Fearless on the Lot: April Ancira’s Playbook for Growth, Grit and Giving Back

In this episode of Word on the Street, we sit down with April Ancira—VP of Ancira Auto Group, community leader, and fearless trailblazer in the automotive world. April shares her unfiltered perspective on what it takes to thrive in a competitive industry, from cultivating grit on the lot to leading with authenticity and heart.

She opens up about her playbook for growth, the lessons she’s learned balancing business and family, and why giving back to her community is at the center of everything she does. Whether you’re an automotive professional or simply looking for inspiration to push past challenges, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

⏱ Episode Timestamps:

• [00:01:00] The Ancira family legacy: from Ernesto Ancira’s American Dream to San Antonio’s top Chevy store
• [00:05:00] Breaking barriers: resilience, representation, and lessons April carried into the business as a woman in automotive
• [00:07:00] Collaboration over competition: how San Antonio dealers lift each other up
• [00:10:00] Philanthropy & branding: giving back without “beating your chest”
• [00:15:00] The challenge of reaching younger buyers and NIL partnerships with athletes
• [00:19:00] Rolling the dice: from Cam Ward’s NIL deal to dealership growth strategy
• [00:23:00] Expanding smart: rural vs. metro stores and keeping ads local and authentic
• [00:30:00] The Stellantis challenge, EVs, and why product refreshes matter
• [00:31:00] Finding outlets beyond the lot: April’s stand-up comedy and Ironman training
• [00:39:00] Lessons in grit: turning online criticism into confidence (and campaigning for “Biggest Douchebag”)
• [00:43:00] April’s path into automotive: from Chili’s to selling 4 cars in 2 days
• [00:47:00] Why waiting tables is the best training for leadership
• [00:50:00] Rapid-fire Q&A: first car, dream ride, favorite features, and family advice

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Transcript

Andrew: [00:00:00] If I was running a dealership group and continually adding new stores and diverse markets, I hope I would have this next guest's personality and mindset. Listen to this conversation with my friend April and Sarah.

Yeah, so this isn't anything that you haven't ar this is just your experiences. Yeah. And has nothing to do with needing to prepare, which is cool. 

April: I don't think so. 

Andrew: It's like when I've done conferences and stuff, I'll bring like some dealers up with me because they have like the actual credibility from.

The dealer side of the desk. Yeah. Dealing with the issues and I'm like, you don't have to prepare anything 'cause you've been preparing for 22 years. It's your whole life. Yes. Yeah. Yes. This is just you sharing with other dealers and people in the automotive arena, what your experience has been [00:01:00] like and how you guys have unlocked, uh, vehicle acquisition off the street.

So, well, 'cause it sounds like you guys are doing great. Yeah. Um, but I, I did a little bit of research Okay. On the way down here and it sounds like. Uh, your dad started this. 1973. 

April: 2 

Andrew: 0 19 72 

April: AI probably got it wrong. Who knows? 

Andrew: I put 72, I just didn't wanna look at my notes. And it is with one Chevy store, is that right?

That's 

April: right. And 

Andrew: he's the first Hispanic person to own a Chevy store in the us 

April: Yes, that is correct. So it's pretty exciting. 

Andrew: It's cool. Yeah. And so it sounds like he's resilient, fearless. 

April: All of the above. Um, definite entrepreneur. Uh. Since day one. Um, he went to St. Edwards in Austin. Um, so close to you.

Yeah, 

Andrew: that's where I went. 

April: You went there? Yeah. Oh my God. You're alumni buddies. 

Andrew: Totally. 

April: Um, he did it in three years with three jobs. Uh, one of the jobs was a custodian. The other job was actually manning a lunch line. [00:02:00] Uh, and the third job, I don't know if it. Counts or not as a job, but he would sing at piano bars, so that might be his third job.

So that's kind of what he did and was out at 19. Um, I think his SAT was something like 15 80, 15 90, back on the 1600 scale I think we went back to now. Okay. So he's kind, he's smart, been with it his whole life. Um, then got a job with, uh. I believe it was Gillette, followed by Kimberly Clark. Um, and then they wanted to send him to Sao Paolo a to manage the South America marketing for Kimberly Clark.

And he was not excited about heading that way. He had a, you know, a kid here went on the way. Um, and really stopping through San Antonio. He found out that there was a store for sale. Uh, and in short, I mean, the story's really great, but I, there's only so much time in a podcast. But in short, he did the American Dream, you know, sell everything, um, working [00:03:00] your.

Self to the ground, living in inefficiency and pounding on the door of GM every day. Uh, he was the only one who got a buy sell agreement with the trust that was running it at the time. He convinced the guy who was CFO who wanted to retire, not to retire and be his minority partner. So he had experience in the business.

Um, and so he kind of got everything lined up at the exact same time and got a loan that was just enough to carry him through, um, you know, a few opening days to count the inventory and pay it off. Within one month, he went from fifth in San Antonio, uh, I believe fourth or fifth Chevy store in San Antonio to the first top Chevy store in San Antonio.

So it was crazy. It's one of those fantastic, fantastic service. Yeah. And it sounds 

Andrew: like he didn't know what he doesn't know. It's like, okay. 

April: Yeah. Actually, I'm gonna get started. Here's an interesting thing that he said, um, since he grew up in Mexico City, uh. People asked him, Hey, you're back then they said Mexican, not Hispanic.

He said, so Hispanic had not been coined, it was [00:04:00] Mexican, you know? How did you do this as a Mexican, with all the barriers to entry for, for you? I mean, uh. Generally, there's a lot of barriers to entry anyways, to own your own business, something of that size, but to also put Mexican on top of it. How did you do it?

Or Ernesto, how did you make it? And um, his short answer was like, I didn't know I was Mexican. And I mean, which is kind of funny. Back then, I think San Antonio was either. I think it was roughly 30% Mexican, if you will, and not the 60% that it's, it's at today. Yeah, so it was quite a feat. At that time, San Antonio was actually lobbying for someone Hispanic to take over that store.

Um, and so they, he had a lot of the population behind him as well, and many of the business leaders. Um, but what he meant by, I, I didn't know I was Mexican, was he grew up in Mexico, so he was, he did not see those barriers every day that if you grew up here, you might notice, [00:05:00] might be keen to, you might be like, wait a second.

This person that's, um, that's, he's treating me poorly because of my race or where I'm from. Um, if you grow up in Mexico, that's not happening to you if you're Mexican. Uh, and so the regular barriers that he had there, he, he came at them here just the same. He may have, they may have been. Uh, barriers that were maybe racist in manner, there could have been, but he didn't recognize them that, and just saw them as a barrier.

And do I go over or around or through. Right. Um, and so I kind of used that for myself when I came in as a female in a mostly female dominated, I mean male, excuse me, male dominated arena. So I'm like, well, I didn't know I was female. Well, I know I'm female, but you know. 

Andrew: Yeah. Same 

April: idea. 

Andrew: And so there was no, like Minority Dealers Association or OEM Springboard to help 

April: really get started.

No. At, not at that time. Not spring, roll up your sleeves. [00:06:00] Yeah, it was just roll up your sleeves and get it done. Um. Uh, you know, back then there wasn't those, those types of initiatives for you. And here's the really cool thing is that his competitors were the first ones to come running to help. You know, the cavenders, the Cale, um, pop gun people that are, are.

Still exists now. Their family still exists in the business now. And those were the first guys to say, Hey, what do you need? How can we help you? So, and, and now in that relationship, I'm great friends with Rick Cavender right now. Um, so 

Andrew: it sounds like it. Your dad was able to like line up, shoulder to shoulder with them pretty quickly and they were eager to help.

April: They were eager to help. Um, not to 

Andrew: squash. 

April: It was Right. You know, it's interesting, the, the squashing was on the, on the showroom floor. Right. That's where the, you left the squashing to. All right. I'm gonna outsell you, but when it came to helping one another, wrapping your arms around each other when we all did better our.

Our team [00:07:00] did better. Our employees did better, the city did better. We're all doing better together. So, you know, and it seems 

Andrew: like you guys still have that same attitude 

April: We do versus cut 

Andrew: and throats. It's, Hey, we've got a deal that. You guys can help fulfill, right? 

April: For, um, for the most part. Now there's exceptions to every rule, right?

So we have, we have the exceptions here, but I, I believe it's the 80 20 rule here. Uh, 80% of us can just chat like, Hey, we're, we're all getting together in September or October to do something called dealers aligned. Every $10 from an alignment goes to a charity that we all agreed to support. And so. We've raised anywhere between 60 to over a hundred thousand dollars for charities.

'cause we're all collectively agreeing to do one nonprofit together. Dealers aligned. And so that one's really fun to do. But other times, um, you know, if someone has a problem with something at a cavender store, something at a gun store, somebody's store, I [00:08:00] reach, uh, I reach out to them and I say, Hey, I found a customer who maybe needs your help.

Could you please help them? And. The majority of the time, they absolutely do. And the customer is incredibly grateful and happy because, uh, I don't want people to think that, you know, we're, we're out there to take advantage of them. The old reputation that we had is not good. So as long as we are all treating our customers well, um, then it's not so scary to come in and buy a vehicle.

So it's better for all of us 

Andrew: and it seems like a, a. Delicate line to, to walk down of like, 'cause like so many stores that I work with and a lot of people that I like, I didn't grow up in the car business, I grew up in like marketing is what I've always done. Yeah. And working at, at the, on the platform side with like billboards and radio and Facebook.

And now it's like I'm running a marketing thing and a lot of people are like, why are you doing dealerships? I'm like. In my, it's the purest form of capitalism, but at the same time, it's like, this is who employs the community. This is who sponsors the [00:09:00] T-ball teams. This is who gives so much to charity.

This is who builds people's careers. Yeah. And th there's not, this is not what Tesla's doing. They're just here, and it's just some agnostic, stale brand where we've got the vibrancy of amazing manufacturers within our community. That's staffing the community and servicing the vehicles and all the things, but it's just like all the philanthropic stuff that somewhat slides under the radar and it's, you know, my first reaction is like, okay, let's advertise that.

And it's clear that dealers like that's not. Our ad. 

April: Right. 

Andrew: That's not our ads. Like, that's just what we do as part of our community. Yeah. 

April: A ps it sounds like you talk to our lobbying team because those are a lot of my talking points when I go to Austin. What's that? The fact, the, the amount, amount of amount of people that we, or TAD or TADI.

Yeah. Here. T-A-D-A-N-A-D-A to place how many people we employ in the state of Texas. How many board seats that we. We take that you can actually contact me [00:10:00] on Facebook if something goes wrong, but if you were to contact somebody at Tesla, you're not getting Elon Musk to handle your problems. Right. Um, it's our business, so it's important to me to make sure somebody's taken care of and I'm incredibly accessible, uh, on social media.

So those, uh, a lot of the, what you're saying are in fact our talking points when we're talking about protecting our franchise laws and why it benefits, uh, the customer. Um, but yeah, we don't, I don't know. It's, uh, advertising the philanthropic part is, is an interesting component. How do you advertise it without looking like you're beating your chest and standing out there?

Um, right. 

Andrew: Look what I donated to, 

April: right, right. 

Andrew: Yeah. And it's like. Anyway, so I try to use my mouthpiece as small as it is to like let people know what, what customers that I'm working with are doing. Mm-hmm. And how much they were able to raise and where that went and how they matched it, and that that's why this thing exists, this park, this, whatever it [00:11:00] is.

April: Yeah. So, well I, here's what the thing I like about the advertising, if you can do it appropriately for. Philanthropic stuff is, um, you know, if you combine it into a sponsorship and then maybe you help the philanthropic folks, the nonprofit side, push those sponsorships, um, then people, you become, it becomes branding.

It really does, right? People see your brand everywhere, involved everywhere. And so, at least in that respect, they at least give you first dibs. Right. Yeah. When they look you up, it may or may not sell you the car. Um, I'm still pretty confident that, uh, you know, if we lower our price a hundred dollars under the competition, all of a sudden our emails are blowing up and.

Customers are coming in and if I put my stuff a hundred dollars above the competition, it becomes quite silent. Mm-hmm. On the showroom floor. So I, I do believe pricing is still incredibly important, especially [00:12:00] when inter interest rates are higher. Um, but what you get from being involved in the community is you get a lot of, uh, top of mind awareness to let's at least check.

Um, and then at least when they check May, that's when you have the ability, okay, let's see if I can't further this relationship. 

Andrew: Yeah, and that's another tricky one is like branding is the least sexy thing for a lot of dealers. 'cause it's like, okay, it is the beginning of the month. We're getting our incentives right now.

Yeah. I don't care. Like we need Lee like, but you know, we need to start getting people in the front door. It's kind of sleepy on this Tuesday. Yeah. Versus, Hey, here's a long term plan, right? Here's some alignments that we're gonna do and here's how we can leverage these and, and it's sponsoring the T-Ball team.

It's all these other like intrinsic things in the community that don't hit Google Analytics, right? Or are. CRM or our DMS, you have no idea, idea what it's 

April: doing for you out there other than your vibe or what you feel. So I have a lot of people, my general managers, let me say this. [00:13:00] My general managers are the guys you are talking about.

They are the ones who are like, let's get the incentives in there, put it on the tv, roll it now. Now, now. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, we've got this much off of a truck, so they're that guy. They don't wanna spend much money on branding, um, because they're the day-to-day in, they're individual stores. So I'm the one who kind of like scoops a little from everybody's pot and I'm like, this is mine and I will be using it for branding.

Thank you so much. Right. And a lot of that branding is done. Through philanthropy. Cool. To be honest, the majority of it is through philanthropy, um, and is not centered on tv. Uh, the last time we did branding on tv, I think it was really just to promote the website in general and all the brands that we collectively carry.

Um, but I do, I do take some of it, but right now what? The vibe that they are feeling for a while is like, quit taking my, my pot of money. So, uh, now they're, they have people constantly coming in. I'm in here because of [00:14:00] what Ancira does for UTSA. I am a fan. I'm in here because they see Ancira all over the community.

I'm in here. And so now actually I've got them all being believers. Not only that, I think they're now taking their own stores pots of money, um, and they're sending me pictures of CHE presentations at different places. Um, mostly, uh, educational. So a lot of PTO for elementary schools, middle schools, some bands for some high schools and local areas.

Um, and so it's kind of neat to be able to see them. It's feeling the vibe off of what I've been doing this whole time, uh, of people walking in and at least giving us a, a first shot. And then it's their job to convert that customer into a happy owner of a new vehicle. Um, that they're now starting to do it on their own and pretty excited about it.

Andrew: Yeah, and that's like. It helps with like how sort of murky it is trying to attribute a sale back to where they started. And then the last thing they did is they saw the sign spinner outside and then they came in and it's a sign spinners [00:15:00] deal. Yeah. Versus like, we have all this organic traffic that's just walking into our store or calling or going through our credit appraisals on the, or our credit apps on our website.

Where do they start? A lot of 'em just start because we're doing a good job of our branding, we're doing our right. Presence online where they search for us, they found us. They're familiar with us. There's a level of comfort. 

April: There is, there is. The one I'm struggling with the most though, is the younger that.

The customer is the more difficult it is to reach them. 

Andrew: I don't sell the young 

April: customer. Stay outta that one. Yeah, stay outta that one. Um, some, yeah. The younger they are, the harder it is, um, to find them to get a piece of their time, uh, anywhere. Um, even on TikTok, it really is, but uh, you know, 

Andrew: right. Yeah.

Are they and are they buying cars? Are they eager to buy cards? Uh, not 

April: as much. So if you only have X amount to spend, you're right. That's probably not where the best place to direct it is. But [00:16:00] um, you know, but interestingly enough, the after the advent of NIL, uh, name image likeness for athletes, 

Andrew: yeah. 

April: The first thing they all did when they started getting checks was they all wanted a brand new vehicle.

Um, so that was 

Andrew: funny thing is what you have 

April: coincidentally. Yeah. I, uh, got into that interesting area. The, we have, um, some EVPs and other VPs that were like, no, don't get in there. There's too much liability. And I was like, I'm gonna do it on my own. So I used my own, my own bank account and started stroking checks to athletes.

Not a whole bunch. I just wanted to support them beginning off their school year. And sure enough, they started coming in, um, wanting to purchase vehicles from us. 'cause 

Andrew: you have UTSA. Athletics, like some football players. Yeah. Yeah. So 

April: prior I just would have a few, I had a couple of Trinity players. I had get this, uh, I had a couple UTSA players, but [00:17:00] here's one that's interesting.

I had a gentleman reach out to us, um, uh, and he was like, Hey, my kid's at Incarnate Word. He is like, he's just getting started. Ironically, this gentleman the only. School to offer him a football scholarship was Incarnate word at this time. Um, and so he was going there and had a, a heck of a first year and I said, listen, I don't have a whole bunch of money right now.

I'm I, I. Gave him a, a small number, but I gave everyone the exact same number. Nobody was unique on year one. Everybody got the exact same number. It was a year long contract. You need to post anything anterior related for once a month. For a year. You could, you could retweet what I tweeted if you were that lazy or uncreative, like what a cool deal for a kid.

That's it. That's it. Yeah. Actually, I'll tell you what it was. Can I 

Andrew: get a minivan? 

April: Yeah. Well, no, no, no. It was just a, a cash amount. Uh, I decided, I'm not gonna tell you how much it was 

Andrew: cool. 

April: Um, it was a low cash [00:18:00] amount, but I gave them upfront for the whole year because in case they needed to buy a computer, shoes, whatever it was, I wanted them to have access to the money.

Which is, makes it kind of difficult to hold them. Cattle bull. A little risky ski. Yeah. During the year, but that's okay. So, uh, this gentleman goes to Incarnate Ward another year, then he goes to, uh, Washington and I do it again in WA while he is in Washington. Hoping he'll bring me some fleet deals. Who knows?

Then. I decide, okay, this might not be working out. Um, and he goes to Miami. Um, he's over there in Miami making some big bucks Right now, he really doesn't need me at all, but I believe I was his first NIL deal. Um, that guy was drafted number one this year. His name's Cam Ward. Oh, really? Can you believe that?

Isn't that nuts? What a 

Andrew: cool roll of the dice. That paid off with a fun story too. I 

April: know. Can I could, I mean, wild, wild. He came into the store a couple of times, we took some photos. I have Cam Ward swag. [00:19:00] Um, you know, he sent some stuff for my kids. You might have mentioned. Is 

Andrew: he from San Antonio? 

April: No, I think he's outside the Houston area.

Okay. But because he went to Incarnate Word, uh, for a couple of years and then I stayed with him even though he went to Washington. I mean, hey. I was like, what? What a wild roll of the dice, like you said, who knew? Just 'cause I wanted to help out, you know, whatever. Do you feel like you have this like 

Andrew: sense of like, fearlessness, not even like rolling the dice and being like, yeah, let's try it.

Let's try this. This is always a calculated idea, but sure, maybe not. Sure. Let's try this. Why 

April: can't I be the Savannah bananas? You know, like, totally. That's a roll of the dice. I mean, so yeah, I, I do, I imagine you 

Andrew: got this from your dad. 

April: Maybe. Yeah. I got a lot of it from my dad. Ironically, when I tried to roll the dice working for him in my twenties, he didn't let me roll it.

Mm-hmm. He was like, I don't think so. No. Yeah. You're gonna break things. That's crazy. Yeah. Maybe not so much, but [00:20:00] now, now I'm allowed to do basically whatever. So 

Andrew: Cool. Like, and it's a lot of fun. And it seems like it's translating into growing your footprint with more, more rooftops. 

April: Yeah. You know?

Hopefully we do it with some intelligence. Not too fast, not too erratic. 

Andrew: It sounds like you're off to a good start though. Like the store is in Eagle pa, or the store is in 

April: Cuero. Cuero was was one last year and um, which was partners, uh, and now it's in Sierra Partners. Um, another roll of jazz. Yeah. Hey, Cuero.

GMC. Let's keep moving. Yeah. GMC Chevy. And then the one we just finished in July is a Patriot up in Killeen, and that's GMC Buick. And so we're starting to really dig these. Rural stores, um, metro stores seem to be a race to the bottom. Um, I know I've said that before, just because, and I mean, it's great for the consumer.

Andrew: Mm-hmm. 

April: Um, you, it's 

Andrew: just competing on price. You're 

April: competing on price, man. 

Andrew: Right. 

April: Um, you are in a rural store too. I mean, or I wouldn't call, [00:21:00] classify those areas as rural. I, let's. S maybe somewhere between Suburban Metro's unique. I mean, all these, what's the ballet Metro is 

Andrew: super unique. Yeah. Like, 

April: so it's just, you can, you can do a lot more there based on relationship.

That's for sure. If you take good care of them, if you know them, which prob which happens often in those areas. Um, you got 

Andrew: Fort Hood, that's it's own, not there. Monster, like 

April: 30,000 people. In Fort Hood. Yeah. How do we bridge, yeah. How 

Andrew: do we bridge a relationship with them? 

April: Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. So we're working on that.

We've gotta, we've gotta start developing that pretty soon here. First. We're just getting Cool. Problem to 

Andrew: solve. I know. I love it. There's some creative ideas. 

April: I love it. I love it. So, 

Andrew: yeah. Yeah. Some flying planes with. Banners behind it. I bet. I bet you can fly a plane over there. I don't think, I think 

April: that would be a horrible idea.

I shoot you down. Yeah. Who's in this space that's not supposed to be occupied? Yeah. Yeah. Like is 

Andrew: it the dealership again? Yeah. 

April: I mean, maybe I'd get some attention for [00:22:00] it. Some pr You'd hit the news. Yeah. I don't know if it would be good news or bad news or. Is it like Sydnee, Swinney's jeans that I'm putting this out there.

I 

Andrew: think that's good news for her or for the jeans. Well, for the 

April: jeans. The jeans are doing really well. 

Andrew: Yeah. I want some now. 

April: Yeah. Well a lot of people do. I hear. They're like, 

Andrew: well, who's American Eagle? 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: I mean it's the most American thing you could get is jeans. 

April: Yeah, that's so true. It is the most, I'm wearing jeans right now.

Andrew: Totally. Me too. 

April: Yeah, that's 

Andrew: um. Have you figured out like a playbook for opening up or, or buying a store and all the handoff and trying to keep your foothold on the market? And tran, do you trans, it sounds like you're not transitioning names, 

April: uh, 

Andrew: to new names when you buy 'em. 

April: No, no, no, no. We keep everybody.

Andrew: Okay. Yeah. No, no, no, no. The name of the dealership is the same. Oh 

April: yeah. No, not if they're outside the market. Yeah. Um, I mean, Patriot already has a, a, a decent customer base there. That's a good name. Um, they're a [00:23:00] family company, so we, we enjoyed that and we liked the entire team that's there. 

Andrew: Yeah. 

April: So we didn't make any adjustments, um, on the team that's there now, or management or anything.

So, 

Andrew: so once you guys. Once the dust settles, it's same DMS, same website provider, same, whatever else. 

April: Almost goes into it almost, there's probably a couple minor adjustments on, you know, like if they're not with CD, K and we have CDK, we need to move them to c, d, K. But as far as marketing's concerned, um, or any providers, we, we probably transition them to us depending on the contracts that they've signed previously.

And how long they have to write 'em out or not ride them out or whatever was written. Um, we usually end up adjusting those to whatever we are doing. Um, but the name stays the same. 

Andrew: It's cool. And like what I see with groups like this size is like, you still have, you get buying [00:24:00] power with vendors Yes. By being like, Hey, we're being on this.

That's exactly, that's 

April: and that's the reason we or 

Andrew: not stay. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: And you also have autonomy still. You're not. I don't wanna name names, but they're just stamping out cookie cutter ads for every market. It's the exact same. Your San Antonio store is gonna get, what your Quero stores is gonna get, what your, you know, it's like everything just becomes these stale ads that don't have any personality.

April: We're still small enough, so, um, we, and you can 

Andrew: make the choices. 

April: Right. I, I run up, we did the first ad to roll out in, um, Killeen. My husband and I ran up there. Uh, ironically, a lot of those folks are from San Antonio previously, so they already knew the, an Sierra brand that worked there. Um, so that was pretty great.

We've done a couple of Quero ads, like the Cuero football team is the Gobblers, so we went out there onto the football field. And I believe we did a commercial for the Gobblers, uh, with [00:25:00] them. Um, so that was fun. But you know, and then we have other general managers that do their own ads. Like I believe our Volkswagen, uh, general manager in Laredo will do, does his own stuff.

Um, and then some of our San Antonio stuff reaches down to Eagle Pass. Um, so we can keep that sort of familiar. So depending where they are, we do unique ads. None of them are cookie cutter. Um, we try to keep it family. Yeah, they can 

Andrew: be, but it's like you have a small enough footprint where it's like you can still make stuff pretty unique for that market.

Right. Where the stores you're gonna be running here are gonna have a different value proposition probably than the one in Killeen. Oh, for sure. Because this is like, Hey, high vol, like high 

April: volume. We're 

Andrew: trying to get volume. Yes. We're trying to get services, financing. Right. All these things. Well, we do all that at other stores.

Right, 

April: right, right, right, right, right. But not at the. Not at the same, I don't know what you would call it. Speed, intensity. [00:26:00] Chaotic. 

Andrew: Yeah. Selling. It sounds like you'll live longer with rural stores, is that right? 

April: Live longer, 

Andrew: yeah. Is it? 

April: Yeah. Less 

Andrew: brain damage. Yes. 

April: Yes, yes. When it, I mean, you, ah, I mean, when it's fewer people, it's easier to wrap your hands around each and every.

Purchase made or service visit to ensure things are, are going well. Um, adjustments can be made a lot easier instead of trying to turn the Titanic. Right. Which you feel like is what you are doing in, in San Antonio is, you know, making turning Titanic boats there. You know, you maybe got a, a smaller yacht.

Yeah. Which you can make your adjustments take really good care of. Um, you know. Yeah. You don't want 

Andrew: it to be a jet ski 'cause that's like a little too nimble. You're like, Hey guys, we're in the middle of the ocean. 

April: I'm, we're 

Andrew: in the ocean. I had 

April: a friend, I had a friend who had a jet ski and he [00:27:00] recently gave the jet ski back to the manufacturer, so, 'cause it was, he was in the middle of an ocean, so, 

Andrew: yeah.

Poor buddy. It sounds like a fun purchase. 

April: Yeah, 

Andrew: it, it's fun. He, 

April: it, it sounded good at the time. Um, a stellantis, uh, store. 

Andrew: Okay. 

April: So, but it wasn't in a major market, but even, uh, there's a Stellantis store right now up for sale in a major market. Um, we were like, we're, we're good. Thank you. 

Andrew: We work with a couple groups that have closed their Stellantis store.

April: Yeah. Just 

Andrew: didn't sell it. 

April: We have two. Um, both of them are in the black. 

Andrew: I'm a believer, 

April: so, I mean, it's nice to also have a whole bunch. Uh, you know, not all your eggs in one basket, right? Because we've had each manufacturer have their own downturns at different times. As long as they're all at different times, it's fine.

We'll, we'll, 

Andrew: yeah. 

April: We'll be able to hang out and wait until they revamped their product, have their new Yeah. President, 

Andrew: um, is, which Stellantis just did, right? Yeah. New [00:28:00] CEO. New ceo back of the roots. Yep. Hems. 

April: Thank God. 

Andrew: Yeah, 

April: please bring the engines back. 

Andrew: Yeah. 

April: I mean, one of, I'll tell you what, um, the most popular vehicle requested by, um.

A lot of the football players that were coming in, they all wanted a charger or challenger. 80 20, 80% wanted a charger or challenger coming on infrared. Let's go. It was great. I loved it. Uh, it's the car you go to the UTSA parking lot, that's, you see all of that by the practice field. 

Andrew: Did you get your dealer plates on there?

April: I believe me, I just saw one pull out yesterday. I was at UTSA and a football player. Got in there was a charger. Nice. On the back. Nice. And I was like, this is amazing. 

Andrew: It feels good. I 

April: know. Yeah. So, but that went away when all of the chargers became ev and I was like, this is not, they looked cool 

Andrew: though.

April: That's it. 

Andrew: The challengers 

April: and the chargers. 

Andrew: The challengers were [00:29:00] electric too. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: They looked cool. 

April: It doesn't matter. I wouldn't drive it though. It doesn't matter. They didn't make the vroom sound. The broom sound is very important. Yeah. 

Andrew: When you lose the hemi you lose. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: What? What you educated people on.

April: Nobody wanted, 

Andrew: but they have amazing incentives. They're back to their roots. New CEO O Oh my gosh. I can't wait. Inventories. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: Good. 

April: Yeah. I can't wait. But I mean, some of the RAM issues were, they were priced. Heavily for a while over your Silverado and your F-150. So that also made it kind of challenging as well.

But, um, you know, I'm ready for product refresh. Here we go. 

Andrew: Yeah, that's cool. With better engines. That's, 

April: let's go. I'm ready. 

Andrew: Yeah. You guys figured it out. We're gonna focus over here, but 

April: yeah, we'll 

Andrew: pay attention, but we're not, yeah, 

April: no, we, and we are still paying a lot of attention. We are always at the top in our.

In our area for sure. Number one in San Antonio all the [00:30:00] time. Um, that's the main goal. Maintain number one position in San Antonio. 

Andrew: So no pressure. 

April: Yeah, I know. It's so hard. Yeah, it is so, so hard 

Andrew: for sure. 

April: Like sweating bullets. Extremely hard. So yeah, 

Andrew: there's a target. 

April: Mm-hmm. 

Andrew: There's the target and it's that one.

April: Yeah. North Park. Uh, the North Park group seems to give us the biggest run for our money, so God bless 'em. They know how to do business. They're good at it. 

Andrew: Yeah. And it sounds like you have personally like a good outlet for unwinding from. The dealerships. Yeah. You've done? Yeah. What 

April: did you research?

Andrew: Everything? 

April: No, 

Andrew: no. I've watched your standup. 

April: Oh my God. 

Andrew: Yeah, it's great. 

April: Uh, 

Andrew: it's good. It's confident. It's vulnerable too. 

April: I think my best standup, actually, I don't even know if it was recorded. Um, but I won a standup contest. [00:31:00] Yeah. And I wish that one was my best one ever of standup. Uh, you probably caught like either my first time ever or second time.

Andrew: It was talking about doing a, you sold a car. To a woman who spanked you. Yeah. That was 

April: the very first time and I didn't, and the ground 

Andrew: was cracking up and 

April: I didn't even like that joke. And my friend Colletto told me to tell that and I was like, it's not a joke, it's a story. Um, but yeah, a woman did spank me, so that was true.

She was older and she did slap me on the behind. Yeah. Um. I got mad back at her. 

Andrew: If you're born before, like, I did not spank 

April: her back. 

Andrew: If you're born before 50, it's like, okay, 

April: yeah, she is 70 or 80. I don't know. Um, but yeah, standup was one of them. I, I love comedy. Comedy. 

Andrew: I just did standup for my first time and, uh.

November of last year 

April: in Austin? 

Andrew: Yeah. At cap. That's it. Cap City Comedy Club. 

April: Oh my word. That is a good place to go. Oh my God. I 

Andrew: didn't tell anybody until, yeah, you just went until the night before. I was gonna put it [00:32:00] on. I tried it in front of my wife. 

April: Mm-hmm. 

Andrew: And she was laughing enough and she gave like some good pointers and feedback on Yeah.

Punching stuff up and having more tags to a joke. I'm like. This might be good, right? I'm gonna invite some more people. And so I like sent and there was this sold out crowd and no, like a lot of people couldn't get in. It wasn't just for me, it was for like other kids who were doing this, kids, other people who were doing this standup class.

Yeah. 

April: That's so fun. Okay. And everybody applauded and, and yeah. After you get your first laugh, it's super addictive. Totally. And you keep going and now you're like just rolling. 

Andrew: Yeah. And it's like, I stopped writing, but I'm gonna start again. 

April: Right. 

Andrew: And if I lived closer to San Antonio, I'd be like, trick you into doing this with me.

And we'd go do 

April: trick me into it. Okay? Yes. 

Andrew: Are you, uh, trick me into tricking you to. Let's both do it again. Are you still doing it? 

April: No, I, I always say I'm not gonna do it, and I've only done it with my friend Colletto, who's a comedian. Right. He's a local comedian in, in San Antonio, and he's gotten me to do it five times.

Um, one of those [00:33:00] times he just asked me to introduce him and I was like, yeah, sure, I'll introduce you. But I turned the whole introduction into a bit. 

Andrew: Yeah, 

April: like I couldn't help myself. I turned the whole introduction into a bit, which was fantastic. And it, I think my outlet outside of that is when I do speeches in general or q and a, um, I throw comedy into it and I'm like, there, I'm not doing standup, but I just peppered it in to Right.

It just 

Andrew: happens to be pretty funny. Yeah. And to other 

April: arenas, I really do like it, but I become. I shut down for a week. I before because I'm running the set in my head. Yeah. And my husband's like, this is garbage. You can't do this anymore because you don't talk to anybody for a whole week and you just shut down.

'cause that's all I'm doing is just running the whole thing in my head. Um, 

Andrew: yeah. I, I didn't realize until I did this class and like wrote how scripted it is. It's so scripted. Like when you watch a standard comedian, you're like, dude, this guy's just riffing and so funny. Yeah. And, 

April: but it's not. 

Andrew: But it is.

And they 

April: probably practiced it a couple times. Yeah. On other crowds. 

Andrew: Oh, I [00:34:00] practiced, like I just did it on a camera a dozen times to my figure out my pacing and stuff like that. And it's like ww it's like fake wrestling. It's like, I know what it's gonna, I know it's gonna happen. I know what the outcome of all this.

But that's 

April: funny. I've never, I'd never practiced. 

Andrew: Oh, really? Any, 

April: any of them. I didn't practice any of them. Oh damn. You're good. 

Andrew: Um, 

April: so if I tried to do it like legit, I would definitely, probably have to practice. Okay. Um, but it's funny, people are like, you're so funny. You should do standup. And. It's not the same as conversing and saying something humorous.

Tell me a joke. 

Andrew: Totally. 

April: Absolutely not. I will not tell you a joke right now. 'cause because you have to 

Andrew: write it down. You have to like have it go and there's like a formula kind of to it. Yeah. 

April: And then if nobody laughs you realize it have to speed it up to the next joke really quick. So everybody thinks you weren't supposed to laugh.

Yeah. 

Andrew: I just had like a little list with like my notes on which Yeah. Little bits I was gonna do. Then I like scratch 'em out. It was like, nobody's laughing. 

April: No, [00:35:00] nobody. Hold on, let me write down in the comments. No laughter. Okay, let's continue. I just hear my mom 

Andrew: in the very back laughing really hard. I'm like, oh mom, thanks mom.

April: You know my mom still films me on TV when I'm on, like I'm on I 

Andrew: She films her TV with you on it? Yes, 

April: I'm on commercials yearly, all the the time. Sweet. And I'm on morning shows. All the time. And whenever she finds out, if I tell her, she films it and sends it to me every time, just mom. You know, like April.

It 

Andrew: sounds like both your parents are your biggest cheerleaders. 

April: They're They're cute. 

Andrew: That's cool. 

April: They're cute. Yeah, they're fun. 

Andrew: So are you trying to find ways to open up these lessons for your kids now? I don't even know what that means, except for like the grittiness and just, 

April: I try courage. They don't, they don't want to, they don't want anything to do with me right now.

12 and 15. They don't want much to do with me. But, um, you know, I try, I, um, did a whole bunch of, uh, mans, I [00:36:00] don't know. You probably saw, maybe you saw that, maybe you didn't. 

Andrew: Yeah. 

April: Um, iron Man. 

Andrew: That Iron Mans, no, I 

April: didn't. Oh, that sounded terrible. 

Andrew: I don't know, but the way 

April: I said it, have you heard of an Ironman?

Andrew: Yeah. 

April: Okay. But it just came back out weird. If you don't know what an Ironman is, I know I say everyone knows an Ironman. It sounds like I'm running around. Yeah. Hooking up with really mu people. Yeah. Were you Six Flags? Yeah. I'm not hooking up with an Iron Man. Although you could call my husband that, right?

Yeah. Ing um, 

Andrew: bonus points. 

April: Bonus points. No. That, that was my real outlet for a really long time. 

Andrew: Okay. 

April: Just hours on a bike, hours running, swimming, you know, that's where I, so I brought them on that journey, um, as much as I could. They never went to a race, but they saw a lot of training. You can tell 'em a lot of stories, things went wrong, every race.

Yeah. Um, how to get through those things. Um, and, uh, and I also, [00:37:00] any pitfalls in my life, I tell 'em everything I do wrong, um, or anything that went wrong. Maybe social media where people are attacking me for something, um, and we review it together and how to move on because that's a big deal now people are committing suicide because of things people say on the internet about them.

Um, and it, and the more you do out there, the more rampant it becomes. So that's really hard to navigate. So I'm, you know, I am trying to help them navigate their life through examples in my life. Um, I don't think my daughter wants to hear it anymore. 

Andrew: Yeah. I, because she's 12, I started this jam with my kid about, like, I just don't wanna tell her what to do.

You know, I could kind like walk this. Okay. There's a difference between like teasing and bullying. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: And just like kind of joking around. 

April: Right. It sounds 

Andrew: like this one's kind of teasing. Right? It doesn't feel good. Yeah. But here's how you can push back. We don't need to get their parents and me involved.

Yeah. And try to like [00:38:00] define things for her. But then I try to use like my experiences. Mm. 'cause I'm in my forties and I have experiences in life. You did. And so it's like, oh, I had an experience similar to that. I remember this happened. Now she's like, daddy, stop talking to stop saying experience. Like, because I've said it too many times.

Yeah. So now I'm like, just jumping into the story. Yeah. And yeah. Oh my God, I had something happen. I felt so terrible when that happened. How did you feel? Like trying to, 

April: they just want you to Yeah, trying to, trying to be a little 

Andrew: bit better than my parents were at. It's walking me through things. 

April: It's so hard.

It's so hard. Um, it gets 

Andrew: easier though, right? 

April: No. Okay. It's harder. Uh, yeah. So here's one. Um. This one's my dad parenting me. When I was at, um, undergrad at Trinity, um, there was a, a group of obnoxious people, uh, and I kept getting featured in their underground newspaper. I don't know why, but every other week or [00:39:00] whatever, you'd find this paper at the bottom of all these bathroom stalls, whatever.

So the university says, Nope, not on our campus. We're gonna throw you off if you keep doing that. So they went online. And then online they had this whole, um, they had this list. There's about five of us, and they would have surveys every, every week. And this one survey that had me on it was, who do you think the biggest douche bag is right now?

And it was George Bush at the time was on there myself. Great. My friend Liz. And then a couple of other other people were on there and I was mortified. I'm in college, this is horrible. I can't believe these people think this of me. And I was like, dad, you'll never believe what's online. These people wanna vote for me for biggest douchebag.

And he was like, he was laughing hysterically. He goes, that's hysterical. And I was like, what do you mean? He is like, this is the dumbest thing ever. He goes, you should own it. You should just. Own that part of the [00:40:00] thing, you know? And I was like, I should own it. He's like, yeah, be that. Be whatever, you know, take it, take the, take it away from them, right?

Don't let them have the power. And I was like, okay, how am I gonna do that? So I reached out to my friend Liz, and I was like, listen, I. Why don't you and I start campaigning for biggest douch bag and see which one of us can win this thing. She's like, that's great. So we literally started campaigning buttons, uh, emails or whatever to win.

Yeah. Little shirts. Uch bag. Yeah, we went all the way. Um, I won. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I won, uh, biggest douche bag. 

Andrew: Well, it sounds like you, you took the fangs out of the snake. I 

April: did, because after that they never mentioned me again. Ever. Uh, that was the last time I wasn't any fun anymore.

Um, and I thought that was pretty, pretty awesome. A really, it sounds 

Andrew: like a formative experience to, 

April: it's an experience 

Andrew: be shepherded through by your dad because it could be wildly painful, too 

April: [00:41:00] wildly painful. Like especially the younger you are, the more painful it is. So I try to share those moments with my kids.

And boy there is a lot of them. Um. Maybe even though they pretend they don't wanna listen, maybe I feel like somewhere in the back of their mind they're registering it, you know, on how to, how to deal with a situation like that. 

Andrew: Yeah. They know things. There's gonna be peaks and valleys. Sure. And yeah. And the valleys you learn about life and at the peaks you celebrate life 

April: and Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, for sure. 

Andrew: Um, would you think you're, like, give any advice to your kids if they were gonna take over the store someday? Would you tell them something to do differently or want 'em to preserve something? 

April: Um, no, actually my, it's funny. I feel like I am where I am organically. Um, I did not get here with in intent.

Um, I kind of, I kind of knew what I liked [00:42:00] and pursued what I liked and it kind of all led me here. Um. I, to be honest, when I was 16, I just wanted to make money. I was like, oh, this is, my allowance is garbage. Yeah, I can't afford anything. Um, so I asked my dad if I could have a job that summer when I was 16.

So I answered phones and was, did clerical stuff and something similar the next year. And then the third year I was in accounting. And, uh, in accounting I was the only person paid 4 25 an hour. Um, actually ever in, in Sierra, like only person on minimum wage was me. Uh, and I was like, this is, this is awful.

I'm looking at paper all day. Um, the screens are all green with a green flashy button back then. Kinda makes you sick staring at him. I was like, Ugh. So I left and was like, dad, this, I can't take this anymore. I'm going to Chili's. So I waited tables at Chili's and he actually would come and leave me bigger tips there than he'd pay me all week working for him.

[00:43:00] Um, but then I went to, uh, while I was at Trinity, I got a marketing degree. He said he wasn't gonna help me financially unless I also got finance or accounting. Okay, I'll do finance. Well, while I was in finance, I decided I loved Wall Street. I'm going straight to New York City here, the Valley of the Beast.

Here we go. Let's go. I met the student managed fund one of the beginning years actually trading with real money. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm set. And my dad's cousin was like, listen, I know somebody with Smith Barney, I'm gonna set you up with an interview. It's gonna be in uh, October. Here we go, you're off. And I was like, sweet.

Well, that was, um, nine 11. So by September, 

Andrew: the.com crash, 

April: there was no, uh, there was no more Wall Street. Yeah. Um, New York probably was not hiring people at all. And so I decided, well, let me go get my master's degree. I'll make myself more valuable. Um, which is weird because I wanted to work for an advertising firm when I [00:44:00] first started, but who knew?

I ended up liking this. And I told my dad, I'll be selling, uh, stocks when I get up there and I would like to know what it's like to sell. Do you mind if I sell cars this summer? Uh, just so I can get the vibe by the time I'm done with my degree. Get a job. Here we go. I have more, some more experience. I sold four cars in two days.

I was. Done found my happy place. I, um, my first customer's name was Patrick Caram. He owned a Broadway bar, alibis, Babcock Bar here, um, well known in San Antonio. And he said that was the best buying experience he'd ever had. He was so happy he was coming the next day to buy another car. So he came the next day, bought a personal car, so happy he told his sister to come in for a van.

She came in and bought a Kia van and brought in mortal support with her. This young lady was named, uh, I don't remember her name, but I remember she was brought in just to be support for this, his sister. Well, while the sister was in finance, I sold this lady another [00:45:00] vehicle, and they're all like, this is the best ever.

And I was like, oh my God, I am home. Um, and, and really everything I've ever done even since then. Has been, I was never gonna be involved in politics. And somehow here I am in Austin all the time and I know a whole bunch of politicians because I said yes to helping our local association one day and yes to helping our state association.

And before you know it, I'm chairman of our local association, chairman of our state association. So I really, I think whatever my kids do, I, I would tell them it's just. Keep having maybe smaller goals. Maybe you have a long-term goal, but don't be afraid to be flexible. Uh, everything seems to just have happened in the direction it should have, um, and, and worked out that way.

It's kind of nutty. 

Andrew: It sounds like you had cool experiences too, working in like different departments at the store. I did. And waiting tables, which I think is the most [00:46:00] underrated thing 

April: that somebody could ever do. So much fun. 

Andrew: Yeah. You like learn about kitchens and the staff and all this stuff, but it's like all these different personalities that you did.

April: Yes. You have to work with the different personalities. The chefs in the back. You had to make friends with the chefs in the back so your food's on time. Um. People. I, I had one lady say it was the best service ever in crayon, but she spent all her money on the food, so she said, sorry, uh, zero tip. What I learned is for, that's I tip so big because I'm like, I gotta even out these $0 tips because I know they're coming, someone is giving a $0 tip and I've gotta make it even, um, so that they even out at the end of the day.

Uh, but yeah, you certainly, you learn a lot and, um, I, I had a blast. Everybody should wait tables. Everybody, it's a requirement. Agree. Should be part of like, 

Andrew: it's like when I'm looking at somebody's resume and it's like kind of a hus job that they do for us. You can't, like, you can't get knocked off track easily.

It's like, I like [00:47:00] bartenders. Yes. And waiters always. And people who've like had to deal with some been we gr and had to put on the face and be like, okay, 

April: proverbial weeds, 

Andrew: well this person will be out here soon. 

April: Yeah. I had someone, I saw them. Get out a little plastic baggie and dump a piece of, uh, a chipped glass in their salad.

And then he was like, when I came around the corner, he goes, ma'am, I have glass in my salad. I was like, of course you do. I saw you put it in there. He was like, and when he talk to the manager, I was like, okay. So I went to go get the manager by the time manager came back, they both left. I was like, yeah, that's about right.

Only got to the, we only lost a salad. Big deal. It was like a garden salad. But, 

Andrew: and those things too, like those jobs like. The more mature, the older I'm getting, it's like I'm looking back, I'm like, what was I doing? Like I was a tour guide for a while. Yeah. Between marketing jobs where I just like drove across the country with a bunch of random Europeans.

Yeah. And now looking back, it's like that was so formative. Like I learned a [00:48:00] ton doing that. Yeah. And all the weird stuff. I've like jobs and Christmas tree lots and waiting tables and it's like, it was so formative 

April: mm-hmm. 

Andrew: To make me whatever sitting here. Do doing a podcast in San Antonio, 

April: it's almost your own version of a liberal arts education.

Yes. Right. You have all of this extra stuff around you that you're able to use, uh, today that you wouldn't have even imagined. 

Andrew: Yeah. It's like my little version of a Native American walkabout where I come back like, okay, I've seen it all. 

April: Yeah, that's, I followed 

Andrew: the stars back here. That's, 

April: that's kind of funny.

That's kind of funny. 

Andrew: Well, April, thank you. Uh. Is there a way for people should follow you or just should they buy their cars, trade their cars, service their cars, repair their cars with Aunt Sarah? 

April: All of 'em. All of 'em. 

Andrew: Okay. 

April: The, all of the above and sierra.com and sierra.com is our, our website that ha basically houses their access as an umbrella for our 14 stores.

So yeah, I mean, but they can also, a [00:49:00] aner@interior.com is my email. At the risk of getting. 500 emails from vendors, which probably happened, but um, 

Andrew: turning on the drip campaign now. 

April: Yeah. Right. And then, uh, of course I'm April an Ciara on Instagram and on X and April Ancira Thompson on Facebook. I'm not allowed to get rid of the Thompson on there.

Cool. Husband requires it. 

Andrew: You're awesome. I wanna try to do whatever your dad did to raise a daughter and raise a cool daughter like you. 

April: Shut up. That is awesome. Totally. Thank you. Yeah. 

Andrew: I like your courage Ironman. Comedy. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: And I don't know, like I have like maybe 50 people that listen to this, which is 49 more than I thought.

April: Shout out to all 50 people. 

Andrew: Yes. But it's growing slowly, and I don't know if they like short form or long form, but could I go over some rapid fire questions that I just asked a bunch of dealers recently? 

April: Okay. 

Andrew: This'll be a different thing. I'm writing. It might not go anywhere. Who knows? 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: This is brought to you by Cavender.

AutoFi. Oh my God, I'm just kidding. Do you? I don't have any sponsors. You're kidding. 

April: But. [00:50:00] Uh, UTSA. I've done interviews brought to you by North Park. 

Andrew: Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah. So 

April: it's not unusual. 

Andrew: Yeah. Could I have a hat to wear that says my name at least? Yeah. Like, uh, first car, 

April: a Camaro, uh, base model Camaro, 1997.

Um, oh, it was such a, a pretty pearl blue color, but roll up windows, you had to roll 'em up yourself in claw seats, so that's 

Andrew: not fair. Uh, if you could take any vehicle off the lot right now, what would it be? I just took it off The, sounds like you did it. I 

April: just took it off the lot yesterday. It's a Kia Carnival hybrid top edition man, captain seats that you can lay back in the past or for the second row, so, okay.

Andrew: You're selling me on a minivan. I like it. Uh, what is your favorite? Experience selling somebody a vehicle. 

April: You know, my favorite experience is just gonna be my first experience. 'cause I remember it like nobody else. We discussed it. Uh, he's, [00:51:00] he expected it to be a, a horrible experience buying came in, uh, he bought two back to back.

He bought two back to back. Referred to sister who bought one, who had a friend that bought one. It's gotta be the best. 

Andrew: Did that help change the trajectory of your career, you think? 

April: 100%. I had no idea I would enjoy car sales so much, but changing, having the ability to change someone's viewpoint about how good of an experience it can be.

Uh, 

Andrew: is there a big mentor that you had besides. Your family besides your dad? 

April: Um, no. It was basically my dad at the time. I had a lady named Mandy who was taking me around and showing, showing me stuff. But no, I'd have to say my dad was, was the big mentor when it came to the car business. 

Andrew: If what is, what is the, what is the best future on the minivan?

April: The best feature on the minivan was the sliding doors. Always has been. The sliding doors is, especially when my kids were young, I would have to carry my son and a like baby carrier in one [00:52:00] hand and then groceries in the other, and you could just like punch a button or now you can basically put your foot underneath it and the doors slide.

Uh, sideways. And so you don't nick a car beside you. Uh, I think in Mr. And Mrs. Smith, you might see a part where they, the doors open up and Brad, uh, Pitt hammers out some, uh, shots to the car behind him. And he says, these doors are handy and I can't help but remember that remark all the time. It's my husband's favorite too.

It's gotta be the doors. It's gotta be the doors. 

Andrew: And it makes it cool. Brad. Brad Pitt likes him. 

April: Well, even better. I mean that, I liked them already, but that made it a plus, right? Yeah, 

Andrew: it made it socially acceptable. These stores 

April: are handy. 

Andrew: If the horn could make any sound, what kind of sound would you like?

April: That's tough. I don't, 

Andrew: Ohga 

April: No. 

Andrew: Or a, 

April: excuse me, 

Andrew: or a. 

April: I like that last one. 

Andrew: Okay. 

April: Something funny, right? Anything just [00:53:00] like a small, silly, silly sound. I, I don't know. I don't, I haven't figured out the best use of horn yet. It certainly isn't getting the person in front of you to go at a green light. That's just scary.

And yeah, I, they, it's 

Andrew: saying hey to people when you're backing out. 

April: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if something nicer, I don't know would be better because it's so obnoxious that I actually have, I overreact, I have a poor reaction. I have a freak out reaction. 

Andrew: It's not very Texan to honk at people. 

April: It's not, and so if it was just like, like beep, beep, beep.

Andrew: Yeah. 

April: Something small, you know? Yeah. Like, here 

Andrew: I am. 

April: Here I am. Don't hit me. But when it's loud, you're, I mean, I've actually jerked my wheel. Freaked out, and then you overcorrect and then you have a problem. Now you're spinning out and you hit the median twice. This has happened. 

Andrew: Spiraling a, an anxious day.

April: Yeah, it was, it's [00:54:00] uh, it's still another long story, but I had called in, um. I had called in because, uh, my dog kept me up all night. This was back when I was selling and still in, in my school, school. Anyways, I called in 'cause my dog kept me up all night. Brand new dog. And I was like, mom, I can't, I can't make it in.

The reason I was talking to my mom is 'cause my boss called my mom and said to call me to get my butt to work. 'cause my dog kept me up all night. That's not an excuse anyone really uses. Um, I used it. I said, listen, I'm too tired to, uh, drive anybody. Um, I, I feel like I would be a poor driver if we go on a test drive.

I shouldn't be driving. My dog kept me up all night. Nope. Get, get to work. Alright, so it was bright sun, sunny Sunday, and a guy comes into my lane and I overcorrect to the left. Um, and then my, my car spins out. It was a Jeep by the way, and I'm gonna, it was a Jeep. I have to mention this because I believe I'm still alive 'cause it's.

Jeep and it hit the median, landed on the right side, kept spinning, hit the [00:55:00] median again, landed back up on all fours. The front of my car was gone. The right side of my car was gone. While I was looking up the sky, all I could think of was my dad is gonna kill me. Um, I got back, uh, I got out, went to the side of the road.

And, um, I called my parents and I was like, I told you I was too tired to go to work. The dog kept me up, so nobody's ever complained about, uh, that again. Um, but yeah. So was it a 

Andrew: Jeep Wrangler? 

April: It was actually a Grand Cherokee, and the whole inside was perfectly fine. 

Andrew: Wow. It, 

April: the whole outside was ripped off, but it, it crunched appropriately, uh, and the inside.

And 

Andrew: you walked away. Fine. 

April: Yeah, almost perfectly fine. Um, funny enough, I was feeling myself to see if I had broken anything or what was going on. Um, and some people came up to me and started screaming that I had blood everywhere. And I was like, oh my God, no. And I, I started feeling around and I, I had blood on my hands and I was like, this is [00:56:00] horrible.

So we wipe it all down, whatever, and it turns out I broke my thumbnail to down to write about here. And when I was. Touching myself to find, find out you're wiping blood everywhere. I was wiping blood everywhere, so they were a little freaked out. But my dad picked me up and um, when he picked me up, we went to work.

Yeah, we did. We did. All right. We went straight to work. I didn't work, but we went to work. But yeah, it's kind of crazy. 

Andrew: What a way to get to work. What a, you don't even need coffee. 

April: I know. When you get in 

Andrew: a smash car crash. My dad, 

April: my parents were out. They were like, we were out to go get a tv, but we are on our way to get you.

And I was like, okay. Good. 

Andrew: Well, April, thank you. 

April: Thank you lot. This was 

Andrew: super big treat for me. Yeah. I fun to be able to do in person with somebody. I'm usually just like zooming with people and it's like, okay, this is fun. Got to 

April: chat with a whole new, uh, group of friends, 50 new friends. 

Andrew: Totally. 

April: Yeah. 

Andrew: It could be more.

I don't even know 

April: it. It could be because we got this 

Andrew: professionally done [00:57:00] and it could get distributed further. All right.