Erica Bruno

I grew up in Southeastern MA into a car family. My grandfather, Jack Barboza, was one of the first Portuguese male car dealers in the country and had up to 17 different franchises at one point in time. My mom became the 7th female Toyota dealer in the nation (1st in New England) and I wish I knew the number for Hyundai bc it wasn’t long after.

Even though my family didn’t want me in the business, I always loved it. I’ve done everything from washing cars to selling cars in a dealership including service & parts. Heck, my first job was for a My Little Pony at 7 when I cleaned my grandfathers office in his Dodge store when I was 7. I was hooked!

The agreement with my family was to get my degree but I told them that if I still wanted to do the car business after that, I was going for it. I graduated UVM with a bachelors in History & Anthropology with a minor in Jazz Voice. I left a month later to start my career at 21 by moving to Torrance, CA where I joined Toyota USA in their management training program.

I’ve worked for Toyota, Nissan & Volvo on the OEM side, was one of the first 100 employees of AutomotiveMastermind, and I’ve had multiple roles since that centered around Branding, Marketing & Data Optimization.

I say I’m a Car Girl at Heart because I love this industry, I’ve learned so many sides of it and I am determined to help make this industry better.

I’m also a part of WOCAN where I am on our committee team who helps with member meetings, newsletters and events. It’s been an incredibly rewarding journey with some of the best ladies I know and I’m honored to be a part of it.

I went viral on LinkedIn in 2021 after a post that detailed my emotions/learnings of being laid off due to COVID. It was truly crazy but I’m so grateful because it’s opened up my world and my connections exponentially. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish on LinkedIn and it has helped grow my career (and me).

Umm… other than that I’m a goofball who loves people, animals and music. I’m a trained singer and almost went to Broadway which is a fun story.

I’m excited to be on this podcast and if there is anything else you need from me, please let me know.