Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to LAURALEE SCHMIDT. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

LAURALEE, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

I’ve been lucky in life to have extraordinary bosses. Even those that I butted heads with, still armed me with excellent tools for where I am now. However, when I worked inside Cosmetics Education & Sales I had a large territory I was accountable for. And to cover a large territory you must strategize. You simply can’t be everywhere at once, and there are chunks of territories that thrive, and chunks that tank the rest of the business. The trick is to find where to put your time and energy to make the pay off matter. Being able to drill into reports such as sales, stock levels, and event reporting is key to success, and one amazing woman taught me that. She took my emotional business decision making to factual business decision making and that was a game changer for how I approached any and all business going forward.

LAURALEE, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a Beauty Guru turned Automotive Business Specialist. For 20 plus years I worked inside the beauty industry as a pro artist. working inside of sales and event education. I was blessed to have a career in cosmetics that most dream of. From working backstage at fashion week, to working on movie sets, to teaching some of the most talented in North America tips and tricks on selling makeup, I covered it all. The energy and passion I gave to the industry opened so many amazing doors for me, but in 2015 I found out our family would be expanding, and I had to make tough decisions on my career. I didn’t want to be an absentee mom, and that is exactly what I would have been if I continued on my path. I wanted to be a hands on mom, so I made the decision to leave my career I loved so dearly, for a baby girl that I loved immensely more. I am blessed that I still get to freelance and use my creative talents for brides and corporates events. But gone are the days of long hours on set for little pay, dragging a kit all over NYC. Now, life looks like a little different, a little less glamorous, but a lot more meaningful.

In 2016, I was asked to join into my husbands auto shop and bring some of my corporate branding and knowledge into his small business to help it scale. And scale we did! What I found out during this time was that I wasn’t just an artist, I was a business woman who knew how to move in many industries thanks to all my past working experiences. I helped take a business that was stuck around the 600K mark to a 800K business in 2 years, and a Million dollars in 3 more years. Inside Automotives I get to help make a difference. I get to change the way the industry is viewed, and I get to make it a better place for the consumer, and I get to make the woman who is worried about where to take her car a lot more comfortable. No one loves going to get their car fixed, but my plan is that when they walk thru our doors, our excellence, integrity, & superior service shines through. My goal is to create an automotive experience, not just some transactional moment in time.

In 2020 the world turned upside down and the pandemic about wiped all business in my area out. As an essential business, we muscled thru, but the vision for the business was off. We were in survival mode, not scaling mode. We were worried every single day. And then we stopped worrying, started seeing what we could control, and innovated. We went to a 4 day work week, we started putting limits on the work we brought in, we started hosting community classes, and we started to see our community rally around us stronger than before. We were going to make it! And make it we did.
That innovation turned our business around and gave it energy to keep going.

I felt the business was stable enough to start walking away, and I began a group called WIP (Women in Power) that hosted educational and conversational courses for women business leaders. This group still is functioning 3 years later and we are growing each month. This group empowers women in their leadership position, and we go thru the tough stuff from life balance to difficult employees. This brought a whole new chapter to my life, and allowed my passion for women in business to flourish.

2023 was a year of change for me. I had to have a significant spine surgery which took me out of the shop for 3 months. I knew I couldn’t just sit in my house and heal. I had to use my brain, my hands. my creative talents. One thing I feel incredibly passionate about, outside of creating extraordinary service for our auto clients, is healing people thru food. And while I can’t cook very well, I can grow things. I already had a grow room going in my basement to feed my family fresh veggies all year long, but I expanded that idea. I wanted to grow veggies for lots of people. I wanted pesticide, non-gmo seeds to be planted in our area to help small space growers have strong plants. So, The Greenhouse Girls Project was born, and in the Spring of 2023 me and my partner, Kystal Jutte, set up shop and sold plants to anyone and everyone who wanted them. The feedback from this business has been overwhelming, and I cant see how it evolves year after year.

There is a lot of discipline that goes into holding several talents and profiting off of them. You have to be willing to give a lot of free personal time up, but also be willing to know when to set up a hard stop. There are days I do work late into the evening, but I always make sure my daughter has dinner with me and her evening is spent with me being present for her. I put her to bed and then often get back to work. But I don’t take for granted those moments I have with her. That’s the most profitable time spent as I’m investing in her and her mental and emotional stability. There is no money a business that can bring in that supersedes that. But I am not foolish enough to know I can’t stop the grind. So when I can work, I do. It doesn’t have to be in a traditional office, or set inside a constrictive timeline. It just has to be time that you can think clearly and be productive inside that time block.

Hard work and persistence always pays off. And if you’re lucky enough to get to do what you love, that’s even better.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Branding is my baby, and something I love to do. I learned this skill deeply inside the Estee Lauder umbrella, but put it to life at Schmidt Auto Care. When I stepped in at 2016, I saw the shop had no real brand presence. There was a name, a logo and a sad little Facebook page and website, but nothing that said, “I’m a leading Auto Shop.”

I knew we needed to retain who we did have on the guest list, and expand who we spoke to.
I immediately reached out to a web designer that was also developing apps for auto shops. I started building the brand inside the app and webpage. The look, the verbiage used, the imagery….I wanted it all to exude excellence. We are a Veteran ran facility, so the color Patriotic Blue was important to us to showcase. As soon as we got the app built, the new webpage and a cleaner shop appearance I pitched the shop to the community in every way I could.

We were sponsoring school teams, community activities, and hosting classes that no one else was doing. We knew there would be dedication inside the app, and we were right. Our App users see us 1.2x more a year than a non app user. We send updated to them digitally and we have VIP perks to engage them. Having the App and being a part of the local community, and doing what we say we will do, is the best way to foster authentic engagement and loyalty.

Any advice for managing a team?

Business is hard. Not every day is a slam dunk win. In fact, there will be more hard days than good along the path of business building. But you have to stay positive and forward moving. If you have a team in place, the leader doesn’t get to have bad days. You have to keep your personal life in check, and stay focused on business. Leading by example is key to success, so that leadership needs to look positive. If you remember why you started your business in the first place, it makes the clarity and the vision easier to work towards on the hard days.

My old boss would say, “never let them see you sweat.” But I don’t believe that. I think you need to sweat right alongside them in some manner. If they only see the glory, they can’t appreciate the struggle.
Team build. Give them insight into the business, and let them be a part of some decisions and directions. When you have team buy in, you get loyalty. And when you are loyal team members who are aware how business is moving, and are embedded in it, those people will stick it out with you. And a loyal team thats engaged, is a happy team generally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.schmidtautocare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schmidt.auto.care/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SCHMIDTAUTOCARE
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@schmidtautocare