Innovating Vehicle Ownership & Mobility, Exploring Auto Industry Diversity Beyond the US

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The automotive industry wants or the majority want more women in this space.

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This is a massive topic taking place in automotive right now.

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They want more women in the industry, so take advantage of that.

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You know, give it a go.

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They're going to probably hopefully welcome you with open arms and make space for you, and if they don't make space, then get your elbows out and make space for yourself, you know.

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Welcome to Get In Her Lane.

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I'm your host, jamie, and I have a 25-year career in automotive.

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This is the show where we dive into the unique challenges and opportunities women face in the automotive industry, amplifying her perspective to drive positive change.

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Women influence 83% of car buying decisions, so it's crucial we see more women in leadership roles to shape the future of this industry.

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Let's try to get there together.

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On our show today, we have Jordan Simons, all the way from Norway.

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She is with Casi Auto and we are going to get into what the auto industry is like in Norway, how male-dominated it is, what's going on with EVs in that country and, finally, what the future of mobility and subscription services are going to look like.

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It's fascinating learning about what's going on in other parts of the world, and Jordan is going to take us there.

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Jordan, welcome, it is so great to have you on the show today.

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We are very excited to talk to you all the way from Norway, yes, so tell us, how did you first get into the mobility space?

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Well, first, thank you for having me, jamie.

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This is super exciting.

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I've been a fan of getting her Lane podcast for a while, so this is a big moment for me.

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I'm excited.

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Love hearing that.

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Thank you, yes, of course.

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So, yes, I am based here in Oslo, norway.

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I'm originally from the state of Maine, though, so I'm a fellow American, and I moved over here to Oslo about six years ago now, and I got into the mobility industry via my passion for branding, communication, marketing.

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That's my background, that's where my skill set really lies.

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And then an opportunity presented itself to get into the mobility space, and here we are.

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I never considered automotive.

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I never considered mobility as an industry that I really wanted to work within.

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It was merely not on my radar, I suppose.

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And then, when this opportunity came about from my CEO, hans Christian Oss, I worked with him back at the marketing agency that I was at.

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I thought, okay, well, I know the group of people who's at this company, cassie, that I work for, and they're really cool.

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So that's priority number one for me.

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I want to work with cool people, and then it turns out there's a lot of cool people in mobility, so it's kind of a win-win.

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It's been a really good, exciting journey so far.

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I can't wait to hear more about Cassie and what you do for them.

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But first can you give us a lay of the land of what the automotive industry is like in Norway, also kind of your perspective on how male-dominated it is?

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Yes, good question.

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I'm sure you've heard of Norway as like the EV capital of the world.

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We are incredibly advanced in terms of electrification.

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I think over 90% of new car sales registered new cars are electric here in Norway.

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It's like getting a glimpse into the year 2040 when it comes to the automotive industry.

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Really, it's an incredibly digital market as well.

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Everything is digital here.

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I don't know if I know what Norwegian cash looks like.

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You know everything is digital over here, so it's kind of the yeah, it's another level, for sure, but it's really a perfect storm.

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You know, the government has so many incentives and put so many regulations in place over a decade ago to make that shift to go electric, and it also, of course, helps that electricity is essentially free here in Norway.

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Right, we have so much electricity because of the natural resources and the geography here in this country, so it makes it so that the public is very incentivized to have an electric vehicle.

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It's cheaper to charge than it is to fuel up.

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They incentivize in terms of tolls, both importing vehicles there is lower tolls on VAT and also on road tolls.

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Both importing vehicles there is lower tolls on VAT and also on road tolls and these kinds of things as well.

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Parking is cheaper if you have an EV as opposed to an ICE vehicle, so they've done everything that they can to make the shift to EVs.

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Now it works over here in Norway.

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This I'm not saying works in every nation.

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I know the struggles that the US or our own country has gone through in terms of trying to electrify their fleets, but it works.

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Here in Norway.

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We're only 5 million people, so it's like comparing apples and oranges when it comes to comparing the landscapes with even other European countries.

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So very advanced in terms of mobility, very advanced in terms of electrification and then, of course, very advanced in terms of digital processes, which is very relevant for ACASI, our organization.

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Can I just say too?

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I mean, that is fascinating to hear how advanced Norway is in that part of the business.

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That's unbelievable.

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It's crazy.

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We have a long way to go.

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We have a long way to go, but I think there's very cool things that we could maybe learn from that.

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So thanks for sharing that Well.

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Certainly Interesting information.

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And I really do mean it's like comparing apples and oranges.

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Right, Like the US could want to go electric.

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Right, the government look at California is doing so many things in terms of incentivizing people to go electric, but then, you know, then they say, okay, electricity prices are incredibly high this week, Please don't charge your EV, you know?

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So we're not and can the grid even support it?

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Can the grid even support it?

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We're not in that scenario over here in Norway.

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So it works over here.

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It's a very wealthy nation, so they can do lots of things to incentivize people to go electric.

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And it's kind of the perfect storm, like I said, in terms of electric vehicles in this nation.

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A lot of our customers down in Europe, for example, Hyundai is a customer of ours and they would love to offer more electric vehicles on subscription.

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And yet Germany, for example that's a nation where the drive is there to go electric, yet the infrastructure is not necessarily there.

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The people's understanding is not necessarily there either, you know, so it'll take time.

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Like I said, Norway is kind of a decade over a decade ahead in terms of electrifying the nation's fleet, so it's a very, very interesting space.

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I think that the first Tesla that was exported from the US was to Norway here back in like 2000s era, and then it was our co-founder at Cassie who imported it at Cassie who imported it.

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Oh wow, the roots are very deep in terms of electrification here in Norway and a lot of these new Chinese OEMs, for example some that we've never heard of right, You've got NIO and BYD and Honshi and Hi-Fi, like all of these names.

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They sound a little bit peculiar, very out there, but here in Norway we're being exposed to them so early on because the Chinese OEMs view Norway as their playground to test out the new makes, test out the models on a market that's very electrically advanced, and then they enter Europe through Norway after they see how the market responds.

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So it's a cool space to be mobility wise for sure.

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Yeah, absolutely yes.

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Okay, and then the second part yes the second question about how male dominated the industry is over there Do share.

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There are many, many a days where I'm the only woman sitting in a meeting, that's for sure.

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I think that I think the statistic is that in Norway, only 10 percent of employees in the automotive industry are women, and a recent survey showed that only 3.8 percent of all women have even considered a job in the automotive industry.

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So we certainly have a long way to go.

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If you ask me, it comes down to the fact that women might only associate or or people in general might associate jobs within the automotive industry with engineering jobs or manufacturing jobs, which are predominantly male-driven.

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So I view my role in the mobility industry as being able to show people that there are more jobs in mobility that are super exciting, that revolve around innovation and customer centricity and all of these things that people in general and women would find really engaging to work with.

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So I tried to just show hey, it's super fun to work in this space.

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Why don't you come on, test it out, join us, see if you like it for yourself, and hopefully that helps to strip that reputation of automotive being all about horsepower and high risk.

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You know there's a lot more to the industry than just that.

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It's fun and, like I said earlier, I've ended up in this industry just by following my passion.

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You know I love branding, I love marketing and communication, and an opportunity arose within this space where I still get to do the same things I love.

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It's just that the product happens to be vehicles and business models in which people can access those vehicles, so it's a fun space for sure.

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Yeah, I love your viewpoint on that.

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I think part of the problem, you know, here in the US is people or women don't even know what opportunities are available in this industry, so it's not even on their consideration list.

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So it's just awareness.

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And you know how do we get the message out that there's so many great avenues in automotive that you can go?

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It doesn't have to be some of the traditional things that you think of off the top of your head.

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There are so many different places that you can work in this space, certainly and that's not to say you're not going to come up against the traditional boys club every now and again.

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You certainly are Sure, but at least you know you then are in that space and can have a role in shifting it.

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The automotive industry in general is going through such an incredible shift right now.

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Everything is being turned upside down, you know, with electrification with, you know, direct digital distribution to consumers, with how fast technology in general is moving.

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So it's not.

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The automotive industry is not as it used to be.

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In my opinion, in my experience, it's much more about innovation and putting the customer at the center, as opposed to putting a product at the center.

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Now, you know, nobody gives a shit.

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Are you allowed to swear on this, by the way?

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I don't know if we've ever had a swear word, but we could just mark it explicit.

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Oh, I love it.

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Yeah, I should have warned you, I swear like a pirate.

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Go ahead, it's all good.

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People don't care how many configurations there are on vehicles anymore, how many buttons or color combos or whatever.

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People just want to have the best experience getting from A to B.

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And that means the whole industry needs to change right Not only the vehicle and the technology that's in it, but how people access that vehicle.

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It's no longer going to be the norm to flat out buy a vehicle or lease a vehicle.

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There are so many other ways to access mobility powered by our phones.

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You know, you see ride hailing and you with Uber, and now you see car subscription, where you have a flat monthly fee enabling you to access your own vehicle.

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And then you know okay, a year from now I'm moving to Canada and I don't want that vehicle anymore.

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Or I'm moving you know some place across the world and I don't need that vehicle.

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You simply return it and off you go.

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You know, no loss of value, no having to deal with selling it, you just return it to, whether it's your dealership or wherever the OEM is placed.

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I would really encourage people to think of the automotive industry as thriving with innovation, and with innovation comes lots of cool opportunities.

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Yeah, I love that and you started to give us a little peek.

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But tell us more about Cassie and what you do for the company.

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Good question.

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So Cassie is a flexible fleet platform, and what I mean by flexible fleet is that it could be car subscription, it could be flexible leasing, it could be long term rental, it could be employee cars, but you subscribe to it instead of whatever your company offers.

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You know this is a product that empowers OEMs, dealerships, leasing companies to offer vehicles to their target audience in more flexible ways, and it's also bundled in many cases as well, so your monthly subscription fee also includes, for example, roadside assistance or insurance or tire change, tire hotel.

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All of these products can be bundled, meaning for Hyundai, for example, more margins and more cash flows.

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It's new revenue streams and it's ultimately a way for them to provide their end consumer with the most hassle-free way to access a vehicle.

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We really see this shift of, you know, young people not wanting to buy a car anymore Young people wanting to.

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You know, leasing has become such a popular product, of course, but you can take it even one step further.

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Instead of having a three-year commitment period, what about three months?

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You know, it's all about flexibility and making sure that people have the right vehicle for them at the right time, depending on the lifestyle that they're living.

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You know, cassie has created this tech platform that enables Hyundai, for example, to offer that product e-commerce website to the back-end fleet management system and also the billing and payment and analytics telling you how profitable each of your vehicles and your fleet are and essentially enabling you, empowering you, to have a very profitable service.

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So you give us a little idea of who might be taking advantage of this type of product or service.

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Tell us more about like, who is this customer, who is this customer, so we get a better understanding of it.

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Good question.

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So Cassie's customer is OEMs like Toyota, like Hyundai, stellantis, jaguar, land Rover.

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These are some of our customers, which is B2B, of course, but the end consumer is it can really be anybody who needs a vehicle honestly.

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And in our prime business cases we see that flexible fleets, flexible leasing, car subscription is really good for the dinks, as we said, the double income.

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No, kids who they're living in the city but want to go golfing on the weekend, so they need a car.

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Or you know they live a little bit outside in the city and want to commute into the city.

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Or you know they're going on a three-month road trip this summer, so they want to have a car to drive around Europe with.

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And you see these cases of people who really want, who want flexibility, but they don't want to own a car, they don't want to deal with the hassle of it.

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They don't want to deal with the hassle of it.

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They don't want to deal with you know, and they don't want that long.

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They don't want that long-term commitment.

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They don't want the long-term commitment that you know the three, the typical three-year leasing product, they don't want that.

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They don't know where they're going to be in three years time.

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You know they also don't want to flat out know, take out a loan, or they don't want to finance it in that kind of way that doesn't fit for their budget, for example.

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Or you know they need a small car right now but they're planning on having kids in a couple of years, meaning they'll need a bigger car.

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So they don't want to buy now just to sell later to buy again.

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You know there's so many use cases.

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We even see older people as well, where they are snowbirds, and so they need a car while they're home in their home country for the summer months and then they return the car when they go down to Spain or down to Florida for the winter.

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It's all about flexibility and having the right form of mobility at that time.

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So we see expats a lot as well.

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Amsterdam, for example, there's a really large expat community and they love car subscription because they know they're going to be there for a year and want a car for a year, but don't want to lease it or buy it.

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So it's all about the OEM or the service provider removing restraints and removing hassle that is associated with owning a car, and when I say that sentence, right there, it can sometimes turn people in the industry off right.

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They think to themselves okay, well, hey, I'm a dealership.

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My main business model is to sell vehicles.

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What does this mean for me, when people are no longer going to be buying vehicles?

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It's an incredible opportunity for those people as well, though, because they can continue selling vehicles.

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Sure, but what if this is another product in their portfolio that enables them to do one month test drives?

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Right?

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Wouldn't that be amazing to have a test drive for a month, as opposed to 30 minutes, and not really know if you're going to love that car, if it's going to be right for you, and also when EVs coming along as well.

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People have no idea about charging patterns.

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They don't know what the range of that vehicle is going to be, they don't know if it's going to fit their lifestyle, but they would like to enter the EV game, you know.

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So imagine a dealership offering three-month subscription to the newest EV to get customers on board with those new models.

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It's a really good opportunity.

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Does Norway have a franchise dealer network like they do in the United States?

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Is that how it works, or is it a little bit different over there?

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It's similar.

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So we have importers and dealership networks, yes, where they have the rights to distribute those vehicles, and they're often in partnership with ones down in Europe as well.

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Is Cassie partnering with the dealerships for this product, with the OEMs through the dealerships to offer the product, versus just kind of doing it outside of the dealership we actually have?

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both business cases.

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We have business cases where, okay, all of Estonia this Möllebil for example is one of the biggest importers and dealerships and they have various of their destinations offering this product to their customers.

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But you could also see the use case of, okay, that one dealership is offering this product and they own it.

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They've gotten approval from HQ, but they are handling the P&L of that.

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They're doing the operations.

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We actually see that the dealership customer group is excelling at operationally handling the subscription product because they're good operationally.

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They're used to moving cars around.

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They're good, Okay, we can deliver that car to that person at their home and then they'll return it, maybe to the other dealership location, or they're very good at that.

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So is rental, Whereas OEMs, for example, are very used to just selling the vehicle to the importer.

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The importer sells it to the dealership, the dealership sells it to a person.

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The OEM is very far removed from that end customer, you know.

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So now, if the OEM starts to own this product, they all of a sudden have a connection with the end consumer.

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They have that data.

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They can maintain that relationship.

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They can get feedback from them about how to develop their vehicle lineup.

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You know, it's bringing them a lot closer and enabling them to own their revenue, own their data and own that customer relationship.

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What does the growth of Cassie look like beyond Europe?

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When do we see like United States in the picture?

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Just curious about the future plans.

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We like to say that we are country agnostic.

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Our tech can go anywhere.

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Our team is incredible at establishing the right partnerships where we need to operate.

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So I would say we're not far off from entering the US market, from being on American soil.

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That's definitely a goal started in Norway back in 2018.

00:20:27.630 --> 00:20:40.683
We actually started with our own car subscription service, which we called iMove, and we did that in order to really get our hands dirty and to understand what the best possible customer experience of accessing a car would look like.

00:20:40.683 --> 00:21:02.250
So we kind of built our tech to enable this car subscription service, and then we scaled to Sweden and the Netherlands, and then the Norwegian bank actually bought iMove from us and we are just a tech player now enabling these other automotive players as we scaled out of Scandinavia.

00:21:03.153 --> 00:21:04.556
There's not many people that live here.

00:21:04.556 --> 00:21:11.328
I remember my CEO saying he one time was in a meeting and somebody said Norway, that's cute.

00:21:11.328 --> 00:21:12.818
What about where people live?

00:21:12.818 --> 00:21:16.621
Wow, I know, quite savage.

00:21:16.621 --> 00:21:21.106
So yes, we knew in order to survive, you know we had to scale, and Europe it was.

00:21:21.106 --> 00:21:25.406
So we've been operating in Europe and now, actually, the majority of our customers are down in Europe.

00:21:25.406 --> 00:21:27.154
That's where the majority of our revenue comes.

00:21:27.154 --> 00:21:38.662
So once we really nail that down and we scale a couple of our very big customers to even more markets in Europe, maybe we'll is a product that works super well for people ages 30 to 50.

00:21:38.662 --> 00:22:00.869
And then maybe there's a segment above that that would prefer to own their vehicle purely because that's what they know.

00:22:00.869 --> 00:22:03.538
We're still in early phases with car subscription.

00:22:03.538 --> 00:22:09.849
The wave is starting to really peak and then we'll see how far it takes off.

00:22:10.391 --> 00:22:30.133
It would be great just trying to think about this from a personal perspective to have another option like that on the table, because you could just be in a transition period in your life and you just need something to bridge the gap for a few months or maybe even a little bit longer, but not necessarily that full long commitment.

00:22:30.133 --> 00:22:33.005
It would be really exciting to just have that other option out there.

00:22:33.164 --> 00:22:33.708
Oh, of course.

00:22:33.708 --> 00:22:43.798
And if you think about how little your vehicle is used I think they say that 4% of the time you use your car, so they have a 96% your car is sitting idle.

00:22:43.798 --> 00:22:46.144
Think about from a utilization perspective.

00:22:46.144 --> 00:22:46.806
You know your car.

00:22:46.806 --> 00:22:49.340
You're not getting the best bang for your buck whatsoever.

00:22:49.340 --> 00:22:57.240
So imagine if you said, okay, I'm not going to own a car, I'm going to, you know, use public transportation for these months.

00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:06.239
And then the months in the wintertime when I love to go to the mountain, to go skiing, I'm going to subscribe to a car for those three to six months so I can be more mobile.

00:23:06.239 --> 00:23:09.289
And then, oh, spring rolls around again and I'm going to bike.

00:23:09.289 --> 00:23:12.961
I love to bike, so I'm going to, you know, use springtime to bike around.

00:23:12.961 --> 00:23:19.365
And then, oh, I travel quite a bit in the summertime, so I'm going to use public transportation when I am home.

00:23:19.365 --> 00:23:22.346
And then fall rolls around again and maybe you want to start subscribing again.

00:23:23.088 --> 00:23:28.101
It's essentially endless possibilities when you're not nailed down to a vehicle.

00:23:28.101 --> 00:23:39.469
And also, we buy vehicles for the most extreme of cases, right, you buy a vehicle that has a hitch and a truck bed so that you can tow your boat two times a year.

00:23:39.469 --> 00:23:44.425
You know it doesn't really make that much sense if you think about it.

00:23:44.425 --> 00:23:56.707
When the other, you know 363 days of the year you're merely commuting to and from work, you might only need a little tiny mini-coupon maybe.

00:23:56.707 --> 00:24:04.496
When we had the iMove subscription service, we actually had a value proposition that we called swap car.

00:24:04.496 --> 00:24:19.269
If you normally subscribed to a ŠKODA CityGo but then two times a year you needed to tow your boat, then you could swap the car to a truck that was in the fleet and that was a part of your.

00:24:19.269 --> 00:24:23.615
That was a part of the service and also, like I mentioned, the tire change earlier.

00:24:23.855 --> 00:24:28.807
In Norway we have to change from summer tires to winter tires, similar to in Maine, where I'm from.

00:24:28.807 --> 00:24:31.111
You know the service has included in it that operations people will come right to winter tires, similar to in Maine, where I'm from.

00:24:31.111 --> 00:24:37.538
You know the service has included in it that operations people will come right to your house, change your tires at home for you, so you don't have to deal with it.

00:24:37.538 --> 00:24:39.625
There's no hassle associated with that.

00:24:39.625 --> 00:24:44.930
So you're inside making dinner and they're outside changing your tires for you.

00:24:44.930 --> 00:24:55.704
So it's just a whole nother game in terms of, like, customer experience and customer centricity, which is the main value proposition of flexible fleet concepts.

00:24:56.067 --> 00:24:59.757
I was actually a customer of iMove before I started working at the company.

00:24:59.757 --> 00:25:02.825
We had the Skoda Citio, the tiny little car.

00:25:02.825 --> 00:25:04.836
We called it our golf cart because we love to golf.

00:25:04.836 --> 00:25:16.838
So we got it for the summer and we were using it to go golfing on the weekends and the next thing you know, it was a year and a half later and we still had the car, because it was just so smooth and easy to access a car that way.

00:25:17.361 --> 00:25:18.784
Wow, thanks for sharing that with us.

00:25:18.784 --> 00:25:20.047
That's really interesting to hear.

00:25:20.047 --> 00:25:24.746
I'm just trying to wrap my mind around all of that Switching gears a little bit.

00:25:24.746 --> 00:25:27.882
You have a show called Join the Ride.

00:25:27.882 --> 00:25:34.481
You travel throughout Europe to meet mobility celebrities and hear their take on the future of the industry.

00:25:34.481 --> 00:25:35.284
That's really cool.

00:25:35.284 --> 00:25:36.547
I've checked some of them out.

00:25:36.547 --> 00:25:37.596
You have so much energy.

00:25:37.596 --> 00:25:39.060
I love what you're doing out there.

00:25:39.060 --> 00:25:44.742
So kudos to you for all that great work and talk about all the production work behind that.

00:25:44.742 --> 00:25:54.251
Tell us more about them and what maybe your favorite episodes been and something that's stuck out in your mind since doing these, that is probably the most enjoyable part of my job.

00:25:54.372 --> 00:25:55.133
I love it.

00:25:55.133 --> 00:26:02.976
I am obsessed with filming Join the Ride because I get to go, like you said, talk with the biggest names in the mobility industry.

00:26:02.976 --> 00:26:03.516
Here in Europe.

00:26:03.516 --> 00:26:15.507
We call them mobility celebrities and, yeah, we originally launched this show because we wanted to build a community around the future of mobility.

00:26:15.507 --> 00:26:28.194
You know, like I mentioned, there is this massive shift taking place and in order to feel as though we were multiple soldiers in a revolution, right, we wanted to go and talk with the other leaders within that movement.

00:26:28.194 --> 00:26:35.760
So I've traveled to Germany and the Netherlands and you know the UK and we've been all around.

00:26:35.760 --> 00:27:00.809
We've also filmed some here in Norway as well, getting to speak with some really heavy hitters from Sixt and Porsche and Hyundai and cool startups like Drive from Denmark, and I'm always surprised by how passionate people are about innovation in the mobility industry.

00:27:01.454 --> 00:27:14.721
Like I said earlier, these are people who have lifted their head up, in a way, and are no longer just looking at the buttons in the car and how fast it can go from zero to 100.

00:27:14.721 --> 00:27:26.971
They're looking at how is the user going to access this vehicle, how is the user going to live with this vehicle and what is the second life of that vehicle going to be as well?

00:27:26.971 --> 00:27:31.318
It's a really, really fun show and yet the production of it is amazing.

00:27:31.318 --> 00:27:48.325
Just imagine sitting in a car, we have three GoPros rigged up on the dashboard and we've got a follow car behind us and the concept of asking them questions about their business and about themselves as a kind of superstar in the mobility sector.

00:27:48.325 --> 00:27:56.940
Asking them questions as they're driving kind of immediately makes them lower their shoulders because they can't be on guard, they can't be super scripted or anything.

00:27:56.940 --> 00:28:00.468
They're raw and real and authentic.

00:28:00.468 --> 00:28:04.329
You know, and that's what's really fun to me getting to connect with people on that level.

00:28:04.912 --> 00:28:10.644
I just filmed with his name is Liron Golan and he is the head of future mobility at Hyundai here in Europe.

00:28:10.644 --> 00:28:12.066
They're one of our customers.

00:28:12.066 --> 00:28:17.763
We have a service or we provide the tech to their service in the UK and Spain and soon to be more countries.

00:28:17.763 --> 00:28:24.630
But he was in Bergen, norway, our headquarter, for a workshop and there was a blizzard.

00:28:25.010 --> 00:28:33.654
So I'm asking poor Leron to drive the car in a city he's never driven in, answer questions about mobility and then also navigate a snowstorm.

00:28:33.654 --> 00:28:35.299
He was like Jordan.

00:28:35.299 --> 00:28:37.586
What are you doing to me right now.

00:28:37.586 --> 00:29:08.083
Yeah, it's been a really cool thing and it's gotten a lot of attention, which is fun as well, because then other people want to be involved and you just get to hear more amazing stories and share more insights about how to succeed in the future of mobility, and that's really the main mission is just build a community, share insights, meet cool people and then, of course, cassie's sponsored them, so it's like Cassie's therefore associated with these really cool people and producing cool content, and that's great for our brand awareness as well.

00:29:08.555 --> 00:29:08.796
Excellent.

00:29:08.796 --> 00:29:10.742
Where else can people find them?

00:29:11.336 --> 00:29:12.137
It's on YouTube.

00:29:12.137 --> 00:29:26.250
The channel is called Join the Ride, and then you can also find them on Cassieauto C-A-S-S-I, dot A-U-T-O, and there is a section there where we house all the Join the Ride episodes.

00:29:26.474 --> 00:29:26.694
Great.

00:29:26.694 --> 00:29:31.364
And then circling back to you personally, what's it been like for you living in Norway?

00:29:31.364 --> 00:29:32.866
Good question.

00:29:33.047 --> 00:29:37.219
Well, coming from Maine, norway is actually incredibly similar.

00:29:37.219 --> 00:29:42.576
We have the four seasons, we love to ski, we love to hike, we love to boat.

00:29:42.576 --> 00:29:47.455
I think that's why I have stayed here in Norway is because it reminds me so much of home.

00:29:47.455 --> 00:29:56.484
You know, I wouldn't be this far away from my family if I didn't truly like it, you know, and there's incredible opportunities here, so it's all really worked out very well.

00:29:56.484 --> 00:30:06.825
It can be dark, it can be cold, but it can also be welcoming and warm and light, so it's a really nice place to be.

00:30:06.825 --> 00:30:17.142
If you ask me, I love living in Europe in general as well, because my fiance, he, works for Norwegian, the airline, and so we get to travel around a lot and, yeah, it's quite nice.

00:30:17.142 --> 00:30:17.784
That's amazing.

00:30:17.784 --> 00:30:24.186
Yes, so I'm in my you know, exploring, adventuring, see the world, kind of era.

00:30:24.586 --> 00:30:25.288
That's so fun.

00:30:25.288 --> 00:30:40.449
I did some backpacking in Europe when I was younger and then took a couple classes through the school I went to here in the United States but they had a program through Maastricht University, so got to do that for a couple months and it was incredible.

00:30:40.449 --> 00:30:40.971
Wow.

00:30:40.971 --> 00:30:43.819
I wish everyone could have that time to travel around Europe.

00:30:43.880 --> 00:30:44.441
Where did you?

00:30:44.441 --> 00:30:45.364
Where did you go?

00:30:45.364 --> 00:30:45.805
What was your?

00:30:45.865 --> 00:30:49.510
favorite spot, gosh, it's hard to have have a favorite.

00:30:49.510 --> 00:31:11.008
I mean I enjoyed all my stops London, dublin, prague, Venice, munich, amsterdam and then, you know, lived in, lived in Maastricht during the week, like we'd have class Monday through Thursday and then we would catch a train, like Thursday night right after class and then travel through Sunday the best.

00:31:11.576 --> 00:31:13.061
Like talk about living life.

00:31:13.061 --> 00:31:22.869
You know, yeah, I think that's where I so I went to university, down at Florida Tech, and that was my first instance of like leaving home and kind of going on an adventure, right.

00:31:22.869 --> 00:31:38.840
So I was at Florida Tech and then I did a study abroad in Oxford and then I, after I graduated, I did my master's down in Florence, Italy, and I could just tell, okay, this is clearly something I love country hopping and just immersing yourself in that experience.

00:31:38.840 --> 00:31:51.717
So I think that's why I like living in Europe so much because everything is so close by, you can go on an hour flight and be in a different country with different language and culture and food and architecture.

00:31:51.717 --> 00:31:56.144
It's just an explorer's paradise really, you know.

00:31:56.144 --> 00:32:01.162
So that's very cool, that you got to experience that, yeah, and I want to go back.

00:32:01.522 --> 00:32:02.144
Yes, I'm ready.

00:32:02.465 --> 00:32:05.621
You let me know when you come over and we'll have to hook up.

00:32:05.641 --> 00:32:07.646
Yeah, I gotta maybe drop in and see you in Norway.

00:32:07.646 --> 00:32:08.859
Come see Norway.

00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:17.464
Well, you are so incredibly passionate about working in this segment and just loved everything that you shared with us.

00:32:17.464 --> 00:32:24.443
Just wanna get your thoughts on what would you say to other women who are contemplating a role in automotive?

00:32:25.296 --> 00:32:26.882
I would say go for it.

00:32:26.882 --> 00:32:37.166
But I would genuinely say follow your passion, and if your passion leads you into the automotive industry, I don't think you'll regret it.

00:32:37.166 --> 00:32:39.682
You know there are incredible people here.

00:32:39.682 --> 00:32:45.519
Like I said, innovations are at every corner, every time you turn around.

00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:47.486
This industry is being forced to innovate, being forced to change.

00:32:47.486 --> 00:32:54.345
So if you can have a role in that and you can have influence to innovate, being forced to change, so if you can have a role in that and you can have influence in that, give it a go.

00:32:54.345 --> 00:32:55.695
And what's the worst that can happen?

00:32:55.695 --> 00:32:56.398
You don't like it.

00:32:56.398 --> 00:32:57.603
Then you can leave.

00:32:57.603 --> 00:32:58.325
You know what I mean.

00:32:58.445 --> 00:33:03.760
So the mobility industry is way more than just horsepower and high risk.

00:33:03.760 --> 00:33:07.797
Like I said, there's a lot to offer in this segment.

00:33:07.797 --> 00:33:10.546
At the end of the day, it is a cool product as well, you know.

00:33:10.546 --> 00:33:18.200
Like cars are sick, cars are sexy, you know, and it makes it so that you're not going to have a boring day, that's for sure, you know.

00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:36.874
And then, as the business models are changing and people's perspective within the automotive industry shifts to a more digital, more customer-centric space, there's a need for more voices and more perspectives in the industry in order to ensure that the best customer experience is actually created and offered.

00:33:36.874 --> 00:33:45.115
Give it a go, follow your passion and don't have fear when it comes to wanting to explore this industry.

00:33:45.115 --> 00:33:52.700
Like I said earlier, yeah, you might come across at the boys club, you know, but keep on being true to strength, not a limitation.

00:33:52.700 --> 00:34:15.199
So definitely use that to your advantage and that's going to help drive that innovation.

00:34:15.539 --> 00:34:16.702
Yeah, so we can.

00:34:16.702 --> 00:34:18.246
We could make even more progress.

00:34:18.735 --> 00:34:20.101
You're definitely right in that.

00:34:20.101 --> 00:34:25.456
And also the automotive industry wants or the majority want more women in this space.

00:34:25.456 --> 00:34:28.842
This is a massive topic taking place in automotive right now.

00:34:28.842 --> 00:34:31.105
They want more women in the industry.

00:34:31.105 --> 00:34:33.268
So take advantage of that.

00:34:33.268 --> 00:34:34.610
You know, give it a go.

00:34:34.610 --> 00:34:43.864
They're going to probably hopefully welcome you with open arms and make space for you, and if they don't make space, then get your elbows out and make space for yourself.

00:34:43.864 --> 00:34:45.597
You know, create it for yourself.

00:34:46.018 --> 00:34:48.686
Absolutely yes, wonderful.

00:34:48.686 --> 00:34:51.355
Well, jordan, it was so lovely talking with you today.

00:34:51.355 --> 00:34:55.786
If people want to get in touch with you, what would be the best way for them to do so?

00:34:56.074 --> 00:34:57.679
Well, I'm on LinkedIn.

00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:00.846
I think my name is just Jordan Simons on LinkedIn.

00:35:00.846 --> 00:35:02.436
I'm really active on there.

00:35:02.436 --> 00:35:24.139
We try to be very consistent with both Cassie's LinkedIn page and my LinkedIn page as well, so shoot me a direct message on there and then, if you would like to email me, I'm jordanatcassieauto, so I would be happy to discuss all things automotive with anybody.

00:35:24.139 --> 00:35:25.101
Excellent.

00:35:25.302 --> 00:35:26.184
Thanks so much, jordan.

00:35:26.184 --> 00:35:27.067
Thank you, jamie.

00:35:27.067 --> 00:35:37.342
If you have any comments or feedback on the podcast or this episode, please leave us a review on Apple and, of course, I would love to hear from you.

00:35:37.342 --> 00:35:44.922
If you have anything at all to share, team at getinhirlanecom and please visit our website at getinhirlanecom.

00:35:44.922 --> 00:35:45.603
See you next time.