February 13, 2025 • 53 mins
Discover how the power of local roots can transform your business success with the Lewis Brothers, who have nurtured a thriving family enterprise over four generations. Ever wondered what it takes to maintain long-term employee retention and forge lasting customer relationships? We'll share invaluable insights, illustrating how being community-oriented and fostering personal connections distinguishes us from national giants.
Explore the unique benefits of working for a locally owned business, where repurposing roles is the norm, not layoffs. Imagine a work environment reminiscent of the camaraderie of "Cheers," where familiarity builds customer trust and loyalty. We'll also sprinkle in some local flavor with a fun Fayetteville, Arkansas quiz, keeping you engaged and connected to our roots.
On this episode, feel the vibrancy of community engagement through electrifying events and meaningful sponsorships. From supporting "Shop with a Cop" to transforming race aid stations into unforgettable experiences, we demonstrate how passion and energy can leave a lasting impact. By carefully selecting sponsorships that align with our values, we not only enhance brand awareness but also strengthen community bonds, proving that business success is a two-way street of giving back and growing together.
Feel the dynamic energy of the Lewis Brothers as they deliver real stories and lessons that keep local businesses on their toes, and share how experiences in the community inspire them to keep on driving.
Check out all our great episodes at CrossroadConversationsPodcast.com!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just because you did something or you sponsored
something 20 years ago or 30years ago or 40 years ago,
especially in northwest Arkansas, doesn't mean that everybody
knows today.
We were caught in that rut.
We've been over 78 years.
You know iconic of our storesright there on college helping
everybody out and we would go toraces up in Bentonville or
(00:22):
Rogers, and you know these longraces.
Where do youville or Rogers?
And you know these long races.
You, hey, where do you work?
Where do you live?
What do you do?
And the amount of people belike, well, where's the Lewis
located at?
What do y'all do, hey?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
everyone welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about
running a successful familybusiness while working through
adversity and pouring back intoour community that keeps our
doors open every single day.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real, relevantlocal business advice, maybe
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you
(00:57):
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe even
throw in a plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally,
and maybe even throw in a plugfor you to do business with us
here locally.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Welcome to Crossroads Conversation.
Hey, episode 22,.
And today's going to be a goodone.
Why?
Because we're going under thehood, why community roots drive
success.
We love talking about this andwe've got 78 years worth and
four generations of locallyowned and operated.
That's what we'll dive intotoday, and the importance of not
(01:25):
only a local business but afamily-owned business, what that
does for employee retention,what it does for long-term
success, and how it alsobenefits the local community,
not only growing, but throughsponsorships and charity
organizations, so on and soforth.
But before we do that, Taylor,we got to rewind the tape a
little bit.
Tell them what they missed lastweek.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
if they didn't listen , hey, it was pretty in-depth,
but it was a fun conversation.
It was working for the money orworking for the job, and more
times than not that gets lost.
But you've got to dive backinto the previous episode.
There it's working for themoney or working for the job
that you love there, hey, makesure you're checking us out
there at lewissuperstorecom.
Shelby.
(02:07):
What did we drive today?
What?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
did we drive today?
Today, we pulled out the oldWarlock, the Warlock.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You know what I love about the Warlock.
That's a Ram 1500.
It's a very, let me say,high-demand package they put.
Here's what I like about theWarlock it's got everything you
need, it looks good, it performsgood and it's at a great value.
Yes, what we're talking abouthere is a crew cab, four-drive
truck with over 400 horsepower,under 50 grand, all right, and
(02:34):
it takes all the stuff from theRebel.
So it's got a factory lift onit.
It's got Kevlar Goodyear tireson it.
It Goodyear tires on it.
It's got all-weather mats.
It's got an 8.4 touchscreen.
It's got the big motor, the newstraight-six turbo.
It also has all the skid plates, locking, rear differential
everything you need for a greatvalue price.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Plus, it looks good.
Go ahead and sell it to me, whydon't you?
It's a Warhawk, it's a goodtruck, it's a package that's
been around, that theyconstantly look at to make sure
that it makes sense, that it hasall the fun things without
being too expensive.
That's right, that was a funone to drive in today.
To make sure that it makessense as we transition in today,
(03:21):
the importance of being locallyowned and being in the
community.
Now, one of the things that wewill always say is locally owned
and locally operated, andthat's not just operating within
our store, it's operatingwithin the community.
And so you know it's dollarearned, dollar spent, dollar
given back, and so that's kindof the full circle of how that
goes.
(03:41):
So we'll fully break that downand what makes sense and the
difference of what you mightthink a local company is and how
that dollar equates.
And so what's your thoughts onthat of importance of being
locally owned and being in thecommunity?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I think you've got to put a hat on of where are you
looking?
Are you short termterm or areyou a long-term?
And when you start thinkinglong-term and if you were in a
strategy meeting with us, wewould talk a lot about this
we're not here to earn a quickbuck today.
We're in the long-term business, and what I mean by long-term
business in our case is, hey, wewant to be here when you're
(04:20):
ready to buy your next vehicleand your next vehicle Sometimes
we even talk about itgenerational we want to sell
your grandparents, you and yourkids something.
You do that by long-termrelationships, and you get those
long-term relationships bylong-term employees, by being
locally owned and by supportingthings that are of interest to
them as well.
And I know we're going to diveinto each one of those.
(04:41):
One of our sayings that I just Ireally like this saying that we
came up with a few years backwe were talking about it is you
know, lewis is on the buildingthe name Lewis, but you also
find a Lewis in the store.
And why that's important andI'm sure you guys would agree is
, hey, we deal with people.
We deal with people.
Something's going to happen.
Something's going to happen,something's going to drop the
(05:03):
ball or something's going tobreak or something's not going
to work and we're there to helpfind a solution with the
customer.
And they realize that these arehuman-built vehicles.
Something could go wrong, butwe're there along the ride with
them to help them out.
You won't find that in anationally owned business.
Even if the store is local.
They'll have to submit a formup to New York or some other big
(05:25):
city just to be able to get anexception.
We're in the store, we read thesituations, listen to what's
going on and then we figure outa solution.
If it makes sense, we do it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I think where that's relevant, and a lot of people
are nearsighted right when itcomes to purchasing something or
servicing something, and I'm avalue minded person.
But I know when it's when it'ssomething that I'm really
counting on, like transportation, like, you know, a flight to
get somewhere or a place to stayout the window.
(06:05):
I'm not going to go way out ofbounds, but that's one of those
things.
And so our 78 years worth ofbusiness, we've built this
repeat and referral to realizenow we're going to be very
competitive in price and be wellwithin market and our
experience is going to be wellbeyond.
But if someone doesn't know us,then they're like but then if
they do get the opportunity totransact with us, they realize
we're not a 1-800 number, it'snot a thing.
(06:28):
Almost majority of everyone'sphone is connected to their cell
phone.
Now we tell the people like hey, when it's your time off, it's
your time off, but you ever gotan after hours phone call?
Absolutely, you know.
And so there's a time when it'slike oh my gosh.
But there's been plenty oftimes where we say, hey, hang on
, Let me see if I can getsomething figured out for you.
Hang on, Let me see if I canget a tow truck for you.
(06:50):
Hang on, that's the differenceof your big box chain.
You think all warm and fuzzyand shiny until you really need
some boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You're not sitting there pressing zero on the phone
trying to get a hold of aperson yeah, and I think
circling back into y'all kind ofboth already hit on it.
But being local, being in thedealership, we're in it, we hear
what's going on We'lltransition over to being in the
community.
We're not one that goes andMatt does a better job of any of
us of being able to be involvedwith Chamber and anything else
there, but we're not one that'sgoing to go out and be in the
(07:26):
middle of it.
Boy, always have our earsturned on.
So whenever we're out in thecommunity we always hear of
events or anything else, and Iwon't go too far into the next
one of everything we do.
But that's the only way thatyou're able to really take that
dollar and make it make the mostsense, because we're not just
writing a donation check, we'reputting a whole plane in place
(07:49):
that we really love being a partof all of it.
So that's the only way you cando it, both in business as well
as in the community, is havingyour ears open and being on the
ground.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
No, I would agree with that, and I found this
image I want to share with youguys.
And then I want to get yourtake on it.
This study was done byUniversity of Michigan.
They did this on small localbusiness owners.
I went to school in Michigan.
You did Not this one, but adifferent one, Never mind.
So this pie chart, not thisgraph this pie chart shows if
(08:21):
you spend $100 locally Okay, Now, both scenarios are local One's
with a.
Shows if you spend $100 locallyokay, Now, both scenarios are
local One's with a locally ownedbusiness.
And then the other one islocally but a nationally owned
business.
Remember, like somebody inChicago owns it.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Okay, so that would be like a brand that you see,
that's locally, physically owned, that you can walk in.
So we're talking about, like aCircuit City Best Buy.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Something like that, yeah, like an Academy, something
like that, like a large boxstore, like a Dillard's or
something like that.
It's still local and you've gotlocal people, and that's still
more of that money stays localthan if you just buy online and
it gets shipped to you.
Okay, and there's a place forall of those businesses.
(09:07):
But what we want to talk about,we want to break down $100 and
how much of it stays local in alocally owned business versus a
non-locally owned business.
Both are still local, all right.
So your $100, if you're in anon-locally owned business but
it's here, of that $100, only$43 stays Okay, only $43 stays.
$57 leaves the local economy.
(09:28):
That means nobody benefits fromit.
It doesn't help anyimprovements in the area.
It doesn't help any charities.
It doesn't help any income.
It doesn't help any employeesAny.
Fifty-seven percent of it'sgone.
Fifty-seven dollars of that,hundred Of the hundred is gone.
Northwest Arkansas won't see itanymore.
Okay, if you're a locally ownedbusiness, on average, if $100 is
(09:57):
spent, $73 stays local.
So it's $30 more per $100 spent.
We're just talking about $100.
That's 30%.
So $73, all right.
Only $27 leaves, okay, andeverybody has part of it that
leaves.
So don't say hey, I want 100%.
You got to pay federal taxesand you got to do I mean,
there's stuff that leaves.
So when you start thinkingabout that, that's almost twice,
you said it almost twice morethat stays local to support
(10:21):
growth locally if you dobusiness with a local owned
place and a lot of people can't.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Once again, I'll talk about nearsighted.
They won't fully look at that,but it comes in full circle and
we'll break that down a littlebit, of talking about some
events, of how we get to giveback to that, but it is a wide
plethora.
So you think the near side ofthis I don't care, but like I
think you do, like I thinksomewhere in there you do, even
(10:53):
if you're uh, you just movedhere and you don't have roots
and you hadn't met some peoplesomewhere.
You have been part of a local.
You know thinking of whereyou're shopping for your clothes
or where you're shoppingSomewhere it goes back into that
effects where your kids go toschool and able to help with the
fundraiser or charity or yourlaw enforcement of a shop, with
(11:14):
a cop thing or the track or thebike club or the football field.
There are hundreds andthousands of different elements
of where that dollar goes backand helps out.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I think, depending upon what stage you
are in life, because we've allbeen there.
We've been a local-ownedbusiness for a long time, but I
mean, I can tell you when I'm inhigh school, I'm going into
college and I only have $5 in mybank account.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I mean you're squeezing for everything.
It was more of a survival mode.
But then once you get into yourcareer or if you have parents
or generations that have taughtyou, you start seeing that
different and, like you said,you're still thrifty.
You're not just throwing it outthe window Like it's got to be
competitive.
We talk about that in ourpricing.
We won't be the cheapest outthere, but we're going to be
(12:02):
highly competitive.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And that's the same thing.
Like the guy that talked abouthey, I didn't know you had
mobile oil, change that.
We would come to you and changethe oil.
He was going to the big box onthe corner and they were one and
a half times more expensivethan what we were.
So we work extremely hard tomake sure our pricing is proper.
Most people just completelymiss that because they just
(12:26):
think now they think with newbuilding, like hey, that looks
expensive, yes, and while thebuilding was uh, that our
product is still right in line.
You know you don't think thatabout Walmart, like hey, that's
a huge building.
I bet their prices are higherthan the kite.
No, they got to make sure theirtheir products on the money.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Hey, hey, you know.
The other thing and we weretalking about this yesterday in
our board meeting, so I'm goingto bring it up is we were
interviewing a new employee tocome on our team and one of the
candidates' questions was when'sthe last time y'all did layoffs
?
Not when you let somebody go orfired somebody because they had
come from the corporate world.
And so when's the last timey'all did layoffs?
(13:04):
We said we've never donelayoffs.
I think that's a common theme.
I'm going to speak for the otherlocally owned businesses here.
You very rarely hear of a localor small business doing a
layoff.
Now will they let somebody go?
That's underperforming?
Yeah, that's a differentsubject.
Yeah, completely different.
Okay, but lay know, and weforget because we're in the
(13:25):
small business, locally owned,is there's that fear If you work
for somebody that's a nationalcompany and it's just numbers,
they could you hear about it inthe news all the time of, hey,
500 people or a thousand peoplegot laid off.
So from the employee side,there's some benefits and some
value.
And if you were behind closeddoors with us and we were
talking about, you know, anemployee or even an area, maybe
(13:49):
that was underperforming, maybewe needed to close down that
area.
We would say, okay, we've gotthese three employees, these
four employees there.
They're good employees.
Where can we move them withinthe company?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
That's a constant thing, you know.
We talk about that in certaindepartments and we're like, hey,
because we're measuring thatright, expenses can get out of
control.
264 employees, it can get outof control.
So we're like, hey, where's therepurpose or what else is that
person capable of that we canuse them for.
So their A primary job, their Btheir secondary job and their C
(14:21):
A if they've already hit A andB, that we can use them here
secondary job and they're C A ifthey've already hit A and B,
that we can use them here.
Because if you've already gotsomebody that shows up, that has
a good attitude, who's willingto be a good team player, find a
spot for them.
But I don't think we've everlet two people go at the same
time for the same reason.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No, I mean not that I know of in my career or any of
the stories we've talked about.
So I think from the flip sideof it you nailed it there.
It's like hey, the retentionand I don't have the exact
numbers but when you look at theaverage time of employment on a
nationally owned or corporationlet's say that a national
corporation versus a locallyowned business you're at a two
(15:03):
to threex at minimum of tenure.
That they stay there In ourbusiness and I know we'll get
deeper here in a minute on thatbut in our business that equals
more customers.
That also equals more repeatcustomers because they're
dealing with the same employeethat they've already built the
trust with.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It's the same reason.
You go to the local coffee shop, your favorite gas station, you
know them.
It's not awkward, it's justlike Cheers.
You want to go where everybodyknows your name.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I'm glad you bring that up and I know some of our
audience won't know what Cheersis, but the rest of them the
show Cheers.
They probably didn't have thebest food.
You know their beer that was ontap.
There was at the same at theplace down there.
But when they walked ineverybody hollered their name,
yeah, and then they felt a partof something.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I mean kid dunks walking in and I'm
hollering at him, I know I knowit's a small thing, so you get
that from a local business.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You walk in academy, think somebody says hey, shelby,
you going back to the huntingdepartment today, not unless
it's one of our workers there aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
So you know, there is a whole lot of being locally
owned and being in the communityand we'll cut that up a little
bit more, but I got to hit uswith the fun fact quiz of the
week.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Okay, let's get it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So fun fact quiz of the week when was Fayetteville?
Fayetteville, arkansas, wherewe're located, started in 1946,
when was it incorporated, Iassume, as a town?
Huh, so I'm going to give youfour options.
Okay, so you can't be wrong.
You could be wrong, but you'llknow what you're guessing A 1906
.
Okay, b, 1836.
Okay, c 1872.
(16:42):
Okay, or D, 1893?
.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Okay, I'm not going to guess right now and we're not
supposed to discuss this, but Igot to do a plug here.
I can narrow one of them outjust because of the picture I've
seen in our management officeof Lewis Brothers Hardware and
when it was established on thedowntown square in Fayetteville
yeah, when was that?
That was in the late 1800s.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Okay, so A is out the window.
A is out the window.
This is just.
I'm good at this.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
You're 33% and I'm just putting a little value
there.
We're talking about familybusiness.
We talk about 78 years in thecar business.
It's been over 100 plus yearsfamily-wise.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, so 1836 is B, c is 1872, or D is 1893.
We'll circle back around tothat, so be thinking about your
guesses, you bet Well.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So we started off, shelby, and you were kind of
talking a general overview.
We were kind of firing each wayof like was it employees, was
it retention, was it pricing?
How much money stays in thecommunity, or what do your
sponsorships look like?
Let's take a little bit deeperdive in engagement into the
community.
You know one of the things wetalk about.
(17:50):
We have an entire marketingteam and the entire events
department too we talk about.
It's really important to usthat we not only write a check
to sponsor and to help out, butwe have boots on the ground as
well.
That's important to us.
It's not just because we'reblessed to be able to
financially help, but we want tohelp being there shaking hands,
(18:10):
handing out stuff.
Let's go through some examplesthere and your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's one of the most important things is not
just mail-in check.
I must say one of the latest,the first that I see, is around
Christmas time we had a bunch ofpolice officers coming in.
We had to make sure that no onewas getting arrested, but it was
great.
There's a bunch of resourceofficers from all different
departments and it's their Shopwith a Cop program.
I love that about it and that'salways fun, talking to them as
(18:38):
much as we can and saying, okay,how many students and how many?
So they all have a differentprogram and how many people they
help and how they help.
But they're able to take xamount of students and they work
with these schools to see hey,who doesn't have what they need
for christmas, and so we makepretty large donations to all
these different local policedepartments to be able to them
(19:01):
help out.
It's a really cool thing thatthere's kind of a zero
recognition thing and that's aokay right.
This is not advertising thatwe're doing.
This is helping out in thecommunity, yo, so they get to.
We get to empower them to thengo love on and help these local
young minds and they take themshopping.
(19:22):
It's so much fun some of theirstories.
They take them shopping andthey get to.
All right, here's a hundredhundred fifty dollars per kid
and they're like we, if we'vegot one that needs a little more
here they'll get, and that'sjust cool.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think that's one of those cases.
I agree with you.
We're not telling them tosplatter our name everywhere.
It's the right thing to do.
Yeah, and in in my mind, thereason that one's so special to
us is is not only it covers acouple, it allows kids that
aren't going to have anythingunder the Christmas tree or
maybe even a new coat.
It allows them to get that Okay.
And then, number two, it allowsthem to start a relationship
(19:59):
with police officers.
They may have come from a homewhere they were talked about
that police officers are notyour friend.
They're not here to protect andthat's the farthest from the
chair.
They just watch cops too much,yeah that's what they get the
bad rap you know, and which isnot the truth, and they're gonna
need their help at some pointtime.
So you kind of get a twofoldthere and this is talk about
they do it's cool policeofficers.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I say, guys, it's been across the board.
But they say, hey, as we startthat relationship, as we follow
them through high school or ifwe see them out in the town,
yeah, they're like, hey, so andso, hey, how you doing, and it's
just a good relationship andthere's great enjoyment to that
there is, I'll tell you one ofmine and then, taylor, I'll let
you take it from there.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Um, my career in sports is you know, there's
nothing to put on the the wall.
Okay, I'm gonna start inbaseball.
Okay, that's the one you'rethinking I was going to talk
about.
I know I can see the look onyour face.
Okay, so my baseball career itended pretty quick after it
started, like in the elementaryyears.
But, I'm pretty sure nowthere's an A and a B team.
(21:02):
I played in the outfield Okay,right field, I think, is where
they put all the other players.
What team were you on?
The Prairie Grove Tigers?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
No which A.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Were you on the A or the B?
Okay, so I was on the A, whoa,and I had no reason I should be
on the A.
Okay, I really think they didit so that Dad would sponsor the
team.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm just saying this is before Under Armour and all
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I'm just saying because my hats, you know, they
said the Louis Ford.
You know what I mean, dad gum,and the reason I bring that up.
I kind of wish I would havebeen on the B team so I would
have got to play some more, butI was on the A team and the
coaches and so on and so forth.
But the reason I say that is itreally drives home on.
You know there are kids andlittle league teams and
(21:48):
sponsorships and this and thatthat these coaches are trying to
help develop these kids tounderstand dedication and hard
work and teamwork.
They need sponsors becausethey're all volunteers.
They're not getting sponsorsfrom the big box places.
No, they can't, they just theycan't.
I mean the room where you got togo through and I get it at a
(22:08):
large scale there, but theycan't get the jerseys, covers
and the hats and the this andthe that.
Go around, look at your nextT-ball event or your soccer deal
at Kessler next time you go to,or the football, and look who's
on the shirts.
You know what I mean.
Who's on the hats?
It's the local businesses.
They Local businesses.
They're supporting those tokeep them going, really for
(22:29):
development, not just for therecognition.
Do people get to see?
Yeah, they do, but they'redeveloping leaders for tomorrow
through those.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's a fun thing with those kids thinking about
that, and we've always loved itand talked about it, whether
it's a football camp that we getto sponsor or any little league
team or a basketball crew.
And it's funny because it opensthe door, because everyone
comes in, and so we kind of havean algorithm and there's two
(22:58):
checks and balances, becausethere's a lot of people that
come in looking for money and ifyou're a negative person we
generally aren't you're likegood night, everybody just wants
money and just walks throughthe front door.
But look at the alternate.
What if they didn't?
Absolutely right, and so thethe.
When people are asking for it'sso much fun because you've
never smiled so much untilyou've seen a little kid.
(23:20):
Yeah, I had a little leaguegame, but then later he's
running around with his friendswith all three of my boys I've.
There's some kids and there'sthere's one kid that likes to
hang out with my youngest son,and I saw him in buying a car
with his dad and I was like, hey, davis.
I was like, hey, man, you need acouple new Lewis hats, oh yeah.
And so then his dad was tellingme later at a baseball game
(23:40):
he's like man, you've got tohire that kid.
He's your number one advocatebecause he's always hollering
and I'll look up whether he's atchurch and here he is with his
lowest just around.
Because if you can, if you canlove on a youngster, then they
understand you're here to helpthem.
And it just grows and they'rejust, they're your number one
fan.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, that's good, that's good for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah, growing through the community is huge.
Whenever you see anybody,anybody that's figured it out
with parents and we love it, Ilove it.
I love seeing a kid come in andbe passionate about something,
because we remember that growingup you remember going through
everything but we love beingable to support that.
So, whether it's any of theyouth stuff of baseball,
(24:22):
football, soccer, anything here,I love all of that.
But you know, the other funthing we do that you get a whole
lot of response from is all ofour different golf tournaments.
Now we don't even play golf.
Nope, we'll go play golf andI'll lose more balls and I'll
hit straight.
But you know, I have a fun timeabout it.
(24:42):
But I always love hearing of astory.
We've got a picture that justpopped up the other day but uh,
and I believe it was uh, one ofoh the sheriff, washington
county sheriff's tournament but,we were sponsoring it, a part
of it and a cool picture thatpopped up on it of uh they uh
took a picture because the balllanded on the windshield of the
mustang.
We're at the at the giveaway asfar as uh, I think it was a
(25:06):
hole-in-one there's ahole-in-one on the windshield?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
yes, but it was a hole-in-one.
It was a hole-in-one on thewindshield, yes, but it was a
hole-in-one sponsored.
It was a hole-in-one.
They were supposed to hit it inthe T-hole and they were aiming
it on the windshield.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What do you mean?
Like it just hit the windshield, no she planted it in the
windshield, so she hole-in-oneon the windshield, so the golf
ball hit the windshield shieldstuck in it.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
We had to figure out something cool to do With Inhole
and One though we sponsor abunch of those because it's a
lot of fun all the local things,I think three or four different
cars that we've been able togive away In local we had a
field goal kicking contest.
We looked at the guy fromFarmington and kicked a field
goal on that.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, we've given away a couple different Mustangs
.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, that have been huge.
Yeah, we've given away a coupledifferent Mustangs.
Yeah, that have been huge.
I mean, and these are localpeople pouring back into the
local community that get to winthese things like factual real
deal, winning these vehicles andtaking them.
So that's so much fun to see.
The other side of it love inthe schools.
This started with Fayettevillebut we all love football, love
(26:07):
being a part of it.
It has been really fun to growover the years and be able to
sponsor new fields.
Oh, that's fine.
We all went to good old PrairieGrove best Bermuda grass that
you've ever seen and it's takencare of.
It is Shout out to them thislast year of getting in.
But the best new AstroTurffield AstroTurf was unheard of
(26:29):
whenever we all went throughschool it was only in collegiate
fields or anything else.
So that's been so fun to startwith the fayetteville and then
you know it's branched tofarmington and elkins and
prairie grove and growing fromthere.
That's so much fun because thenI hear from people in the
community they're like, hey, thenew field, that's awesome
because we got to put our logoon it.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
At the ground level.
Think about being a studentathlete at that time, thinking
you're about to be the next TonyRolfe.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Patrick Mahomes, michael Jordan.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Giving them that brand new field.
That's cool, never in our logobut it makes you play better,
makes you feel better.
It's somewhat like the otherday uh, farmington and elkins
both went to state playoffs.
That's so good, and it was anopportunity that I saw.
It was cold as all get out andI remember it was like, hey,
(27:26):
here's an opportunity to love onthese kids at a young level and
I just mean like, make themfeel special.
Right, life's rough enough,like let's help them feel
special.
And so I called a local, alocal company, a lady that helps
me out, and I said hey, you gotabout two days, can you make me
250 of these?
And she's like uh, yeah, sure.
(27:46):
And so then I called thatathletic director.
He's like, hey, hey, can youhelp us?
He's like oh, wow, why wouldyou do that?
I was like, why not Like thesekids?
So we made beanie hats for allthese players and the coaches
and they just, it's just fun todo and that's your dollar.
Staying here, that is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That is.
That's the fun part there.
Let's get next.
I want to talk about aidstations at races, because it's
not only do we support itfinancially, but the atmosphere
and what the image we leave inpeople's minds, and then after
that we're going to just thenunpack how we filter through
that to help business ownersthat get a water request.
(28:24):
So let's talk about aidstations.
What I'm talking about aidstations here.
If you go to your local 5k halfmarathon marathon, you'll run
by and it's the place they havewater or gatorade.
That's usually what they gotwater that's what the race gives
you know, and they may havesome like goo packets or some
gummy bears.
So when we go now, we've had tonarrow down how many aid
stations we do, because if youhaven't learned this about us
(28:47):
yet, we're all in.
People like we're all in, we'reon, we're really, we're
embarrassed if we're not all in.
If we go somewhere, we justbarely show up.
So all of us are there, allright, and we bring it all.
Yeah, all, because we know whenthey come through our aid
station one we're going're goingto encourage them, but then,
(29:07):
two, they're going to have asmall glimpse of the culture we
have within the dealership outon the trail.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
We get to bring it to them.
And there's a couple things ifwe have requests we just had a
text this morning it was likehey, would you guys like to
bring your thunder to this race?
And that's what they said,wasn't it?
Yes, because they know it isright and we've taken over some
full events.
But so then there's a couplethings.
If we do commit to it, it'slike okay, we get to pick which
(29:36):
aid station.
It is sure we need the mostvisibility to the people we need
to be able to set up becausewe're going.
We're talking about multiplevehicles yes, we're talking
about six or seven speakers,lights, a couple tents yes.
And then there's some thingsthat we asked from the race.
Was that, hey, we need a fullrundown of all your runners with
the bid numbers and their names?
Yes, because we're going tohave microphones and we're going
(29:57):
to shout their names out.
Oh, yeah, so we haverecognition for the people
feeling special out there,sweating it out, loving on those
people there.
What about the food?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So the food and Taylor's going to take over here
in just a second.
The food is above and beyond.
It's not just the goo packetsNecessity.
We go look for anything andeverything and we cater to
everybody in the race the eliterunners at the front, oh yeah,
okay and then the mid-packers,and then the people that are
just out having a good time,that want to enjoy it.
(30:28):
So what all could they findwhen they came through one of
our aid stations?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
there's everything and you're thinking, ah, it's
real healthy or anything else.
Now they incorporated, me said,to make sure and get some stuff
that was completely off thepage.
So you're talking oreos, honeybuns, double decker oatmeal,
cream pies.
Uh, you know, the biggest dealfrom this last race we just went
through Was it Starburst, whatwas it?
(30:52):
Nerds?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
The nerds, the nerd gummies, or whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
The people were going nuts over, but we're talking
donuts, donuts, chocolate, andyou just throw them at people.
If anything, they just laugh.
And it's another way to share avision of hey, have the
absolute most fun you can have,no matter what you're doing.
And a quick little insight weabsolutely love doing that
Because Matt said we get to pourover our passion from where we
(31:18):
work at in there and it is crazy.
Blown speakers.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, you've got inflatables Fog machines, fog
machines and all this stuff40-foot gorillas, all the stuff
40-foot gorillas, all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So when you come in you sure we talked about the bib
number, we learned this through, you know, doing some Ironmans
and this, and that We'll havepeople on walkie-talkies and we
set them up.
You know, a couple blocks awayfrom our aid station They'll
walkie-talk back to us hey, 68,talk back to us.
Hey, 684 is coming in.
(31:51):
We'll look it up on the listand we know that's bob.
Yeah, we know that's sarah, andwe're like hey, everybody
welcome sarah to the lewisstation and they come through in
their head.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Their mind is blown, it's blown and so why this all
makes sense, like, okay, whywould you do that?
It's a, it's an opportunity,because we've been on the other
side of it.
We've been in that race thateither had a whole lot of
excitement and you remember it,yes, you know, like hey, route
(32:18):
66, when they had the spin bikesout there or you've been to a
race and you're like, golly, Iprobably should have just saved
myself 70 bucks and just rainfor my front door.
And so we get to take ourculture that's an everyday all
out and all the time culture andtake it somewhere else and
transplant it.
Yes, and they're just likethere's those lowest people
(32:40):
again, there's those lowestpeople again.
And so then when we finish thatlike hero half, when we get to
do that aid station, they comethrough us twice strategically
and then we take our stuff tothe finish line.
Everyone says those are thoseguys.
I feel a little bit bad for theraces and the race directors
because there might be morerah-rah at the nine.
(33:03):
There is, there is at thefinish line, and so we had to
help miles like you need a dj?
Yeah, you need a timing mat soyou can call these people out
yeah, because we'll bring that,and so it allows us just to
bring our atmosphere so thatthey're like once again, like
the bar cheers just brought outthis guy and now he's hollering
from the curb like hey, buddy,and it's just fun, like life's
(33:25):
too short to not have fun.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's just fun Like life's too short to not have fun
, and so we take our atmosphereand go out into whatever events
that's so important to knowabout.
That we've hit.
But I have to recircle backaround and tell you none of this
would happen if you wrote thecheck, if you just wrote the
check.
It takes a little bit of buy-in.
You've got to be a part of it,so you're growing your business,
but none of that happens andit's so easy.
(33:51):
Yep, that writing the check isthe easiest part.
Yeah, so that's easiest part.
You're local, you're everythingelse you're pouring back in
there, but no one else does it.
And being a part of it andbeing on the ground is what
really makes a difference,because Ford's not writing the
check.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
they're not.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, you're not seeing the bigcompanies write the check, and
some of them are.
And to get their logo on theback of the shirt, and they can.
I'm going to give you this is atrader.
Hit them with it.
If you use it against me, thenit is what it is.
We'll do it better.
Some people will spend largemoney.
I'm and you got on the back ofthe shirt and that's all buster.
(34:31):
good job, yeah, good job,because when they're leaving
there, we're the ones presentingyeah, we're the presenting
sponsor, powered by because webrought the thunder yep and
they're remembering like, oh mygosh, that aid station was so
legit the lewis automotive aidstation, meanwhile, large brain
company, just spent 5x what wedid and they didn't even
recognize you.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
They didn't have the impact.
And I think that's a filter youneed to go through as a
business owner and say, before Ijust write all these checks,
why am I writing them?
You know what I mean.
If it's just to sponsor andhelp out, great.
But there needs to be a mix ofit, and there are some checks
that we write during the year.
You know that we help, that wedon't need the recognition for
we're not showing up and we'renot doing.
But you need to think aboutyour team, because we also will
(35:14):
take people out there.
It's not just the three of us.
We'll take people out there tokind of help get them out of
their shell and how to engageand how to network.
You know, with everything onsocial these days and digital
wise and behind the screen, thelost art of networking and
actually talking to somebody andconnecting to get emotions
involved, you know where, theyknow you, they like you and then
(35:36):
they can start trusting you.
That art gets lost and it's soeasy, especially when you're in
a situation like this where youpaid to get the stage to do it
and to be able to connect.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll tell you one of the otherareas that we need to hit on
real quick because this is theflip side of it we're kind of
hidden everywhere.
Is that, then, our engagement,like with leadership in the
(35:56):
chamber and our new conferenceroom?
Yeah, so, intentionally, whenwe built our new facility and we
actually took this from BlueCross, blue Shield, when we were
looking at their conferenceroom and their new building, it
was on ground level and it wasat the front and then they let
people sign up in the communityto use it.
You know that was our goal aswell.
(36:16):
Instead of the trainingfacility being on the second and
third floor, it was floor onewhere we could use all the
meetings, but then we could havelocal events there too.
You know, and so far we justgot done with a leadership event
there with all the leadershippeople through the chamber in
Fayetteville.
They could use our facility.
We got to talk, show themaround, love on them, do a
little branding, but then theygot to use that facility to grow
(36:37):
leaders in the area.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That empowered them to have a state-of-the-art
facility space to be proud ofthat they didn't have to pay
anything for, and so it allowsthem to have a big impact.
You bet, and we say, yeah,absolutely, that's a cool thing
of something that we worked hardto be able to help out there.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I know we've spent a bunch of time here, but this
part's important.
The last part I want to give asa tip here, just to let
everybody know.
You're like okay, matt, I hearyou, I hear you, we get a ton.
Maybe some of y'all don't getany requests, maybe some of you
get thousands of requests.
I want to talk to everybodythat starts getting a bunch
because we got to that stage.
You got to have some filtersand it's pretty simple.
You know we've got an emailtemplate that then goes out to
(37:17):
somebody or a hard copy.
They're like hey, we needsponsorship for this cheer deal
or this or that, and it's just asmall rundown, and then they
have to email us back just somebasic information When's it
going to take placeApproximately, how many people
will be there, what type ofexposure do we get?
And make it simple It'll weedout a bunch of them that won't
(37:38):
even take the time to send youan email back.
And if whoever you'responsoring will not take the
time to send you an email backand answer just a couple small
questions, you don't have towrite a book on it.
They're not a good partnershipfor you.
Yeah, yes, you know Absolutely.
So that's important.
Put that together.
It's easy, hey.
If you need help with that,just reach out.
We'll send you our template.
You know what I mean.
We're more than happy to helpyou there.
(38:02):
All right, we got Incorporated.
All right, I gave you a littleinsight because of Lewis
Brothers Hardware there.
But here's your choices.
It was A 1906, b 1836, c 1872,or D 1893.
We already threw A out.
What's the answer?
What's it looking like?
1836.
B 1836.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
189 years ago.
Wow, fabulous grade, isn't it?
Oh yeah, no ago.
Wow, fable's great, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Oh yeah, no doubt, wow, so no doubt it's seen it
all, seen it all going throughthere.
Hey, we've delved into being inthe community.
We've delved in engagement inthe community and so many
different fun things that youget from being part of that.
How does the communityengagement drive success and
more business?
That's the most important partthat you're talking about.
(38:50):
So, going over comparing othertypes of marketing efforts and
the differences, and how doesthis generate success within the
business?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I think that's really important and you got to look
at it through a different lensand a different scope is that,
you know, these races we're atlike are we immediately going to
sell a car right then duringthe race, do we have a banner
that says 10,000 off this or 0%there, or oil changes open?
No, we don't.
There's different layers ofmarketing.
You got to think about this asa business owner.
A lot of those sponsorships arejust brand awareness.
(39:20):
They're brand awareness andit's no different than, like, if
you're fishing, you know howyou chum the water.
You always go out there and youfeed the fish.
We're just getting brandawareness.
So when it does come up, or weserve them an ad, or it is time
for them to purchase a vehicleor get their vehicle service,
they have their.
Oh yeah, I heard of them.
Remember, they were at thatevent.
Remember, yeah, they sponsoredso-and-so's t-ball event.
(39:41):
Or, yeah, we were just on thefield the other day.
Or we were in that leadershipin their conference room the
other day.
You just create this awarenessof what we call marketing.
You become more sticky.
Yep, you know you become moresticky there.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Absolutely.
What about, like we have in asmall plug real quick?
We finished the year well intoour region as far as being
number two in the region in EVsales and nationally ranked
almost in the top five ofelectric vehicle sales.
A lot of our electric vehiclesales have come from any of the
events.
Being at that we're doing whatat the events with our wrapped
(40:15):
lightning.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
They were powering all the stuff, so the seven
speakers and all the lights andthe fog machines.
All the stuff, so the sevenspeakers and all the lights and
the fog machines.
It's a really cool way thatwe're able to use our product to
be able to do what we like todo, and then we get to show it
off real world Like no, thisisn't for sale, we're not trying
to sell it to you, just like.
This is how it works.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, and I have people that come in from the
events, whether it be a powerboost or a lightning in their
light.
We got to drive it, we got toone take and go be through the
event and then we got to see areal world of how it powered and
how it went through.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So being able to be in the, so I think, the biggest
thing to understand there as abusiness.
You might be thinking, okay,one, how do I measure it?
If you're a data person in theKPI?
Well, let me go ahead and spoilyou that you really can't.
I mean you can.
You could hand out an offerthat was like use this code,
herohaff, for an extra $500 offor 10% off your service.
(41:12):
So you could do that.
You can measure a little bit.
So let me say you can, butmajority time you cannot.
But, like Matt was talking aboutbeing being sticky, you're just
able to be relevant.
So when it's time that, whenit's important to them.
So don't look for immediatesuccess off of that, but it does
allow you to just be wellenough in it.
And I another cool event thatwe've done is start uh teachers
(41:37):
wish list.
I was gonna bring that uh, sothe teachers wish list.
When it's time for a new schoolyear to come, we understand
that they don't get the fundingfor all the supplies that they
need, and so that was a coolthing for us to take local
teachers.
That's not just sponsoring theschool.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
It's not just sponsoring a grade, it's
specifically that teacher and sowe're not even going to tell
them that we're just going to goin that cart and that's
something that we'll spendupwards of $20,000 of buying
this teacher, that it's wellover 150 to 200 teachers that
will buy their specific itemsand it just ships directly to
(42:14):
their door and then we do ateacher car wash.
You know we'll do a teacherappreciation and that's another
bandwidth thing of like we canonly do X amount because the
three of us plus our team getsout there and hand scrubs and
washes and tire shines and putsan air freshener and it's just a
full situation awareness.
Like, once again, these peopleare different.
(42:35):
This wasn't a one-hit-one, orthis isn't this one person that
shows up with a $5 oil change.
Or this isn't this one personthat spent a bunch of money in
this area.
We're not sponsoring like therazorbacks is a whole thing, but
, jay, we're going locally wherethe dollar gets to stay where
it makes sense.
So when that person needssomething, help automotive wise.
(42:55):
They're like man I've theseguys just keep popping up and
they continue to help us out andso that that's the local thing
of why it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I think the word there would be intentional and I
think when you think about whoyou're sponsoring or what you're
doing, be intentional about itand if you're going to do it you
know we've always talked aboutyou know if we're going to do it
, we need to do it Absolutely.
You know we need to be teachersand, as we did our research, it
(43:28):
was like if we try to funnel itthrough the schools or through
the association, no differentthan the hundred dollars I
talked about at first, onlycertain percentages are going to
go to them.
You got, and it takes work andeffort, you know.
So maybe sometimes we deletesome so we can be more
intentional.
What we do with a bigger impact, yeah, but I think, from the
marketing side, when they starttalking about, hey, how does
that equal business, or why areyou doing that?
(43:48):
You've got to look at marketingin these layers, these layers,
and you can't just too manypeople, especially small
business, when you can't maybeyou've only got a crew of five
or 10, you can't step back andreally look at the correct
approach.
You save up a little money andyou throw an ad out there and
you're like, hey, it didn't work.
The world of marketing it takesall of it and this local stuff.
(44:10):
Not only do you connect withpeople, so you grow your network
, you start growing what I wastalking about of this brand
awareness.
So then, when it is time forthem to do business uh've got to
reference this movie because Ilike talking about this movie,
and if you hadn't watched it,the movie is called Focus, with
Will Smith in it.
So this movie, they go throughthe same thing.
They're branding, they'rebranding the image in front, the
(44:31):
image in front, until he getsready to place this large bet.
That seems like no way anybodycould ever win.
You know, they're at a footballgame.
They're at a football game.
Well, he predetermines thenumber of the jersey because all
day long they've been puttingthat number in front of this
person, from the time they pickit up at the airport, so on and
so forth.
If you haven't watched it, gowatch it.
But it's the same thing.
They were making brandawareness, brand awareness,
(44:52):
brand awareness.
And then, when it was time topull the withdrawal, they had
done the homework, they had madethe deposits, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So it becomes intentional when you think it's
just on a whim, it's not so muchon the way, it's not.
There's a reason that theypulled into your business versus
someone else's business.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's right.
I'll tell you one thing.
We have had to learn, thoughand this was an awareness and we
found this really when we gotinto running at all the
different local road races isjust because you did something
or you sponsor something 20years ago or 30 years ago or 40
years ago, especially innorthwest arkansas, doesn't mean
that everybody knows today.
We were, we were caught in thatrut.
(45:31):
We've been over 78 years.
You know iconic of our storesright there on college helping
everybody out, and we would goto races up in Bentonville or
Rogers, and you know these longraces.
Hey, where do you work?
Where do you live?
What do you do?
And the amount of people wouldbe like, well, where's the
litmus located at?
What do you all do?
And it was like mind-blowing.
(45:53):
What do you mean?
What are we doing where we werelocated?
But, those were new peoplemoving in here and we started
having to really think aboutthat.
When we look at the projectionof we're going to a million
people in Northwest Arkansas, wegot more people that live here
now than that grew up here.
Yeah, how you have to continueto do that because everybody's
hit with so much marketing everyday.
(46:13):
You got to stay with it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
It's no different than like social media or Google
like in order to stay relevantand stay on the first O of
Google instead of being 12 deep,you have to stay on the top of
that.
So don't be frustrated, don'tbe aggravated, just adapt.
You just have to adapt Like.
You have to adapt and you haveto stay after it and then just
understand that you've spent thetime or put the effort into it
(46:37):
or spent the money so that youcan be considered as part of the
conversation, but it's not aguarantee that they're coming to
you and going to buy from you.
You still, you've earned theopportunity there it is, but
then you have to be able to thenearn and tell them why it makes
sense that they did come to you.
(46:57):
Don't think because I sponsoredthis, yes, or that's like some
of the nil deals that otherpeople talk about or do then
they think like I own thatperson.
No, you own the opportunity tobe able to take care of that
person.
So don't ever get too high andmighty on that because I sponsor
this, because I do that, andthat person should have to come
me and have to do that.
(47:18):
No, you get the opportunity andthen you get to wow them with
your overall experience andcustomer service and doing what
you're saying and doing, followup with the correct things.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
I think that's important.
I hope everybody heard whatShelby just went over there.
Don't get frustrated and knowyour position.
You don't own them.
You still have a responsibility.
You just got the opportunityand number two.
Just because you sponsoredsomebody last year group doesn't
(47:48):
mean you have to keep doing it.
You know, one of the things wedo and we review is how was that
partnership?
You know, not only did I'm notasking how many cars did that
say no, it was like two-sided.
Was it two-sided?
Were they there?
Did they support, did they giveus exposure?
Did they do what they said theywere going to do?
The people around, where was itwho we were trying to support?
And some of them we cut tiesand then we reinvested and
that's okay, that's okay.
So just don't get caught inthat rut either.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
You hit the nail on the head and I think the biggest
deal to be able to come off ofthat is look and see in your
avenue what you can reallydouble down on and what you're
passionate about outside of yourbusiness, of being able to pour
back into, and then you willsee that multiplication factor
come up.
Hey, the business isn't goingto happen right now, but
whenever they come aroundneeding to know business, you're
(48:32):
going to be in the area,they're going to know about you
and they're going to do business.
But time to do a fun fact asfar as frequently asked question
.
Start with Matt.
What is your favorite eventeach year to be involved in?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
You know, when I read this I was like I'm going to
sound like one of thoserecording artists out there when
they say what's your favoritesong you've ever recorded?
Because we do a whole lot ofcool events.
I'm going to tell you too.
So I would say the first one isour teacher event.
You know, we do our teacherexpo and we're able to talk
about our wish list there, we'reable to give back, and the
(49:07):
reason is is because I'mpassionate about, I know those
teachers are pouring into theleaders for tomorrow.
You know the Thin Elk come workfor us and we've all been there
and we had teachers, you know,in our life that helped shape us
.
So that's a favorite of mine.
And then number two is a recentad in the past couple of years
was our Beast of Burden 24-hourevent out of Mount Kessler,
where it's a running and bikingevent, and the reason I like
(49:29):
that one is for 24 hours we'rejust hammering them with our
culture and our environment.
And I mean I don't have enoughtime to tell you about it all,
but it's amazing.
I don't have enough time totell you about it all, but it's
amazing.
That's all I got to say.
It's amazing when you come inand we've hit you with nine
powered PA speakers and thesubwoofers and the fog and the
(49:50):
lights and the arch.
We're on the mic hammeringpeople.
It's something else.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Shelby, what about one of the most memorable events
you've been a part of?
I would say?
You know, definitely, beast ofBurden is a fun one because
you're fully committed for 24hours.
But outside of that, we didanother race a couple years back
.
There was a national race.
Oh yeah, it was good, it was aSpartan.
It was the US Championship race.
That's right For the trail race.
(50:21):
Yeah, for the trail race.
And it was the, uh, uschampionship race.
That's right for the trail race.
Yeah, for the trail race.
And it was right aroundhalloween, uh.
So we got to uh, get somevolunteers from work to come out
and help us, and they know ifthey've been a part of it's a
good time.
If they haven't been a part ofit, we, you know, kind of give
them some proof.
So we got to.
There was a night race, a night10k, and so we got to support
this race and we said, hey, putus in the woods.
(50:43):
We don't want to be on the roadand it was a trail race, but
there were some road spots.
So we got to set up christmaslights, blow up arch, and it was
kind of the the prequel beforethe next longer race, but uh, so
everyone was in costumes, andso then we had our same walkie
talkies and we got to call outpeople's names, and, uh, in the
costumes, it was a good time, uh.
And so then we had our samewalkie-talkies and we got to
call out people's names, and uh,in the costumes, it was a good
(51:06):
time, uh.
And so then the next day was alonger race, a 50k, and so we
kind of did the same thing overagain, but taylor was cooking
quesadillas for people, like webrought out all the stuff, and
so it was just fun that thoseand we say that of teacher
events or these races, it'sbecause of the atmosphere we
just get to bring and it's notlike superficial of, like man,
(51:28):
what are you guys doing?
Like, how do you get rowdy likethat?
Speaker 1 (51:31):
It's just because it's what we do and it's fun to
be able to take what we do andthen transplant that in these
people, and then they're likeokay, and then people hanging
out with us long enough, it'slike yeah, I guess that's what
you guys do you know, you know,every once in a while, when you
do those things and you back upand we all hype each other about
, about up and like, hey, youdid a good job and this and that
(51:52):
, but it's, it's good sometimesto get that feedback and I'll
tell you, and I'll let you tellthe story, is that the feedback?
You know a a professionalrunner that came to the
championship.
You know Mike Wardian, who'sran across America, all the rest
of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
He came through there to our aid station and then
gave us a shout-out on social Iwas fired up and he's ran seven
marathons in seven continents inseven days and ran across
America and the AppalachianTrail record.
He's like man.
That was one of the best aidstations I've ever been to and
taylor was feeding him stuffthat he didn't even know what
was in there, but he was firedup.
(52:28):
It's just like the atmosphere,yeah, and the excitement, and
that's so much fun.
We just recently did a manager'sretreat where we got to take
some of our managers and got tobe away from work and, uh, got
to the expose and it's the samething.
It was the excitement, it wasthe fun, it was the love that we
constantly have, but it wasaway from work and they're all
(52:50):
just smiling with stories andthat was so much fun and this
and it was nothing you know,like crazy off the shelf and a
crazy amount of money.
It was just the excitement thatwe're able to bring, and so
that's we want to bring that toyour event.
You bet you know, and so that'smost memorable.
That would be.
You know a couple of those.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
Absolutely.
Hey, wrapping it up there.
Great thing we went over today,going over all the ins and outs
sponsoring local, being local,being engaged in your community.
Make sure and check us outthere at lewissuperstorecom, or
always checking out the previouspodcast at
crossroadconversationspodcastcom.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it
a like.
Share it with your friends andfamily.
You can visit our website.
Send us the questions aboutwhat you want to know, what you
want to hear.
Tell us about the automotiveindustry, family business in
general.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you have.
But make sure you tune in nexttime where we bring in another
guest and we talk more about theautomotive industry and all the
(53:53):
great things going on withinour business.
Just because you did something or you sponsored
something 20 years ago or 30years ago or 40 years ago,
especially in northwest Arkansas, doesn't mean that everybody
knows today.
We were caught in that rut.
We've been over 78 years.
You know iconic of our storesright there on college helping
everybody out and we would go toraces up in Bentonville or
(00:22):
Rogers, and you know these longraces.
Where do youville or Rogers?
And you know these long races.
You, hey, where do you work?
Where do you live?
What do you do?
And the amount of people belike, well, where's the Lewis
located at?
What do y'all do, hey?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
everyone welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about
running a successful familybusiness while working through
adversity and pouring back intoour community that keeps our
doors open every single day.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real, relevantlocal business advice, maybe
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you
(00:57):
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe even
throw in a plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally,
and maybe even throw in a plugfor you to do business with us
here locally.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Welcome to Crossroads Conversation.
Hey, episode 22,.
And today's going to be a goodone.
Why?
Because we're going under thehood, why community roots drive
success.
We love talking about this andwe've got 78 years worth and
four generations of locallyowned and operated.
That's what we'll dive intotoday, and the importance of not
(01:25):
only a local business but afamily-owned business, what that
does for employee retention,what it does for long-term
success, and how it alsobenefits the local community,
not only growing, but throughsponsorships and charity
organizations, so on and soforth.
But before we do that, Taylor,we got to rewind the tape a
little bit.
Tell them what they missed lastweek.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
if they didn't listen , hey, it was pretty in-depth,
but it was a fun conversation.
It was working for the money orworking for the job, and more
times than not that gets lost.
But you've got to dive backinto the previous episode.
There it's working for themoney or working for the job
that you love there, hey, makesure you're checking us out
there at lewissuperstorecom.
Shelby.
(02:07):
What did we drive today?
What?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
did we drive today?
Today, we pulled out the oldWarlock, the Warlock.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You know what I love about the Warlock.
That's a Ram 1500.
It's a very, let me say,high-demand package they put.
Here's what I like about theWarlock it's got everything you
need, it looks good, it performsgood and it's at a great value.
Yes, what we're talking abouthere is a crew cab, four-drive
truck with over 400 horsepower,under 50 grand, all right, and
(02:34):
it takes all the stuff from theRebel.
So it's got a factory lift onit.
It's got Kevlar Goodyear tireson it.
It Goodyear tires on it.
It's got all-weather mats.
It's got an 8.4 touchscreen.
It's got the big motor, the newstraight-six turbo.
It also has all the skid plates, locking, rear differential
everything you need for a greatvalue price.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Plus, it looks good.
Go ahead and sell it to me, whydon't you?
It's a Warhawk, it's a goodtruck, it's a package that's
been around, that theyconstantly look at to make sure
that it makes sense, that it hasall the fun things without
being too expensive.
That's right, that was a funone to drive in today.
To make sure that it makessense as we transition in today,
(03:21):
the importance of being locallyowned and being in the
community.
Now, one of the things that wewill always say is locally owned
and locally operated, andthat's not just operating within
our store, it's operatingwithin the community.
And so you know it's dollarearned, dollar spent, dollar
given back, and so that's kindof the full circle of how that
goes.
(03:41):
So we'll fully break that downand what makes sense and the
difference of what you mightthink a local company is and how
that dollar equates.
And so what's your thoughts onthat of importance of being
locally owned and being in thecommunity?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I think you've got to put a hat on of where are you
looking?
Are you short termterm or areyou a long-term?
And when you start thinkinglong-term and if you were in a
strategy meeting with us, wewould talk a lot about this
we're not here to earn a quickbuck today.
We're in the long-term business, and what I mean by long-term
business in our case is, hey, wewant to be here when you're
(04:20):
ready to buy your next vehicleand your next vehicle Sometimes
we even talk about itgenerational we want to sell
your grandparents, you and yourkids something.
You do that by long-termrelationships, and you get those
long-term relationships bylong-term employees, by being
locally owned and by supportingthings that are of interest to
them as well.
And I know we're going to diveinto each one of those.
(04:41):
One of our sayings that I just Ireally like this saying that we
came up with a few years backwe were talking about it is you
know, lewis is on the buildingthe name Lewis, but you also
find a Lewis in the store.
And why that's important andI'm sure you guys would agree is
, hey, we deal with people.
We deal with people.
Something's going to happen.
Something's going to happen,something's going to drop the
(05:03):
ball or something's going tobreak or something's not going
to work and we're there to helpfind a solution with the
customer.
And they realize that these arehuman-built vehicles.
Something could go wrong, butwe're there along the ride with
them to help them out.
You won't find that in anationally owned business.
Even if the store is local.
They'll have to submit a formup to New York or some other big
(05:25):
city just to be able to get anexception.
We're in the store, we read thesituations, listen to what's
going on and then we figure outa solution.
If it makes sense, we do it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I think where that's relevant, and a lot of people
are nearsighted right when itcomes to purchasing something or
servicing something, and I'm avalue minded person.
But I know when it's when it'ssomething that I'm really
counting on, like transportation, like, you know, a flight to
get somewhere or a place to stayout the window.
(06:05):
I'm not going to go way out ofbounds, but that's one of those
things.
And so our 78 years worth ofbusiness, we've built this
repeat and referral to realizenow we're going to be very
competitive in price and be wellwithin market and our
experience is going to be wellbeyond.
But if someone doesn't know us,then they're like but then if
they do get the opportunity totransact with us, they realize
we're not a 1-800 number, it'snot a thing.
(06:28):
Almost majority of everyone'sphone is connected to their cell
phone.
Now we tell the people like hey, when it's your time off, it's
your time off, but you ever gotan after hours phone call?
Absolutely, you know.
And so there's a time when it'slike oh my gosh.
But there's been plenty oftimes where we say, hey, hang on
, Let me see if I can getsomething figured out for you.
Hang on, Let me see if I canget a tow truck for you.
(06:50):
Hang on, that's the differenceof your big box chain.
You think all warm and fuzzyand shiny until you really need
some boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You're not sitting there pressing zero on the phone
trying to get a hold of aperson yeah, and I think
circling back into y'all kind ofboth already hit on it.
But being local, being in thedealership, we're in it, we hear
what's going on We'lltransition over to being in the
community.
We're not one that goes andMatt does a better job of any of
us of being able to be involvedwith Chamber and anything else
there, but we're not one that'sgoing to go out and be in the
(07:26):
middle of it.
Boy, always have our earsturned on.
So whenever we're out in thecommunity we always hear of
events or anything else, and Iwon't go too far into the next
one of everything we do.
But that's the only way thatyou're able to really take that
dollar and make it make the mostsense, because we're not just
writing a donation check, we'reputting a whole plane in place
(07:49):
that we really love being a partof all of it.
So that's the only way you cando it, both in business as well
as in the community, is havingyour ears open and being on the
ground.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
No, I would agree with that, and I found this
image I want to share with youguys.
And then I want to get yourtake on it.
This study was done byUniversity of Michigan.
They did this on small localbusiness owners.
I went to school in Michigan.
You did Not this one, but adifferent one, Never mind.
So this pie chart, not thisgraph this pie chart shows if
(08:21):
you spend $100 locally Okay, Now, both scenarios are local One's
with a.
Shows if you spend $100 locallyokay, Now, both scenarios are
local One's with a locally ownedbusiness.
And then the other one islocally but a nationally owned
business.
Remember, like somebody inChicago owns it.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Okay, so that would be like a brand that you see,
that's locally, physically owned, that you can walk in.
So we're talking about, like aCircuit City Best Buy.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Something like that, yeah, like an Academy, something
like that, like a large boxstore, like a Dillard's or
something like that.
It's still local and you've gotlocal people, and that's still
more of that money stays localthan if you just buy online and
it gets shipped to you.
Okay, and there's a place forall of those businesses.
(09:07):
But what we want to talk about,we want to break down $100 and
how much of it stays local in alocally owned business versus a
non-locally owned business.
Both are still local, all right.
So your $100, if you're in anon-locally owned business but
it's here, of that $100, only$43 stays Okay, only $43 stays.
$57 leaves the local economy.
(09:28):
That means nobody benefits fromit.
It doesn't help anyimprovements in the area.
It doesn't help any charities.
It doesn't help any income.
It doesn't help any employeesAny.
Fifty-seven percent of it'sgone.
Fifty-seven dollars of that,hundred Of the hundred is gone.
Northwest Arkansas won't see itanymore.
Okay, if you're a locally ownedbusiness, on average, if $100 is
(09:57):
spent, $73 stays local.
So it's $30 more per $100 spent.
We're just talking about $100.
That's 30%.
So $73, all right.
Only $27 leaves, okay, andeverybody has part of it that
leaves.
So don't say hey, I want 100%.
You got to pay federal taxesand you got to do I mean,
there's stuff that leaves.
So when you start thinkingabout that, that's almost twice,
you said it almost twice morethat stays local to support
(10:21):
growth locally if you dobusiness with a local owned
place and a lot of people can't.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Once again, I'll talk about nearsighted.
They won't fully look at that,but it comes in full circle and
we'll break that down a littlebit, of talking about some
events, of how we get to giveback to that, but it is a wide
plethora.
So you think the near side ofthis I don't care, but like I
think you do, like I thinksomewhere in there you do, even
(10:53):
if you're uh, you just movedhere and you don't have roots
and you hadn't met some peoplesomewhere.
You have been part of a local.
You know thinking of whereyou're shopping for your clothes
or where you're shoppingSomewhere it goes back into that
effects where your kids go toschool and able to help with the
fundraiser or charity or yourlaw enforcement of a shop, with
(11:14):
a cop thing or the track or thebike club or the football field.
There are hundreds andthousands of different elements
of where that dollar goes backand helps out.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I think, depending upon what stage you
are in life, because we've allbeen there.
We've been a local-ownedbusiness for a long time, but I
mean, I can tell you when I'm inhigh school, I'm going into
college and I only have $5 in mybank account.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I mean you're squeezing for everything.
It was more of a survival mode.
But then once you get into yourcareer or if you have parents
or generations that have taughtyou, you start seeing that
different and, like you said,you're still thrifty.
You're not just throwing it outthe window Like it's got to be
competitive.
We talk about that in ourpricing.
We won't be the cheapest outthere, but we're going to be
(12:02):
highly competitive.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And that's the same thing.
Like the guy that talked abouthey, I didn't know you had
mobile oil, change that.
We would come to you and changethe oil.
He was going to the big box onthe corner and they were one and
a half times more expensivethan what we were.
So we work extremely hard tomake sure our pricing is proper.
Most people just completelymiss that because they just
(12:26):
think now they think with newbuilding, like hey, that looks
expensive, yes, and while thebuilding was uh, that our
product is still right in line.
You know you don't think thatabout Walmart, like hey, that's
a huge building.
I bet their prices are higherthan the kite.
No, they got to make sure theirtheir products on the money.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Hey, hey, you know.
The other thing and we weretalking about this yesterday in
our board meeting, so I'm goingto bring it up is we were
interviewing a new employee tocome on our team and one of the
candidates' questions was when'sthe last time y'all did layoffs
?
Not when you let somebody go orfired somebody because they had
come from the corporate world.
And so when's the last timey'all did layoffs?
(13:04):
We said we've never donelayoffs.
I think that's a common theme.
I'm going to speak for the otherlocally owned businesses here.
You very rarely hear of a localor small business doing a
layoff.
Now will they let somebody go?
That's underperforming?
Yeah, that's a differentsubject.
Yeah, completely different.
Okay, but lay know, and weforget because we're in the
(13:25):
small business, locally owned,is there's that fear If you work
for somebody that's a nationalcompany and it's just numbers,
they could you hear about it inthe news all the time of, hey,
500 people or a thousand peoplegot laid off.
So from the employee side,there's some benefits and some
value.
And if you were behind closeddoors with us and we were
talking about, you know, anemployee or even an area, maybe
(13:49):
that was underperforming, maybewe needed to close down that
area.
We would say, okay, we've gotthese three employees, these
four employees there.
They're good employees.
Where can we move them withinthe company?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
That's a constant thing, you know.
We talk about that in certaindepartments and we're like, hey,
because we're measuring thatright, expenses can get out of
control.
264 employees, it can get outof control.
So we're like, hey, where's therepurpose or what else is that
person capable of that we canuse them for.
So their A primary job, their Btheir secondary job and their C
(14:21):
A if they've already hit A andB, that we can use them here
secondary job and they're C A ifthey've already hit A and B,
that we can use them here.
Because if you've already gotsomebody that shows up, that has
a good attitude, who's willingto be a good team player, find a
spot for them.
But I don't think we've everlet two people go at the same
time for the same reason.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No, I mean not that I know of in my career or any of
the stories we've talked about.
So I think from the flip sideof it you nailed it there.
It's like hey, the retentionand I don't have the exact
numbers but when you look at theaverage time of employment on a
nationally owned or corporationlet's say that a national
corporation versus a locallyowned business you're at a two
(15:03):
to threex at minimum of tenure.
That they stay there In ourbusiness and I know we'll get
deeper here in a minute on thatbut in our business that equals
more customers.
That also equals more repeatcustomers because they're
dealing with the same employeethat they've already built the
trust with.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It's the same reason.
You go to the local coffee shop, your favorite gas station, you
know them.
It's not awkward, it's justlike Cheers.
You want to go where everybodyknows your name.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I'm glad you bring that up and I know some of our
audience won't know what Cheersis, but the rest of them the
show Cheers.
They probably didn't have thebest food.
You know their beer that was ontap.
There was at the same at theplace down there.
But when they walked ineverybody hollered their name,
yeah, and then they felt a partof something.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I mean kid dunks walking in and I'm
hollering at him, I know I knowit's a small thing, so you get
that from a local business.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You walk in academy, think somebody says hey, shelby,
you going back to the huntingdepartment today, not unless
it's one of our workers there aswell.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
So you know, there is a whole lot of being locally
owned and being in the communityand we'll cut that up a little
bit more, but I got to hit uswith the fun fact quiz of the
week.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Okay, let's get it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So fun fact quiz of the week when was Fayetteville?
Fayetteville, arkansas, wherewe're located, started in 1946,
when was it incorporated, Iassume, as a town?
Huh, so I'm going to give youfour options.
Okay, so you can't be wrong.
You could be wrong, but you'llknow what you're guessing A 1906
.
Okay, b, 1836.
Okay, c 1872.
(16:42):
Okay, or D, 1893?
.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Okay, I'm not going to guess right now and we're not
supposed to discuss this, but Igot to do a plug here.
I can narrow one of them outjust because of the picture I've
seen in our management officeof Lewis Brothers Hardware and
when it was established on thedowntown square in Fayetteville
yeah, when was that?
That was in the late 1800s.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Okay, so A is out the window.
A is out the window.
This is just.
I'm good at this.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
You're 33% and I'm just putting a little value
there.
We're talking about familybusiness.
We talk about 78 years in thecar business.
It's been over 100 plus yearsfamily-wise.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, so 1836 is B, c is 1872, or D is 1893.
We'll circle back around tothat, so be thinking about your
guesses, you bet Well.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So we started off, shelby, and you were kind of
talking a general overview.
We were kind of firing each wayof like was it employees, was
it retention, was it pricing?
How much money stays in thecommunity, or what do your
sponsorships look like?
Let's take a little bit deeperdive in engagement into the
community.
You know one of the things wetalk about.
(17:50):
We have an entire marketingteam and the entire events
department too we talk about.
It's really important to usthat we not only write a check
to sponsor and to help out, butwe have boots on the ground as
well.
That's important to us.
It's not just because we'reblessed to be able to
financially help, but we want tohelp being there shaking hands,
(18:10):
handing out stuff.
Let's go through some examplesthere and your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's one of the most important things is not
just mail-in check.
I must say one of the latest,the first that I see, is around
Christmas time we had a bunch ofpolice officers coming in.
We had to make sure that no onewas getting arrested, but it was
great.
There's a bunch of resourceofficers from all different
departments and it's their Shopwith a Cop program.
I love that about it and that'salways fun, talking to them as
(18:38):
much as we can and saying, okay,how many students and how many?
So they all have a differentprogram and how many people they
help and how they help.
But they're able to take xamount of students and they work
with these schools to see hey,who doesn't have what they need
for christmas, and so we makepretty large donations to all
these different local policedepartments to be able to them
(19:01):
help out.
It's a really cool thing thatthere's kind of a zero
recognition thing and that's aokay right.
This is not advertising thatwe're doing.
This is helping out in thecommunity, yo, so they get to.
We get to empower them to thengo love on and help these local
young minds and they take themshopping.
(19:22):
It's so much fun some of theirstories.
They take them shopping andthey get to.
All right, here's a hundredhundred fifty dollars per kid
and they're like we, if we'vegot one that needs a little more
here they'll get, and that'sjust cool.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think that's one of those cases.
I agree with you.
We're not telling them tosplatter our name everywhere.
It's the right thing to do.
Yeah, and in in my mind, thereason that one's so special to
us is is not only it covers acouple, it allows kids that
aren't going to have anythingunder the Christmas tree or
maybe even a new coat.
It allows them to get that Okay.
And then, number two, it allowsthem to start a relationship
(19:59):
with police officers.
They may have come from a homewhere they were talked about
that police officers are notyour friend.
They're not here to protect andthat's the farthest from the
chair.
They just watch cops too much,yeah that's what they get the
bad rap you know, and which isnot the truth, and they're gonna
need their help at some pointtime.
So you kind of get a twofoldthere and this is talk about
they do it's cool policeofficers.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I say, guys, it's been across the board.
But they say, hey, as we startthat relationship, as we follow
them through high school or ifwe see them out in the town,
yeah, they're like, hey, so andso, hey, how you doing, and it's
just a good relationship andthere's great enjoyment to that
there is, I'll tell you one ofmine and then, taylor, I'll let
you take it from there.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Um, my career in sports is you know, there's
nothing to put on the the wall.
Okay, I'm gonna start inbaseball.
Okay, that's the one you'rethinking I was going to talk
about.
I know I can see the look onyour face.
Okay, so my baseball career itended pretty quick after it
started, like in the elementaryyears.
But, I'm pretty sure nowthere's an A and a B team.
(21:02):
I played in the outfield Okay,right field, I think, is where
they put all the other players.
What team were you on?
The Prairie Grove Tigers?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
No which A.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Were you on the A or the B?
Okay, so I was on the A, whoa,and I had no reason I should be
on the A.
Okay, I really think they didit so that Dad would sponsor the
team.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm just saying this is before Under Armour and all
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I'm just saying because my hats, you know, they
said the Louis Ford.
You know what I mean, dad gum,and the reason I bring that up.
I kind of wish I would havebeen on the B team so I would
have got to play some more, butI was on the A team and the
coaches and so on and so forth.
But the reason I say that is itreally drives home on.
You know there are kids andlittle league teams and
(21:48):
sponsorships and this and thatthat these coaches are trying to
help develop these kids tounderstand dedication and hard
work and teamwork.
They need sponsors becausethey're all volunteers.
They're not getting sponsorsfrom the big box places.
No, they can't, they just theycan't.
I mean the room where you got togo through and I get it at a
(22:08):
large scale there, but theycan't get the jerseys, covers
and the hats and the this andthe that.
Go around, look at your nextT-ball event or your soccer deal
at Kessler next time you go to,or the football, and look who's
on the shirts.
You know what I mean.
Who's on the hats?
It's the local businesses.
They Local businesses.
They're supporting those tokeep them going, really for
(22:29):
development, not just for therecognition.
Do people get to see?
Yeah, they do, but they'redeveloping leaders for tomorrow
through those.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's a fun thing with those kids thinking about
that, and we've always loved itand talked about it, whether
it's a football camp that we getto sponsor or any little league
team or a basketball crew.
And it's funny because it opensthe door, because everyone
comes in, and so we kind of havean algorithm and there's two
(22:58):
checks and balances, becausethere's a lot of people that
come in looking for money and ifyou're a negative person we
generally aren't you're likegood night, everybody just wants
money and just walks throughthe front door.
But look at the alternate.
What if they didn't?
Absolutely right, and so thethe.
When people are asking for it'sso much fun because you've
never smiled so much untilyou've seen a little kid.
(23:20):
Yeah, I had a little leaguegame, but then later he's
running around with his friendswith all three of my boys I've.
There's some kids and there'sthere's one kid that likes to
hang out with my youngest son,and I saw him in buying a car
with his dad and I was like, hey, davis.
I was like, hey, man, you need acouple new Lewis hats, oh yeah.
And so then his dad was tellingme later at a baseball game
(23:40):
he's like man, you've got tohire that kid.
He's your number one advocatebecause he's always hollering
and I'll look up whether he's atchurch and here he is with his
lowest just around.
Because if you can, if you canlove on a youngster, then they
understand you're here to helpthem.
And it just grows and they'rejust, they're your number one
fan.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, that's good, that's good for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah, growing through the community is huge.
Whenever you see anybody,anybody that's figured it out
with parents and we love it, Ilove it.
I love seeing a kid come in andbe passionate about something,
because we remember that growingup you remember going through
everything but we love beingable to support that.
So, whether it's any of theyouth stuff of baseball,
(24:22):
football, soccer, anything here,I love all of that.
But you know, the other funthing we do that you get a whole
lot of response from is all ofour different golf tournaments.
Now we don't even play golf.
Nope, we'll go play golf andI'll lose more balls and I'll
hit straight.
But you know, I have a fun timeabout it.
(24:42):
But I always love hearing of astory.
We've got a picture that justpopped up the other day but uh,
and I believe it was uh, one ofoh the sheriff, washington
county sheriff's tournament but,we were sponsoring it, a part
of it and a cool picture thatpopped up on it of uh they uh
took a picture because the balllanded on the windshield of the
mustang.
We're at the at the giveaway asfar as uh, I think it was a
(25:06):
hole-in-one there's ahole-in-one on the windshield?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
yes, but it was a hole-in-one.
It was a hole-in-one on thewindshield, yes, but it was a
hole-in-one sponsored.
It was a hole-in-one.
They were supposed to hit it inthe T-hole and they were aiming
it on the windshield.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
What do you mean?
Like it just hit the windshield, no she planted it in the
windshield, so she hole-in-oneon the windshield, so the golf
ball hit the windshield shieldstuck in it.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
We had to figure out something cool to do With Inhole
and One though we sponsor abunch of those because it's a
lot of fun all the local things,I think three or four different
cars that we've been able togive away In local we had a
field goal kicking contest.
We looked at the guy fromFarmington and kicked a field
goal on that.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, we've given away a couple different Mustangs
.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, that have been huge.
Yeah, we've given away a coupledifferent Mustangs.
Yeah, that have been huge.
I mean, and these are localpeople pouring back into the
local community that get to winthese things like factual real
deal, winning these vehicles andtaking them.
So that's so much fun to see.
The other side of it love inthe schools.
This started with Fayettevillebut we all love football, love
(26:07):
being a part of it.
It has been really fun to growover the years and be able to
sponsor new fields.
Oh, that's fine.
We all went to good old PrairieGrove best Bermuda grass that
you've ever seen and it's takencare of.
It is Shout out to them thislast year of getting in.
But the best new AstroTurffield AstroTurf was unheard of
(26:29):
whenever we all went throughschool it was only in collegiate
fields or anything else.
So that's been so fun to startwith the fayetteville and then
you know it's branched tofarmington and elkins and
prairie grove and growing fromthere.
That's so much fun because thenI hear from people in the
community they're like, hey, thenew field, that's awesome
because we got to put our logoon it.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
At the ground level.
Think about being a studentathlete at that time, thinking
you're about to be the next TonyRolfe.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Patrick Mahomes, michael Jordan.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Giving them that brand new field.
That's cool, never in our logobut it makes you play better,
makes you feel better.
It's somewhat like the otherday uh, farmington and elkins
both went to state playoffs.
That's so good, and it was anopportunity that I saw.
It was cold as all get out andI remember it was like, hey,
(27:26):
here's an opportunity to love onthese kids at a young level and
I just mean like, make themfeel special.
Right, life's rough enough,like let's help them feel
special.
And so I called a local, alocal company, a lady that helps
me out, and I said hey, you gotabout two days, can you make me
250 of these?
And she's like uh, yeah, sure.
(27:46):
And so then I called thatathletic director.
He's like, hey, hey, can youhelp us?
He's like oh, wow, why wouldyou do that?
I was like, why not Like thesekids?
So we made beanie hats for allthese players and the coaches
and they just, it's just fun todo and that's your dollar.
Staying here, that is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That is.
That's the fun part there.
Let's get next.
I want to talk about aidstations at races, because it's
not only do we support itfinancially, but the atmosphere
and what the image we leave inpeople's minds, and then after
that we're going to just thenunpack how we filter through
that to help business ownersthat get a water request.
(28:24):
So let's talk about aidstations.
What I'm talking about aidstations here.
If you go to your local 5k halfmarathon marathon, you'll run
by and it's the place they havewater or gatorade.
That's usually what they gotwater that's what the race gives
you know, and they may havesome like goo packets or some
gummy bears.
So when we go now, we've had tonarrow down how many aid
stations we do, because if youhaven't learned this about us
(28:47):
yet, we're all in.
People like we're all in, we'reon, we're really, we're
embarrassed if we're not all in.
If we go somewhere, we justbarely show up.
So all of us are there, allright, and we bring it all.
Yeah, all, because we know whenthey come through our aid
station one we're going're goingto encourage them, but then,
(29:07):
two, they're going to have asmall glimpse of the culture we
have within the dealership outon the trail.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
We get to bring it to them.
And there's a couple things ifwe have requests we just had a
text this morning it was likehey, would you guys like to
bring your thunder to this race?
And that's what they said,wasn't it?
Yes, because they know it isright and we've taken over some
full events.
But so then there's a couplethings.
If we do commit to it, it'slike okay, we get to pick which
(29:36):
aid station.
It is sure we need the mostvisibility to the people we need
to be able to set up becausewe're going.
We're talking about multiplevehicles yes, we're talking
about six or seven speakers,lights, a couple tents yes.
And then there's some thingsthat we asked from the race.
Was that, hey, we need a fullrundown of all your runners with
the bid numbers and their names?
Yes, because we're going tohave microphones and we're going
(29:57):
to shout their names out.
Oh, yeah, so we haverecognition for the people
feeling special out there,sweating it out, loving on those
people there.
What about the food?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So the food and Taylor's going to take over here
in just a second.
The food is above and beyond.
It's not just the goo packetsNecessity.
We go look for anything andeverything and we cater to
everybody in the race the eliterunners at the front, oh yeah,
okay and then the mid-packers,and then the people that are
just out having a good time,that want to enjoy it.
(30:28):
So what all could they findwhen they came through one of
our aid stations?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
there's everything and you're thinking, ah, it's
real healthy or anything else.
Now they incorporated, me said,to make sure and get some stuff
that was completely off thepage.
So you're talking oreos, honeybuns, double decker oatmeal,
cream pies.
Uh, you know, the biggest dealfrom this last race we just went
through Was it Starburst, whatwas it?
(30:52):
Nerds?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
The nerds, the nerd gummies, or whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
The people were going nuts over, but we're talking
donuts, donuts, chocolate, andyou just throw them at people.
If anything, they just laugh.
And it's another way to share avision of hey, have the
absolute most fun you can have,no matter what you're doing.
And a quick little insight weabsolutely love doing that
Because Matt said we get to pourover our passion from where we
(31:18):
work at in there and it is crazy.
Blown speakers.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, you've got inflatables Fog machines, fog
machines and all this stuff40-foot gorillas, all the stuff
40-foot gorillas, all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So when you come in you sure we talked about the bib
number, we learned this through, you know, doing some Ironmans
and this, and that We'll havepeople on walkie-talkies and we
set them up.
You know, a couple blocks awayfrom our aid station They'll
walkie-talk back to us hey, 68,talk back to us.
Hey, 684 is coming in.
(31:51):
We'll look it up on the listand we know that's bob.
Yeah, we know that's sarah, andwe're like hey, everybody
welcome sarah to the lewisstation and they come through in
their head.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Their mind is blown, it's blown and so why this all
makes sense, like, okay, whywould you do that?
It's a, it's an opportunity,because we've been on the other
side of it.
We've been in that race thateither had a whole lot of
excitement and you remember it,yes, you know, like hey, route
(32:18):
66, when they had the spin bikesout there or you've been to a
race and you're like, golly, Iprobably should have just saved
myself 70 bucks and just rainfor my front door.
And so we get to take ourculture that's an everyday all
out and all the time culture andtake it somewhere else and
transplant it.
Yes, and they're just likethere's those lowest people
(32:40):
again, there's those lowestpeople again.
And so then when we finish thatlike hero half, when we get to
do that aid station, they comethrough us twice strategically
and then we take our stuff tothe finish line.
Everyone says those are thoseguys.
I feel a little bit bad for theraces and the race directors
because there might be morerah-rah at the nine.
(33:03):
There is, there is at thefinish line, and so we had to
help miles like you need a dj?
Yeah, you need a timing mat soyou can call these people out
yeah, because we'll bring that,and so it allows us just to
bring our atmosphere so thatthey're like once again, like
the bar cheers just brought outthis guy and now he's hollering
from the curb like hey, buddy,and it's just fun, like life's
(33:25):
too short to not have fun.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's just fun Like life's too short to not have fun
, and so we take our atmosphereand go out into whatever events
that's so important to knowabout.
That we've hit.
But I have to recircle backaround and tell you none of this
would happen if you wrote thecheck, if you just wrote the
check.
It takes a little bit of buy-in.
You've got to be a part of it,so you're growing your business,
but none of that happens andit's so easy.
(33:51):
Yep, that writing the check isthe easiest part.
Yeah, so that's easiest part.
You're local, you're everythingelse you're pouring back in
there, but no one else does it.
And being a part of it andbeing on the ground is what
really makes a difference,because Ford's not writing the
check.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
they're not.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, you're not seeing the bigcompanies write the check, and
some of them are.
And to get their logo on theback of the shirt, and they can.
I'm going to give you this is atrader.
Hit them with it.
If you use it against me, thenit is what it is.
We'll do it better.
Some people will spend largemoney.
I'm and you got on the back ofthe shirt and that's all buster.
(34:31):
good job, yeah, good job,because when they're leaving
there, we're the ones presentingyeah, we're the presenting
sponsor, powered by because webrought the thunder yep and
they're remembering like, oh mygosh, that aid station was so
legit the lewis automotive aidstation, meanwhile, large brain
company, just spent 5x what wedid and they didn't even
recognize you.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
They didn't have the impact.
And I think that's a filter youneed to go through as a
business owner and say, before Ijust write all these checks,
why am I writing them?
You know what I mean.
If it's just to sponsor andhelp out, great.
But there needs to be a mix ofit, and there are some checks
that we write during the year.
You know that we help, that wedon't need the recognition for
we're not showing up and we'renot doing.
But you need to think aboutyour team, because we also will
(35:14):
take people out there.
It's not just the three of us.
We'll take people out there tokind of help get them out of
their shell and how to engageand how to network.
You know, with everything onsocial these days and digital
wise and behind the screen, thelost art of networking and
actually talking to somebody andconnecting to get emotions
involved, you know where, theyknow you, they like you and then
(35:36):
they can start trusting you.
That art gets lost and it's soeasy, especially when you're in
a situation like this where youpaid to get the stage to do it
and to be able to connect.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll tell you one of the otherareas that we need to hit on
real quick because this is theflip side of it we're kind of
hidden everywhere.
Is that, then, our engagement,like with leadership in the
(35:56):
chamber and our new conferenceroom?
Yeah, so, intentionally, whenwe built our new facility and we
actually took this from BlueCross, blue Shield, when we were
looking at their conferenceroom and their new building, it
was on ground level and it wasat the front and then they let
people sign up in the communityto use it.
You know that was our goal aswell.
(36:16):
Instead of the trainingfacility being on the second and
third floor, it was floor onewhere we could use all the
meetings, but then we could havelocal events there too.
You know, and so far we justgot done with a leadership event
there with all the leadershippeople through the chamber in
Fayetteville.
They could use our facility.
We got to talk, show themaround, love on them, do a
little branding, but then theygot to use that facility to grow
(36:37):
leaders in the area.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That empowered them to have a state-of-the-art
facility space to be proud ofthat they didn't have to pay
anything for, and so it allowsthem to have a big impact.
You bet, and we say, yeah,absolutely, that's a cool thing
of something that we worked hardto be able to help out there.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I know we've spent a bunch of time here, but this
part's important.
The last part I want to give asa tip here, just to let
everybody know.
You're like okay, matt, I hearyou, I hear you, we get a ton.
Maybe some of y'all don't getany requests, maybe some of you
get thousands of requests.
I want to talk to everybodythat starts getting a bunch
because we got to that stage.
You got to have some filtersand it's pretty simple.
You know we've got an emailtemplate that then goes out to
(37:17):
somebody or a hard copy.
They're like hey, we needsponsorship for this cheer deal
or this or that, and it's just asmall rundown, and then they
have to email us back just somebasic information When's it
going to take placeApproximately, how many people
will be there, what type ofexposure do we get?
And make it simple It'll weedout a bunch of them that won't
(37:38):
even take the time to send youan email back.
And if whoever you'responsoring will not take the
time to send you an email backand answer just a couple small
questions, you don't have towrite a book on it.
They're not a good partnershipfor you.
Yeah, yes, you know Absolutely.
So that's important.
Put that together.
It's easy, hey.
If you need help with that,just reach out.
We'll send you our template.
You know what I mean.
We're more than happy to helpyou there.
(38:02):
All right, we got Incorporated.
All right, I gave you a littleinsight because of Lewis
Brothers Hardware there.
But here's your choices.
It was A 1906, b 1836, c 1872,or D 1893.
We already threw A out.
What's the answer?
What's it looking like?
1836.
B 1836.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
189 years ago.
Wow, fabulous grade, isn't it?
Oh yeah, no ago.
Wow, fable's great, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Oh yeah, no doubt, wow, so no doubt it's seen it
all, seen it all going throughthere.
Hey, we've delved into being inthe community.
We've delved in engagement inthe community and so many
different fun things that youget from being part of that.
How does the communityengagement drive success and
more business?
That's the most important partthat you're talking about.
(38:50):
So, going over comparing othertypes of marketing efforts and
the differences, and how doesthis generate success within the
business?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I think that's really important and you got to look
at it through a different lensand a different scope is that,
you know, these races we're atlike are we immediately going to
sell a car right then duringthe race, do we have a banner
that says 10,000 off this or 0%there, or oil changes open?
No, we don't.
There's different layers ofmarketing.
You got to think about this asa business owner.
A lot of those sponsorships arejust brand awareness.
(39:20):
They're brand awareness andit's no different than, like, if
you're fishing, you know howyou chum the water.
You always go out there and youfeed the fish.
We're just getting brandawareness.
So when it does come up, or weserve them an ad, or it is time
for them to purchase a vehicleor get their vehicle service,
they have their.
Oh yeah, I heard of them.
Remember, they were at thatevent.
Remember, yeah, they sponsoredso-and-so's t-ball event.
(39:41):
Or, yeah, we were just on thefield the other day.
Or we were in that leadershipin their conference room the
other day.
You just create this awarenessof what we call marketing.
You become more sticky.
Yep, you know you become moresticky there.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Absolutely.
What about, like we have in asmall plug real quick?
We finished the year well intoour region as far as being
number two in the region in EVsales and nationally ranked
almost in the top five ofelectric vehicle sales.
A lot of our electric vehiclesales have come from any of the
events.
Being at that we're doing whatat the events with our wrapped
(40:15):
lightning.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
They were powering all the stuff, so the seven
speakers and all the lights andthe fog machines.
All the stuff, so the sevenspeakers and all the lights and
the fog machines.
It's a really cool way thatwe're able to use our product to
be able to do what we like todo, and then we get to show it
off real world Like no, thisisn't for sale, we're not trying
to sell it to you, just like.
This is how it works.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, and I have people that come in from the
events, whether it be a powerboost or a lightning in their
light.
We got to drive it, we got toone take and go be through the
event and then we got to see areal world of how it powered and
how it went through.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So being able to be in the, so I think, the biggest
thing to understand there as abusiness.
You might be thinking, okay,one, how do I measure it?
If you're a data person in theKPI?
Well, let me go ahead and spoilyou that you really can't.
I mean you can.
You could hand out an offerthat was like use this code,
herohaff, for an extra $500 offor 10% off your service.
(41:12):
So you could do that.
You can measure a little bit.
So let me say you can, butmajority time you cannot.
But, like Matt was talking aboutbeing being sticky, you're just
able to be relevant.
So when it's time that, whenit's important to them.
So don't look for immediatesuccess off of that, but it does
allow you to just be wellenough in it.
And I another cool event thatwe've done is start uh teachers
(41:37):
wish list.
I was gonna bring that uh, sothe teachers wish list.
When it's time for a new schoolyear to come, we understand
that they don't get the fundingfor all the supplies that they
need, and so that was a coolthing for us to take local
teachers.
That's not just sponsoring theschool.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
It's not just sponsoring a grade, it's
specifically that teacher and sowe're not even going to tell
them that we're just going to goin that cart and that's
something that we'll spendupwards of $20,000 of buying
this teacher, that it's wellover 150 to 200 teachers that
will buy their specific itemsand it just ships directly to
(42:14):
their door and then we do ateacher car wash.
You know we'll do a teacherappreciation and that's another
bandwidth thing of like we canonly do X amount because the
three of us plus our team getsout there and hand scrubs and
washes and tire shines and putsan air freshener and it's just a
full situation awareness.
Like, once again, these peopleare different.
(42:35):
This wasn't a one-hit-one, orthis isn't this one person that
shows up with a $5 oil change.
Or this isn't this one personthat spent a bunch of money in
this area.
We're not sponsoring like therazorbacks is a whole thing, but
, jay, we're going locally wherethe dollar gets to stay where
it makes sense.
So when that person needssomething, help automotive wise.
(42:55):
They're like man I've theseguys just keep popping up and
they continue to help us out andso that that's the local thing
of why it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I think the word there would be intentional and I
think when you think about whoyou're sponsoring or what you're
doing, be intentional about itand if you're going to do it you
know we've always talked aboutyou know if we're going to do it
, we need to do it Absolutely.
You know we need to be teachersand, as we did our research, it
(43:28):
was like if we try to funnel itthrough the schools or through
the association, no differentthan the hundred dollars I
talked about at first, onlycertain percentages are going to
go to them.
You got, and it takes work andeffort, you know.
So maybe sometimes we deletesome so we can be more
intentional.
What we do with a bigger impact, yeah, but I think, from the
marketing side, when they starttalking about, hey, how does
that equal business, or why areyou doing that?
(43:48):
You've got to look at marketingin these layers, these layers,
and you can't just too manypeople, especially small
business, when you can't maybeyou've only got a crew of five
or 10, you can't step back andreally look at the correct
approach.
You save up a little money andyou throw an ad out there and
you're like, hey, it didn't work.
The world of marketing it takesall of it and this local stuff.
(44:10):
Not only do you connect withpeople, so you grow your network
, you start growing what I wastalking about of this brand
awareness.
So then, when it is time forthem to do business uh've got to
reference this movie because Ilike talking about this movie,
and if you hadn't watched it,the movie is called Focus, with
Will Smith in it.
So this movie, they go throughthe same thing.
They're branding, they'rebranding the image in front, the
(44:31):
image in front, until he getsready to place this large bet.
That seems like no way anybodycould ever win.
You know, they're at a footballgame.
They're at a football game.
Well, he predetermines thenumber of the jersey because all
day long they've been puttingthat number in front of this
person, from the time they pickit up at the airport, so on and
so forth.
If you haven't watched it, gowatch it.
But it's the same thing.
They were making brandawareness, brand awareness,
(44:52):
brand awareness.
And then, when it was time topull the withdrawal, they had
done the homework, they had madethe deposits, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
So it becomes intentional when you think it's
just on a whim, it's not so muchon the way, it's not.
There's a reason that theypulled into your business versus
someone else's business.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's right.
I'll tell you one thing.
We have had to learn, thoughand this was an awareness and we
found this really when we gotinto running at all the
different local road races isjust because you did something
or you sponsor something 20years ago or 30 years ago or 40
years ago, especially innorthwest arkansas, doesn't mean
that everybody knows today.
We were, we were caught in thatrut.
(45:31):
We've been over 78 years.
You know iconic of our storesright there on college helping
everybody out, and we would goto races up in Bentonville or
Rogers, and you know these longraces.
Hey, where do you work?
Where do you live?
What do you do?
And the amount of people wouldbe like, well, where's the
litmus located at?
What do you all do?
And it was like mind-blowing.
(45:53):
What do you mean?
What are we doing where we werelocated?
But, those were new peoplemoving in here and we started
having to really think aboutthat.
When we look at the projectionof we're going to a million
people in Northwest Arkansas, wegot more people that live here
now than that grew up here.
Yeah, how you have to continueto do that because everybody's
hit with so much marketing everyday.
(46:13):
You got to stay with it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
It's no different than like social media or Google
like in order to stay relevantand stay on the first O of
Google instead of being 12 deep,you have to stay on the top of
that.
So don't be frustrated, don'tbe aggravated, just adapt.
You just have to adapt Like.
You have to adapt and you haveto stay after it and then just
understand that you've spent thetime or put the effort into it
(46:37):
or spent the money so that youcan be considered as part of the
conversation, but it's not aguarantee that they're coming to
you and going to buy from you.
You still, you've earned theopportunity there it is, but
then you have to be able to thenearn and tell them why it makes
sense that they did come to you.
(46:57):
Don't think because I sponsoredthis, yes, or that's like some
of the nil deals that otherpeople talk about or do then
they think like I own thatperson.
No, you own the opportunity tobe able to take care of that
person.
So don't ever get too high andmighty on that because I sponsor
this, because I do that, andthat person should have to come
me and have to do that.
(47:18):
No, you get the opportunity andthen you get to wow them with
your overall experience andcustomer service and doing what
you're saying and doing, followup with the correct things.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
I think that's important.
I hope everybody heard whatShelby just went over there.
Don't get frustrated and knowyour position.
You don't own them.
You still have a responsibility.
You just got the opportunityand number two.
Just because you sponsoredsomebody last year group doesn't
(47:48):
mean you have to keep doing it.
You know, one of the things wedo and we review is how was that
partnership?
You know, not only did I'm notasking how many cars did that
say no, it was like two-sided.
Was it two-sided?
Were they there?
Did they support, did they giveus exposure?
Did they do what they said theywere going to do?
The people around, where was itwho we were trying to support?
And some of them we cut tiesand then we reinvested and
that's okay, that's okay.
So just don't get caught inthat rut either.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
You hit the nail on the head and I think the biggest
deal to be able to come off ofthat is look and see in your
avenue what you can reallydouble down on and what you're
passionate about outside of yourbusiness, of being able to pour
back into, and then you willsee that multiplication factor
come up.
Hey, the business isn't goingto happen right now, but
whenever they come aroundneeding to know business, you're
(48:32):
going to be in the area,they're going to know about you
and they're going to do business.
But time to do a fun fact asfar as frequently asked question
.
Start with Matt.
What is your favorite eventeach year to be involved in?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
You know, when I read this I was like I'm going to
sound like one of thoserecording artists out there when
they say what's your favoritesong you've ever recorded?
Because we do a whole lot ofcool events.
I'm going to tell you too.
So I would say the first one isour teacher event.
You know, we do our teacherexpo and we're able to talk
about our wish list there, we'reable to give back, and the
(49:07):
reason is is because I'mpassionate about, I know those
teachers are pouring into theleaders for tomorrow.
You know the Thin Elk come workfor us and we've all been there
and we had teachers, you know,in our life that helped shape us
.
So that's a favorite of mine.
And then number two is a recentad in the past couple of years
was our Beast of Burden 24-hourevent out of Mount Kessler,
where it's a running and bikingevent, and the reason I like
(49:29):
that one is for 24 hours we'rejust hammering them with our
culture and our environment.
And I mean I don't have enoughtime to tell you about it all,
but it's amazing.
I don't have enough time totell you about it all, but it's
amazing.
That's all I got to say.
It's amazing when you come inand we've hit you with nine
powered PA speakers and thesubwoofers and the fog and the
(49:50):
lights and the arch.
We're on the mic hammeringpeople.
It's something else.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Shelby, what about one of the most memorable events
you've been a part of?
I would say?
You know, definitely, beast ofBurden is a fun one because
you're fully committed for 24hours.
But outside of that, we didanother race a couple years back
.
There was a national race.
Oh yeah, it was good, it was aSpartan.
It was the US Championship race.
That's right For the trail race.
(50:21):
Yeah, for the trail race.
And it was the, uh, uschampionship race.
That's right for the trail race.
Yeah, for the trail race.
And it was right aroundhalloween, uh.
So we got to uh, get somevolunteers from work to come out
and help us, and they know ifthey've been a part of it's a
good time.
If they haven't been a part ofit, we, you know, kind of give
them some proof.
So we got to.
There was a night race, a night10k, and so we got to support
this race and we said, hey, putus in the woods.
(50:43):
We don't want to be on the roadand it was a trail race, but
there were some road spots.
So we got to set up christmaslights, blow up arch, and it was
kind of the the prequel beforethe next longer race, but uh, so
everyone was in costumes, andso then we had our same walkie
talkies and we got to call outpeople's names, and, uh, in the
costumes, it was a good time, uh.
And so then we had our samewalkie-talkies and we got to
call out people's names, and uh,in the costumes, it was a good
(51:06):
time, uh.
And so then the next day was alonger race, a 50k, and so we
kind of did the same thing overagain, but taylor was cooking
quesadillas for people, like webrought out all the stuff, and
so it was just fun that thoseand we say that of teacher
events or these races, it'sbecause of the atmosphere we
just get to bring and it's notlike superficial of, like man,
(51:28):
what are you guys doing?
Like, how do you get rowdy likethat?
Speaker 1 (51:31):
It's just because it's what we do and it's fun to
be able to take what we do andthen transplant that in these
people, and then they're likeokay, and then people hanging
out with us long enough, it'slike yeah, I guess that's what
you guys do you know, you know,every once in a while, when you
do those things and you back upand we all hype each other about
, about up and like, hey, youdid a good job and this and that
(51:52):
, but it's, it's good sometimesto get that feedback and I'll
tell you, and I'll let you tellthe story, is that the feedback?
You know a a professionalrunner that came to the
championship.
You know Mike Wardian, who'sran across America, all the rest
of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
He came through there to our aid station and then
gave us a shout-out on social Iwas fired up and he's ran seven
marathons in seven continents inseven days and ran across
America and the AppalachianTrail record.
He's like man.
That was one of the best aidstations I've ever been to and
taylor was feeding him stuffthat he didn't even know what
was in there, but he was firedup.
(52:28):
It's just like the atmosphere,yeah, and the excitement, and
that's so much fun.
We just recently did a manager'sretreat where we got to take
some of our managers and got tobe away from work and, uh, got
to the expose and it's the samething.
It was the excitement, it wasthe fun, it was the love that we
constantly have, but it wasaway from work and they're all
(52:50):
just smiling with stories andthat was so much fun and this
and it was nothing you know,like crazy off the shelf and a
crazy amount of money.
It was just the excitement thatwe're able to bring, and so
that's we want to bring that toyour event.
You bet you know, and so that'smost memorable.
That would be.
You know a couple of those.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
Absolutely.
Hey, wrapping it up there.
Great thing we went over today,going over all the ins and outs
sponsoring local, being local,being engaged in your community.
Make sure and check us outthere at lewissuperstorecom, or
always checking out the previouspodcast at
crossroadconversationspodcastcom.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it
a like.
Share it with your friends andfamily.
You can visit our website.
Send us the questions aboutwhat you want to know, what you
want to hear.
Tell us about the automotiveindustry, family business in
general.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you have.
But make sure you tune in nexttime where we bring in another
guest and we talk more about theautomotive industry and all the
(53:53):
great things going on withinour business.
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