Hello!
This is the first time I've visited my blog since I sold my business, Bertolli's Auto Body Shop, in August of 2017.
To clear my head, I went to Burning Man with a friend who had been asking me to go almost every year since I had met him.  I had an interesting time being so far from my life of routine, business and family responsibilities.  It was a good way to clear my mind and spirit of the decades of business ownership.  
I've done a bit of traveling, had to move, bought a condo, sold an investment and started looking for a new career.  I was asked to teach a class at College of Marin and became the first female instructor in the Auto Repair Department.  I became the first President of the Las Gallinas Lions Club after 40 years of club history.
Nowadays, I wake up, drink tea, do yoga and then work a temp job, or apply for a permanent job.  I read about 'finding your purpose' and have yet to find mine.  I do a lot of volunteer work and I have a feeling that service is a big part of my purpose.  If only I could get paid to volunteer!
Now that I'm back, I will try to post more often, if only for my own sanity.  So this blog will be about the midlife experience:  career transition, life purpose, health concerns, naturally gray hair care, family issues and anything else I may think of.
I must say THANK YOU to all my customers, vendors and co-workers who joined me on the Bertolli's ride.  Without you, I never would have been the face of a successful small business.  
I love you all!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Car and Driver article

I just read a humorous article in Car and Driver entitled, "10 Used Cars to Avoid" written by John Pearley Huffman. My favorite part is about salvage titled vehicles: Insurance companies aren ’t in the business of losing money. So it’s a good bet that if a car has been written off as a total loss, it’s because it really was a total loss. If it had been worth fixing, the insurance company would have fixed it. It’s simple: If a car is so badly damaged that it can’t be fixed to an insurance company’s slight standards, to what standards could it have been fixed? So Insurance companies have slight standards?? Who knew? The point I'd like to make is, please, please listen to your auto body shop about the correct way to fix your vehicle. And forget, or don't believe what the insurance company says about the 'correct' way to fix a damaged car. They will tell you that the body shop is just 'ripping you off', but in reality, it's the other way aroun...
Read more

Michael Finney and Seven on your Side

Today at 6 pm on ABC channel 7 in the Bay Area, I will be on Michael Finney's Seven on your Side segment. He did a story on aftermarket parts and the autobody industry. New legislation introduced in the California State Senate would penalize insurers that require repair shops to install aftermarket parts on a vehicle that is still under factory warranty. The bill (S.B. 1059) was introduced in January by Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by the Collision Repair Association of California (CRA). The bill is designed to prevent repairers and customers from inadvertently voiding the factory warranty on a vehicle in case of a failure caused by an aftermarket part. A few weeks ago, Michael, Sen. Migden, my customer, Tommy Kesecker and i were filmed for the piece at Bertolli's Auto Body. I support the bill. I'd love to hear from you if you see it.
Read more

Back to Business

I see that the last time I updated this blog was over two months ago! My nephew's death took a toll on the entire family and I didn't start to come out of the funk it caused until recently. Now I want to get back to talking about auto body and insurance issues. The local paper, The Marin Independent Journal, had an article this weekend about the medical field (which, because of its strong ties to insurance, is similar to the autobody industry). Patients are getting billed the difference between what their medical provider pays for services and the actual costs from the doctors who provide those services. Doctors are finally doing what dentists have been doing forever. So sorry, your insurance didn't pay the full amount, you need to pay the difference! (http://www.marinij.com//ci_7494816) Gone are the days where you got three estimates for autobody repair and the insurance paid one of them (usually the lowest). Gone are the days where the adjuster worked wit...
Read more