Cummins Cowgirl - Overhauled S1E5
Cummins Cowgirl - Overhauled S1E5 is now on your favorite podcast app!
Want to be a guest on Overhauled? - https://www.diesellaptops.com/pages/podcast-guests
In this podcast your host Melissa Petersmann (The Diesel Queen) discusses diesel technicians, trucks, the diesel economy at large, and many more interesting topics in a style that only she can bring - raw and unfiltered.
Melissa is joined today by Chloe, known on social media as The Cummins Cowgirl. She is a heavy-duty diesel mechanic who began her career working for Peterbilt. She now specializes in custom builds. Chloe and Melissa discuss their shared interests and what it is like to be a woman in a largely male-based industry.
As always, thank you for watching and listening!
Connect with The Cummins Cowgirl:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thecumminscowgirl/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thecumminscowgirl/
Website –https://thecccustoms.com/
Transcript for Cummins Cowgirl - Overhauled S1E5
Melissa:
Hey, guys. This is Melissa with Overhauled. I am here today with very special guest. I've known her for years on social media. She has worked her way up from a mechanic into running her own business. I'd like to introduce you guys, Cummins Cowgirl. Can you introduce yourself and kind of explain a little bit about your career path and how you got into the industry and what you're doing right now?
Chloe Yonker:
Hi you all. I'm Chloe Yonker, also known as the Cummins Cowgirl on all social media platforms. I started in the industry as a heavy-duty diesel mechanic that wrenched for a Peterbilt dealership here in my hometown. That's kind of where I started in the industry. Since then, I've been going towards doing custom builds. I've kind of veered from the heavy-duty diesel life to Jeeps, off-road vehicles, UTVs, and pickup trucks. Yeah, that's kind of a gist of what I'm doing now.
Melissa:
Well, you were just in SEMA this year, weren't you?
Chloe Yonker:
We just got back a couple weeks ago. It's been, after SEMA, it's like you push everything off leading up to SEMA and then you're gone for a whole week and a half, and then you have to catch up on everything. It's just like a mad dash of stuff to do, but it's 100% worth it. SEMA is an amazing time. For anyone interested in automotive industry, I highly recommend going at least once for sure just to experience it.
Melissa:
Absolutely. Did you have a build entered into SEMA?
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah, we took the 2021 Jeep Wrangler JL EcoDiesel. That was there with the air design booth. It was outside of West Hall. We had the Wrangler there this year and then the Gladiator was there last year.
Melissa:
Nice. You've had two years of entering vehicles into SEMA. That's awesome.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah. My first year was last year and that was a huge door opener. It's been nice. We already have two builds promised for next year. I'm like, we got to start now because it's going to come fast. It always does.
Melissa:
Is your white pickup going to be one of them?
Chloe Yonker:
I have a couple of builds actually that I'm in the works. Maybe I can squeeze my toe rig in there too, but the main one that I'm focusing on is my '97 second gen.
Melissa:
Nice. Nice. Second Gen World. Yes. Team Second Gen.
Chloe Yonker:
But at least hopefully we'll get that back together. Then, the other build is a side-by-side for Axe Wheels.
Melissa:
Nice. Awesome. What made you decide to take the steps of, I'm working in a shop, you worked on semis, correct? Yeah, Peterbilt. What made you decide to make that transition from, I'm working for somebody else, working on semis. It looked like you enjoyed what you were doing. What made you decide to transition into trying to start your own business, doing your own builds, stuff like that?
Chloe Yonker:
For me, I did enjoy my job a lot. I loved the dealership. I loved where I was at. I loved the people I worked with and the management there was top notch. Excellent. What came down to it was kind of like the, I don't even know how to say it, the financial side of it and then being your own boss.
What was really hard for me is that at the time, I was traveling to shows almost, almost every weekend. It was hard to have a full-time job at a dealership and then still travel and do all of the social influencing, content creating job. That was really hard to do both because I can't have a truck torn down in my bay and that customer needs that vehicle and I'm gone. It was really difficult to do. I was originally actually going to just quit and pursue just social media and then they were like, "Actually, let's have you part-time."
Then, I tried that for a while and then ultimately, it was just, time is money. Spending a lot of time that I could be spending elsewhere was the biggest thing. Then, obviously just the flexibility of having my own schedule. I'm a night owl like no other. My most productive time on my day is from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 in the morning.
Melissa:
Wow.
Chloe Yonker:
It's so weird. Yeah, so weird. I do a lot of my video editing and stuff like that at that hour. It was really hard to have that and also be-
Melissa:
Up, yeah, be up at freaking 7:00 in the morning. Yeah. Yup. I feel that-
Chloe Yonker:
It's kind of the push was just the schedule and just having my time.
Melissa:
Well, you didn't quit the industry. You didn't stop being a mechanic because you're...
Chloe Yonker:
No.
Melissa:
... you're still doing it. You're just doing it under your own roof in your own shop. I see when you first decided to leave the industry, it was kind of similar to when I did. You get a lot of people that are like, "Oh my God, you quit. Oh my God, you're horrible." It's like, "No. I'm trying to build my own thing," and you proved them wrong. You showed them, you're like, "No, I'm still doing this. I'm just doing it for myself," which is...
Chloe Yonker:
Exactly. Yeah.
Melissa:
... way, way better than working for somebody else.
Chloe Yonker:
It's definitely more rewarding, I think, for sure.
Melissa:
Well, it's got to be a pride thing.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah.
Melissa:
You go to SEMA and you're like, "This is mine. I built this. This is mine."
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah.
Melissa:
That's cool.
Chloe Yonker:
Then, the cherry on top is just like, I am a 25-year-old female who can do it on my own. Therefore, anybody else can.
Melissa:
Exactly.
Chloe Yonker:
If you have the work ethic and you have the passion, you can do anything, really.
Melissa:
That's kind of the point that I make to a lot of younger people that want to enter the industry or they're not sure. I had a young lady on here, which is my first episode after the one I do with my boss and she's like 17 and she wants to be a mechanic, but she's got all these questions about the industry and how do you handle it when you mess up.
I told her is, if you show up and you try hard, you will go a long ways in this industry. That is the two, that is the only two requirements that shops have is show up and try hard. That's all they want. The only mistakes you make is if you make them twice. Everybody learns. I've been having everybody on this show just for shits and giggles, tell me what their biggest mistake was, just to kind of show people, everybody fucks up.
Everybody has, and every mechanic has this one story or two stories. You're like, "Oh my God, this is like," I questioned my entire existence today. I think we all do, especially those first three years in the industry, you feel like you fucked up everything you touch. You're harder on yourself than your boss is sometimes.
I had my boss in my first shop I worked at, tell me multiple times, he'd come out and he wanted to yell at me for something and he'd look at me and he's like, "You're being harder on yourself than I was going to be on you. Just don't beat yourself up for more than 15 minutes because we got other shit to do, but I'm going to go back in my office." What made you decide in the first place to enter into being a heavy-duty mechanic?
Chloe Yonker:
I have a very non-traditional route of how I ended up where I did. I actually got into the dealership as a management intern originally.
Melissa:
Really?
Chloe Yonker:
Yes, because I went to a four-year university and got a business degree.
Melissa:
Really?
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah, I did. I actually wanted to drop out halfway through my degree to go to a trade school for diesel mechanics. My counselor basically said, "That's ridiculous. Don't do that. That's stupid." I stuck it out, got my bachelor's degree, and then went to that dealership as a management intern.
Two months in, they stuck me in the sales office and I was dying. I was quite literally dying, but actually it was a blessing because that was when I started my Instagram because I had so much time on my hands because I wasn't doing anything. I was like, "Oh, this is brutal." I was basically just, my job title was to take titles and registration to the DMV. That's really all I kind of did all day.
Melissa:
Oh God.
Chloe Yonker:
It sucks and I'm a very fast-paced person, so being behind a computer was driving me nuts. Then, they swapped me to the service department and tried my feet out as a service advisor and I liked it a lot more except for the fact that it was still a white collar job. I would go in there and I talked to the techs and all the guys and I'm like, "That's where I want to be. I would much rather be in the shop."
I kept bugging my service manager about it and I was like, "Please. Just let me try it out. Please, please, please." He quite literally laughed in my face a couple times and I remember going to lunch with him and he asked me the order of standard size and I was like, "I don't know," because at the time-
Melissa:
Well, I didn't know either. I didn't know either.
Chloe Yonker:
Right. [inaudible 00:10:37]. It made me feel, like he did it intentionally and it made me feel dumb, but I took that as a challenge. I kept bugging him and I was like, "Please, just let me try it." He's like, "Okay. We'll try you in the shop for a month." Then, two and a half years later, I was a level three tech and quit and started my own shop.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
That's how it all happened, but I didn't go to school for it. I had no prior training specifically in heavy duty. All I had worked on in my life was my Second Gen, which was a 12L. The first thing I ever did was change an alternator and I shocked the shit out of myself because I didn't disconnect the batteries. I was YouTube certified. No end.
Melissa:
Oh my God. That's awesome.
Chloe Yonker:
[inaudible 00:11:23] parking lot. That's what my level of knowledge was. We've started from the bottom, now we're here, but lots of just absorbing knowledge like a sponge.
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
Asking the head texts millions of questions to the point where you feel like you're so annoying, but that is how you learn.
Melissa:
Absolutely.
Chloe Yonker:
You learn by failing. You learn by trial and error. You learn by hurting yourself. Trust me, I have plenty of scars from that.
Melissa:
I've got stitches, yup.
Chloe Yonker:
Where not to stand, and what not to do, how not to lift things that are stupid heavy and use your tools that are intended for what they're used for.
Melissa:
You mean, you're not supposed to use a screwdriver as a chisel?
Chloe Yonker:
Well, I definitely do that, but pry bars are your best friend when it comes to heavy lifting stuff.
Melissa:
Mm-hmm. You can get a lot done with a pry bar and a ratchet strap.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Melissa:
Well, in your shop you didn't have a crane. My little spoiled ass had a crane.
Chloe Yonker:
You had to figure out how to use lots of different physics in your favor.
Melissa:
I'm sure you've gotten asked this question a million times. I've been asked this question a million times and I don't really want to ask you because it drives me crazy to get asked this, but I want to give you a chance to answer this question. Did you, I guess if you did, ever run into an issue specifically with being a woman?
Chloe Yonker:
In my shop? No. Was I stereotyped? Yes. Not specifically by the people I worked with, but mostly by customers. The amount of times I will walk in there head to toe like caked in dirt and grease and grime and they still had the audacity to ask me, what do I do?
Melissa:
Right.
Chloe Yonker:
What do you think I do?
Melissa:
What the fuck does it look like?
Chloe Yonker:
Ah! Just because I have blonde hair doesn't make me any much less of a tech than any other guys out here. That was one thing that kind of really was stressing me out, but the weird things were when I was starting to grow my social media and they knew where I worked, then it could kind of get a little creepy because I tried to separate as much as I possibly could my social media from my work life. I didn't want people to be coming into the dealership with the thought of them like-
Melissa:
Fanboying over you?
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
That's just weird to me. I'm just like, "Please don't do that." I had amazing service advisors that flagged a lot of that contact. That was never a thing. I remember going in the shop a couple times and then being like, "Aren't you the girl from TikTok?" I'm like, "Son of a gun. Yes I am." Then, I went, get all shy and then I leave, because I don't like the mixing of my professional job with my social media job. I don't know, but now-
Melissa:
Yeah. No, I get that completely.
Chloe Yonker:
All in one now because I work for myself, but at the time, I just didn't like that because-
Melissa:
Well, it's embarrassing to have these freaking, creepy people show up at your job, your place of work where, yeah, I get that. I've not had somebody, well, I've had somebody show up to my work, not specifically to talk to me, but I have a story, the Honnen Equipment shop I worked at in Wyoming, right when they were first opening, that was the last construction dealership I worked at.
We helped set that up. It was a brand new building and we had some contractor guy in there. It was an office guy of all people too. He was in there working for, on the printers or some shit and I walked up to the front to go get something and he's like, I'm doing shit at my boss's desk, and my boss, thank God, had a great sense of humor at the time, and he walks up to me and he is like, "Hey, you don't know me, but I know you."
It's like total creepy. I don't think he meant to be that creepy, but my boss would not let that shit go for months. He made fun of me for that for months. This guy did the same thing out of a million ways to approach somebody that you've met on social media, because I've been approached before, "Oh hey, you're the Diesel Queen. I know you." Out of all the ways to approach somebody, he chooses that. Why?
I've also had somebody call, I've had somebody from LinkedIn of all sites call my boss, same boss, great sense of humor, thank God, called my boss and asked to speak to me. Then, when my boss told him, "Go fuck yourself," he then said, "Hey, what if I fly down and have a meet and greet from Texas?" From Texas, and my boss is like, "Yeah, good fucking luck with that. You are not welcome in this dealership." I don't think he said that, said it in that manner, but thank God he had a good sense of humor. I was given shit for that for two months.
My boss made fun of me for months over that. He's like, "Oh, I'm going to go set up a meet and greet at the truck stop down the street." He's like, "I'm going to charge him $5 for your signature and then I'm going to go buy beer." I'm like, "You suck." But, I mean, I totally get that.
That's the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about because you uniquely have the same issues as I do you. You're big on social media. I did actually, you kind of covered it for me. I wanted to cover it, you get people trying to intervene with your social life or your socials to your work and how that was handled. That's because, you have 100,000, over 100,000 more followers than me on Instagram. I don't know what your TikTok is at, but people, I think, underestimate the power of social media and how many people you can reach.
Even videos that don't do that good on our TikTok, it might reach 10,000 people and we're like, or 10,000 views and we're like, "Fuck, that was horrible." That's still 10,000 people. That's a lot of people to reach. As money doors as that opens up, there's also a lot of weird shit that can go along with that. I don't even want to know what your message requests look like because I know what mine looks like.
Chloe Yonker:
I used to do a thing called Blast Them Mondays...
Melissa:
Oh God.
Chloe Yonker:
... where I would post all the weird messages I get on my story just to brighten people's Mondays because it's just hilarious, but I kind of went away from that because I felt like some people actually want the attention.
Melissa:
They wanted to be posted? Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah. It's like, if you don't stoke the fire, then maybe it'll help. I mean, I have a lot of filtered words through all of my social media comments too. Certain emojis, certain keywords, just so that it's less of me having to sift through it because I really try to push a PG type of version of social media because I know that I do have younger audiences watching.
My thought process is, if I post this, am I okay with my neighbors seeing it? My nieces and nephews seeing it? Yes. As women, we want to be confident. I get that, but at the same time, I want to be a role model. That's really what the best word is. I want to show that you can feel sexy, you can be confident, you can dress the way you want within a certain level of decency as well, I guess.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
That's where I'm just like, I try to use that with my social media as well because I don't want people scrolling through comments and there being a ton of profanity, just suggestive comments. Facebook is really bad about that.
Melissa:
Facebook's the worst.
Chloe Yonker:
Facebook and YouTube are savages and I'm like, "Why are we this way?" Yeah, that's kind of how it is, but yeah, there's a lot of times where even I've been kind of down just by some of the keyboard warriors and what they say and it's sad because it's like that one out of 100 and that one it's like guts you, but you forget about the other 99 that we're all positive. You said it, we're the hardest on ourselves. It's really difficult when you portray your whole life to the world because people are so quick to judge and not ask questions.
Melissa:
Yup. Well, and like you said, they're keyboard warriors. They would never ever say that shit to your face, ever. It's just because they're sitting behind a computer screen that they're like, "Oh my god, I'm going to," and I've gotten that before. I'm sure you've gotten this too. I can't fucking win.
If I post a done up picture, because I love, I'm the same way as you are. I love to show women that you can be feminine and still be a mechanic. You can wear, be dressed to the nines and a dress and heels and makeup and then five minutes later you can go be ripping an engine out of a truck. I love doing that, but it's one of two things, I either get bitched at because, oh my God, your hands are too clean to be a mechanic, or I get bitched at because my hands are dirty and they're like, "Don't you know what gloves are?" It's like, or I wear gloves and then they bitch about that.
Chloe Yonker:
I was just about to say that. I'm like, it's either you're too dirty or you're not dirty enough.
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
I'm done. I'm with you people. [inaudible 00:21:43], right?
Melissa:
This is ridiculous.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah, I 100% agree. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, whether you wear gloves, whether you don't, whether you wear this, whether you don't, whether you're wearing yoga pants in the shop or jeans in the shop, whether you're wearing [inaudible 00:21:56], what, it doesn't matter. You're like-
Melissa:
Yup. Well and I never, as you know, when you work in a shop, somebody else runs. They have uniforms. You don't get to choose what your uniform is. You wear what they fucking give you and usually it's men's clothes, right? Obviously, like 99% of my content for, up until three months ago, was in a shop, somebody else's shop. I was wearing the work jeans and the work shirt and I've seen people bitch about your leggings before.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh, yeah.
Melissa:
It's like, I go and work in my own shop. Yeah. I've worked in my own shop and worked in leggings and I get the same. It's like, dude, it's fucking comfortable for me. I'm not running a torch. If I'm going to be running a torch or a welder, yeah, I'm not going to be wearing fucking leggings, right? But if you're just doing a brake job and it's hot as fuck because it's like 99 degrees plus humidity, I'm going to wear my God damn leggings.
Chloe Yonker:
Free.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
I do a lot in my... I am in Texas. In the summers, we don't have the luxury of an air conditioned shop. There's a lot of videos of during the summer of I'm literally wearing a sports bra and leggings, working in the shop and just drenched. I'm dripping in sweat. I'm gross. People have so much to say and I'm just like, "Have you ever worked in a shop where you're just like, you can't turn on a fan because it's just blowing hot air." It is what it is.
I mean, yes there are times where, like you said, if I have to weld or it's like PPE and stuff like that, then that makes sense, but when I'm just wiring at a million rock lights, I want to be comfortable. Yeah, I feel that. I definitely feel that.
Melissa:
Yeah. I worked in Wyoming obviously, up until February when I moved to Indiana and we didn't have the humidity. It got hot but we didn't have the humidity and it was always windy. Even, the hot days were pretty bearable. I come to Indiana and it's like 85 degrees plus humidity and that's not even the hottest days. I have sweat rolling down my back and God, did I wish I could have just worn leggings to work that day and a fucking sports bra.
Then, I started working in my own shop and I'm like, "I'll be damned if I'm going to wear fucking jeans and a long sleeved shirt when it's like 110 degrees, but the keyboard warriors, they always got something to say and yeah, like you said, sometimes it's hard to, and that's another reason why I wanted to talk about social media is because there are a lot of young women that have the same issues as we do on social media. I've watched girls and regardless of whether or not they're mechanics or not, I've watched women get completely fucking destroyed by two people that are harassing them and then they quit all of their social media.
It's sad to see, but it's the sad reality of social media and you got to be careful what you say because cancel culture can come after you. As you know, it is not fucking easy to build 300 and what, 80,000 followers that you have? It's not hard or it's not easy to do that. It's really fucking hard, especially on Instagram to build that empire. That is actually your livelihood too because that is all of your advertisement for all your business.
People don't understand that that you're not just like, "Oh my God, this creator has to start over." It's not just that. It's this person's livelihood and how they make a living and how they advertise their business that just got destroyed and people don't get that. They're like, "Oh, they're just a creator. It's fine." No, it's not because some of us are trying to run a business off of social media.
Chloe Yonker:
Yes. There's so many things I can add. I'm just like, you're hitting the nail on the head with everything. The ones that hurt the most is when it's coming from other women.
Melissa:
Dude, the women are the worst. Women are freaking ruthless. Yes. I agree with that.
Chloe Yonker:
It's one thing, it's the whole mansplaining and kind of just guys who are insecure kind of thing.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
It's a whole other ordeal when it's another female that you're just like, and specifically women truck drivers shockingly are kind of savage. I'm just like, I remember so many times where I've uploaded a video where I'm at a big rig show and for some reason, TikTok just loves videos of people opening hoods. I don't know why they're just amazed by that, but I had done, I was doing a photo shoot, so I was in a crop top with a skirt.
Melissa:
I've seen that. Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah. Just opening a truck hood and they just murdered me in the comments and I'm like, "You don't even take the time to go to my profile and see that I'm quite literally a mechanic."
Melissa:
Yeah. Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
What? You're so up to judge what I'm wearing, which-
Melissa:
It's because you're pretty. They're mad at you because you're pretty and you look better than they do opening their hood at the truck. It's like, but it's like why not support that? Why not be like, "Oh my God, you look fucking awesome. I can't believe you're doing that in fucking heels." That was my thought process when I saw that video. It's like, "Oh my God, you're doing that in heels." My dumb ass would be over. Yeah, because I worked-
Chloe Yonker:
[inaudible 00:27:48].
Melissa:
It's why tear that down and you're totally right with the women are the worst sometimes on supporting each other. I uploaded a video or I posted a video or a picture? I posted something on Facebook and she freaked the fuck out over how I'm not being a role model for young women and I just want the attention and I'm just fake and giant paragraphs about how horrible I am and all the stuff and it's like, why are you commenting then? There's this really cool thing called scroll. It works great actually you can just skip right over it and continue on to the next post, but my followers tore her apart.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh, I bet. That's the best part...
Melissa:
My followers-
Chloe Yonker:
... because when everybody just has your back and then they rip them a new one and I'm just like, I don't even have to fight this battle because I've already proved myself over and time and time again. If you have a problem with me, then take it up with me. I don't understand why what I'm doing is hurting you.
Melissa:
Exactly. It was the same thing over my shop attire that I was wearing and she was bitching because she's like, "Well, a real mechanic would be in jeans and long sleeved shirts. I don't know if I believe that you're, you're not setting a good example." I'm like, A, this is a photo shoot or a TikTok video." This is, as you know, when you're in social media business, you have to follow the trends for some stuff and you got to post what helps get you views.
I know people hate on that, but it's also a business. That's how you're trying to run your business. I told her, I was like, "Look at my YouTube. Look at my actual YouTube." It is full of videos of me working on stuff and actually working on stuff in a shop and I'm in jeans and a tank top, or I made a bunch of videos when I was in an actual shop. I was in my uniform and it's like, you can't, first off, why'd you make a comment in the first place? Why was my post that important to you? I'm flattered, but why?
It's ridiculous but it's never going to end. That's kind of the point that I wanted to get across. Some of the young women or young anybody who's just getting into the industry of social media and trying to do that is everybody gets that. It's not just you. These people don't just hate you. I promise. They hate everybody. Yeah, it's kind of sad but it is what it is.
Chloe Yonker:
You got to have thick skin.
Melissa:
Yup. That's the other thing is, even in a shop, it sounds like your shop experience is very similar to mine, where the guys were awesome.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh, yeah.
Melissa:
The people were awesome. It was a great environment, but there's a lot of stories that I've heard of, not even just women, but young people entering the industry in general that they get there and everybody's talking shit and they're like, "Oh my God, they hate me." No. They don't hate you. It's just that's the environment of a shop.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:31:20] the shop, you have to just, they're more of your family in a way.
Melissa:
Exactly.
Chloe Yonker:
I felt it was more of kind of a relationship as far as a sibling kind of. I don't know. They're all like a family. It's just kind of like you pick at each other and you roll off the punches.
Melissa:
Well, you spend 8 to 10 hours a day with each other, right?
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah. Exactly.
Melissa:
Yeah. At some point, and it's also a shot full of guys and they give everybody shit. They're constantly talking shit to each other. It's free entertainment. I had an old mechanic that I used to work with when I first entered the industry and he always told us, he's like, "I'm surprised we even get fucking paid for this shit. It's like an adult daycare."
Chloe Yonker:
[inaudible 00:32:05].
Melissa:
Yeah. It kind of is. What do you think, in your opinion, and what do you think is a key or a direction, I guess, that people in the industry can follow to try to get more people into this industry? I'm a big advocate of what exactly what you and I are doing already.
Social media has a big audience and that is one of the best places to advertise, "Hey, this industry exists. You can be in this industry and here's realistic expectations of being in this industry." What other things do you think or feel that we are either lacking in a society, lacking in high schools or need to help get people into this industry?
Chloe Yonker:
As far as in high schools go, and this is based off experiences that I have personally kind of seen or witnessed, I suppose, is that I get quite a few messages from younger generations who just, like you said, high schoolers, who are interested but they don't know how to get their foot in the door. I think that's the biggest stumbling block is the fact that it is hard to get into the door.
I will, like I had said, I shared my story of how I started very unconventional way. It's really hard for me to try to give pointers because I mean, I'm just a very stubborn person and that's how I was able to get in, but not everybody's like that and not only, you have to have someone actually take a chance on you with the way I did it.
I mean, what I can suggest is just ask a lot of questions to people you trust, work, like you said, show up and just work hard, honestly. If you show that you actually are putting effort into what you're doing, they're going to notice that. They're going to see that you're trying, even if like you said you messed up, it is what it is. Everybody messes up, but from the get go, when I look back on where I was in high school, I really wish I had gone to the, I don't remember what it was called in high school, but there was certain ones where you had shop, you had welding, you could do-
Melissa:
The electives and stuff? Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Yes. Yes. I didn't take advantage of that because I didn't know at the time that was something I'd be interested in, honestly. That was what I wished I had gone through was taking the time and just experiencing a lot of different things. I was so set on just getting as many college credit hours as I could in high school and now I regret it because I could do so much more with a trade than I ever could with two credit hours. You know what I mean?
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
I feel like, thinking back on that sense, I wish I had done differently. That's why I want to share that with others so that they can also kind of put that in perspective as well, that if you learn a trade, that is something that you can't get taken away from you.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
You know what I mean? Whereas credit hours are just kind of like, you're going to pay a bunch of money for college and then have debt.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
It is what it really is. Whereas having a trade, you can just have a GED and go and make twice as much than anybody else without-
Melissa:
At 18 too, not like, I was making well above minimum wage right out of trade school, which I went to a trade school, it was not a community college or anything. It was a strict trade school. Right out of that, I was making well above minimum wage in a shop and I had a job before I left the trade school and it was, yeah. I agree with that. I've talked to a couple people now. I've talked to a couple people that have gone the route of trade schools and I've talked to a couple of people that were like, I just kind of tried some stuff in high school and I liked it so I entered a shop and said, "Teach me."
Chloe Yonker:
Exactly.
Melissa:
It's both ways work.
Chloe Yonker:
Having real life experience, I feel like almost sometimes is actually more beneficial...
Melissa:
Oh yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
... because go to an employer and be like, I've been working on this and this and this and this for this long and these are the skills I know and are working on mastering, whereas, like you said, fresh out of trade school. Everyone's going to have a different level of knowledge even going to the same school...
Melissa:
Oh yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
... just based on experiences and practicing and everything else. I guess, all in all, what I would sum that up as is just kind of take life experiences and try lots of different things, because you may never know what you will enjoy quite literally.
Melissa:
Do you think if employers or advocates I guess, of the industry, trade school colleges, do you think if they went to high schools and put on a little seminar thing for stuff like that, that would've helped you and that's something that you would've seen or did you have to actually get your hands in it?
In my high school, it was required. You had to take an automotive class to pass and you had to take either a woodworking class or a welding class to pass. You had to graduate. In that sense, I've told people stories millions of times before, there's so many kids in that high school that would've never even thought to touch an automotive class or a welding class elective because that's what I did with welding because I hate woodworking. All those kids in that, a good 80% of the kids in that, even in Wyoming, would not have ever touched an elective like that, but they had to.
Then, they have that knowledge of, "Hey, I can do this. I can do something with my hands," but that's a rare occurrence and it's just getting more rare and more rare because high schools are just dropping. They're dropping the electives in general, let alone making them mandatory.
I'm trying to figure out how can people, like Diesel Laptops, for example, that's part of the point obviously this podcast is to try and get the industry out to people and young people and people that failed out of college, that don't know what they're supposed to be doing with their life, but I mean, what do you think it would help to have more physical people in high schools and with young people telling them about it or do you think that's kind of kids need to figure it out for themselves?
Chloe Yonker:
In my opinion, this is just my social media mindset opinion of the marketing side, I see my younger siblings and I see how much time they spend on devices. I feel like, sure, you could try to go into the schools, but I feel like you're actually going to reach more by doing something through social media or a sort of entertainment venue [inaudible 00:39:49]...
Melissa:
Absolutely.
Chloe Yonker:
... that they're already locked in on.
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
They spend so much time behind a screen. That's the number one place that you're going to be able to put it in front of their face. With that, I mean, like I said, I'm a social media guru and I have full faith in reaching people via social media.
TikTok is a number one, I feel like social media app that really portrays what it is that we do. I mean, like you said, you can do it with the whole trends and stuff, but that might be a little bit of a foot in the door as well. They're just on a trending audio and they see us in the shop doing this funny dance trend thing and then they're like, "Oh wait, what are they doing?" You know what? That's foot in the door is that.
That's where I feel comes a lot of the messages I get is because of social media and they saw something of me changing a tire or doing an oil change and just stuff like that. Then, they do a little bit extra of, well what's this about? Then, they go to your other social media platforms. YouTube, those are longer videos. It just kind of depends because the attention span is about eight seconds.
Melissa:
Yeah. Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
You kind of have to flip them right then and there and then keep them attentive with doing other fun things in the entertainment side. I do think that knowledge can also be entertaining. You just have to be creative with how it's portrayed. That, personally, would be my recommendation is through social media outlets. Then, I met two young men at SEMA that were there with their shop class.
Melissa:
That's awesome.
Chloe Yonker:
Please give your teacher a hug because I'm freaking jealous.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
I wish I had that growing up. It's stuff like that where I'm like, "Dang, it's great to see others making it a priority." You know what I mean?
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
I feel like, yeah, SEMA is expensive, but the amount of knowledge that they're going to have and experience in those one or two days that they're there, is astronomical. Seeing all the new technologies that are coming out and all of the whole industry as a whole is just like, "Whoa, there's a lot to offer."
Melissa:
Well, it's taken because as I'm sure you know, the technician shortage that was pretty bad when we started in the industry is now detrimentally bad. Shops are right now, they're trying to hire a warm body. That's kind of the point I'm trying to get across to some of these kids is like, "Dude, there's so many opportunities." These shops are paying you to go to college. They're paying you to go to a trade school, and then they pay you for your first set of tools, and all you have to do is work in their shop for two years.
I wish I would've known that when I was entering. There's so many opportunities and they can do exactly what you did right now. They could walk into a shop and be like, "I want to learn this." Most shops are going to be like, "Well, we're about five technicians short, so get your ass in there. Let's go." There's so many opportunities for kids. The only, the last question, really, the last few things I want to cover is, A, do you think social media kind of romanticizes our job or in our trade?
Chloe Yonker:
I feel like because a lot of people try on social media to portray only the positives, no one sees the negatives.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
There's been several times where I came home and absolute tears just defeated because I thought I couldn't make it. The only thing that truly kept me going was calling one of the other texts and just pouring my heart out in a way of, do you think I can make it? Having a supportive person in your life like that, is a huge thing because when you aren't strong enough to keep going, you need a shoulder to lean on and you have to be strong just being on social media as it is.
Melissa:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
There's a lot of stuff that even I haven't shared with the world because I mean, I try to stay positive on social media because I don't want to be a Negative Nancy because [inaudible 00:44:36] also kind of go on there just to kind of brighten their day, but at the same time, they don't get the full story. You know what I mean?
Melissa:
Yup. Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
I guess in a long-winded answer, yes, in a way it does romanticize it, but you just have to know that, I mean, you're going to have oil baths, you're going to have diesel in your hair.
Melissa:
Yes. Cool. In your face.
Chloe Yonker:
[inaudible 00:45:02] you're going to have bruises, you're going to have sprained ankles, you're going to have fingernails being ripped off. You're going to have it all.
Melissa:
Yeah. You may as well give up on long fingernails because, I mean, at least for me, because I can't keep them long at all.
Chloe Yonker:
I feel like the most frustrating is when you get that one truck and that you have no idea what the hell is wrong with it.
Melissa:
Yup. We've all been there.
Chloe Yonker:
Now, you're losing your ass and time on it. By now, you owe the customer money with how much you spend time in it and you're just dying here drowning in your own nonsense and yeah, it sucks. It does, but then, you also have those days where you just absolutely slaughtered a brake job and now you're rolling in dough. It's just like, [inaudible 00:45:53], it comes and goes. It is what it is. I hope you like roller coasters because that is what being a mechanic [inaudible 00:46:00].
Melissa:
That's so true. That is so accurate. That's what I tell kids all the time entering this industry, I'm like, "Dude, I worked at John Deere for seven years." There is a lot of different types of equipment and even like the ag side versus the construction side, people are like, "Oh, it's just John Deere." No, it's like two different fucking companies. The way they run shit, the way their manuals are set up.
The learning curve in semis, I'm sure you're like this too, where the learning curve doesn't stop, but yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to talk about and you made really good points because it is an emotional roller coaster. Even after I was in the industry solid for seven years, not including school, and I still had days where I'm like, "Oh my fucking God, I've spent two days on this electrical diagnostic problem. I still don't know what the fucks wrong with it.
I've contacted DTAC, which is our engineers. I've asked every technician in the shop and that's the other thing is ask for help. You're going to get shit when you first started out because they're like, "Oh my God, you need your handheld," and then you might get shit but they're just, everybody's been through that where they're like, "Oh my God, I'm struggling."
My biggest advice for people is exhaust your resources before you ask for help, but if it's lining up pins on an excavator bucket or a coupler and it's going to take your dumb ass an hour to go back and forth between running the machine and then looking at it and running the machine and looking at it, try to line up the pins or it's going to take 15 minutes for somebody else to help you, ask for fucking help because I was stubborn like that where I'm like, "I want to do it all myself. I'm an independent person. I got this." Then, you spend two hours doing something like that and you're like, "That was stupid." Now, it would've looked better if I would've just asked for help.
Chloe Yonker:
I'm going to need four hands. I'm under there looking like a dog and then, I don't even know, like a monkey holding a pry bar with my feet and beating it with a hammer.
Melissa:
Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh yeah, those are-
Melissa:
Yup. There-
Chloe Yonker:
That makes some great content too. It's like, whatever.
Melissa:
Yup. Yup. Well, I've made videos before where it's been a while since I've been able to do it, but I have to stand on ratchet sometimes and jump on it to break shit loose. I've been there, but impacts. I love my three quarter inch impact me and that impact. They're my best friend. We love each other because that fucking thing saves my life at torquing head bolts on 60, 90 or 13 to 5. It's so tight that, like the guys, some of the guys can just use fucking, they're half inch digital torque wrench and they're fine.
No. I got to use for the torque turn, I got to use a big, long, giant, fucking three quarter inch ratchet, right? Then, I have this little digital magnetic angle gauge I put on there and then obviously I mark the bolts just to make sure, because sometimes I forget to turn it on, but I've done that before where I've been touring and I'm like, "Wait, I didn't turn that on."
As you know, with torque turn, this has happened on assholes because I lose track of sometimes the flange bolts. Fuck, I got to untorque it and then retorque it to spec and then retorque the fucking degrees. Sometimes, it's more than 190 or more than 160, so it's like fuck, but yeah. That's the other thing is people ask me all the time, "Oh, you're so small. How do you do it?" I'm like, "The button on the crane works really great." Four jacks work really great. It's a trade.
I might have to ask for help or have a cheater bar or whatever on some things, but I'm also the girl they shove up a combine auger to put the motor in there because I'm the only person that could fucking fit. It's a trade.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh yeah. Fit on top of a transmission and in between the bottom of the cab and just hope...
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
... your bangs don't [inaudible 00:50:08] because then you're going to die.
Melissa:
All right. Last question of the day, what is your biggest fuck up and your biggest proud moment that you've had?
Chloe Yonker:
Oh man. Ooh, there's so many, bad ones, I mean.
Melissa:
I feel that.
Chloe Yonker:
I guess, it would depend on too, was it at the dealership or was it here? I feel like there's totally different scenarios depending on where I was working. I think at the dealership my, oh man, my biggest, I think the funniest one was I had a learning curve. You learn from mistakes, right?
Melissa:
Yes.
Chloe Yonker:
It wasn't anything really catastrophic. It was just, I looked like an absolute moron. I was quite literally just doing an oil change on a Cat and the drain plugs are, I think an inch and a quarter. They're pretty good sized drains.
Melissa:
Oh God, I know where this is going.
Chloe Yonker:
I use an impact, took a bath in freaking 11 gallons or so of freaking disgusting ass oil. When I tell you a bath, I'm not even lying. Of course, the pan didn't fit perfectly underneath that bar that goes underneath. I had it on the wrong side so I couldn't grab it. It was just pouring and I had to take it out and come in from the side, which means around the whole of freaking tire. By the time it was all said and done, I think only maybe two gallons had actually got into the drain pan and about the remainder were in my pants.
Melissa:
Yup. Kill that.
Chloe Yonker:
That really sucked and I looked ridiculous, but I learned a lesson that day.
Melissa:
You didn't do it again, right?
Chloe Yonker:
Just use a breaker bar and all of your might, just leg press the shit out of it and break it loose. That's one I think, I think my biggest personal accomplishment was taking a fire damaged truck and basically rebuilding the whole thing. It was an oil field truck that they had retired and then they wanted to bring it back to life.
Well, it had caught fire and so the entire interior was just stripped, all harnesses had to be replaced, cab harness, ABS harness, all harnesses. That was a lot of plugs and basically it was just like everything was torn off of it and pieces were thieved off of it because they used it to parts truck just to grab stuff off of for years. They towed it in the shop and they're like, "Here's your new child." I was like, "Oh boy."
Melissa:
Yeah, I'm married to this mother fucker forever. Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Oh yeah. Two months later, it was just awesome seeing the piles of parts just delivered on a pallet. It was like Christmas day and I was just like, "Oh my gosh, what's this? What's this? What's this?" My ADHD mind was like, "I don't even know what I want to work on first. Do I do the inside? Do I do the outside? Do I work on suspension? Do I do engine stuff? I don't even know where to start." This is a massive ass puzzle. I think that was my biggest one was the day I backed it out of the bay and I was just like, "Oh."
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
I think that was definitely my biggest accomplishment at the dealership. By far, I think the best moment for me was last year of backing out the gladiator from the shop to load up to go to SEMA because that was my first ever SEMA build. I did it in two weeks.
Melissa:
Jesus.
Chloe Yonker:
From, we're talking lift kit, steering, whole front end, an entire wrap, I had never wrapped anything a day in my life. I was learning.
Melissa:
How hard is that, by the way?
Chloe Yonker:
If you are not a patient person, good luck.
Melissa:
Oh God. I was wondering about that because I want to wrap my truck
Chloe Yonker:
If you're a perfectionist, good freaking luck. Just have a lot of time on your hands and it's going to be okay, I promise. Yeah, that was a learning curve too. Lots of lighting to do. I mean, a complete SEMA build in two weeks.
Melissa:
That's pretty impressive, though, to have a SEMA ready build in two weeks.
Chloe Yonker:
By myself, dude. That's what the hardest part was, is that everything done I had to do. Most people have a shop with a team. You have one person working on lights, you have one person doing the wrap, one person doing the suspension, and I'm doing it all simultaneously. It's like, everything is just sitting on jack stands and you're just kind of having to figure out what to tackle first. A lot of it is like you have to do stuff at the same time.
While this is getting done, you also have to work on this, and while this is not ready, you have to do this, or trying to delegate what little pieces I can have people actually help me with, because I do have my little sister who wants to help but doesn't know what to help with. You get to loom rock lights. That is something you can do that I don't have to supervise. I think a lot of that's also delegating help when you can find help. It comes with a lot of, I'm very OCD when it comes to, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
Melissa:
Yup.
Chloe Yonker:
But you're also not Wonder Woman, so you kind of have to just.
Melissa:
Take help where you can get it. Yeah.
Chloe Yonker:
Yeah.
Melissa:
But there's a pride moment when you pull that out of the shop and you're like, "I did that. Nobody else did that. I did that. That was me."
Chloe Yonker:
I think the best part is when you park it and you stand back and you see everybody else looking at it, taking pictures, asking about it, complimenting on it. That, to me, is what is the best. My favorite is seeing little kids just be like, "Look at that." I'm just like, "Stop it. It's cute." I'm like, "Oh, I love that." That's probably my favorite by far is when it's like, "Look at the monster truck." I'm like, "It's literally a six inch lift." What little kids see is just like, their eyes are just like, they're just amazed.
Melissa:
Yeah. That's cool.
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