Building Excellence: How Successful Transportation Leaders Shape Culture and Brand

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In this special episode of the Ground Transportation Podcast, we take a journey through some moments from past episodes about the impact of proper driver training. Host James Blain from PAX Training reflects on key elements that have shaped their discussions on training, customer service, and building a strong brand in the transportation industry. Featuring clips and insights from industry leaders like Bruce Heinrich, Tom Halsnik, Tiffany Hinton, Michelle Petelicki, and Athena Grimm. This episode dives deep into the importance of quality training, emotional intelligence, brand consistency, and internal culture. 

Chapters
0:00 Welcome
2:27 Bruce Heinrich
12:43 Tom Halsnik
23:42 Charlie Horky
33:07 Tiffany Hinton
39:31 Michelle Petilicki
46:41 Athena Grimm
52:17 Closing Thoughts

Listen the full episodes from our guests:

The Customer Experience: From the First Phone Call to the Final Thank You, with Bruce Heinrich: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/16247937

Mastering Customer Service in Chauffeured Transportation: Insights from Tom Halsnik: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/16432125

Rock N’ Roll Pioneer: Charlie Horky’s Epic Journey in Ground Transportation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/16977323

Driving Sustainability: Tiffany Hinton's Influence on the Future of Ground Transportation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/16553236

Charting a New Course: Exploring the Future of Motorcoach with Michelle Petelicki: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/17228621

The RAISE UP Mindset: Athena Grimm’s Blueprint for Business and Personal Growth: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2400189/episodes/16553158

At Driving Transactions, Ken Lucci and his team offer financial analysis, KPI reviews,  for specific purposes like improving profitability, enhancing the value of the enterprise business planning and buying and selling companies. So if you have any of those needs, please give us a call or check us out at www.drivingtransactions.com.

Pax Training is your  all in one solution designed to elevate your team's skills, boost passenger satisfaction, and keep your business ahead of the curve. Learn more at www.paxtraining.com/gtp

Connect with Kenneth Lucci, Principle Analyst at Driving Transactions:
https://www.drivingtransactions.com/

Connect with James Blain, President at PAX Training:
https://paxtraining.com/

Episode Transcript

James Blain (00:25):
Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the
Ground Transformation Podcast.
We have had all kinds of amazingguests, we've had all kinds of
episodes, and one of the thingsI wanted to do, and I'm gonna
try and take you guys throughtoday, is a little bit of a
journey back through what Ithought were some of the most
key elements that we've had sofar when it comes to training,

(00:46):
customer service, and yourbrand.
That's where I live, right?
At PAX Training.
That's kind of my whole focus isgetting people the right
training so they can do exactlywhat they need to do to create
that amazing experience to buildthe company, right?
Making sure owners, drivers.
Passengers, everybody gets peaceof mind.
So one of the things that I havein one of my favorite books by a

(01:09):
guy named Guy Snodgrass, who isa former Top Gun Naval pilot, is
his top guns top 10.
And one of the things he talksabout is going back and doing a
review, a mission debrief, kindof looking at what you have and
trying to figure out what do wedo right?
What can we do better?
What's the room for improvement?
So I sat down recently and Idecided to do that with a

(01:29):
podcast.
And so in this episode.
We're going to listen to some ofthe clips that I thought were
the most valuable, and we'regonna build that up.
These are really not in a top 10order, but more so in an order
that I thought made sense justin having the conversation to
get us kicked off.
I thought it would be absolutelyfitting to go back to one of our

(01:49):
very first episodes with mybusiness partner here at Pax
Training Bruce Heinrich.
Bruce started at the RiskCarlton.
Part of what he learned therewas that he had a passion for
customer service.
He came back to Leader Limousinein Kansas City and literally
started his company with aborrowed car and a cell phone.
And one of the neat things aboutthat is he was able to bring

(02:12):
that Ritz Carlton experienceinto his brand.
And so I want to kind of startwith that clip and have us kind
of go back to that moment andlook a little bit at what you
can learn there.
Let's, let's jump to that clip.

Bruce Heinrich (02:26):
You really need to have somebody that is, I'm
relational, so it's really easyfor me to hire'cause I hire
like-minded people is peoplethat have a heart for service,
that love taking care of peoplethat are, that bring positive
energy.
Yeah.
And you know, if you want to getdown to the basics, people are
either bringing energy orthey're taking it right?

(02:49):
They're either makers or takers.
And so I'm looking for makers.
I'm looking for people that Iwant to be around, that I enjoy
working with, that are gonna befun to be in the office that,
you know, I'd even, wouldn't bebad to hang out with after the
office stuff.
And, uh, you know, just goodpeople, really good character
people.
And so you gotta start with thatand in the office as well,

(03:14):
because they are, they're yourdirect communication, right?
Especially.
You know, with phone calls.
So for high end, we still do alot of phone calls.
You know, really you wanna makeit easy for a customer to book.
We know the commercial back afew years ago with the easy
button.
You want to give'em the easybutton.

(03:34):
So whether it's a phone call,whether it's booking online, you
just wanna make it easy andconvenient.
So for our uh, CSRs, we call'emclient Solutions
representatives.
I've created a, a program calledEight Steps to Closing the Sale,
and, uh, but really the firstthing is a warm greeting.

(03:57):
Yeah.
And I know you've done a lot onthis because I know you've also
looked at the value of how mucha chauffeur touches a year.
Right.
I've, I've been obviously beingpartners, I get to see a lot
more of that, but I've also seenyou do that, so I know that's
something important to you.
Yeah.
Here's just getting back to thechauffeurs, because again, and
you know, of course with theCSR, but with the chauffeurs, it

(04:19):
all, I mean, that's, that's thefinal delivery.
They're the ones who are gonnadetermine whether that passenger
or that client comes back.
So I did a little research and Ifound that my top chauffeur
generated$274,000 in one year.
Yeah, that's how much he droveand generated for my company.

(04:43):
Now, if you had a client thatwas bringing you 274,000 bucks,
oh God.
Yeah.
How would you treat that client?
Yeah.
You'd be taking'em out fordinner, you'd, right?
Yeah.
And, and so I just wanteverybody to be aware that man,
take care of that guy.
Yep.
I mean, he's serving a lot ofclients as well, so if I had to

(05:06):
lose that guy.
Or that client man, it'd kind ofbe a toss up, right?
You know, neither one are gonnabe easy to replace, man.
If you really look at how muchyour people are generating for
you, I think you'd have a lotmore respect for them, treat
them well, and take care ofthem, as as well as an external
client.
Yeah, and really back to yourquestion, it's just a little

(05:27):
form.
You do a little math.
How many calls are you getting?
How many quotes are you getting?
What do they turn into?
And then I look at it as like anannual spend.
Yeah, and so some calls may notbook.
And again, one call, one trip,and again, this is the key
again, of having a brand, ofhaving a culture of quality, of

(05:49):
giving them an experience thatmakes them go, wow, that was
really different.
I thought I knew car service.
I thought that when I used Joe'slimo down the street, that was
car.
But this is a whole differentthing.
Wow.
It really is a sign of where ourindustry needs to focus.
Right.
If in the conversation of whatthat looks like, we keep

(06:11):
bringing that focus back to thatpastor experience.
It's'cause that's where it needsto be.
And so we've kind of fastforwarded a bit.
But I'd like to kind of bringback, you know, we've jumped
into that.
What is the, what does the restof that look like in terms of
getting there?
Because I think we're already,you know, naturally talking
about how you knock it outta thepark, and really that's the Cs
R's job, right?
Yeah.
Hopefully.

(06:31):
And, and, and you're, I'm sureyou'll, you'll mention this,
hopefully that CSR is able tokind of tee them up for that,
right?
Yeah, and that's exactly it.
And there's, there's somespecific, and again, it's back
to the details, the littlethings.
So you answer the phone call,hey, uh, I'm interested in, you
know, limo service.
How much is a limo?
That's usually the first que,Hey, I need a ride to the

(06:53):
airport.
How much is it?
Yep.
They don't know to ask anythingelse, right?
Right.
Yeah.
Yep.
So their only supposition isprice.
Okay.
It's all the same.
Yep.
Right.
It's a black card going to theairport.
That's what I need.
How much is it?
It's our job to let them knowthat.
It's not all the same.

(07:14):
Right.
And the first thing you do thatis by building rapport on the
phone.
So one is how you answer it, wetalked about that.
Number two is affirm their call.
And so as soon as they say that,Hey, I need a ride to the
airport.
Hey, great, we will take greatcare of you.
What's your name?
Build.

(07:34):
Oh wow.
Nobody asked my name.
Okay.
Well, it's, it's Jim.
Okay.
Hey Jim.
Thanks for calling us, man.
I guarantee you know, all ourchauffeur are professionally
packed, certified, and trained,and we have a great fleet of new
vehicles.
Our team will take great care ofyou.
Okay.
Tell me what you're, uh, whenyou're gonna be going, something

(07:54):
like that, but affirm theircall.
Step two.
You called the right place.
Oh.
Okay.
I haven't heard that before.
Okay.
Well, let me build some trusthere.
Well, and you're hitting sales 10 1, right?
If you go back to anyone thatteaches fundamental sales, one
of the very first things thatyou will learn from someone
that's very good at what they dois that you have to ask

(08:17):
questions.
There's, there are so manypeople out there, there are so
many companies out there thatonce that comes in of, I'm going
to the airport, how much will itbe?
If they're not even gonna botherasking where that person is,
right?
Ah, run about a hundred bucks.
Run about 150 bucks, run aboutwhatever that number they're
gonna throw out there is, but,at that point, there's no
personalization.

(08:37):
There's no rapport, there's nonothing built.
Well, and so I think you'repointing to what you know is
sales 1 0 1, but for so manypeople.
Is so easily overlooked.

James Blain (08:46):
So for me as Bruce's partner, that always
hits home.
That's kinda where we live.
That's kind of where I live.
Obviously, I don't have theRitz-Carlton background.
I have it from a different levelof customer service, but we've
always kinda lined up and Ithink the big thing that for me
always drives home is that$275,000 number.

(09:07):
Your chauffeur.
You know, if you're in the motorcoach space, think of it as
your, your motor coach driver,whoever that might be.
Think of that number.
Think of how much of yourbusiness that person is
touching.
Think of the value that theybring to their customers.
Think of all of those thingsbecause the value they bring to
their customers, theirpassengers, is the value they're
bringing to your.

(09:29):
Passengers, and so I think it'sreally important to kind of sit
down and really understand thatthese are internal customers.
The way that you are treatingyour staff, the way that you're
setting them up for success, theway that you're building things
out.
Everything that you're doing onthat aspect is purely related to

(09:50):
what they're gonna give back interms of the experience that
pastor's gonna get.
And so I think taking that back,another one of the clips that I
really enjoyed was when I talkedto my good friend Tom Snick out
in Florida.
This is someone who starts as achauffeur.
This is someone who's on theprivate chauffeuring side.
This is someone who understandswhat it's like to be in that

(10:14):
part of the business.
And so Tom really kinda walks usthrough how do you get from
being that one car operator thatchauffeur into owning the
business.
But most importantly, what he'sgonna walk us through in this
clip is how do you connect withpeople?
How do you read people?
How do you take difficultpeople?
How do you make them into aclient?

(10:37):
I always tell people, read theroom.
It's something that I use overand over and over.
I even tell my children, readthe room.
In our world it's really just asapplicable.
Now, obviously our room is thevehicle.
Doesn't matter what kind ofvehicle it is, you still have to
read the room.
You've gotta be able to tell theenergy level of your passengers.
You've gotta be able to tellwhat kind of day they're having.

(10:58):
You've gotta be able to tellwhen you should engage, when you
should let them enjoy the momentand let'em have that privacy.
And so a lot of what you dothere, I.
Is really gonna come down toyour emotional intelligence.
When we talk about this in theworld of PAX training, we talk
about it as the sixth sense.
We talk about its intuition.

(11:18):
And your intuition is notsomething that you're
necessarily born with.
It's something that, you know,we kind of develop over time.
And depending on how you grewup, depending on what you do,
depending on how much you'vehoned that spill, some people
are gonna have a betterintuition.
Some people are gonna have aworse intuition.
I can tell you kind of in myworld, the person that has the

(11:39):
highest emotional IQ around meis my wife.
And so if I'm ever in asituation where, hey, I'd love
to get a read on someone, I'mgonna ask her her opinion.
Now, does that mean that if Iwas to go be a chauffeur
tomorrow or drive a motor coachtomorrow, I'm gonna have her
right there?
No.
So it's something that I'vegotta personally work on, I've
gotta personally develop.
And what's really neat aboutthis clip is Tom talks a little

(12:03):
bit about how he was able todevelop that.
How he was able to turn thatskill into a bit of a superpower
that really gave him a hugeability.
And so he kind of walks usthrough how does he go from
starting to developing theintuition to kind of building it
through.
So let's, let's jump to Tom andlet him tell us in his own words

(12:24):
what that looks like.

Tom Halsnik (12:26):
I grew up in Orlando.
Okay.
Moved to Tampa in 93.
Went to University of SouthFlorida, which is located here
in Tampa.
And didn't really get into limosuntil about, back until about 95
when I started with a companyhere in Tampa called Julie's
Limousine, which was one of themore popular ones because Julie
was on the the radio with Ronand Ron Radio Show, and they did

(12:52):
a ton of work and they werepretty well known and.
So over the years, I kind ofrose up the ranks and after, uh,
not long, probably four or fiveyears I was one of their top
chauffeurs.
I would, you know, train peopleand, uh, she would give me all
the celebrity work, all thedifficult clients.
And that's kind of really whereI started.
'cause I, if you know me, my, mydemeanor is pretty, pretty calm.

(13:16):
Yeah.
It's not a whole lot that, getsme going or, flaps me or
anything like that.
So I would get the clients thatnobody else liked.
And I did great with'em.
'cause you know, I kind offigured out when to talk, when
not to talk.
You just, you were like, juststraight professional and, you
know, and it was funny becauseover time, and it became a
challenge for me, is to turnthose difficult clients into

(13:41):
really good clients that, youknow, they would, they were.
Difficult with other drivers,they never tipped.
And I would turn'em into thesenice people tipped all the time.
Just make all the other driversjealous.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, and that was kind ofmy, my claim to, to fame, you
know?
And, and, and I enjoyed it.
And so, so that's where Istarted.

(14:02):
And then I'd worked for severaldifferent companies.
And finally in 2008, uh, youknow, during the recession,
which is probably not the besttime to start, um.
I actually went into as workingas a private chauffeur for the
founders of Outback Steakhouse.
Okay.
And that, and that lasted forabout, oh, about seven years.

(14:24):
But in the meantime, that's whenI started my business because
you know, I just was like, well,I'll start my own business.
And really how I, I ended mycareer with them is'cause they
didn't really like me having myown business.
They felt like it was a conflictof interest.
And I'm like, no.
It's not, I've never once toldyou, no, I can't do it.
Can't drive for you.
So I left them and that's kindof when my business took off.

(14:47):
And uh, you know, it wasoriginally called Black Pearl in
Aine'cause of the history ofpirates in the Tampa Bay area.
And I thought it was somethingthat was unique.
Come to find out, 19 othercompanies have that same name.
So in fact, there's one in SouthFlorida that.
I occasionally get their parkingtickets.
I've gotten sometimes, oh geez,their 10 90 nines.
It's too close.
And so that's when I, one of thecompanies that I had purchased,

(15:10):
'cause I had purchased a couplecompanies.
One of'em was, uh, Walsh AirportService.
Okay.
And it had been around since 95.
Started as an airport taxiservice.
Had a lot of really goodclients.
Citigroup, JP Morgan.
Bausch and Lam.
So it came with a lot of reallygood clients, and that's
primarily what I was known within the corporate stuff.

(15:31):
So that's kind of where I wentwith it.
And over time, because it wasWalsh airport service, we kind
of got pigeonholed into justdoing airports.
So when I started buying limosand that kind of stuff, people
thought that all we did was justairport stuff.
And I'm like, no, we do more.
So that's during COVID.
As I was operating threedifferent websites, had three

(15:52):
different marketing plans.
I'm like, geez, now's my chance.
Everything's going into one.
We're doing Walsh Chauffeurtransportation, one website, one
phone number, streamline thewhole thing.
I know guys are still using likemultiple sites.
I'm like it's a waste.
It's a waste of time.
It's a waste of money, effort.
So that's when everything gotyou know, put together.
But yeah, so that's how I endedup where I'm at now.

(16:15):
Another good story.
Along that same line,'cause Iworked for the founders of
Outback Steakhouse, right?
Yeah.
You want to know how they gotthe term Outback Steakhouse?
How they didn't know what tocall it and the movie crocodile
Dundee was big that year, sothey said, well just call it
Outback.
Yeah, no.
And it really meant nothing.
And then once they started,they're like, oh, I guess we

(16:35):
gotta pick out some decor.
I, I guess we'll go withAustralian decor.
That's awesome.
Yeah,

James Blain (16:40):
I, I didn't know that one.
And it's funny because, youknow, you've made a great point.
A lot of this is understandingthat your brand is about more
than just a name, right?
It's the experience you giveyour clients.
It's the things you do for them.
It's the way you make'em feel.
Which makes me come back tosomething that I, you mentioned,
and I, I'm fairly sure everysingle one of our listeners

(17:01):
wants to know how you did it.
Right.
You said you were taking thosedifficult clients.
Turning them into the best ones.
What I wanna know is were youactually changing them or is
that something where you wereable to figure out their needs?
How, what were you doing?
What was your magic there?
What, what does everybody hereneed to know to make this work?
I think part of it is justrecognizing what people's needs

(17:23):
are.

Tom Halsnik (17:24):
You know, you kind of, you see how they, how they
operate, what their expectationsare, and it's a matter of
figuring'em out.
The reason why most driverscouldn't do that is because they
couldn't figure'em out.
But over time I saw theirtendencies.
I saw what they liked, I sawwhat they didn't like, and so I
was able to just kind of dialthat in to where every time I
saw'em, I already knew what theyliked.

(17:45):
I knew what they didn't like,and so.
Once they got to a point wherethey were comfortable and they
knew that I knew what I, whatthey liked, we kind of hit it
off.
And it's funny because that'ssomething we talk about a lot,
right?
You don't, obviously we're notin a room, but reading the room,
figuring out exactly what thatpassenger wants, exactly what
they need and, and how to meetthose needs.
And that's the hard part aboutthis industry.

(18:07):
And you know, we have a lot ofpeople in and out of this
business, but you know, it is anart form.
It takes a.
Certain type of people to personto be successful in this.
And it's just being able torecognize those kind of things.
It's just the customer service,understanding what people want
and being able to read people,you know, I've seen a lot of
guys that think that, you know,because you pick'em up at just

(18:27):
gigantic mansion, that theyshould tip you an ungodly amount
of money.
And I'm like, that's not howthat works.
If you tailor your service,depending on what size of house
that you know they live in,you're gonna be sadly mistaken.
You have to give everybody thesame level, the same great level
of service, I should say.
Oh yeah.
'cause nine times outta 10, it'sthe people, because the guy that

(18:50):
lives in the house, he's used tothat service.
So you're basically meeting hisexpectations.
Okay.
Yep.
The people that don't do it veryoften, the birthday parties,
the.
The weddings, those are the onesthat don't get treated the way
we treat people.
Taking their luggage, rollingout a red carpet, you know, how
we handle'em, how we talk to'em,how we make'em feel special.

(19:10):
Those are the ones that whenthey get done, you know, they're
like, hold on.
Yeah.
And you know, you gotta be ableto, to read'em, but also
understand that it's not thepeople that you would think that
tip you the most money.
So I think for me, one of thebig takeaways here is when he
talks about the difficultpassengers, he talks about the

(19:32):
difficult customers.
He talks about the ones thatpeople are like, oh, I don't
wanna drive that guy.
Oh, I don't want to deal withthat.
Oh, I don't wanna deal with thisclient.
And he talks about how he wasable to turn that around.
I saw an incredible story theother day from a motor cruise
driver and she was on Facebookand she was talking about how
she always tries to figure outhow to make people feel heard

(19:58):
and valued.
You know, they had, she hadsomeone on her bus once and you
could tell this was kind of thecranky person and she had
something to say abouteverything, and she talks about
how by the end of that trip.
And I believe they were on atour hopefully I'm not
misquoting that, but by the endof that trip, they were best
friends because she was willingto hear her out.

(20:20):
She was willing to listen.
She was willing to be there.
She was willing to try and solveanything that kind of came up.
A lot of what we deal with whenit comes to training is, you
know, the literal, how do wecreate a space around the
vehicle?
How do we drive safely?
How do we apply the rules of theroad?
How do we make sure we've alwaysgot an out?
But there's that emotional piecethat is what makes everything

(20:43):
you do at your company unique.
If you truly wanna provide aunique experience, if you truly
want to give them something thatwill have them coming back time
and time again.
Your brand is defined by the wayyou make them feel.
The way that they feel when theyget outta the vehicle.
The experience that they havewith your company is what's

(21:07):
ultimately going to definewhether or not they leave
feeling positive or negativeabout your company.
And so having a.
Your entire team develop andbuild that emotional
intelligence is just asimportant a skill as actually
going in and teaching them thefundamentals of safety and
customer service.

(21:28):
Now, ironically enough, we hadCharlie Horkey on, and one of
the neat things about Charlie.
Bruce was working at the RitzCarlton at the same time as
Charlie's wifes, and he talksabout this a little bit on this.
And then where Bruce actuallygot his start was at CLS out in
California.
And so he had worked with CLSbefore coming back to Kansas

(21:50):
City and borrowing that cellphone, starting his company.
And what's neat is Charlie hasthat realization moment.
It's one of my favorite parts ofthe clips.
He has that realization momentthat Bruce is my partner and
that we're kind of talking aboutthe same thing there.
But he talks about.
The level of training that comesfrom the Lips Carlton, and I
think one of my absolutefavorite things that came outta

(22:11):
this clip is Seal Team CLS,which we'll talk about in a
moment.
But the way that Charlie kind ofapproaches training, I.
Is completely and totallyunique.
For those of you that aren'tfamiliar with Charlie's story,
you should absolutely go backand listen to that episode.
And as soon as that book drops,we will let you know because
Charlie mentions that he isworking on a book.
I don't want to give anyspoilers, but I can tell you it

(22:31):
is an absolutely incredible bookand it's a must read when it
does get released.
But what's cool is Charlie talksabout how they, you know, they
were building a company, he'syoung, they're trying to figure
things out, and he's not reallysure how he's gonna approach it.
So he comes up with his SEALteam, CLS idea and it
revolutionize everything.

(22:52):
So I'm not gonna spoil the clip.
But let's jump to that realquick and then I'll kind of talk
a bit more about why it's soimportant and what I like about
it.
Let, let me have Charlie tellyou in his own words.

Charlie Horky (23:03):
We read this book,'cause we're so smart.
But we, there's two things thathappened.
You talk about growing yourcompany.
One was that our competitor wasHarold Berkman at Music Express.
Sure.
And he would kick our, like allthe time.
I mean he just would, he'd getthe contracts.
He was bigger, more formidable.
I mean, he was Music Express andthere was Starlight.
Him, I was this little guy doinglittle rock and roll stuff, you

(23:23):
know, like a little bee kind ofpestering these guys.
But you said you had a book.
What did you read?
Do you remember?
Oh, right, right, right.
We read Rogue Royer.
He was the guy that showed theworld about Seal Team six.
Ah.
He goes chapter and verse aboutwhat training was like in for
the seals.
No one had ever knew anythingabout it before.
So this book is like this hugebestseller.

(23:44):
Well, we all read that book andwe figured that CLS training
needed to be just like thatbook.
So whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I love this.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
That's the bombshell.
That's the bombshell of thepodcast right there.
Yeah.
So you're approaching training.
Treating it like a SEAL team,right?
We're gonna be the most elite.
We're gonna train the mostintense.
By the way, Charlie, you've justmade my lifetime with that

(24:05):
because we've been saying thatat PACS since day one, but, but
how do you, how do you translatethat from a SEAL team to
chauffeurs?
But hold on a second.
Your pacs tra chauffeurtraining, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was that dude, Bruce,right?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Bruce worked for me and whatyou're teaching is only morphed
to what I.
Or what I should, what I taughthim.
I mean, and, and there it is.

(24:26):
Right.
Bruce?
Bruce, I'm not with you.
Yeah.
I'm not minimizing the guy atall.
I love that dude.
He worked at Ritz Carlton whenmy wife worked at Ritz Carlton.
So we all learned at the sametime that not only did we wanna
be SEAL teams, CLS, we went, wewanted to be ladies and
gentlemen, serving ladies andgentlemen.
That's the motto of RitzCarlton.
Absolutely.
You just absolutely listen, youjust freaking nailed it.

(24:48):
For anybody listening in thispodcast, those two things.
Before we got the Ritz Carltonaccount, which was in 19 90, 91,
92.
It married 1990.
We had all this, you know, vigorfrom, you know.
Rock and roll rock limousinecompany and I got that Ritz
Carlton Hotel and when I gotthem, Ritz Carlton Marina del
Rey and we had like 10 cars,they made us go through their

(25:08):
orientation and it was amindblower for me.
Ladies and gentlemen serving,ladies and gentlemen learning
how to own the complaint,learning about lateral service,
learning about all these thingsthat, that they spent millions
of dollars, you know, becoming aRitz Carlton.
So all we did was rip off theirorientation and put CLS
everywhere.
That was Ritz Carlton.
I mean, listen they were onlytoo happy that we were doing

(25:30):
this.
Well, that's what they want.
They want you to match.
That's exactly what they, theywant you to play at their level.
That's exactly, I mean, that'sthe same Ritz Carlton that Bruce
was at.
But wait a minute.
Do you see the pattern here?
James do?
Absolute.
Do you see the pattern?
Absolutely.
Bruce went through Ritz Carltontraining.
Charlie went through it.
Right, right.
Yeah.
And then I went through it asambassador after the 12, 2012
presidential conventions.

(25:50):
Right.
That's the basis for thechauffeur book that, but I'm a a
hundred percent, that is theorigin of success in this
business to me.
I.
I had this dude named Jim Greenthat worked for me, and he was
a, uh, TaeKwonDo, uh, blackbelt.
And, uh, he's a good lookingguy.
And you know, Madonna lovedMadonna, loved him.
I mean, he was just a, a wonder,a wonderful driver.
Good guy.

(26:10):
He was in charge of ourtraining.
He read the book.
He was a knucklehead.
And, um, I.
We would, we'd bring the guys tothe, for interviews if you
wanted a job with us.
First you had to know somebody,and the guy had, and the guy had
to vouch for you.
And then we'd, you know, theyhad to come in a suit.
And before we'd let you fill outthe application, we'd play a
game of red light, green lightin the garage.
And, you know, red light, greenlight is you know, where

(26:31):
everybody lines up and you say,you know, red light, green
light, and, and we see if theycan pay attention.
And then we'd play, Simon sayswith'em.
And if they could get past thesetwo things, then we'd let'em
fill out the application andthen we would see how
physically, how good they were.
So back in the old days, in LAX,they used to have a tunnel.
It's still there, but they had atunnel between the terminals.

(26:51):
So we'd take it to terminal sixand we'd say, Hey, your plane
just came into terminal seven.
You can see it going, there's agate change.
You gotta get your over there.
So we'd make'em run down thestairs through the tunnels, like
quarter mile to the other one,and we'd get to the, the, get'em
to the gate and then hand'em abook and make'em read a
paragraph of it and see if theywere gassed, see if they could
still talk to the client.
You wanted the best of the best.

(27:12):
You really took the seal teamstuff seriously.
I love it.
We would do that.
It was just crazy.
And then, and then the last one,on the last day, we take'em to
the Santa Monica Pier and we go,we get'em.
Yeah.
We get'em to the end of that inour suits.
And, and Jim just like,chuckling and J would would
throw, I.
A life preserver into the wateras Hey, no way.
Yeah.
He'd say Jump work.
Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonnado?

(27:33):
You know, and I only had, I onlyhad one or two guys jump, but mo
most of them didn't.
But, you know, we were seriousabout it.
You know, we, we wanted to bethe best and Music Express was
the target.
And, you know, I knew how muchHarold was nice to me.
He, he'd tell me, he'd say, howmuch money are you doing a
month?
And I'd be like, oh, I'm doinglike, you know, a hundred
thousand.
And he'd be doing like 500,000.
Wow.

(27:54):
And I remember when I got to500,000 how good I felt about
the whole thing.
But yeah, he was our target.
And so all through the eightiesand the nineties, we get to the
nineties, we get the hotel andKen, I'm trying to answer your
question in that I.
There just wasn't a plan as muchas that we wanted to keep
growing and keep doing and seemore.
Success to me was more cars, somore business mean.

(28:14):
We had to have more cars.
So more cars, more success, thebigger, you know, kind of this
vicious cycle.
And next thing you know, you'vegot 20 cars in la and uh, I got
an opportunity in the 1990s todo some business with NetJets
and with the Four Seasons hotelsand and it just grew and grew
and grew and grew and grew.
Uh, when, you know, we talkedabout some numbers.
I can remember this.

(28:35):
In 1990 was a million dollars ayear.
By 1995, I was doing$10 milliona year, and by 20 by the year,
20, by the year 2000, I wasdoing over 50.

James Blain (28:45):
All right.
So by the way, yes.
Rogue warrior still working onthe book.
The whole thing that I reallyloved about this conversation,
and I think the thing that madethe most sense to me about what
Charlie was saying is that yes,he had fun with it, right?
The idea of having a chauffeursprinting through the tunnels
under LAX, just absolutely crand then having'em read

(29:08):
something is the absoluteextreme.
I have no customers right now.
We work with people all over theindustry from Motor Coach to
EMT, to chauffeur.
I have nobody that is makingthem run through a tunnel and
then read at the end.
But I think there's two reallyvaluable things here.
First is it's about structure.
It's about making it elite.

(29:28):
It's about making it good.
It's about setting a barrier toentry.
Okay?
You have this barrier to entrythat you have to get through to
work with them.
You have this standard that youhave to meet.
They are trying to create thisrepeatable, reliable system.

(29:48):
Now, of course, you've got thisinfluence from the seals, but if
you look at it.
You look at the seals, you lookat Top Gun, who I registered
engine earlier.
You look at, you know, the ArmyRangers, you look at any of
these elite level teams, and oneof the big things they're all
focused on is having a level oftrust between each other, making

(30:09):
sure they're able to get the jobdone, making sure they're
training over and over untilit's muscle memory.
And so one of the things thatworks just as effectively here
is that he's trying to create anelite team.
And he succeeds in it, right?
He manages to pull it off.
You know, at one point there wasCLS Las Vegas, there was CLS,

(30:30):
New York, there was CLS, LosAngeles.
You know, obviously there's moreto that story, but you have
someone that is decided thatthey want to have an elite level
team.
I.
So he builds up to that.
And so I think one of thebiggest things there is
understanding that it doesn'treally matter as much how you're
going to approach and how you'regoing to get there.

(30:53):
It's having that vision of Iwant to have the best in the
business.
I want to have people that arewilling to go above and beyond.
I want to make sure that I'mbringing the right people in
that are willing to be here sowe can get exactly what we're
looking for.
Now that said, training aloneisn't gonna be enough.
You know, if you have staff thatare trained on the vehicles that

(31:15):
can do absolutely everythingthey know every single button,
every single feature, it's notenough.
And in the next clip we're gonnatalk about Tiffany Hinton for
Motive Talks about that a littlebit.
And one of the big things that Ithink is really important here,
and we'll kind of start shiftingthis episode towards is that
idea that you've gotta have awhole entire picture.

(31:38):
Look, you've gotta have theexperience.
But if I don't have absolutesafety in the vehicle, if I
don't feel safe, if I don't feeltaken care of, if I don't feel
that I can trust that driver,I'm not gonna have that customer
experience that shines throughwhen Tiffany starts talking
about what things look like whenshe was brought on to motive and

(31:59):
kind of the world that sheentered when she stepped in.
So I'll let her kind of tellthat story.
Let's jump real quick to thatclip.

Tiffany Hilton (32:06):
When I got here, the only thing that had happened
was they had been trained.
Okay.
So they knew how to operate thevehicles and they understood the
functionality basically of theTeslas, because at that time, in
2016, this is a whole new thing.
Brand new, brand new, brand newthis.
This tech is brand new, right?
Yeah.
Our CEO did an excellent job ofteaching them to trust the tool.

(32:27):
Yeah.
So they knew how far those carscould go.
They knew how to use everygadget.
Who's it?
What's it widget?
They knew everything ins andouts of that car completely.
And so that definitely gave thema leg up.
'cause they were confident.
Yeah.
Right.
And they had a greatpresentation because they had
spent money, um, hiring a, adesigner.
They had custom suits, customthree piece suits that were

(32:48):
custom tailored.
And, you know, we had all thebells and whistles of what it
should look like.
Right, but it was not, there wasno brand, no one knew what
motive was.
No one had a clue what it was,what it was supposed to do, or
how it was gonna work.
So that was really where, thatwas me, where I came in.
But no, they, they hadn't, allthey had was training when I got
here.
I respect that.

(33:08):
By the way, I have to put outthere, if all you got is
training I'm with you.
I mean, just absolutely sureyou've got the plan, you know
where you're going.
But you know, I think gettingthere, once you've got it, once
you've got the training, onceyou've got the confidence in it,
you still gotta figure out whereyou're going.
Well, you could be all Dr.
You could be all dressed up withno place to go.
So tell me something.
Absolutely.
How.

(33:29):
How important was the superiorcustomer service experience in
the training when you started?
Extremely important and I mean,and I, and again, I credit that
completely to Robert becauseRobert is a teamster.
He's worked in the, he's workedin the movie industry his entire
life since he was 19 years old.
Uh, I think he's now 52 or 53.
So he's been in this industryforever.

(33:50):
I don't wanna tell his stories,but before he drove Morgan, he
was, Brad Pitt's driver Morganactually stole him from Brad
Pitt.
I didn't know that.
That's a leg, by the way.
That's a leg up.
That's a step up.
There you go.
Yeah.
Morgan's coming from Brad, buthe had been driving, a OS
celebrities forever, and so heunderstood the nuance.
And that's what I think is sodifferent about him is that he

(34:13):
very much understands thenuances.
We train our chauffeurs thatthey are concierge on wheels.
A hundred percent.
This is not about driving thecar.
This is about catching thethings that everyone else is
missing.
That's what this is about.
Yeah.
This is about those littlepieces of conversation that you
hear, where you get to tell theclient, you know what?
We have enough time to stop atCVS and you'll still make your

(34:34):
flight.
Yeah.
Or I can pull on you and we cantake care of that.
Or if you need us to doubleback, we can.
Or if you just give me a minute,I'll call my office and they'll
have someone take care of thatwhile we're in route and they'll
meet us.
Yeah.
If making those adjustments inreal time, they set us apart.
And I credit Robert with thatbecause he really understood how
to get our staff to understandthat nuance and really tap into

(35:00):
it and really tune their ear andtheir behaviors towards those
nuances.

James Blain (35:05):
All right, so one of the things that makes Motive
super unique is that this is acompany that was built around
electric vehicles.
Now, Robert, big shout out.
I love you buddy.
Robert, who runs that company I.
Is an absolute personality.
Robert is great.
He's had a relationship withMorgan Freeman where, they're

(35:26):
very close and so he was able tokind of branch off and start and
kind of do hi his own businessin addition to what he was doing
with Robert.
But he did it in an absolutelyunique, absolutely new,
absolutely different way.
And that motive was one of thefirst early adopters of Tesla
and had this fully electricfleet.
So it makes complete and totalsense that you're gonna have

(35:50):
people that are trained on thevehicle, you're gonna make sure
they know all the features.
You gotta make sure everything'sthere.
And so what happens is thatbecomes this incredible
foundation that you build on.
And I see this all the time,especially when it comes to
companies that run lots ofdifferent vehicles.
If you lose that foundation, youknow, let's say you've just
gotten into the motor coachworld, or you've just started

(36:12):
buying cutaways or largervehicles, or you know, you've
just moved into having luxuryvehicles in your fleet.
If you send people out for thefirst time in those vehicles and
they don't have that foundationof truly trusting the vehicle,
truly knowing the vehicle, it'sgonna show through.
That lack of confidence is goingto cast a long shadow onto their

(36:32):
ability to provide an amazingexperience for their customers.
So they absolutely nail it hereand that they make sure that if
this new technology with thesenew vehicles they've got,
they're building that solidfoundation.
They're making sure that theirstaff knows the features they're
making sure they know how theydrive, they're making sure they
know everything they need thereto now start layering on and

(36:54):
say, how do we build that?
Into an experience, how do westart building it up to where
passengers are coming back againand again, and so that kind of
mentality.
Really starts building withinyour organization.
Now, one of the cool thingsabout with I conversation with
Michelle from Panorama Tours,which is gonna be our next clip,
is that Michelle takes that andstarts layering in ownership.

(37:19):
Now, I don't mean that she's,you know, slicing out and giving
out percentage ownership of thecompany, but Michelle talks
about it with her.
Actual team in the office on howthey're able to take ownership
of a situation, how they'reactually able to grab hold of
that and take care of that evenwithout her being involved.
And this is something that won'tcome up in, in any of our clips

(37:41):
today, but I'll never forget oneof my mentors, uh, Athena, who
will have a clip from later.
You know, she told me once.
You know, if you can't step awayfrom your company, if you can't
take a day off, if you can't notbe in your inbox, if you can't
put your phone down, if youcan't step away for a little bit
and know that it's gonna run andknow it's gonna be there.

(38:02):
You probably don't quite have acompany yet.
And not only that, if you have ateam in place, you have people
there.
You don't have the trust forthem.
So Michelle does a great job ofreally embodying for me that
quote that I'd already heard inthat lesson that I'd already
been taught from one of mymentors.
And so she does this incrediblejob of laying it out.

(38:23):
So let's, let's take a look atthat clip and kind of break out
what happens there.
You mentioned this in your formof leadership, you've gotta let
people have ownership over whatthey're doing.
You've gotta let people growprofessionally and personally,
and letting them growprofessionally and personally
helps you grow and ultimatelylets you build a business.

Michelle Petilicki (38:43):
A hundred percent.
James, I'm so glad that youbrought that up.
Um, I am so proud of my tea.
So April for me, if anybodyfollows my LinkedIn, it's been a
wild ride for sure.
Well, you've been lots ofevents.
Lots of, I mean, oh my gosh.
I think I was physically in theoffice seven days all month.
It was insane.
But in the month of April, wealso had a compliance review.

(39:05):
Oh geez.
The, the feds called and said,we're coming next week.
And I said, I'm not around, butsure, why not?
Really trusting the team.
We, I got my letter, uh, lastweek of satisfactory rating.
Everything's done.
Not a single violation.
I mean, if that's not a truetestament to the people that I
have on my team, I don't knowwhat is.
They're just amazing.

(39:26):
And it's because of that, that.
I continue to, obviously youcould tell that I love what I
do.
I, it's, it's not a surprise.
But I continue to love it everyday because I come back and I'm
doing it with people that havethat same passion and have that
same drive and wanna do it andcontinuously want to grow and
get better and, and, you know,it just, just makes it all work.

(39:46):
so for anyone that is notfamiliar with the federal
compliance side, right?
Maybe you're not in the biggervehicle side, or maybe you're
just not familiar with it.
Uh.
When you are running the largerfederal government regulated
vehicles, F-M-C-S-A is going tohave a lot of regs for you to
follow.
There's a lot of things that youhave to do.
There's a lot of things thathave to be kept in place.

(40:07):
You've gotta have your driverfiles, you've gotta have vehicle
information.
You've gotta have everythingthere.
And so when you have an audit,an audit is a huge deal for you.
They're gonna come in andthey're gonna be looking at your
drivers.
They're gonna be looking at yourvehicles, they're gonna be
looking at.
All of these different elementsof your business.
Now this can go really well, andyou can have them come in and

(40:27):
look at everything and say, Hey,you're doing a great job.
This can also go really bad.
This is one of those areaswhere, kind of the
self-regulation environment thatwe live in can be a double-edged
sword because you are not goingto have that audit every single
day.
You're gonna get notified,they're gonna come in, they're
gonna look.
And so if you don't have everysingle I dotted, every single T

(40:47):
crossed.
You can be looking at steepfines, you can potentially get
put outta service.
There's all kinds of things thatcan happen.
For anyone that is at theownership level, this is
something that can beextraordinarily nerve wracking
because even if you haveeverything in place, sometimes
they find stuff you didn't knowabout or there's things you
didn't realize.
There's always those littlesurprises in business.

(41:08):
It's just part of what you do.
And so Michelle talks about inthis clip how she's got.
Full trust in her team.
We're talking about somethingthat is a huge, pivotal moment.
Anytime it happens and she'sable to be confident that they
have the ownership in it, thatthey're taking care of it, that
she doesn't have to worry aboutit.

(41:29):
Now, one of the really importantthings, and I, I talk about this
a lot in my world and my role atPAX training is when people
truly have ownership.
They know that they're able toget something taken care of.
This is my space.
This is what I worry about.
This is my role.
There's two sides to that.
The first is they have that astheir own.

(41:51):
You don't wanna micromanage it.
You don't wanna over pressurethem.
You don't wanna be over theirshoulder.
They need to own that.
Another great quote that aanother person I actually kind
of think of as a mentor gave mewas, you've gotta be willing to
let your people make mistakes.
And when it comes to somethinglike an audit, it can be a huge
mistake.
But as Michelle talks about,she's built this incredible
team.

(42:12):
She's put the time, she's putthe effort, she's put the
energy, she's put the trust, allof this into her team so that
she knows when something likethat comes up that it's taken
care of.
I would say this is somethingthat extends even further when
it comes to your driving team,when it comes to your office
staff, when it comes to everyonein your business.

(42:32):
I see this tendency with ownersand with people that are high
level management to want toreally only be squeaky wheel
people.
And what I mean by a squeakywheel person is I see a lot of
situations where the onlyfeedback that someone is getting
is when something has gonewrong.
Something negative's happeningor the outcome isn't what they

(42:54):
wanted.
We got a negative review.
We had someone that was late.
We had some kind of issue.
You did this wrong.
It is just as important to giveyour team the positive feedback.
Hey, we had someone leave us afive star review.
Hey, I heard you did a great jobhere.
Hey, I just wanted to check inand see how you're doing.

(43:14):
See how things are going, right?
You wanna build thiscommunication and trust with
your entire team, and it can beespecially difficult with your
driving staff because they're onthe road.
But having that communication,having that set up is what
ultimately allows you to kind ofget to this point and goes back
to that quote I mentioned alittle bit earlier of being able

(43:35):
to step away because you knowthat they've got the ownership,
you know that they've got ittaken care of, you know they're
gonna work through it.
Now, does that mean there's notgonna be mistakes?
Absolutely not.
Look, I've been a part ofhelping companies become a well
oiled machine, and I've been tocompanies that run like Swiss
watches.
I will tell you, it doesn'tmatter what type of operation it

(43:58):
is, there's always gonna be somekind of mistake.
There's always gonna be somekind of issue.
There's always gonna be somekind of curve ball that comes
up.
And the way that you handle thatwith your staff, the way that
you prepare your staff for it,and the way that you work
through it with them, isultimately what's gonna make the
biggest difference there.
Now.
That is probably as good of alead in as I can potentially

(44:21):
give us to, again, someone thatfor me is one of my personal
mentors, Athena Graham from BACin Alaska.
One of the things that she talksabout in the conversation that
we have when she came onto ourpodcast was those guiding light
principles.
Your values if you're lookingfor another podcast or if you're
looking to just have betterperspective.

(44:42):
I cannot emphasize enough thatAthena does have her own podcast
with Charlie, her husband andher co-owner up there at BAC.
They also have Alaska MedicalTransport.
They are some of the best peopleall around and some of the
sharpest entrepreneurs I've evermet.
So if you haven't alreadysubscribed to it, you need to go
out.
You need to subscribe right nowto the Raise Up podcast.

(45:03):
But when I had her on and we hadour episode, we talked a lot
about raise up.
What raise up is, is raise upare the initials that she's come
together to represent her corevalues.
And so rather than kind oftrying to take some of that
thunder away, I'm gonna cut tothe clip real quick so she can
kind of explain it in her ownwords and then I'll kind of give

(45:25):
you guys how that can work inyour business and how you can
take what she's giving you thereand apply it.

James Blain (45:31):
What exactly is raise up and where did that come
from?

Athena Grimm (45:35):
So raise up is my core values.
They're Charlie's core valuesand it's responsibility,
accountability, integrity,service engagement,
understanding and perseverance.
And it's basically the filterthat we run.
Most of the decisions through,like of course we don't run the

(45:55):
lunch decision through the raiseup core values, but majority of
the decisions that we make here,that's what we're running it
through and.
I, I tell the team like,accountability is how we love
each other because we're keepingeach other in this space of
checking up and follow through.
And the engagement.

(46:16):
You can't do anything unlessyou're like fully engaged in
what's happening.
If you're got one foot in thedoor and one foot out the door,
how can you really show and showup and like bring your full
potential?
Right?
And the understanding piece is,it's like.
Jump, jumping to conclusions canbe like our worst enemy.
And so it's like coming withthis heart of like seeking to

(46:37):
understand what's happening,like really from this, this
curiosity place and not thisplace of what the f were you
thinking?
Right.
And then the perseverance pieceis about sometimes it can get
challenging and we have tounderstand what those gifts are
that we're being, that are beingpresented to us within this

(47:00):
challenge.
It's not about, oh, this is acrappy season.
This is a crappy time and we'rejust gonna white knuckle it
through.
That's not what this is a, aboutputting up with like people
treating you bad or, uh,anything like that.
It's more like being able to.
I, I think a good analogy wouldbe doing a cold plunge.

(47:20):
Like it's not s it's not fun.
You've gotta persevere to stayin that cold plunge for like
three minutes or more.
That is the most Alaska thingyou could have picked, by the
way.
I love it, but it's true.
Like absolutely.
If you are willing to perseverethrough that little bit of
discomfort, then it can bewonderful results from your

(47:40):
body.
And for, for your wellbeing.
And so that's really more whatthe perseverance piece is about.
And ultimately when you think ofthe words raise up, it's like,
it is a play on words becauseyes, the core values spell all
of those things, but raisingpeople up is really what we're
doing.
We're raising ourselves, we'reraising the community and the

(48:02):
collective of the world just bybeing here with this mindset.
As soon as you can get clearabout what you wanna be about
and really put some inintentionality around that, you
will start to set the trajectoryto that space.
And so if you think you don'thave time to like get clear

(48:23):
about what you wanna be about oryou don't have time to
understand what values resonatewith you, like you don't have
time not to do that because.
Just like with any circumstanceas you start to build your
organization, if you don't, ifyou don't have it clear, then
the environment around you willmake the decision for you.

(48:45):
Absolutely, and I, I thinkyou've hit on something really
important, although you've doneit indirectly, and I think that
what a lot of people don'trealize is the tone is really
set top down.
If you were to come in, right?
Going back to the example fromyour kids, think about it.
Obviously we've got lots ofbusiness owners that listen to

(49:05):
this, but hopefully a lot of'emhave had that chance to work
from someone else.
Imagine what happens if yourboss comes in, how's your
morning?
It's god awful.
I'm having a horrible day.
Everything's gone wrong.
I am hiding under my desk if Iwork for you.
You know, and my thing is.
It's interesting how much, youknow, I, I grew up in call
centers and smile and dialwasn't just a joke.

(49:27):
It was, you could literallychange the way you interact, the
way you feel by how you'reoutwardly presenting it.
So if you come in in that badmood and you let that bad mood
out, it's gonna affect how youact.
It's gonna affect everyonearound you.
And so I think that integritypiece is such a wonderful way to
think about it.

(49:47):
Most people think aboutintegrity, it's, well, if I
found a wallet, would I returnit?
And I think you've really takenit to an aspect that brings it
into the realm of leadership andgrowth in a way that I don't
think a lot of people thinkabout it.
Well, you know, you have to, ifyou're standing integrity and
you're being your authentic selfin that moment, maybe your

(50:10):
authentic self is a thief.
I don't know, I can tell youthat mine is not Mine comes from
a place of love and respect andand helping, right, and being
part of a community.
And I think that truly when weall face inward.
We all have this space uh, thislike loving place.

(50:32):
And you have to decide, uh, inthis moment, am I gonna be am I
gonna be that person or not?
That's it.
Yeah.
And that's what the integritypiece is about, is it's like, am
I gonna show up as my authenticself or am I gonna show up as
what so and so thinks I shouldbe doing right now?

(50:53):
I.

James Blain (50:53):
So one of the biggest things that comes out
when she starts talking aboutraise up, and this is something
that I'm very, very big on, isthat when it comes to training,
when it comes to setting thingsup, when it comes to operations,
when it comes to your company, alot of people get caught up in
the actual training, how you dothe thing.

(51:16):
The one thing that I've learned,and I was lucky enough to
experience this in my last evercorporate job, was that the
owners and the management andthe individuals that are truly
focused on developing people, onmaking their people the best
version of themselves they canbe on making them better

(51:37):
overall, are the ones that tendto get the best results.
Because here's the thing,there's this beautiful quote,
right?
And it, it's from Jim Rohn andhe talks about how we all kind
of think about, uh, you know,I'll take care of you, you take
care of me, right?
That's probably not the rightway to think about it.
It's how about I take care of mefor you?

(51:59):
You take care of you for me,because think about it.
If you can be a better father, abetter brother, a better sister,
a better mother, a betterperson, isn't that gonna make
you also a better coworker, abetter boss, a better employee,
a better whatever role you'rein, you know, if you are working

(52:20):
on yourself.
You're working on trying tobecome the best you can be.
Isn't that gonna be the best wayto do it?
And then if you're able to workon yourself and make yourself
better, and you make it a focuson trying to help everyone
around you work on themselvesand be better with themselves,
isn't that gonna make everyonebetter?
In turn?
So what I love that Athena talksabout is you're kind of using

(52:44):
your values, you're using yourmission, you're using kind of
your core principles that youset here.
As a filter that you're runningdecisions through?
Absolutely would be remiss if Ididn't say that.
I love the fact she calls out.
You might not run lunch throughthat, but she brings up this key
point because we see this happena lot.

(53:05):
And I see it happen at a moregranular level.
I see people that will take andput company policies in place,
and the company policy becomesthis piece of paper that we have
so that when someone doessomething that doesn't line up
with what they're supposed to bedoing, we can be like, oh, well
we had a policy against that.
When you should be settingthings up by saying, these are

(53:26):
our core values, these are whowe are, this is our culture.
This is the tone.
This is who we want to be.
We're then gonna come back andwe're gonna put policies in
place that reflect that.
We're gonna create policies wecan live with, policies that
make sense with who we want tobe as a company, what we wanna
do as a company.
We then let that filter down.

(53:47):
We're then gonna train, we'rethen gonna teach, we're then
gonna develop people to be thetypes of people that we want
there.
And so you end up creating thisculture fit that allows you to
develop and build out your dreamcompany.
So I think all of these piecesthat we've talked about that
have come up over and over haveto fall into place.

(54:10):
You have to have every singleone of these, but I don't think
there's a one size fits all.
So I think if there's anythingthat can be learned from the
guests so far, I think there's acouple things.
One, mentorship, uh, we didn'ttalk about that in any of the
clips, but I can tell you rightnow, it comes up.
Over and over again on thisshow.

(54:32):
The second is developingyourself and developing your
people.
That's why I wanted to end withAthena's clip here, because
ultimately from Bruce toCharlie, to Tom, to Michelle, to
Tiffany, to every single clipthat we've looked at here, all
of these have one thing incommon and that they're all
trying to develop.

(54:52):
They're all trying to put ittogether.
Because ultimately the brand ofyour company, who your company
actually is, is gonna come downto how do I develop people?
How do those people go out andserve my passengers and my
customers, and how do they feel?
What experience do they have?
How do they feel about me as acompany?

(55:12):
Your ability to then be able tohave them have that same type of
consistent.
Great experience every singletime is what's going to actually
be your brand.
You don't want them to thinkabout your brand as a set of
colors.
You don't want'em to think aboutyour brand as a logo.
You want them to think aboutyour brand is the feeling they

(55:34):
get when they get out of thevehicle the way they feel about
you.
And you wanna make sure thatevery time they have an
interaction with your brand,whether it's through your
website.
Whether it's through a vehicle,whether it's through interacting
with someone from your country,it doesn't matter.
All of that needs to be throughthat lens of giving them that
same consistent feeling, thatsame consistent experience every

(55:57):
single time.
And so when I try to look attraining, when I try to explain
this to people, I tell'em, yourtraining has to start at that
higher level.
You have to be intentional aboutwhat you do.
Because I can give you the stepby step.
I can walk you through exactlyhow you're going to drive
safely.
I can walk you through exactlywhat are the steps of customer

(56:20):
service.
But what I can't do is I can'ttell you what your company
culture is.
I can't tell you the exact wayyou want your pastors to feel,
or how you're trying to bedifferent and unique and what
makes you you.
You have to figure that out sothat we can then apply that
through your company.
Then allow that to ultimatelyshine through.

(56:43):
So again, I'm hoping that youguys have found this kind of
neat recap and found it useful.
As always, if you will like,subscribe, comment, share,
anything you can do to let usknow how we're doing in the
feedback is more thanappreciated.
And most importantly, I.
Tell us what you want to learnmore about, what you want to
hear about.

(57:03):
Tell us the struggles thatyou're having, what are the
things that are important to youand your company?
And I will look forward tohopefully seeing you guys again
on another episode of the GroundTransportation Podcast.
Thanks.
Bye-bye.
Thank you for listening to theground transportation podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,please remember to subscribe to

(57:23):
the show on apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
For more information about PAXtraining and to contact James,
go to PAX training.com.
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.