Last Updated December 18, 2024
Legendary auto detailing educator receives industry’s highest honor at IDA Awards Ceremony
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 02/06/2024
ORLANDO — The International Detailing Association, the leading global association for professional detailing operators, suppliers, and consultants, is inducting renowned educator Mike Phillips into the IDA Hall of Fame Class of 2024 as part of their awards ceremony held at Mobile Tech Expo on February 2nd, 2024. Mike joins industry luminaries like Dr. David Ghodoussi (Class of 2023) and Barry Meguiar (Class of 2020) in his induction.
Mike is famous in the automotive detailing industry for his indefatigable approach to education in the form of intensive hands-on classes, articles, books and videos. “Mike is constantly hosting detailing classes, writing books and articles and responding directly to people asking for advice and help in detailing,” says Mike’s employer, Jim Lafeber of Dr. Beasley’s. “I can’t think of anyone else in the industry that devotes that much energy to education.”
Mike’s experience as an educator spans nearly four decades. He taught his first detailing class in 1987 as a trainer for Meguiar’s. He was an early power user of online detailing newsgroups in the 1990s and helped write some of the first online detailing guides. Later, Mike self-published a guidebook to Meguiar’s products. The book’s success with auto enthusiasts inspired Barry Meguiar to hire Mike as their Corporate Writer.
In the 2000s Mike’s role at Meguiar’s evolved as he started teaching classes for the company as well as running their online forum. Mike then left Meguiar’s at the end of the decade to bring his classes and forum administration expertise to Autogeek as their Director of Training. Then, after a brief tenure at 3D Car Care, Mike left to become Chief Education Officer for premium auto detailing product manufacturer Dr. Beasley’s in 2023, bringing his signature hands-on classes with him.
In this time Mike has taught hundreds of classes, generated thousands of articles, written six books for companies like RUPES and Flex, hosted two cable television shows on the Velocity Channel and Fox Sports Network and served as the guest detailing expert for several other automotive programs. This prodigious output gives Mike a sterling reputation as one of the automotive detailing industry’s foremost authorities.
This is the fourth class inducted into the IDA Hall of Fame after the institution began in 2020. The institution was created to honor “detailing industry professionals that [have] contributed significantly to the industry as an inventor, leader, organizer, builder, educator or promoter of the Industry or IDA.”
Mike says he’s incredibly grateful to be inducted. “It’s a true honor to be inducted into the International Detailing Association Hall of Fame. It’s a deeply humbling experience to be added to the list of all the other Hall of Fame members, including long-time friends Ed Terwilleger, Renny Doyle, Barry Meguiar, Greg Swett, Keith Duplessie, Jim Goguen, Jason Rose, Robert Eichelberg, Dr. David Ghodoussi and Kevin Halewood just to name a few.”
This august distinction wouldn’t be possible without the International Detailing Association and the vibrant professional detailing community around the world, and Mike wants everyone to know. “I would like to say thank you to all the members of the Hall of Fame Voting Body as well as all my friends and peers in the IDA as well as all detailers around the world.”
About Mike Phillips
Mike Phillips is an automotive detailing educator with nearly four decades of teaching experience.
Published Author
Mike Phillips is also the author of over 6 published how-to books including The Art of Detailing, The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine, How to Use the RUPES BigFoot Paint Polishing System, How to Use the FLEX XC 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher, How to Detail Boats, and his first published book, How to Polish Paint, Fiberglass, Plastic and Glass to Perfection by Hand or Machine. Mike is also the author of over 1000 car and boat detailing how-to articles with a brand new series of how-to books already in the works.
TV Personality
Mike has been the host of two TV shows, Competition Ready, along with his host Adrienne “AJ” Janic and What’s in Autogeek’s Garage. Mike has also been the guest expert on multiple TV shows including, My Classic Car with Dennis Gage, Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini, Two Guys Garage with Willie B. and Kevin Byrd, Two Guys Garage with Bryan Fuller, Truck U with Bruno Massel and Matt Steele, Motorhead Garage with Sam Memmolo and Dave Bowman and Ship Shape TV with John Greviskis.
Educator
Mike has taught detailing classes since 1987 and continues to teach multiple classes on both automotive and marine detailing as part of Dr. Beasley’s “Future of Detailing” education series.
You can reach Mike directly with questions, recommendations and information about upcoming class dates and locations via the contact details below.
Email: mike@drbeasleys.com
Cell/WhatsApp: 760-515-0444
https://themikephillipsforum.com
About Dr. Beasley’s
Dr. Beasley’s is a Chicago-based manufacturer of premium auto detailing products. Started by detailing shop owner Jim Lafeber in 2006 so he could make his own products for his shop, the brand has since grown into an international purveyor of science-based detailing solutions with a focus on safety, education and sustainability. Dr. Beasley’s is well-known among the major OEMs for their matte finish care products, having secured key partnerships with Hyundai, Genesis and Kia to provide matte solutions to buyers of their matte finish vehicles. They are also known for their self-healing ceramic coating technology, their Nano Surface Primer paint correction technology as well as their “Future of Detailing” education series.
Dr. Beasley’s Links
https://www.drbeasleys.com/blog
https://www.drbeasleys.com/
https://www.facebook.com/drbeasleys
https://www.instagram.com/drbeasleys/
https://www.tiktok.com/@drbeasleys
https://www.youtube.com/@DrBeasleys/
PRESS CONTACT:
Victor Espeland
Communications Manager
Dr. Beasley’s, Inc.
victor@drbeasleys.com
773-404-1600 ext. 226
Transcript of Mike Phillips’ Induction Speech
I’m always honored that anybody would read any article I’ve written, watch any video, read any book, take any class, especially here at Mobile Tech Expo. I’m usually not at a loss for words, but I’m not at a loss for words right now either.
I just want to say thank you to some people who are very important to me. I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t have done all the things that I have done in this career, and that would be my mom and dad. I grew up in a family of four kids. My little sister was blind, and that took a toll on the family in a lot of different ways. But the one thing that my mom and dad did is they instilled a very strong work ethic in all of us kids, and I’ve never shied away from doing hard work.
The other person I’d like to thank is behind anybody that’s accomplished anything is their partner, so my wife Stacy Phillips. She puts up with me. I do tend to be a workaholic, and if that can be a problem, the flip side of that is being a bum. So I’d rather be a workaholic than a bum.
I’d like to mention a couple other people too. One is someone that you guys have probably never heard of. His name is Jack Birkby. After I lost my leg in a boating accident in 1986, in 1987 he gave me a shot at being a trainer for Meguiar’s. I had no idea what I was getting into. He asked me if I could take this truck and call on body shops and detail shops and dealerships and show them how to, you know, detail cars, wet sand, cut, and buff. I thought, hey, that sounds pretty fun. I didn’t really connect he was asking me to be a salesman. I just wanted to go out and show people how to do stuff. But what that did is it led to sales, okay, and so that was a lot of fun.
When he set me up in this box truck, he gave me this cassette library tape from Zig Ziglar. A lot of people know him. That’s back when we had cassettes, you know, so I put these cassettes in, listening as I drove from a detail shop to body shop to dealership. One of the quotes from Zig Ziglar that I always liked goes like this: “Help enough other people get what they want, and sooner or later you’ll get what you want.” And so I’ve always tried to apply that in everything I do, just helping other people get what they want. A lot of times it just means a shiny car or a shiny boat. But Jack Birkby gave me a chance at it. I covered three territories, and I just had the time of my life.
The next person I’d like to thank is also a member of the IDA Hall of Fame. He’s not here, but it’s Barry Meguiar. I wrote my first book actually in 1988, self-published it, and Barry had found out about this book. One day I’m driving home from work in a 1966 Chevy milk truck, and it’s got a big block and side doors that are rattling. And I just got this thing called a cell phone, and it rings. I’m thinking, who could be calling me? I just got this. No one has my number. My wife had. He called, somehow got ahold of my wife, and she gave him this number. He goes, “This is Barry Meguiar. Is this Mike Phillips?” And I said, “The Barry Meguiar?” And he goes, “That’s right, Barry Meguiar.” I said, “Give me a second, Barry. Let me park my milk truck so I can hear you.”
He says, “I heard you wrote a book about my products.” And I did. I wrote The Art of Polishing Paint: A User Guide for Meguiar’s, and I never asked him for permission. So the first thing that went through my brain was, I think he’s going to sue me for copyright and trademark infringement. And he says, “Would you do me a favor? I want you just to rip out the first four chapters of that book and mail them to me.” So at this point, I figured I got nothing to lose, so I did just that. A week later, he calls me and says, “How’d you like to fly down and interview for a job as a writer for my company?” And I’m pretty overwhelmed because I don’t have a college degree in writing or typing. And I said, sure. You know, at the time I was actually driving heavy equipment. I ran what’s called—you guys call it a front-end loader. In Oregon, we called it a scoop. I was pushing wood chips at a pulp mill.
So I flew down there. He invited me down for three days. I didn’t see him the first day, didn’t see him the second day. Third day, so about 4:00, my plane leaves at 6:00, and he comes walking in. You know how when you meet people, they put their hand out and they say, “Hi, my name is blank?” Let me show you what he did. He put his hand out and says, “I love your writing.” And so I said, “I love your writing.” And he goes, “How’d you like to work for me as a writer?” And of course, I said yes. And they created a position called Corporate Writer, and I took over all the writing duties for Barry Meguiar. And the fact that that guy would trust me, someone that he probably didn’t know from Adam, was really an honor. It was really an honor and was also a really hard job.
And then I would be remiss without saying thank you to Bob McKee. He stole me away from Barry. He asked me to come out and teach at a thing he called Detail Fest. So I thought, okay, what am I getting myself into? And after I taught a class, he brought me into his office, and I love this. He says, “What would it take for me to steal you from Meguiar’s?” So I wrote my salary down on a little piece of Post-it note, and I shoved it over to him. And I thought he’s going to have a heart attack. And he goes, “Really, that much?” I go, “Yeah.” He goes, “I’ll give you that and a TV show and a five-year contract.” And so I took that. And the fact that he had confidence in me to represent his company and to educate people via the medium of TV—which to me, instead of teaching like 30 people in a class, now you’re teaching 30 million people on TV—that was another huge pinnacle moment in my life.
We tried that. It struggled. A TV show on detailing is kind of like watching paint dry, watching grass grow. You can watch someone buff only so long. So it’s a real challenge. We did a second TV show called Competition Ready. A lot of people might not know this, but the producer for that was Bud Brutsman, who was the creator of Overhaulin’ with Chip Foose. We had a lot of talent, but again, it just wasn’t making the kind of profits you’d expect for something that cost, I think, around $2 million a year to put on. But again, it’s a great honor that he had confidence in me to do that.
I just want to make sure that I said thank you to him. And I’d also just like to say thank you to everybody here. I’ve been going to SEMA for 22 years. I’ve been teaching classes at Mobile Tech Expo since 2010. I love MTE over SEMA just because we’re more of a community. But my favorite part is when anybody comes up to me and says they’ve been reading my articles or watching a video or they bought a book, they’ve been following me, and it’s helped them to get to where they are now. And that is the most rewarding thing. I told my wife that last night on the phone. It’s just the most rewarding thing about this job.
I never really started to get into this industry for me. This all happened by accident. I have two passions in life. I love to detail cool cars, and I love to show other people how to detail cool cars. And that’s how I got here.
So thank you. And it’s also an honor to be a member of this already esteemed group of high people in the IDA Hall of Fame.
Congratulations on your induction into the IDA Hall of Fame, you have made a great contribution to the world of detailing – Winners Detailing UK