After achieving her goal of becoming a top producing Finance Manager and then Sales Manager, Erikka expanded her focus and influence even more. She has activated her passion to help educate, promote, and empower other women in automotive. Erikka partnered with three other successful female automotive executives: Patrice Banks, Kerri Wise and Amanda Gordan to form WOCAN (Women of Color Automotive Network). These women are excited about finding and creating new opportunities to help other women grow in their automotive careers.Erikka’s recent efforts have caught the attention of several news outlets. Automotive News featured Erikka’s cause in a nationwide commentary, and CBT News (Car Business Today News Organization ) has featured Erikka five times due to her passion and enthusiastic efforts to help women of color succeed in the automotive industry.In October, WOCAN offered a scholarship for the Leadership and Sales Management Course provided by the College of Automotive Management (CAM). Having had personal experience with this course, Erikka recognized its value and wanted to share it with others. WOCAN members sent in videos sharing their stories, goals and why they would be good candidates for the scholarship. On November 18th, 2020, the grand prize winner of the Leadership in Sales Management Course Scholarship was announced.The winner, Cassie Hernandez, is the soon-to-be partner owner of Overseas Garage in Long Beach, CA. Cassie has always loved working with her hands and started by fixing bicycles for friends while in high school. But her affinity for cars began when she purchased her first vehicle – a 1970 Volkswagen Bug. Naturally, her older car needed a lot of work, especially with the amount of driving she did between home, school and work, so she found herself in repair shops frequently!She began developing an interest in auto repair and service and in 2012, a friend told Cassie that Overseas Garage was looking for a receptionist. Cassie saw the opportunity to get her foot in the door, so she applied and was hired for the position. Two years later, they allowed her to begin performing repairs on vehicles – something she had wanted to do all along. Since then, she has handled nearly every aspect of the business, from being the receptionist and office manager to managing the financials, repairing vehicles and interfacing with customers.
In January of 2021, the owner of Overseas Garage plans to retire after running the shop for 37 years. Cassie is partnering with another co-worker to purchase the garage, which has maintained a great reputation in the community. Cassie’s goal is to learn as much as she can and earn as many certifications as she can that will help them run a strong, customer-centric and profitable business. “I’m so excited to take this course in Leadership and Sales Management,” Cassie told us. “This is the perfect course to help me be an excellent leader and manager with the right priorities of putting customers first. I’m so grateful to WOCAN for this scholarship – this is so helpful to my success as a businesswoman!”
We are so proud of CAM graduate Erikka Tiffani for giving back to the community in such a meaningful way through this scholarship! And we’re excited to welcome Cassie Hernandez to our Automotive Leadership in Sales Management Training!
To learn more about the benefits of a free membership with WOCAN, visit https://www.wocautonetwork.com/
If you’re in the Long Beach area, stop in and see Cassie Hernandez at Overseas Garage, which specializes in Japanese and hybrid vehicles!
And to find out more about Finance Manager and Sales Manager online training through the College of Automotive Management, visit https://collegeofautomotive.com/training/
