Join Shawn Priddy, Chief Operations Officer of Great Plains Kubota, as he delves into the transformative impact of implementing LifePulse in their organization. Discover how this strategic initiative has led to a significant increase in time efficiency and productivity, with an expected 15-20% boost. Shawn highlights the importance of follow-through and accountability among leaders and the positive outcomes of the optimization overhaul workshop, which has reduced excuses and revealed employees' growth potential.
Great Plains Kubota is dedicated to developing leaders who are deeply connected to their communities and committed to both personal and professional growth. Employees at Great Plains Kubota feel supported and empowered to manage their roles within the company's vision without the pressure of micromanagement. In this insightful conversation, Shawn discusses the significance of setting clear expectations and progress markers over a 6-12 month period to foster employee empowerment.
Discover the key qualities Shawn looks for when hiring, such as a strong work ethic and a proven track record of responsibility, and why he believes these traits are more indicative of success than generational stereotypes. Learn how Great Plains Kubota's Taproot program cultivates a culture of giving back, and how caring for employees as individuals, especially during major life events, enhances productivity and loyalty. This episode is packed with valuable insights into the importance of investing in employees' personal growth and well-being for the long-term success of both individuals and the company.
Keywords:
Shawn Priddy, Great Plains Kubota, LifePulse, time efficiency, productivity, follow-through, accountability, leadership, community, empowerment, progress markers, hiring, work ethic, employee care, personal growth, Taproot program, community involvement, Business, Leadership, Productivity, Employee Development, Organizational Culture, Community Engagement
Sound Bites:
"Our biggest ROI is just around time."
"We're expecting to get a 20% increase in time efficiency going forward through the implementation of LifePulse into our entire organization."
"We're going to focus on the movement, not the valleys."
"Lay out the markers, lay out the expectations, but lay them out over a 180-day, six-month to 12-month time period."
"All of those, did they work their way through college? Did they have a job in high school? What's their attitude toward days off and vacation? Everything revolves around work ethic, and that aligns with who we want to be."
"We want them to be able to address all those life situations, no matter which level of employee they are."
Time Stamps:
00:00 - Introduction and Background
01:18 - ROI and Impact of LifePulse
08:11 - Decreasing Excuses and Increasing Accountability
09:23 - Decreasing Complaints and Burnout
28:15 - Empowering Employees through Clear Expectations and Progress Markers
29:26 - Hiring for Work Ethic and Responsibility
34:19 - Caring for Employees as Individuals
37:59 - Investing in Personal Growth and Well-being
45:24 - Fostering a Culture of Giving Back
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
So just interviewing you as a client, andthen we're going to interview for the
podcast.
Yes, you're a client, but not as a client.
Make sense?
Awesome.
So introduce yourself.
Who are you?
What you all do?
Your business's name?
What you focus on?
Just so there's a quick intro on who youare.
Sean Pretty, official title is ChiefOperations Officer of Great Plains Kubota.
(00:27):
Not big on titles, prefer to say that Iwork with people.
So I get to work with lots of excellentpeople across basically the western half
of Oklahoma.
And we provide equipment solutions topeople primarily in the energy space, the
livestock ag space, and the production agspace.
(00:50):
So lots of parts, service and equipment tohelp feed the people that ultimately feed
all of us.
Cool.
What would you say are some of the ROIs,right?
We came in to do our optimizationoverhaul.
Once we came in, gave you all theinformation, what would you say is the
biggest ROI or impact when it comes toincrease in revenue, retention, profit,
(01:15):
culture?
So definitely around culture and theprofit one's a little bit less direct to
measure, but.
So we're at the primary level ofintroducing life poles to our upper
management.
We've seen an ROI there in the fact ofthey're able to better organize their week
(01:36):
and more work accomplished in a weekbecause they're less bogged down on some
of the tasks that aren't quite asimportant to them.
And then we're now in the stages ofimplementing all of those things within
kind of the entire organization.
so that as people come to us and say, why,I don't have enough time, I've got too
many emails, I can't get enough done.
(01:56):
Well, we've removed a lot of thoseexcuses.
They've got a strong focus for the week.
So our biggest ROI is just around time.
So how would you calculate that?
We talked about this in the past.
It's one of the hardest things for me todo is so a percentage wise, if you were to
say, okay, as we're implementing LifePulsethroughout the whole company or through
(02:16):
management, what percentage increase wouldyou expect to see when it comes to time or
production?
If you had to, again, it's almost you'remaking this number up to an extent.
We don't have true data, but what wouldyou say would be if you implemented
everything?
If we implemented everything, I'm going toexpect from a time perspective that we
would probably get somewhere between a 15and 20 % return on investment.
(02:40):
People are people.
You're never going to get them perfect.
But if they're just primarily having afocus for the week and then being able to
point them back to, OK, well, what's theprimary task?
What's the biggest objects?
And then in addition is, hey, not only atwork, but in your personal life as well,
let's...
Let's get those biggest objects for theweek and the focus knocked off the list.
(03:04):
Gotcha.
So you're saying using what you got fromlife polls to this point, you would be
expecting to get a 20 % increase inproductivity across the board.
Could you say that for me?
Based on what we've experienced fromLivePulse up to this point, we're
(03:24):
expecting to get a 20 % increase on timeefficiency going forward through the
implementation of LivePulse into ourentire organization.
What about when it comes to like the, wetalk about these increases, increase in
retention, increase in profits.
Again, that's a little tough.
We're still so new into that's going to belike a year to year reality.
(03:47):
Increase in performance.
We've talked about increase in followthrough and accountability.
Have you noticed an increase in followthrough and accountability?
Where we've noticed the increase in thoseis like a commitment to each other with
some of our core values being worked at,they service to others, but it's allowed
the senior management group to say, hey,based on those focus, based on sharing
(04:11):
some of our kind of proverbs for the weekor whatever else, like one of our
commitment was for 30 days, we're gonnamake a commitment to serve each other.
And we were doing it through the LifePulse application.
Got you.
So you're saying through the Life Pulseprogram that you're seeing follow through
increase amongst the leaders.
(04:32):
Could you put a number on that in someway, shape or form or?
like based on the number of upset phonecalls I get.
No kidding.
I mean, it's so hard met, like, and again,you get it because you understand, you see
it.
(04:52):
You see it, you get it.
But I want to be able to articulate,there's a way to quantify this stuff.
But I think a lot of times we sit back andwe're like, it's just better.
Well, how much better is it?
Right?
Like follow through rate after using lifepoles is what percent better now than it
was prior to us coming in.
Well, and probably the best way for us toactually gauge it is gonna be just among
(05:17):
satisfaction from our management.
So probably going forward, we need to dolike a baseline survey that just speaks to
interaction around.
speaks to interaction around employee toemployee and then we can kind of
continually from a cultural integritystandpoint send that survey out and see be
(05:41):
able to exactly measure it.
With the whole purpose there is we wantour employees especially our support group
being responsive to each other.
Got you.
All right.
So let's talk about the optimizationoverhaul workshop.
That's actually the thing that we want todo with every client before we come in to
do something extra.
Right.
I think that's the easiest way to get afull understanding.
We did it with you guys.
All right.
We're going to do this at this lower rateover here because we like you.
(06:03):
We want to work with you.
What would you say was, you know, and ifyou could talk in terms of the
optimization overhaul workshop, if youremember to, but what would you say was
the biggest impact right away after we didthat one day workshop?
Probably two things is it reduced thementality of excuses.
(06:25):
So even as, because specifically I wasable to speak to a couple of employees
about, hey, the day is going to havepotholes.
Let's not stay in the potholes.
Let's focus on the continuous climb.
So really creating that language around,we're going to focus on.
the movement not the valleys So that wasone of the big areas then in addition to
(06:50):
that the other big area where you know, wesaw increase was a Lot of them understood
that they're they weren't like trying toincrease their capacity They were just
satisfied with where they were and theylearned not only on the external front,
but the internal front They were capableof a lot more.
(07:12):
They just
had to get their mind into the right placeto be able to embrace it.
Got you.
So optimization overhaul, when you hearthat concept, if you could just talk me
through using the word optimizationoverhaul of just like what that did for
your people when we did that workshop withyou.
So primarily focused around the wordoptimization is a lot of people are not
(07:34):
optimizing in both their external andinternal capacities.
And by grasping the knowledge of just howlife is in general, some of the personal
defeats that we accept, just through thatprocess, we were able to optimize the
ability to speak to it and start toovercome.
(07:56):
a lot of the things that hold us back on aday -to -day basis in our business.
Cool.
We talked about productivity.
So let's talk about some of thesedecreases real quick and then we'll get
into the actual full podcast.
Have you noticed any decrease in excuses?
I've noticed a decrease in the ability to,so probably not a decrease in the excuses.
(08:19):
There's been a decrease in, or there'sbeen an increase in our ability to not
allow the excuses.
So from teammate to teammate, it's like,yeah, I understand.
Or we may be in the, but here's how we'regoing to cope with it because we've now
got some of these tools to be able tofocus.
(08:40):
Gotcha, so because your team is equippedto be able to handle this situation when
an excuse is given, it's addressed versusjust accepted.
Can you give me a percentage of change inthat?
the percentage of change in time isprobably addressed as probably 50 % now.
you know, it's gone up drastically around,just increase in the expectations among
(09:05):
the team.
Gotcha.
So you're saying 50 % of the excuses noware dealt with by the team before they're
just accepted in the past.
Yes.
Cool.
How about complaints?
How about employee complaints?
All those fun emails that you get, havethey gone up or down or stayed the same?
From the upper management, it's definitelygone down.
(09:27):
I would say on a percentage piece,probably 25%.
It's not something we dealt with with ahuge amount anyway, but just from a, maybe
some of the, we refer to a lot of thingsas murmuring and the murmuring has
(09:48):
definitely decreased among the group.
an issue.
We came in, did our one day.
That was a big point we were trying to hitwith.
What's happened with burnout since we'vecome in with the optimization overhaul?
The biggest thing that's happened likethrough our last round of evaluations is
there's been three store managers thatI've been able to tell them, hey, for the
(10:11):
next quarter, you're gonna focus on theinternal more than the external.
So, and we now, you know, based on theoptimization overhaul, we understand what
that internal means.
Not to say we're gonna let the externalfade away, but on their life poles,
it's...
their focus for the next three months isgoing to be around the internal aspect of
(10:34):
getting the right balance.
What would you say is a decrease inburnout you're experiencing in the short
time we've done this?
Hmm.
You mean from a percentage perspective or?
Yeah, to the best you can put it inmembers.
Say that again, sorry.
30%.
And in addition, not only has it just beena decrease in burnout, but there's been an
(10:59):
understanding of the increase in capacityso that they're not looking at things in
terms of burnout.
It's that, hey, I can do more burnouts.
If I...
give into that societal norm, well thenyeah, I can experience burnout or I can
push myself to another level if I learn tocondition myself that way.
(11:22):
That's good.
How about decreasing conflict amongstemployees?
What have you seen?
That one's probably a little bit harder totalk to just because I don't deal with
that quite as much.
I know that they have been more direct ineven through our evaluations, through the
(11:42):
conversations with the employees, there'sprobably a decrease in conflict just
because the management is now more willingand quicker to address any conflict.
Good.
Decrease in work -life balance issues andcomplaints.
Has that changed now that they've beenequipped with life bolts?
The work -life balance, I mean, kind of wealready spoke to that a little bit in that
(12:08):
we're coming off of, we're kind of comingoff of our less busy time moving into our
busy time.
So that hasn't really changed.
This is the time where we really ramp up.
But yeah, on complaints, the complaintspiece has decreased.
Cool.
(12:29):
Awesome.
Anything else you want to add?
I know that was a little strange to try topiece all that together for you, but I
think you did a great job to the best ofour ability.
The biggest, we speak a lot to as we gothrough different projects, different
activities, all those type things is wespeak a lot to it, being able to have a
(12:49):
language.
So a lot of times the reason people areanxious, they have anxiety, they're not
able to deal with things, all of thosetype elements is they don't have a
language to be able to speak to the realissues that they're dealing with.
And that language is being able toidentify the issue, being able to speak to
it.
And Life Pulse has given us that languageto be able to speak to the four different
(13:16):
aspects of what we want our people to haveas a healthy life.
Good.
Good deal.
Appreciate that very much.
And again, we'll have these calls kind ofregularly just to track what's happening
and make sure you guys are getting whatyou need.
Not just, hey, here's why we're so good,but is this stuff actually working?
And then I want to jump into thesequestions with you and get into why
(13:41):
working for you guys is so good.
So, Kubuda is how you pronounce the brand,correct?
Kuboda.
Good, I'm glad you said that.
And then do you go, a lot of your peoplejust call you great planes.
Is that, can we just go off of greatplanes or do you want to go off Kubota?
No, just go off of Great Plains, becausethe way to think of it is like at your
(14:02):
local car dealership, it might be, youknow, Bob Moore Ford.
Well, Kubota is the brand of tractors wesell, but we are Great Plains.
Perfect, all right.
So we're just gonna roll right into thisand I'll edit that first part out, right?
So we'll start this here.
We'll start off with a quick intro of whoare you, why you're interesting, all that
(14:24):
cool stuff.
Any questions you have for me as far asthe podcast?
So will this one be, tell me what kind ofinteraction between our culture versus
discussions around life, polls, just kindof, okay.
Outside of you wanting to, like if youfeel it's necessary, which I honestly, I
(14:49):
try to stay, I don't want to say I try tostay away from it, right?
Whatever comes out, I want you to be ashonest as you want to be.
But I, this is, this is not, I guess thebest way is this is to promote you, not
me.
In promoting you, I get to be put with youas a great company to work with and work
for, and I get to interview.
(15:10):
Does that make sense?
So this is much more about you than aboutme.
That's why we asked those first fewquestions.
So like if life pulse doesn't come up atall, that's great.
That's not the point of this.
Now it might come up just in the way, Imean, you and I just talk and it's going
to go whichever way it goes.
But like I said, we'll be done by the topof the hour anyway.
So all I want you to do is let me guidethe conversation and I'm going to read
(15:32):
quotes from you from these answers.
And then you're going to explain to me whyyou guys did that.
What was the thought process behind thestrategy?
When you hear that, what does that makeyou feel?
How do you recognize all that good stuff?
Sound good?
And I'm gonna have you introduce yourselfagain as we start this.
(15:52):
Ready?
Cool.
I'm gonna count down to three and thenwe'll go.
Three, two, one.
All right, everybody.
Welcome back to Best People, Best Place.
I am so excited.
to have Sean pretty on this show.
Sean is someone I met months ago and justhis love for people and his desire to
(16:16):
serve others is something that we need tounderstand more.
So when I asked Sean to be on thispodcast, he was absolutely, he was ready
to get on the next day.
And the thing I love most about Sean is myinteraction with him, right?
So I'm slightly biased, but Sean, when wewent through these surveys,
I literally did a keynote this morningbefore we had this conversation and I used
(16:40):
multiple of the examples from me reviewingwhat we're going to talk about right now
as examples of what good companies do.
So like I've already used your informationand one in particular and I'll bring it up
when I show you.
So Sean, I appreciate you being here.
Sean walk us through who are you, who'sGreat Plains, what do you do and why are
you on this show?
(17:01):
So Sean, pretty why I'm on this show isran into Matt at 94X was looking for a
solution to, we're trying to affect ourpeople not only just in their business
lives, we wanna affect people in theirpersonal lives.
We believe in spiritual growth, life pulsethat Matt does was, it looked like it
(17:21):
might be a fit for us, said, hey, wannastart a conversation.
So that's why I'm here and was, it's.
It's proven to be more than what Iexpected.
So in addition, Great Plains Kubota, weare a equipment provider in Western
Oklahoma primarily.
(17:43):
Service industries such as energy,livestock ag, service, rural livestock
customers, just all those differentindustries that ultimately help feed and,
you know,
feed not only the United States, but helpto give energy to the United States as
well.
My position or title is Chief OperationsOfficer.
(18:05):
I'm not big on titles.
I prefer to say that I work with peoplethat don't work for me.
So I try to keep my title off of emailstrings and everything else.
But I'm originally founded by the Clarkfamily out of southern Oklahoma, very
rural family, believes in strong workethic.
(18:25):
So that's a little bit about Great Plains,Kubota and some of our, a little bit of
our mission.
All right, so we are going to go throughthis, Sean.
You haven't seen any of these answers.
Those who have listened to the show in thepast, you understand.
All of the answers we're going to get areanonymously sent in by Sean's employees.
Sean, give us a little idea how big youguys are.
(18:48):
I know you guys have some fun stuffhappening, but how big of an organization
do you guys oversee?
How many individuals?
Yeah, so we measure things not only, wetalk about, we like to refer to them, not
refer to them, but a lot of times we'lltalk about souls.
So we're responsible for about 180 souls.
(19:09):
We understand that that extends toprobably around five or 600 family
members.
So it's not just the ones that workdirectly for us, it's the ones who work
indirectly with us and for us as well.
Cover.
probably 20 counties across all of westernOklahoma and the biggest number we measure
(19:31):
today is not rooftops but we measure thatwe're up to probably 17 leaders in our
company so that's the thing that we'rereally after is how do we build leaders
who are going to build more people who canimpact their communities.
And it's so cool hearing you say that.
And again, being able to see it firsthandfor those who are listening that Sean's
(19:54):
passion to build leaders is so true.
And in fact, here's a comment that wasbrought up about, again, we break this up
into three sections.
And the first section is what are youdoing to grow the employee, right?
To actually grow the skill of the personwho's doing the job, almost like the
position versus the person.
This one I love, it says, I get to helpemployees grow and become better in their
(20:15):
area.
I don't get that feeling on Sunday eveningof, no, I got to go to work tomorrow.
I get to come to work here and I love it.
I get paid to help other people grow.
That's from an employee of yours.
That sounds like what you just said, butthe fact that you're able to create that
culture in your people is very rare.
(20:38):
So what have you been able to do thatyou've seen works that creates a culture
where someone who's not you takes what youbasically just said unscripted,
and answers it almost identically.
And they are here doing what you want themto be doing as one of those 17 leaders
growing in your.
So we have an internal program, but thephilosophy behind it is that just over
(21:02):
years of watching companies come,companies go, you watch small towns, some
small towns die off, some small townsremain, you watch different places kind of
flourish or diminish.
Well, the number one goal of us with ouremployees is we want our employees...
(21:22):
to be so strongly rooted in theircommunities from a relationship
standpoint, from a financial standpoint,from a community standpoint, that no
matter whether we're there or not, they'realways going to have a future in that
community.
And that's the philosophy behind whatwe're trying to build for our employees is
(21:44):
we want them to be well enough networkedand established to where they're going to
be a part of if they choose to.
they're always going to be a part of theirlocal Oklahoma community.
That's good.
Hey Sean, give me one second.
I realized I got to get the keys fromMaria to go pick up Natalie.
Let me go up.
Give me two seconds real quick.
Hold on one sec.
(24:02):
Sorry for that, Sean.
One set of keys to the only car that couldfit a wheelchair in it.
And it was, I did drop off before mykeynote.
So sorry for that, but we'll edit thatpretty easily.
So let's keep going.
So one of the things that we got, and thisis a message I love seeing about how you
(24:24):
pour into your people and help them dotheir jobs.
It says, as a female in leadership role,I'm supported and lifted up by employees
at all levels.
We partner well, work together to achievegreat things.
It's exciting to be a part of and to workat a place that embraces my skills and
allows me to grow personally andprofessionally.
(24:45):
The company is very good about includingfamily with any company event that we do.
So actually, I read two at the same time.
Hold on.
Let me reintroduce that comment, okay?
Cool.
So here's one that I really loved hearingwhen it comes to how you're pouring into
your people.
As a female in leadership role, I'msupported and lifted up by employees at
(25:06):
all levels.
We partner well and work together toachieve great things.
It's exciting to be part of and to work ata place that embraces my skills and allows
me to grow personally and professionally.
Now here's what I want you to know.
The reason I love this one is again, as afemale in leadership, that doesn't
surprise me in what your company does.
The part that's so powerful about that tome,
(25:28):
is that you embrace their skills andallows them to grow personally and
professionally.
Why is that so?
That's always been something big for you.
And again, you and I have talked about it,but when you hear that other people get
your vision and are experiencing it andare grateful for it, what does that tell
(25:49):
you?
Well, it's probably the thing in life thatgives me the most energy.
And whether it was something that justdeveloped or whether it was something that
had a skill we had to develop is thebiggest thing I've learned around
developing that is that if you will givepeople the ability to understand the
(26:14):
direction, not oversee every little task,sometimes you have to bring them back, you
know,
right or left or whatever else but ifyou'll give them the overall direction and
then allow them to run they will run wayfaster than I mean then you can pull them
along so typically just through allowingthem to see the vision understand it's a
(26:38):
cliche term but the mission vision valueswhere to line up and then if you truly let
them go usually you're the one who'sbehind so
good.
All right, here's another one that gets meexcited.
And they say GP.
This is how a lot of people answer this,right?
So GP meaning great plan for those who arelistening.
(27:01):
GP gives me the opportunity to run my partof the business within the overall vision,
the way I see fit without being secondguessed or micromanaged.
So many people who we talked to.
want to offer this to their employees, butthey don't get out of their employees way.
How would you guide someone who would liketheir employees to feel that way, feel
(27:23):
that sense of ownership and step up inthat sense of ownership and take it
seriously?
How would you guide someone else to helpother people do that?
Short -term pain, long -term gain.
So many times people try to do it, butthen whenever people make a misstep, well,
you grab back ahold of it too quick.
(27:47):
So whenever you lay out like longer termgoals is you have to understand that for
the first 30 to 90 days,
it's not going to look the way you want itto look.
It's going to be painful, and it's goingto be really messed up.
But if you just keep bringing them back onthe path, eventually once you hit that
point of them being able to run and excelon their own, they overcome it pretty
(28:13):
quickly.
But...
The thing I see so many times is peoplesay, well, I want to empower them.
I want to lay out the vision.
Well, lay out the markers, lay out theexpectations, but lay them out over 180
days, six month to 12 month time period.
But as long as you're seeing progress inthe three month mark, the four month mark
(28:37):
is allow the progress to go.
Don't.
Don't fall back into the failures withinthe first 60 days and try to grab a hold
of it again.
That's good.
Now when you guys are hiring employees,what's the pro I know once you bring them
in, you guys just, I mean, you love onthem right away and you pour into them
from day one, right?
(28:58):
What's the process of hiring to make sureyou have the right people put in place?
Well, the process is all of our managersare given interview training.
They understand what to look for.
But the number one element we look for,and it's based around kind of some quirky
(29:18):
questions, but is we look for work ethic.
Is we look for young people that havegrown up and it.
It's not true today, but the type ofperson who had their own paper route
growing up.
Well, all of those, did they work theirway through college?
Did they have a job in high school?
What's their attitude toward days offvacation is everything revolves around
(29:43):
work ethic and that aligns with who wewant to be.
And if we find strong work ethic, then webelieve we have a team that'll work well
with us.
What a great way to understand thecharacter of an individual.
Like, and what I'm seeing with what you'resaying, which I think is why it's so
brilliant is instead of just ask, Hey,what are your thoughts on days off?
(30:08):
What are your thoughts on PTO?
And if they're like, well, I think it'ssomething that I deserve might not be a
great fit culturally for who you guys are.
But if it's something that's like, man,I'm grateful for any time I get off to be
with my family, it gives them a way toanswer a question.
that will tell you a lot about who it is.
Now it doesn't mean you need to say no topeople based on the answer, but you know
(30:31):
what you're dealing with.
And I think in today's world, we putpeople in categories a lot when we go to
hire based on like, all right, well, it'sa millennial, it's a boomer, it's a Gen Z,
it's what's coming next.
I mean, but in reality, it's the work Ithink you're looking for.
So, hey, what are your thoughts onovertime?
Well, if the job's gotta get done, it'sgotta get done.
That's a great answer.
That's the mindset I want.
(30:52):
It doesn't mean you're going to do overtime.
It doesn't mean we're going to force you,but man, that is a nugget, if I've ever
heard one, on how people can pre -screenfor work ethic and grit and tenacity.
Like the fact that, hey, what'd you dothrough school?
Well, I was in a fraternity or sorority.
That's it.
(31:12):
Like, did you serve in a position?
Did you do anything while you were incollege?
Did you work your way through it?
Did you have to find your...
man, we couldn't afford it.
So I had to go find my own financial aid.
And thankfully I was able to apply and getapproved to get school paid for it.
Like that's what you want to hear.
I think that's brilliant because you don'thave a paper route anymore.
And, and the jobs people have at thispoint and moving forward, it's going to be
(31:39):
more like, Hey, when I was 14, I startedflipping products on Facebook or a social
media marketplace.
That's what you want to see.
That is,
We're going to do a whole other topic onthat.
That's a great way that people should beadding to their intake when they're
actually screening people is simplequestions about topics with open -ended
(32:02):
answers and let them just talk.
that and you talk about the differentcategories the Gen Z or the Millennials or
whatever else and here's where the fallacyis the we have five managers that are like
high -level managers that are under theage of 27 and they're some of my hardest
workers yeah yeah
(32:27):
think the problem is, is the millennialconcept has blended where the generations
all complain about the same stuff at thispoint.
Like you can't go off of, well, they grewup at this time, so therefore they act
this way.
And if you do, you're missing out onamazing, new, innovative talent because
you put them in a category.
That's what I love.
And I would, we could do a whole episodeon like, what are some of these quirky
(32:48):
questions?
Because...
You just, hey, here's a topic.
Tell me what your thoughts are on this andget as creative as you want because what
you really are looking for is not theanswer.
It's the way they answer.
It's their mindset, how they think aboutthese topics.
What do you think about the color purple?
And I think it's boring.
Okay, cool.
Or can they get that and get abstract andhave a really interesting conversation,
(33:10):
right?
If you're hiring a salesperson, givingthem some ways, hey, if you had to have a
conversation about an orange, what wouldyou talk about?
Like those are really cool, simple ways.
to get an idea.
I love it.
Anyway, I'll get distracted.
I got to get back on what your peoplesaid.
That is a brilliant thing to add.
If you're listening, take that and runwith that.
So we talked about how you grow yourpeople.
You guys train them, what you guys teach.
(33:32):
There is a technical side to it that isnot terribly complicated.
And once you train that, you look for thequality person.
But let's talk about the person, how youpour into the people, how you care for the
person, not the position this time.
One of the things somebody said to me is,
has said GP was available and willing tohelp me at my hardest time.
(33:52):
They supported me and my family and welost my wife and the mother of my
children.
That is not a normal thing for someone toput when it comes to how do they support
you as a person.
I don't need the details of thisindividual, right?
But, but why is that such an easy decisionfor you guys?
And, and I know it probably feels good tohear it, but it's also, I know it's just
(34:15):
what you would do.
Like you wouldn't do it any other way.
How would you teach someone else toimplement that culture in their workforce?
And a lot of people associate that likewith being, being soft or being a great
listener or, you know, be an.
(34:37):
We view it more as the action versus, youknow, we say a lot, I see better than I
hear.
I say a lot, I see better than I hear is alot of people talk about how much they
care for their people whenever it comes tois, if we hear of an employee that's
having a marriage issue, we work hard toget them into some type of counseling or
(34:58):
situation to improve it.
If they need some time off to be able todeal with it is we want them to be able to
address all those life situations.
If they're...
It doesn't matter which level of employeethey are.
We want them all, like if there's a deathor anything else, we want them to be able
to love, embrace all those type things.
(35:20):
And it's cliche to say, you know, we wantthem to, but one of the ways that we
facilitate it is we, cause we don't alwaysknow everything that's going on.
So we work hard to have that network tosay,
Hey, if you hear of something, shoot me atext, let me know.
We work hard to make sure that we haveeverybody's cell phone number in the
(35:43):
company so that even me, whether it's atechnician, a yard hand, or whatever else,
there's a lot of them that I textindividually, call individually, and it's
amazing the kind of response that you getfrom all that.
So it's...
not only from like an internal chaplainperspective, but we truly want to be a
(36:04):
pastor or a minister in each one of thosepeople's lives.
All right, so you jumped into what Iwanted to surprise you with, right?
And you didn't even mean to.
And this was something that was so eyecatching that my team, when they sent over
this, they were like, you got to see this.
Six separate times, individuals talkedabout the marriage support that you offer.
Remind me, you guys sell big industrialequipment.
(36:28):
Why in the world are you sending people tomarriage retreats is what it says.
It says, hey, I got to participate in amarriage retreat.
I got marriage counseling.
I got people coming in, teaching me how tobe a better spouse, financial life.
Like, let's just talk about the marriagereal quick.
Why in the world are you helping youremployees in their marriage when the goal
(36:49):
is to sell tractors?
Well, I mean, I'd like to say that it'sall just caring for people, but there's
also a financial benefit to it as well.
So, I mean, it's both sides of it, but,you know, we...
The best way to keep people is, not onlykeep people, but grow people is to invest
(37:11):
in them.
Well, you don't invest in peoplefinancially.
I don't remember whether it's you orsomebody else that said, it was one of our
financial advisors at one of our meetingsis the majority of time when you give
people a pay raise, all you do is increasetheir level of poverty.
So we can continue to give people raisesor even, you know,
(37:34):
time off, but whenever you make their lifebetter, whenever you make their
interaction with their kids better,whenever you reduce their anxiety by being
able to manage their money better, everyplace that you impact one of those things,
there's a ton of things that my mentorshave taught me.
Well, our goal as a company is to pass allthose things that all of us as leadership
(37:56):
has been taught off to all of ouremployees.
And at that point, we just improve theirlives.
And I think it's interesting as you'resaying, and I'm thinking there's a one
-time financial investment when you givethe financial piece and there's a one
-time reception and that's about it.
It's forgotten very quickly versus whenyou pass along and actually help someone
(38:17):
in their life, personal life, it's asimilar one -time investment, but the
result is forever.
And I mean that forever, meaning that theperson doesn't forget it.
Now, will they implement it perfectly?
No, but when you bring in a program likethe programs you guys bring in, Life Pulse
being one of them, but the financial, whatyou guys do with Taproot, which I want to
get into in a second.
(38:37):
But that whole concept, the ROI isimmeasurable because it's forever.
You save somebody's marriage.
What was the stat?
You shared a stat with me about major lifeevents.
Walk me through that whole thing.
I didn't even know, and now I use it whenI'm talking to other people.
(38:59):
Walk me through it.
So major life events, a bankruptcy, adivorce, a death, I mean, some of them are
avoidable, some of them aren't.
But a major life event, the statisticsI've seen range from 35 ,000 to 85 ,000 in
decrease in productivity for an employeewhenever they're going through a major
life event.
So basically, any time an employeeexperiences a major life event,
(39:25):
I'm not talking about the cost of thecompany, it's their production.
Because some of those life events last twoweeks, six weeks, some of them last two
years.
And any time their mind's distracted onthat major life event, they're not being
productive for the company.
And I think that's the reason why I alwaysuse the line, you either invest in them
(39:47):
now or you invest forever.
But that's what you guys are doing.
If you're able to send a marriage to amarriage counselor, let's say I'm just
saying on the high side, nicest one youcan send it to for $10 ,000.
That individual saving that marriage,staying with the company, staying with you
guys for 10 more years at an effectivelevel for those 10 years.
That is an astronomical ROI.
for a very expensive retreat.
(40:08):
And I'm not saying that retreat was that.
I wanted to go as high as we could so itwas noticeably out there.
But when it comes down to that short -termdollar -to -dollar investment, if you can
stop that individual from leaving a monthearly, you can stop that individual from
making a massive mistake because they'rethinking about this, that, or another.
For whatever reason, we've stoppedthinking about that because we've stopped
(40:29):
thinking about the human.
How would you guide people to remindthemselves,
that there's humans here we're workingwith, not just employees.
Well, and one of the biggest ways that wetalk about or I try to talk to people
about it is, so a lot of people, part ofwhat makes us lean toward, you know,
(40:55):
instead of looking at it as humans, isactually all the laws.
I mean, what makes us dehumanize people istrying to meet all the legal standards,
the laws, the safety standards.
Because in trying to meet all thosestandards, you see the standards, you
don't see the people.
That is good.
(41:16):
So if you focus on sending people homeevery night in a way that they can go be
with their families, if you focus onmaking sure that they're taken care of,
fed, all those type things, well, youautomatically meet all the standards.
And.
on the wall, there's a high likelihoodyou'll miss.
(41:37):
If you focus on the person, the byproductis the walls get hit.
And that's what good laws do.
Now there's bad laws.
We can't talk on those, right?
That's not the point of this podcast.
But I think it's a really interestingreality of a lot of times we're focusing
on all the right things because we're toldwe have to focus on this.
And because of that, we're damaging theperson that those walls are supposed to be
(42:01):
protected.
Correct.
we're not saying disregard the laws, butthe byproduct should be all these laws are
hit because we're sending the person homeand they're excited to go see their
family.
They're excited to come back on Monday,like your people have said.
I think that is so powerful.
And again, in a business with hundreds ofemployees, and again, you're working with
(42:22):
blue collar individuals.
And I don't mean that in a negative,please understand that.
I just mean the fact that these areindividuals who have a very specific skill
set.
and they focus on what they do and they dowhat they do really, really well.
And they're working to likely go live thelife they want to live.
But a lot of people think that everyone'slife is all about work.
(42:43):
How do you avoid, you guys are a fastgrowing company, right?
That's why I love working with you.
We're seeing growth that's crazy with youguys.
How do you avoid individual experiencingburnout, right?
Cause we're working on downplaying theburnout.
but also keeping them at a high enoughclick, right?
We call it optimal performance.
That's our big thing.
How do you keep them optimal at asustainable pace and a fast pace without
(43:03):
burning them out?
How do you guys do that with your team asyou guys are expanding so quickly?
And it's something we're kind of learningand growing at as we're going.
But as we talk about our mission visionvalues, our pledge, taproot, Great Plains
(43:24):
Living, is that, and we're rolling outwith an internal internet page called the
Branding Iron, is we really want people,when we say to understand our culture, is
if,
If people understand where they'rerunning, they'll run as fast as they want
to run.
(43:44):
So, and that's the real goal is that justmaking sure that we have like what is true
North for us and making sure that that'scommunicated as good as possible at all
levels so that whenever we run, a quirkylittle thing that we've started and it's,
it's amazing what kind of true North it'spointed.
(44:08):
is we have some inexpensive toys, toytractors, and we implemented a policy, a
pledge that says every child gets a toy.
So every kid who comes in the dealership,everyone who are outside sells people.
Well, through the joy and the thrill ofseeing that child's reaction of when they
get that toy, and these aren't toys thatare going to last forever.
(44:34):
But seeing that child's reaction is itcreates the energy, the speed, all those
type things in our employees that we'relooking for.
All right, let's talk about Taproot.
And the reason we have to talk aboutTaproot is one of your people brought it
up, how do they pour in?
They said Taproot is unlike anything I'veever seen in any other company I've been
with.
It shows how much the company cares and itshows how much value they see in me,
(44:59):
sometimes even more than I see in myself.
It's something we look forward to andalthough it takes up our time, it is worth
every time we come together as a group.
So I know this is something that you'vebeen developing, you and Lindsay have been
working really hard on this, to hear thatresponse and explain a little bit of what
Taproot is.
(45:20):
What does that show you about thedirection you're taking the company?
Well, the exciting part is whenever youget to bake the cake, it's like, okay,
well, I wonder how these ingredients aregonna work out.
But up to this point, it's producing areally good cake.
(45:41):
And taproot...
You know, as we as we kind of sat down andwe look back and we said, OK, what are the
things that other people gave us that madeus successful?
Not only in business, but in life.
And then we said, how do we take some ofthose things for people who haven't ever
experienced them?
And how do we start to pour into them inthose same type areas?
(46:04):
So the term taproot is we want them to bethe taproot of whether that's Oklahoma
City, Falls Valley, Clinton.
no matter what town they're in orcommunity they're in is we want to develop
people who are the taproot of theircommunity.
Their roots are deep, they'restrengthened, they're strong, and like
(46:25):
I've said before, no matter whether we'rethere or not, they're always going to be
in those communities.
So what are those life skills that mentorsgave us that allow us to pour that into
other people?
That's good.
Now, the third part we talk about is howdo you guys pour into the community?
You've already hit a little bit of this.
But one of the things that I really lovethat somebody told a story, they said,
(46:47):
just today, I got the chance to pick upsome tools from Great Plains and donate it
to a single mom's ministry through mychurch.
I'm currently planning for two differentgroups and organization to serve at the
regional food group.
The reason I love this is not only do youguys give back, but you're empowering a
person to go do this.
How do you get your people to want to giveback in that way and to use you guys as a
(47:13):
vehicle to do so?
So one of the legs of Taproot, excuse me.
There's five different legs.
A lot of people use the term community,but whenever we teach the community aspect
is we take them to a nonprofit mathmatter.
Might have to stop for a bit.
(47:34):
I got a bad tickle.
Do what?
Clear.
You're good.
We can cut it out.
Unless you want us to put this on theretoo, but.
No.
Man, I've had a bad cough and I thought itwouldn't act up, but it is.
You're good.
You're doing a lot of talking.
So that this is my favorite part becausethis is the one thing I do in my world.
(47:57):
I don't know.
I don't have to talk.
I just have to listen.
Do I have time to go grab a mint realquick?
OK.
Cough cough cough
(49:10):
You ready to try again?
Okay.
All right, so you want me to read thatagain and just start from the beginning of
giving back or do you want to start withthe taproot, the content to give them
back?
Let me intro that whole thing back again.
That way it's just an easy cut for me.
Cool.
(49:30):
So one thing that we always ask about ishow does the company give back and do
good?
And you guys, I know you pour into thecommunity of time.
One of the things that was talked about...
was that just today I got the chance topick up some tools, Great Plains is
donating to a single mom's ministry at mychurch.
I'm currently planning two differentgroups of organization to serve at the
(49:51):
regional food group.
One thing I love and what I'd want tounderstand is how do you create a culture
where your people want to do good and theywant to use you as a vehicle to do so, not
abuse your power or take your money, butuse you to actually grow and serve the
people.
Yeah, so there's five legs to Taproot anda lot of people use the term community.
(50:17):
But one of the things, whatever we teachthe community aspect of Taproot is we take
them to a nonprofit and allow them toexperience kids or people who are
suffering, you know, just those differentareas.
But we don't try to limit it to like oneor two.
Like we want to be involved with this asmany as we can.
And we can't give to a lot of them verymuch financially.
(50:40):
So we talk about, we're going to beinvolved in their events.
We're going to give them exposure andwe're going to provide them affordable
equipment for all their projects.
So we want our people touching as manynonprofits, churches, schools, all of
those things as possible.
And we talk about it around the three E's,events, exposure and equipment.
(51:05):
Good.
And then what do you do to get people togo take action?
Once they experience it, they're usuallyhooked.
I got you.
So you show them first and then they get ataste of it.
And I think that's the big thing is Irealized that I was exposed to the concept
of giving at a younger age than mostpeople.
Because of that, myself and Maria, wereally enjoy giving and doing good.
(51:29):
Like that's something we actually like todo.
But I met people who in their older ages,no one ever showed them to do it.
Right.
So in this situation, you're saying whenyou actually walk people to it and show
them what it means to do good and giveback to the community.
You're finding most people want to do itagain.
yeah, over and over.
And another little way that we do it isyou see a lot of like premium auctions in
(51:52):
the FFA world.
Well, majority of businesses are out tobuy the grand champion.
So what we really challenge our people onis we say, Hey, we, we want you to go find
two or three kids whose animals aren'tbeing bid on.
And that's the kids whose animals we wantto buy.
So, yeah.
that you're making a little bit more of aninvestment on that purchase.
(52:16):
That's awesome.
All right.
Well, honestly, Sean, we could talk forhours on this.
Walk me through, how can somebody connectwith you if it's an entrepreneur, business
owner, a leader who's like, Sean, I wantto pick your brains.
I love how you're running your business.
How can they find you?
What's the best way online to get a holdof you?
Best way online is just Facebookobviously.
(52:40):
I mean, I'm not a big LinkedIn person.
Used to be younger in my career, but I'vekind of moved away from it.
Email address is sprit.
So S -P -R -I -D -D -Y at gpcavoda .com.
Do have Instagram, do have Facebook, youknow, just kind of some regular social
media stuff, but email is probably thebest way to connect.
(53:01):
And if someone was looking to find youguys to purchase equipment or to come on
and work with you or look for a job, wherewould they go to do that?
GreatPlainsCaboda .com.
Awesome.
Sean, I appreciate it so much, man.
Thank you for all you do for your people.
We could have gone for days with all theresponses that we got from your employees.
(53:21):
You guys are doing an amazing, amazingthing in an industry that tends to
overlook a lot of their people.
So thank you for that.
Appreciate your time, everybody.
We will see you on the next episode ofBest People, Best Place.
We appreciate your time listening.
And again, share, like, subscribe, allthat stuff we like to do with podcasts.
And we will see you on the next episode.
So just interviewing you as a client, andthen we're going to interview for the
podcast.
Yes, you're a client, but not as a client.
Make sense?
Awesome.
So introduce yourself.
Who are you?
What you all do?
Your business's name?
What you focus on?
Just so there's a quick intro on who youare.
Sean Pretty, official title is ChiefOperations Officer of Great Plains Kubota.
(00:27):
Not big on titles, prefer to say that Iwork with people.
So I get to work with lots of excellentpeople across basically the western half
of Oklahoma.
And we provide equipment solutions topeople primarily in the energy space, the
livestock ag space, and the production agspace.
(00:50):
So lots of parts, service and equipment tohelp feed the people that ultimately feed
all of us.
Cool.
What would you say are some of the ROIs,right?
We came in to do our optimizationoverhaul.
Once we came in, gave you all theinformation, what would you say is the
biggest ROI or impact when it comes toincrease in revenue, retention, profit,
(01:15):
culture?
So definitely around culture and theprofit one's a little bit less direct to
measure, but.
So we're at the primary level ofintroducing life poles to our upper
management.
We've seen an ROI there in the fact ofthey're able to better organize their week
(01:36):
and more work accomplished in a weekbecause they're less bogged down on some
of the tasks that aren't quite asimportant to them.
And then we're now in the stages ofimplementing all of those things within
kind of the entire organization.
so that as people come to us and say, why,I don't have enough time, I've got too
many emails, I can't get enough done.
(01:56):
Well, we've removed a lot of thoseexcuses.
They've got a strong focus for the week.
So our biggest ROI is just around time.
So how would you calculate that?
We talked about this in the past.
It's one of the hardest things for me todo is so a percentage wise, if you were to
say, okay, as we're implementing LifePulsethroughout the whole company or through
(02:16):
management, what percentage increase wouldyou expect to see when it comes to time or
production?
If you had to, again, it's almost you'remaking this number up to an extent.
We don't have true data, but what wouldyou say would be if you implemented
everything?
If we implemented everything, I'm going toexpect from a time perspective that we
would probably get somewhere between a 15and 20 % return on investment.
(02:40):
People are people.
You're never going to get them perfect.
But if they're just primarily having afocus for the week and then being able to
point them back to, OK, well, what's theprimary task?
What's the biggest objects?
And then in addition is, hey, not only atwork, but in your personal life as well,
let's...
Let's get those biggest objects for theweek and the focus knocked off the list.
(03:04):
Gotcha.
So you're saying using what you got fromlife polls to this point, you would be
expecting to get a 20 % increase inproductivity across the board.
Could you say that for me?
Based on what we've experienced fromLivePulse up to this point, we're
(03:24):
expecting to get a 20 % increase on timeefficiency going forward through the
implementation of LivePulse into ourentire organization.
What about when it comes to like the, wetalk about these increases, increase in
retention, increase in profits.
Again, that's a little tough.
We're still so new into that's going to belike a year to year reality.
(03:47):
Increase in performance.
We've talked about increase in followthrough and accountability.
Have you noticed an increase in followthrough and accountability?
Where we've noticed the increase in thoseis like a commitment to each other with
some of our core values being worked at,they service to others, but it's allowed
the senior management group to say, hey,based on those focus, based on sharing
(04:11):
some of our kind of proverbs for the weekor whatever else, like one of our
commitment was for 30 days, we're gonnamake a commitment to serve each other.
And we were doing it through the LifePulse application.
Got you.
So you're saying through the Life Pulseprogram that you're seeing follow through
increase amongst the leaders.
(04:32):
Could you put a number on that in someway, shape or form or?
like based on the number of upset phonecalls I get.
No kidding.
I mean, it's so hard met, like, and again,you get it because you understand, you see
it.
(04:52):
You see it, you get it.
But I want to be able to articulate,there's a way to quantify this stuff.
But I think a lot of times we sit back andwe're like, it's just better.
Well, how much better is it?
Right?
Like follow through rate after using lifepoles is what percent better now than it
was prior to us coming in.
Well, and probably the best way for us toactually gauge it is gonna be just among
(05:17):
satisfaction from our management.
So probably going forward, we need to dolike a baseline survey that just speaks to
interaction around.
speaks to interaction around employee toemployee and then we can kind of
continually from a cultural integritystandpoint send that survey out and see be
(05:41):
able to exactly measure it.
With the whole purpose there is we wantour employees especially our support group
being responsive to each other.
Got you.
All right.
So let's talk about the optimizationoverhaul workshop.
That's actually the thing that we want todo with every client before we come in to
do something extra.
Right.
I think that's the easiest way to get afull understanding.
We did it with you guys.
All right.
We're going to do this at this lower rateover here because we like you.
(06:03):
We want to work with you.
What would you say was, you know, and ifyou could talk in terms of the
optimization overhaul workshop, if youremember to, but what would you say was
the biggest impact right away after we didthat one day workshop?
Probably two things is it reduced thementality of excuses.
(06:25):
So even as, because specifically I wasable to speak to a couple of employees
about, hey, the day is going to havepotholes.
Let's not stay in the potholes.
Let's focus on the continuous climb.
So really creating that language around,we're going to focus on.
the movement not the valleys So that wasone of the big areas then in addition to
(06:50):
that the other big area where you know, wesaw increase was a Lot of them understood
that they're they weren't like trying toincrease their capacity They were just
satisfied with where they were and theylearned not only on the external front,
but the internal front They were capableof a lot more.
(07:12):
They just
had to get their mind into the right placeto be able to embrace it.
Got you.
So optimization overhaul, when you hearthat concept, if you could just talk me
through using the word optimizationoverhaul of just like what that did for
your people when we did that workshop withyou.
So primarily focused around the wordoptimization is a lot of people are not
(07:34):
optimizing in both their external andinternal capacities.
And by grasping the knowledge of just howlife is in general, some of the personal
defeats that we accept, just through thatprocess, we were able to optimize the
ability to speak to it and start toovercome.
(07:56):
a lot of the things that hold us back on aday -to -day basis in our business.
Cool.
We talked about productivity.
So let's talk about some of thesedecreases real quick and then we'll get
into the actual full podcast.
Have you noticed any decrease in excuses?
I've noticed a decrease in the ability to,so probably not a decrease in the excuses.
(08:19):
There's been a decrease in, or there'sbeen an increase in our ability to not
allow the excuses.
So from teammate to teammate, it's like,yeah, I understand.
Or we may be in the, but here's how we'regoing to cope with it because we've now
got some of these tools to be able tofocus.
(08:40):
Gotcha, so because your team is equippedto be able to handle this situation when
an excuse is given, it's addressed versusjust accepted.
Can you give me a percentage of change inthat?
the percentage of change in time isprobably addressed as probably 50 % now.
you know, it's gone up drastically around,just increase in the expectations among
(09:05):
the team.
Gotcha.
So you're saying 50 % of the excuses noware dealt with by the team before they're
just accepted in the past.
Yes.
Cool.
How about complaints?
How about employee complaints?
All those fun emails that you get, havethey gone up or down or stayed the same?
From the upper management, it's definitelygone down.
(09:27):
I would say on a percentage piece,probably 25%.
It's not something we dealt with with ahuge amount anyway, but just from a, maybe
some of the, we refer to a lot of thingsas murmuring and the murmuring has
(09:48):
definitely decreased among the group.
an issue.
We came in, did our one day.
That was a big point we were trying to hitwith.
What's happened with burnout since we'vecome in with the optimization overhaul?
The biggest thing that's happened likethrough our last round of evaluations is
there's been three store managers thatI've been able to tell them, hey, for the
(10:11):
next quarter, you're gonna focus on theinternal more than the external.
So, and we now, you know, based on theoptimization overhaul, we understand what
that internal means.
Not to say we're gonna let the externalfade away, but on their life poles,
it's...
their focus for the next three months isgoing to be around the internal aspect of
(10:34):
getting the right balance.
What would you say is a decrease inburnout you're experiencing in the short
time we've done this?
Hmm.
You mean from a percentage perspective or?
Yeah, to the best you can put it inmembers.
Say that again, sorry.
30%.
And in addition, not only has it just beena decrease in burnout, but there's been an
(10:59):
understanding of the increase in capacityso that they're not looking at things in
terms of burnout.
It's that, hey, I can do more burnouts.
If I...
give into that societal norm, well thenyeah, I can experience burnout or I can
push myself to another level if I learn tocondition myself that way.
(11:22):
That's good.
How about decreasing conflict amongstemployees?
What have you seen?
That one's probably a little bit harder totalk to just because I don't deal with
that quite as much.
I know that they have been more direct ineven through our evaluations, through the
(11:42):
conversations with the employees, there'sprobably a decrease in conflict just
because the management is now more willingand quicker to address any conflict.
Good.
Decrease in work -life balance issues andcomplaints.
Has that changed now that they've beenequipped with life bolts?
The work -life balance, I mean, kind of wealready spoke to that a little bit in that
(12:08):
we're coming off of, we're kind of comingoff of our less busy time moving into our
busy time.
So that hasn't really changed.
This is the time where we really ramp up.
But yeah, on complaints, the complaintspiece has decreased.
Cool.
(12:29):
Awesome.
Anything else you want to add?
I know that was a little strange to try topiece all that together for you, but I
think you did a great job to the best ofour ability.
The biggest, we speak a lot to as we gothrough different projects, different
activities, all those type things is wespeak a lot to it, being able to have a
(12:49):
language.
So a lot of times the reason people areanxious, they have anxiety, they're not
able to deal with things, all of thosetype elements is they don't have a
language to be able to speak to the realissues that they're dealing with.
And that language is being able toidentify the issue, being able to speak to
it.
And Life Pulse has given us that languageto be able to speak to the four different
(13:16):
aspects of what we want our people to haveas a healthy life.
Good.
Good deal.
Appreciate that very much.
And again, we'll have these calls kind ofregularly just to track what's happening
and make sure you guys are getting whatyou need.
Not just, hey, here's why we're so good,but is this stuff actually working?
And then I want to jump into thesequestions with you and get into why
(13:41):
working for you guys is so good.
So, Kubuda is how you pronounce the brand,correct?
Kuboda.
Good, I'm glad you said that.
And then do you go, a lot of your peoplejust call you great planes.
Is that, can we just go off of greatplanes or do you want to go off Kubota?
No, just go off of Great Plains, becausethe way to think of it is like at your
(14:02):
local car dealership, it might be, youknow, Bob Moore Ford.
Well, Kubota is the brand of tractors wesell, but we are Great Plains.
Perfect, all right.
So we're just gonna roll right into thisand I'll edit that first part out, right?
So we'll start this here.
We'll start off with a quick intro of whoare you, why you're interesting, all that
(14:24):
cool stuff.
Any questions you have for me as far asthe podcast?
So will this one be, tell me what kind ofinteraction between our culture versus
discussions around life, polls, just kindof, okay.
Outside of you wanting to, like if youfeel it's necessary, which I honestly, I
(14:49):
try to stay, I don't want to say I try tostay away from it, right?
Whatever comes out, I want you to be ashonest as you want to be.
But I, this is, this is not, I guess thebest way is this is to promote you, not
me.
In promoting you, I get to be put with youas a great company to work with and work
for, and I get to interview.
(15:10):
Does that make sense?
So this is much more about you than aboutme.
That's why we asked those first fewquestions.
So like if life pulse doesn't come up atall, that's great.
That's not the point of this.
Now it might come up just in the way, Imean, you and I just talk and it's going
to go whichever way it goes.
But like I said, we'll be done by the topof the hour anyway.
So all I want you to do is let me guidethe conversation and I'm going to read
(15:32):
quotes from you from these answers.
And then you're going to explain to me whyyou guys did that.
What was the thought process behind thestrategy?
When you hear that, what does that makeyou feel?
How do you recognize all that good stuff?
Sound good?
And I'm gonna have you introduce yourselfagain as we start this.
(15:52):
Ready?
Cool.
I'm gonna count down to three and thenwe'll go.
Three, two, one.
All right, everybody.
Welcome back to Best People, Best Place.
I am so excited.
to have Sean pretty on this show.
Sean is someone I met months ago and justhis love for people and his desire to
(16:16):
serve others is something that we need tounderstand more.
So when I asked Sean to be on thispodcast, he was absolutely, he was ready
to get on the next day.
And the thing I love most about Sean is myinteraction with him, right?
So I'm slightly biased, but Sean, when wewent through these surveys,
I literally did a keynote this morningbefore we had this conversation and I used
(16:40):
multiple of the examples from me reviewingwhat we're going to talk about right now
as examples of what good companies do.
So like I've already used your informationand one in particular and I'll bring it up
when I show you.
So Sean, I appreciate you being here.
Sean walk us through who are you, who'sGreat Plains, what do you do and why are
you on this show?
(17:01):
So Sean, pretty why I'm on this show isran into Matt at 94X was looking for a
solution to, we're trying to affect ourpeople not only just in their business
lives, we wanna affect people in theirpersonal lives.
We believe in spiritual growth, life pulsethat Matt does was, it looked like it
(17:21):
might be a fit for us, said, hey, wannastart a conversation.
So that's why I'm here and was, it's.
It's proven to be more than what Iexpected.
So in addition, Great Plains Kubota, weare a equipment provider in Western
Oklahoma primarily.
(17:43):
Service industries such as energy,livestock ag, service, rural livestock
customers, just all those differentindustries that ultimately help feed and,
you know,
feed not only the United States, but helpto give energy to the United States as
well.
My position or title is Chief OperationsOfficer.
(18:05):
I'm not big on titles.
I prefer to say that I work with peoplethat don't work for me.
So I try to keep my title off of emailstrings and everything else.
But I'm originally founded by the Clarkfamily out of southern Oklahoma, very
rural family, believes in strong workethic.
(18:25):
So that's a little bit about Great Plains,Kubota and some of our, a little bit of
our mission.
All right, so we are going to go throughthis, Sean.
You haven't seen any of these answers.
Those who have listened to the show in thepast, you understand.
All of the answers we're going to get areanonymously sent in by Sean's employees.
Sean, give us a little idea how big youguys are.
(18:48):
I know you guys have some fun stuffhappening, but how big of an organization
do you guys oversee?
How many individuals?
Yeah, so we measure things not only, wetalk about, we like to refer to them, not
refer to them, but a lot of times we'lltalk about souls.
So we're responsible for about 180 souls.
(19:09):
We understand that that extends toprobably around five or 600 family
members.
So it's not just the ones that workdirectly for us, it's the ones who work
indirectly with us and for us as well.
Cover.
probably 20 counties across all of westernOklahoma and the biggest number we measure
(19:31):
today is not rooftops but we measure thatwe're up to probably 17 leaders in our
company so that's the thing that we'rereally after is how do we build leaders
who are going to build more people who canimpact their communities.
And it's so cool hearing you say that.
And again, being able to see it firsthandfor those who are listening that Sean's
(19:54):
passion to build leaders is so true.
And in fact, here's a comment that wasbrought up about, again, we break this up
into three sections.
And the first section is what are youdoing to grow the employee, right?
To actually grow the skill of the personwho's doing the job, almost like the
position versus the person.
This one I love, it says, I get to helpemployees grow and become better in their
(20:15):
area.
I don't get that feeling on Sunday eveningof, no, I got to go to work tomorrow.
I get to come to work here and I love it.
I get paid to help other people grow.
That's from an employee of yours.
That sounds like what you just said, butthe fact that you're able to create that
culture in your people is very rare.
(20:38):
So what have you been able to do thatyou've seen works that creates a culture
where someone who's not you takes what youbasically just said unscripted,
and answers it almost identically.
And they are here doing what you want themto be doing as one of those 17 leaders
growing in your.
So we have an internal program, but thephilosophy behind it is that just over
(21:02):
years of watching companies come,companies go, you watch small towns, some
small towns die off, some small townsremain, you watch different places kind of
flourish or diminish.
Well, the number one goal of us with ouremployees is we want our employees...
(21:22):
to be so strongly rooted in theircommunities from a relationship
standpoint, from a financial standpoint,from a community standpoint, that no
matter whether we're there or not, they'realways going to have a future in that
community.
And that's the philosophy behind whatwe're trying to build for our employees is
(21:44):
we want them to be well enough networkedand established to where they're going to
be a part of if they choose to.
they're always going to be a part of theirlocal Oklahoma community.
That's good.
Hey Sean, give me one second.
I realized I got to get the keys fromMaria to go pick up Natalie.
Let me go up.
Give me two seconds real quick.
Hold on one sec.
(24:02):
Sorry for that, Sean.
One set of keys to the only car that couldfit a wheelchair in it.
And it was, I did drop off before mykeynote.
So sorry for that, but we'll edit thatpretty easily.
So let's keep going.
So one of the things that we got, and thisis a message I love seeing about how you
(24:24):
pour into your people and help them dotheir jobs.
It says, as a female in leadership role,I'm supported and lifted up by employees
at all levels.
We partner well, work together to achievegreat things.
It's exciting to be a part of and to workat a place that embraces my skills and
allows me to grow personally andprofessionally.
(24:45):
The company is very good about includingfamily with any company event that we do.
So actually, I read two at the same time.
Hold on.
Let me reintroduce that comment, okay?
Cool.
So here's one that I really loved hearingwhen it comes to how you're pouring into
your people.
As a female in leadership role, I'msupported and lifted up by employees at
(25:06):
all levels.
We partner well and work together toachieve great things.
It's exciting to be part of and to work ata place that embraces my skills and allows
me to grow personally and professionally.
Now here's what I want you to know.
The reason I love this one is again, as afemale in leadership, that doesn't
surprise me in what your company does.
The part that's so powerful about that tome,
(25:28):
is that you embrace their skills andallows them to grow personally and
professionally.
Why is that so?
That's always been something big for you.
And again, you and I have talked about it,but when you hear that other people get
your vision and are experiencing it andare grateful for it, what does that tell
(25:49):
you?
Well, it's probably the thing in life thatgives me the most energy.
And whether it was something that justdeveloped or whether it was something that
had a skill we had to develop is thebiggest thing I've learned around
developing that is that if you will givepeople the ability to understand the
(26:14):
direction, not oversee every little task,sometimes you have to bring them back, you
know,
right or left or whatever else but ifyou'll give them the overall direction and
then allow them to run they will run wayfaster than I mean then you can pull them
along so typically just through allowingthem to see the vision understand it's a
(26:38):
cliche term but the mission vision valueswhere to line up and then if you truly let
them go usually you're the one who'sbehind so
good.
All right, here's another one that gets meexcited.
And they say GP.
This is how a lot of people answer this,right?
So GP meaning great plan for those who arelistening.
(27:01):
GP gives me the opportunity to run my partof the business within the overall vision,
the way I see fit without being secondguessed or micromanaged.
So many people who we talked to.
want to offer this to their employees, butthey don't get out of their employees way.
How would you guide someone who would liketheir employees to feel that way, feel
(27:23):
that sense of ownership and step up inthat sense of ownership and take it
seriously?
How would you guide someone else to helpother people do that?
Short -term pain, long -term gain.
So many times people try to do it, butthen whenever people make a misstep, well,
you grab back ahold of it too quick.
(27:47):
So whenever you lay out like longer termgoals is you have to understand that for
the first 30 to 90 days,
it's not going to look the way you want itto look.
It's going to be painful, and it's goingto be really messed up.
But if you just keep bringing them back onthe path, eventually once you hit that
point of them being able to run and excelon their own, they overcome it pretty
(28:13):
quickly.
But...
The thing I see so many times is peoplesay, well, I want to empower them.
I want to lay out the vision.
Well, lay out the markers, lay out theexpectations, but lay them out over 180
days, six month to 12 month time period.
But as long as you're seeing progress inthe three month mark, the four month mark
(28:37):
is allow the progress to go.
Don't.
Don't fall back into the failures withinthe first 60 days and try to grab a hold
of it again.
That's good.
Now when you guys are hiring employees,what's the pro I know once you bring them
in, you guys just, I mean, you love onthem right away and you pour into them
from day one, right?
(28:58):
What's the process of hiring to make sureyou have the right people put in place?
Well, the process is all of our managersare given interview training.
They understand what to look for.
But the number one element we look for,and it's based around kind of some quirky
(29:18):
questions, but is we look for work ethic.
Is we look for young people that havegrown up and it.
It's not true today, but the type ofperson who had their own paper route
growing up.
Well, all of those, did they work theirway through college?
Did they have a job in high school?
What's their attitude toward days offvacation is everything revolves around
(29:43):
work ethic and that aligns with who wewant to be.
And if we find strong work ethic, then webelieve we have a team that'll work well
with us.
What a great way to understand thecharacter of an individual.
Like, and what I'm seeing with what you'resaying, which I think is why it's so
brilliant is instead of just ask, Hey,what are your thoughts on days off?
(30:08):
What are your thoughts on PTO?
And if they're like, well, I think it'ssomething that I deserve might not be a
great fit culturally for who you guys are.
But if it's something that's like, man,I'm grateful for any time I get off to be
with my family, it gives them a way toanswer a question.
that will tell you a lot about who it is.
Now it doesn't mean you need to say no topeople based on the answer, but you know
(30:31):
what you're dealing with.
And I think in today's world, we putpeople in categories a lot when we go to
hire based on like, all right, well, it'sa millennial, it's a boomer, it's a Gen Z,
it's what's coming next.
I mean, but in reality, it's the work Ithink you're looking for.
So, hey, what are your thoughts onovertime?
Well, if the job's gotta get done, it'sgotta get done.
That's a great answer.
That's the mindset I want.
(30:52):
It doesn't mean you're going to do overtime.
It doesn't mean we're going to force you,but man, that is a nugget, if I've ever
heard one, on how people can pre -screenfor work ethic and grit and tenacity.
Like the fact that, hey, what'd you dothrough school?
Well, I was in a fraternity or sorority.
That's it.
(31:12):
Like, did you serve in a position?
Did you do anything while you were incollege?
Did you work your way through it?
Did you have to find your...
man, we couldn't afford it.
So I had to go find my own financial aid.
And thankfully I was able to apply and getapproved to get school paid for it.
Like that's what you want to hear.
I think that's brilliant because you don'thave a paper route anymore.
And, and the jobs people have at thispoint and moving forward, it's going to be
(31:39):
more like, Hey, when I was 14, I startedflipping products on Facebook or a social
media marketplace.
That's what you want to see.
That is,
We're going to do a whole other topic onthat.
That's a great way that people should beadding to their intake when they're
actually screening people is simplequestions about topics with open -ended
(32:02):
answers and let them just talk.
that and you talk about the differentcategories the Gen Z or the Millennials or
whatever else and here's where the fallacyis the we have five managers that are like
high -level managers that are under theage of 27 and they're some of my hardest
workers yeah yeah
(32:27):
think the problem is, is the millennialconcept has blended where the generations
all complain about the same stuff at thispoint.
Like you can't go off of, well, they grewup at this time, so therefore they act
this way.
And if you do, you're missing out onamazing, new, innovative talent because
you put them in a category.
That's what I love.
And I would, we could do a whole episodeon like, what are some of these quirky
(32:48):
questions?
Because...
You just, hey, here's a topic.
Tell me what your thoughts are on this andget as creative as you want because what
you really are looking for is not theanswer.
It's the way they answer.
It's their mindset, how they think aboutthese topics.
What do you think about the color purple?
And I think it's boring.
Okay, cool.
Or can they get that and get abstract andhave a really interesting conversation,
(33:10):
right?
If you're hiring a salesperson, givingthem some ways, hey, if you had to have a
conversation about an orange, what wouldyou talk about?
Like those are really cool, simple ways.
to get an idea.
I love it.
Anyway, I'll get distracted.
I got to get back on what your peoplesaid.
That is a brilliant thing to add.
If you're listening, take that and runwith that.
So we talked about how you grow yourpeople.
You guys train them, what you guys teach.
(33:32):
There is a technical side to it that isnot terribly complicated.
And once you train that, you look for thequality person.
But let's talk about the person, how youpour into the people, how you care for the
person, not the position this time.
One of the things somebody said to me is,
has said GP was available and willing tohelp me at my hardest time.
(33:52):
They supported me and my family and welost my wife and the mother of my
children.
That is not a normal thing for someone toput when it comes to how do they support
you as a person.
I don't need the details of thisindividual, right?
But, but why is that such an easy decisionfor you guys?
And, and I know it probably feels good tohear it, but it's also, I know it's just
(34:15):
what you would do.
Like you wouldn't do it any other way.
How would you teach someone else toimplement that culture in their workforce?
And a lot of people associate that likewith being, being soft or being a great
listener or, you know, be an.
(34:37):
We view it more as the action versus, youknow, we say a lot, I see better than I
hear.
I say a lot, I see better than I hear is alot of people talk about how much they
care for their people whenever it comes tois, if we hear of an employee that's
having a marriage issue, we work hard toget them into some type of counseling or
(34:58):
situation to improve it.
If they need some time off to be able todeal with it is we want them to be able to
address all those life situations.
If they're...
It doesn't matter which level of employeethey are.
We want them all, like if there's a deathor anything else, we want them to be able
to love, embrace all those type things.
(35:20):
And it's cliche to say, you know, we wantthem to, but one of the ways that we
facilitate it is we, cause we don't alwaysknow everything that's going on.
So we work hard to have that network tosay,
Hey, if you hear of something, shoot me atext, let me know.
We work hard to make sure that we haveeverybody's cell phone number in the
(35:43):
company so that even me, whether it's atechnician, a yard hand, or whatever else,
there's a lot of them that I textindividually, call individually, and it's
amazing the kind of response that you getfrom all that.
So it's...
not only from like an internal chaplainperspective, but we truly want to be a
(36:04):
pastor or a minister in each one of thosepeople's lives.
All right, so you jumped into what Iwanted to surprise you with, right?
And you didn't even mean to.
And this was something that was so eyecatching that my team, when they sent over
this, they were like, you got to see this.
Six separate times, individuals talkedabout the marriage support that you offer.
Remind me, you guys sell big industrialequipment.
(36:28):
Why in the world are you sending people tomarriage retreats is what it says.
It says, hey, I got to participate in amarriage retreat.
I got marriage counseling.
I got people coming in, teaching me how tobe a better spouse, financial life.
Like, let's just talk about the marriagereal quick.
Why in the world are you helping youremployees in their marriage when the goal
(36:49):
is to sell tractors?
Well, I mean, I'd like to say that it'sall just caring for people, but there's
also a financial benefit to it as well.
So, I mean, it's both sides of it, but,you know, we...
The best way to keep people is, not onlykeep people, but grow people is to invest
(37:11):
in them.
Well, you don't invest in peoplefinancially.
I don't remember whether it's you orsomebody else that said, it was one of our
financial advisors at one of our meetingsis the majority of time when you give
people a pay raise, all you do is increasetheir level of poverty.
So we can continue to give people raisesor even, you know,
(37:34):
time off, but whenever you make their lifebetter, whenever you make their
interaction with their kids better,whenever you reduce their anxiety by being
able to manage their money better, everyplace that you impact one of those things,
there's a ton of things that my mentorshave taught me.
Well, our goal as a company is to pass allthose things that all of us as leadership
(37:56):
has been taught off to all of ouremployees.
And at that point, we just improve theirlives.
And I think it's interesting as you'resaying, and I'm thinking there's a one
-time financial investment when you givethe financial piece and there's a one
-time reception and that's about it.
It's forgotten very quickly versus whenyou pass along and actually help someone
(38:17):
in their life, personal life, it's asimilar one -time investment, but the
result is forever.
And I mean that forever, meaning that theperson doesn't forget it.
Now, will they implement it perfectly?
No, but when you bring in a program likethe programs you guys bring in, Life Pulse
being one of them, but the financial, whatyou guys do with Taproot, which I want to
get into in a second.
(38:37):
But that whole concept, the ROI isimmeasurable because it's forever.
You save somebody's marriage.
What was the stat?
You shared a stat with me about major lifeevents.
Walk me through that whole thing.
I didn't even know, and now I use it whenI'm talking to other people.
(38:59):
Walk me through it.
So major life events, a bankruptcy, adivorce, a death, I mean, some of them are
avoidable, some of them aren't.
But a major life event, the statisticsI've seen range from 35 ,000 to 85 ,000 in
decrease in productivity for an employeewhenever they're going through a major
life event.
So basically, any time an employeeexperiences a major life event,
(39:25):
I'm not talking about the cost of thecompany, it's their production.
Because some of those life events last twoweeks, six weeks, some of them last two
years.
And any time their mind's distracted onthat major life event, they're not being
productive for the company.
And I think that's the reason why I alwaysuse the line, you either invest in them
(39:47):
now or you invest forever.
But that's what you guys are doing.
If you're able to send a marriage to amarriage counselor, let's say I'm just
saying on the high side, nicest one youcan send it to for $10 ,000.
That individual saving that marriage,staying with the company, staying with you
guys for 10 more years at an effectivelevel for those 10 years.
That is an astronomical ROI.
for a very expensive retreat.
(40:08):
And I'm not saying that retreat was that.
I wanted to go as high as we could so itwas noticeably out there.
But when it comes down to that short -termdollar -to -dollar investment, if you can
stop that individual from leaving a monthearly, you can stop that individual from
making a massive mistake because they'rethinking about this, that, or another.
For whatever reason, we've stoppedthinking about that because we've stopped
(40:29):
thinking about the human.
How would you guide people to remindthemselves,
that there's humans here we're workingwith, not just employees.
Well, and one of the biggest ways that wetalk about or I try to talk to people
about it is, so a lot of people, part ofwhat makes us lean toward, you know,
(40:55):
instead of looking at it as humans, isactually all the laws.
I mean, what makes us dehumanize people istrying to meet all the legal standards,
the laws, the safety standards.
Because in trying to meet all thosestandards, you see the standards, you
don't see the people.
That is good.
(41:16):
So if you focus on sending people homeevery night in a way that they can go be
with their families, if you focus onmaking sure that they're taken care of,
fed, all those type things, well, youautomatically meet all the standards.
And.
on the wall, there's a high likelihoodyou'll miss.
(41:37):
If you focus on the person, the byproductis the walls get hit.
And that's what good laws do.
Now there's bad laws.
We can't talk on those, right?
That's not the point of this podcast.
But I think it's a really interestingreality of a lot of times we're focusing
on all the right things because we're toldwe have to focus on this.
And because of that, we're damaging theperson that those walls are supposed to be
(42:01):
protected.
Correct.
we're not saying disregard the laws, butthe byproduct should be all these laws are
hit because we're sending the person homeand they're excited to go see their
family.
They're excited to come back on Monday,like your people have said.
I think that is so powerful.
And again, in a business with hundreds ofemployees, and again, you're working with
(42:22):
blue collar individuals.
And I don't mean that in a negative,please understand that.
I just mean the fact that these areindividuals who have a very specific skill
set.
and they focus on what they do and they dowhat they do really, really well.
And they're working to likely go live thelife they want to live.
But a lot of people think that everyone'slife is all about work.
(42:43):
How do you avoid, you guys are a fastgrowing company, right?
That's why I love working with you.
We're seeing growth that's crazy with youguys.
How do you avoid individual experiencingburnout, right?
Cause we're working on downplaying theburnout.
but also keeping them at a high enoughclick, right?
We call it optimal performance.
That's our big thing.
How do you keep them optimal at asustainable pace and a fast pace without
(43:03):
burning them out?
How do you guys do that with your team asyou guys are expanding so quickly?
And it's something we're kind of learningand growing at as we're going.
But as we talk about our mission visionvalues, our pledge, taproot, Great Plains
(43:24):
Living, is that, and we're rolling outwith an internal internet page called the
Branding Iron, is we really want people,when we say to understand our culture, is
if,
If people understand where they'rerunning, they'll run as fast as they want
to run.
(43:44):
So, and that's the real goal is that justmaking sure that we have like what is true
North for us and making sure that that'scommunicated as good as possible at all
levels so that whenever we run, a quirkylittle thing that we've started and it's,
it's amazing what kind of true North it'spointed.
(44:08):
is we have some inexpensive toys, toytractors, and we implemented a policy, a
pledge that says every child gets a toy.
So every kid who comes in the dealership,everyone who are outside sells people.
Well, through the joy and the thrill ofseeing that child's reaction of when they
get that toy, and these aren't toys thatare going to last forever.
(44:34):
But seeing that child's reaction is itcreates the energy, the speed, all those
type things in our employees that we'relooking for.
All right, let's talk about Taproot.
And the reason we have to talk aboutTaproot is one of your people brought it
up, how do they pour in?
They said Taproot is unlike anything I'veever seen in any other company I've been
with.
It shows how much the company cares and itshows how much value they see in me,
(44:59):
sometimes even more than I see in myself.
It's something we look forward to andalthough it takes up our time, it is worth
every time we come together as a group.
So I know this is something that you'vebeen developing, you and Lindsay have been
working really hard on this, to hear thatresponse and explain a little bit of what
Taproot is.
(45:20):
What does that show you about thedirection you're taking the company?
Well, the exciting part is whenever youget to bake the cake, it's like, okay,
well, I wonder how these ingredients aregonna work out.
But up to this point, it's producing areally good cake.
(45:41):
And taproot...
You know, as we as we kind of sat down andwe look back and we said, OK, what are the
things that other people gave us that madeus successful?
Not only in business, but in life.
And then we said, how do we take some ofthose things for people who haven't ever
experienced them?
And how do we start to pour into them inthose same type areas?
(46:04):
So the term taproot is we want them to bethe taproot of whether that's Oklahoma
City, Falls Valley, Clinton.
no matter what town they're in orcommunity they're in is we want to develop
people who are the taproot of theircommunity.
Their roots are deep, they'restrengthened, they're strong, and like
(46:25):
I've said before, no matter whether we'rethere or not, they're always going to be
in those communities.
So what are those life skills that mentorsgave us that allow us to pour that into
other people?
That's good.
Now, the third part we talk about is howdo you guys pour into the community?
You've already hit a little bit of this.
But one of the things that I really lovethat somebody told a story, they said,
(46:47):
just today, I got the chance to pick upsome tools from Great Plains and donate it
to a single mom's ministry through mychurch.
I'm currently planning for two differentgroups and organization to serve at the
regional food group.
The reason I love this is not only do youguys give back, but you're empowering a
person to go do this.
How do you get your people to want to giveback in that way and to use you guys as a
(47:13):
vehicle to do so?
So one of the legs of Taproot, excuse me.
There's five different legs.
A lot of people use the term community,but whenever we teach the community aspect
is we take them to a nonprofit mathmatter.
Might have to stop for a bit.
(47:34):
I got a bad tickle.
Do what?
Clear.
You're good.
We can cut it out.
Unless you want us to put this on theretoo, but.
No.
Man, I've had a bad cough and I thought itwouldn't act up, but it is.
You're good.
You're doing a lot of talking.
So that this is my favorite part becausethis is the one thing I do in my world.
(47:57):
I don't know.
I don't have to talk.
I just have to listen.
Do I have time to go grab a mint realquick?
OK.
Cough cough cough
(49:10):
You ready to try again?
Okay.
All right, so you want me to read thatagain and just start from the beginning of
giving back or do you want to start withthe taproot, the content to give them
back?
Let me intro that whole thing back again.
That way it's just an easy cut for me.
Cool.
(49:30):
So one thing that we always ask about ishow does the company give back and do
good?
And you guys, I know you pour into thecommunity of time.
One of the things that was talked about...
was that just today I got the chance topick up some tools, Great Plains is
donating to a single mom's ministry at mychurch.
I'm currently planning two differentgroups of organization to serve at the
(49:51):
regional food group.
One thing I love and what I'd want tounderstand is how do you create a culture
where your people want to do good and theywant to use you as a vehicle to do so, not
abuse your power or take your money, butuse you to actually grow and serve the
people.
Yeah, so there's five legs to Taproot anda lot of people use the term community.
(50:17):
But one of the things, whatever we teachthe community aspect of Taproot is we take
them to a nonprofit and allow them toexperience kids or people who are
suffering, you know, just those differentareas.
But we don't try to limit it to like oneor two.
Like we want to be involved with this asmany as we can.
And we can't give to a lot of them verymuch financially.
(50:40):
So we talk about, we're going to beinvolved in their events.
We're going to give them exposure andwe're going to provide them affordable
equipment for all their projects.
So we want our people touching as manynonprofits, churches, schools, all of
those things as possible.
And we talk about it around the three E's,events, exposure and equipment.
(51:05):
Good.
And then what do you do to get people togo take action?
Once they experience it, they're usuallyhooked.
I got you.
So you show them first and then they get ataste of it.
And I think that's the big thing is Irealized that I was exposed to the concept
of giving at a younger age than mostpeople.
Because of that, myself and Maria, wereally enjoy giving and doing good.
(51:29):
Like that's something we actually like todo.
But I met people who in their older ages,no one ever showed them to do it.
Right.
So in this situation, you're saying whenyou actually walk people to it and show
them what it means to do good and giveback to the community.
You're finding most people want to do itagain.
yeah, over and over.
And another little way that we do it isyou see a lot of like premium auctions in
(51:52):
the FFA world.
Well, majority of businesses are out tobuy the grand champion.
So what we really challenge our people onis we say, Hey, we, we want you to go find
two or three kids whose animals aren'tbeing bid on.
And that's the kids whose animals we wantto buy.
So, yeah.
that you're making a little bit more of aninvestment on that purchase.
(52:16):
That's awesome.
All right.
Well, honestly, Sean, we could talk forhours on this.
Walk me through, how can somebody connectwith you if it's an entrepreneur, business
owner, a leader who's like, Sean, I wantto pick your brains.
I love how you're running your business.
How can they find you?
What's the best way online to get a holdof you?
Best way online is just Facebookobviously.
(52:40):
I mean, I'm not a big LinkedIn person.
Used to be younger in my career, but I'vekind of moved away from it.
Email address is sprit.
So S -P -R -I -D -D -Y at gpcavoda .com.
Do have Instagram, do have Facebook, youknow, just kind of some regular social
media stuff, but email is probably thebest way to connect.
(53:01):
And if someone was looking to find youguys to purchase equipment or to come on
and work with you or look for a job, wherewould they go to do that?
GreatPlainsCaboda .com.
Awesome.
Sean, I appreciate it so much, man.
Thank you for all you do for your people.
We could have gone for days with all theresponses that we got from your employees.
(53:21):
You guys are doing an amazing, amazingthing in an industry that tends to
overlook a lot of their people.
So thank you for that.
Appreciate your time, everybody.
We will see you on the next episode ofBest People, Best Place.
We appreciate your time listening.
And again, share, like, subscribe, allthat stuff we like to do with podcasts.
And we will see you on the next episode.
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