She was 22 years old, a fashion major living on Top Ramen and working at the mall. Then, one day, she rear-ended some guy’s car. Trouble was, as the insurance company pointed out when she called to make a claim,
jeopardizes the future of car buying. It’s the same story for women – as she well knows.
she’d not been paying her insurance. Turns
For three years, beginning in 2007,
out, although her dad had been sending her
Copeland traveled the country, drawing on
the money, she’d been spending it on her
her well-honed sales skills and years of
passion – clothes – and not dreary auto in-
management expertise to train dealers, in-
surance. Too scared to tell Dad, she asked a
dustry executives and manufacturers on
friend what to do. “Come sell cars,” said
what she calls, “selling authentically to
James Copeland. “I don’t do cars, I sell skirts,”
women.” One of her consulting clients was
argued Lisa Colegrove. Until she realized
her old boss, Nyle Maxwell, who hired her
she had no other options. So, she got a job at
back, in June 2010. As general sales man-
Jim Johnson Chevrolet in Dallas, one of only
ager for the Nyle Maxwell Family of Deal-
two women among 98 sales guys. Fast-for-
erships, she was instrumental in launching
ward 23 years: James and Lisa have been
the website, buyingcarsherway.com. Get-
married 22 years; and she’s poised to revolu-
ting women as excited about buying cars
tionize the car industry. Revolutionize? Yes
as they are about any other purchase could
– that’s exactly what this passionate, people-
be an economic stimulus in its own right.
loving, 45-year-old plans to do as she launch-
“They buy cars at half the rate that men do,
es FIAT’s new dealership in Austin – the first
even though they influence 85% of the buy-
automobile store at The Domain, and target-
ing process,” Copeland explains.
ed at two groups the majority of the automo-
At FIAT Austin, to avoid losing talented
tive industry has a hard time connecting
women employees and alienating women
with: women and millennials (those 18-to-
customers, Copeland is implementing radi-
28-year-old hipsters also known as Gen Y).
cal new sales techniques, with set prices
Copeland’s not only spent 20+ years rais-
rather than the kind of haggling negotiations
ing her own two millennials (daughter Allix,
that many female car buyers hate. She’ll also
21, and son JT, 19 – whom she says are her
have set hours, akin to a corporate job, and is
“greatest accomplishment”); in her rise up the
considering job-sharing, making it easier for
career ladder, Copeland has been training,
women with young children to work as
advising and mentoring the exact demo-
salespeople.
graphic of young people she believes the auto industry needs to attract – both as employees
Thanksgiving night, 1994. The Copelands
and consumers. Not making a strong connec-
were home, relaxing. Until toddler JT began
tion with the younger generation, she argues,
choking. “He’d gotten an earring lodged in
his throat,” shudders Copeland at the memory of what she believes could easily have been fatal, if their son had been with a sitter. “Because we were there, my husband was able to get it out.” It was a wake-up call to Copeland that – with two small children – she could no longer work what she calls the “crazy hours” demanded of a senior manager in a car dealership. (She was finance director at the time.) By Monday, she’d handed Nyle Maxwell her notice. Copeland’s career detour took her into the mortgage business, which was “much more conducive” to raising a family. Being the human dynamo that she is, after just a year, Copeland started her own company,
going
on
to
take
Austin
Fact File: Hometown: San Jose, CA. Husband: James, owner, Austin Mortgage Associates. Kids: Allix, 21, special ed teacher; JT, 19, trainee firefighter. Family: Mom, Susan; sister, Jenny. Arrived in Texas: Junior year of high school. First Job in Texas: 1982, bat girl at Texas Rangers, earning $2.25/hour. Home: After 22 years in Round Rock, recently built a home in Georgetown. Church: Celebration Church. Key: Bruce Colegrove, James Copeland, Nyle Maxwell.
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