Last time we spoke with Gail Worth, it was deep in the heart of Texas during the formation of the National Powersports Dealer Association. Half a year into the launch, NPDA made its first public showing at AIMExpo. Since NPDA’s Booth was directly across from Dealernews it was a perfect opportunity to catch up with one of the founding Board Members (and a Top 100 Women In Powersports winner).
How is NPDA faring?
Incredible! This organization has real legs. Every single dealer, manufacturer and distributor… every single person I've talked to in the powersports industry is into it. They are all super excited because it's an organization that gets us all together. We can discuss things. Manufacturers now have direct access to the dealers themselves. The dealers have access to each other. This is a win-win deal, we are all rising together with the NPDA!
AIMExpo is the first show we've had in two years so that face-to-face interaction that NPDA is going to provide is actually taking place:
Exactly. I'm glad you mentioned that because this show demonstrates how important the NPDA is. For the first time in two years, we're all together seeing each other in person at an annual event, with NPDA we will be able to meet together more often than once a year.
Congratulations on being honored as one of the initial Top 100 Women In Powersports.
Oh, thank you so much. What an honor. That was so cool! To be sitting in the middle of all those incredible women I was with was so neat. I was honored amongst people like Karen Davidson, Tigra Tsujikawa, Sen. Joni Ernst — oh, my goodnes — Maggie Hicks, Diamond Dee… I mean, I could go on and on. Because these are amazing women that I have looked up to for years… And here I was with them. Thank you so much!
That's funny, because every one of the women said the same thing: “My heroes were there.” However, you're one of those heroes for all the other women.
Oh, that is so funny. I think that's what makes all these women amazing is they don't realize how amazing they really are, you know? It’s just what they do. They have all increased awareness in the industry and helped women in powersports. It's just an amazing group of women. You could feel the power in that room.
Speaking of ‘feel the power’ how are things at the dealership?
Oh, wow. The Shawnee Honda Kawasaki store is just exploding, as you would expect. Gale’s Powersports has also found its niche now that I am focused on pre-owned Harley-Davidsons. It took us a little bit to get going and to figure things out. We’ve tried so many things. I mean, we tried everything. We even tried lawn mowers! I lost my butt on some things and came out with a home run on other things. But now we've finally gelled. Now we've got something going and we're going in the right direction. And I was super excited.
We also have a riding group that is so strong. It's our HOG Chapter that we had when we were the Harley dealer but it has grown to include all brands They've gone out and they found their friends who ride other brands, and they've all just come over to the dealership, Gale’s Powersports. They're now called the Heartland Riders Adventure Group. And man, we have so much fun! Just in 2021one guy lead over 100 rides himself. Is that amazing? As a group I think we had like 300 rides through the year it just so cool. Some rides were really long you know like across the country over to California wherever and then there's some rides shorter like our rides, but everybody had a good time and we have rides for everybody. We have a route we call a ‘double nickel ride’ which is under 55 mph. So we only take back roads for people who don't want to get on the highway. And it just makes everybody feel welcome.
And that's what it's all about. NPDAs foundation, the MIC’s Ride With Us efforts, all of these things are to guarantee that we have more riders riding more and building a future for our industry as a whole. We are starting to mesh as an industry just as things are meshing in your store.
Absolutely. I'm glad you mentioned that. I was just talking with Andria Yu from the MIC yesterday about that. Growing the riders portion of the powersports industry. She and I are going to get together to work on that. She said that she would help me more through the dealership with the beginning riders, because I have a rider’s class, but it would be really cool to hook up with the MSF on that!