Connected at NADA 2024 Special Episode: A Student's Experience at NADA with Northwood University's Grace Haynes

Greg Uland: I am Greg Uland with Reynolds and Reynolds, and this is Connected. I'm live at the NADA Show in Las Vegas, and right now I get to sit down with Grace Haynes. Grace is a senior at Northwood University up in Midland, Michigan. Grace, thanks so much for sitting down and talking.

Grace Haynes: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

GU: For sure. So, Grace, you're part of the internship program that we have at NADA this year, so you and some of your fellow students came down with us and you've been experiencing NADA.

GH: Yeah.

GU: Best place, I think – you tell me – but best place to experience the auto industry at a really jam-packed weekend?

GH: Absolutely. For sure. It's been already so much fun.

GU: Good, so tell me, and anybody that's, that's going to kind of listen to this and look for advice out of this, what's the experience been like right from even pre-show because there was some planning obviously and some meetings there.

GH: Yeah.

GU: Getting here and being a part of, you know, sort of the pre-show festivities with Reynolds and then the show as well.

GH: Yeah. So it's been super different because last year I  – actually this is my second year attending NADA. Last year I just came with the university, so this year I was really grateful to have an experience with the company and kind of more hands on. So working with Reynolds has been great. Obviously we had a couple of meetings before, just kind of get us prepared and tell us what it was going to be like out here, and then getting out here we were immediately meeting with them and like getting open communications with everyone else at Reynolds and Reynolds. Which is really nice because as soon as we got to the show, we were able to see some familiar faces at such a large booth. And so it made it super easy to communicate with them and communicate with all their connections and stuff like that. So it's been a super seamless process and really enjoyable so far.

GU: Great, great. So can you contrast a little bit the experience last year, versus the experience this year?

GH: Yeah so last year I was primarily more so focused on Northwood. So when Northwood comes to the show, we have our own booth and we're primarily kind of marketing the university and encouraging parents to send their kids or have – come and take a tour and just see what, like we offer outside of automotive, even just business in general. So for here, it's been a lot easier to make connections. And overall, since last year too, I've just grown in my confidence a lot more and being able to go up and communicate with people at the booth again, even going with Reynolds and Reynolds and talking to so many professionals, you just learn how to introduce yourself, come off more professional, and of course you have a Northwood badge, so that makes it a little bit difficult. Sometimes people don't know what that is or aren't as willing to talk, but overall it's been a lot better.

GU: That's great. That's great. Well, it's great to hear that with experience comes at confidence.

GH: Yeah.

GU: Right.

GH: Absolutely.

GU: Because at the end of the day – in this industry I think is that really the best one in the world and that we have the best people. Everybody's friendly, everybody's likable. Everybody wants to help others succeed.

GH: Yeah.

GU: So I think knowing that and probably having a year under your belt helped you understand that, too. I just, developing that confidence to go up and say hi and shake somebody's hand and learn about them and hear their story.

GH: Yeah. It's even better to just like a lot more people are willing to talk to you, even when you're just out and about and they see a Northwood badge. They just are curious. And I feel a lot more comfortable being able to talk about what Northwood is. I have some experience in my belt with internships in other companies and just being able to communicate, it's been easier.

GU: No, that's great, that's great. So talk a little bit, if you don't mind about the, the relationship with Reynolds of Reynolds and, you know, maybe the internship specifically.

GH: Yeah. So relationship with Reynolds and Reynolds. Obviously at Northwood, we have Reynolds and Reynolds booth on campus, like a lab that we use for class daily. So that's kind of where I first learned about Reynolds and Reynolds. I wasn't always sure whether I wanted to go the dealership route or the corporate route.

GU: Yeah.

GH: So this has allowed me to, like, open up my experience to Reynolds and Reynolds and really understand what they do as producing software and producing a DMS and everything like that. So it's been able to kind of open my eyes to both sides. And since I've been out here, I had the opportunity to attend, an OEM meeting with Reynolds and Reynolds with General Motors, who was a previous internship of mine.

GU: Wow.

GH: So it was super exciting to be able to see the other side of the meeting, because I was always on GM’s side and just be able to sit back and experience – obviously I was only observing – but like I was talking with someone, it was just kind of interesting to see like body language and be able to see everything from behind the scenes and just watch and learn basically.

GU: That's great. What a great experience. It's really cool that you had, you know, experience with both companies.

GH: Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome, it was a great opportunity.

GU: That's fun. So what have been you know, it's been a jam-packed few days.

GH: Right.

GU: What have been some of the top takeaways or top learnings maybe that you have coming out of this couple of days?

GH: Yeah. So a big one I know a lot yesterday was like AI – which I know everyone's talking about, but that's what we spend a lot of time like us – me and other students – going around to the different AI booths and kind of like hearing how everybody's doing a different, learning about their competitive advantage and how everybody's utilizing it and how much room there is to grow. So just kind of learning all the new technologies that we're not necessarily seeing on a day to day basis, just like from the outside, like as a customer in the automotive industry, but instead seeing it like on the retailer side and how that's going to be utilized and how they're looking at how it can benefit customers. So that's been super big.

GU: Yeah. That's great. What about, anything that's been eye opening for you that you weren't expecting maybe.

GH: I would say again, kind of the technology, but I don't know, it's a little bit overwhelming just because there's so many companies and so many pieces that you just don't think about when it comes to, like every piece of, like the service side. And like, every single aspect that you even think about like the key booths, the car washes, like every single aspect that we don't think about as customers. But it really does play into every single part of the deal when you're working with anything in the dealership or in OEM.

GU: Yeah, you're right, you're right. So, Grace, you're getting ready to graduate this this spring. Congratulations.

GH: Thank you.

GU: But as a leave behind right – for students that next year or the year after, if somebody were to ask you, you know, they're thinking about doing this internship or, or one similar, what would you tell them?

GH: I would definitely say – which is super cheesy – to like, take advantage of every single opportunity you have. Because when I look back at my freshman year, I didn't want to come to NADA. I would kind of sit in the back of the classroom, not really talk to our guest speakers, and I would just kind of sit back and listen which – and granted, it was good because I was learning a lot. But at the same time, I've now made so many more connections since I've opened up, and it's made it so much easier to be able to communicate with people about possibly getting a job after and everything like that. So definitely taking advantage of everything, going to all the seminars, going in the booth, and even if you can't talk to someone, just reading what’s on the screens or anything like that, just taking advantage of every opportunity, honestly.

GU: That's great. All right. Well, Grace Haynes, thank you very much for sitting down and chat. It's been great to have you and, and everybody else from Northwood, join us this weekend, and I hope you have a safe flight back.

GH: Perfect. Thank you so much.