Pit Tech to President: Finding a niche at Take 5 with Tiffany Eldreth
Driven Brands celebrates the people who are making a difference and growing their careers across our portfolio of brands
Meet: Tiffany Eldreth, Regional Director of Operations at Take 5 Oil Change.
At 18 years old, Tiffany's knowledge of the automotive industry was minimal.
“I literally started from the ground up,” she explains. “I didn’t even know what a wrench was at that point.”
Thanks to her willingness to go the extra mile and learn from great teachers, she figured out what a wrench was – and so much more. 32 years later, and Tiffany is now the Regional Director of Operations at Take 5 Oil Change.
Her career began after high school as an entry level technician, and she progressed to become Area Supervisor at an express lube company. In between, she held every position possible – from from cleaning windshields to draining oil to supervising. When Driven Brands acquired the company she was working for, Tiffany stepped into the role as Area Field Trainer for Take 5 Oil Change and immediately knew she found her place.
“I came from a ‘boys club’ and being one of the only women meant working ten times harder,” she recalls. “Coming to Take 5 felt like a major weight was lifted off my shoulders because all of a sudden I was treated as an equal.”
When Tiffany saw all these opportunities in front of her, she seized the chance and threw herself into the Take 5 life, quickly learning the ins and outs of the brand to teach it to everyone else. In doing so, she discovered a natural talent for teaching.
“I’m a big talker and a big ‘how to’ kind of person,” Tiffany says. “So in training, I really found my niche.”
Now that she had found her calling in training others, Tiffany was grateful to be a part of a company that allowed her to grow in that role.
A chance to grow and innovate: At Take 5 Oil Change, Tiffany was not only able to leverage her specific skill set but was also encouraged to be innovative in her approach.
As a District Manager, Tiffany knew there had to be a better way to explain the Take 5 process and make it more easily accessible. Leadership gave her the freedom to come up with one, so she developed “The Yellow Brick Road” framework. This is now found in every Take 5 shop as a step-by-step guide to service.
“That’s what I like about working at this company,” she explains. “We had the opportunity to brainstorm, come up with ideas, and actually implement them on a huge scale.”
However, Tiffany also recognizes that these opportunities for innovation would not be possible without the training and knowledge Take 5 leadership poured into her. They created an environment where she was encouraged to ask questions because everyone was learning together.
She remembers the leaders who took time to break things down and teach her what she needed to know: “Before Take 5, I didn’t do a lot of administration stuff or have access to computer systems, but I had a director who really committed himself to educating me and all of the other District Managers about the business side of business.”
Paying it forward: She knows this knowledge helped to accelerate her career, which is why she makes it her mission to invest time and energy into educating the members of her team, recognizing their successes, and making sure their voice is heard.
She also does this because Tiffany knows that at the heart of the Take 5 brand is its people.
“I remember what it’s like being that low man on the totem pole, trying to work my way up,” she says. “If you have a leader, even just call out your name and say ‘I see you’, that makes a world of difference. It did for me, and I try to never forget that.”
While she has transitioned from training into operations in current role as the Regional Director of Operations for the Outer Banks region, Tiffany’s greatest pleasure remains the same: helping her employees get to the next level.
Tiffany recalls, “There've been so many people over the years that I’ve hired personally and now see them in manager roles. I love it.”