Ep. 29 - How to Build Business Connections That Last

What's the difference between working hard and working connected? We learned this lesson the hard way – spending years with our "plow in the ground" before discovering the exponential power of strategic networking. 

In this candid conversation we reveal how we transformed from heads-down workers who never left the dealership into connected business leaders whose network built our automotive empire. We share practical strategies for networking as an introvert, selecting the right events to attend, and leveraging the "know you, like you, trust you" principle to build relationships that generate business for decades.

We don't hold back on our early mistakes, including Shelby's admission that "getting started is the hardest part" and Matt's regret about burning bridges with potential partners. Our vulnerability creates a masterclass in proximity power – showing how we secured multi-million dollar deals for our new dealership construction through relationships developed at chamber events, charity functions, and community involvement.

You'll learn our tactical approach to "speed dating" at networking events (and how to escape conversations that aren't valuable), why we bought ice cream for 250 construction workers in 100-degree heat, and our counter-intuitive strategy for winning back customers who bought vehicles from competitors.

Whether you're a business owner looking to expand your influence or a professional wanting to advance your career, this episode delivers actionable insights about creating connections that last. We prove that true networking isn't about collecting business cards – it's about planting trees that will provide shade for generations to come.

Ready to transform your approach to business relationships? Listen now and discover how to build a network that works even when you don't.

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!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with
the Lewis Brothers, where weaim to share real stories about
running a successful familybusiness, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community that keeps our
door open.
We're your hosts, matt Shelbyand Taylor, and we bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe

(00:23):
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.
Hey, welcome back to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers.
We're excited to be with youtoday.
Today's going to be a coolsubject.
We're back.
It's going to be on networkingand the power of networking.
I'm going to give you anewsflash, though.
You're going to want to listento the whole thing because I
know myself I always have been agreat networker, and we're

(00:46):
going to talk about how thatevolves and, as a leader, how
you identify areas you need togrow in, and networking is
definitely one of those.
So grab your favorite cup ofcoffee, join in with us as we
get started.
Today, we're going to talkabout the why, the who, the
where and, beyond just localbusinesses, who you should
connect with, how to connectwith them.
Beyond just local businesses,who you should connect with how

(01:07):
to connect with them and thenhow to use that to grow, not
only your personal business, butwhatever business that you work
in, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Hey, in a recap from last week the good and the bad,
that's talking of daily habits,that's talking of good and bad
habits and that's talking aboutbreaking them before they break
you and you acknowledge whetherthere's something good that's
pushing you forward or evensometimes is a bad habit that
you don't think is affecting you.
We really dove into that so youcould see how it affects your

(01:35):
daily life and how it makes youmore successful.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
So dive back into that last week, as well as the
previous episodes that areavailable online, and also check
us out at lewissuperstorecomhey, our favorite part that we
like to bring to you is relevantto what we're talking about,
but what we currently do andwhat we offer is what did we
drive to the podcast today?
So today we're talking off-road, but we're talking huge value.

(02:00):
So the king of off-road withinthe ford community is the bronco
round, that is, three good,three liter eco boots.
Of off-road within the fordcommunity is the bronco rounder.
That is three good, three litereco boots.
Okay, off-road suspension, sixinches wider factory 37 inch
tire, some extra bracing withinthe chassis and a roll cage,
upgraded recaro seats, pan tomatch finners, pan to match roof

(02:21):
.
It is the ultimate off-roadmachine.
Fun fact for you Ford justswept the entire podium at King
of the Hammer.
That's a big one, which is oneof the hardest off-road races
out there, and so they were inthree different classes and they
swept the podium with the FordBronco.

(02:42):
So they're full speed into it.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
So we're talking about a bronco raptor three
liter eco boost, all thehorsepower, all the suspension,
but at a pretty dang good valuehey, you know, one of the things
I like about the bronco raptorwe all kind of grew up, and a
lot of you listeners did as wellis adding aftermarket stuff,
customizing vehicles, and you'dcustomize suspension or engines
or transmissions or shocks orwhatever it is.

(03:05):
You take the bronco raptor andthey've made it all work
together.
You know, because we've all puta turbo on this or changed the
rear end gear or a different kmember bigger tire when they
prefer tires and, like you,spend forever getting it to all
jive.
You know, so ford has taken,and not only is it a big motor
in it, you know, they not onlyput the fantastic suspension,

(03:25):
but king of the hammers is agreat example of that, of where
they have live valve suspensionthat adjusts to the terrain.
So that's the rocks, yep, orit's the high speed, whoops.
It adjusts on the fly, wherebefore you'd have to get out
there if you're used to the oldranchos and change the dials and
this and that figured out, justnot only that.
Then they widen the suspension,and what comes with that too is

(03:46):
you really need wider flares,where most of us widen the
suspension, the offset on wheels, and they're sticking out past
the vehicle.
Well.
Ford incorporates all that towork together and millions of
hours of testing, and you candrive it down the road with
comfort, or you can go 100 plusin the desert in it, or be a
king of the hammers and climbover all the rocks.
I love that it's out of the boxready to go.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
It is legit ready to go and you're going to have to
try pretty hard to breaksomething.
But this thing the reason webrought it because of all the
fun things that we talked aboutbut we have it at $20,000.
That's just crazy.
That includes the Jeep Conquest, because they're going after
that Jeep segment there youdon't even have to trade it.

(04:28):
But if you own a Jeep withinyour household, $20,000.
And we got a good selection butthey are flying off the shelves
.
You can see that All right.
Jumping into why networking isa game changer for small
business owners.
Yep, so we're talking aboutproximity, the networking, and

(04:48):
sometimes it's man you just getlike so hyper-focused with you
and the business and all thetasks at hand you don't slow
down to think about thenetworking.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
You really don't, and I'll use myself as an example
here.
I mean I can tell, tell you,because I've now been back in
the business, uh, like full-timein the business for 23 years,
22 years, something like thatokay, of like real deal, and I
can tell you for 10 plus yearsof that, so over half of it.
What I did is I came to workand I put my plow on the ground

(05:24):
and you couldn't distract me andI mean I worked harder than
anybody within our business andthere was success from that.
There was.
But I was losing the networkingoutside of the business and
that comes in two folds.
That comes in a networking ofgrowing your business through
retail sales, but it also comesthrough networking of connecting

(05:48):
with others that you want onyour team.
We've always talked about that.
Whether it be a piece of landor an employee or this or that,
those best deals, the bestconnections, the best hires,
they've come from networking,not from an ad out there on
Hireology or this or that, butfrom being around those people
networking.
So the word networking isreally broad.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
That's funny because I was going to say that that's
twofold, and that's so funnybecause it is understanding all
the people that you say thatthen they may need, like once
you build that connection withthose people, then and I was
telling somebody about that likeif I can show people how we do
business and how simple and easyand how fun and how transparent

(06:30):
and easy it is that you canshoot a text.
And I just got one this morning, as I was getting ready for
work, I got a text that hey, Ineed another truck for my
business.
I need it just like this one,outfitted like this one.
Let me know what you can find,find.
And so then it's just a coupletext messages hey, found it for
you.
Do you want this bed?
Do you want this bed?
Here's what the price point isfinance, got your paperwork, and

(06:50):
so then they show up and it'slike five minutes it's ready to
go, and then we deliver it tothem, right?
So that's the first phase ofnetworking.
Second phase of networking is ifyou only show up to work and
put your plow in the ground, youaccomplish a lot of good things
, but you never see an outsideperspective and it and it's fun
to get to learn otherlike-minded people, but with a

(07:13):
complete different.
They're on a different road, sothey're seeing different houses
, they're seeing differentperspectives.
And so there's this guy atchurch that I'll always talk to
is like hey, what's going on?
Another business owner Sure,same idea, same philosophy, but
just going down a different path.
And so we share back and forthof what this works or what that

(07:34):
works, and it's a totaldifferent perspective of just by
being in that right room notworking with the right people,
the thing I've talked about.
You can either learn ityourself through hard knocks or
find someone else who's done it,and when you give, they'll give
back to you and you get tolearn stuff they really will.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
It's, you know, we're just coming off of a Super Bowl
weekend a few weeks back and itwould be like if we had a
football team that was just twodimensional.
You know, if we just ran theball, yeah, we could be really
good at running the ball, butthat only get us so far, and so
we've had to learn networking.
So I'm just going to be verytransparent and honest out there
.
So everybody listening is notlike well, you know, if I was
like them and I grew up in thebusiness, we didn't grow up

(08:13):
learning how to network Really.
You know what I mean.
We would be around the people welearned how to hard work and
then we would look up and tellher you can talk about this, but
we'd see other people withinour business not our business,
but within our industry, thankyou, within our industry.
That would make a hire orthey'd make this out.
Where did they find them?
We know their culture's not asgood as ours.

(08:35):
Yes, we know they don't trainas well as we are.
How did they get the help?
And it came from networking.
Yeah, and you were really closeto some people that were much
better networkers than I, wasfor sure, and I was like dang,
I'm missing something there.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, the big is still there.
And we laugh about this becauseof hard work Passed on, learned
from our dad to Matt, to Shelby, to myself, of just hey, you
got to work and you go throughhere and we laugh about it all
the time.
It's like we never go to lunchYep, we never go to lunch.

(09:10):
Yep, we never go.
And rarely we'll go to dinneror anything else.
It's most of the time wheneverwe're at meetings or anything
else.
But we had to open up a littlebit of.
You have to be able to invitethat in of a productive dinner
or productive lunch.
That it's not, hey, we're justgoing to get lunch.
But as we talked about withthis other person that they
hired, it was all about going in.
They met them from a dinnerover here that they were talking

(09:31):
with this individual and thisguy ended up coming out.
It was a huge hire, somebodythey wouldn't have even ran
across without knowing that.
But you have to put yourself inthose situations so that it
helps build the opportunity,because you don't go into these
opportunities thinking, hey, I'mgoing to get an instant result
out of them.
Right now you're planting theseeds, so it's a thought, uh,

(09:54):
the idea, whenever it comesacross their desk or someone
else's that you made that impactwhenever you go and network
with them like wait, hold on,this might work great for the
lewis brothers.
Let me call them real quick,and we receive a lot of those
calls now.
They're like hey, I was justtalking so and so I can't help
them.
But can you?
You bet?

Speaker 3 (10:12):
that's the thing, if you can spread that culture.
And so we talk about networkingand so if we can get out our
philosophy and our game plan andthe simple theory of know us,
like us and trust Right, we havethat part here.
It's something we constantlytrain and work on internally,
but where we found a lot ofthese good networking, where we
constantly do find and it's areally cool thing is we talked

(10:34):
about giving back Some episodesback.
We talked about giving back tothe community, and the number
one thing we said was we don'tjust hand out checks, correct,
we go and work these events andthat's where the networking
naturally because I'll speak formyself that I'm naturally an
introvert In my business, that'snot you know.

(10:54):
So when it's game time, I'lltalk to whoever.
However, I'm happy to do that.
But then, like, I'm like Idon't want to talk to people,
but you go to these events andso then you're like, okay, I'm
going to leave my feelings inthe car, I'm going to go talk to
people and work this event, andthen you learn about the event
and you start rubbing shoulderswith all these other people and

(11:16):
then you realize, okay, thisperson good to know that person
might need them as a goodlaborer.
Then you're like, hey, thisperson, I'll say they have some
connections and I'm not workingthem from their connections.
I'm working them because theyhave good ideas and they've seen
something and they might'vealready been through something
that we've yet to see, yet tocome, and so then they

(11:37):
understand you can give somevalue, they can give you some
value back.
That's where we've got a lot ofgood connections.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
I would agree.
Now I'm gonna say and it mightbe because we're all family in
here, but I'm, you know for sure, an introvert and some people
would look at that and they'relike, hey, matt, you can get on
stage and talk to hundreds ofpeople.
That's a different realm, youknow.
But like for me to go out onthe town to all these networking
events, I have zero interest.
But I will tell you what we did.
Like if we're gonna do, we'regoing to do it.
I did learn this from from dadearly on when we were going to
nada about splitting up and itjust kind of it kind of migrated

(12:09):
over to if we go to a meetingor we go to a convention or we
go to any kind of night out, youwon't find the three of us
together in a corner talkingabout what's going on.
We always split up.
We tell our team the same thing.
If we're going to take some keyplayers with us to an event,
shelby and I or Taylor and I,don't need to be standing next

(12:30):
to each other talking tosomebody.
We can talk about that later.
We're there to connect withothers and we'll split up Now.
We might intervene at somepoint in time.
We'll bring somebody over.
We'll bring somebody over, likeif I find somebody that's
bringing a whole lot of value,then I bring them over and I'm
introducing them to you guys.
But if it's not a value, I'mmoving on and I'm going to tell

(12:52):
you guys later too.
Like hey, that person overthere don't necessarily invest a
whole lot of time there.
We have the same thing, like ifyou go to one of our 20 group
meetings with us, I tell my guysall the time and each of y'all
have heard me say this wheny'all have gone is, I said
during the first part of themeeting, you're picking out who
you're going to sit to duringlunch or during the breakout

(13:13):
sessions and who you're notgoing to Because you want to get
in the right network that youcan pour into.
But you're getting the samereciprocated back to you as well
.
So there's kind of the firsttip in networking.
When you go somewhere.
Now, when I do walk in the roomor one of the events I find
somebody I know yes, because I'mgoing to use them as a

(13:33):
springboard.
Plus, I need something to giveme some confidence, as I am an
introvert on how to get startedand feel good about it.
So if I find somebody that Ican talk to, that I know, that
knows these other people, that'sthe law of proximity, like, get
in the proximity, then they'llstart introducing.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
So that's your icebreaker.
That's tip number one.
That's your icebreaker.
Find someone.
Or, if there's not someone,find some type of common ground.
Yes, whether it be somethingthat they're wearing or an
activity that's going on,something to have common ground
with someone, to get your footin the door so you're not
awkward like Wayne Newton.

(14:11):
Oh yeah, you know, cousin Eddie,sure, like they need to know
that you're not there, just likesucking all the stuff from them
.
Yeah, you know.
So one, make sure to find yoursegue into that.
Sure, be part of that power ofproximity.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
And then share that with the rest of your team too.
So it's not like, no, you needto talk to them, we do the same
thing, run it too.
It's like, hey, go run withthem.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
So that's the funny thing, and I was going to bring
that up.
So, if there was a, you askedme, shelby, what's your best way
to network, or what I wouldpost.
Uh, I don't, and I I've donehundreds of interviews, right,
because it's what is needed formy job.
And someone started doing thisand I think it was in northwest
arkansas.
Uh, they had a podcast orsomething called business on

(14:53):
bikes, it was doug.
It was doug mcmillan, a ceo ofwalmart yes, that's what it was,
and I loved that idea.
And so and there's another guythat I follow that says, hey, if
somebody wants something for me, I invite them out for a hike
Yep, you know.
And so we've done that we had abackyard ultra race now a good
friend of ours that we run with.

(15:14):
Sure, this was years ago, andso Matt and I were running.
It was just 4.2 miles, so it's2.1 miles to around and come
back, and you would do thatevery single hour.
Miles, turn around, come back,and you would do that every
single hour.
So we knew we were going to bethere for hours, hours upon
hours.
Oh yeah, uh, day, whole day fora whole day, right, and so we
just kept running with differentpeople hey, where you from,
what do you do?
But while you're running,something about it just

(15:36):
completely takes away theawkwardness because you have
that common ground, thesimilarity, both out there
suffering, and I've had reallygood conversations on bike rides
.
If I find a common ground orsomething I like to do.
Then I had another guy that'sbought and sold a bunch of
businesses.
I said, hey, if you were everfree on a Wednesday, wanting to
go bike ride, I'd love to, andit's just like the greatest.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
So if you can have an activity that works for
multiple people, it's a goodsegue as well and taylor, I
would say probably you're thestrongest of the three of us on,
as you know, on networkingthere, especially when it is
like, hey, so-and-so's going todinner, they have this event to
go to.
You're jumping on and you'renetworking there, which is a
stronger area that you have thandefinitely that I have, but

(16:21):
that's open doors andopportunities.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Oh, it's been huge there, and it's probably more so
anything of being able to getin there and share no different
than what we were talking about,Just kind of share the
shortened version vision of whatour business is, how it's grown
, how we're centered in themarket.
But it's just whenever you findthat atmosphere whether it's

(16:44):
exercising, whether it's goingto an event, whether it's going
to dinner or anything else thatis your icebreaker that
definitely brings down any ofthe walls.
So that's definitely been bigthere that we've seen a whole
lot of opportunities come from.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
They do and I want to talk about this part with
networking just for a secondlike what it equals.
One of the things that Shelbybrought up earlier that we talk
about in our business are thesethree questions.
So these three questions.
Every single, either customeror potential employee will ask
these three questions.
They don't ask them out loud,but they'll ask these three
questions before they eitherentrust you to go to work for

(17:22):
you or they entrust you withtheir money to do business with
you.
And they ask these threequestions do I know this person?
Do I like this person?
I could not be around.
I don't invite them over forchristmas, but can I be around
them?
And then, can I trust them?
I know you, like you and trustyou.
So when you start developing anetwork, they're already
answered those questions.
So it's prime time.

(17:43):
So when it's time to dobusiness with them or hire them,
they've already answered thosethree questions.
So then they turn into anybodyin business out there that's had
a repeat or referral.
Those are your best typecustomers.
They already know what toexpect, so on and so forth.
Networking allows you to takethat and expand it 100x, 500x,
10,000x out there.
So all these people know you,like you and trust you, so then

(18:06):
they'll do more business withyou.
So that's a big thing.
And then when you start lookingat networking, think about it a
hub and spoke approach, allright.
So so you're the hub and you'vegot to get all these spokes off
of there.
And we're going to use anexample from the Superbowl that
happened just a week or so agoand talk about what happened
there with our network on social, on social, before we go into

(18:31):
that.
And shelby has the data on it.
But some people have questionwhether networking is still
relevant and I think that'sfarthest from the truth.
And the reason they bring thisup is because they say, well,
all the social platforms and allof this and that people will
get off their phone.
So the art of networking iskind of died and I'm like hang

(18:52):
on, think about that for asecond.
How many social influencers outthere?
They're building the networkand awareness to do business
with it's just a different way.
It's just a different channel.
That's in the newspaper.
It's just a different way.
It's just a different channel.
That's in the newspaper.
It's not the newspaper anymoreof everybody influencing you,
it's your phone.
Yeah, you know, and it's thoseconnections.
So you just got to figure itout.
It's no different than usselling a car.

(19:13):
People we used to advertise inthe newspaper and then they'd
call us.
Well, now they look online andthen connected that with our
social on a single day and whatthat looked like when we
branched our spider web andnetworking.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah.
So we put it all together, tiedit all back, and so we were
looking at some metricsyesterday morning so that would
be Monday morning after theSuper Bowl.
We kind of started this wholeprocess like midday Saturday,
saturday evening, how prominent,hey, we're going to have a
Super Bowl commercial and here'swhat it looks like.

(19:53):
So we launched that and here'ssome metrics.
So from Saturday through Mondaymorning, of the video alone, it
had 51,000 total reach, 51,310,47,000 views and 55 clicks.
Now, if you take the actualpost of where we said, hey,
we're going to have a commercial, and then had the commercial,

(20:16):
and you combine Lewis FordChrysler and Springdale Ford's
excuse me Facebook pages, thesenumbers are pretty ridiculous
for our small scale, smallbusiness or, for sure, for
single posts.
Total reach was 177,110.
Was total reach With 332,000views.

(20:37):
Eyeballs.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
So of that 332, just to give everybody context there,
if you take our socialplatforms together, now it's
business, which means it doesn'toffer it up to everybody that
follows you.
No, but if you took that, we'resomewhere right around 30,000,
35,000 followers.
Followers yeah, all right.
What'd you say?
300,000?

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, followers, followers, yeah, all right, what
did you say?

Speaker 1 (20:56):
300,000?
Yeah, so that's a 10x, that's a10x, that's a 10x.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
So 332,000 views, 718 interactions.
That's a 20x.
Something to do with a thumbsup, a heart, a share, 2,323
clicks in the call to action.
Wow, check this out 1,099 pagevisits to our website.

(21:22):
1,900 page visits.
Yes.
And 16 new followers.
So if you're just stepping onthe scale and saying, do I weigh
more or do I weigh less, you'recompletely missing all the
biometrics of underneath thehood of like should I do this?
You're completely missing allthe biometrics of underneath the
hood of like, should I do this?
And so the spin was on tocreate which shout out to, our

(21:45):
internal marketing team createdthe entire shot, created, edited
and posted in less than a weekto get it on TV right, we knew
we'd have captive audience, butthen we chum the water, yeah.
So that was the hub, rightthere, the TV, the hub, yeah,
because this is coming.
Yep, here's what it looks like.
Then we hit an interaction oflet's do a selfie with the
commercial?
Yep, and we always talk aboutthat.

(22:07):
This is important, uh, is thatyou have to have internal buy-in
before you can get the externalto buy.
That's right.
So, as another part of our hubthere I spoke off of it was, we
said let's do a contest tocreate excitement and, most
importantly, all employeesqualify.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
And so then we send them a specialized email and a
message to say, hey, here'swhat's coming, here's what it
looks like, here's a preview.
And we'd chum the water in twominutes to give them a preview
and said here's how you couldtake part.
And yes, you would do get towin, that's right, you're not
excluded, correct?
And so then that ended up with332 000 views so strong it is
pretty pretty stout there.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
but in order to do that and use your entire
networking, you got to go aroundand you got to fire off each
engine, and everybody has theseengines.
You may be at the hub of it,but then you need your catalyst
around there so it'll grabtraction.
Yes, you know, yep, so that'spretty important there.
That's good stuff.
That's good stuff, for sure.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
One last thing that I had before we jump in Think of
so, power of proximity.
People say, okay, I don't knowhow to be with those business
owners to have, I don't havemoney to donate.
So there's a guy that I followdefinitely look up to and said
it's about the power, proximity.
And we say you're an average ofthe five people that you hang
out with.
You know whether it's yourbelief or your income or your

(23:30):
daily habits or your businesstactics or whatever it is, and I
wholeheartedly believe in that.
And the guy said, okay, so howdo I get in the room with Warren
Buffett?
Sure, you know, how do I get tobe in a conversation with Gary
Vaynerchuk or Grant Cardone orany of those people?
And this guy said I don't careif I need to be the waiter or

(23:52):
the receptionist at therestaurant, you bet, I just need
an opportunity to be in thatroom.
I don't need a invite to sit atthe table, just give me that
opportunity.
So if you're sitting there likeI don't have that network and
I'm not donating 15,000 to thisand I don't have an internal
media crew, it's okay, you canstill get in there, you can file

(24:13):
their parking lots, you can goclaim their windows, you could
deliver their mail.
There's.
You can go clean their windows,yep, you could deliver their
mail.
There's so many differentaspects to get you within
proximity.
And then you have your oneopportunity.
You bet To not be a cousin,eddie, you know, say Wayne
Newton, I'd die for sure, but tobring relevant value to that
person, they say, oh, I can't.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Maybe I should slow down and listen to this person.
You hit on such a great pointthere.
Let me give you the segue toall the listeners on how to do
that.
It's called volunteering.
How many events ororganizations need volunteers?
And again, I think it's reallyimportant.
Ken Coleman talks about this awhole lot.
Who's on part of Dave Ramsey'swhole network.

(24:56):
There he talks about the law ofproximity and he said I don't
care what the role is, just likeyou're talking about, I just
care what atmosphere it's in.
He said so never think thatyou're too good to serve coffee
there or be a greeter or help inthe parking lot or take out the
trash or help the media team.
All you want to do is be in theproximity and everybody needs

(25:20):
volunteers all the time.
So you might not have $15,000for that Tony Robbins ticket to
get there, but you couldvolunteer for something.
So then that gets you there andthat's good stuff.
Let's get into our fun fact,kind of break it up today.
Hey, here's a different onethat is not in the automotive
industry.
When was LinkedIn founded?
When was LinkedIn founded?
So here's a different one thatis not in the automotive
industry when was LinkedInfounded?
When was LinkedIn founded?

(25:41):
So here's your choices here.
You got four of them today A, b, c and D.
I like that.
1999.
That's a good year, okay.
2003.
Okay, that's pretty good, yeah,you know.
2005.
Well, you're going to graduatein 05, didn't you?
Yeah, when you graduated in 05,didn't you go?
And in 1993, right there.
So 1993 and founded 05, 03 or99.

(26:03):
I'm gonna have to take a shot,all right on that one, but we'll
come back to that, all right.
Next up, let's go.
Let's talk about the rightpeople to network with, the
right people to network with.
I think this one's importantand I've really gone through
this one because let me justtell you that at the end of the
day, we we are in a very taxingmental business, very taxing.

(26:29):
You know, your brain uses upmore glycogen than any other
muscle in your body.
So at the end of the day, youfeel whipped, like you've just
been beat up.
So the last thing I want to dois go to event.
At the end of the day, I mean,I'm toast, you know.
You know I barely have enoughenergy left to talk to my family
and this, and that much less togo put my happy face on for
three or four hours on afive-hour dinner that should

(26:50):
last 30 minutes.
You know what I mean.
So I I'm very particular aboutthe networking now I am.
You know, before I couldn't bethe networking events that I go
to and I make sure a couple ofthings that I don't always go to
the same type of crowd, meaninglike what is it around?
Yeah, and the same people,because I need to spread that

(27:12):
network.
So when I work throughout theyear, and especially stuff after
work that I'm networking in,you know I pick, for example, I
pick the Teachers Associationbecause then I get to be in
front of talk to all teachers inNorthwest Arkansas.
That's a good network, a goodpiece to be a part of.
Another big one is theConstruction Developers Bank,
but that gives me anothersegment.

(27:33):
Both of those people drivevehicles, another segment that I
can network in.
I can get three or four hundredpeople on one swoop.
Yeah, it didn't have thatmultiplication factor, uh.
And then we talked about shopwith a cop and you know,
especially in fayetteville whenthey have their gala, you know
that's another one.
That's a totally differentsegment.
So don't get stuck in the roadon always going to the same one.

(27:54):
Now we get to pick and chooseon a lot of those, and I could
go through more of them.
But if you're just gettingstarted, you're in business, you
need to go see your localchamber and I don't just say
that because I sit on the boardat the chamber but they have a
lot of resources, whether you'removing new to the area or
you're just getting started.
On professionals nights out, onnetworking, on trying to

(28:15):
connect.
We just had a meeting aboutthis yesterday, about networking
.
How can we provide value tobusinesses to teach them how to
network, because they know thatthere's so much value in
networking?
And again, if you haven'tlistened to him, ken coleman
talks a ton about this.
Just get in the room and how doyou pick that?
Don't just look within ourindustry.

(28:36):
We don't always go network atautomotive events.
No, I'd rather be somethingelse.
I would too, because how manytimes am I going to sell Crane
or McCarty Daniel or this orthat vehicles?
You know?
Now would we have common stuffto talk about?
Absolutely, but that's onething.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
There's not really yeah, I mean like you have X
amount of energy.
I think a a good point based onthat of picking out where to
network, because you could getreally good.
One is what stage of life areyou?
Or what do you need fromnetwork and you're trying to
acquire customers, are youtrying to hire employees, are
you trying to get your name outor you're just looking for a job

(29:13):
?
Yes, so early on, you should beat every single event, one.
You're young, you should beable to do that.
You should only need three anda half to four hours of sleep.
Yep, right, yeah, you're 25years old.
Yeah, yeah, do it while you can, right, and you should be at
every single event looking forthat next job, running the
shoulders with the correctpeople.
Then, as stages of life changeand you're, you're into your job

(29:36):
and you're creating yourbusiness.
You you're like hey, I need tofind like-minded people that are
good at networking, you're goodat marketing, you're good at
something I'm not good at that Ineed in your business.
So then that's your people thatyou're starting to go after and
those are the events thatyou're looking for, and then you
just keep kind of changingwhere you're going, you know,
and what's your main goal ofnetworking.

(29:58):
So you have to change that andchange it with what you need,
what your current need is andwhat your stage of life is.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
It does for sure.
So you know, and when you'redoing that again, don't look at
what does it do for me right now, you're looking at the
connections you will get theopportunity to rub shoulders and
be in the presence of somebodythat could pour into you.
I'm going to give tip numbertwo right here, because we're
number one, we can talk about it.
Tip number two when you getaround, those people shut your

(30:28):
mouth, shut your mouth.
So what's the relevance?
So the relevance to that is ifyou take somebody that can pour
into you and help you and you'rea motor mouth and a know-it-all
, they're going to close down.
If you ask me, you ask relevantquestions to get the
conversation going, but you'rethere to absorb, you're there to

(30:48):
learn, and you can't do that ifyou're going like this right
here.
Something that blows my mind iswhen somebody just won't shut
up and like they asked me aquestion on like what do you
think I should do here?
But then they go on for 30minutes explaining to me why
they can't do it.
I'm like this person is closedoff.
There's no reason for me topour into them because they're

(31:09):
not even open and ready tolisten that's really good.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
And so the thing that we'll always focus on is you
already know what you know.
Yeah, right, you already knowwhat you know.
Yeah Right, you already knowwhat you know.
And we say you've got two earsand one mouth for a reason.
You should listen twice as much.
So do keep that in mind, and youhave to create or treat
networking a little bit likespeed dating, you do?
You know, you're kind of not,it's not a value, it's not a

(31:35):
value value.
The dinner will only last solong, or the event will only
last so long.
And so if you get cornered by aguy that's like, hey, why do
you have so many broncos parkedout?
Right, you need to know this isnot your fit, this is not what
you came here for to get, uh.
And so you need to be pleasant,you need to be nice, and then I
would just introduce them tosomeone else.

(31:56):
I know that's the quickest.
I'm like I wouldn'tspecifically do it to Taylor,
but I've done it to both of youguys, I've done it to y'all.
But I'm like, hey, I need youto meet Matt.
He actually specialized in theBronco parking.
Matt, go ahead.
And so then I'm like this isnot my forever, this is not what
I'm listening for person andtry the next person until you
find the fit.
Then you better have therelevance.

(32:18):
You better ask questions, youbetter extract and then you
better get point of contact.
Yes, before you disconnect.
Absolutely like I love that itis, it's so fun.
We had an event with the malletfoundation of pros versus joes
uh, and I we've talked aboutthat before, but but it was she,
totally Ryan Mallett's sisterreached out to me and was like

(32:39):
hey, last minute, I need coaches.
And I'm like hey, I playedfootball, I understand how it
works.
And she's like my brotherdoesn't have a freaking record
right now.
He's got a losing record withthis kid and whatever.
She's like Shelby, we reallyall need coaches.
And I'm like, hey, matt, we'regoing to do this.
And he'm like, hey, matt, we'regoing to do this.
And he's like man, I was like,no, we're signed up, we're doing
it.
He's like, okay, and so it kindof looked like a sponsorship

(33:01):
opportunity, but more or less,they just need someone just to
be amongst it.
And it was our natural introvertwas like hey, don't I, because
we like to have it together.
Right, if we were going to bethe center of attention in some
and some aspects.
But then we got out there andI've met, met some good friends

(33:22):
and have some connections nowfrom that event that.
But before I left I was like,hey, man, I love where this
conversation was going, we needto roll.
And I've had some people like,hey, let's go to dinner.
I'm like, yeah, cool, let's gofor a run and we'll talk, you
know.
And then it's like, yeah, I wasletting you quickly realize
that, but there's some otherpeople that you'll see that just
constantly support you.
So you get to support them andthen your network gets bigger
and bigger and bigger and bigger, yep, and it just keeps growing

(33:45):
.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
You know to compound on that.
You know you had the networkfor her to reach out to get that
started.
When we got there Bo Mattinglywas emceeing the whole thing.
I'd worked with Bo plenty oftimes in the radio and had that
network built.
So when we got there I saw him,knew him, so I went to
introduce us.
You know so, once you and Iweren't hanging out together.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
That was a comfortable thing to do, yep, as
you and I know each other.
There, you know, but nope, sowe separated.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
We were separated.
So you're over there talking tosome of the pros and this and
that and all the rest of thenetworking.
I find him and I'm like I'm notlike, hey, shelby, come with me
, you're doing your deal overthere.
I go over here so we can spreadour network and so I get to
talking to him how things go andthis and that, and then
naturally, throughout the game,since he's emceeing it, guess

(34:35):
who he's plugging?
He's plugging us Because we'reout there, because he already
knows us, likes us and trusts us.
He needs content to talk about.
And then that starts to cometogether so it becomes a whole
lot more sticky.
And then everybody in thestadium, they hear about us the
whole time.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
And once again, that's another one of those
scenarios when you don't have tobe the highest spender, the
biggest presenter or thepresenting sponsor, you're just
there and then you get to loveon them and know, like and trust
taylor.
You've got a story andcurrently we've got, uh, some
high-end cars and it's vianetworking of just being
available.

(35:12):
Oh, that's a good one yeah,absolutely that.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
And going into that story, I got a phone call from a
great friend in the industrybut he had said hey, I can't be
able to work on X, y or Z, canyou work on this?
And I said absolutely.
And let me get my ducks in arow and make sure, because it
ended up being something that wehadn't worked on before and so

(35:36):
I wanted to make sure everythingwas taken care of, because he
was referred to me.
He was going to be referred tome, so I want to make sure.
So then I laughed about itbecause because we do everything
excellent, we don't do ithalfway.
The guy had brought the carthere, he brought it on a
trailer, it ended up being a newFord GT.
And, uh, he had said I met himoutside and Shelby was coming by

(35:58):
and did a great job, got thecar off, moved him along the way
.
Guy was really fired up and myfriend called me back that said,
hey, did he get it dropped offand everything else.
I said yeah.
He said did you and yourbrother meet the guy outside and
not like, have someone else doit?
I said no, you told me to takecare of him.
I want to take care of him.
I want to take care of him, soI set aside a time out of my day

(36:21):
to make sure I was available,sure, but at compound he was
like dude, y'all are unreal.
Thank you so much for beinginvolved.
Thank you so much for takingtime to do that well, because I
had done so great there.
I got another phone call fromsomeone else in the market that
was like I didn't know, youservice those and it continues
to compound and go on and go onand go on.

(36:44):
So make sure you're doing thebest whenever you're networking,
because then it goes forward.
Two points of the things thaty'all were going through that's
so important.
Network outside of your own,that's true.
Network outside of your ownarea, that's true Network
outside of your own area.
Cause two things are going tohappen.
You're going to learn thingsthat really relate back into

(37:05):
your business, a lot of waysthat you didn't know they could.
But the way that you're goingto learn about them is hey,
that's a different way to beable to manage people, that's a
different way to be able to dothe process, and it still works
in this type of industry notmine but to see how those
correlate and work together andyou're going to meet more people
in different ways.
If you're more open-mindedabout going out in different

(37:28):
areas, then say hey, I'm reallycomfortable with this, I can go.
Do this now.
Get outside of your comfortzone and go out there and meet
those people.
Yes, and listen.
Listen, like Matt said, andthen go and talk to people that
are relevant.
Like Shelby said about going,that's going to really make the
difference.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
That's a big point there is you don't need to
network within your circleanymore.
You've already done that andagain, that's what we talk about
, and your speed dating is agreat, great analogy there.
If you know you're gonna have asituation that comes up that's
gonna pin you in like a lunch ora dinner.
You know, usually there'seither a breakout session before
lunch or there's the you knowhappy hour whatever you want to

(38:10):
call it before dinner.
You use that time toinvestigate who you want to sit
by.
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
So you use that to strategically put yourself in
the right position, because thenyou can pin yourself with
someone who has a wealth ofknowledge, has a wealth of
network.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
I mean, you would think about if I didn't tell you
this and I took you to an event.
You would be like are theyembarrassed about me, or why
aren't they hanging out with meor talking?

Speaker 3 (38:35):
No, I'm just letting everybody spread and it will
come back together you have tounderstand that, and so that's a
that is really good and reallyrelevant.
But I have to like give youexample.
So you say it now let me showyou.
So we've referenced a coupletimes 20 group.
That's where we're with otherford dealers sure, roughly 20
other ford dealers from allacross the nation.
So we have the same philosophy.

(38:56):
We all sell new ford, servicefords, and so we come together
and put all of our uh, industrystuff of what's going on, so
then we can see good, bad, andso then we can see we know our
main focus.
We need to work on this, weneed to work on this, and so
then we're like you identifythis, you identify this.
Every night there'll be adinner and you know who's.

(39:17):
You know who the blowhard is,who's just gonna be hanging out
at the bar and doing this, butthere will always be a couple
people that'll levitate towardsyou, maybe because they want to
extract your data or maybe justbecause they like to talk.
Yes, and it's like you've gotto grease yourself up a little
bit.
You got to be ready to likeshape shift and I I remember

(39:38):
taking my cause.
I went for a long time 10, 12years before I ever took my wife
, and then I was like hey, likedon't sit down.
Yet.
We got to strategically likeswoop into where there's only
two seats left.
Yeah, the right area In theright area to be able to be
cause.
You could be in million dollarconversations, sure, or you can

(39:59):
be two seats away and not be apart of it.
Nothing at all.
Talking about dogs, talkingabout dogs and horses, tennessee
walking horses yeah, you know,nothing's wrong with that, but
that's not why we're there.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
No.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yeah, no, like, let's have that side conversation.
At a time when I don't haveopportunity to extract Exactly,
you know so, someone else whohas experienced something, then
you have to be very strategic inthe speed day and you don't get
locked down with Karen andyou're like, oh shoot, like you
could see them right over there.
Yeah, I need to be over there.

(40:31):
I need to be over there, I needto be talking to that person,
because you didn't and I'm not aconfrontation style person and
I'm not going to mean to anyonebut I'm going to be able to
quickly slip away and be in theproper conversation.
You don't know that until youtake notes and you listen and
you find that right person.
I think that's good.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Hey, I got to tell one more networking story before
we continue on here, becausethis one's really powerful.
You know, you've heard us talkabout construction and this and
that.
Why?
Because it's a really big deal.
It's a whole lot of money.
Let me tell you about the power.
This is a real deal Powernetworking here in Northwest
Arkansas.
None of these people wererelated to the automotive
business, nor did I know them 15or 20 years ago when I started.

(41:11):
So I served on the chamberboard, now on the executive
board, for like eight years now,eight or nine years.
So when we start talking aboutour construction project, there

(41:31):
was first the acquiring of theland, selling of our current
land so we'd have cash to do it,so on and so forth.
So the first up there to sellthe land we were on on 71
Business that came from anetworked person that I had met
being on the chamber board andin chamber events.
Okay, so that was a commercialreal estate professional that
helped us buy, you know, a lotof land on the interstate Very
creatively, very creatively,piece at a time, and then also

(41:54):
sell very creatively the land wewere on.
So you're talking aboutmillions and millions of dollars
there on both sides, but thatperson got it and start cold
calling you did not cold calland ask anybody.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
No, because, remember , we bought the land on a
handshake, but then we didn'treally overly have a
conversation like let's go tomarket with our current land,
sure, but you had networked wellenough that that person was
like, hey, I just happened tosee that this move might be
happening, so because you hadthat network, then it connected
all of it and then it made senseand it was the know you like

(42:28):
you trust you was already there,so that's a big one right there
.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, all right.
So then the next one up.
You know, when we had part ofthe land and we had to get the
zoning done, we knew we needed avery specific person that
understood the walls and thecity was zoning.
That came through the networkof referrals.
I called somebody else back upat the chamber that was on the
board and I knew they didn'tknow how to do it, but they may

(42:51):
know somebody that did and Itrusted and I valued their
opinion.
I said who do I call about this?
And he said you call so-and-so.
I called so-and-so.
She's helped us with all ofthat and she is a master of it.
Yeah, you know, that was thepower of networking, though not
directly to the person I knew,but they gave me access to
somebody else.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Yeah, because if what it could have happened without
right, but would it cost a tonof money and, most importantly,
a ton of time.
Yeah, they know when, where andhow, who to talk to, how to
talk to them, the best way tonavigate through the process,
because the process was long anddrawn down anyways, but that
was already knowing the rightchannels.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
It would, it could have been a nightmare, so that
was big.
The next one is hey, we neededthe financing and the money for
this behemoth of a project.
Yeah, remember, it's 150,000square feet, 26 acres.
That's a big project.
We needed the bait to do thatwith.
We wanted it to be somebodylocally that would evidently
flow because we didn't have allthe plans done yet.
You know just no, we stayed on.

(43:51):
Here's a lot of fact for you.
So I needed them to trust in usbased upon our history.
Here's what we're doing.
We got 50 of the plans done.
Yeah, I need a lot of money.
Uh-huh, I need need you to helpme.
Well, they had known me fromworking on, listening to me in
the chamber through the wholething.
Had sat on the board with me.
Yeah, so they could vouch for,they could vouch for me when

(44:13):
they had to go their supercommittee to get it done.
Plus, it enabled a relationship.
So that was smooth sailing.
Now we have continuedrelationships going on there.
That that was a network.
Then the construction team thatwe put together, and when I
talk about construction team,I'm not just talking about
Navajo Holtz, I'm talking aboutthe civil and the architect and
all that stuff.
You know the civil that guy saton the board with me, you know

(44:36):
and McClellan there, theconstruction companies.
Remember what I told youearlier about picking where I
network, at that constructionand developers bank, whatever.
That's a whole other network.
I do the ins and outs of allthose people.
So when you start thinkingabout that whole project, from
ding to dong, what's the powerof that network, not only for us

(44:57):
but for them?
That's big when you startthinking.
And none of those areautomotive related.
But now all those people wheredo they buy their next vehicles.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
That's what I was going to say.
Okay, all right, cool man, Likewe're not building anything.
So we have, I think, Arkansaslargest construction company we
do, and that was notspecifically why I picked them,
but there was some depth inknowing that.
But, civil engineer, we've soldthem a vehicle, multiple
Naviholts vehicles, we've soldvehicles.

(45:29):
When we did grain opening, wepersonally text called and
emailed everyone that we hadbeen in contact with and said
come down, you're a big part ofthis, and then they get to be
part of our family.
And you think like, okay,that's really simple.
So many of them said we'vebuilt hundreds, if not thousands
.
We've done tons of plans.
The one place said, hey, we'vebuilt, we've done 300 sets of
plans and we've never seen agrand opening like this.

(45:50):
We've never seen invites likethis.
So once you get that network,you have to do something with it
and that's what happened whenwe did there.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
As we went, we said, boom, spread it out, everybody
get the phone out.
And then just that personalinvite of a text got us over a
thousand people.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
They know us, like us and trust us.
They were like this is crazy,and so we're able to do it right
.
And then they're like man,anything automotive that we need
, or whatever your business is,these are your people.
So we use them, page them first, and then we ask for a return
on the other side.
And why would they not?

Speaker 1 (46:23):
You must make deposits before you ask for a
withdrawal.
Yeah, in anything in life.
So no different than if you'retrying to network and get
something out of somebody.
When the opportunity comes andthey ask you a question and you
have expertise in that area, bewilling to pour into them first,
without a return.
Without a return, then thereturn will happen.
Yes, then they're retargetable.
Yes, then it'll happen.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Do you know what happens to whenever you share
such a your pride of a wholeproject that goes in there that
you put and pour so much into?
We had a guy the other day thatcame and bought a truck from us
, from APAC.
Well, if you don't know whatAPAC does anything, basically
you drive on.

(47:04):
So you know what he said to me.
He was like hey, he's like areyou one of the Lewis brothers?
I said yes, sir.
I said how can I help you?
He's like well, I'm here buyinga truck.
He said I paid the lot here fory'all.
I said, oh, man, you did.
I said I am so proud of thisproject.
I see all the things that y'alldo and whenever I drive by he's

(47:25):
like hey, I worked on thatproject over there.
So many of our vendors are likehey, I'm part of this with you.
We were paying them and nowthey're a spokesperson out there
, a billboard for us, comingback and buying our product.
Because we shared that muchenthusiasm, we were so proud of

(47:46):
it, we thought it out so muchthat they were back and like
that's so great, because duringthe heat in July not last year,
but the year before so they,what was it like?

Speaker 3 (47:58):
250 construction workers active on the ground
over 200.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
It was over 100 degrees.
Now, these aren't the peoplethat own the construction, no,
the workers.
They're the workers.
The workers do they still drivecars.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
And at the end of the day, so we do this for our
employees, sure, and it'ssomething grand.
So we've got the local icecream trucks and the concrete
trucks, and so we called themand said, hey, hey, I need you
to meet me over at this address.
Make sure you got a full truck.
And so then we told sean, thesuperintendent, time said round
up all the workers.
Yep, and so then we turned thesiren on the ice cream truck and

(48:31):
we were in the back of thetruck rounding people up and we
bought ice cream for the entirejob, the entire job, basic and
simple.
But they were blown away.
And so when that line was there,we got to talk to those people.
It's like, hey, what are youdoing here?
What you know, I'm the glass,I'm the asphalt, I'm the steel,
I'm the dirt, hey, I'm theelectrical.
And I've heard a hundredstories since then of, like man,

(48:53):
why would you do that?
That's so expensive.
It was not that expensive, butno one had ever heard for them
at a ground level.
Yeah, and it like during oursuper bowl commercial, we kept
getting texts and Facebookmessages like that's the place I
built For the vendors.
I guarantee you they werejacked up.
They were like those are theguys that take care of us.

(49:13):
So this network, you're likehow does it grow to be so big?
You care every single day, andwhen you see somebody you don't
just shrug and run the other way.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
And you do it without expecting anything to return
immediately.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
It's a delayed gratification.
You do it because it's like ourdad has always taught us.
You do it because it's theright thing to do and never
expect a return.
Don't keep records of it Like,okay, I did this for Matt, he
owes me one, that's right.
There's no such thing.
The law of proximity and doingright things.
It will come back to youtenfold if you do it correctly

(49:48):
and care and have the rightintention.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
If you can understand that point right there.
You know most people are in theget rich quick or get
successful quick.
We're planting trees and treestake a while of water and
fertilizing and taking care of,but once they take off they
don't have to have an irrigationsystem and they got roots
forever.
Everybody else is doing theseflowers that you have to pull

(50:13):
out of the ground and then yougot to replace every single year
building a business to sell it.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
I know what I mean.
And then they're like, hey,where did the lewis's go, like
that?
Like didn't they, like they gotme in to be vendors of this and
then nobody found them.
They sold the company Like notgoing to happen, right, building
a long term this is the long.
We're looking at the long curvehere, right, we're not looking
at the up to down Because themultiplication is so big, and
that's how you do it.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
It is, it is.
You have to stay in there.
Hey, getting back into ourquestion there, when was
linkedin founded?
So you had four options thereof 1999, 2003, 2005 or 1993 wow,
I kind of thought it would havebeen before then.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yeah, but, uh, I would have.
But I have the same and I cansee the answer here, so I won't
say it out loud yet, but I cantell you during.
You know, I was in my secondyear of college at that point in
time, yeah, and I don't evenremember anybody talking about
it.
Oh no, I'm not dating myself,or I was looking to, is that you
know, the?
The phone just finally came outwhere you could take a picture

(51:16):
with it.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Yeah, so I wouldn't have linkedin would have been
around.
The funny thing is it'sprobably about the right time,
because I remember being incomputer class in high school is
when facebook started.
Okay, and that's linkedin isnot facebook by any means, but
it was a social atmospheredigitally.
So what's?

Speaker 2 (51:34):
the answer is 2003 2003, 2003 there, so that pretty
song that is really starting tokick off there.
Hey, we have absolutely crushedabout networking and going
through everything.
The biggest thing and this wastaught early on that I love
about this but turn networkingto opportunities and business
growth.
This first segment of it you'vealways taught and you kind of

(51:59):
learn more of as you grow andyou get older but how past
clients, vendors and evencompetitors can open doors and
why it's so important.
We rarely, rarely cut off andfire a customer and employ a
competitor, a vendor, because wedon't burn bridges.
We want to keep that open.

(52:20):
That's always been taught to us.
Why is that so important aboutvendors or any of those?

Speaker 1 (52:25):
now I'm gonna flip the script a little bit there in
the divin.
Yeah, I've made the mistake onclosing doors.
Before you know, early on in mycareer I was in my 20s full of
piss and vinegar rocking androlling, and I got really mad at
a company and I can rememberlike the like it was yesterday
and I threw the hammer down andI closed the door and it was one

(52:46):
of the worst business decisionsI ever made.
Now are we still successful?
Yes, but looking back in a moremature state now, I was like
why did I ever close that door?
I was mad at that individual.
But then what did that cost mewithin their network?
Because people are eitherlifting you up and talking about
you positively or talking aboutyou negatively, and I could
have just rolled on yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
So that's, instead of closing the door, burning the
bridges, screw you, I'll neverdo business with you again.
Right, it is learning to beokay that we can separate if
it's not the proper fit, youknow.
But separate properly.
Learning to say no properly,you know.
Saying okay, it's not my seguein life right now to go to every

(53:28):
dinner event and to go to everywho's who you bet and jesse
isler talk about early on.
You need to do it every singleevent.
But now, on stage of life, youneed to be able to say no more,
to be able to do what'simportant to you, but be able to
say no properly.
And so he talks about a reallycool thing of if he has some, a

(53:48):
business or investor orsomething that invites him for
an event, but he has somethingelse scheduled on his calendar,
that's a non-negotiable.
He can say no properly.
That he'll call the restaurantand, on a small scale, buy
dessert.
On a larger, grander scalescale, he'd pay for the dinner.
And so he said I figured outhow to be the center of the

(54:08):
conversation without ever evenbeing so he'd call the
restaurant and say, hey, there'sa party there of five people.
It should be under this name.
Hey, I want to make sure thatyou bring out some drinks for
these guys, uh, and take care ofthe dinner and tell them it's
on me.
And so then he wasn't eventhere, but he's still able to be

(54:30):
talked about the entire time.
So there's no need to burnbridges with previous employees,
with vendors, with customers.
We've had to fire customersbefore but you can do it
cordially, properly.
Just think, if you were on theother side, how would you want
to be handled?
I think.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
When you look at that and you start thinking about
this exact question about thedoors that can be open maybe not
tomorrow, but down the road,once it finally clicks in your
mind and if you're listening outthere, I'm telling you maybe
you got this, but probably not.
We've learned from really hardknocks and then from very mature
and wise people teaching usalong the way, just like I told

(55:06):
you I made that mistake is thatthere's always an opportunity
down the road, and I had a guytalk about this early on in my
career.
His name's Paul Cummings and hehad this slogan.
He said we can agree todisagree without anybody getting
upset.
You know what I mean.
We can talk about about this,we can have a difference in

(55:27):
opinions and we don't have to beupset with each other.
I respect your opinion, yourespect my opinion doesn't mean
I'm going to do it and thenwe're going to move on.
This happens.
An easy example here happenswhen somebody we know buys a
vehicle from somebody else.
Yep, okay, there is a smallwindow of opportunity.
They're embarrassed becausethey would want to buy from us,

(55:50):
but maybe we didn't have theright call, somewhere we dropped
the ball.
Somewhere we dropped the ballor we didn't have the right
model, or whatever it is.
We can either just not ever sayanything okay, and then they
don't ever come back in becausethey don't want to face that.
That's confrontational right.
Or the next time we see them orcall them or text them or
comment on their facebook pageor whatever else, we can

(56:10):
congratulate them on thatpurchase and offer for them to
come by on a free car washfriday or for their first oil
change.
So we take an opportunity andsome of you business people out
drive on you do what.
Have you paid for their oilchange when they didn't buy from
you?
I then took that customer andthen every person they come in
contact with will send people tous.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
We teach and preach that, and if I could do it at
once, I'd do it a million timesover.
We have all these young,aspiring salespeople and they'll
close doors real fast if andlike hey, just got off the phone
with Mrs Smith, you said shewas a good friend, she bought
somewhere else.
Done, I'm done, I'm done.
I blocked them on Facebook.
I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

(56:53):
Look, because here's what Iknow.
No one else is winning atcustomer service like we are.
Right, I promise you, like youare.
If you're listening to this, ifyou're 25 episodes deep, you
want to win more than anyoneelse and you're going to grind
harder and have a betterexperience.
So I say you call Mrs Smithback.

(57:15):
Or, if you find out and youhadn't already burned that
bridge, you call Mrs Smith andsay, hey, when you were there,
did they sign you up for theircar watch club?
And the answer is no, no, weknow that, right.
And when you were there, didthey take your red carpet photo?
And we know the answer is no,no, every single time, right?
So we know that.
And we say, hey, mrs Smith, Ilove to hear that you found the

(57:35):
perfect vehicle.
Sure, just like you sold it toher.
What I like to do is invite youfor our VIP process, because the
customer's thinking, oh crap,the Ford store's calling me.
I didn't buy from them.
What are they connection toolsor not?
So you might shoot them a textand said hey, got a quick
question, give me a call.
Promise not trying to sell youanything.
Hey, mrs Smith Shelby, lewisFord.
Hey, I just got word.
You did find your Tahoe.

(57:56):
Tell me something real quickabout it.
Did it have that sunroof?
Did it have the leather?
Got it perfect?
Hey, did they get your redcarpet photo when you bought it?
Like, what Red carpet photo?
That's part of our process.
I'd love to invite you in.
So we have done that right Manytimes.
We haven't gone as far as ifthey're like man, I wish I could
buy it for you.
It's like well, can I getCompany Car Wash?

(58:21):
Can I swap out your sticker onthe back?
Oh yeah, We've swapped out fromother dealerships with the
ProHit ships to a Lewis stickeron the back, taking the red
carpet photo, posted it onFacebook and said I'd like to
take a moment and saycongratulations to Mrs Smith and
their car number 2023.
Yes, f-150.

(58:42):
Tahoe, whatever it is.
She took full advantage ofwhat's going on currently.
She signed up for the VIP CarWars Club, got the red carpet
photo and then you tagged herand the other salesman.
The other place is like I made300 bucks.
I sold a car.
Mrs Smith ain't never goinganywhere else.
They didn't post on Facebook.
They didn't make her feelspecial.
That's right.
They didn't post on Facebook.

(59:02):
They didn't make her feelspecial, that's right.
They didn't follow.
So you can take a bad apple,cut it up and make the best
world-renowned applesauce thatyou've ever seen.
But most people trip and fallover that and close that door
and say heck with you and thatmakes your network one spoke
less.
So you look and your will willfall apart because you're just
de-spoken.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
The chimpanzee part of the mind will always overrule
the logical part of the mind.
Not to get deep in science,because I'm not a doctor, but
well, how most people react,though, is the front part of
their mind that fight or flight.
Yep, you know.
So they're like screw them.
I'm not ever talking to themagain.
If you allow your mind to justpause emotionally and think

(59:45):
through it, logical will kick inand go.
How do I now turn this into anopportunity for the future?
And one of your next pointshere, taylor, I'm going to jump
to it is the only way you knowhow to do that is you find the
right mentors and the rightpeople that are wise enough to
learn from, yes, the wisdom, andthey might be in a book, they

(01:00:08):
might be on a youtube, theymight be on a podcast, like
you're listening to right now.
What we didn't all get born andhave all this we've learned
from a lot of people like 10, 15, 20 years.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
You ask us all these questions and things.
We would give you a completelydifferent answer.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
We're like just go to work Work hard.
Now I'm there, let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Because we've had conversations about employees
that have left us and I'm likeMatt, if it's the right fit for
a different position, we need tohave.
You know, two, three, four,five years later, two, three,
four, five years later and earlyon, you'd be like they are not
working here again.
That was ridiculous.
They shouldn't have done that.
They burned me and we've allbeen that.
I'm not picking on you, no, andI'm like hey, the shoe did not

(01:00:53):
fit in the current scenario.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Or something was different in their life, correct
?
You know what I mean.
I mean, maybe they had familyin Idaho and they thought they
had to move back, whatever.
Whatever may be, you know whatI mean.
Or it was a time deal andthey're like I'm willing to take
50% of the pay.
Well then, the rest of thefamily didn't really like that
anymore.
So then they had buy-in fromthe family and they're ready to
come back around.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
You do make a good point about collecting content.
Now you lose a little bit of.
You lose half the networkingpotential, or maybe a majority
of the networking potential asyou read in the book or if you
saw it on YouTube or something.
But the way that you can dothat is if you have a small
network or if you have somefollowers on Facebook.

(01:01:34):
Share what you learned, yes,and so then you get to bring
relevance.
So like, hey, check this out,this is my takeaway from this
YouTube, this is my takeawayfrom this conference.
And then you get some commentsand then you're building.
Your social network becomesyour actual network.
So, even if you don't have thetime and can't go volunteer, you
can give me all the cans in theworld and I'll still show you

(01:01:56):
how to that you can don't justkeep it to yourself.
Share, and then you get to liketo lead.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
I think that's very important, and I'm going to give
you an example here.
That I use all the time is thatwhen I get the opportunity to
pour into somebody else becauseI know I've got to make deposits
for and take a withdrawal.
I've never written a book, noram I a good writer at all, but I
have in my arsenal the amountof books that I've read, which
is not a ton, but one of thosethat's at the top, one of my

(01:02:23):
favorites, is Atomic Habits.
So I'll get to talk to otherbusiness owners or leaders and
I'll offer that up as asuggestion.
I didn't even write it.
I have nothing to do with that,but I'm giving them a resource.
Let me tell you this book thathelped me out.
Yeah, you might like this.

(01:02:44):
What have you been listening to?
I'm giving that up.
I'm getting something to return, so it doesn't have to be
something you created.
Yeah, that that's really good.
You know that.
That definitely helps there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Yeah, I'm going over, I laugh and sitting here
thinking of and this is you know, shelby was talking about how
you grow with, with age,anything else I'm mad talked
about your mentor andaccountability partner is so
huge, so take this as a note andknow it.
Uh, you have to be able tosound and bounce things off of
them.
I love whatever I talk to and Ican think back through the

(01:03:13):
years and I'm a prettyeven-keeled, tempered, very just
called, but I always got to thepoint of wherever I was done, I
was done.
Sure, you were gone, but Ilaugh of going anything else
because I can sit and talk tomad or shelby that are my
accountability partners.
I bounce everything off ofbrothers everything else, but of
their two different ways that Ican be talking about an

(01:03:34):
employee and I'll say one thingand they'll kind of look at me
like yep, that didn't make sense, I'm gonna go ahead and back up
there and Matt can either smileat me and Shelby will look at
me.
I'm like yep, taylor, we needto back up and we need to go
ahead and go back through that.
That didn't make sense.
So once you're at that levelwith your accountability partner
, it's not even a whole lot ofwords that are said it's words

(01:03:57):
that are unsaid of her talkingabout nonverbal communication,
sure.
Of her talking about nonverbalcommunication, sure.
And you only get to that levelif you have someone that you're
willing to receive that inputfrom, yes, that they're able to
teach you and help you grow,because they grew from there.
You learn something else thatmaybe they didn't know and you

(01:04:17):
put those two together and thenyou're constantly growing from
both sides.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
You know, I think, a tip that I need everybody to
hopefully understand thatlistening, because, depending
upon where you are, you mayalready have those circle of
influence and thoseopportunities around you if
you're mature in your businessand you just need to inject
yourself into it, or you may bejust coming out of college.
If you're, if you're early onin your career, you go to
everything Now.

(01:04:42):
If you're early on in yourcareer, you go to everything Now
.
When I mean that you're notgoing to everything, meaning the
bar every night to all yourcollege friends, relevant
everything.
Relevant everything until youstart figuring out, like, is it
overload at first?
Then you pick and choose.
Okay, when I was in my 20s, Ididn't pick and choose.
Now, because that's been built,I can pick and choose based

(01:05:03):
upon what area that we need helpand growth in.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Yeah, huge there.
Hey, it's time to get into thefrequently asked questions part
of the day there.
Matt, both questions differentthing here, but tell us about
networking impact on yourleadership.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
It has grown exponentially the farther I've
gotten in my career.
Yes, like I talked about earlyon, you know, at first I just
started off with my head downjust grinding day in and day out
.
That only got me so far.
And then, as I talked aboutwith the construction project or
with leading the team or withleading other leaders, that

(01:05:43):
impact about getting around thecorrect people in the right
network.
Some of those are here inNorthwest Arkansas and some of
those people have never met mein their life and they wouldn't
know who I was.
But by just listening to themand then growing then to be able
to have access to somebody elsewithin that network, it's been
big.
It's opened my eyes on on howto lead and how to coach.

(01:06:06):
You know how to grow ourbusiness, how to do the
construction, how to handle thefinances correctly, so all I
mean you didn't hear me say howto sell a car, no, you know it's
all these other areas thatencompass how to hire, how how
to make better hires, theupgrades we've done because
we've networked and we've beenin the proximity of the right

(01:06:28):
people.
So it's huge.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
And Shelby on the flip side there.
What would you say?
The hardest part aboutnetworking is for you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
You probably should already know this, but I'd say
you know, but it was just thephysical idea of actually
getting outside of my comfortzone.
But when I well, like when Ipeeled away and I was like
outwardly honest with myself,like, shelby, you're happily
married, have a family, you havethe friends that you have, you

(01:07:00):
have a good job, so you're notthere looking for a wife, kids,
a family or a job, right, and atthe end of the day, if you're
nice to people and polite, likenothing is overly gonna harm you
, right.
And so once I got outside, thatwas like, okay, I need to be
intentional about this.
There's no point in going intoa networking event or a social

(01:07:24):
event and being a fly on thewall.
That's right, it's so pointless.
Just sitting at your tablescrolling your phone, yeah, that
is so pointless.
Like there's someone I didn'twant to dress up, you know, I
didn't, didn't really want to goto the event.
So then when you're there, youbetter be there.
That's right.
And so then, like we talkedabout, find a way to have that
common ground, find someone youknow, because once my wheels are

(01:07:50):
turning of being plugged in,like once I start, it's just the
action of doing, then I'm goodto go.
Yep, then my wife or you guysmight be like all right, shelby,
we're going to go, because I'mfull story to it, I'm fully into
this.
I'm extracting, I'm like, hey,I've sent out my blank card to
you know seven different peoplethat are all relevant.

(01:08:10):
I've got contact informationback and you're not going to
believe this idea that I got inthis and this connection.
So the hardest part about me iscommitting to okay, this is an
event that I need to do andgetting in that action.
That's right, like that.
All right, I'm gonna talk topeople and sometimes I'm
negative talk.
I just left a marriageconference and so I was there

(01:08:31):
and there's 500 other people andeveryone wants to ask me like,
hey, what's that thing out front?
And hey, the out car sales.
And I'm just like I've beendoing this my whole life, like
leave me alone.
And I like this was time awayfrom my kids with my wife, uh.
But then I'm just like uh.
So then I found people I knewand just kind of like comfort

(01:08:52):
zone here I have to, in my mind,and that was not the time
unless there was a, anopportunity I saw.
Right, you know, there's somepeople that I high-fived here
and there.
But you have to make thatcognitive decision to turn on.
You know, to turn on and bepresent, okay, and if you're
gonna do it, it's just like myphysical activity we talked
about.
I'm 100 on or 100 off.

(01:09:13):
So then when I decide to turnit on, I'm yeah, jing the circus
, midget you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
So my hardest part is getting going, getting going,
get going and get in the middleof it.
We got off deep in it today.
That's a good one.
That was part of a good onethere.
Hey, always find us there forany of our freshest inventory,
lewissuperstorecom and all ofthe relevant information.
Constantly growing, constantlyevolving in the podcast world.

(01:09:42):
But atcrossroadConversationsPodcastcom
I like it.
We'll see you soon.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Hey, thanks for joining us today and we hope you
enjoyed this episode.
Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
family.
Visit our website and send ussome questions.
We want to know what you'd liketo hear, who you'd like to hear
from and what you want to see,or maybe even some questions for
us to answer about either theautomotive industry or