I feel like going down memory lane. Let’s go for a trip, guys, back to when I entered the automotive industry. Back in my early Seattle days, I was talented drummer determined to make it big. Picture this: a skinny, clean shaven (there was a time), long thick luxurious haired kid with 90’s grunge vibe. That was me. My band was just lucky to have a room to practice room. In typical 90s grunge style, the band room was typically destroyed. It had an odor more of a locker room than a band room. Sadly, our lead singer, Jimmy, ran at least an hour late everywhere. Even to band practice. On a typical day, my band mates and I would be waiting in our smelly band room for an hour. Finally, Jimmy would stroll in an hour late with a twelve pack of Milwaukee’s Best, 3 down.
TROUBLING BAND DYNAMICS
As you can imagine, this conflict of purpose kept causing issues within the band dynamics. As I mentioned, I had a vision to make it big. Jimmy saw the band more as a way to have carefree fun. I already had a grasp on the music business. Like any other business, results aren’t produced by wishful thinking. I wanted to establish a productive practice schedule to help us to continually improve. Contradictorily, Jimmy wanted to skip the hard work, throw ragers and pretend we’d made it already. Believe it or not, this is not when I had the epiphany to enter the automotive industry.
THE BIG BREAK
Suddenly, it seemed like we were getting a break. Mark Nafisey (a big name in Seattle music) saw a performance and invited us to rehearse at the N.A.F. Studios in downtown Seattle. Things were looking up. We began mingling Seattle’s finest: Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone, Grunt Truck, My Sisters Machine, to name a few- including that little band known as Nirvana. Our manager predicted this was the place to be to seen and she couldn’t have been more right. The idea was that mingling would provide us with a path to perform as undercards for the previously mentioned bands. Thus, establishing strong professional ties. A couple of weeks into rehearsing at N.A.F. Studios, Lane Stanely (of Alice in Chains) stopped by to check us out. Wouldn’t you know it, he dug us and invited us to be a part of his upcoming plans. He gave our lead singer, Jimmy, his number and told us to let him know if we needed any help with preparation. It was all very intense. I was 19 at the time.
Now it was time to join to big leagues, the realm of the professional musicians. N.A.F. Studios was going to run us 5 times the usual cost of rent, plus additional overhead. Not to mention, that problem I mentioned with Jimmy needed to be resolved immediately. As aspiring professional musicians, we literally couldn’t afford to rent space only to have our lead singer show up an hour into rehearsal. No more faking practice and raging. There’s no other way to put it- we were desperate for money.
ENTER THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
On that note, Jimmy had a connection at a local Volkswagen/Audi/Subaru dealership and we could possibly get jobs as lot attendants for extra cash. This would begin my adventure into the automotive industry. An industry that I now owe my life to. Reflecting on my entrance into the industry makes me very nostalgic. This industry will provide for you ten fold if you put in the effort. And boy, did I. Don’t want the story to end? Check out Millionaire Service Advisor for all the gory details and strategies to revolutionize your practices.
