Speaker 1: I am Demenie Pollett, and I am the owner of
Speaker 1: Gurlington Garage in South Burlington, Vermont, Beautiful.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you building a fort there for our reporting.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. It was kind of fun. I haven't built
Speaker 1: a sheet fort since I was a kid.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to on the job today. We're speaking with
Speaker 2: Demanie Pollett, as you heard, is the owner of a
Speaker 2: female run auto repair shop in Vermont. But Girlington Garage
Speaker 2: is more than just a cute name. Demenie's mission is
Speaker 2: a creative place where women feel comfortable having their cars repaired.
Speaker 1: They walked in and they didn't feel out of place
Speaker 1: or like they didn't belong. They immediately felt like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can sit down here, and this feels like I
Speaker 1: don't want to say this feels like home, because you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like home to go to a repair shop,
Speaker 1: but something equivalent to home. This feels like a comfortable
Speaker 1: coffee shop. Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2: To that, and Girlington does serve some pretty darn good coffee,
Speaker 2: and the lobby is the kind of place you wouldn't
Speaker 2: mind passing time reading a book or catching up with
Speaker 2: an old friend.
Speaker 1: So our waiting room is very clean, it has really
Speaker 1: comfy chairs, it's full of plants. We also have I
Speaker 1: remember when I was a kid, the funnest thing in
Speaker 1: the world was when we got a new refrigerator and
Speaker 1: there was a big box to play in. And so
Speaker 1: when we got a tire machine, I took that box.
Speaker 1: I painted it and I cut out little windows and
Speaker 1: a door in it. So we have that in our
Speaker 1: waiting room for kids to play in. We have lots
Speaker 1: of toys.
Speaker 2: And in addition to the comfy furniture and a cardboard
Speaker 2: playhouse for kids, the lobby of Gurlington also has a
Speaker 2: large window which looks out under the garage bays where
Speaker 2: the mechanics do their work.
Speaker 1: One of the pillars of my business is transparency and honesty,
Speaker 1: and I feel like if I can see what's going on,
Speaker 1: I am more likely to trust that what is happening
Speaker 1: is right because I'm watching it happen. So I feel
Speaker 1: like it just lends a sense of trust for our customers.
Speaker 2: And that sense of trust that Demni is trying to
Speaker 2: instill is just one of the many ways she is
Speaker 2: hoping to revolutionize a slippery, historically male dominated industry. As
Speaker 2: she tells it. Demni was far from a natural born mechanic.
Speaker 2: In fact, it took a lot of trial and error,
Speaker 2: sometimes at her own expense.
Speaker 1: I think, actually I had changed my own oil once
Speaker 1: and I found it was it was at my parents' house,
Speaker 1: and I found a gallon of oil in the in
Speaker 1: the garage, and so I thought, okay, that's what you
Speaker 1: put in. So I put a full gallon of oil in,
Speaker 1: which is not what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: At that time in her life, pre Girlington, Demni was
Speaker 2: working in the social services field, tending to the elderly
Speaker 2: and people with developmental disabilities. But it seemed that no
Speaker 2: matter how much she worked, she just couldn't get ahead.
Speaker 1: I lived in this cabin that you had to walk
Speaker 1: to out in the woods that didn't have running water.
Speaker 1: It only had an extension cord like running along the
Speaker 1: ground for electricity, and it was two hundred dollars a
Speaker 1: month and I couldn't afford that.
Speaker 2: So she came up with two potential career paths, which
Speaker 2: on their surface seemed completely different, but not to her.
Speaker 1: So the only two things that I thought would be
Speaker 1: at all interesting were psychology. I thought that would be
Speaker 1: very interesting learning about people figuring out their mysterious mysteries
Speaker 1: every day, and fixing cars again, figuring out these machines
Speaker 1: fixing There are mysterious mysteries every day. And so I
Speaker 1: did a little bit of research and I realized it
Speaker 1: was going to take six years to become a psychologist
Speaker 1: in two years to become a technician, And so that
Speaker 1: was my decision right there.
Speaker 2: So Demni is learning about cars, turning those mysterious mysteries
Speaker 2: into solvable problems. When one day, while studying front end assemblies,
Speaker 2: she suddenly thinks back to an experience she had with
Speaker 2: her own car, an old Ford Bronco.
Speaker 1: And as I learned them, I started remembering this time
Speaker 1: I had brought my truck in. Then the technician came
Speaker 1: out to me and said, hey, come out to your
Speaker 1: car with me. I want to show you something. So
Speaker 1: he got me down, we got on our backs, we
Speaker 1: went underneath the truck and he grabbed this bar that
Speaker 1: went from one wheel to another, and he grabbed it
Speaker 1: and he moved it back and forth, and he said,
Speaker 1: see that that's your tirod and that should not move
Speaker 1: like that. And I saw him moving it, and I thought, boy,
Speaker 1: that's definitely moving. So I guess if he says, is
Speaker 1: it should it shouldn't, that's that's bad. I need to
Speaker 1: fix that. And back in school, years down the line,
Speaker 1: I was remembering this, and I realized that the part
Speaker 1: he grabbed was not a tirod but a sway bar,
Speaker 1: and a sway bar is not a safety issue. And
Speaker 1: also it moves like that the way he grabbed it
Speaker 1: and moved it, that's what it does. It was fine.
Speaker 2: Oh man, do you think he got swindled?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I don't know if he misspoke,
Speaker 1: or if he showed me the wrong thing or what.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was. I was misled, whether on per or not.
Speaker 1: And I didn't have any understanding of what was going on.
Speaker 1: And I realized that that had probably happened to me
Speaker 1: so many times, more times than I could count.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing about Demini, though, instead of thinking back
Speaker 2: to that moment and getting bitter about it, she gets inspired.
Speaker 1: And I thought, God, I wish there was I knew
Speaker 1: of a woman mechanic. I would drive long distances to
Speaker 1: bring my car to a woman who was a mechanic.
Speaker 1: And then I thought, I bet a lot of other
Speaker 1: women feel this way, I'm going to open up an
Speaker 1: old girl garage and I'm going to make a million dollars.
Speaker 1: And then from that point on, that was my plan.
Speaker 1: That was what I was working towards, was figuring out
Speaker 1: how to open my own business.
Speaker 2: But the more Deminie learns about the industry, the more
Speaker 2: she realizes opening up a business is a lot of work,
Speaker 2: much more than she can do alone. Luckily, she knew
Speaker 2: just who to call.
Speaker 1: My mom was looking for something new to do with
Speaker 1: her life, and so I said, Hey, come up to Burlington.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to start this business. Why don't you come
Speaker 1: help me? And so she did.
Speaker 2: When we come back from the break, the pilot ladies
Speaker 2: roll up the garage doors.
Speaker 1: A strong work ethic takes pride in a job well done.
Speaker 2: This is the kind of.
Speaker 1: Person you need.
Speaker 2: Express Employment professionals can help because in good times or bad,
Speaker 2: we understand how critical it is to manage your business
Speaker 2: for today with the right workforce.
Speaker 1: We offer hiring solutions to fit changing demands.
Speaker 2: Express knows jobs. Get to know Express go to expresspros
Speaker 2: dot com to find a lotation near you. We're back
Speaker 2: talking with Demonie Polytt, who, along with her mom has
Speaker 2: just opened up her repair shop, Burlington Garage in South Burlington, Vermont,
Speaker 2: and for the first few days things go exactly as
Speaker 2: you'd imagine, with only a handful of curious customers trickling in.
Speaker 2: Like any business, Deminie knows, it will take time to grow, unless,
Speaker 2: of course, you get a lucky break.
Speaker 1: I was at the shop on the weekend because we
Speaker 1: had just opened, so I was there twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day, and I got a call from someone whose
Speaker 1: car had broken down in another town and they didn't
Speaker 1: have Triple A, and so I gave her my Triple A.
Speaker 1: I called Triple A and I said, hey, my car
Speaker 1: broke down, so I had Triple A tow her to
Speaker 1: the shop. I think it was just like a flat
Speaker 1: tire or something. I just fixed whatever it was, and
Speaker 1: I sent her on her way and she had and
Speaker 1: to be a DJ on the local radio station. It
Speaker 1: was really the most wonderful stroke of luck.
Speaker 2: And that was in your first week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, first or second week, right in the beginning.
Speaker 2: It was amazing, and you noticed the uptick in business
Speaker 2: right away.
Speaker 1: Oh immediately immediately, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was it was
Speaker 1: really incredible. I mean, would she would talk us up
Speaker 1: on her radio show every week. It was so incredible.
Speaker 2: From then on, business continued to prosper as more and
Speaker 2: more customers kept coming in and spreading the word that
Speaker 2: there was this cool, new female run auto shop. And
Speaker 2: while Demni could breathe a little easier with the influx
Speaker 2: of new customers, she quickly learned that owning an auto
Speaker 2: shop comes with some built in challenges.
Speaker 1: You know, being a technician is a really hard job.
Speaker 1: It's physically difficult and it's hard on your body, and
Speaker 1: most technicians don't last much past fifty two because of
Speaker 1: how physically difficult it is. But I would argue that
Speaker 1: the most difficult job is being the service advisor. That's
Speaker 1: a person that you talk to when you bring your
Speaker 1: car and to get fixed. They're sort of the go
Speaker 1: between the mechanic and the customer, and it's nearly impossible
Speaker 1: to take your own emotions out of it. Everyone knows
Speaker 1: what it's like when their car breaks down and when
Speaker 1: they have this painfully expensive bill that they have to
Speaker 1: pay if they're going to get their car back. Everyone
Speaker 1: knows how that feels, and so being the person who
Speaker 1: has to explain that to a customer and say your
Speaker 1: car is not safe to drive unless you give us
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars. It's just a brutal job, mentally and
Speaker 1: emotionally exhausting. And then there are the customers that have
Speaker 1: sent me messages saying, I don't trust you, think that
Speaker 1: you're taking advantage of me. I think you're cheating me.
Speaker 1: I think you know this other shop told me such
Speaker 1: and such a thing. And while I do understand it,
Speaker 1: it's the whole reason I started my shop, and it's brutal.
Speaker 1: It kills me a little bit. I die a little
Speaker 1: bit every single time learning that no matter how good
Speaker 1: we are and how careful we are and how hard
Speaker 1: we strive, not to take advantage of people, not to
Speaker 1: cheat people. If you tell them they need to pay
Speaker 1: you a lot of money, they're not going to trust
Speaker 1: you anymore. That's just gone. It doesn't matter what you do.
Speaker 2: No amount of nice coffee and tea's going to fix that.
Speaker 1: No, of course not, of course not. And I mean
Speaker 1: I'm the same way I get my housework done, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it needs twelve hundred dollars more
Speaker 1: than they quoted me. Of course I immediately think that they're
Speaker 1: doing something wrong or that they're cheating me or they're
Speaker 1: trying to just squeeze more money out of me. That's
Speaker 1: just how our brains work. I think there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do to stop it. It's just I think psychology.
Speaker 1: But it still hurts.
Speaker 2: The job also impacted her relationship with her mother, who,
Speaker 2: as a partner, was sharing the responsibilities of the business,
Speaker 2: albeit not always smoothly.
Speaker 1: Being partners with my mom owning a business destroyed our
Speaker 1: relationship one hundred percent. When we were still working together,
Speaker 1: we would just be in our office and we would
Speaker 1: just constantly be yelling at each other.
Speaker 2: Things eventually got so bad between Demoni and her mom
Speaker 2: that they couldn't even be in the shop at the
Speaker 2: same time.
Speaker 1: We had changed it so that we were only each
Speaker 1: working two and a half days a week, and we
Speaker 1: would overlap for an hour on Wednesday and sort of
Speaker 1: have a conversation and talk about what was going on
Speaker 1: in the shop, and then she would leave and I
Speaker 1: would take over and I'd be there for the end
Speaker 1: of the week.
Speaker 2: Then, eight years into the business, Demni came down with
Speaker 2: a thyroid condition. She struggled to even work the two
Speaker 2: and a half days a week, and that's when her
Speaker 2: mother's unconditional love took over.
Speaker 1: My mom, being a really really good mom, said you
Speaker 1: need to take some time off, go away for two years.
Speaker 1: Come back. We'll see where the business is at. If
Speaker 1: it still exists, I'll take care of it till then.
Speaker 1: And so I did that and it did still exist.
Speaker 1: She did good.
Speaker 2: So your mom held the fort while you were gone.
Speaker 1: She did. Yeah, my mom, she ran the business all
Speaker 1: by herself. She became the service advisor. She did it
Speaker 1: all all by herself while I was gone. Really amazing.
Speaker 1: And then she immediately retired.
Speaker 2: Since Demanie's mom stepped away from the business, the two
Speaker 2: have attended therapy sessions to overcome the damage they're working
Speaker 2: together had on their relationship.
Speaker 1: Really helped us to heal things and get over the
Speaker 1: damage that was done. Being business partners. I couldn't have
Speaker 1: done it without her, but I also wouldn't choose to
Speaker 1: do it with her again.
Speaker 2: And with her health greatly improved, Demanie is back in
Speaker 2: the shop these days, but she admits she's in that
Speaker 2: challenging phase of ownership where it's no longer as exciting
Speaker 2: as it once was for her.
Speaker 1: I care about the business, I really do, and I
Speaker 1: love my employees, I love the people that I work with,
Speaker 1: and I do want Girlington to run forever, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't make me very happy, and so I'm mostly just
Speaker 1: there for support for the manager, Susan McGrath. She's fantastic
Speaker 1: and running the business like nobody's business.
Speaker 2: Demenie still goes in two days a week, but her
Speaker 2: goal is for Girlington to grow independent of her, for
Speaker 2: this thing that she created to reach a stage where
Speaker 2: it no longer needs her. So what do you think's
Speaker 2: next for Deminie.
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I think I still I'm still
Speaker 1: in a transition getting it to a stable point. Once
Speaker 1: that is sort of settled, I'll have to think about it.
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about it. I don't know what's next.
Speaker 1: I don't know spring's coming, So anything outside that's definitely next.
Speaker 1: Definitely gardening, Definitely walking in the woods, swimming in some
Speaker 1: cold streams. Yeah, I have no idea. What's going to
Speaker 1: happen work wise. We'll see.
Speaker 2: From the job. I'm Avery Thompson