Menteeship in an Industry like Ours 

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I’ve never been the type to ask for help— my family might say that is a gross understatement. For example, I have never been the student who met with professors to gain deeper knowledge or built lasting relationships with my soccer coaches. In my early career in education, I learned by doing—quietly, independently, determined to figure things out on my own or divert from the original path completely. That tendency didn’t disappear when I entered the parking industry in 2018. If anything, it became even more apparent as I ventured into an industry so mysterious you couldn’t just Google your questions. 

And then I met Clyde. 

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Mentorship takes many shapes, but Clyde’s style is unmistakably his own: he is going to tell you what his experience gleans, not what the industry majority believes. There is no formal education for parking, no university track or structured program that prepares professionals for the complex, niche, and constantly evolving work we do. Coming in to parking you must become a mentee to truly understand this niche business. Being a mentee requires its own set of skills, an eagerness to learn and readiness to apply. Our industry is learned through experience, observation, and guidance from those who’ve lived it. Clyde teaches that way—through stories, real-world examples, and the kind of boots-on-the-ground expertise that only comes from decades in the field. And oddly enough, that’s exactly the kind of mentor I didn’t know I needed. 

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As someone who prefers to learn independently, his approach pushed me far outside my comfort zone. He challenged me to be someone that could be mentored, ask questions, to walk garages, to see operations not as concepts but as systems shaped by people, habits, and history. He insisted that I understand why things are done a certain way before imagining how they might be improved. That balance—deep respect for parking’s humble beginnings paired with an eye toward the future—is something he embodies daily and something he’s taught me to value. 

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Today, I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude for everything I’ve learned and continue to learn from him. My learning style requires a mentor who is both passionate about the work and compassionate toward the people doing it. Someone who believes in teaching the industry as it truly is—not as the proverbial handbook might define it, but as operators, customers, technology partners, and city leaders experience it.  

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In parking, you cannot ignore the past if you hope to shape the future. Our industry is moving quickly—digitization, automation, varied revenue channels and EV charging—but the decisions we make today must still be grounded in the fundamentals built over decades. Mentorship is what bridges that gap, but there must be an eager group ready to be mentored by those that have come before us. And while this truth is not unique to parking, it is especially critical in industries where specialized formal education simply doesn’t exist. 

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Other fields show the same pattern. In baseball, Dusty Baker has long been celebrated not just for his on-field success but for the way he develops players, fosters trust, and builds team culture—mentoring athletes across generations and guiding them into leadership roles of their own. In culinary arts, Julia Child’s mentorship of emerging chefs shaped generations of professionals who learned not only technique but also confidence. Great mentors in any field do more than teach skills; they shape mindsets and challenge perspectives, but they can only do that if they have students of the craft ready to learn from them.  

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Parking is no different. We grow because someone took the time to teach us—not in a classroom, but in real conversations, real garages, and real situations that push us to think deeper and do better. Clyde has done that for me, he has turned me into an eager mentee that learns, challenges the narrative with confidence and strives to improve the parking industry. I hope someday someone will be able to say that I have done the same for them. 

As we begin this new year, I find myself reflecting on “menteeship” and mentorship with deep appreciation. If you’re lucky enough to have a mentor—thank them. If you don’t—become a mentee by looking for someone whose passion challenges you, whose honesty guides you, and whose experience sharpens your own.  

 

Are you a mentee? Do you have a mentor? Whose guidance is shaping your journey—inside or outside the parking industry?