager, but when she told me the story of how her father made her line up sales cars on the lot every day as punishment…
…I definitely chuckled.
Nothing teaches discipline like hard labor! Amanda and I laughed together when she told me about how her father actually fired her for taking a nap in a sales car while he was in a morning meeting. “Well, how did her father know?” you might be asking. It’s a fair question because cameras at dealerships weren’t really a thing back then. Could you guess how he found out? No? Ok, I’ll tell you.
It’s because Amanda came back inside with a line on her face!
You know those imprints from your sheets or pillows you get when you sleep really hard?? Yea. That happened to Amanda, but it was the stitching in the seat that imprinted on her face. So, he fired her!
I wonder if there is a word that describes the opposite of ‘nepotism’…
Continue reading about the Jeep Giveaway!
Amanda continues on by telling us that getting fired by her father motivated her to prove to him, and herself, that she was worthy and capable of working in this industry. She became a service advisor in her late teens and by the time she was 20, she was pulling in over $100k a year! That is determination, alright. Amanda realized how much untapped potential she had.
So she set a goal that she was going to be the service manager before 30, and she hit that goal 2 years early. Now, her new goal is to be the next general manager by 40, and she’s so excited that she still has 3 years left to get there. The Jeep Giveaway is the biggest thing I’m about to do! On top of running a powerful service drive at Checkered Honda, Amanda helps the other stores build and maintain profitable service departments.
She explains her process, which includes things like getting to know the employees on a personal level (almost like…petting the dog, might I say?), checking morale, building numbers, etc. Then, she is able to pinpoint the issues on the drive and then put heads together with the service manager and other members of the leadership team, to come up with a game plan that works.
There were so many dealerships that told Amanda that they were a lost cause and that there was nothing she would be able to do, but Amanda has yet to make that prediction come true.
The moment Amanda heard about the “Service Manager Challenge” contest, she knew she was going to be in the running. I mean, who wouldn’t want my awesome orange Jeep Gladiator that I was giving to the winner? Just visualize yourself behind the wheel of that bad boy, cruisin’ the streets. That’s life, right there. But in all reality, Amanda put herself and her team to the grindstone and they took their already-profitable department and increased those numbers even more, winning her the coveted title of “Top Dog Service Manager Challenge Winner”. Amanda Hayslett and her team at Checkered Flag Honda of Norfolk, VA really proved their worth and inspired absolutely everyone.
By the way Amanda, I really hope you are loving the 2021 Jeep Gladiator that you won from me from the Jeep Giveaway. I hope it serves you well, because you deserve it!
To hear the whole story behind Amanda’s success, listen to the SDR podcast, or click on the YouTube video above. See you all next time, on Service Drive Revolutiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!
Remember, the number is (833) 3-ASK-SDR. Have a great week and we’ll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution!
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