Episode 119: Liz Allan and Jess Shanahan - The Future of E-Mobility and Women in Motorsport

Episode 119: Liz Allan and Jess Shanahan - The Future of E-Mobility and Women in Motorsport.

Liz Allan speaks to Jess Shanahan, Founder and Director of Jet Social and Racing Mentor. Jess is a multifaceted entrepreneur whose career spans motorsport, e-mobility, and innovative marketing. As the founder of Jet Social and Racing Mentor, Jess has carved out a niche in motorsport journalism, data-driven marketing, and sustainability advocacy. She shares her journey from PR roles to leading a Porsche race team, navigating challenges as a freelance professional, and finding her calling in e-mobility. 

Jess Shanahan Bio:
Jess Shanahan is a pioneering entrepreneur and advocate for innovation in motorsport, e-mobility, and sustainable marketing. As the founder of Jet Social, she drives impactful content strategies in e-mobility, automotive tech, and green energy. Her second venture, Racing Mentor, equips racing drivers with the tools to secure sponsorship and succeed in the business side of motorsport. With experience as a journalist, PR professional, and Porsche racing team boss, Jess has earned a reputation for breaking new ground in male-dominated industries. Diagnosed with ADHD in 2020, she uses her unique perspective to manage complex projects and inspire others. Jess’s latest venture sees her stepping into the role of Team Principal in the RM Electric Scooter Championship, combining her passions for motorsport and sustainable mobility. 

Jess Shanahan Links:
Jess' Website: https://www.jessshanahan.com
Racing Mentor Website: https://www.racingmentor.com
Jess' YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jessshanahan
Racing Mentor YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/racingmentor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessshanahan

Episode Keywords:
ADHD, EV charging, electric vehicles, Racing Mentor, e-mobility, motorsport, sponsorship acquisition, Jess Shanahan, Gary Comerford, RM Electric Scooter Championship, scooters, Porsche race team, range anxiety, digital brand, data storytelling, content mark

Transcript

Liz Allan  [00:00:01]:
So, on today's episode, I have got Jess Shanahan. Now, she is a freelance extraordinaire. I won't I can't even begin to tell you. Well, I will tell you how many things she's involved in. So she's the founder and director of Jet Social. She's a founder of Racing Mentor. She's worked as a freelance journalist and has been involved in e-mobility for, it seems like ever. And you're not that old either, are you? She also ran the Porsche race team, Turn Eight Racing.

Liz Allan  [00:00:29]:
Thank you, Jess. Thanks for joining me. It's lovely to see you.

Jess Shanahan [00:00:33]:
It's my pleasure. I'm excited to be here.

Liz Allan  [00:00:36]:
So we met while I was; I was one of the drivers at the EV rally, but we've been talking before that anyway, haven't we? Because you've been very, very kind and have been helping me put a white paper together for Full Circle CI, which is my business. So, thank you again. But let's talk about all of these things that you've been doing and how was your transition to be able to do all of these things. So please give me a bit of your life. Come on.

Jess Shanahan [00:01:05]:
Yeah. So the beginning of my career was working in, you know, traditional roles. I worked in PR, doing luxury press stuff for interior companies and many different things. And while it was good, and I learned so much in that role, I realised that I didn't particularly appreciate being employed. It didn't suit me. And this was, you know, in my early twenties. Yeah. So, I thought I'd go freelance.

Jess Shanahan [00:01:34]:
How hard could it be? Really hard. So hard. But I struggled through it, and almost 13 years later, here I am. I didn't feel I could cope with a regular job, but I thought I could do more. I had more potential. I wasn't getting from, you know, traditional employment. So, I started my own business and very slowly built it up. I very much followed my own interests. So right at the beginning, there's a lot of fashion and beauty because I was a fashion blogger then, and, you know, back in, I don't know, like, 2010, maybe.

Jess Shanahan [00:02:11]:
So I focused on that, but soon, that kind of evolved to motorsport, automotive, and mobility. And looking back now, now that I've been diagnosed with ADHD, I was diagnosed in 2020. I look back now, and I'm like, that makes so much sense why I felt like that and why it suited me better to run my own business. Not that it's necessarily easy and free of stress, but it was definitely kind of a catalyst and the reason why I followed my interests, so to speak.

Liz Allan  [00:02:44]:
So, I've never actually announced this on my podcast before. That's another reason why we know each other. Because I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2023. So I totally get you, and I've been self-employed on and off since the mid to late nineties exactly for the same reason as you because it wasn't that I didn't feel I could fit into a regular role. I just wanted something different, and all the jobs I was doing were great, but they didn't give me that spark. And so, as you say, self-employment isn't easy, but, actually, it's very rewarding when it works out. So, Jet Social, tell me about what you do in Jet Social. What is it? I mean, you're doing so many different things. If you wanted to pinpoint where it started and what you've progressed from, was it kind of the e-mobility side then and automotive?

Jess Shanahan [00:03:50]:
Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. I started by focusing on road trips because that's what I loved doing. So I was like, well, I'll make that my job. And I did the same thing with motorsport and kind of, you know, in a journalistic way. So I was writing stories and creating video content about these things, but then I also morphed into my more business side of things, content marketing, social media, that kind of thing at the time. And that has evolved to focus on mobility because, in 2016, I made a two-and-a-half thousand-mile road trip for a hotel chain around the UK and Ireland called Route 57, which was like a big press stunt.

Jess Shanahan [00:04:34]:
We got, like, over 100 pieces of press coverage and all of this kind of thing, but we did it in an electric car.

Liz Allan  [00:04:39]:
Right.

Jess Shanahan [00:04:39]:
And I got the bug immediately. It was the 1st electric car I'd ever driven, the Kia Soul EV. Did about 80 miles to a full charge. Right. And over 3 weeks, I drove it around the UK and Ireland; it was the best thing I've ever done. And that was kind of what became, you know, the springboard I had in this, where the passion came from for mobility. So it kind of just, you know, went from there. So I've been doing stuff with, you know, electric cars and things now since 2016.

Jess Shanahan [00:05:09]:
And yeah. So Jet Social now really focuses on e-mobility, automotive tech, and green energy. And it's it's very focused on the content side of marketing. That's not to say we don't do broader marketing campaigns, but a core thing I focus on within the business is anything to do with data or statistics or long-form pieces of content like white papers. So I like to call myself a data storyteller because I love to work with kind of, you know, hard facts and numbers and turn that into something compelling and story driven for brands who might have a lot of good information but don't know how to turn it into something valuable and impactful for their audience.

Liz Allan  [00:05:55]:
And, actually, I always say data's king anyway because there's no point even in the work that I do in continuous improvement, you know, if you there's no point in going through if you've got a gut feeling about something, that's just a gut feel. You need the data to prove that that gut feeling was right. And you are gonna go, oh, yeah. It was right. But you've got data to prove it because then people go, oh, right. Maybe we need to do something about that then, don't we? Absolutely. So, is the data you're pulling about the various things, or did you pull data for the road trips you were on and things like that? How did it come on? How does how does data form part of your life? 

Jess Shanahan [00:06:41]:
I've always been quite focused on numbers, even though I wouldn't say I liked maths as a kid. I was quite good at it even though I didn't I didn't like, I'm a words person. But I've always been the kind of person that's like, you know what this needs? A spreadsheet. That's like my whole vibe. So, when a client came to me saying, we've got all of this raw data from our charges, I was like, cool. Send it to me. And I had so like, hundreds of thousands of lines of, you know, data in a in just in a spreadsheet. And I was like, can't just look through that, can I? So, I taught myself SQL and Python.

Jess Shanahan [00:07:20]:
I say I taught myself. My partner is a software developer, and I do not give him enough credit for helping me learn these things. But I went out of my way to ask him to help me. And yeah, we together, I kind of, you know, ended up learning SQL, and I could dive into this data without having to do a whole bunch of manual processing, which would have been a nightmare. So it's gone from there. But even thinking back to the road trip in 2016, I was collecting data. How many coffees we'd had, how many times we'd charged over, the 3 weeks, how many miles we'd done, how many mares we'd met. I had this whole list on my phone of all these different data points.

Jess Shanahan [00:08:00]:
So I feel like it goes quite a way back to, you know, always creating infographics or looking at different data points within things that, you know, people aren't thinking about data. People aren't thinking about how many coffees you've had on a road trip as a data point, but apparently, I do.

Liz Allan  [00:08:18]:
Yeah. But that's that's fine. And, like you say, you can tell that story with that amount of data anyway. I mean, I wouldn't say I'm a maths geek, but I am a bit of a spreadsheet girl. You've seen spreadsheets from me as well, you know, and it's something I like diving into, but you like diving into these things, don't you? You really do, and you kinda open my eyes to how to dig into data because it's the first time we've been writing a white paper. And that was, to me, a real eye-opener, especially some of the stuff you came back with, which was fantastic. So the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is that I mean, let's talk quickly about the different road trips you've been on because you've been to Norway, Germany, and places like that. What vehicles were you driving? Were you in a Tesla at one point? Because you're in a Polestar now, aren't you? Just generally.

Jess Shanahan [00:09:17]:
Yeah. I haven't done a Tesla road trip. I've driven a Tesla briefly, but that's it. Right. My longest experience of being a Tesla was being a passenger at the EV rally.

Liz Allan  [00:09:29]:
Oh, what? When we went, yeah. Yeah. Oh, god. Is that how long oh my goodness. It wasn't very far at all.

Jess Shanahan [00:09:34]:
No. So, yeah. So did Norway in a VW ID 3.

Liz Allan  [00:09:41]:
Right.

Jess Shanahan [00:09:41]:
It's really good. It wasn't very far. Just kinda like poodling around, you know, just exploring basically. It was to enable us to get to different hiking points rather than, maybe, various destinations. We stayed in, I think, only two places. And one of them was a lovely little kind of cabin in the middle of nowhere, which was delightful. And all of the other road trips have been, I don't know. I did, Wales in a Hyundai Kona, which is neat.

Jess Shanahan [00:10:10]:
That was my first real experience with an EV that had an accurate range. So I've been driving my Renault ZOE for about a year, maybe 2 years at that point. I got a loan for this high-end KONA, which was brilliant. And I was like, oh, okay. This is what peace of mind feels like on the road. Because of the ZOE, if you were on the motorway, you knew you were getting about 50% less range than you'd expected if you were doing as you know. So I mean, I learned it. It was never a problem. But to look at the Hyundai Kona saying, yeah, you've got 200 miles left and knowing it's probably about that was lovely.

Jess Shanahan [00:10:52]:
I also went on a road trip to Wales in the Zoe to watch some rallying, which was fantastic. And then, yeah, everything else has been in petrol vehicles. So, 2 US road trips, a very big European road trip, Germany, Poland, Austria, Liechtenstein, etcetera, sent central Europe. And, yeah, I think they're the big ones, at least. So, yeah, quite a few in EVs, but obviously, nothing's gonna be 3 weeks around the UK island in a Kia Soul.

Liz Allan  [00:11:29]:
Well, exactly. Yeah. That would be slightly stressful. I can imagine that one. So, in the past, you also ran the Porsche race team, Ternate Racing. So was that kind of a was what time what time scale was that then? When did that happen?

Jess Shanahan [00:11:47]:
That was also 2016. It was a busy year for me. Yes. That was in 2016. So that was very much, at the height of me being a motorsport journalist and doing freelance PR for drivers. So that was, yeah. I was just because I'm hanging out in a lot of motorsport circles, you know, I had some drivers approach me going, do you wanna work with us on this team? And I was like, yeah. Of course I do.

Jess Shanahan [00:12:15]:
And, yeah, they said, do you wanna be team boss? I was like, yes. Absolutely. So that was a really great experience. I only did it for 1 year because I only did it for 1 year because, and I'm sure you were gonna ask me about this, but I might as well segue on in. After that year, I'd seen so many racing drivers saying, how have you got so much sponsorship? It was a little bit easier for me because I come from a marketing, PR, and sales background. And I was like, oh, okay. A lot of people don't know how to do this. So I stopped doing the race team, and I decided to start my own motorsport business, which is a racing mentor.

Jess Shanahan [00:12:52]:
Basically, it teaches racing drivers how to get sponsorship and all of those business skills that they might not otherwise have had. Mhmm.

Liz Allan  [00:12:59]:
Because I was gonna say so, I interviewed Elis Spiezia as well a few months ago, and that was one of the main things they were talking about: coming from a family that didn't have pots of cash. It was, you know, it's I didn't realise. I mean, it just shows how much and how little I knew, but I didn't realise how difficult it was to get that sponsorship. So, what was your hook for this, then? I mean, obviously, like you said, with your background. But how did you grow Racing Mentor then? Because I know you've been doing this quite a bit, haven't you?

Jess Shanahan [00:13:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. So I'd always wanted a brand that I could cut that could be a digital brand where I could sell things online and reach people online without having to do every single hour of work to get paid, essentially, like I did like I do with JetSocial. So I've been thinking about this for a while, kind of inspired by, content creators at the time. They're talking about business like Tim Ferris, Pat Flynn, people like that.

Liz Allan  [00:14:06]:
Mhmm.

Jess Shanahan [00:14:07]:
So, I wasn't chasing passive income because I don't think that's a thing. But I did want something that was that kind of business model. So when I was having these experiences in motorsport, I thought, maybe that was my route to do this. So, I started with just a bunch of free content. There is tons of free content just teaching racing drivers the basics of this stuff.

Jess Shanahan [00:14:30]:
Then I launched some email templates they could download, like my first digital product. And that was a, you know, a real insight into how not passive passive income is because there's so much work that goes into creating this stuff. You know, by the time you're bringing in the money, you've already done hours and hours of work on it, plus all of the promotion and stuff on top of it. But it would show that the, you know, the business model was working for me. So, I ended up creating a free email course and then a bigger paid-for course. And it was just like trickling the money in. It was nothing big. It was a passion project, and frankly, it still is.

Jess Shanahan [00:15:10]:
But then I launched the book Get Paid to Race at the end of 2018. And I started we got sponsorship for the book because, obviously, that just made sense. And that allowed us to go to shows like most sport days live and the auto sport show, and I think that's where the momentum really got going. For the autosport show in, I think it was 2019. By that point, we we launched another course that was a bit more, like, kind of group coaching and had so many people sign up that there was a waiting list until until basically we stopped doing it.

Liz Allan  [00:15:45]:
Wow.

Jess Shanahan [00:15:46]:
So it just kind of snowballed from there. The book has been sold worldwide, and it's allowed me to travel and teach racing drivers and all of this kind of thing, and it's just built and built. And that's, you know, that's an incredible thing to have experienced, especially when I'm the face of the brand, and I'm, you know, the peep the person that people want to speak to. It's incredibly time-consuming and not the big moneymaker that it should be, considering how much time I spend on it. But it is one of the most rewarding things that I do. It's fantastic.

Liz Allan  [00:16:21]:
But having ADHD as well means that it's it spikes your dopamine, doesn't it? Having all these different things and people don't realise how much, so people still think ADHD is one of those things where, you know, it's naughty boys in a school, you know, who can't concentrate and they throw things, but it's not that at all. But it's about the level of dopamine. So I can imagine all of these different passion projects and things like that for you. Yes. It probably drives you mad the fact that it takes ages, but sometimes it's just that those little things, isn't it, that make us ADHD, as we call, you know, feel very different, doesn't it?

Jess Shanahan [00:17:08]:
Yeah. And it's been it's been so nice to have something that's very kind of rooted in how I connect with the audience because that engagement is such a, you know, a dopamine hit. You know? And it stops me from doing things like scrolling on TikTok. Because I know if I put out a post, I'll just get notifications that do the same kind of thing. But then, I heard racing drivers saying, I just secured my first £1,000, £10,000, £100,000 pounds or dollars or whatever, which is incredible. And, like, I always say to myself, if so, even if something has taken me a long time, if it reaches one person in a meaningful way, it doesn't matter. I don't care. It's been worth it.

Liz Allan  [00:17:47]:
You wanna help people. Yeah. I set this podcast up because I just wanted to help people. Because I thought to myself, all of this stuff to do with e-mobility, sustainability, climate change, everything like that, There's so much that I didn't know. And I just thought, do you know what? The best way to learn is always the best way to do this: is for me to learn and to share it, you know. So I'm just glad I've met people like yourself and, you know, and it's just it's been a brilliant, brilliant journey to get to know people through this journey. So let's talk about next year. Next year, will you be the team principal of the RM Electric Scooter championship? Is that right?

Jess Shanahan [00:18:33]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it all starts kind of early next year. We're still waiting on the official announcement of the calendar, but I'm gonna be the team principal of one of the coolest types of racing I've seen in ages. So, essentially, they're racing e-scooters. It's the e-scooter championship. Gosh. Yeah.

Jess Shanahan [00:18:54]:
I've taken I've taken the RM of racing to create RM Electric. So, yeah, I'm very excited about that. Thank you. It's a good way of blending my 2 loves of, like, e mobility and motorsport. So can't wait to kinda get out there and get started with some of that.

Liz Allan  [00:19:10]:
What's the fastest these e-scooters can go then?

Jess Shanahan [00:19:13]:
I think they go up to, like, 60 miles an hour. Oh. I know. 

Jess Shanahan [00:19:21]:
You'll have to watch some of it, but there are loads on YouTube. On the the e-scooter championship YouTube channel, like, it it looks so much fun. And, like, I think even if I wasn't getting, you know, as involved as I am this year, I think, like, that that is, like, a new thing that I'm gonna be watching. Absolutely. So

Liz Allan  [00:19:38]:
What will it mean? What do you mean by being a team principal? What does that actually mean? Do you go to all the races? Do you promote it? How does it how does it work?

Jess Shanahan [00:19:47]:
Yeah. So I think it means different things to different people. So some people are very much kind of figureheads and spokespeople for their teams where they're gonna be more focused on creating content. So there are a lot of people with huge followings who are also team principals.

Liz Allan  [00:20:02]:
Right.

Jess Shanahan [00:20:03]:
And I think their focus is very much, you know, the social media that they're doing around it, bringing reach, getting fans, that kind of stuff.

Jess Shanahan [00:20:11]:
For other people, probably me and maybe a handful of others, it's that, but also maybe getting involved in strategy, securing sponsorship. So it's quite varied. But, yeah, I mean, it's going along to all of the races, which is very exciting because they're all over the world. But, otherwise, you know, people keep saying to me, like, how are you gonna, you know, do your normal job? I'm like, you'd be surprised, like, how little work there is outside of races. So the race weekends or, like, half a week and a weekend will be really full on. But outside of that, the focus is on bringing in sponsorship for the team and doing content around it. But it all fits so nicely with what I already do for Racing Mentor that I can sort of batch stuff together and blend it together. This is like another little it's my ADHD brain going, oh god.

Jess Shanahan [00:21:05]:
How can I do all of this stuff? It's about finding all of those tactics and tricks to make it as easy as possible for myself.

Liz Allan  [00:21:12]:
And you've gotta do it. Otherwise, you'll procrastinate because that's the other thing we're great at doing as well, aren't we? We, you know, can procrastinate for ages, and then suddenly, we'll hit it head-on.

Jess Shanahan [00:21:23]:
Mhmm.

Liz Allan  [00:21:24]:
And and I always say to people, we end been able to do things probably in twice the speed that somebody who's neurotypical can just because of the way that our brains it's a bit like it is a bit like being at the start start line of a race, isn't it? You're kinda there. You're waiting. You're waiting. You're waiting. And then it goes. And then you kinda Yeah. You're off. And that's how our brains go.

Jess Shanahan [00:21:45]:
Yeah.

Liz Allan  [00:21:46]:
And, yeah, it's it's mad, but it works. You gotta keep it. You just gotta keep it under control and try not to burn out because we try and do lots and lots of stuff, don't we? 

Jess Shanahan [00:21:56]:
The biggest thing. And I find that especially when I've got lots of work on, I'm working on a huge project at the moment, and I find that I'm just like I haven't had time to procrastinate, and I've been so, like, proud of myself for really, really kind of, like, sitting down and focusing on all of this stuff. I'm like, it's all going well as I would expect. And then it'll get to the weekend. I'm like, oh, I'm so tired. Yeah. Because it's only then that I allow it to hit me. So I had a nice restful weekend this weekend.

Jess Shanahan [00:22:27]:
I did do some epic procrastination, though, if you wanna hear about it.

Liz Allan  [00:22:32]:
Oh, tell me. Tell me. I wanna hear about this epic procrastination because I've been there, girl. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jess Shanahan [00:22:39]:
So on Saturday, I went to the theatre, and I started thinking, oh, I wonder if I could rank all of the theatre performances I've seen over, like, the last

Liz Allan  [00:22:47]:
Oh my god.

Jess Shanahan [00:22:49]:
And then on Sunday, I was supposed to list a bunch of old clothes to go on, like, Vinted or to the charity shop or whatever. Instead of doing that, I create a spreadsheet with a master scoring system of how I score all of these different musicals, shows, and plays that I've seen. Yeah. To, you know, to be able to equalise it between, you know, a play and a musical are scored in the same way. So, you know, yeah, I spent, like, 2 hours on that, shared it with everyone I knew, and then I was like, right now, I need to get on with work. But it felt worth it. It was a huge dopamine hit, and from now on, I've got the ultimate ranking of all the shows that I've seen.

Liz Allan  [00:23:22]:
Oh my good god, I mean that is tangenting. Major tangenting isn't it? And that's why we're great. So, of those of you who have been listening to me talking for nearly 2 years now on this and watching, hopefully, you'll now know because I've never, as I say, never shared it because I've never had anybody on that's actually been willing to share it. That actually, and when I started, I didn't have the diagnosis. You know? So, you'll realise that when I go off on a tangent, that is why, you know, because it's like chasing us, you know, we call it squirrel. Squirrel. Oh, look. There's an oh, oh, shiny thing.

Liz Allan  [00:24:02]:
Squirrel. And it's like that because that's how our brain's always chasing that dopamine.

Jess Shanahan [00:24:10]:
Yeah. I think I'm quite disciplined now. I don't, especially where because I am medicated. Especially now, if I've had my meds, I don't tend to do that, but it's kind of in the evenings, or when I've got a big important task to do, like listing clothes, that's when my brain kinda goes off on 1. But weirdly, in work, maybe because it's, you know, it's important, and I'm in the habit of it, a 13-year habit of, you know, hitting deadlines and doing work. I don't find myself getting distracted or caught up or anything like that. But then, you know, I do have a very good team around me now. I'm very lucky to have someone who wrangles and organises me, so that does help.

Jess Shanahan [00:24:52]:
I'm kind of accountable to someone every day.

Liz Allan  [00:24:55]:
And that, and that's a good thing. And I think that habits are good. In the way people go to work every day and are employed, we need that structure. And when you get used to that structure, it's good for us. And because you know when you can hyperfocus and when you need a break. Well, I'm not saying I always do. And I but I think you are so much more disciplined probably than than myself, but, you know, it's it's one it's one of those things. You've always sounded disciplined anyway. So fantastic.

Liz Allan  [00:25:31]:
What I was gonna talk to you now, I mean, the other things you're involved in. So, in November, you're one of the hosts at the EV show. 2 weeks ago, nearly or kind you were everything electric, and you were on how many panels? 

Jess Shanahan [00:25:43]:
Three panels? Three panels in one day. Everything Electric. People were probably getting sick of me by the end of it.

Liz Allan  [00:25:49]:
There should be a song there, isn't there? Three panels in one day. There you go. There's a bit of singing for you. Tangent. But you were in a panel with petrolheads anonymous. I was gonna ask you how you are still a petrolhead. You've explained it. But how did the panels go? How were how were they? Because you had several other people on the panel, you weren't leading the panels, weren't you? You weren't moderating.

Jess Shanahan [00:26:18]:
No. I was a guest on a panel, which is unusual for me. Usually, I'm moderating, which is, weirdly, a bit easier, even though there's more prep involved. Like, you don't have to be as smart. If you're moderate, you can just ask questions and direct the conversation. Whereas when you're a panellist, you have to, you know especially, it's something like an everything electric, you have to be entertaining, I feel as well. But, yeah, they all went great. The, you know, I didn't get to say much on the petrol heads anonymous one, but the other 2, certainly.

Jess Shanahan [00:26:49]:
So, one of the other two was about how to buy a new or used EV. And then the third one was about heat pumps and decarbonizing home energy. So they were interesting. We got some great questions from the audience as well. So it was it was nice to have that little bit more of more interaction for those other 2.

Liz Allan  [00:27:09]:
I remember reading one of your social media posts. I think it was I think did you did were there some you said about the great questions. What was the best question that came through on those panels? Can you remember?

Jess Shanahan [00:27:24]:
So there was a great someone asked, you know, should we be when we're looking for, like, a used EV, should we be looking at things like, you know, like, if someone's buying a leaf, for example, should they be worried about the Todemo charging? As most charges are now kind of CCS, they can struggle to charge rapidly. And I thought that was a really important question I haven't seen people discussing so much.

Liz Allan  [00:27:52]:
No. You're right. Yeah.

Jess Shanahan [00:27:54]:
And then another gentleman asked, you know, if he buys a 3 or £4,000 Renault Zoe, Is it okay? Is it gonna be a good car? And I was like, let me talk to you about Zoe's because I loved my Zoe. And it was a good chance to kind of share with people that some older Zoes will still have the battery lease in place, and you need to be careful of that because it makes them harder to sell. That could account for the lower price, but it means you'll pay Renault monthly for this battery lease.

Liz Allan  [00:28:24]:
Is that what you had then?

Jess Shanahan [00:28:26]:
No. So mine was the next generation, Right? Of Renault Zoe. So they've done away with the battery lease by that point. So I didn't do that, thankfully. But, yeah, it's something to think about with the, you know, I guess, the first-gen Zoe's that are out there. Some of those battery leases are still in place. And if you wanna buy yourself out of it, it can be quite a hefty amount.

Liz Allan  [00:28:49]:
Tell me how that works because I'd heard about it, but I didn't realise it was it was still in place.

Jess Shanahan [00:28:58]:
Yeah. I don't know the specifics of it because, you know, my Zoe didn't didn't have that. I see many people talking about it on, like, different ED forums and this kind of thing. But, essentially, when the Zoe first came out, Renault sold the car to keep the price low, but leased the battery. Oh god. So the the price of the car was slightly lower, but you paid, I think it was something like 70 or £80 a month. It might not have been that much. Maybe I'm misremembering that.

Jess Shanahan [00:29:24]:
But you paid a monthly amount to Renault, and I'm sure people listening to this will know the details and will let me know that I'm wrong. But, you know, I know a lot of people bought themselves out of the battery lease. So there are now older ZOE's available without that. But there a lot of them still remain. You still have to pay that monthly amount. But it does mean that if something goes wrong, you're not liable. Renault can fix it because they own that battery.

Liz Allan  [00:29:51]:
But it's specifically the battery itself. It's nothing else. Yeah. Is that separate to them? I don't know whether you know. But, you know, I'm assuming that's separate from the manufacturer's warranty because that's you've got the battery, and then you've got the manufacturer's warranty separately, I assume.

Jess Shanahan [00:30:07]:
Because Renault essentially owns that battery. You don't know, so surely, if something goes wrong with it, it's the owner's responsibility to fix it. Yeah. But I don't know how hard Renault would fight that. It depends on so many factors. But, yeah, it is a bit of you know, there's so many great Zoe's out there for such a good price, but they're not being bought up because of this, you know, this remaining battery lease, which is, which is frustrating because they're fantastic little cars.

Liz Allan  [00:30:36]:
Were there any questions about battery health and kinds of health certificates or anything like that?

Jess Shanahan [00:30:42]:
We didn't talk about health certificates specifically, but we were talking about battery degradation and, like, what should you look out for, how can you check, all of that kind of stuff, and just telling people to be mindful of, you know, if for the most part, most EVs are gonna be fine. You might have lost, you know I think it's like a couple of percent a year Yeah. It might be the figure, something like that. But that I did mention, I didn't wanna get too technical because I I didn't feel maybe it's necessarily the place, but I did talk about how battery management systems have improved so much over the last, you know, 10 years or so that if you get, you know, an EV that's 10 years old, yeah, you might see more battery degradation than you'd want to see. If you buy an EV that's a few years old, you're you're gonna be fine, basically. It was kind of the the general consensus between me and the other panels was, you know, go out there, go buy a used EV if it suits you. There's not gonna be anything wrong with it. In fact, it's probably gonna be a lot more reliable than if you were going to buy a petrol or a diesel car that was a few years old.

Liz Allan  [00:31:49]:
Did you find that many people in the audience were non-EV drivers? Because everything electric is brilliant, the live shows. But, you know, so you don't wanna be just preaching to the converted all the time, do you?

Jess Shanahan [00:32:01]:
I think it's a good one for non-EV drivers. So I think there was a show of hands of how many people owned an EV. It's quite a lot, but there were still many hands for, you know, who's thinking about buying one? Because even though, you know, people might have there I think there are a lot of non EV drivers there. Certainly, looking at the car park, there was. But also, I think there's people there that might have had a company car that was electric or might be leasing one that's electric through work and have gone, oh, now is the time to buy one for my home, but have no clue about, you know, the used market or anything like that. So I think, you know, there's there's two sides of it. So it was it was a really well-attended session, and actually, I did everything Electric London earlier in the year.

Jess Shanahan [00:32:45]:
I sat on that same panel, and that was also just as busy with people, you know, asking questions and thinking about buying their first electric car, which is great.

Liz Allan  [00:32:55]:
And that's like you say, Everything Electric is probably one of the best places to go and do that. And test drive multiple EVs to see what they're like. You know, I know EV drivers who go there now just to test drive and see, and why wouldn't you, really? And I think it's I think it's a, really, really good event. You are also at the EV Show. Are you moderating at the EV show? Are you on a panel there?

Jess Shanahan [00:33:26]:
I'm hosting. So I've got the whole stage to myself. I'm in charge of several different panels and talks. So I'll be there just to, you know, keep everyone engaged in between sessions, introduce speakers, maybe ask a few questions, run around with a microphone, that kind of thing. So I'm looking forward to that. So that'll be over the full 3 days. I don't think I've got official confirmation of which stage it is yet. But, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. That's gonna be good.

Jess Shanahan [00:33:57]:
I've done a lot with the London EV Show over maybe the last 2 or 3 years. So, it's gonna be nice to have, you know, 3 full days of hosting there this year.

Liz Allan  [00:34:06]:
That's yeah. You'll have a lot on your hands there, won't you? Especially kind of, I mean, I suppose some of the panels, you'll know people and other ones you won't. So it's kind of that rapport building as well, isn't it, as you go through. So, I will have good luck with that. I also wanted to talk to you because you posted a post about your mum a little while ago, and I loved it. I just read it about your mum, and you said in the post that your mum said that you had changed her mind about EVs on a trip to Devon. Was your mum quite negative about them beforehand? Was she a bit like, no? You might be driving 1, but I don't think they're that good.

Liz Allan  [00:34:49]:
Was that what it was?

Jess Shanahan [00:34:51]:
Yeah. Not really. She's never she was never negative about it. She just saw it as if that was the thing that I did. And Right. It might have been a bit of a hassle for me, but I liked it, so that was okay. And, you know, she is one of those perfect candidates for an EV. She drives, you know, to the shops to see friends.

Jess Shanahan [00:35:11]:
You know, she never does any, like, big distances. Might go, you know, to the airport once or maybe twice a year. Mhmm. Yeah. But realistically, just doing local miles is perfect for an EV. But we've never really talked about it because she's got a reliable car that she's not gonna be getting rid of anytime soon. So, it was never a conversation. But I didn't realise until well after this trip to Devon that she'd had any thoughts that, you know, using and charging an EV would be a hassle.

Jess Shanahan [00:35:42]:
So, we made this trip down to Devon, and I said and, you know, for me in Norwich, I like five and a half, 6 hours.

Liz Allan  [00:35:50]:
Long way. It's not an easy journey from Norwich, is it?

Jess Shanahan [00:35:52]:
Yeah. And we tried to find somewhere else to go that wasn't so far away. But the one place we wanted to go to was there. It was like, you know, we went on a craft holiday. So, it was the only place that did this kind of all-inclusive craft holiday. So, I was like, it's okay. I will drive. I knew that she wouldn't want to.

Jess Shanahan [00:36:11]:
You know, I've got this big gorgeous pole star. We'll we'll we'll be fine. We'll stop maybe maybe once on the way down there. Hopefully, we can charge there, and then it's once on the way back. It won't be too bad. And then I was most nervous that I'd just be in a car driving for that long. But I think if I'd done it in a, you know, a petrol or a diesel vehicle, it would have been horrendous because I would have been so tired. But having a long enforced stop was wonderful.

Jess Shanahan [00:36:36]:
But we stopped at a farm shop, charged up while we had lunch, and then continued on. And I think that made my mum go, oh, okay. It's not just, you know, sitting at the equivalent of a petrol station. You see, we could just do what we would normally do, and then we return to the car and go, and it's fully charged.

Jess Shanahan [00:36:57]:
And the Polestar helps because we've got the long-range ones. So it's doing almost 300 miles on a full charge, give or take with, you know, motorway driving. And then I charged up actually at the hotel. They had a charger. So we were able to get, you know, more than halfway home. I had a really quick charge and some food, and I, you know, refuelled myself. And then we continued.

Jess Shanahan [00:37:22]:
And then months later, she said, yeah, I thought it would be a real hassle. I was like, did you? I asked her if I could post this on LinkedIn. It's nice to actually know that such an easy and seamless drive is possible because I think a lot, you know, you only hear horror stories. Yeah. Charging. And, like, I've had some, of course, and I've talked about them. Yep. But I wanted to talk about this one because it genuinely was a smooth: Polestar drive, listening to a podcast with my mum, having a lovely lunch with my mum, going and having a craft holiday, driving home, having a nice lunch with my mom, got home, the end. End. And it was genuinely a lovely experience.

Jess Shanahan [00:37:59]:
I'm glad that she saw the positive side of driving in an EV.

Liz Allan  [00:38:03]:
And that is fantastic because I was talking about this on the last podcast episode or one of the previous podcast episodes that I've just been to the Cotswolds with my friends. And one of my friends, Vicki, before we went, you know, when somebody starts somebody starts a conversation, no offence. Right? They usually mean it's like going; I'm not trying to criticise you. Yeah. And it but she's lovely. She's she's, like, one of my best mates, honestly. But she still thinks charging's a faff. You know? And and yeah.

Liz Allan  [00:38:38]:
The charge points in the Cotswolds, you know, there weren't loads of them, but literally, I found one in Chipping Norton, and we parked there,e and I just did a little bit of an opportune top and our car, our Ioniq, has got you to know, the range isn't massive. It's not like your Polestar. I mean, god, I had a Polestar for 6 weeks, and I loved it. You know? So it and that had 330 miles to a full charge. And I was like, oh, this is just how it's supposed to be getting up to Birmingham and back without having a charge. You know? It's kinda brilliant. But I did a little bit of opportune charging, and it just topped it up a little bit. And, yes, the charger wasn't running as fast as I would have hoped, but I didn't need loads, You know? And I specifically didn't fuss about it. I just thought, chuck it on charge. Here we go.

Liz Allan  [00:39:32]:
Walk round. Have a bit of lunch. Come back. You know? It just kinda gave us a little bit of extra charge. I don't I don't know whether she's gonna be like your mum in a few months time and go, it's not as bad as you think. You know? But maybe not. And that is what a lot of people think. Don't they? They think you are, like you said, gonna sit in the equivalent of a petrol station for half an hour, but it's not.

Liz Allan  [00:39:56]:
It's not. And that it's about that kind of understanding. You need to get in one and try one out for a little bit, don't you?

Jess Shanahan [00:40:06]:
Yeah. Another thing that came up in the Everything Electric panel was that if you know someone with an EV, you should go for a drive with them. Like, you don't even have to drive it yourself. Just go with them because you'll be so surprised at how smooth and easy it is, especially once you get to know the car. I always say to people, like, I don't believe in range anxiety apart from maybe your first ever drive in a new car. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. While you're getting used to it.

Jess Shanahan [00:40:34]:
And, like, Yeah. Now I realise that's coming from the place of being a Zoe owner for 3 years because the range was so up and down, not very accurate. And don't get me wrong. That's why I still love that car and would still have another Zoe. But now, going to the Polestar, where it says I've got 280 miles just like the Kona I spoke about, it, you know, will do that. And that's there's no need for range anxiety. I'm I'm now at the point of experienced EV driving. I don't even plan now, and that is the benefit of having, you know, 300 miles of range.

Jess Shanahan [00:41:07]:
But, yeah, a lot of the time now, I'm like, I'm just gonna drive, and I'll see on a map where I can stop, or I know that you know, I can go to Rugby services, or I know that there's a McDonald's, or I wanna stop at a farm shop, and I know that there's several on this road. And then, you know, I've learned it's about understanding the car and learning your personal tolerance for when it says 5%. Are you freaking out? Or are you like, I'll find a charger? Because I think I'm the latter now.

Liz Allan  [00:41:36]:
Yeah. Exactly, and I agree. The first few times, you know, I still plan because I've got to plan, depending on where we're going. But, I mean, we went to Brittany in July, which was alright. The charging over there was brilliant. We used Octopus Electroverse cards, and we could either initiate it from the app, or we did it through the card. And that was fantastic. And I was amazed at the situation there.

Liz Allan  [00:42:02]:
Actually, I'm just going to nip back a second to talk about the Cotswolds. I want to, and she doesn't. She probably won't listen to this very much. My friend Kelie, it's the first time she's ever driven an EV. Well, she had driven one about 100 yards down the road, which was her brother-in-law's, but she drove. I put her on our insurance because I knew I would be knackered at, you know? I didn't want to be driving all the time. And she did brilliantly. I'd prepped her on the fact that you don't drive it like petrol. You don't put your foot down. But take your foot off. Otherwise, you will get motion sickness.

Liz Allan  [00:42:37]:
But do you know what? She got used to it so quickly. The whole one pedal driving. I was just like, right. Okay. So you don't need to brake on this corner. You take your foot off the accelerator quite gently. Fantastic. So people who haven't just, you know, haven't tried driving electric, they, like you say, just need to try it.

Liz Allan  [00:42:56]:
They need to sit in with someone and watch or, you know, just experience it. But, yeah, it's nice. It's a nice feeling, and it was great to sit in with Kelie and see her driving. Oh, I like this.

Jess Shanahan [00:43:11]:
Yeah, that's nice.

Liz Allan  [00:43:13]:
So, I want to finish off by asking you if there's anything else that you would love to do in your career that you're not currently doing.

Jess Shanahan [00:43:24]:
That's a great question. I mean, not really. The nice thing about being self-employed is that running my own business in the way that I am means that I can, you know, go and do what I want. The only thing I would love to have more time for is that I've already done it, so I guess this answers your question about whether I would love to go back to doing my YouTube channel. So, I put a lot of time, effort, and money into building it. We've got, I've got, like, 1700 followers. Wow. Which isn't, you know, isn't too bad, but, like, it's just to create car videos on YouTube when there's so many people doing that and doing it well.

Jess Shanahan [00:44:09]:
It was just a lot of effort. And, you know, I hired an airfield to do some shoots and all this cool stuff. I had a fantastic time, but I'm like, it's not sustainable from a monetary point of view to keep, you know, funding me, you know, playing with cars and being in front of the camera. But I would love to have the time and the purpose to return to that. But it's just, you know, about finding it because, again, I have to kind of put my focus on the things that are, you know, generating revenue in the business rather than, you know, me going off and messing around with my friends.

Liz Allan  [00:44:43]:
But,

Jess Shanahan [00:44:43]:
Yeah, I would love to do more of that. I love creating video content generally, not even just car stuff. A friend and I make really short horror movies. So, just anything where I get to be creative and film stuff. And, you know, if it's related to work and cars, great. If it's not, it's not. But I, you know, I'd love to do more of that kind of, you know, film, TV, YouTube.

Liz Allan  [00:45:07]:
So if we said 5 years, is that where you'd like to do more of that anyway?

Jess Shanahan [00:45:14]:
Yeah. I would hope so. I'd need to find a way to make it work because I think, you know, getting monetized and doing stuff through YouTube, like, through and, you know, in that manner, I think you've got to have something unique and exciting. And I don't think I did. I think I made great content, but I don't think it necessarily stood out enough to, you know, to grab people. And, you know, it's also, you know, we've spent a whole day filming two videos. You know, me and a team of people who worked with me and my partner. So, yeah, like, 4 of us, 5 of us do, you know, filming for an entire day to get kind of 2 videos out of it. That's quite a lot to do that and make it, you know, sustainable to what, like, one video a week is kinda what people expect. Mhmm. So, yeah, I mean, I'd love to be doing that. And, you know, even if I'm doing it on a smaller level, like on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, I do a little bit there. So if I could find more time to dedicate to that, maybe that's the way to do it because it's less of an ask than doing, you know, a full 10-minute YouTube video.

Liz Allan  [00:46:26]:
Would you want it? I'm just gonna set one final question. Would you like to be a presenter on Fully Charged, as in, you know, all Everything Electric? Is that is that something you'd wanna do?

Jess Shanahan [00:46:37]:
Yeah. I'd love that. And I mean, I love being on stage. I love talking to people. I love engaging with an audience. One of the best things I've ever done was a talk about making space for yourself as a woman in a male-dominated industry. So, talking more about my career and, you know, rather than talking about battery management systems, here are some great road trips I've made. It was talking more from a personal point of view, and I loved it.

Jess Shanahan [00:47:08]:
You know, it was a real I don't know. It gave me this bug: you know, people were laughing at my jokes, I was really connecting with people, and I don't consider myself necessarily an entertaining person. It's always been about, you know, business and facts, and I can get a point across. But that was like a drug. It was the best thing I've ever done, and I would love to do more. So, as much as I'm more than happy to talk about cars in whatever format people want, I'd love to do more that connects with people on a more personal level. So I've done a lot more recently talking about ADHD, talking about imposter syndrome.

Liz Allan  [00:47:45]:
Yeah.

Jess Shanahan [00:47:46]:
Talking about being a woman in business, that kind of stuff. So I think, actually, that's what I'd like to do more of that. I've, you know, had, like, one small insight into that, you know, I absolutely loved.

Liz Allan  [00:47:57]:
I love this. Right. I'm gonna end at that point now, and I'm gonna point out to everybody, if you're listening and watching and you're hearing Jess and wanting to take her on, just let's get this going. Let's do it. Let's you know, this has to be your 5-year plan, right? You know, well, because we're ADHD, we'll want it to happen next week, but because that's how it works. But you know, I think this is this is brilliant. It's been a lovely conversation, Jess. It's been really nice to get to know you a bit more.

Liz Allan  [00:48:29]:
Just thank you. Thank you for joining me.

Jess Shanahan [00:48:32]:
It's lovely to be here.

Liz Allan  [00:48:34]:
And I'm going to say again, so let's make this dream a reality for her, and actually, I've started saying this at the end of every podcast. To increase our reach, we need to get you guys to share it. So if you want to like, subscribe, share. We post on Linkedin and in lots of other places. Please, to boost the podcast and, you know, get people to allow people to be able to listen to people like Jess. Anything and everything is good. So, on that note, I want to thank you, Jess. Thank you to everybody for listening and watching, and I shall see you next time.

Liz Allan  [00:49:13]:
Bye bye.