.svg.webp){kind=icon}
At the height of her media moment, Patrice Banks was on magazine covers, morning shows, and even shooting a Hollywood pilot—then a mentor hit her with five words that changed everything: “You’re all sizzle, no steak.” Behind the headlines, her team was stretched, resentment simmered, and the press wasn’t paying the bills. In this raw conversation, Patrice explains why she started turning down Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, how fame can sabotage a fragile business, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.
Now she’s rebuilding with ruthless focus: franchising Girls Auto Clinic, scaling a 21,000-strong SheCanic community, and launching apprenticeship pipelines to fix the industry’s talent gap. She argues the auto world has a recruitment problem masquerading as a retention problem—and that the future belongs to “reverse engineers” who solve hard problems with their hands. This is a masterclass in trading noise for leverage.
Takeaways
0:00 Intro — Why Patrice Banks always says yes to NAMAD
0:55 The surreal reality of running a shop while texting with Ford’s CEO
1:47 The five words that changed Patrice’s entire career
3:18 When national fame started tearing her business apart
4:57 What Patrice learned about the hidden cost of legacy media
5:48 Why franchising Girls Auto Clinic is her riskiest move yet
8:43 How a 21,000-woman movement grew without Patrice driving it
9:53 The apprenticeship model Patrice believes could fix the auto industry
10:59 Why retention isn’t the problem—recruitment is
12:07 The surprising reason Patrice says mechanics are really reverse engineers
12:27 Why she turns down celebrities but always shows up here
Connect with Patrice Banks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricedbanks/
Learn more about Girls Auto Clinic: https://girlsautoclinic.com