The Wake-Up Call I Didn't See Coming

Several years ago, I was invited to speak at a Women in Automotive conference in front of a room filled with professionals and peers from across the industry.

My first instinct was to decline. I was terrified, convincing myself I wasn’t ready, and allowed self-doubt to set in.

“I’m too young.”

“Am I even qualified to be on the panel?”   

“What if I get asked a question I can’t answer?”

I obsessed over my headshot, my outfit, and whether my story was even worth sharing. I questioned the value I could bring to the event. And for a moment, I seriously considered passing on the opportunity altogether, and if I didn’t, I’d show up and play small.

Let me tell you something, I’m so glad I didn’t! Believe it or not, this event was a defining moment in my career. I received a wake-up call I wasn’t expecting.

As I sat on the stage with four other accomplished women in the industry, something clicked. While listening to their stories and journeys through the dealership world, I realized something that hit me like a lightning bolt: I was the only woman on that panel who had bought and operated her own dealership. My business wasn’t inherited or passed down.

And I didn’t do it in my hometown or comfort zone. I purchased it in an entirely different country, just over two years after moving to Canada. My husband and I enlisted the help of an automotive M&A firm to assist us in purchasing our first store, a Kia dealership in Mississauga, Ontario.

In that moment, I stopped seeing myself as an imposter and finally saw myself as a woman who had done something extraordinary.

Looking back, I have realized it wasn’t a lack of experience holding me back. I was allowing the habit of shrinking to get the best of me.

I grew up in the automotive industry and have been in it my entire life. It’s in my blood and shaped my career. But for the longest time, I didn’t engage much beyond the dealership walls. Industry events were not encouraged in the environment I was raised in, often seen as distractions, forcing me to stay focused and quiet.

Fortunately, that panel forced me to see what I’d been minimizing all along. I walked out of that conference a completely different woman. No longer questioning whether I belonged, I understood that playing small was a missed opportunity. My story mattered, and I was “enough” to speak, lead, and take that next step.

We often think ambition is our problem when really it’s the choice of self-sabotage.

We’re not underqualified. It’s time to stop underestimating ourselves and downplaying the truth. We’ve earned our place!