Search.

, gain traction podcast

Episode 204

Cory Brown, Karen Bailey-Chapman, Doug Kershaw, Lance Bullock, Pam Oakes, and Greg Robinson

SEMA 2025

Listen Transcript Share this on:

Independent shop owners, brand leaders, manufacturers, lobbyists, and innovators all walk the same halls at SEMA but hearing their stories side by side paints an entirely different picture of where the aftermarket is headed. In this episode, we continue our conversations live from the SEMA 2025 show floor, connecting with the people who show up, contribute, and help push this industry forward.

In this episode…

While SEMA is known for big booths, new products, and packed aisles, what really drives the show are the conversations: honest, practical insights straight from the people doing the work every day. In Part 2 of our SEMA 2025 Roundup, we sat down with guests from across the aftermarket: independent dealers, government affairs experts, global tire brands, wheel manufacturers, trainers, and business development leaders.

Cory Brown of Cory’s Point S Tire and Auto Service shares what he’s learned from growing multiple locations and how attending SEMA opened his eyes to gaps he didn’t even know existed. Karen Bailey-Chapman from SEMA’s Public & Government Affairs team breaks down the legislative challenges the industry faces and how her team is fighting to protect it. We also hear from leaders at TVS EUROGRIP, OE Wheels, DrivenEvidence, and Warrior Winches as they discuss product innovation, brand identity, technician safety, and why SEMA remains the best place for meaningful dealer connection.

Whether you’re a shop owner, manufacturer, or industry partner, this episode shows why staying plugged into events like SEMA helps you stay ahead of equipment trends, regulatory issues, workforce needs, and shifting consumer expectations.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[01:12] Cory Brown on Point S, independent dealer advantages, and seeing real opportunities at SEMA

[09:33] Karen Bailey-Chapman on legislative issues affecting the aftermarket and SEMA’s advocacy priorities

[15:32] Doug Kershaw on TVS EUROGRIP’s growth and global tire market expansion

[22:23] Lance Bullock on building wheel brands and the journey from salvage-yard scrubber to SEMA-award-winning president

[28:14] Pam Oakes on ADAS standards, technician safety, and responsible repair practices

[35:59] Greg Robinson on Warrior Winches’ U.S. expansion and building dealer relationships at SEMA

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Meet the Leaders Featured in This Episode:

Cory Brown owns four Point S retail locations in Rapid City, South Dakota, after growing from a single independent shop he purchased in 2008. A former Bridgestone/Firestone corporate manager, he believes in slow, steady growth built on real estate ownership and operational control. Cory values the Point S model for its independence, strong community feel, and member-owned advantages.

Karen Bailey-Chapman leads SEMA’s public and government affairs team, working at the state and national levels to protect the aftermarket through advocacy, education, and policy engagement. With deep experience navigating legislative environments, she focuses on preventing harmful regulations and ensuring lawmakers understand the industry’s real-world impact. Her work plays a key role in shaping the future of the automotive aftermarket.

Doug Kershaw oversees North American operations for TVS EUROGRIP, guiding the integration of Eurogrip and Super Grip brands across multiple off-road tire markets. With long experience in the OTR, agriculture, construction, and industrial segments, he helps expand the brand’s presence through customer relationships and strategic product development. Doug uses events like SEMA to connect with dealers efficiently and share the company’s global growth trajectory.

Lance Bullock leads OE Wheels, 4Play Wheels, and Defiant Wheels, building on nearly 25 years in the aftermarket wheel business. Starting as a wheel scrubber in a salvage yard, he worked his way up to running award-winning brands recognized at SEMA for innovation and design. Lance is known for spotting talent, valuing hard work, and sustaining strong relationships with dealers and partners.

Pam Oakes is the President of DrivenEvidence and a longtime automotive professional with deep roots in a multi-generation Detroit family of technicians. An ASE Master Technician and former shop owner, she now serves as an expert witness and industry educator, focusing on repair standards, ADAS procedures, and safety compliance. Pam advocates for technician excellence and responsible automotive repair practices.

Greg Robinson leads North American business development for Warrior Winches, representing the family-owned UK brand as it expands into the U.S. consumer and industrial markets. With a background in sales and military service, he helps introduce Warrior’s military-grade and industrial-strength winches to truck, Jeep, and trailer owners. Greg uses SEMA as the company’s return platform to showcase new products and reconnect with dealers.

Quotable Moments:

“I want tire dealers to show up here at SEMA, because I think there’s so much for them.”
“There’s something about moving the market when we show up in numbers.”
“You don’t know what you don’t know and when you show up to something like this, you might have an epiphany.”
“I don’t think people who haven’t been to SEMA really understand what they’re missing.”
“Coming here for four days will never be bad for your business.”

Action Steps:

Take advantage of events like SEMA: Use these gatherings to compare products, pricing, equipment, and programs firsthand.
Stay informed on legislative issues: Follow SEMA’s advocacy updates to understand how policy decisions impact your business.
Explore product innovation: Look for tools, wheels, tires, and equipment that can give your shop or brand an edge.
Prioritize technician training: Incorporate proper ADAS procedures and safety practices to protect both your techs and your customers.
Watch the remaining SEMA 2025 episodes: More leaders and insights are on the way in Parts 3 and beyond.

Transcript

00:00
So I got presented with this thing, which at the time was called tire factory. Now it’s course point s. They changed branding a number of years ago. But I legitimately thought it was a scam. I’m not even kidding.

00:10
We had to oppose a piece of legislation in Arkansas and it was basically trying to shut down a racetrack. That was sort of a minority of people that decided to take issue and the issue that they were even talking about didn’t even exist because the old owner’s gone.

00:23
You know, really what it does for us is it gives us an opportunity to not spend a lot of money to see a lot of our customers in one particular group of time.

00:31
Yes, I was the head wheel scrubber from the salvage yard.

00:34
So you guys would go get wheels and clean them up.

00:37
It was true. It was a very nice van. We were driving around and pretty popular around town actually. Mike, thanks for asking.

00:43
It was a lot more fun being with my great grandfather and my dad in the garage than it was hanging out with my mom and my great grandmother in the kitchen.

00:52
Truck owners, Jeep owners, trailer owners, flatbed owners. You know, if you have a need to pull something, we can. We’ve got a winch that you can put on here.

01:00
Welcome to the SEMA Roundup 2025. The GAIN podcast had the privilege of interviewing many people out at sema. This episode is brought to you by TREAD Partners and our media partner, tire business. Hey, folks, I’m here with Corey Brown, a good friend of mine. It’s Corey’s point S. Welcome to the GAIN Traction podcast.

01:18
Thank you.

01:18
Welcome back. That is.

01:19
Yeah.

01:19
Yeah. And this is the first time I’ve had you on since we started doing video, which is fantastic. Just remind the audience a little bit about yourself. You’ve got a couple stores up in South Dakota.

01:30
I’m in Rapid City, South Dakota. I was originally a Bridgestone Firestone guy. I worked for corporate for a number of years. I bought my first store in 2008. 16, 17 years later. Right now we actually just purchased two stores last month and so we’re up to four retail locations and distributions.

01:51
Congratulations, man. That’s awesome.

01:53
Yeah. So slow, steady growth. I’m. I’m a buy the real estate kind of guy. So it takes a little longer to. To grow that way, but I think it’s healthy. And I also hate not being in control of my own property.

02:07
Yeah.

02:07
So I. I’m not a little bit more.

02:10
Totally. Yeah. And you know, you have. I mean, you’re long term invested.

02:15
That’s what it 100%. And just like the McDonald’s story with Ray Kroc, how they talk about you’re not in the restaurant business, you’re in the real estate business. That’s sort of true for all the independents that own their property too. Because yes, you are in the tire or automotive repair business, but you’re also in the real estate business because long term that will pay big dividends.

02:36
It’s an appreciating asset.

02:37
100.

02:38
Yeah. No, that’s awesome. I’m glad to hear that. And I’m glad to hear you’re at four stores now. So let’s talk about point s a little bit and what they meant, what the brand means to you.

02:47
I really personally like point s funny story, and I may have already said this. I’ll try not to get on video yet. Okay, fair enough. I’ll try not to rehash anything. But when I was first out on my own away from Bridgestone, Firestone and we had bought an independent store and I was presented with this a couple of years in. Now at this point I was still pretty young, I was in my 20s, but I did know how to run a store. I had learned a lot from the old guys at Firestone that had been doing it for 30 plus years. And I feel like I had it fairly dialed in. So I got presented with this thing which at the time was called tire Factory. Now it’s course point estate change, branding a number of years ago.

03:29
But I legitimately thought it was a scam because I’m not even kidding, I really did. Somebody presented it to me and he’s like, oh yeah, it’s because I had been presented with, you know, Tires plus and Big O and all these other franchise opportunities because there’s a bunch of them out there for independence and they all want your money. You know, that’s what it comes down to is, yeah, we’ll put our name on your building and we want money out of it.

03:53
Yeah, well, and so it’s the game of profits.

03:56
It is, it is. Anyway, so I, so of course I’d always turn them down because I knew how to run my shop efficiently and make money. And, and so they came along with this deal and they’re like, oh yeah, it doesn’t, it’s a member owned group. It doesn’t cost you anything. You know, you get long term dividends with real estate from owning shares of the distribution centers to. And I looked at it and I was like, you know, my granddad always said if it’s too good, if it looks too good to be true, it’s a scam. So I turned them away. I turned away for like a year because I, I legit thought it was a scam.

04:30
And then after talking to a couple owners, I was like, okay, maybe this is legitimate now I’ll dip my toe in the water and I’ll try it out for a year and if I don’t like it, I’m out of here. And anyway, it turned out to be a really good deal. And since it’s member owned, when the company makes money, we get it back. And I’m not trying to do too hard of a plug for point s here, but it is a really.

04:49
But you are a point s dealer. Here’s the thing that’s kind of cool about the organization. You know, you pick up a national brand, but you don’t lose your name. So you’re still local, but you get this buying power being part of a co op. Yep. And, but you’re still autonomous. You’re still independent.

05:07
You can still run your shop how you want to. You don’t have somebody looking over your shoulder.

05:11
It’s a lot of pluses is my point.

05:12
There’s way more pluses than minuses in my opinion. So it’s been a really good deal for us. It’s sort of like, I always equate it to people outside of our industry to like Ace Hardware because they’re a really similar model. They’re independent owners with common brand. Yes.

05:26
So. And I think that’s important. And you can tell when you go to NASA, they’re local people. They are.

05:31
And they typically. You’ll get greeted at the door.

05:33
Yeah.

05:34
It’s not like walking into a Home Depot where you’re like searching for miles to find somebody, you know, so it’s worse.

05:41
And I always find the one that doesn’t know where my thing is.

05:44
Yeah, exactly.

05:45
Look it up on this. I think it’s over here. Then I’m trailing them wherever they’re going. So did you rebrand your new stores yet?

05:53
Yes.

05:54
Okay. Yep. And, and did you keep, did you make them Corey’s or did you actually.

05:59
So we branded one of them Corey’s point s and the other one, it’s interesting. I, I wanted to keep what they were already good at because we, I mean we inherited everything, the building, the staff, all the stuff. So were looking through. One of the stores had really high. It’s 4.8 Google rated with like 3 or 400, you know, reviews at really well liked. The building’s falling apart, needs some tlc, but the staff is fantastic. And anyway, all the reviews were like, these guys knocked out my flat repair in 10 minutes. I was. I was in and out of here for tires in 45 minutes. Just like all of it. So we. We decided to rebrand them Point S Express instead of Cory’s. It’s also close to another Cory’s Point S. So.

06:40
But we thought have them having their own kind of, you know, niche would be a good thing.

06:46
So it was Express in their original name.

06:48
It wasn’t actually.

06:49
Oh, okay. That’s what I was getting at. Did you change the name?

06:52
We did. They were. These were formerly Peerless stores.

06:55
Oh, okay. Okay. And Eric ended up getting.

06:58
He.

06:58
He bought. That’s an interesting story. So Eric Corson, old friend of mine, we’re both on point of support directors for a long time. And when he bought the whole chain, two of those happened to be in my market. So I called Eric and I was like, hey, friend to friend, are you at all interested in selling me these two stores? And of course, he didn’t have to. I mean, Eric’s big time and he can, you know, he. He buys up businesses. He’s very good at that. Very good at, you know, turn them into. And good operations. And so he. He mostly did it as a favor to me.

07:29
That’s very nice.

07:30
It is. It. He didn’t have to.

07:31
It says a lot about his character.

07:33
He’s a good dude.

07:34
Yeah.

07:35
So anyway, he. Yeah, he thought about it. We chatted, you know, worked out the details.

07:39
You guys, members of Point S seem like a family in a. Yeah, I mean, he really did get along. Yeah. Annual last year. And it was a lot of fun, but I could see the synergy between so many people. It was just like this little brotherhood.

07:54
Yeah. Yeah, I think. I think you get a lot of that, like, we’ll look out for each other vibe when you’re around those other owners and managers.

08:01
Yeah.

08:01
So what are you getting out of sema?

08:05
You know, I come here for a lot of things, but usually it’s connections, a little camaraderie. You know, sometimes you’ll find a. A new vendor, a new tool or a new equipment or whatever.

08:16
Business a little bit for the better. You know, I keep telling. I keep saying this on a lot of these interviews, but I want tire dealers to. To show up here at SEMA because I think there’s so much for them. And then there’s. There’s Something about moving the market when we show up in numbers.

08:31
Yes.

08:32
You know, and all these independents, if they show up at sema, they can move SEMA in the right direction, like advocacy. They can get part of tia. You can. You can run into, you know, hunter reps here for equipment, see the latest and greatest. Put your hands on a lot of other, you know, products. Absolutely. And it. I think, I don’t. I don’t think those people that, you know, they may be in the business. I can think of a couple friends that are in the business. They’ve never been to sema, you know, but I don’t think they understand what they’re missing 100%.

09:00
And I. To tee off of that.

09:01
You.

09:02
It’s one of those. You don’t know what you don’t know.

09:04
That’s it.

09:05
And so when you show up to something like this and you have maybe an epiphany, and you’re like, holy cow, they’re doing such and such this way. I’ve been in the same way for 15 years. I had no idea. You know, it really is.

09:16
And I might make more. 15, 20 more than I thought I.

09:20
Was going to make, totally.

09:21
Or.

09:21
Or change the way you’re doing operations or change the way you’re. Whatever it is.

09:25
But it.

09:26
I guarantee you coming here for four days will not. It’ll not be bad for your business ever.

09:32
I agree. Yeah. All right, folks, I’m here with Karen Bailey Chapman. She is the senior vice president, Public and senior vice president, Public and Government affairs with sema, which basically means she’s a lobbyist.

09:45
Yeah, glorified lobbyist. I just talk a lot. That’s what I do for a living.

09:48
Yeah, but you must be really good with people.

09:51
You know, I guess it’s part of the trade. I think some of us in the industry would say we’re not necessarily people, but, you know, it’s part of the job. And it’s really kind of navigating a lot of things and navigating personalities and organizations and, you know, cultures.

10:09
You’re trying to corral cats, probably.

10:12
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

10:14
And then some people don’t want to vote one way just because they don’t like a guy that wrote the bill.

10:18
Yeah, that happens.

10:19
Even though they might agree on it?

10:20
Oh, yeah, that happens. Or, you know, depending on. On what the issue is, maybe somebody in leadership decides they just don’t like your industry, and so there’s nothing good you could ever say or possibly solve. And, you know, I think that’s one of the things that we always spend a lot of time on is, is demonstrating the impact to industry of what these decisions are because there’s a lot of things that happen in legislation. I know this is shocking that the unintended consequences.

10:44
Oh, I think, yeah.

10:45
And so how do you, how do you figure that out ahead of time and get ahead of it and maybe stop it before it happens or you know, edit it, amend it?

10:53
I think some of these legislators, and I’m talking from a state level on up, even city commissioners in whatever town you grew up in or whatever live in, they get so gung ho about an issue, they don’t think about the side effects, indirect effects, like you said, and it can be massive.

11:10
Yeah, yeah, it’s. We, I mean we see that all across the board. You know, we did a, we had to oppose a piece of legislation in Arkansas this past year and it was basically trying to shut down. It’s like a rate. It was a racetrack, but also like an off road park. It was a sort of a multi use facility. And it was done because some neighbors didn’t like the previous owner. So they wanted to basically, you know, legislate it out of existence. So make it impossible for it to operate or make it very difficult or very expensive.

11:39
And so, you know, the lawmaker, I actually kind of felt a little bad for the lawmaker because the lawmaker, you know, was just listening to the neighborhood, thought this was like sort of a uniform thought process and realized real fast that was actually when other people don’t agree with that. That was sort of a minority of people that decided to take issue. And the issue that they’re even talk. It didn’t even exist because the old owner’s gone. And so yeah, I, I do sometimes feel for lawmakers, especially at the local level or at the state level where maybe they hear a good story and they oh gosh, this, you know, tragic. Yeah, like oh my gosh, we gotta do something. They don’t realize that may be only the opinion of one person.

12:18
One of the things that everyone sort of talks about like, oh, this lawmaker doesn’t know anything or that lawmaker. And you know, that’s, you know, one of, that’s one of the challenges we face. We have, our job is to educate before we even advocate. We have to educate. But the reality is that the American people decide who it is that we have to work with. And I think that’s, I always kind of break it down to that Baseline. Like, we can be really mad about the outcome of an election or whatever the case may be, but at the end of the day, this is what the American people dealt us. And so now we got to figure it out. And that’s that whole democracy thing that we really like here.

12:50
So I think we have to preserve that and just kind of work within it and accept what it is. So, yes, it’s. It’s. It’s a challenge, but at the same token, it also. It’s an incubation system. You know, what works or what doesn’t. And maybe you try something and it worked, maybe halfway. So how do you do it better the next time? And I think that’s the thing that I really love about the US and about American politics and our republic and our democracy is the fact that, you know, we. We have the ability to test and learn. And it’s funny how some people fear that.

13:22
It’s wild how fast things can change and where, like you said, the demographics and the strategies got to change.

13:28
But that.

13:29
Isn’t that the beautiful thing about it?

13:30
It’s. It’s the cool thing. I mean, again, when you’re in the heat of the moment and you have to, like, pivot or rethink what you just learned four years ago or eight years ago, and you got to do.

13:39
It, but it’s like this. Your playbook’s gone.

13:41
Yeah.

13:41
You got to rewrite it.

13:42
Well, I mean, early voting, you know, again, sort of breaking it back down to the basics and breaking it down to sort of the founding kind of concepts that we’re talking about. And so it’s easy for us all to get distracted or wrapped up in the moment. And so. But when you know, when I remind people or tell people about how even the Boston Tea Party was done and the why behind it, I mean, we obviously had a pat, like, the passion part of the why, but then there was still business interests who were impacted by and said, all right, you know, let me call my buddy Sam Adams down at the Green Dragon Tavern here. Get your buddy some beer. Okay. A lot of beer. And see that boat over there?

14:19
Here’s what you got, right?

14:20
And it’s like, I’ve been that guy before. Like, yeah, that’s a great idea.

14:24
That’s awesome.

14:25
Well, I appreciate what you do for the SEMA organization. I think your job’s very difficult because you don’t get a lot of wins all the time, but you’re always battling up there, and I think it’s very important that we get more Members in SEMA just for the reason to support advocacy.

14:44
Absolutely. I think when you look around this show, this, you know, we obviously, the business are here to do business, but we’re. That money goes. Is part of it into our government affairs efforts to be able to do the work that we do on behalf of the industry. You know, we have a team of 12 people internally. We have others that we hire, specialists in certain areas depending on the fight. And so that’s the ability for us to be able to do the work that we need to do both politically as well as on policy side.

15:12
And, and so, you know, this is where, you know, so for every dollar you spend in your membership or if you are here at the show, outside of the actual costs of putting on the show, these are the kinds of things that leadership does go towards is being able to also protect the future of our industry and make sure that for the next 50 plus years, we’re still around and running hard.

15:32
Doug Kershaw, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast. Or should I say welcome back.

15:36
Welcome back. Right. I was on your last time.

15:37
There was a video with me, I don’t think.

15:40
Was it a video?

15:41
Yes, it was a video. Right? Yeah, we recorded a video.

15:44
Yeah.

15:44
So anyway, TVS Eurogrip.

15:48
Correct.

15:49
And you’re the president or head of North America.

15:51
So. Yeah. So the way it works is TVS bought Super Grip, which is a US company here in the United States. And then they have two brands. So there’s EuroGrip, TVS Gear Grip, which is worldwide, and then they have the Super Grip, which is here. They do worldwide too, but not very much. It’s mostly North America.

16:09
Yeah.

16:10
And so just the names kind of fit. And they’re in seven markets. And so what they hired me to do. Come on. And then we’re going to bring the two businesses together, if you will, and have our own entity. And then I’ll run it and we’re putting the team together. And so then we’ll have two brands. So your Grip and Super Grip. So Super Grip is a company at the moment, but going down the road, and there’s no timeline when this is going to happen, but the entity of that Super Grip piece will no longer be in existence. It will be TVS or tsl, which is another term for the business that they have, and out of India. And so it’ll be CBS USA or something like that, or Americas or North America, whatever the board decides they want to call it.

16:53
And then we’ll have the two brands and then there’s Seven markets that we’re in.

16:57
Okay.

16:58
All for tires and wheels. So that’s something that Super Grip could bring.

17:01
What kind of tires?

17:02
So it’s agriculture, construction, otr, mining, mostly underground mining, gse, ground support equipment for like airlines and things like that. All the support equipment you see at an airport port, forklift, primarily pneumatic and atv. So we do all of those markets and so that’s, that’s what we’re going to be doing. We have with the two brands we have pretty much a full line, but we don’t. On agriculture and construction, we don’t have a complete line in the sense that we don’t get into large, you know, hauler and loader tires. So we don’t do above ground mining very much. It’s mostly underground.

17:44
Okay.

17:45
We don’t make anything over a 33 inch rim at this point.

17:48
Yeah, I got you.

17:50
Or 33 inch tire. Yeah, 33 inch rim.

17:53
So what does, because this is a, you know, we like to promote sema. What does SEMA do for you?

17:59
It really gives us an opportunity to see our customers or see people that we know and that want to become our customers. So there’s Super Grip customers here that’s been around for a long time. It, you know, it really what it does for us is it gives us an opportunity to not spend a lot of money to see a lot of our customers in one particular group of time.

18:17
Yeah. You know, I joke with people but it’s like I don’t have to fly a ton at 20 places.

18:22
Exactly.

18:23
15 of them are going to be in one spot.

18:25
Exactly.

18:25
And then the others. Yeah, I can get to them later.

18:27
But you know, the sad thing is less and less people are coming to this show of our off road tire business. You know, this is more of an automotive show. Right. So it’s good. I mean it’s exciting and you can see some of the new stuff that’s going around. But when you talk about off road mobility primarily the tires, then you know, less and less of those folks are coming here. So the kind of the trend is.

18:48
Do you think they do more online then?

18:50
No, no, no. It’s just more of that. They’ll see us at a different show, like an ag show or a construction show or something like that. More specialized.

18:59
Yes.

18:59
About a month ago, I think it was, there was at this particular, in this hall right here was the GSE show. And so everybody and everybody I met the two top guys at Delta Airlines and the top guy at United right here. When when we came in and we’re at the show. So it just depends on the market that you’re in and the vertical that you’re working in.

19:22
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, on a side note, how about those L. A Dodgers that I don’t like?

19:27
Oh, man.

19:28
Well, you know, I’m a Cardinal fan.

19:30
I know you are.

19:30
I know you are, But I did congratulate you.

19:32
You did. You were a very good sport, so. Yeah, I’ve been a Dodger fan since I was pro. Probably, I don’t know, six or seven.

19:38
Yeah, no, I know you’re.

19:39
And I just. You are legit, and you.

19:42
You’re on a good run right now.

19:43
Well, yeah. What, three out of six years? You got a championship.

19:47
That’s pretty there.

19:48
But, you know. You know, my middle name is Clayton, so.

19:52
Oh, that’s right.

19:53
And so. But I always say I’ve had that name longer than him. You have, because I’m older, so. But my brother and I, we’re probably not related, which is fine, but my brother and I call him cuz.

20:06
So he was pumped up the other night.

20:08
Oh, he was. I was so nervous when they had him in the bullpen, and I thought, oh, no, don’t bring him in. Don’t bring him in. I’m already a nervous wreck as it is. I’d be worse than that. But what a game. What a series. I mean, that was. If you like baseball, that was a wonderful series. I mean, you listen to those guys and it’s all a chess match. It really is. And so it’s a. It’s amazing. But the way the Dodgers came back this year, I honestly didn’t think they were going to win.

20:31
I didn’t either. I didn’t either.

20:32
I said. I remember telling my wife, she goes, are you okay? And I said, oh, yeah, because we’ve won two in the last five years. Who cares? I mean, it’s okay. You know, you can’t win them all. And I, you know, Toronto deserves something. They’re a good team. They’ve done really well. Nah, that’s okay. I’ll take it.

20:48
Well, Doug, if somebody wants to reach you and talk about your products, what’s the best place for them to go?

20:53
So we do have a supergrip.net website. Okay, we do have a Eurogrip website as well, but the two are not linked at the moment. We’re going to be building a new website down the road, and again, don’t have a timeline for this, but one of the things that we do have which does have a dealer portal in it is we have supergrip atv.net I believe, and you can search it and you’ll find it. And so we have our entire ATV line, both wheels and tires on that website. And they can look at that and find out where they can buy them and stuff. You know, we’re not a huge player in the ATV market. We’re really specialized. But we’re growing and we have a good plan to grow too.

21:31
But, you know, we’re never going to be the big box guys, you know, like, you know, I can’t think of anybody at the moment.

21:36
I know. I know where you’re going.

21:38
Yeah.

21:38
So it’s okay. I mean, there are some niches where you can fit in that market. And you know, we do sponsor some people and some races and stuff. And one of the things that we do on the Super Grip side as a whole is we sponsor the nhra.

21:52
Okay.

21:52
And so especially the one in Bristol, that particular race and you know, that’s where Tony Stewart races and all those guys. And so that is called the Super Grip Something Alley. Oh, goodness. I’ve tipped. I don’t know what you’re talking. Thunder Alley. Thunder Alley. And yeah, so that’s a big weekend for us. And so we’re going to incorporate the Eurogrip side of it as well when we get going forward.

22:16
Nice. Well, I’m thrilled that you said yes to my invitation to be back on the game.

22:21
Oh, my pleasure. Of course.

22:22
Always great to see you. All right, we got Lance Bullock here. Lance, you are president of OE Wills Foreplay and Defiant, is that right?

22:30
That is right.

22:32
It’s been a while since had you on the podcast.

22:34
Yeah, I think it’s been over a year now.

22:36
Yeah. So welcome back.

22:37
Thank you, thank you.

22:39
Whole new setting. It is our business booth this year.

22:41
This is really advanced. It wasn’t like this last time, Mike. What have you done?

22:46
Well, went from audio to audio and video and got some real microphones, headphones. I mean, it’s for real now, Lance.

22:53
It’s a little intimidating.

22:56
Just look at the Cameron smile. Okay, now I’m glad to have you back. So what’s exciting this year in. In the booth and what you guys have product wise?

23:06
Well, it’s interesting because, you know, we’re a little concerned about the turnout here at sema, but we are slammed, so. Really grateful for that. Got a couple of new products and everyone seems to be in a great mood.

23:18
That’s awesome. Now you guys have won some Awards here in the past when I’ve been here. Is that right?

23:22
We have been fortunate. We won the SEMA Design of the year award last year and we’re a nominee on the WTSBC for business of the year.

23:33
Nice.

23:34
Exciting. Exciting. It’s. The reception’s Tonight, South Hall, 5:00pm oh.

23:39
Is that when they’re going to announce it?

23:40
That’s when they announced the winner. Yep.

23:42
Okay. Yeah, Neil and I are going to go to that.

23:44
Oh, great. I’ll buy you a drink.

23:46
Excellent.

23:46
Yeah.

23:47
Well, I’ll be out there in the background. Tell me. You know me and you talk about this every year, but I think it’s important for the audience to hear it. Why do you guys come to sema?

23:59
So originally was to get our brand Foreplay out into the market. But now it’s more about relationships that we’ve established over the years with our new brand. You know, we’ve been doing this for over. For almost 25 years now. But in the aftermarket, certainly important to maintain those relationships.

24:15
I love your story. You got in this business with your uncle, didn’t you?

24:18
Yes, I was the head wheel scrubber from the salvage yard. So it’s a glorious job. You should try it sometime.

24:25
So you, I love this because you would literally, you guys would go get wheels and clean them up.

24:31
It was true. It was a very nice van. We were driving around and pretty popular around town actually. Mike, thanks for asking.

24:37
No, I just think it’s cool. You got such a great story and you’ve come a long way and now you’re, you know, you win awards here at sema and you came from. It’s the Sarasota area, right?

24:48
Correct.

24:48
Yeah, correct. And you mean you come a long way and I just, I, I love you’re. You’re an American success story. You really are.

24:56
We got really fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and we worked real hard. Don’t miss my grandparents carport scrubbing wheels. I prefer sema.

25:08
But another thing I remember about you and you had me down and you treated me like royalty and I really appreciate that. Still remember that trip. But you like to find talent in unique spots and even your employees brag about you, if I remember right, because they love the fact that you’ll spot somebody that just has a, I don’t know, let’s call it hustle or certain qualities that they don’t need to know anything about your business, but you’ve been known to just ask. People would Be interested working for you.

25:42
You know, I am a big believer in the simple attribute of hard work. And I always believe that if someone’s willing to work hard, they can achieve anything. And speaking of royalty, Mike, I got to congratulate you on the 200 episodes.

25:56
Thank you.

25:57
2%. The setup is amazing. So. So I treat royalty like royalty. Just so you know, weren’t royalty.

26:04
Then, so I really appreciate it.

26:06
Fair enough.

26:07
We were just up and coming. But in there, I’m just, I’m. I’m gonna ask on the air here, wasn’t there a lady that worked for young girl that you found and she was working at car wash. Yeah.

26:21
So she is our social media manager now.

26:23
That’s awesome.

26:25
Anyone? I think if you can scrub wheels at a car wash and you’re willing to work that hard, you can come in and find another position. And as long as you’re willing to work and be open minded and learn, those are the people we love. Those hard working, kind of the underdog. That’s who we think we are.

26:39
That’s awesome. Well, I think that’s an attribute to your success. I think. You know, you got Derek over here. He’s awesome. I know he’s standing here for your emotional support today.

26:50
It is. It is. We were holding hands earlier. Told him to stop. It was embarrassing me.

26:53
He can’t even hear us.

26:54
Yeah, that’s okay. That’s okay. He’ll listen later.

26:56
Well, so the announcements today on. On the award.

27:02
Right.

27:03
So I’m gonna see you there.

27:04
Absolutely. Absolutely.

27:05
And I tell you what, I’m just glad you came back.

27:09
Thank you for.

27:10
I know it’s hard to get you to an interview because you are sometimes bashful about this.

27:14
Well, I’m busy scrubbing wheels. I got a lot going on, Mike, so.

27:18
Well, I tell you. And we need to tip our hat to Sonny for introducing us. Yeah, we do that.

27:22
We do.

27:22
And I do have to tip my hat to Sunny because you congratulate. But it wouldn’t have been the same without Sonny. And when I asked him to do the 200, you know, he. He took. Flipped the script on me.

27:33
He did.

27:33
Made me nervous. He did anyway. But it’s. Sonny’s one of a kind. And then he had that background that just cracked me up because that totally caught me off guard. But I appreciate you tuning in and it was very nice of you to call the day you heard it and left me a long voicemail and that meant a lot.

27:50
That’s very kind of you to say. I Just. I love seeing other people succeed. And I. It’s. It’s overwhelming to see your setup today and where were a couple years ago, and then pulling it in with Sonny right. Later for that 200th, and him turning things around. Every piece of it. And he’s very thoughtful like that, too. Right. The interview. Every piece of that was just awesome. I love to see that happiness and success.

28:14
All right, we’ve got Pamela Oaks, Pam with Driven Evidence. And you’ve got a long history in the automotive sector.

28:24
Yes, I do.

28:25
1907. Not you personally?

28:28
Sometimes I feel like it.

28:30
No, not me personally, but your family.

28:32
1917.

28:33
Yes, 1917.

28:34
My great grandfather was recognized in the Detroit Free Press when he left Detroit Truck over to Standard Truck as a manager.

28:44
That’s fun.

28:44
That’s so fantastic. That’s so cool.

28:46
Yeah.

28:47
He went from Standard Truck, then over to Help Mobile, and then he opened his own place on the east side of Detroit.

28:53
I gotcha.

28:53
And from there, he had his own shop, of course. And it’s so funny, because used to walk the beat in Detroit. That’s what his family did. They were either fire or law enforcement. And my great grandmother was expecting, and she says, you know, I really don’t want you to be in the force. Because they knew it was going to happen. Windsor’s right across the river, and they were going to have problems. She goes, I want you to get out of that. And that’s how he got into the automotive industry.

29:21
Nice. Thanks, Grandma.

29:23
Yeah, thanks, Grandma. And from that point, the people that she wanted to keep my great grandfather away from, he was working on their trucks, their bootleg trucks. I mean, people like the Purple Gang. I mean, seriously. And I would ask him, I said, so what would you do? He says, I just worked on the truck. I didn’t say anything. They sat there and drank and played cards, and I got him out of there.

29:47
Still legit customers.

29:48
Still legit customers. That’s right.

29:50
I can’t help what they do with it, but.

29:51
That’s right.

29:52
Hey, gotta feed my family here.

29:54
Exactly.

29:55
Yes.

29:56
But World War II came around, and he went over to Dodge, Maine, for the war effort. They were building tanks, they’re building planes, and he just stayed on. And of course, we had other relatives there as well. And my grandfather, he was a technician. My father, he was a technician as well. And his specialty was steering gear and suspension.

30:18
Nice.

30:19
And he actually had set up the Corvettes and Corvairs for Jerry Thompson when they raced down in Daytona. So I got to see that, which was pretty Cool. I mean. Oh, it was so cool. And then we had, of course, my great grandfather, he was still involved. They lived. We were at 9 mile and Gratiot. They were at 8 mile in Gratiot. We were over there all the time. And he gave me my first lesson, how to set a choke on a 69 Plymouth Roadrunner, which I still have today.

30:49
Very fool.

30:50
Yeah, it’s just, you know.

30:52
Yeah. History, romance for you.

30:55
Exactly. I had a lot of toys, but that one, that’s a keeper. But my dad, he gave me all my lessons on steering gear and suspension, of course, and.

31:07
And you were naturally just always drawn to it.

31:09
Always drawn to it. It was a lot more fun being with my great grandfather and my dad in the garage working on two plus twos and the Roadrunner and everything else in the garage at the house than it was hanging out with my mom and my great grandmother in the kitchen. It’s like, oh, this is more entertaining. I really like this.

31:28
So fast forward today with all that experience and then being a shop owner. And you sold your shop.

31:33
Yes.

31:34
What is driven evidence?

31:36
Driven evidence. For those who know me out there, I’m kind of a stickler for the rules, the laws of physics, et cetera. And there’s rules when it comes to automotive repair. Yes. My master, asc. Master. I really believe in asc. I think it’s great. They are the industry leader. We prove our proficiency through testing, but at the same time, we have the knowledge in our hands, but we have to have the knowledge in our head for what is right and what is wrong when it comes to repairs, there’s the fmvss, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Then we have ISO and we have ul, and there’s standards. For an example, when you’re doing Advanced Driver Assist Systems, atis, There’s a rule about how much tread you’re supposed to have on the tires, and it varies per oe.

32:39
Need to know that because, see, we’re the gatekeeper technicians in the shop. We’re the gatekeeper. And to make this go forward, we need to follow the rules. Anytime we deviate, it’s going to take that much longer to go than level five. And plus, we want to make everyone safe.

33:02
Yep. No, that’s great. And you’re actually an expert witness in court cases now.

33:07
Yes, I am now.

33:08
That’s awesome. But you haven’t. I mean, you have such an extensive knowledge that I bet you’re hard to crack on the stand because, I mean, an attorney, you know, they got Some arrogance about them. And they gotta, they try to break down witnesses, even if you’re an expert witness, I mean, give it right back to them. Yeah, that’s what I mean, how much fun is that?

33:28
It is, it really is.

33:30
Because you know when you know more.

33:31
Exactly.

33:32
Oh, yes. You know when they’re trying to bluff and they’re trying to throw you off. But yeah, that’s. I know.

33:37
So real quick because we, we’re at sema. Why do you come to SEMA and what does SEMA mean to you on Lube.

33:45
Sema. Every year.

33:46
That’s blonde.

33:47
I really do. There’s so much technology. I really enjoy the mom and pops that come out and they’re developing these tools and equipment, so on and so forth. The OES are taking a look at it. I can tell you right now they’re incognito. But the OEs, they’re walking around here and they’re seeing what’s new and what they can use as well. So you have that entrepreneurship with the mom and pops and this is going to eventually develop into the vehicles. Yes, I’ve already seen this firsthand happen.

34:22
From here to the OEs.

34:24
From here to the OEs.

34:25
Yes. That’s so, that’s so cool.

34:28
Because of COVID it took a little bit longer, but it’s actually being used in some of the cars and trucks now out name dropping or anything like that. I understand. But you see all this information and then there’s part two. You have the camaraderie. You really do. We’re all technicians. You know, I’ll get our hands dirty. You can see I, I wear gloves or Peter won’t hold my hands. And he’s attacked too, so he knows better. But, you know, it’s just, it’s the love of the automotive industry. And that’s why I’ve been doing this, what, 35 plus years. I love the automotive industry. I, it’s family, it’s my extended family. It’s like my shop during my extended family.

35:16
It’s just, and I’ve had other guests on, and everybody talks about the people of the industry as a whole. It’s just, it’s contagious. And there’s a lot of good people in this industry.

35:25
Yes.

35:26
And, and for a big industry, it’s small. You know, we’re only like 2 degrees away from anybody we want touch in this industry. It feels like, you know, somebody, you know, someone knows that other person.

35:37
Oh, yes.

35:37
You know, it’s crazy, but just coming over here. Yeah.

35:41
When I was at the airport and were taking the. The bus over to the rental, I was standing next to someone that I was sitting next to at ASE when we developed the L4 test.

35:53
That’s crazy.

35:54
We were looking at each other. We’re like in a couple of years, but hey. Yeah.

35:59
All right, folks, I’m back here at the show with Greg Robinson of. Is it Warrior Winch?

36:05
Yeah, Warrior Winches.

36:06
I can’t do the W’s back to back, and I’m supposed to be good at this.

36:10
It gets a little tongue tied. Right? Yeah.

36:11
I like it, though. Let’s talk about who you are first of all, because you’ve never been on my podcast before. And welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. Where are you from?

36:20
So I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. I’m originally from Hawaii. Moved around a lot and was. Was a military.

36:25
I didn’t like it in Hawaii. Yeah, man, I want that eating Atlanta.

36:28
Ye.

36:28
Weather was just bad out there, you know.

36:32
All right, so you’re in Atlanta. What are you guys doing?

36:34
Atlanta.

36:35
So. Well, I’m actually the only US Employee for Warrior Winches, so I am, I’m out there on my own little island, if you will.

36:41
Kind of cool.

36:42
Yeah, Yeah. I, I, you know, do. Do most of the work from home and I hit the road a lot.

36:46
Okay. Sells.

36:48
Yep.

36:49
Okay.

36:49
Yep. I am, I’m the North American director of Business development for Warrior Witches.

36:55
So talk about the product.

36:56
Sure.

36:56
So Warrior winches started about 28 years ago. Jeff Bimson, our owner, who is still currently the owner and very active in the business day to day, he started selling winches out of his garage.

37:07
That’s so cool, isn’t it?

37:08
He just saw a gap in the UK market. Let me back up. Our company itself is based out of Manchester, uk. Okay, cool. Still family owned to this day. And like I said, Jeff started selling winches out of his garage.

37:22
Do you get to. Do you get to head over there once in a while?

37:24
Yeah, yeah, about once a year. We get to go over and, you know, have a little Christmas party and meet the team over there.

37:29
Except they say happy Christmas, right?

37:31
Yeah, they say Happy Christmas. A happy Boxing Day. I think so.

37:35
Go ahead.

37:36
This is a cool story. So he started out of his garage.

37:39
Yeah, he started out of his garage.

37:40
And he just saw a need for it.

37:41
Yeah, he saw.

37:42
Just saw a need for. For winches in the market.

37:45
So.

37:45
So we really started as more of an Industrial winch company. Hydraulics, big heavy lifting and heavy pulling. And that’s where we’re still very prominent today, is in the industrial side of things. Fast forward to about three years ago and we decided, hey, we’re going to, we’d like to expand into the North American automotive consumer market. So we started developing some electric winches for the automotive consumer. We had already developed a military grade winch for the British military design tested, I mean battle tested by the British, you know, the British military. And we said, why don’t we take that, you know, kind of hardcore technology and put it into a consumer winch that anybody off the street can buy and put on their vehicle.

38:27
So they’re truck owners, Jeep owners, those types.

38:31
Truck owners, jeep owners, trailer owners, flatbed owners. You know, if you have a need to pull something, we can, we’ve got a winch that you can put on here.

38:39
Well, for the sake of the audience, if they wanted to look more look into Warrior winches, where would they start? And if they wanted to, are there dealers they buy from or do they buy direct off the website?

38:51
So they can buy direct from the website, they can buy from dealers as well. We do have a little bit of a dealer network already in North America, but they can go to warriorwinches.com that will show them the breadth of the product. There’s some awesome videos that we’ve shot out there, give you the whole backstory of the company and everything. And then you can also find dealers on our website. So if you want to go see it in person, touch it and feel it, you’ve got dealer locator right there. You can go check out too.

39:14
So let’s talk about sema. You’re here for sema. What are you doing here and why do you guys come?

39:19
So we are really excited about SEMA. The last time Warrior winches exhibited at SEMA was 12 years ago. Yeah, so like I said, about three years ago we decided to kind of come into the automotive aftermarket a little bit and this is what we are considering, our coming out party. I mean we’ve got so many new products in the booth. We, we put a lot of time and effort into making just a really solid experience when you walk into our booth.

39:44
So that’s fantastic.

39:46
Yeah.

39:47
So how long you been with them?

39:48
I’ve actually only been with the company for about nine months.

39:51
Oh yeah?

39:52
Yeah.

39:52
Pretty, pretty new.

39:53
So myself a big role now. Yeah, I mean you’re the face of the company. What the heck.

39:58
Yeah.

39:58
Well, North America I mean, in North America. Yeah.

40:00
They.

40:01
They said, well, you know, we don’t want a British guy on there because he can’t understand what he’s saying, so.

40:07
Well, at least they’re honest with themselves.

40:09
Yeah, yeah.

40:09
No.

40:10
So they looked at me and they said, greg, you’re the guy.

40:12
That’s awesome. How long you been in Atlanta?

40:15
I’ve been in Atlanta off and on since about 98. So. Long time. I moved. Moved there right before high school. Finished high school, went to college and joined the military and left for a long time. Finally came back in about 2012, and I’ve been there ever since.

40:32
All my listeners know I’m a food guy, but there’s a steakhouse I like that’s downtown in Atlanta. Bones. Oh, yeah, yeah. Very cool setting.

40:39
Yeah.

40:39
And they do the family style portions. That’s so good.

40:43
Next time you go, you should try Little Alley Steak. It’s in Buckhead and it’s great.

40:46
Really?

40:47
Yeah.

40:47
Okay. You won’t regret it. Well, thanks for being part of the Gang Traction podcast and I wish you guys a successful show.

40:52
Yeah, thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it.

40:54
I need to go to see that booth. I think you got a cool product.

40:57
You definitely do, man. It’s an experience from the moment you walk in.

40:59
Thank you to all our listeners. Thank you for being part of the Gain Traction podcast. We are grateful for you. If you’d like to find more podcasts like this, please visit gaintraction podcast.com if you’d like to make a guest recommendation, please email [email protected] this episode has been powered by TREAD partners, the leader in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about tread partners, visit TREAD partners.com.

Contents hide

1 In this episode…

2 Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

3 Resources mentioned in this episode:

4 Meet the Leaders Featured in This Episode:

5 Quotable Moments:

6 Action Steps: