Mike Phillips
11-22-2019, 04:44 PM
My first car detailing how-to book from 1998 - Mike Phillips (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/car-detailing-history-vintage-and-antique-car-waxes-and-buffing-tools/125061-my-first-car-detailing-how-book-1998-mike-phillips.html)
In the process of doing an interview, I shared the story about writing my first how-to book and how it led to the job of Corporate Writer for Meguiar's taking over all the writing duties of Barry Meguiar. The interviewer, Ellen McKoy, the Editor for Mobile Tech Digest, asked me if I could send her a picture of this first how-to book.
The book was buried in a box of memories from the old days, but I dug it up, brought it to work and took the below pictures.
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3923/Mike_Phillips_First_Book.jpg
Here's the nutshell version of the story.
Working at car shows
Back when I was an Outside Sales Rep and Trainer for Meguiar's for the territory of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, besides making shop calls to body shops, dealerships and detail shops, I was also responsible to set-up and work the Meguiar's booth at all the major and even minor car shows. Back then, we didn't have the Internet and thus we didn't have all the vast number of different products we have today.
My business card when I was a Trainer and Outside Sales Rep in Oregon, Washington and Idaho
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/715/400_Mike_Phillips_Megs_Rep.jpg
We had a few major brands like 3M and Meguiar's and a handful of regional players. It's important to include this part BECAUSE out of all the products available at that time - Meguiar's Professional Line, that is the products in the tan bottles with the numbers on them were the most popular among car enthusiasts, I would go as far as to say, hard core car enthusiasts.
Demo Hood
At the shows, I would take in a black panel or car hood and the normal dog and pony show is to mess it up and then make it perfect. I would do this from the time the show started until the show was over. As you do this, about every 10 to 15 minutes a new crowd of people comes to the booth. After showing how to remove swirls and scratches and create a show car finish on black paint, people would always ask the same question, (about all the different Meguiar's products and what the numbers meant),
Is any of this information written down anywhere?
I would say,
No.
The company has been in business since 1901 and to my knowledge, no one has ever written a how-to book explaining what the different products were, what they did, how to use them and when to use them.
The above scenario was repeated at every show I worked at and every detailing class I taught for car clubs. While I studied writing in college, I don't have a degree in writing. But I can type and I can think. So I though, why not take a stab at writing a how-to book.
After doing my best to write the first version, I purchased a Comb Binder and a Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet Printer. I printed the book out and the assembled it using a comb binder and then took it to car shows and sold copies from the booth.
Fast forward about a year, and one morning I was driving home from work in my 1966 Milk Truck. I had just got off work at the Pulp Mill where I drove a Scoop.
Milk Truck
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/MilkTruckFrontView1.jpg
Me standing in the bucket of the Scoop I drove.
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/ScoopDriverMike01.jpg
I worked the graveyard shift that ended at 6:00am. As I was driving home my cell phone rang. This was my first cell phone, it was the basic flip style phone. I had just got it and no one even had my number. When I answered the phone, the voice on the other end said,
This is Barry Meguiar, is this Mike Philips?
I said
Yes.
Ccan you hang on a minute while I pull over and park, my Milk Truck is a tick on the loud side.
(the sliding side doors rattled and she had a 396 Big Block Chevy engine, so she was a tick on the noisy side)
Barry laughed about me driving a Milk Truck. Then he said,
I was told you wrote a book about my family's product line?
The first thing I thought as,
He's going to sue me.
He's the owner of the company with deep pockets and I'm just a blue collar working class dog. I figured I probably broke some kind of Trademark or Copyright law. He then said,
I'd like to send me the first 4 chapters out of the book
At this point, I figured whatever was going to happen was going to happen so I agreed and the next day I did just as he asked. I carefully pulled the first 4 chapters out of the comb bound book, placed them in an large manila evenlope and sent them to Meguiar's via Snail Mail.
About a week later Barry called again and asked,
How would you like to fly down to Irvine, California and interview to become our writer?
I was SHOCKED! But said YES!
A week later or so Meguiar's flew me down to Irvine, California, the John Wayne Airport, which is just a few blocks from Meguiar's Corporate Office. I was there for 3 days, Monday through Wednesday. I didn't meet and talk to Barry until the last few hours of Wednesday. Until then, Mike Pennington basically entertained me in the training room and shared one of his Train the Trainer classes with me.
My flight back home left John Wayne at 6:00pm. I kept wondering, when am I going to meet Barry Meguiar? Then about 4:00pm, just before I need to leave to go to the airport Barry walked into the room. He put his hand out to shake mine and instead of say,
Hi, I'm Barry Meguiar, (kind of like people normally do when meeting each other), instead he said,
I love your writing style
I've tried to hire professional writers with degrees and backgrounds in writing and it never works. There's no passion. There's no "car guy" feel to their writing. Would you like to move to California and take over the writing responsibilities for our company.
And of course I said YES!
It took a year before the position was created and I left my job at the Pulp Mill and moved to Irvine, California. My first day of work I was given the below business card and after making the rounds at the office and being introduced to everyone, I started typing.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3384/400_Mike_Biz_Cards_02.JPG
That's the story behind the story. I had a great time working for Meguiar's at the Corporate Office. I held the position of Corporate Writer for the first 2 years, 2002 to 2004 and then I because I had started teaching detailing classes in the garage there at Meguiar's and coordinating them via discussion forums, my Manager at that time, Dick Koeth, he came to me and said,
Mike,
Everyone really likes the work your doing as a writer... but, we also really like the classes you're teaching in the garage and then sharing them on the Internet. The company would like you to write your own job description. When you're done, give it to me and I'll meet with all of upper management.
That's when a new position was created called, Internet Technical Specialist.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3384/400_Mike_Biz_Cards_01.JPG
I always thought the title made the job sound like a person that set-up computer servers or something like that but what I did was basically brought up the MeguiarsOnline.com car detailing discussion forum. I wrote how-to articles, answered detailing questions, coordinated and taught detailing classes. I did this from 2005 until 2009. In 2009, Meghan, here at Autogeek contacted me and asked me if I could travel to Florida to the Autogeek Detail Fest show and teach the class I was teaching at Meguiar's at Detail Fest. And as the saying goes,
The rest is history....
Hope you enjoyed the background story on how writing a simple how-to book took me down a great life adventure that continues to this day.
I'm not sure when the interview comes out but I'll update this thread when it does.
:)
In the process of doing an interview, I shared the story about writing my first how-to book and how it led to the job of Corporate Writer for Meguiar's taking over all the writing duties of Barry Meguiar. The interviewer, Ellen McKoy, the Editor for Mobile Tech Digest, asked me if I could send her a picture of this first how-to book.
The book was buried in a box of memories from the old days, but I dug it up, brought it to work and took the below pictures.
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3923/Mike_Phillips_First_Book.jpg
Here's the nutshell version of the story.
Working at car shows
Back when I was an Outside Sales Rep and Trainer for Meguiar's for the territory of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, besides making shop calls to body shops, dealerships and detail shops, I was also responsible to set-up and work the Meguiar's booth at all the major and even minor car shows. Back then, we didn't have the Internet and thus we didn't have all the vast number of different products we have today.
My business card when I was a Trainer and Outside Sales Rep in Oregon, Washington and Idaho
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/715/400_Mike_Phillips_Megs_Rep.jpg
We had a few major brands like 3M and Meguiar's and a handful of regional players. It's important to include this part BECAUSE out of all the products available at that time - Meguiar's Professional Line, that is the products in the tan bottles with the numbers on them were the most popular among car enthusiasts, I would go as far as to say, hard core car enthusiasts.
Demo Hood
At the shows, I would take in a black panel or car hood and the normal dog and pony show is to mess it up and then make it perfect. I would do this from the time the show started until the show was over. As you do this, about every 10 to 15 minutes a new crowd of people comes to the booth. After showing how to remove swirls and scratches and create a show car finish on black paint, people would always ask the same question, (about all the different Meguiar's products and what the numbers meant),
Is any of this information written down anywhere?
I would say,
No.
The company has been in business since 1901 and to my knowledge, no one has ever written a how-to book explaining what the different products were, what they did, how to use them and when to use them.
The above scenario was repeated at every show I worked at and every detailing class I taught for car clubs. While I studied writing in college, I don't have a degree in writing. But I can type and I can think. So I though, why not take a stab at writing a how-to book.
After doing my best to write the first version, I purchased a Comb Binder and a Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet Printer. I printed the book out and the assembled it using a comb binder and then took it to car shows and sold copies from the booth.
Fast forward about a year, and one morning I was driving home from work in my 1966 Milk Truck. I had just got off work at the Pulp Mill where I drove a Scoop.
Milk Truck
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/MilkTruckFrontView1.jpg
Me standing in the bucket of the Scoop I drove.
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/ScoopDriverMike01.jpg
I worked the graveyard shift that ended at 6:00am. As I was driving home my cell phone rang. This was my first cell phone, it was the basic flip style phone. I had just got it and no one even had my number. When I answered the phone, the voice on the other end said,
This is Barry Meguiar, is this Mike Philips?
I said
Yes.
Ccan you hang on a minute while I pull over and park, my Milk Truck is a tick on the loud side.
(the sliding side doors rattled and she had a 396 Big Block Chevy engine, so she was a tick on the noisy side)
Barry laughed about me driving a Milk Truck. Then he said,
I was told you wrote a book about my family's product line?
The first thing I thought as,
He's going to sue me.
He's the owner of the company with deep pockets and I'm just a blue collar working class dog. I figured I probably broke some kind of Trademark or Copyright law. He then said,
I'd like to send me the first 4 chapters out of the book
At this point, I figured whatever was going to happen was going to happen so I agreed and the next day I did just as he asked. I carefully pulled the first 4 chapters out of the comb bound book, placed them in an large manila evenlope and sent them to Meguiar's via Snail Mail.
About a week later Barry called again and asked,
How would you like to fly down to Irvine, California and interview to become our writer?
I was SHOCKED! But said YES!
A week later or so Meguiar's flew me down to Irvine, California, the John Wayne Airport, which is just a few blocks from Meguiar's Corporate Office. I was there for 3 days, Monday through Wednesday. I didn't meet and talk to Barry until the last few hours of Wednesday. Until then, Mike Pennington basically entertained me in the training room and shared one of his Train the Trainer classes with me.
My flight back home left John Wayne at 6:00pm. I kept wondering, when am I going to meet Barry Meguiar? Then about 4:00pm, just before I need to leave to go to the airport Barry walked into the room. He put his hand out to shake mine and instead of say,
Hi, I'm Barry Meguiar, (kind of like people normally do when meeting each other), instead he said,
I love your writing style
I've tried to hire professional writers with degrees and backgrounds in writing and it never works. There's no passion. There's no "car guy" feel to their writing. Would you like to move to California and take over the writing responsibilities for our company.
And of course I said YES!
It took a year before the position was created and I left my job at the Pulp Mill and moved to Irvine, California. My first day of work I was given the below business card and after making the rounds at the office and being introduced to everyone, I started typing.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3384/400_Mike_Biz_Cards_02.JPG
That's the story behind the story. I had a great time working for Meguiar's at the Corporate Office. I held the position of Corporate Writer for the first 2 years, 2002 to 2004 and then I because I had started teaching detailing classes in the garage there at Meguiar's and coordinating them via discussion forums, my Manager at that time, Dick Koeth, he came to me and said,
Mike,
Everyone really likes the work your doing as a writer... but, we also really like the classes you're teaching in the garage and then sharing them on the Internet. The company would like you to write your own job description. When you're done, give it to me and I'll meet with all of upper management.
That's when a new position was created called, Internet Technical Specialist.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3384/400_Mike_Biz_Cards_01.JPG
I always thought the title made the job sound like a person that set-up computer servers or something like that but what I did was basically brought up the MeguiarsOnline.com car detailing discussion forum. I wrote how-to articles, answered detailing questions, coordinated and taught detailing classes. I did this from 2005 until 2009. In 2009, Meghan, here at Autogeek contacted me and asked me if I could travel to Florida to the Autogeek Detail Fest show and teach the class I was teaching at Meguiar's at Detail Fest. And as the saying goes,
The rest is history....
Hope you enjoyed the background story on how writing a simple how-to book took me down a great life adventure that continues to this day.
I'm not sure when the interview comes out but I'll update this thread when it does.
:)