By Rachel Lemkow
Parking is, at its core, a human business. Yes, there are payment platforms, back-office systems, and countless other processes and technologies that make it all work. But all of that exists for one purpose — to enable a human experience. That’s the real goal. Because at the end of the day, our mission isn’t just parking: It’s helping people move through their days more easily and helping communities thrive.
Behind every decision tied to that mission is a person: choosing a vendor, fielding the tough — sometimes maddening! — customer support email, standing at a podium at a city council meeting, or facilitating a rollout. People are solving, adapting, and collaborating, all to make moving through their communities easier.
And what connects all of this? Storytelling.
The most important skill
Storytelling is the most important skill in business, according to Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business and a highly successful entrepreneur. In fact, storytelling is the trait that separates memorable marketing from the forgettable. “If I could give my 13- and 16-year-old one competence that I think would stand the test of time, it’d be storytelling,” Scott said in a 2024 interview with CNBC. He’s absolutely right.
In parking, storytelling turns a feature into a benefit, a system into a solution, and a job into a calling. It reminds us that what we’re building isn’t just software or signage; it’s trust, access, an experience.
Because people in this industry don’t just want products that work. They want purpose. They want to feel part of something bigger than themselves: having a direct effect on building a smarter city, a better campus, a smoother event day.
That’s why storytelling in parking matters. It’s how we build community in an industry so easy to overlook from the outside but deeply interconnected from the inside. It’s how we share lessons, spark ideas, and take pride in work too often called “thankless.”
Finding your people
It’s also why this industry feels so different, so unique, so special. When I first joined the parking world almost a decade ago(!), I never imagined I’d stay this long, build so many friendships, or feel so deeply about our shared purpose. That sense of connection shows up most deeply in person: not just at booths and with badges, but in the late-night conference dinners swapping battle scars with peers, the quick texts between operators to sanity-check a rollout, or the joy of calling yourself a “parking nerd” and instantly knowing you’ve found your people.
That shared identity is what sparked The Parking Store, an online hub created earlier this year by parking nerds offering merch for parking nerds, available at https://theparkingstore.co. (Shameless plug! All proceeds go to charity!) What started as a lighthearted idea quickly showed how much the industry craved something that felt like ours — proudly wearing Parking Nerd merch and leaning into the community. The response made one thing clear: People in our industry don’t just do the work. They celebrate it. They take pride in it. And they want to connect through it.
Parking is people
Yes, parking is tech. But parking is also oh so human. People want to belong. They want to see themselves in a bigger story outside of their day-to-day life.
That’s the job of good marketing — and the heart of this community. Parking is people. And storytelling reminds us why that matters. So, the next time you’re working on a product rollout or conference strategy, remember: It’s all about connecting back to the people and mission behind the technology.
RACHEL LEMKOW is the marketing director at HONK and a contributing member of the Parketing Collective. She can be reached at [email protected], while the collective can be reached at [email protected].
