#awinewith Kerri Mungar
MEET Kerri Mungar, Founder of AutoSureWA
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Carrie, welcome to Spark tv. I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Kerri Mungar (00:09):
Thank you so much for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:11):
Lau. Now you are on holidays right now in Singapore. Amazing. Still working and hustling hard, but in a gorgeous location, so I'm going to dive straight into it. Let's start off by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Kerri Mungar (00:27):
Okay, so my name's Kerry Munger. I work in the automotive industry. So I started my business just almost two years ago now. So prior to that I was working, I've been in the car industry for almost 14 years. So I started off as a trainee car sales consultant, and then I sold cars for seven years. After that, I transitioned over into a Newcastle sales manager at a Honda dealership, and then Honda restructured the way that they operate their dealership. So they halved their nationwide car yards. And the dealership that I was at was the one that got cut. So one of my older yards that I used to sell what cars for, asked me to come back into the aftermarket sales side, which is more your protections, warranties, those kinds of things. And initially I didn't really want to go into that. I was more interested in staying as a new car manager, but I just thought I'd give it a try and then I really loved it.
(01:37):
I really did. So the only thing about the car industry though is that the hours, even as a car sales consultant, I was working about 60 hours a week, and then once I got to the Mazda dealership that we were at, we were selling 250 cars a month and Wow. Yeah, it is a really, really high volume dealership and essentially it's like a funnel. So there was about 12 salespeople and every single customer would then have to come and see me. So during the busy periods, it was really hectic managing all my admin side, seeing all the customers, and basically I was staying back to do all the admin after the customers had left. So it got closer to 70 hours a week that I was working, and I just ended up getting quite burnt out, working in such a male dominated industry. I loved it.
(02:31):
It was always high energy, lots of fun, bit of banter, but at the same time, I'm a single mom of two kids and it became quite challenging trying to juggle both sides and I'd becoming home exhausted and not in my feeling my best self, but also I miss out on a lot of things like school carnivals and sports and stuff because we work Saturdays as well. So I got burnt out and I decided to leave the industry for a bit and just kind of reassess what I wanted to do. I found myself in a recruitment role, which I did for six months, and I was pretty good at it, but the income wasn't the same as what I was used to in the car yards, and that was a bit more challenging. So I decided I wanted to get out of that sales industry altogether, and I then decided to do my Pilates instructor certification.
(03:36):
So I was studying for that. And whilst I was doing that, I had found a maternity leave role as a BDM for one of the distributing companies with the automotive industry. So it wasn't car yard hours, it was more so doing training and support for the car yards on the products. So dealing with the aftermarket consultants and sales teams. And whilst I was doing that, it's also my job to look for new accounts. I was going to smaller yards and trying to sign them up for accounts. And basically one of the yards that a friend of mine actually ran, they asked me if I could do some calls for them because their sales team, the sales guys, they were supposed to be doing the warranties and the protections at the type of sale, but they weren't really getting a great result from it. So they asked if I could do it. Basically what I did then is I came in, I did training with the guys on the products. I set up various accounts so they could have a ride of what range of products and kind of built that aftermarket department from the ground up in this small yard. And it was a success. Then that owner of that business was offered a general manager role at another yard, and they brought me in on that one too. And I was doing those two yards remotely.
(04:54):
And then, so as I was finishing up with the BDM role, another one of the clients asked me if I would like to come on board and sell cars for them. And I said, no thank you. And that was, that's exactly why I didn't want to be in the industries. I didn't want to get back into those hours. I really appreciated the offer, but then they really liked me as well, so they wanted to find a way that I could work alongside them. And what they had noticed in their business is that in this dealership, they provide aftermarket products, but all the sales team sold that. And then the finance managers, what's it called? They get lists of all these customers who are coming up to the end of their finance terms or who are looking at payout figures and whatnot. But the physical managers were kind of just ignoring those lists.
(05:50):
So they created this role for me for finance and retention, which I used to do a lot when I was selling in the cars. So with car sales, it's all about those little extra one percenters that you can do and rather than waiting for the next customer coming to you, sometimes not many people would do it, but you'd find a way to get a customer instead of waiting for them to come. So basically what I would do is contact the customers on those lists, see if they'd be interested in potentially looking at changing over their car, buying it outright back to the dealership, and then return an appointment back to the sales team there. So basically it was just me initially doing those three roles and it just started getting traction. And then more people were talking about me and then asking me to do things like in dealer training with their consultants.
(06:51):
And I also doing some relief work. So basically when the aftermarket consultant then goes on annual leave or was unwell, I'd sit in for a week or two at a yard. So eventually my relief work started getting quite intense. I was doing quite a lot of it back to back, and then I felt like I was struggling to maintain all the rest of the things that I had committed to, and I had a lot of guilt when I wasn't being able to provide the service that I wanted to meet my own expectations. So basically I was doing so much work on my admin, bookkeeping, invoicing side of things. I then decided to hire and someone to help me out on the administration side. And I specifically really wanted to choose a team of people who had children who didn't want to have to choose between having an income and raising a family, because obviously the cost of daycare and stuff, sometimes people just can't manage it.
(08:11):
It doesn't make sense. And also having people from the car industry who feel burnt out and with the work life versus family life. So when I was interviewing for my admin role, this wasn't specifically for someone who was in the car industry, but I interviewed two women. One of them had a child already and another one had a couple of kids. The one that I hired actually told me she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time of the interview. And I actually really appreciated her odyssey so much, and I dunno, I got a good goodbye about her. And that was September last year. She gave birth to the baby in Jan, I think it was. And she messaged me six weeks after birth saying, oh, her baby just sleeps going to come back to work. And I was like, are you serious? Are you sure? She goes, yeah, sure, why not? I was like, okay, sure, just do whatever you want. She only worked three days a week, but she managed it really, really well. So I was really appreciative of that. And I think that giving her that opportunity when she was pregnant, when most people wouldn't look at her,
(09:21):
She feels that she was rewarded by that too. So after that, we, so Auto shore WA is my business, sorry. And it's been growing immensely. And when I started picking up more and more relief work because I'm getting positive responses for the jobs that I'd been doing. So I'm getting booked out quite heavily up to six months ahead.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
And
Kerri Mungar (09:50):
Again, when I'm in a really, really busy yard, I wasn't able to do my remote sales calls. I also picked up another yard, another rural yard to do remote sales for which do about 70 to 80 cars a month. Then. So yeah, I got another client on onboard and I was like, oh my goodness, this is just growing bigger and bigger than I could have imagined. And that's purely through word of mouth. I never had a website, never had anything. Then I decided to advertise for a new employee to help me out with the finance retention side. And basically I had some struggles at first I hired a couple of people who didn't really work out, but that's all a learning curve. Absolutely a learning curve to the best of us. Yes, I know. And then I managed to get my current staff member who's on now, she's doing really great, and she used to sell cars and left the industry so she could have a better work-life balance as well. So the job really, really suits her. And whilst I was interviewing for that job, I had another person who I'd worked with in the past in the BDM role. He rang me up. He had left the industry as well because he's helping his wife raise their two children,
Speaker 3 (11:17):
And
Kerri Mungar (11:17):
He says that he's got another full-time job, but it's a bit slower pace like sales. And if I had any overflow that I could potentially give to him, then he'd happily help me out in that regard. And I wasn't even looking for him. And I said, look, sat down, had a coffee. I said, sure, we'll trial it and see how we're going. It's been two months now and he's doing great so we can see the results even growing from there. So now I've got a team of three or four, including myself,
(11:50):
And I never could have imagined this had happened. And I think that the biggest thing was trying to tackle that imposter syndrome because it was kind of something that people had come to me for and I hadn't thought, oh, let's start this business of this, this, and this, and I created it. But yeah, no, it's growing and we've just redone all the logos, rebranding. I now have a website and now that I've got a good solid team, I'm going to start actually actively pursuing more businesses and trying to grow even more. So yeah, that's it. It's a lot going on in there. So we've got lots of services, but
Danielle Lewis (12:27):
That is so incredible and so amazing that you created a business out of, I guess, all of your experiences, but also wanting a better life for yourself and wanting a structure that really worked for you and your family, and also so amazing that that's worked for other your employees. I think sometimes as business owners, we're really kind of freaked out by hiring people because we're like, oh my God, they have to be full time, that it's this big commitment. What if it doesn't work out? And it will always not work out. There'll always be employees that aren't quite right. But there are so many different options now, people that just want to work part-time or casual or around family commitments. So I feel like right now is great for small business owners because you can actually get a lot more flexible staffing options.
Kerri Mungar (13:14):
Definitely. So all my employees work remotely. We do little catchups every quarter, whatever, that's the aim. So we've just done a little end of year Christmas brunch together.
(13:28):
I do want to keep that team vibe going. So we do meet face-to-face, but at the same time, the way that the structure works for the two that aren't the admin is it is results based. So what they put in is what they're going to get out of it at the same time. And if they're going to put the effort in, then they're going to be able to get a good work-life balance and a good income as well. But obviously I don't want to be that person micromanaging someone either. I'm too busy juggling everything else in my life, but I'll be able to see if the right person or the wrong person is in that role based on the results. So realistically, when I put the ad up for the CRM finance attention specialist, I got 1200 applications because what? Yeah. Oh my God, I just think because it was work from home,
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So
Kerri Mungar (14:25):
Many people want a role like that. Most of them weren't obviously qualified, had no sales experience or anything like that. And I had to just really kind of just fine tune and filter through all of it because it was just such a demand for a role like that.
(14:46):
Yeah, it's crazy how many people have, and I think that covid has changed a lot of people's mindset on work life balance and having to go into work every single day. And I want people to be able to enjoy the thought of working. I'm here on holiday in Singapore, but I really enjoying working here with such a beautiful background. Go sit on the Sun lounge and put my AirPods in and smash out some work. I think it's great. And then the kids are off doing their own thing. And with my admin girl, she, I'll call her throughout the day and I can hear the babies screaming in the background. I'm like, oh, how they going? She's like, yeah, that's fine. He's kicking off because he's lost his toy or something like that. But she's there. She gets to be present, which is great. And I've told all of my employees, look, I'm not that type of person who is really rigid.
(15:45):
So let's just say if you work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and you've got doctor's appointments for the kids, just let me know in advance. We can change it to Friday or Tuesday, it doesn't matter. I'm flexible. And that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest thing I've found, that if they're not scared to come to me and say, Hey, is it okay for X, Y, Z, then that's realistically that trust and that mutual respect is the biggest thing because I used to be so scared of even asking to go, oh, can I pop out for a few hours to go see a carnival? I've been made feel, I've snaring comments in the past from people who don't understand what it's like to juggle, say, I'm never going to do that to my staff.
Danielle Lewis (16:30):
I think that's so amazing. And I love what you said earlier about they are results driven roles as well. So the harder someone works or the more or whatever, that's the outcome they can expect. And I think that that's such a great way to look at a role as somebody hiring if you kind of have that, okay, the thing that matters is that we get this outcome for our business. Anything else kind of doesn't matter. So yeah, if you need to be flexible, if you need to look after your family, if you need to work different days, whatever it is, if you can give that level of flexibility to your employees, I think they do work harder for you.
Kerri Mungar (17:03):
Definitely. I agree. Yeah. So I can see sometimes they're popping on at eight o'clock at night because I've had to juggle stuff during the day, and I'll tell 'em off my admin girl, I'm like, what do you do? She'll send me an email or something when out of hours because she's more structured with her day.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Although
Kerri Mungar (17:21):
I just forwarded this on because I was on my laptop watching Love Island, and I saw it came through and I'm just like, oh, get off it. But thank you. Yeah, exactly.
Danielle Lewis (17:30):
And it's so nice. I feel like you've obviously created this environment where people love to be there and they feel safe, which means they do go above and beyond. I just think that's incredible. Did you figure anything out when you were hiring those people? So when you said a couple of people didn't out, but now you found amazing people, was there anything as part of that hiring process that helped you find the right people?
Kerri Mungar (17:57):
When I was looking the last time for the job that I currently filled, my biggest prerequisite for the person I was looking at is someone who needs this for their life, not just who wants it, someone who needs this. So basically I'd spoken to a couple of people on the phone and some I'd ask 'em questions, are you specifically looking for a role that's flexible at home? Blah, blah, blah. Are you specifically looking for something with part-time hours? And I remember speaking to one person, they're like, look, I'm happy to go in the office or stay at home, or I'm happy to do full-time or part-time. And I was like, oh, look, probably not going to be for you. Then I was like, if you feel like I want this to really compliment someone's life, and again, like I said, the biggest thing that I wanted someone to feel is to empower them not to have to choose between the balance of having your home life and having your work life. And I think especially with women and children and stuff, and how hard it can be, I believe that having an income and having that independence can also help you. Let's just say a situation does go bad at home that you're not necessarily always stuck. So I want to be able to give that kind of back as well.
Danielle Lewis (19:27):
Yeah, no, that's incredible. And it's such an interesting way to think about the right candidate for the role as well. I love how you're talking about you wanted them to feel this specific way, and I just think it sounds like that is translated into the culture of the business as well. You mentioned that you bring everyone together once a quarter so they can meet face-to-face. Is there anything that you do each week or on an ongoing basis to keep that culture happening?
Kerri Mungar (19:55):
We've got teams that, we've got groups and stuff like that, and everyone's always emailing back and forth and CC'd in to specific things. We've got a good personality, quite chatty. We can all laugh and sometimes we send each other memes and reels and whatnot. Keep it fun. Yep. Yeah. Now, because my administration girl, she's been with me for over a year, so we did a mid-year catchup brunch, then we did, I actually purchased her ticket for Melbourne Cup for my birthday celebrations as well. Oh
Danielle Lewis (20:38):
My
Kerri Mungar (20:38):
God, that's so cool. I want to work for you now. I've just handwritten and sent them all Christmas cards, a little gift vouchers in 'em as well for end of year. So
(20:50):
Yeah, I do try to really give back and show my appreciation because at the end of the day, without them, I would not be where I am. And I think that people, when I first got into management in the car yard, because I'd only learned from a lot of men, I feel like I'd stepped into the role with this superiority complex. I've earned the right to be here and you need to listen to me in X, Y, Z. And that's how a lot of men do lead a lot more in fear and in dominance, which I then found that it didn't work for me. And having empathy as a woman can take you so much further as a leader and being understanding and not being so quick to criticize someone if they aren't doing well or if they make a mistake. Everyone's entitled to make mistakes.
(21:49):
It's how you go about them afterwards. I'd rather someone in my team make a mistake and then say, Hey, Kerry, I've messed up. How can we get through this rather than try to hide it from me? Or I think that at the same time, if someone is struggling and they're not getting results based, rather than saying, you are doing terrible X, Y, Z, it's like, Hey, what have you been doing? What have you been saying? Let's sit down. Listen, let's brainstorm. Should we trial this and see how this works and working with them? Because I've also noticed I did hire two people who didn't work out unfortunately. And investing in someone you've already got is a lot better and a lot than getting rid of them early on and trying to find someone else.
Danielle Lewis (22:36):
And
Kerri Mungar (22:37):
The stress of trying to look for the right staff members is tricky. It does create a bit of stress and filtering through the applications, filtering through, and then meanwhile, you're doing the work that's not being done. And I was working until 10, 11 o'clock at night after doing work gigs. It was going back to worse than car yard hours. But that's what happens when you have a business, and a lot of people are saying to me, why are you working when you're on holiday? I was like, well, the work doesn't stop just because I go away.
(23:12):
It would be nice. It would be nice. But you know what? I actually really love what I do. I really love it, and it makes me happy being able to work and because this does give me the flexibility to take my kids away and we can then have a beautiful holiday together because of this, I'm more willing to, I'm at breakfast and they go, oh, they're at the buffet and I'm just on my laptop replying to emails in the morning, and then we'll go to the gym together and then they'll go to the pool and I'll smash out some work, and then in the afternoons we can go exploring and whatnot. So I don't think that they're going to be upset with mom having to work for a few hours and being on an island in Singapore.
Danielle Lewis (23:57):
Oh my God, no, and it's just so cool. I love how you said that the business is what has created this ability for you to do things like that. You're right. I don't think everybody understands why. We always choose to just squeeze in work here and there, but it's like if we can keep things going and growing and the business functioning and alive and still get to do all of the amazing stuff, it is just so cool. I think about, I was talking to my husband this morning and he's got a few trips coming up next year, and I was like, this is so good. I just get to grab my laptop and I can go follow him around and he's going to this great place. I'm like, cool, I guess can work from anywhere. And it's like you get almost bonus holidays because you can squeeze in work in a few hours and then get to enjoy wherever it is that you've gone. I think businesses are super stressful sometimes, and there's definitely challenges, but the flexibility and the experiences that they can bring, and like you said, support our family lives is just so amazing.
Kerri Mungar (25:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that I hold myself to a really high standard as well, and so I want to show that the people, the clients who even trusted me, that I can provide 'em with a result, and I don't want it to look like that I'm just taking the midyear or anything like that. I want to make, I feel like I actually get really stressed when I don't feel like I'm giving them what they deserve and what I know that I'm capable of giving them. And that's why when initially I wanted to do everything myself, but the workload was so much that I felt like I was drowning, and then you've really got to be like, okay, look, the clients are suffering now because, and having to get to the point where you're like, okay, I need to hire someone else. When you're at that point, that's probably one of a big struggle that people don't really go to that soon enough. Even myself, I was trying to manage, and I was having little breakdowns earlier in the year because I was like, oh, they're going to get rid of me, blah, blah, blah. That's kind of the thing that stressed me out, but now that I've got the team, we're working together, it's honestly so much more amazing. So I am really grateful so that this has evolved so well.
Danielle Lewis (26:22):
Yeah, absolutely. I love it. You are incredible. Now, I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman in business to support her on her journey?
Kerri Mungar (26:41):
I think that there's a lot of noise out there in the world, and it's really easy to doubt yourself and to take other people's experiences and the way that they perceive things on yourself. And I think the biggest thing is when you've got a vision just to block all that out and do whatever you need to do. At the end of the day, you may lose friends, you may, some people may not want to deal with you, but as long as you're true to your own vision, then that's irrelevant because they're not people that you want to associate with anyway. So if you don't want to go out and go partying and you want to go home, or if you, someone's telling you you should do something a certain way and you don't believe that's right for you and your vision, just try to block it out because this is like my other child now. This is my baby, and I have grown it to the way that I feel is needed. And obviously you're going to hit those bumps in the road, but as long as you stay true to yourself and your vision, then you will definitely succeed.
Danielle Lewis (27:49):
Oh my God, I love it so much. Carrie, thank you so much for spending your time with the Spark community today and sharing your story. There's so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiration in there, so I'm really grateful for your time.
Kerri Mungar (28:01):
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a blast.
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