October 29, 2025 • 33 mins
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What if a car isn’t just a car, but a turning point? I sat down with Changing Gears founders and leaders Joel Bokelman and Amanda Sinclair to unpack how a “Habitat for Cars” model turns reliable transportation into access to jobs, better pay, safer schedules, and the freedom to plan a future. It’s a practical, human approach to poverty that blends restored donated vehicles, half-price repairs, and a four-week technician training program into lasting mobility.
Joel shares the spark: a love of cars, a heart for empowering help, and the moment a volunteer gig grew into a mission. We break down the three core programs—vehicle purchase with zero-interest loans, repair and maintenance at half cost, and a hands-on tech training pathway that launches lube and tire tech careers. With partners like CityLink Center and Smart Money providing wraparound support, the model delivers real results: 353 cars sold with a 95% loan completion rate, 63 training graduates with 53 job placements, and a 68% one-year retention rate in the field.
The stories bring it home. Lakweila overcame a stolen car mid-training, bought an affordable vehicle, graduated, landed a dealership role, and paid off her car early—then celebrated with a joy drive to Hocking Hills. Carrie’s “Little Betty Blue” helped her step into a better job and a new home; years later she bought a new car and passed the Honda to her daughter. We connect these moments to the bigger picture: in Greater Cincinnati, only five percent of jobs are reachable by bus within an hour, but with a car it’s 99 percent. Those extra hours each day can mean rest, homework, a second shift, or simply peace.
We also look ahead. Changing Gears is looking to expand through new partner organizations across the city and building an affiliate playbook so communities elsewhere can launch their own transportation solutions. Along the way, Amanda’s reminder to celebrate the small wins and Joel’s belief that “God doesn’t call the equipped; he equips the called” anchor the work in courage and gratitude. Want in? Donate a vehicle, support the mission, or join the pedal-powered fun at the Changing Gears Grand Prix.
If this story moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find it. Your voice helps fuel the next mile.
You can find Changing Gears at https://www.changing-gears.org. If you are in the Cincinnati area, come out to Changing Gears on Thursday October 30th at 4:30 to celebrate their new graduates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome to the show, Joel.
Amanda.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Thanks so much for having us, Dan.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you here.
SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
And thanks for coming out to Changing Gears.
SPEAKER_02 (00:09):
Oh, well, what a pleasure to be here.
I've never been here.
This is going to be reallydifferent than my normal
beautiful facility right here inCincinnati.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
Thank you.
And fun to show you the garagewhere all the magic happens.
SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
Hey Amanda, take uh take a minute.
Tell us who you are.
SPEAKER_00 (00:24):
Okay.
So I'm Amanda Sinclair.
I am the development directorhere at Changing Gears, almost
three years in and loving lovingevery minute of it.
From Cincinnati, been here allmy life, married two amazing
high-energy boys.
We have lots of fun road tripsevery day.
(00:44):
I found out about this placethrough crossroads and City
Link.
My original interview for thejob was not the right fit.
I apparently I showed up for aninterview for the the tow truck
driver role, which you can't seeme, your audience can't see me
right now, but I'm about fiveone, one and a half.
Thank you very much.
And my foot would probably notreach that pedal if I was trying
(01:09):
to see over the hood of thetruck.
So that was fun.
And Joel and I met and had agreat conversation.
Realized that wasn't the rightrole.
Time went on.
About a year or so later, wereconnected and I got to jump in
at the development position I'min now.
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah.
They found a tow truck driver.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Found a toe truck driver whose feet reach the
pedal.
Praise God.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Well, that's great.
Thank you.
And uh Joel?
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Thank you so much for having us.
Um Joel Backelman.
Uh my wife and I foundedChanging Gears.
I get to serve as the executivedirector now, did a little bit
of everything.
I was the tow truck driver atone point.
And so love getting to doeverything, but now uh getting
to lead an awesome team here aswe're trying to accomplish our
mission.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:56):
Car background?
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
Always loved anything to do with cars.
I'm not a technician.
I studied engineering, was doingsomething else, and then uh God
opened up this opportunity to dochanging gears, to start
changing gears.
But no, not formally.
That was a car background.
SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
Well, we'll dive into the story in a little bit.
This is Dan the Road Trip guy.
First question is always whatwas your first car?
SPEAKER_00 (02:17):
All right.
I had to get some clarificationon this, but my first car was an
S10 Chevy from my Uncle Bubba inBristol, Tennessee.
I know.
Uncle Bubba from Tennessee makessense, right?
SPEAKER_04 (02:30):
It makes a lot of sense because I'm from the
Kentucky Tennessee border.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
Okay, so you get it.
So I was on the hunt for a greatlittle truck when I was in high
school.
He found it for me, drove it upto Cincinnati, and I spent the
few years I got to drive thatamazing truck with my windows
rolled down and my country musicblaring.
It was a really good time.
It was slightly vintage, hadkind of like that vintage vibe
(02:55):
to it, but ran pretty well untilthe transmission went out.
SPEAKER_02 (02:59):
Automatic or stick?
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Automatic.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
This is why she thought she could drive a tow
truck.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
I had a truck at one point and it went really well.
Yeah.
We were we were a good pair.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
How about you, Joel?
First car?
I was a hand-me-down.
It was a 1986 Toyota Corolla.
Okay.
SR5.
It was from uh my aunt and thenmy brother and then me.
Awesome car, light, small,rear-wheel drive, manual
transmission.
Turned out these things actuallygot pretty popular when drifting
became a thing.
Sure.
And and I think uh my familybasically gave it away.
(03:31):
Man, I would have loved to havekept that car.
Just keep that alive instead ofhaving just given it away.
That car actually got me intodoing some work on cars.
Sure.
Because it was, you know, I'dtake it to get the oil change
and thought, well, I could dothat.
Yeah.
So then that just started in thedriveway, and that was
pre-Youtube.
So you kind of had to do alittle more research, figuring
things out, but that was a lotof fun.
(03:52):
It's funny, I the car had likerust all over it and stuff on
the wheel wells, but I wouldstill wax it and just have to
like wax around the rust.
But I love that car, the flip-upheadlights.
Yeah, it was great.
But one point the fuel door felloff, and I just couldn't handle
that.
Like driving around, so youknow, the fuel door's gone, but
you see the gas cap, and I justthought it just had to be fixed.
(04:13):
So I um wandered into ascrapyard down here on Eastern
Avenue, one of I think it wasJack's Auto Parts or something,
and I didn't know anything.
So I just walk in and kind ofgrumpy guy at the counter is
like, yeah, just you know, yougo head over this direction.
And so I walk over there.
I'm looking at stacks of cars.
I mean, I'm probably 17, 18years old, just wandering around
this thing.
I couldn't believe I found a1986 Toyota Corolla in the
(04:37):
stack, and it had the fuel dooron it.
And I was like, that's that'sit, that's what I need.
So I look at it and just had twoscrews holding the thing in, but
I didn't I didn't know youneeded to bring tools with you
to this thing.
So I go back up to the counterand I'd say, Hey, how's um can I
borrow a screwdriver?
And he's like, Well, I'll sellyou one.
(05:01):
So I said, I'll be back.
So I went home, got my own toolsto come back down, took it off.
It was a different color though.
Um, so this is my first bodywork where I sanded it down and
found some paint.
It didn't match, but it was atleast red.
It was close enough.
That was my first kind of likejust getting into what it meant
to figure things out on a carfor yourself and just kind of do
some stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
So good stories, good stories.
Love those first car stories.
Any epic road trips, Amanda?
SPEAKER_00 (05:25):
Um, I would say my most epic road trip would be
from the Denver, ColoradoAirport to Grand Junction,
Colorado.
It is a three-hour drive throughthe mountains, which is a little
windy, a little tricky, but it'sjust the most beautiful drive
you could ever go on.
And you see big horn sheep, andthey come right up to the road.
(05:47):
And my boys were on the lookoutfor the bighorn sheep.
My husband's got his eyes on theroad, and I'm just taking it all
in.
It's like God's country outthere with the mountains, the
beautiful sky, every now andthen a like a water feature,
animals.
It's amazing.
It's also wild having the boysin the back seat, four and
(06:08):
seven, just loving life, likeliving their best life on this
drive.
So that just brings so much joy.
SPEAKER_02 (06:15):
How about you, Joel?
Epic road trip.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
I'm trying to decide.
I've got a got a few of them.
I think probably the one I'lltalk about go out to the
mountains as well.
It's kind of a road trip and aroad trip.
A couple years ago, my familyhad an opportunity.
We did an 18-day RV trip outwest.
And so that was pretty epic.
I got three daughters, loadeverybody up, load everything,
and and and headed out.
We drove through, uh, and thisis a big 32-foot class A RV.
(06:40):
Yeah.
I'm driving.
Yeah.
Marnie didn't drive at all.
It was, you know, at first itwas white knuckle the whole way,
and then after you drive it fora few weeks, a couple weeks, you
get pretty comfortable movingthe thing around.
But we drove out Kansas City,visit some friends, and and make
our way, and we go toBreckenridge, and then from
there we went up the GrandTetons and back around.
So it's just incredible.
But one of my favorite parts iswe stopped in Breckinridge and
(07:02):
we stayed there for a few days.
We actually rented a JeepWrangler while we were there.
Jeeps have a special place in myheart, and especially when you
can take all the doors andeverything off.
And so we rented this, and I waslike kind of nervously asked,
like, So do you mind if we takethe top off?
Or the and he was like, Hey,just bring it back the way it is
right now.
You can do whatever you want.
I was like, Yes, we're in.
unknown (07:22):
I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (07:24):
So we went went back to the RV park and we took top
off and took the whole thing,hard top off, and and then we
were able to drive up through apass.
And I mean, that's having myfamily in a Jeep on top of a
mountain.
Yeah, like that's just a specialplace.
Yes, there you go.
There you go.
But then we uh had some friendswho were uh over in Vale while
we were there, and we said,well, let's go over there.
(07:45):
So we got to drive this Jeepfrom Breckenridge to Vale, top
off and everything, and it wasjust incredible.
So it's kind of like a doublingup there, but that that's
probably top for me.
SPEAKER_02 (07:54):
Well, good, thank you all.
So, Joel, we're sitting here inChanging Gears office, downtown
Cincinnati.
Yeah.
Didn't know about you all untila mutual friend introduced
Amanda and I.
Take us on the journey.
How did Changing Gears come tobe?
SPEAKER_01 (08:08):
Yeah, it's it's a long story, but it's a it's a
good one.
Of you know, I was working aregular job, I studied chemical
engineering, was out doing fieldservice work in the metal
recycling business.
So we actually cutting cars upand recycling them.
It was around the time ouroldest daughter was born,
realized I was working so hardat something, and it just wasn't
(08:28):
fulfilling.
And if I was going to bespending that amount of time
working that hard and away frommy family, it had to be
something I was more passionateabout.
Luckily, through our church, wewere in a small group of guys,
and we came upon this book, andwe're like 25 years old at this
time.
We came across this book calledHalftime by Bob Buford.
Sure.
And it's meant for 40-year-oldguys, you know.
So we always joke, look,hopefully, it was a quarter life
(08:51):
crisis and not a midlife crisisthat we were going through.
But in this book, it kind oftalks about, you know, trying to
find out what's next and itencourages, they called it
seismic testing, kind ofsticking your toe in the water
to see what else could be outthere.
Uh, I always love math andscience.
And so I thought maybe I'll be ahigh school science teacher,
could coach some sports orsomething too, it'd be great.
(09:12):
I volunteered one time at kids'club at our church in the fifth
and sixth grade room and said,no, that is that is not for me.
Uh so that was quick.
But then at the same time, uhministry called Wheels was
getting started up at ourchurch.
I went and volunteered there forthe first time and just fell in
love.
I mean, they they wereoperating, operating out of an
old, it's called Moser Dodgedealership and just loved it.
(09:33):
What they were doing was fixingup cars and giving them away to
folks.
Piece of me of so I always lovecars and love the freedom that
cars bring.
But I also love, I always lovehelping people, but especially
when it's an empowering help,when it's it's helping someone
in a way that they can helpthemselves.
And I always love the habitatmodel.
One time I was I was headed outto a site in in Denver,
Colorado, my previous job,reading a book uh by my one of
(09:56):
my favorite teaching pastors,his name is Greg Boyd.
He's got a church inMinneapolis, uh, reading this
book, and he was saying so muchof Jesus' ministry was meeting
needs.
When ran out of wine, he madewine.
He had to feed 5,000.
He fade when people were lonely,he hung out with them.
So what if more Christ followersjust did that?
Just looking out the window ofthis plane and well, what does
(10:17):
that mean for me?
I've always loved cars, loveanything to do with them, love
helping people.
And and the the idea came up,why isn't there something like
habitat for cars?
And that was December 2006.
All the way through, we stilltalk about ourselves as habitat
for cars.
I love their model of that skinin the game model that uh led on
a journey of working up thecourage to tell my wife, I
(10:39):
thought I might be able to turnthis volunteer thing into a job
and what this would look like,and and and just going on this
path of seeing asking enoughquestions, who's doing this?
Why is it, why is it nothappening?
I even took a few classes atCincinnati State, so I had took
a little bit just to get someinformation, but um that's
really what started the path ofheading down this.
(11:01):
And then there were some yearsgetting ready until we finally
opened up here and in 2013 wasthe year that we officially got
started.
And had a few daughters inthere, so a lot going on.
SPEAKER_02 (11:12):
12 years ago.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So take a few minutes and tellus how changing gears operates.
You mentioned Habitat forHumanity.
Tell us how that relates tocars.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Yeah.
So when we got started, westarted with the mission.
It's our mission today ofempowering people who are
working towards prosperity byproviding affordable
transportation solutions.
We do that, we have threeprograms that are all very
empowering.
We have our vehicle purchaseprogram where we uh restore
donated cars and then we sellthose at half off with a
(11:41):
no-interest loan.
Uh, I was just looking this up.
We've we've sold 353 cars and wehave over a 95% loan completion
rate.
That's in part and in large partdue to the work with our
collaborative partners atCityLink Center and Smart Money,
where they do the financialtraining.
That's our purchase program.
We have our repair program whereit's half off repairs and
maintenance for people thatalready owned a car or bought a
(12:03):
car from us so they can keepthat car running.
And then we, our newest programis our technician training
program.
And this is for people who wantto start a career in the
automotive industry.
It's a four-week program gettingthe basics so they can start as
a lube and tire technician.
Okay.
It's kind of just in adealership world, there's kind
of lach, lube tech, and then youkind of grow from there.
In four weeks, we can show folkshow to work safely in a shop,
(12:25):
get really fast at oil changesand all the tire stuff, and then
they can start as a lube andtire technician.
Then once they get into thedealership, they have access to
all the free training that'sthere from the manufacturers and
they can really grow theircareers from there.
And when did that start?
That started in 2021.
Some fun stuff there.
We've had just looking at this,we had 73 people start, 63 uh
(12:49):
graduates of that program, and53 get started in jobs in the
field.
And then most important is wehave a 68% one year or greater
retention rate in the field.
So it means that they'readvancing in their careers,
usually starting$17,$18 an hourand growing from there.
SPEAKER_02 (13:06):
Well, and do you stay in contact with your
graduates then to see how it'sgoing?
SPEAKER_01 (13:11):
Yeah, it's one of the things that makes the
program special.
Eric Dallas are kind of he'she's over, leads the tech
training program.
He's the instructor, but also Iwould say that retention piece,
he goes out to the to the sitesto visit graduates and check on
them how they're doing.
And we really want to make surethat there's not some small
thing that prevents someone fromgetting to a year on the job.
(13:32):
And then there's other ways thatthey stay in touch as well.
But um, it's real special to goon the site and see, and even
more fun when he's able to likego to one dealership and there's
a few of our graduates there.
So they're kind of starting tocollect at at certain
dealerships and grow from there.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:47):
People are just driving by and going, oh, that
looks like a repair shop, or uh,I can buy a car there.
How does that where do theclients come from?
SPEAKER_01 (13:56):
It's all of our clients, um, you know, one of
our big values around changinggears is collaboration.
So all of our clients comethrough a collaborative partner.
It allows us to focus onremoving transportation barriers
or workforce developmenttraining, and then knowing that
our clients then have access toall the necessary wraparound
services to really move frompoverty to prosperity.
(14:18):
Our main partner is a placecalled City Link Center.
And uh, we really kind of cameto life together.
Uh CityLink Center has all theall the services that are
necessary for someone, what andthen also a lot of different
training programs.
So, in addition to ourtechnician training program,
they've got training programs inculinary construction, IT,
medical, and so hopefully we canremove some transportation
(14:39):
barriers for folks that arestarting in those careers.
Something we're excited to do iswe're we're now in a place where
we're gonna be able to startgrowing and serving clients from
additional partnerorganizations.
Over the past year, we've addedfour new additional partners.
The similarity is that they areproviding those wraparound
services.
We just want to be thetransportation solution.
Sure.
And so we're expanding to beable to serve clients throughout
(15:02):
the city.
Beautiful building we're in.
How long have you been here?
This building we moved in in2021.
Okay.
We kind of pilot tested our techtraining uh program in our old
facility, which is actuallyright next door, and but it
didn't have the space we'resitting now.
Uh it needed it needed someclassroom space, some
multi-purpose room space so youcan have the the classroom
(15:23):
portion and then go right out tothe garage and have a lot of
garage portion as well.
And so in the garage, we used tohave three lifts.
In this shop, we've got seven.
And so that way we've got roomto have the students out in the
shop while we've got all of ourother operations going on as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (15:39):
The old building was was all cinder block, barely any
windows, no AC.
That's where I had my firstinterview.
Thankful for that firstinterview because I got to kind
of see the before and after.
Yeah.
And now it's been totallyflipped into a brand new
building.
SPEAKER_01 (15:57):
Yeah, I'm surprised actually that we were can able
to convince people to come workfor us looking back at that old
building.
SPEAKER_04 (16:03):
I sweat a lot in.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yeah, uh, and it's fun uh for a lot a majority of
our staff still knows that.
Kind of different when we hirepeople now and they don't know
the old building and where wecome from.
And I mean, this is a nice new,beautiful building.
It's always great for where wegot, yeah, grateful where we got
started.
SPEAKER_02 (16:20):
Can you share a few what we would say success
stories and how that's workedout?
SPEAKER_00 (16:25):
Our clients are what keep us going, right?
Um, we love to celebrate aroundhere.
That is one of our core values.
We do pay attention to thesuccess stories and they give us
life.
Our clients give us so much, somuch life.
One in particular stands out tome.
Her name is Laquela.
She was a tech training studentover a year ago.
(16:48):
Biggest smile on her face, likethat you've ever seen.
Brought so much energy to herclass.
I think she was in one of ourfirst classes of six students.
Usually our our tech trainingclasses were about three to four
students, and we decided to takeit up a notch and have six, and
she was part of one of thoseoriginal classes.
A couple weeks into hertraining, her car got stolen.
(17:12):
So she had no way to get totraining.
We were able to sell her a car.
So then now she's a techtraining student, a a purchase
client.
She's now been on her job ayear.
So she over a year, she's comingfor repairs for that car that
she bought here.
(17:32):
So she's been a one of one ofthose amazing clients that's
been part of each program.
She's so good at knowing who'saround her, what's around her,
staying in touch, and not onlyasking for help when she needs
it, but encouraging everyonearound her.
When I'm whenever I'm aroundthis girl, I my day just gets
better.
She paid off her car early.
(17:54):
Eventually, that car had itslast day.
At that point, she already hadher finances in order.
She had figured out a lot oflife.
She's she's hungry to to figurethings out, and and she's doing
it that same day, or the nextday, the dealership that she
works at was able to get her ina new car.
(18:16):
She was so excited.
We I have a wonderful picture ofher on the head of her car
celebrating this victoriousmoment.
That day she drove to HawkingHills.
She said, Oh my gosh, I've neverhad a car where I thought I
could drive that far.
And so she went to scope it outand had planned a trip to go
(18:37):
back the following weekend totake a break, to enjoy and
cruise in her new car.
That girl inspires me so much.
I think without even knowing it,inspires everyone she runs into.
So Aquala for me just standsout.
SPEAKER_01 (18:55):
Yeah, our I mentioned our mission, but our
our vision is as we help eachother, people have the freedom
to accomplish their dreams.
And we know it's not owning acar helps with that, but it's
that real freedom to be able totravel, to go, to go be out in
nature and to go see thosethings.
Like obviously, there's lots ofyou know, people might want a
(19:16):
car and a house, but really theywant to host a barbecue with
their family and have theirfamily come over.
And so it's these these are thethe real thing that people want
to accomplish.
We ask a lot of our clients,what's your why?
What's your why, especially inour tech training program?
And it's that's the kind ofstuff they want.
And that's what's gonna keepkeep them working hard.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
So well, and you you know, you're not only getting
people in a car, you you'rehelping get people to jobs.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (19:39):
And I've always said if you want to fix poverty, low
income, you have to have jobs.
SPEAKER_01 (19:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
In in Cincinnati, we got a wegot a big poverty problem.
About one in four are inpoverty, and we got a big
transportation problem.
So we the and shocker, they areconnected.
There's a stat we share a lotthat in in in Greater
Cincinnati, only five percent ofjobs are accessible in less than
an hour if you're on publictransportation.
With a car, it's 99%.
(20:07):
And I always asterisk this withwe are we love public
transportation and we want moreand more of it.
It's there's a lot of cool stuffhappening with it.
We want people to be able to getwhere they gotta go, however
that is.
But especially when you'reworking your out of poverty,
it's not just getting to work,it's also getting the grocery
store, getting kids to to schoolto access health care.
It's all of these things thatare that are necessary.
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
So it's interesting you mentioned that because I was
just thinking about it.
We have uh a young man we'refriends with, didn't have a car,
he worked, he lived in Newport,he worked at Amazon, Hebron.
Yeah, yes, we left publictransportation too.
I rode the bus for a number ofyears, that was cool.
Yeah, uh, but it is verydifficult to get from point A to
point B in Cincinnati.
(20:50):
Yeah, and he he would spend anhour and a half trying to get to
Hebron.
That's one way.
And then he got off at like twoo'clock in the morning.
Now I gotta pay for an Uber toget home.
Well, that's not cheap.
SPEAKER_03 (21:04):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:05):
What you're doing.
I mean, you when you have a carand it's running, you just take
it for granted.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
Yeah, you're you're nailing so many of the things,
it's the the time.
So think about that.
Even even if the bus was runningon the way home, it's three
hours on a bus versus it'sprobably a half-hour car ride.
So we're talking about savingtwo hours a day.
Yeah.
Imagine if I was like, Dan,here's two hours more for you to
do whatever you want today.
Yeah.
And so it's just then giving theclients the freedom to do
whatever it is.
Sometimes it's get more rest soyou can be a better parent.
(21:30):
It's awesome to see what they'redoing.
Love Laquela story.
I one that that I was justsharing, I love this because you
see the power of our purchaseprogram was a woman named Carrie
back in 2018.
She bought a car from us, boughta Honda Accord.
It was a 2007 Honda Accord, uh,blue, and she named it Little
Betty Blue.
And uh at the time she waslimited to working jobs she
(21:52):
could walk to.
But with this car, she was ableto get a better job, get a
better paying job.
She was able to move out.
She was um staying with herparents at the time, but able to
move out.
So her and her daughters had aplace of their own.
Little Betty Blue kept keptrunning.
Uh, she paid it off a yearlater.
So we got fun celebration photoswith her and her title.
(22:12):
But most fun is this year shesends us a picture and it's her
in front of a brand new ToyotaCorolla.
And so she, Little Betty Bluehad been kept running.
Uh, she took great care of it.
Uh now she's able to buy a newcar.
Wow.
Uh, but she actually kept LittleBetty Blue and was able to give
that to her daughter.
So then now her daughter has thefreedom of transportation.
(22:35):
This generational impact thatyou can see when when a parent
has a car, what that frees upfor their family and what they
can do.
It's just fun to see that thatlong-term impact.
Here's a question.
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
I don't know if you can answer or not.
You mentioned happen to have forhumanity, they're not just in
Cincinnati.
Changing gears is here inCincinnati.
Big vision.
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
Great question.
SPEAKER_01 (22:55):
Yeah, you must be listening in.
Yeah, great, great question.
Had this incredible thing, and Ican only attribute it to God's
abundance and coming in at theright time.
And right around our 10-yearanniversary, we got connected
with a foundation that wanted tolook at replicating something
like changing gears uh down inTexas.
And they kind of said, What'syour appetite for replication?
(23:17):
We say, Well, that'd be cool.
And we've had different peoplecome to us at different times
and ask that, but our heartsreally for Cincinnati.
There's so much more to do inCincinnati.
And so it before we think aboutreplication, we we gotta figure
out how to grow here.
And they said, Well, what if wedo both?
I said, Oh, that sounds fun.
Sure, why not?
Over the past two years, we'vereally been looking at expansion
(23:40):
and replication.
And expansion looks like servingclients from additional
partners.
We want to we want anybody inCincinnati, if they have a
transportation barrier, we wantto be able to help them.
So, in the same way that Habitathelps all over, and then we're
starting to look at replication.
A line I use a lot is like,we're building this plane as
we're flying it.
Sure.
And so you just think, oh, Idon't know, this is just what we
(24:00):
do.
But now we're trying to buildour playbook of this is this is
how we run.
And it's like, oh, we'veactually learned a lot over the
past 12 years.
Our our plan is to get all ofour processes and our playbook
together so that we could helppeople or an organization in
different cities start somethingthat looks like changing gears
through an affiliate networkmodel.
(24:20):
Yeah.
You know, we know Cincinnati, weknow the needs and the
opportunities and therelationships that are there.
But if we would try to startsomething in Indianapolis or any
Kansas City, anywhere, we don't,we're we're disconnected from
that.
So we're not gonna go after afranchise model or a wholly
owned model, but we find placesthat that are looking for
something like this, and then wecan equip them to get started.
(24:43):
So and then be able to learnfrom each other because other
organizations that get started,they're gonna learn stuff that
we we haven't.
And so how do we make ourselvesbetter?
And so it's really fun to seehow this uh expansion and
replication kind of feed eachother.
Sure.
And it'll make us better atserving our clients.
Well, yeah.
Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_02 (24:59):
Yeah, so more to come, Dan.
This might become a you know aquarterly event.
Yeah.
I'm enjoying this sitting herein a car place, you know.
This is great.
If you could leave my listenerswith some life advice on how to
live a better life or servepeople, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
This goes along with our core values.
I've already talked about this,but celebrate the small stuff.
That's that's my advice.
That's kind of an Amina Sinclairquote, but it it goes along with
joy comes to us in the ordinarymoments, which is something
Brene Brown says and shares outwith everybody.
You don't want to miss thecelebration, you don't want to
(25:39):
miss the joy looking for theextraordinary when the good
stuff is right in front of us.
SPEAKER_02 (25:44):
Wow, thank you.
Joel, you have any advice?
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
Yeah, this one was really important for me.
And it's that God doesn't callthe equipped, he equips the
called.
That has been something that hasbeen a thousand percent true for
me through this whole thing.
I I didn't know what I was doingat all.
I talk about like we'd I'd nevermanaged anybody, let alone hire
somebody, or you know, and whenwe got started and kind of
building this team, but Godcontinues to equip when when you
(26:10):
do this.
So piece for me in that is likethat means you got to be
connected to God.
So you can you can hear that.
Usually that means throughcommunity.
So, you know, finding communitythat makes you better to help
process that and then leaning inand taking some risks.
And when you get I saw thisrecently, when you have there's
an equation, our good friendCorey Carlson, give a shout-out
(26:33):
to him and his his podcast andhis his work with Win at Home
First, but it was community plusgetting out of your comfort zone
equals breakthrough.
And I've seen that when you justget out from from where you're
comfortable and you've got thecommunity to support you.
That's when really specialthings happen.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
Well, thank you.
So we don't want to leave untilwe know how can people find
changing gears?
SPEAKER_00 (26:55):
Awesome.
We would love to have anyone whowants to come, come out to
Changing Gears, visit usThursday, October 30th.
We're having a big celebrationfor our tech training students
of this October class.
There's four of them, and all ofour alumni.
So there's gonna be a greatpanel, there's gonna be good
(27:16):
food and drinks and just beingin community.
So that's here at Changing Gearsin the west end of Cincinnati at
4:30.
I think it goes till 6 or 6:30.
Dan, you're coming, right?
I'll be here.
All right.
So that's number one.
Come out and see us.
We'd love to celebrate withanyone that wants to join.
That's a crowd full ofsupporters, friends, community.
(27:39):
It's it's a great time.
Join us.
There's other ways to theaddress here.
2015 Central Ave.
You can also look at us, look usup at changing-gears.org for all
sorts of information.
Another other great ways to getinvolved would be through
vehicle donations.
(27:59):
That's a huge way we fundraisearound here.
And some of the donated vehicleswe receive, we're able to
restore and get ready to sell toclients.
Kind of the dream when someonedonates a vehicle to us, how
cool would it be if this went toa client?
And sometimes that does happen.
Joel and Marnie just sold theirminivan to a client last spring
(28:20):
and the spring, which was reallycool.
But we take any and everyvehicle donation.
Every vehicle donation helpssupport our mission.
We're able to restore thesecars, sell them in auction,
sometimes scrap a car or two.
It's all funding that helps ourneighbors in need and helps us
get to do uh what we do.
(28:42):
You can also obviously hop onthe website for a financial
donation.
We're always accepting those aswell.
SPEAKER_03 (28:48):
Can't miss that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:49):
And there's opportunities on the website to
follow us.
On LinkedIn is where we post alot.
We're on Instagram, Facebook,and you can sign up for the
newsletter.
SPEAKER_02 (28:59):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (28:59):
Which which I write once a month.
And it's a great read if I don'tsay so myself.
SPEAKER_02 (29:04):
Now, one question.
Yes.
So if I donate a car, do youshow up in the tow truck?
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
Hey, I haven't driven it yet.
Joel, what do you think?
SPEAKER_02 (29:15):
Come on, Joel.
She's gonna have to.
I did a ride-along.
SPEAKER_00 (29:17):
I've done some ride-alongs.
Yeah.
And I'm quite theconversationalist, so that's
fun.
I'll come say hi if it'srequested.
But for safety purposes, we'lllet Junior do the driving.
He's really good at hooking upthe cart in the back as well.
Haven't tried it yet.
SPEAKER_02 (29:32):
Anything else you want to leave us with?
SPEAKER_01 (29:34):
Uh, we gotta mention the Changing Gears Grand Prix.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
And so this is a I did see that on the website.
Yeah, plus being a racing guy.
I'm like, Grand Prix, what isthis?
SPEAKER_00 (29:46):
Annual fundraiser.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
It's our annual fundraising event.
We wanted to have a fundraisersevent that kind of, I don't
know, embody changing gears.
And so it is maybe a littlebiased, but I think a really fun
fundraising event.
Uh set up a track at a hangar.
In Lunkin, at Lunkin Airport.
And we race these pedal cartsthat are meant for kids, but
adults fit on them.
SPEAKER_03 (30:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:07):
And then it's also a costume contest for the teams.
So we get teams of four who aredoing a relay race around this
indoor track.
Okay.
It's an incredibly fun, even ifyou're not a racer, like just to
watch what's happening.
Because competitiveness comesout in people once they once
they get on the cart.
May 16th, 2026.
So mark your calendars.
SPEAKER_00 (30:26):
Sign up for that newsletter.
SPEAKER_02 (30:28):
Yes.
Yes.
Well, this has been a pleasurefor me.
Uh to be here.
Yes.
It's been awesome.
I'm so thankful we got linked upand got to do this.
So we'll do it again.
Uh we're gonna hold you to that.
Thanks, Dan.
SPEAKER_00 (30:41):
Thanks so much for having us, Dan.
Welcome to the show, Joel.
Amanda.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Thanks so much for having us, Dan.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you here.
SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
And thanks for coming out to Changing Gears.
SPEAKER_02 (00:09):
Oh, well, what a pleasure to be here.
I've never been here.
This is going to be reallydifferent than my normal
beautiful facility right here inCincinnati.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
Thank you.
And fun to show you the garagewhere all the magic happens.
SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
Hey Amanda, take uh take a minute.
Tell us who you are.
SPEAKER_00 (00:24):
Okay.
So I'm Amanda Sinclair.
I am the development directorhere at Changing Gears, almost
three years in and loving lovingevery minute of it.
From Cincinnati, been here allmy life, married two amazing
high-energy boys.
We have lots of fun road tripsevery day.
(00:44):
I found out about this placethrough crossroads and City
Link.
My original interview for thejob was not the right fit.
I apparently I showed up for aninterview for the the tow truck
driver role, which you can't seeme, your audience can't see me
right now, but I'm about fiveone, one and a half.
Thank you very much.
And my foot would probably notreach that pedal if I was trying
(01:09):
to see over the hood of thetruck.
So that was fun.
And Joel and I met and had agreat conversation.
Realized that wasn't the rightrole.
Time went on.
About a year or so later, wereconnected and I got to jump in
at the development position I'min now.
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah.
They found a tow truck driver.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Found a toe truck driver whose feet reach the
pedal.
Praise God.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Well, that's great.
Thank you.
And uh Joel?
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Thank you so much for having us.
Um Joel Backelman.
Uh my wife and I foundedChanging Gears.
I get to serve as the executivedirector now, did a little bit
of everything.
I was the tow truck driver atone point.
And so love getting to doeverything, but now uh getting
to lead an awesome team here aswe're trying to accomplish our
mission.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:56):
Car background?
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
Always loved anything to do with cars.
I'm not a technician.
I studied engineering, was doingsomething else, and then uh God
opened up this opportunity to dochanging gears, to start
changing gears.
But no, not formally.
That was a car background.
SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
Well, we'll dive into the story in a little bit.
This is Dan the Road Trip guy.
First question is always whatwas your first car?
SPEAKER_00 (02:17):
All right.
I had to get some clarificationon this, but my first car was an
S10 Chevy from my Uncle Bubba inBristol, Tennessee.
I know.
Uncle Bubba from Tennessee makessense, right?
SPEAKER_04 (02:30):
It makes a lot of sense because I'm from the
Kentucky Tennessee border.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
Okay, so you get it.
So I was on the hunt for a greatlittle truck when I was in high
school.
He found it for me, drove it upto Cincinnati, and I spent the
few years I got to drive thatamazing truck with my windows
rolled down and my country musicblaring.
It was a really good time.
It was slightly vintage, hadkind of like that vintage vibe
(02:55):
to it, but ran pretty well untilthe transmission went out.
SPEAKER_02 (02:59):
Automatic or stick?
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
Automatic.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
This is why she thought she could drive a tow
truck.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
I had a truck at one point and it went really well.
Yeah.
We were we were a good pair.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
How about you, Joel?
First car?
I was a hand-me-down.
It was a 1986 Toyota Corolla.
Okay.
SR5.
It was from uh my aunt and thenmy brother and then me.
Awesome car, light, small,rear-wheel drive, manual
transmission.
Turned out these things actuallygot pretty popular when drifting
became a thing.
Sure.
And and I think uh my familybasically gave it away.
(03:31):
Man, I would have loved to havekept that car.
Just keep that alive instead ofhaving just given it away.
That car actually got me intodoing some work on cars.
Sure.
Because it was, you know, I'dtake it to get the oil change
and thought, well, I could dothat.
Yeah.
So then that just started in thedriveway, and that was
pre-Youtube.
So you kind of had to do alittle more research, figuring
things out, but that was a lotof fun.
(03:52):
It's funny, I the car had likerust all over it and stuff on
the wheel wells, but I wouldstill wax it and just have to
like wax around the rust.
But I love that car, the flip-upheadlights.
Yeah, it was great.
But one point the fuel door felloff, and I just couldn't handle
that.
Like driving around, so youknow, the fuel door's gone, but
you see the gas cap, and I justthought it just had to be fixed.
(04:13):
So I um wandered into ascrapyard down here on Eastern
Avenue, one of I think it wasJack's Auto Parts or something,
and I didn't know anything.
So I just walk in and kind ofgrumpy guy at the counter is
like, yeah, just you know, yougo head over this direction.
And so I walk over there.
I'm looking at stacks of cars.
I mean, I'm probably 17, 18years old, just wandering around
this thing.
I couldn't believe I found a1986 Toyota Corolla in the
(04:37):
stack, and it had the fuel dooron it.
And I was like, that's that'sit, that's what I need.
So I look at it and just had twoscrews holding the thing in, but
I didn't I didn't know youneeded to bring tools with you
to this thing.
So I go back up to the counterand I'd say, Hey, how's um can I
borrow a screwdriver?
And he's like, Well, I'll sellyou one.
(05:01):
So I said, I'll be back.
So I went home, got my own toolsto come back down, took it off.
It was a different color though.
Um, so this is my first bodywork where I sanded it down and
found some paint.
It didn't match, but it was atleast red.
It was close enough.
That was my first kind of likejust getting into what it meant
to figure things out on a carfor yourself and just kind of do
some stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
So good stories, good stories.
Love those first car stories.
Any epic road trips, Amanda?
SPEAKER_00 (05:25):
Um, I would say my most epic road trip would be
from the Denver, ColoradoAirport to Grand Junction,
Colorado.
It is a three-hour drive throughthe mountains, which is a little
windy, a little tricky, but it'sjust the most beautiful drive
you could ever go on.
And you see big horn sheep, andthey come right up to the road.
(05:47):
And my boys were on the lookoutfor the bighorn sheep.
My husband's got his eyes on theroad, and I'm just taking it all
in.
It's like God's country outthere with the mountains, the
beautiful sky, every now andthen a like a water feature,
animals.
It's amazing.
It's also wild having the boysin the back seat, four and
(06:08):
seven, just loving life, likeliving their best life on this
drive.
So that just brings so much joy.
SPEAKER_02 (06:15):
How about you, Joel?
Epic road trip.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
I'm trying to decide.
I've got a got a few of them.
I think probably the one I'lltalk about go out to the
mountains as well.
It's kind of a road trip and aroad trip.
A couple years ago, my familyhad an opportunity.
We did an 18-day RV trip outwest.
And so that was pretty epic.
I got three daughters, loadeverybody up, load everything,
and and and headed out.
We drove through, uh, and thisis a big 32-foot class A RV.
(06:40):
Yeah.
I'm driving.
Yeah.
Marnie didn't drive at all.
It was, you know, at first itwas white knuckle the whole way,
and then after you drive it fora few weeks, a couple weeks, you
get pretty comfortable movingthe thing around.
But we drove out Kansas City,visit some friends, and and make
our way, and we go toBreckenridge, and then from
there we went up the GrandTetons and back around.
So it's just incredible.
But one of my favorite parts iswe stopped in Breckinridge and
(07:02):
we stayed there for a few days.
We actually rented a JeepWrangler while we were there.
Jeeps have a special place in myheart, and especially when you
can take all the doors andeverything off.
And so we rented this, and I waslike kind of nervously asked,
like, So do you mind if we takethe top off?
Or the and he was like, Hey,just bring it back the way it is
right now.
You can do whatever you want.
I was like, Yes, we're in.
unknown (07:22):
I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (07:24):
So we went went back to the RV park and we took top
off and took the whole thing,hard top off, and and then we
were able to drive up through apass.
And I mean, that's having myfamily in a Jeep on top of a
mountain.
Yeah, like that's just a specialplace.
Yes, there you go.
There you go.
But then we uh had some friendswho were uh over in Vale while
we were there, and we said,well, let's go over there.
(07:45):
So we got to drive this Jeepfrom Breckenridge to Vale, top
off and everything, and it wasjust incredible.
So it's kind of like a doublingup there, but that that's
probably top for me.
SPEAKER_02 (07:54):
Well, good, thank you all.
So, Joel, we're sitting here inChanging Gears office, downtown
Cincinnati.
Yeah.
Didn't know about you all untila mutual friend introduced
Amanda and I.
Take us on the journey.
How did Changing Gears come tobe?
SPEAKER_01 (08:08):
Yeah, it's it's a long story, but it's a it's a
good one.
Of you know, I was working aregular job, I studied chemical
engineering, was out doing fieldservice work in the metal
recycling business.
So we actually cutting cars upand recycling them.
It was around the time ouroldest daughter was born,
realized I was working so hardat something, and it just wasn't
(08:28):
fulfilling.
And if I was going to bespending that amount of time
working that hard and away frommy family, it had to be
something I was more passionateabout.
Luckily, through our church, wewere in a small group of guys,
and we came upon this book, andwe're like 25 years old at this
time.
We came across this book calledHalftime by Bob Buford.
Sure.
And it's meant for 40-year-oldguys, you know.
So we always joke, look,hopefully, it was a quarter life
(08:51):
crisis and not a midlife crisisthat we were going through.
But in this book, it kind oftalks about, you know, trying to
find out what's next and itencourages, they called it
seismic testing, kind ofsticking your toe in the water
to see what else could be outthere.
Uh, I always love math andscience.
And so I thought maybe I'll be ahigh school science teacher,
could coach some sports orsomething too, it'd be great.
(09:12):
I volunteered one time at kids'club at our church in the fifth
and sixth grade room and said,no, that is that is not for me.
Uh so that was quick.
But then at the same time, uhministry called Wheels was
getting started up at ourchurch.
I went and volunteered there forthe first time and just fell in
love.
I mean, they they wereoperating, operating out of an
old, it's called Moser Dodgedealership and just loved it.
(09:33):
What they were doing was fixingup cars and giving them away to
folks.
Piece of me of so I always lovecars and love the freedom that
cars bring.
But I also love, I always lovehelping people, but especially
when it's an empowering help,when it's it's helping someone
in a way that they can helpthemselves.
And I always love the habitatmodel.
One time I was I was headed outto a site in in Denver,
Colorado, my previous job,reading a book uh by my one of
(09:56):
my favorite teaching pastors,his name is Greg Boyd.
He's got a church inMinneapolis, uh, reading this
book, and he was saying so muchof Jesus' ministry was meeting
needs.
When ran out of wine, he madewine.
He had to feed 5,000.
He fade when people were lonely,he hung out with them.
So what if more Christ followersjust did that?
Just looking out the window ofthis plane and well, what does
(10:17):
that mean for me?
I've always loved cars, loveanything to do with them, love
helping people.
And and the the idea came up,why isn't there something like
habitat for cars?
And that was December 2006.
All the way through, we stilltalk about ourselves as habitat
for cars.
I love their model of that skinin the game model that uh led on
a journey of working up thecourage to tell my wife, I
(10:39):
thought I might be able to turnthis volunteer thing into a job
and what this would look like,and and and just going on this
path of seeing asking enoughquestions, who's doing this?
Why is it, why is it nothappening?
I even took a few classes atCincinnati State, so I had took
a little bit just to get someinformation, but um that's
really what started the path ofheading down this.
(11:01):
And then there were some yearsgetting ready until we finally
opened up here and in 2013 wasthe year that we officially got
started.
And had a few daughters inthere, so a lot going on.
SPEAKER_02 (11:12):
12 years ago.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So take a few minutes and tellus how changing gears operates.
You mentioned Habitat forHumanity.
Tell us how that relates tocars.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Yeah.
So when we got started, westarted with the mission.
It's our mission today ofempowering people who are
working towards prosperity byproviding affordable
transportation solutions.
We do that, we have threeprograms that are all very
empowering.
We have our vehicle purchaseprogram where we uh restore
donated cars and then we sellthose at half off with a
(11:41):
no-interest loan.
Uh, I was just looking this up.
We've we've sold 353 cars and wehave over a 95% loan completion
rate.
That's in part and in large partdue to the work with our
collaborative partners atCityLink Center and Smart Money,
where they do the financialtraining.
That's our purchase program.
We have our repair program whereit's half off repairs and
maintenance for people thatalready owned a car or bought a
(12:03):
car from us so they can keepthat car running.
And then we, our newest programis our technician training
program.
And this is for people who wantto start a career in the
automotive industry.
It's a four-week program gettingthe basics so they can start as
a lube and tire technician.
Okay.
It's kind of just in adealership world, there's kind
of lach, lube tech, and then youkind of grow from there.
In four weeks, we can show folkshow to work safely in a shop,
(12:25):
get really fast at oil changesand all the tire stuff, and then
they can start as a lube andtire technician.
Then once they get into thedealership, they have access to
all the free training that'sthere from the manufacturers and
they can really grow theircareers from there.
And when did that start?
That started in 2021.
Some fun stuff there.
We've had just looking at this,we had 73 people start, 63 uh
(12:49):
graduates of that program, and53 get started in jobs in the
field.
And then most important is wehave a 68% one year or greater
retention rate in the field.
So it means that they'readvancing in their careers,
usually starting$17,$18 an hourand growing from there.
SPEAKER_02 (13:06):
Well, and do you stay in contact with your
graduates then to see how it'sgoing?
SPEAKER_01 (13:11):
Yeah, it's one of the things that makes the
program special.
Eric Dallas are kind of he'she's over, leads the tech
training program.
He's the instructor, but also Iwould say that retention piece,
he goes out to the to the sitesto visit graduates and check on
them how they're doing.
And we really want to make surethat there's not some small
thing that prevents someone fromgetting to a year on the job.
(13:32):
And then there's other ways thatthey stay in touch as well.
But um, it's real special to goon the site and see, and even
more fun when he's able to likego to one dealership and there's
a few of our graduates there.
So they're kind of starting tocollect at at certain
dealerships and grow from there.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:47):
People are just driving by and going, oh, that
looks like a repair shop, or uh,I can buy a car there.
How does that where do theclients come from?
SPEAKER_01 (13:56):
It's all of our clients, um, you know, one of
our big values around changinggears is collaboration.
So all of our clients comethrough a collaborative partner.
It allows us to focus onremoving transportation barriers
or workforce developmenttraining, and then knowing that
our clients then have access toall the necessary wraparound
services to really move frompoverty to prosperity.
(14:18):
Our main partner is a placecalled City Link Center.
And uh, we really kind of cameto life together.
Uh CityLink Center has all theall the services that are
necessary for someone, what andthen also a lot of different
training programs.
So, in addition to ourtechnician training program,
they've got training programs inculinary construction, IT,
medical, and so hopefully we canremove some transportation
(14:39):
barriers for folks that arestarting in those careers.
Something we're excited to do iswe're we're now in a place where
we're gonna be able to startgrowing and serving clients from
additional partnerorganizations.
Over the past year, we've addedfour new additional partners.
The similarity is that they areproviding those wraparound
services.
We just want to be thetransportation solution.
Sure.
And so we're expanding to beable to serve clients throughout
(15:02):
the city.
Beautiful building we're in.
How long have you been here?
This building we moved in in2021.
Okay.
We kind of pilot tested our techtraining uh program in our old
facility, which is actuallyright next door, and but it
didn't have the space we'resitting now.
Uh it needed it needed someclassroom space, some
multi-purpose room space so youcan have the the classroom
(15:23):
portion and then go right out tothe garage and have a lot of
garage portion as well.
And so in the garage, we used tohave three lifts.
In this shop, we've got seven.
And so that way we've got roomto have the students out in the
shop while we've got all of ourother operations going on as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (15:39):
The old building was was all cinder block, barely any
windows, no AC.
That's where I had my firstinterview.
Thankful for that firstinterview because I got to kind
of see the before and after.
Yeah.
And now it's been totallyflipped into a brand new
building.
SPEAKER_01 (15:57):
Yeah, I'm surprised actually that we were can able
to convince people to come workfor us looking back at that old
building.
SPEAKER_04 (16:03):
I sweat a lot in.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yeah, uh, and it's fun uh for a lot a majority of
our staff still knows that.
Kind of different when we hirepeople now and they don't know
the old building and where wecome from.
And I mean, this is a nice new,beautiful building.
It's always great for where wegot, yeah, grateful where we got
started.
SPEAKER_02 (16:20):
Can you share a few what we would say success
stories and how that's workedout?
SPEAKER_00 (16:25):
Our clients are what keep us going, right?
Um, we love to celebrate aroundhere.
That is one of our core values.
We do pay attention to thesuccess stories and they give us
life.
Our clients give us so much, somuch life.
One in particular stands out tome.
Her name is Laquela.
She was a tech training studentover a year ago.
(16:48):
Biggest smile on her face, likethat you've ever seen.
Brought so much energy to herclass.
I think she was in one of ourfirst classes of six students.
Usually our our tech trainingclasses were about three to four
students, and we decided to takeit up a notch and have six, and
she was part of one of thoseoriginal classes.
A couple weeks into hertraining, her car got stolen.
(17:12):
So she had no way to get totraining.
We were able to sell her a car.
So then now she's a techtraining student, a a purchase
client.
She's now been on her job ayear.
So she over a year, she's comingfor repairs for that car that
she bought here.
(17:32):
So she's been a one of one ofthose amazing clients that's
been part of each program.
She's so good at knowing who'saround her, what's around her,
staying in touch, and not onlyasking for help when she needs
it, but encouraging everyonearound her.
When I'm whenever I'm aroundthis girl, I my day just gets
better.
She paid off her car early.
(17:54):
Eventually, that car had itslast day.
At that point, she already hadher finances in order.
She had figured out a lot oflife.
She's she's hungry to to figurethings out, and and she's doing
it that same day, or the nextday, the dealership that she
works at was able to get her ina new car.
(18:16):
She was so excited.
We I have a wonderful picture ofher on the head of her car
celebrating this victoriousmoment.
That day she drove to HawkingHills.
She said, Oh my gosh, I've neverhad a car where I thought I
could drive that far.
And so she went to scope it outand had planned a trip to go
(18:37):
back the following weekend totake a break, to enjoy and
cruise in her new car.
That girl inspires me so much.
I think without even knowing it,inspires everyone she runs into.
So Aquala for me just standsout.
SPEAKER_01 (18:55):
Yeah, our I mentioned our mission, but our
our vision is as we help eachother, people have the freedom
to accomplish their dreams.
And we know it's not owning acar helps with that, but it's
that real freedom to be able totravel, to go, to go be out in
nature and to go see thosethings.
Like obviously, there's lots ofyou know, people might want a
(19:16):
car and a house, but really theywant to host a barbecue with
their family and have theirfamily come over.
And so it's these these are thethe real thing that people want
to accomplish.
We ask a lot of our clients,what's your why?
What's your why, especially inour tech training program?
And it's that's the kind ofstuff they want.
And that's what's gonna keepkeep them working hard.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
So well, and you you know, you're not only getting
people in a car, you you'rehelping get people to jobs.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (19:39):
And I've always said if you want to fix poverty, low
income, you have to have jobs.
SPEAKER_01 (19:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
In in Cincinnati, we got a wegot a big poverty problem.
About one in four are inpoverty, and we got a big
transportation problem.
So we the and shocker, they areconnected.
There's a stat we share a lotthat in in in Greater
Cincinnati, only five percent ofjobs are accessible in less than
an hour if you're on publictransportation.
With a car, it's 99%.
(20:07):
And I always asterisk this withwe are we love public
transportation and we want moreand more of it.
It's there's a lot of cool stuffhappening with it.
We want people to be able to getwhere they gotta go, however
that is.
But especially when you'reworking your out of poverty,
it's not just getting to work,it's also getting the grocery
store, getting kids to to schoolto access health care.
It's all of these things thatare that are necessary.
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
So it's interesting you mentioned that because I was
just thinking about it.
We have uh a young man we'refriends with, didn't have a car,
he worked, he lived in Newport,he worked at Amazon, Hebron.
Yeah, yes, we left publictransportation too.
I rode the bus for a number ofyears, that was cool.
Yeah, uh, but it is verydifficult to get from point A to
point B in Cincinnati.
(20:50):
Yeah, and he he would spend anhour and a half trying to get to
Hebron.
That's one way.
And then he got off at like twoo'clock in the morning.
Now I gotta pay for an Uber toget home.
Well, that's not cheap.
SPEAKER_03 (21:04):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:05):
What you're doing.
I mean, you when you have a carand it's running, you just take
it for granted.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
Yeah, you're you're nailing so many of the things,
it's the the time.
So think about that.
Even even if the bus was runningon the way home, it's three
hours on a bus versus it'sprobably a half-hour car ride.
So we're talking about savingtwo hours a day.
Yeah.
Imagine if I was like, Dan,here's two hours more for you to
do whatever you want today.
Yeah.
And so it's just then giving theclients the freedom to do
whatever it is.
Sometimes it's get more rest soyou can be a better parent.
(21:30):
It's awesome to see what they'redoing.
Love Laquela story.
I one that that I was justsharing, I love this because you
see the power of our purchaseprogram was a woman named Carrie
back in 2018.
She bought a car from us, boughta Honda Accord.
It was a 2007 Honda Accord, uh,blue, and she named it Little
Betty Blue.
And uh at the time she waslimited to working jobs she
(21:52):
could walk to.
But with this car, she was ableto get a better job, get a
better paying job.
She was able to move out.
She was um staying with herparents at the time, but able to
move out.
So her and her daughters had aplace of their own.
Little Betty Blue kept keptrunning.
Uh, she paid it off a yearlater.
So we got fun celebration photoswith her and her title.
(22:12):
But most fun is this year shesends us a picture and it's her
in front of a brand new ToyotaCorolla.
And so she, Little Betty Bluehad been kept running.
Uh, she took great care of it.
Uh now she's able to buy a newcar.
Wow.
Uh, but she actually kept LittleBetty Blue and was able to give
that to her daughter.
So then now her daughter has thefreedom of transportation.
(22:35):
This generational impact thatyou can see when when a parent
has a car, what that frees upfor their family and what they
can do.
It's just fun to see that thatlong-term impact.
Here's a question.
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
I don't know if you can answer or not.
You mentioned happen to have forhumanity, they're not just in
Cincinnati.
Changing gears is here inCincinnati.
Big vision.
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
Great question.
SPEAKER_01 (22:55):
Yeah, you must be listening in.
Yeah, great, great question.
Had this incredible thing, and Ican only attribute it to God's
abundance and coming in at theright time.
And right around our 10-yearanniversary, we got connected
with a foundation that wanted tolook at replicating something
like changing gears uh down inTexas.
And they kind of said, What'syour appetite for replication?
(23:17):
We say, Well, that'd be cool.
And we've had different peoplecome to us at different times
and ask that, but our heartsreally for Cincinnati.
There's so much more to do inCincinnati.
And so it before we think aboutreplication, we we gotta figure
out how to grow here.
And they said, Well, what if wedo both?
I said, Oh, that sounds fun.
Sure, why not?
Over the past two years, we'vereally been looking at expansion
(23:40):
and replication.
And expansion looks like servingclients from additional
partners.
We want to we want anybody inCincinnati, if they have a
transportation barrier, we wantto be able to help them.
So, in the same way that Habitathelps all over, and then we're
starting to look at replication.
A line I use a lot is like,we're building this plane as
we're flying it.
Sure.
And so you just think, oh, Idon't know, this is just what we
(24:00):
do.
But now we're trying to buildour playbook of this is this is
how we run.
And it's like, oh, we'veactually learned a lot over the
past 12 years.
Our our plan is to get all ofour processes and our playbook
together so that we could helppeople or an organization in
different cities start somethingthat looks like changing gears
through an affiliate networkmodel.
(24:20):
Yeah.
You know, we know Cincinnati, weknow the needs and the
opportunities and therelationships that are there.
But if we would try to startsomething in Indianapolis or any
Kansas City, anywhere, we don't,we're we're disconnected from
that.
So we're not gonna go after afranchise model or a wholly
owned model, but we find placesthat that are looking for
something like this, and then wecan equip them to get started.
(24:43):
So and then be able to learnfrom each other because other
organizations that get started,they're gonna learn stuff that
we we haven't.
And so how do we make ourselvesbetter?
And so it's really fun to seehow this uh expansion and
replication kind of feed eachother.
Sure.
And it'll make us better atserving our clients.
Well, yeah.
Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_02 (24:59):
Yeah, so more to come, Dan.
This might become a you know aquarterly event.
Yeah.
I'm enjoying this sitting herein a car place, you know.
This is great.
If you could leave my listenerswith some life advice on how to
live a better life or servepeople, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
This goes along with our core values.
I've already talked about this,but celebrate the small stuff.
That's that's my advice.
That's kind of an Amina Sinclairquote, but it it goes along with
joy comes to us in the ordinarymoments, which is something
Brene Brown says and shares outwith everybody.
You don't want to miss thecelebration, you don't want to
(25:39):
miss the joy looking for theextraordinary when the good
stuff is right in front of us.
SPEAKER_02 (25:44):
Wow, thank you.
Joel, you have any advice?
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
Yeah, this one was really important for me.
And it's that God doesn't callthe equipped, he equips the
called.
That has been something that hasbeen a thousand percent true for
me through this whole thing.
I I didn't know what I was doingat all.
I talk about like we'd I'd nevermanaged anybody, let alone hire
somebody, or you know, and whenwe got started and kind of
building this team, but Godcontinues to equip when when you
(26:10):
do this.
So piece for me in that is likethat means you got to be
connected to God.
So you can you can hear that.
Usually that means throughcommunity.
So, you know, finding communitythat makes you better to help
process that and then leaning inand taking some risks.
And when you get I saw thisrecently, when you have there's
an equation, our good friendCorey Carlson, give a shout-out
(26:33):
to him and his his podcast andhis his work with Win at Home
First, but it was community plusgetting out of your comfort zone
equals breakthrough.
And I've seen that when you justget out from from where you're
comfortable and you've got thecommunity to support you.
That's when really specialthings happen.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
Well, thank you.
So we don't want to leave untilwe know how can people find
changing gears?
SPEAKER_00 (26:55):
Awesome.
We would love to have anyone whowants to come, come out to
Changing Gears, visit usThursday, October 30th.
We're having a big celebrationfor our tech training students
of this October class.
There's four of them, and all ofour alumni.
So there's gonna be a greatpanel, there's gonna be good
(27:16):
food and drinks and just beingin community.
So that's here at Changing Gearsin the west end of Cincinnati at
4:30.
I think it goes till 6 or 6:30.
Dan, you're coming, right?
I'll be here.
All right.
So that's number one.
Come out and see us.
We'd love to celebrate withanyone that wants to join.
That's a crowd full ofsupporters, friends, community.
(27:39):
It's it's a great time.
Join us.
There's other ways to theaddress here.
2015 Central Ave.
You can also look at us, look usup at changing-gears.org for all
sorts of information.
Another other great ways to getinvolved would be through
vehicle donations.
(27:59):
That's a huge way we fundraisearound here.
And some of the donated vehicleswe receive, we're able to
restore and get ready to sell toclients.
Kind of the dream when someonedonates a vehicle to us, how
cool would it be if this went toa client?
And sometimes that does happen.
Joel and Marnie just sold theirminivan to a client last spring
(28:20):
and the spring, which was reallycool.
But we take any and everyvehicle donation.
Every vehicle donation helpssupport our mission.
We're able to restore thesecars, sell them in auction,
sometimes scrap a car or two.
It's all funding that helps ourneighbors in need and helps us
get to do uh what we do.
(28:42):
You can also obviously hop onthe website for a financial
donation.
We're always accepting those aswell.
SPEAKER_03 (28:48):
Can't miss that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:49):
And there's opportunities on the website to
follow us.
On LinkedIn is where we post alot.
We're on Instagram, Facebook,and you can sign up for the
newsletter.
SPEAKER_02 (28:59):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (28:59):
Which which I write once a month.
And it's a great read if I don'tsay so myself.
SPEAKER_02 (29:04):
Now, one question.
Yes.
So if I donate a car, do youshow up in the tow truck?
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
Hey, I haven't driven it yet.
Joel, what do you think?
SPEAKER_02 (29:15):
Come on, Joel.
She's gonna have to.
I did a ride-along.
SPEAKER_00 (29:17):
I've done some ride-alongs.
Yeah.
And I'm quite theconversationalist, so that's
fun.
I'll come say hi if it'srequested.
But for safety purposes, we'lllet Junior do the driving.
He's really good at hooking upthe cart in the back as well.
Haven't tried it yet.
SPEAKER_02 (29:32):
Anything else you want to leave us with?
SPEAKER_01 (29:34):
Uh, we gotta mention the Changing Gears Grand Prix.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
And so this is a I did see that on the website.
Yeah, plus being a racing guy.
I'm like, Grand Prix, what isthis?
SPEAKER_00 (29:46):
Annual fundraiser.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
It's our annual fundraising event.
We wanted to have a fundraisersevent that kind of, I don't
know, embody changing gears.
And so it is maybe a littlebiased, but I think a really fun
fundraising event.
Uh set up a track at a hangar.
In Lunkin, at Lunkin Airport.
And we race these pedal cartsthat are meant for kids, but
adults fit on them.
SPEAKER_03 (30:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:07):
And then it's also a costume contest for the teams.
So we get teams of four who aredoing a relay race around this
indoor track.
Okay.
It's an incredibly fun, even ifyou're not a racer, like just to
watch what's happening.
Because competitiveness comesout in people once they once
they get on the cart.
May 16th, 2026.
So mark your calendars.
SPEAKER_00 (30:26):
Sign up for that newsletter.
SPEAKER_02 (30:28):
Yes.
Yes.
Well, this has been a pleasurefor me.
Uh to be here.
Yes.
It's been awesome.
I'm so thankful we got linked upand got to do this.
So we'll do it again.
Uh we're gonna hold you to that.
Thanks, Dan.
SPEAKER_00 (30:41):
Thanks so much for having us, Dan.
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