From Cocktails to Closing Deals: Sheila Pogue’s Rise in Automotive

Some careers are planned. Others are built through grit, pressure, and pure resilience.

In this episode of What the Fixed Ops?!, we welcome Sheila Pogue, Dealer Marketing Consultant at Dealer OMG, to the show.

Sheila’s journey into the automotive and dealership world didn’t begin in a showroom or service drive — it started in hospitality, managing bars and restaurants before making an unexpected leap into the RV, marine, and dealership industries. From the parts counter to service leadership to operations management, she worked her way up through the trenches and built her career from the ground up.

Today, Sheila helps dealerships across the country improve performance through smarter marketing, stronger customer targeting, and a deeper understanding of how fixed ops, retention, and culture all work together to drive long-term profitability.

This conversation goes far beyond ads and lead generation. It’s about resilience, mentorship, retention, leadership, and why some dealerships continue to grow while others get left behind.

This episode will challenge the way you think about dealership culture, fixed ops, customer loyalty, and what really creates lasting success in the automotive industry.

We talk about:
• Sheila’s unconventional path from hospitality into dealership leadership
• The lessons she learned working in parts, service, warranty, and operations
• Why mentorship can completely change the trajectory of a career
• The reality of being a woman in fixed operations and dealership leadership
• How insecurity and competition can show up between women in the industry
• Why culture, retention, and leadership matter more than most dealers realize
• The importance of investing in people instead of constantly replacing them
• Why vendors should be treated like strategic partners, not just salespeople
• The biggest marketing mistakes dealerships are making right now
• How Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and customer data can be used more effectively
• Why lower lead volume doesn’t have to mean lower performance
• The massive opportunity dealers are still missing in fixed operations
• Why service retention may be the most overlooked growth strategy in automotive
• How the customer journey should feed directly from sales into the service drive
• Why dealers need to prepare technicians and teams now for EV and hybrid service

Sheila also shares powerful personal stories about earning respect, leading under pressure, navigating tough workplace dynamics, and the moments that reminded her why great customer service still matters.

Her message is simple: adapt, invest in people, focus on retention, and stop overlooking fixed ops as the engine of dealership growth.

This is a candid, practical, and inspiring conversation about leadership, reinvention, marketing, and what it really takes to win in today’s dealership environment.

Connect with Sheila
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilapogue713/
Email: [email protected]
Dealer Profitability Summit: https://dealerprofitabilitysummit.com/

Global Dealer Solutions offers a network of high-performance providers while remaining product agnostic. Knowing which tools to deploy makes a big difference. Having a trusted adviser; priceless.

Schedule your complimentary consultation today: https://calendly.com/don-278

BE THE 1ST TO KNOW. LIKE and FOLLOW HERE www.linkedin.com/company/fixed-ops-marketing

https://www.youtube.com/channel/@fixedopsmarketing 

Get watch and listen links, as well as full episodes and shorts: www.fixedopsmarketing.com/wtf

Join Managing Partner and Host Russell B. Hill and Co-Host Charity Dunning as they discuss life, automotive, and the human journey in What the Fixed Ops?! 

#podcast #automotive #fixedoperations #dealershipmarketing #womeninautomotive