Community Highlights: Meet Josh Ingram of Colchin Automotive

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Ingram.

Hi Josh, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am proud to say I am a Colorado native. I was born in Boulder, CO, and spent a lot of time growing up in the Eldorado Springs area. It was a phenomenal childhood spent hiking, horseback riding, bike riding, and just a general little kid with a big active imagination

My little brother and I would spend hours looking for coins in the local creek only to find out the next-door neighbor had been throwing her loose change in there for us to find. My mother and father divorced when I was around 6 years old and set into motion many years of turbulence. This left our father to raise us the best he could. He would work 6-7 days a week most of the time just to barely squeeze us by. Over the next several years we bounced around different apartments and eventually moved to Omaha, NE to try and reset in a slower paced environment.

This is where he met my future stepmom, this chapter did not go well, to say the least, and could honestly be its own book. They later divorced and by this time I was so miserable I told my father I was packing my bags and going back home to Colorado. Keep in mind I wasn’t even close to old enough to buy a bus ticket but I had had enough. My father knew it was time and we came back. I was getting ready for high school full to the brim with rebellion and as you can imagine set myself off on the wrong track. I got into a ton of trouble over the next few years and eventually landed in jail for a laundry list of wrongdoings. Upon getting released my high school counselor tracked me down and asked me to come back to school and graduate.

I agreed and finished the requirements to graduate. Shortly after again I just could not keep myself out of trouble. Having very few options given my record and not being able to pass a drug test I boiled life down to two choices. 1 get into construction or 2 get into automotive repair. I chose the automotive path. I worked in a position as a lube technician changing oil and tires. After getting arrested at work for having stolen license plates on my Camaro I left and bounced around to other shops. I wanted to try customer service and found a shop in Broomfield, CO where I could start this journey. The culture of this facility was ugly, to say the least, and toxic to say the best.

After a short time, I left and found myself homeless. During my time at the shop though I happened to attend a training event and met this lady there who would eventually give me a call and an opportunity to interview for my current shop in Arvada. Laying all my cards on the table during the interview the owner knew I was genuine. Later that evening he called and offered me a position as a Service Advisor. He even went so far as to let me stay in our parts loft until I was able to land an apartment. This set the ball in motion for me to have a burning desire to pay him back in any way I could.

I worked hard and knew I had to grow. I remembered my father talking about a book he had read by a man named Dale Carnegie so I looked into it and found the Dale Carnegie training course. It was a 12-week course designed to help you grow personally and professionally. I split the cost of tuition 3 ways with my father and the owner of the shop. The next 12 weeks were life-changing, humbling, and a catalyst for everything to come. After 4 years and many classes of this type of training with them, I knew I was a lifelong learner. I made my next big jump and enrolled in the Automotive Training Institute. After 2 years I graduated with my Accredited Automotive Manager degree and went another 2 years to get my Accredited Master Automotive Manager degree.

20+ years later I am now the manager of the shop and working towards ownership. I am blessed to work with some of the brightest minds in the industry and we have created one of the most electric cultures I have ever been a part of. We are proud to be one of the premier shops in the area and continue to push our ceiling up and up. I bought a house near the shop and eventually met the love of my life, my beautiful wife. She is a fantastic support system as she went through many similar challenges in her life so we can relate to each other.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth? Not even close. During my junior year of high school, I dropped out and became a drug abuser living on the streets and a future inmate. I spent more time in courtrooms than I did with my own family. It seemed I was able to put myself in really horrible situations with the greatest of ease. Getting clean and sober was intense but I knew I had to stay determined and to keep digging. I struggled heavily with my parents’ divorce and the fact that my mother wasn’t around.

If it wasn’t for the love and support of my amazing grandmother who I know I put through the wringer I honestly don’t know how my journey would have gone. I’m not proud of some of my past, however, my past has shaped and molded me into the person I am today. I heard a person one time say “You can’t change the past but you are responsible for the decisions in your future”. Bumps are opportunities to do better. Struggles are opportunities to learn a different way to overcome failure.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The business was founded in June of 1984 by a fresh-out-of-college guy named Todd Colchin. He had a dream of fixing cars and taking care of people. 38 years in Arvada later we now take care of people and fix cars. Our team of highly trained and certified crew is truly passionate about our clients and about creating a safe, fun, and challenging career path.

Our mission statement is “doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason” and it applies to every client and every family we connect with. We are involved with our local Chamber of Commerce and have been a part of young professional groups and many other networking groups. We are proud to have done several classes for young teens on how to drive carefully and maintain their vehicles. We have done classes for the Boy Scouts, single mothers, and widows and even provide local high school students shadowing opportunities.

Our drive is to educate people about their vehicles and how to care for them properly. We offer a clean and safe shop experience and best of all we call it like it is and allow our clients to have confidence in making decisions about vehicle repair. I am most proud of the culture we have created as it sets the tone for the customer experience. We service foreign, domestic, gas, diesel, and hybrid vehicles at the highest level. Our level of customer service and attention to detail gives us a competitive advantage and allows our team to be “real” with the people we serve.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting.
I wished I’d known how tough the world can be, that nobody owes you anything, and that the best advice out there is to never stop learning and growing. If you want to try something, try it.

Don’t be afraid to take chances, be prepared to take on challenges and setbacks with the full intention of getting back up every time you fall. Take the time to appreciate your journey both the good and the bad, stop looking in the rearview mirror, and focus more on the sun shining through the windshield!

Contact Info:

• Website: colchinautomotive.com