Podcast

Celebrating Our 1-Year Anniversary

We’re celebrating 1 year, and 50 episodes on The Heavy-Duty Parts Report.

Episode 51: On June 1st, 2019, I aired the first three episodes on The Heavy-Duty Parts Report.

At that moment in time I had two goals:

First, I wanted to serve the heavy-duty parts industry by providing the people who buy and sell parts with access to the manufacturers who supply them with what they need to keep the trucking industry rolling.

Second, I wanted to create business opportunities that would allow me to resign my fulltime position as a Sales Account Manager and become an entrepreneur again.

Well, it’s been 1-year, we’ve aired 50 episodes and I’m happy to say that all my dreams are coming true and that is because of the amazing support we have received from our listeners, guests, and sponsors.

What a year we’ve had.

In the first few months, I struggled to find guests, often I was recording episodes, editing them, and airing them the next day barely keeping pace with the weekly schedule. But I worked hard and soon the industry started to embrace what I was doing.

We started signing sponsors and I can’t thank our sponsors enough. Ray Gross of the Mobile Maintenance Association who was episode 9 was the first to sponsor the podcast.

By the time I interviewed Tyler Robertson, CEO of Diesel Laptops in episode 13 and aired his episode on September 23, 2019, I could feel things were starting to accelerate but what happened over the next few weeks was incredible.

Tyler Robertson decided to sponsor the podcast next and we were excited to promote TruckPartsCross.com until the end of 2019.

That sponsorship led to Tyler and I developing a business relationship and before I knew it, I was resigning from my position as a Sales Account Manager in December of 2019, and on January 1st, 2020, I officially launched my consulting company.

Since then I’ve worked with many companies in the industry and it has been a total roller coaster ride. Who could have predicted the unprecedented challenges our world was about to face as we rang in the New Year?

In January we added our third sponsor, we had interviewed CEO and Founder Jacob Findlay of Fullbay in episode 21 and they sponsored the show for the first three months of 2020.

In January and February, I flew all over Canada and the United States visiting with clients and attending tradeshows like HDAW in Grapevine, Texas, ATD in Las Vegas, and TMC in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2-months I was on over 20 flights and I was in as many cities.

Since I knew that I was going to be traveling so much I made the decision to hire our first employee. Taron handles all the post-production work and has become a writer for our blog as well as our social media manager. I could not do what I do without him, so I want to take this moment to thank him for everything he does.

Since hiring Taron we’ve hired 2 more people to work for us but a little more about that later.

We were happy to add our fourth sponsor in April when Scott Tetz, Founder of TruckPartsInventory.com sponsored the podcast. Our relationship with TPI began all the way back in August 2019, when I interviewed Brandon Gamblin in episode 7. Once Scott agreed to sponsor the podcast, I had to have him on the show, so we interviewed him in episode 42.

Since March of 2020, our world has been through a truly unprecedented time. The pandemic, the economic collapse, and the global unrest over social issues that affect us all has done much damage.

We haven’t been exempted from the far-reaching effects of this unprecedented time. It was very scary when my Aunt got the virus and her asthma created complications that had us very concerned for about 21-days. Remember I said that I have hired two more people since hiring our first employee? Well, they have both resigned for reasons beyond anyone’s control.

I also must admit that in May I started to lose faith a little bit about what we are doing. The impact of everything I had worked so hard on going to zero just hit me emotionally hard. It just felt like everything we tried to do wasn’t working anymore and it felt like maybe it never would again.

But in the darkness is also where we must confront our personal demons and by confronting them, we also find the light that guides us out of the darkness. This unprecedented time has shown us who we really are and how far we have come.

It has highlighted how important our industry is and now that we are slowly starting to get our economy moving again, I’m excited to share that we at The Heavy-Duty Parts Report are determined to build on the foundation we laid in our first year and we have some innovative ideas that are going to increase the value we bring to the listeners of the Podcast, the viewers of our Videos, and the readers of our Blog.

You’ve already seen one of the changes with the launch of our Giveaway System and you’ll just have to stay tuned in to hear about what we are planning for year 2.

Thank you for supporting us, don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly email so you don’t miss any content. Go to JamieIrvine.ca/Email to subscribe today.

You’ve been listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I am your host Jamie Irvine, thank you for joining us in this episode to celebrate our first year, here is to your good health and many more years together.

This Episode is Sponsored by TruckPartsInventory.com

Lowering cost-per-mile is all about finding the right part quickly. You will save time by searching for inventory from around North America in one place. You will save money by having the option of buying new, used, or aftermarket parts. You will save yourself work by sending a parts request and having companies contact you. It is easy to use, and it is free. Go to TruckPartsInventory.com today.

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