Ep. 30 - Business and Buzz: Engage or Neutral

Where's the line between having a voice and protecting your business? In this thought-provoking episode, we dive into the complex world of business neutrality and knowing when to speak up or stay silent on controversial issues.

We examine the real-world consequences of taking political stands through the cautionary tale of Bud Light, whose controversial position cost them a staggering $1.4 billion and impacted countless employees throughout their supply chain. It's a powerful reminder that business decisions create ripple effects far beyond the boardroom.

The conversation isn't about abandoning your values – it's about understanding that your responsibility as a business owner extends to your employees, customers, and community. We share practical filters to run decisions through: Will this increase or decrease my business? Does it help those around me? Do I have control over this issue?

We also explore the authenticity trap in social media trends, revealing why following your core values will always serve you better than chasing viral moments. With the sobering statistic that only 3% of businesses reach the fourth generation (and 45% fail in their first five years), we emphasize focusing on fundamentals rather than fleeting controversies.

Whether you're managing multi-generational teams or navigating today's polarized landscape, this episode provides actionable wisdom for building a business that welcomes all customers while staying true to your mission. Your business's longevity may depend on knowing when strategic silence speaks volumes.

Want more insights on running a successful family business? Subscribe now and join our community of forward-thinking business leaders who understand that sometimes, the most courageous decision is knowing when not to speak.

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 (00:00):
Just because you stay neutral doesn't mean that
you're going to be willy-nillyand not stand for anything.
Right, you're talking businessand you have to see the ripple
effect.
And it doesn't mean that, yeah,I'm okay with this, I am okay
with that, and that you don'thave a backbone and a lot of
people get hung up on that.
No, you have to stand up for it.

(00:22):
Here's what we need, here'swhat we want, here's what.
No, you have to stand up for it.
Here's what we need, here'swhat we want, here's what.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroads Conversations
with the Lewis Brothers, wherewe aim to share real stories
about running a successfulfamily business, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community that keeps our
doors open.
We're your hosts, taylor, mattand Shelby, and we'll bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe

(00:47):
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome back everybody to Crossroad
Conversations with the LewisBrothers.
We're your hosts, matt Shelvin,taylor, the Lewis Brothers, and
today we're talking controversy, business and buzz.
Engage or stay neutral.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Basically, what you're saying is when to open
your mouth and when to shut it.
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, and everyone's going to have a
different opinion and that's whyit's important and we'll
generally be aligned in that butwe'll have differences.
But then everyone out there onthe other side of the screen, on
the other side of theheadphones and the other side of
the speakers, you're entitledto your opinion.
I'm not saying, hey, here's theonly way to do it.
I'm just saying here's whatwe've seen, so we're going to
talk about in business, inbusiness, in business.

(01:29):
Do you engage, do you stayneutral, do you jump into the
controversy when it comes totopics like trends, what's
trending, politics, socialissues, world issues, and the
sky's the limit, right.
So we're going to completelybreak that down.
Do you engage in these areaspersonally, your business, and

(01:49):
how do those tie together?
Sure, and do you talk aboutthose areas?
So we will fully break thatdown.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I think this is going to be a great topic today.
Shelby, I'm glad you kind ofpre-phased it there with hey,
we're going to give you ouropinion on how we run business,
not personal Don.
Hey, we're going to give youour opinion on how we run
business, not personal.
Don't cross those lines overthere.
And it doesn't mean it's 100%right.
It's just what we've done for along time and we've had great
success out of it, hey.

(02:15):
But before we dive into there, Iwant to talk about the recap
from last week.
It was such a great episode onnetworking.
Make sure you go back and findthat episode, because what a lot
of people thinking aboutnetworking.
They think about the revenuegenerating side and the sales
side.
We broke networking down towhat it means in opening doors
of opportunities, of resourcesin the area of hiring,

(02:39):
employment, in the area ofgrowing your business or also in
the area of if you were growingyour business but you needed
outside area of if you weregrowing your business but you
needed outside resources, like,for example, our construction
stuff we went through, plus allthe people and key players that
we've hired in the past 12 to 24months.
All those came from networking.
So it's a really great episode.
Go back and check that one out,as always.

(03:01):
Go ahead and go tosuperstorecom.
Check out all of our inventory.
You know we got good specials.
We got 79 years worth ofbusiness backing that.
We've got huge savings outthere and we're always driving
something cool, aren't we?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh yeah, and this week, nothing better than we
talked about the little brotherlast week, the F-150.
It's proved its ground but wedrove and how we've been trying
to get these.
These are hard to get on theground, but the big brother, the
250 king ranch, today, far andfew between.
What I love about it is takesthe ultimate level of luxury.

(03:34):
But I love the western theme ofthe king ranch.
It puts the brown leather theycall it java and tear.
But the king ranch is outfittedand it's everything that you
need it to be Up to 35,000pounds of towing, over 1,200
foot-pounds of torque.
You're talking about rearinverters in the back of it

(03:55):
that'll power up to 2kW worth ofanything on the farm, anything
you're working on, power yourhouse fridge freezers.
It is completely revolutionizedand it is bad to the bone, but
we have it ready to go on theground and was just an awesome
reminder of what options fordhas available to be able to
offer and that's part of their fseries has been the

(04:15):
best-selling truck vehicle for48 years running and they've
done a really good job of takingthe work truck Like that's what
anything above a 150 wasdesigned for, sure, to haul
heavy, to move larger loads, tohave more capacity.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
And then they understood that people like
didn't have separate vehiclesgenerally and they've taken that
and put luxury in it.
Now they still have just workermodel, but luxury.
And if you have not seen theKing luxury sure, and it's that
if you have not seen the kingranch interior, it is bar none,
second to nothing.
There's a lot to try to get toit, it's not, but it's really
cool, but it still drivesamazing, like some of those

(04:55):
things drive like a sports carwith 1200 foot pounds of torque,
hidden cooled seats.
Uh, it's, it's so.
I think it's a like a one trickpony?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I do too.
I mean it's like a one-trickcar, don't you?
I do too.
I mean it's just amazing whatthey're getting out of a
three-quarter ton now.
And remember, with athree-quarter ton you still get
all that capacity, but you getsome ride quality there too.
That's such a great.
You start talking about 1,200foot-pounds of torque.
You talk about the 10-speedautomatic transmission, the
automatic exhaust brake, all thetrailer towing capabilities
there, to really take somebodythat maybe is just new getting

(05:27):
into towing and really puts themat the expert level because of
the technology in the truck.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh yeah, you can put tire pressure monitoring system
back in the trailer so you knowwhen a tire blows out or when
it's getting low, you can put acamera on the back.
There is Pro Trailer BackupAssist that you can turn a knob.
You can hook up a 45-footcamper and it'll back it in the
back.
There is pro trailer backupassist that you can turn a knob
and help you.
You could hook up a 45 footcamper and then back it in like
you've been doing it every dayof your life such cool things.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
So driving today, rolling straight into the risk
versus reward of taking a stand.
So taking a stand on it.
So how speaking up on socialissues, politics or trends can
build either brand loyalty orcause backlash.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
All right.
This is a favorite of mine totalk about, not necessarily the
trending stuff or the politics,but to talk about it from a
business lens.
Now, some of y'all arelistening out there very
outspoken.
You're more than likely a typeA personality.
That's why you're listening,just like we are out here.
You need to be outspoken.
People look to you to beoutspoken.
You're more than likely a typeA personality.
That's why you're listening,just like we are out here.

(06:30):
You need to be outspoken.
People look to you to beoutspoken.
But sometimes you might bebetter if you don't speak.
Now, what I mean by this is,before you take a stand on
something, run it through somefilters.
It's not just about you, mrBusiness Owner.
It's about everything thataffects your business.
It's about, in our case, almost300 employees.

(06:52):
Are we helping them in apositive or a negative way?
If we take a stand or we saysomething, is it going to help
our business move forward orpossibly deter some people from
wanting to do business with usjust because of how we stood up?
Now, in no way are we trying tosay, hey, you don't get to have
an opinion.
We're not trying to say hey,don't stand up for what's right.

(07:14):
What we are saying is, in ourcase it's much better to be
neutral out there because wehave both sides of the party
that buy vehicles from us bothsides if we're talking politics,
both sides that service with us, so on and so forth.
So the bigger question is howwill it affect your audience?

(07:35):
How will it affect youraudience?
Would it cause them to question, to do business with you?

Speaker 1 (07:45):
And that's a really good point.
And that segues in and I'm gladyou said that, because I was
going to park a little bit thatjust because you stay neutral
doesn't mean that you're goingto be willy nilly and not stand
for anything.
Right, you're talking businessand you have to see the ripple
effect.
And it doesn't mean that I'm OKwith this, I'm okay with that,
and that you don't have abackbone and a lot of people get

(08:06):
hung up on that.
Sure, no, you have to stand upfor it.
Here's what we need, here'swhat we want In the world of
politics and we're not overlypolitical people, because maybe
we just stay the neutral and wehave beliefs and we have
understanding, you bet, but it'sbecome more and more divided.
You know, you stand forrepublican, you stand for

(08:28):
democrat, yeah, and some peopledon't even know why they stand
for republican or democrat,because it means x, like.
Okay, let's break it down alittle bit more.
So if you just jump completelyon that, yes, if I made that
decision and posted it on myFacebook, correct, here's what
this is.
If I just reposted from oneparty, this, that makes a large

(08:50):
ripple effect.
To then this, this, this, this,this, this.
Now, my guy in parts or my guyin service or my girl in the
office, or then it becomeshere's what they stand for, and
people's feelings are softerthan they've ever been Right,
and they'll be like I'm notdoing business.
I had someone who told methrough the grapevine you didn't

(09:12):
ask for this, but I'll give youcontext During COVID, when they
said, hey, you need to do this,you need to do that.
Can we control that?
Nope, okay.
So we realized we're not goingto fight that battle, right,
we're not going to say, hey,this is stupid, I don't want to
do it.
In fact, we said the opposite.
Yes, we didn't say, hey, youhave to do this or you have to
do this.

(09:32):
We gave options.
But someone told me through thegrapevine and this has been four
years after the fact that theydidn't realize that I was such
such a liberal because I wore amask and made the entire
dealership wear a mask and Istarted dying laughing.
I said I've never overly toldanyone my political views.

(09:53):
I've never posted about it.
I've never shared one part ofthe other.
I think that's hilarious thatyou assume that about me.
So everyone's feelings arealways going to get tangled up.
So you have to think about that.
As a leader, as a businessowner, you could cause a lot,
and so everyone's feelings arealways going to get tangled up.
So you have to think about thatas a leader, as a business
owner, you could cause a lotmore damage.
I don't think the risk is worththe reward.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
I think you hit on there the risk versus the reward
.
So, again, what we're sayinghere is we're not saying don't
have a backbone.
We're not saying don't have anopinion or throw your values out
the window.
What we're saying is, beforeyou say something and before you
take a stand, just run itthrough some filters, just run
it through some filters.
One of those filters is therisk versus the reward.

(10:34):
Is it there In my case as well.
Whether you talk about it onsocial or we talk about it in a
meeting, you only have X amountof platforms that you can use to
speak to your audience andinfluence people, and your first
priority as a business ownerbetter be to produce as much
business that line up with yourvalues as possible.

(10:58):
You can't steal time andaudience from a platform to talk
about something that you havezero control over.
Now we're going to get somekickback on that about zero
control, because they're goingto be like but you got to stand
up, and if people don't stand up, we can't change these things.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
They're going to say you can lobby for this, you can
support this party versus thisparty and you could make sure
that everyone votes for this orthat right.
There's always an argument.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
But your main thing has to be your main thing.
Yes, that doesn't mean that youlose your values.
That doesn't mean just becauseI'm not going in every single
meeting and hammering everybodyon that they should go to church
doesn't mean I'm not going tochurch.
You still have to stand there.

(11:43):
But there are so many peopleout there that I see and they're
confidently taking a stand andI'm going.
Oh, that could have a negativeeffect on their business and
some of y'all are so and I'mgoing to strike here.
Okay, so just hang on.
Some of y'all are so freakinghard headed All right, and it's

(12:05):
my way or the highway thatyou're like I don't care if
nobody shows up tomorrow, I'mstill taking a stand here.
It's not about you.
What about your 20, your 30employees that your
responsibility is to providethem a great place to have make
a living, to support theirfamily as a business owner.

(12:26):
It's not about you.
It's about what you can buildwithin your business, and you've
got to think about that whenyou start choosing sites.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, I think it's really important to go back and
hit on that.
So you're talking about noteven what you're doing that
you're making your business do,but your employees, your
employees, that you're makingyour business do, but your
employees, your employees, thatyou can control.
What's the difference ofsetting them up, of being able,
knowing you can encourage them,you can inflate them or deflate
them.
I mean, that's really big to beable to do.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
You know, one of the podcasts I listen to is Craig
Groeschel.
He's a really good businessleader out there.
Now he happens to have maybethe largest church in the US,
isn't it?
He's a really good businessleader out there.
Now he happens to have maybethe largest church in the US,
isn't it?
He's also the person that cameup with the YouVersion Bible app
like a huge platform, yep, verysuccessful Christian.
But when you go on to hispodcast about leadership, he
very rarely will talk aboutgoing to church.

(13:19):
You need to go to my servicethis week.
You need to do this.
You need to do that Becausehe's focused on the main thing
there and it's about businessleaders helping grow so that
they can grow their departmentOrganically.
Then what Help grow his churchand stuff, yes, but it's not the
main thing.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
You know how that happens.
As you're saying that, I'mthinking that.
Do you want an opinion?
Yeah, you need an opinion,right, you're entitled to it.
Do you want to talk about yourfeelings and beliefs in a
political party or your thoughts?
Yeah, sure, some people waymore than others, right?
Does he want to talk aboutchurch and everything?
Yeah, he's a pastor and that'shis thing.
That is a side conversation,that is a one-on-one

(14:00):
conversation.
So someone says, hey, craig,would you mind if we sat down
and talked about how you've beenso successful?
And in that side conversationhe'd say can I tell you it's
when I put all my faith in theLord to do this, this and this,
he allowed me to create this.
Then he gets to have thatconversation Like, hey, can we
have a conversation aboutpolitics?
He's like sure, absolutely,let's sit down over coffee and

(14:21):
talk about this, and they cankind of test the temperature of
both sides and what's going on.
Absolutely, it's no differentthen, and it's funny and we have
to talk about this.
After our current president waselected, just after the poll
results came in, we had a reallygood customer that came in and
it was assumed that they were aRepublican Party, just based on

(14:46):
cover value, right, which meansnothing, right?
No one should be great indifferent land, sure?
And so this salesperson put hissize 12 foot in his mouth and
he's like man, isn't it great,we're going to make America
great again.
And so then the customer, whois well-versed and completely
understands it, can handlecontroversy.
He's like, oh, I guess you're aTrump supporter.

(15:06):
And the salesperson is like,well, you know, I'm just saying
it's just like what do you say?
Right, and so that's choosing asign.
Yes, you never know who you'retalking to.
And once again, don't get hungup like no, you got to stand for
it.
Did you mean this?
Like no, like you got to standfor it?
That you mean it's like no,like I'm.
Everyone needs transportationIn your business, everyone needs

(15:26):
plumbing or electric, they needHVAC, need to know that we
welcome.
All right, and I'm not sayingyou go to a place to do wrong
things, but still they need HVAC, they need cars, and so the
more neutral that you can stayin your business aspect, people
are hung up here in yourbusiness aspect.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
People are hung up here in your business aspect and
what you, the persona, the morepeople that you can serve and
the better people you can helpand you can give back to the
community, and it just keepsgrowing.
I hope everybody's not missinghow you walk this line in your
business or your personal.
But even with a business, I'vehad people walk in my office and
say, hey, matt, I need helpwith this.
What is your opinion on this?
They're coming to me andthey're opening the door because
they want my opinion.
That's the difference betweenme taking one of our platform or

(16:17):
any of us taking our platformswe have in here and then forcing
forcing an opinion on somebody.
You know we're very thankful andblessed here in the US that we
do have freedom of speech.
We do have freedom to do this,to do that, and I'm not saying
give that up, but I'm saying youdon't force it on people.
You know you stay neutral.

(16:38):
And then as a leader, as abusiness owner, and if an
employee comes to you and said,hey, I really need some help
dissecting who has a ballot tovote for or where to go to
church or what to do here orwhat to do there, you sit down
and you have a one-on-oneconversation.
The best of the best runeverything through a filter and

(16:59):
then they can do both when eachdoor is opened.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
It's no different than they say don't put your
problems on social media.
If you're having a problem withyour marriage or someone at
work, don't put it on socialmedia.
Sometimes you feel likehollering from the roof, but
that's the stupidest idea.
You can do and I'll call peoplestraight out.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Who are you looking for to agree with you?
Somebody?

Speaker 1 (17:21):
who wants?

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Somebody will.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Somebody who will listen and wants sympathy they
just and somebody who wantssomebody who listens and wants
sympathy they just want dirt onyou.
So to give like who has taken astand before, I think we've got
to point out the gorilla in theroom of about a year ago, I
think Bud Light.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
They did.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
They did.
They took a stand on a beliefor a view and said, hey, we want
to support all.
It's no different than ussaying, hey, we're able to
accept all.
Yes, everyone, come in.
Oh, yeah, you know which we do?
Right, come on in.
And you know, I'm not sayingyou're going to put your beliefs
on me, but I'm going to sellyou something, serve you
something, take care ofsomething.
Well, bud Light said we need tostand up, and so they went all

(18:02):
chips in on that and I think itgot pretty ugly for them.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
I think it got real ugly and that's where it came to
that filter of they've got abig stage, they have an audience
.
Is the risk versus the reward?
Yeah, is it worth it?
Well, here's what they saidright here in just a glance Is
because Bud Light took thatcontroversial stand.
Okay, it cost them $1.4 billion, a billion Billion dollars, and

(18:30):
you're like, yeah, but thatcompany makes a whole lot of
money.
You're missing the point.
Listen to me one more time.
As a business owner, listen.
You're affecting lives ofemployees that are in your
business.
So if Bud Light loses $1.4billion with a B, do they have
to rescale their business andlay some people off?

(18:52):
Absolutely yeah, and it's somuch past them.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's the convenience stores, the grocery stores, the
liquor stores, the peopledelivering it.
Yeah, I mean, like how much ofbeer sales was Anheuser-Busch or
Bud Light?
A pretty good percentage right,yeah.
So what people were doingbecause I remember seeing it on
social media is like the wholerefrigerator be empty except the

(19:15):
Bud Light and Budweiser section.
Yes, and so that means that thedriver they probably had to
rescale their business.
They did, they had to shortenroutes and they had to take away
drivers, Yep.
So then that meant that put hisfamily in a tough spot or her
family in a tough spot.
So 1.4 billion is just on thetop level.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
That's just a start.
That's just a start.
And then those people, withthose drivers, they don't end up
buying as many vehicles becausethey actually have some to sell
.
That affects our business, yeah, that affects.
So, as a true business ownerand leader, you must think about
the domino effect, the fallouteffect.
Now, there's a hard line in thesaying Don't cross over and lie

(19:56):
, cheat, steal.
Do something that gets yourvalues or your ethics.
We are not talking about that.
No, no, okay, no matter whatthe cost, if somebody's doing
something illegal in ourbusiness, it's gone.
I'm not going to air it onsocial.
You'll never hear about thestories behind the scenes.
No, there's millions of them.
But you must think about that.
And some people are like well,that's great, bud White stood up

(20:18):
.
Good job standing up.
If you were some of thosepeople or your family that lost
their job, you wouldn't besaying it, would you?

Speaker 1 (20:27):
And just because, let's say, Heineken doesn't
stand out and say here's ourcampaign, that doesn't mean they
don't support one party or theother, right, they just don't
put their entire business modelon it.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
That's the difference , hey more people are affected
than you, mr Business Leader andI just I say that because I can
picture in my mind some of thebusiness owners I've had
conversations with and they'repassionate, and so are we.
We're passionate people, butthey will run over the top of
you without even asking aboutpolitical views or about this or

(21:01):
that stance, and I'm like whatare you doing?
I know how smart of anindividual you are, I know what
type of business you've built,but you're absolutely torpedoing
your company and they're likewell, I don't care, I got enough
money if I got to shut it downtomorrow.
It's not about you.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's everyone else around it.
I think the hardest thing yougot to think about.
Whenever y'all are goingthrough this and this is
flip-flopped the majority ofpeople think taking a stand is
the harder thing to do, like,hey, I'm standing up, I'm doing
it, but do you realize, thebetter move is being silent, is
being silent and continuing tomove on.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
I love the silent dream man.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
God, because it owes somebody, no matter what, and
we'll go back to a mad customer.
We'll go back to anything else.
It is so much stronger thananything else you can do.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
They want controversy .

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Oh, they want it, they want to fight, they want to
go through everything.
So it's handling the customer,it's listening, but the silence
is smarter, because your actionsare going to speak way louder
than any word that you say.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's as political as we're going to get.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
I think that's really good, taylor, and I think when
you look behind the scenes, itis much harder to bite your lip
than to just give your opinion.
You know what I mean.
There's a time and a place foreach and every one, and if
you've got opinion, you've gotvalues and you need to have.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
It's a sit-down, it's a sit-down, it's not a text
message oh Lord, that's just asbad as Facebook.
If you've got or received atext from me and I'm talking to
anyone on the other side of this.
It's been less than two lines.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
I'm not having a conversation.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
No, no, no, no, no, no.
We've talked about that inbusiness.
Sometimes we'll share.
Hey, this employee just sent methis.
It's like do not respond.
Do not respond to that right.
The contacts, the touch, thetone, all that stuff is way out
of having a sit-downconversation.
If it's relevant to yourbusiness, then you want to do

(23:03):
that.
Otherwise you don't have toconversation.
If it's relevant to yourbusiness and you want to, do
that, otherwise you don't haveto right.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
But so I think you know when we talk about when it
makes sense to take a stand.
I think we've.
We're not done beating it, butwe've hammered it pretty hard
about when we should not doanything, you know, or we should
stay neutral.
Let's stay neutral, we shouldstay neutral.
And and what we mean by thattoo, I'll come back is like when
you drive by our dealership,you won't ever see any signs out
front.
Well, it doesn't mean no, Idon't mean there's car signs out

(23:30):
there, but certain is runningfor office or this or that,
because we got both sides right.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
That doesn't mean we don't support one or the other
right, because they both comeand buy cars.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yes, you know, there's republicans and
democrats and independents andthose that love the government
and those that don't like thegovernment, and those that go to
church and those that don't goto church, and all this stuff
that all do business with us.
So we got to remember that.
But when it, when it makessense to take a stand OK, when
it makes sense to take a stand,I can tell you, during COVID I'm

(24:00):
going to bring this up we tooka serious stand and I'm not
going to go down the mask roadyou were talking about, even if
you thought I was going there.
We took a stand about halfwaythrough the month of March in
2020.
It was our biggest sellingmonth of the entire year.
Okay, but we'd alreadypre-booked all our advertising,

(24:22):
all our audio, all of that.
World shut down.
Everybody remembers that Worldshut down.
What do we do to take a standat that point in time?
At that point in time, we allmet and we said we have an
opportunity here to supportother small businesses in the
area and allow them to use ourplatform to drive business to
them, to try to help keep theirdoors open.

(24:43):
So what we actually did is wetook our radio spots, we brought
in small business owners, were-recorded it, did the editing
and sent it to the radiostations to take a stand saying,
hey, we support other localbusinesses here and during these
hard times you really need tolook at all possible to do

(25:03):
business locally.
And here are some of ourpartners in the local business
community.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think the really good point in there is to take a
stand without fully we supportvaccine, we don't support
vaccine.
We say mask.
We don't say mask, you controlwhat you can control.
And so we bought all the stuffto sanitize because that's what
made people feel safe.
It made them feel comfortable,it employs the customers.

(25:29):
And so we said, hey, localcompany, we found a local
company, we could source allthat stuff from Sure and then
gave all our advertising to allthe people out there to help
those businesses thrive.
So we took a stand.
But it was not.
Hey, we support this and let'sgo get them Once again still
staying neutral, but usingresources that you have
Absolutely Loving.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
I have to bring this up.
This is be creative wheneveryou do anything.
You don't have to be black andwhite or anything else, but you
want to know the most fun thingwe did of sending handy money
back to anybody or doinganything.
This was two-sided.
It helped local businesses.
But then what do we always talkabout?
Everyone in our company likeslunch, lunch.
So what did we do?

(26:08):
We made them.
We said go out, buy lunch ordinner for your family, take a
picture with the place, post iton Facebook and we're going to
pay for your meal.
So we not only took ouradvertising and poured it out
into there, but we had so muchfun.
So be creative whenever you dotake a stand or you're doing it.

(26:30):
There's so many different waysto be able to do it that are,
you know, that's easier, morestreamlined, but then also fun
for your team.
That was really fun for peopleto be able to go and do.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
I think when you look at it and we're going to talk
from a business standpoint here,I'm not talking about an
individual that's out pushingtheir values on everybody.
I'm talking about a businessstand.
You know, the reason you gotinto business was to grow it, to
expand it, to hire people on,so it wasn't all dependent upon
you.
So you have to run it throughthat filter of.

(27:01):
Am I growing my network?
Have to run it through thatfilter of.
Am I growing my network?
Am I growing how big my net is?
I'm casting every single day togather customers or am I
reducing it?
Now, the reason I set it up thatway is I have some other people
that are business owners herein Northwest Arkansas I'm not
going to say names, but here inNorthwest Arkansas and there's

(27:24):
always opinions I'm not going tosay controversy, there's always
opinions out there inhealthcare, in the rehab of
healthcare, of different ways toexercise, of recovery, all
those type of things.
And we've had some individualsthat we know and they get very
opinionated on social to whereit demoralizes some of their

(27:50):
other networked people, theircompanies.
So they're shrinking theirnetwork and how big a net
they're casting every single day.
So when you get ready to saysomething.
You need to go.
Is this increasing the net?
Is this increasing our networkand our business?
Or am I possibly starting tocut off some key players locally

(28:14):
that were beating the drumtelling people to come see me,
that all of a sudden that drumstops?
You know, yep, and we see thathappen time and time again and
we'll say behind the scenes andagain we're not going to say
anybody their name, but it'slike did they just do that?
Yeah, do they realize what thatjust did to their business.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
And I guess, to be frank, not everyone has the same
philosophy in business.
They don't.
And you know, eight or 10 yearsago I remember us having a
conversation.
It was, you know, a differentthan when it was time to move.
It's like is this what you guyswant for the next 40 years?
Right, sure, so your businessmight be.

(28:57):
You know, I can see somebody, uh, that owns x shop or does this,
and they say we are only goingto stand for this.
You know, we only let's say,let's call it a gun shop.
Yeah, right, I'm only going tostand for this, I'm only going
to stand for these people, and Idon't care who I piss off.
Yeah, that's okay, that's yourbusiness model, right, it's not

(29:17):
going to catch all and it's notgoing to cast all, and it's
you're only going to get a goodportion of the audience, sure,
you know.
And so I guess, and at this,because you're like these guys

(29:37):
are so right here on the fenceof like this and that, and it's
not because we don't have abackbone or not because we don't
believe, it's because we wantto cast a big net.
We want to keep growing, to beable to sell and service more,
to be able to employ more, to beable to give back to little
food.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
That was our goal when we said, okay, let's go and
let's grow and I think you knowour audience when you look at
our business, and that's a goodpoint.
Our business model is retailone person by one person locally
.
So if you're a business and youhave a factory and you're
producing stuff and it'sshipping to North Dakota and

(30:07):
nobody in North Dakota is goingto see your political sign
that's out front and the rest ofyour crew is all on board with
that, okay, but see, that's adifferent filter than if you
talk about one person at a timewalking through the front door.
That has to go by that signbefore they enter your building.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yes, the one thing we're probably best at.
We do not and call it tunnelvision or not.
We realize things nationallyaffect things in different ways.
But Matt just hit the nail onthe head there.
We don't play any or cast anylight upon it because it doesn't
matter what is going to happenlocally, whenever it happens

(30:46):
nationally.
We love living in the area weare.
It's shielded pretty good withgood economy from big businesses
being here, but then,politically wise, you really can
stay neutral because it'sshielded so much in that area.
So so many business owners getcaught up on that.
Hey, they're talking about thisin Washington or this in

(31:06):
California and I've got to talkabout it here.
No one cares and the only thingyou're doing is hurting
yourself by anyone that is localand is like, why do they care
about that?

Speaker 1 (31:18):
The funny thing is that I love you saying that
there's this guy that I listenand follow.
That's a business owner in thesame world that we are and he
talks about it and he startsevery single meeting with.
It is in the business we're in,we, where we create our own
account.
Yes, yes, right it's the nervousthat we talk about.
Today was a great day, todaywill be a great day, so we're

(31:39):
not going to talk about thespiking of the things down.
Is there stuff that help usmake decisions?
Yeah, but we're not going tosit and watch the tickers, yeah,
and all things, because if it'srough, we're gonna figure out
how to thrive in the rough, andif it's you know, if it's a
political year like this time, acycle or two cycles ago, well,

(31:59):
there was people that were like,oh no, I'm not doing anything.
And they had ordered cars andthere's cars coming in.
It's like the world will notend and if this is awful, give
it four years and something willswitch right.
It it always does.
But there was people thatrecluse hard.
We're like you should thrive inyour business and create your
own economy.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
I think that's another great and I know I keep
using this word, so hopefullyyou guys are grasping this but
filters.
You must have certain filtersthat you run things through.
I didn't say walls, where youdon't do it, but a filter that
you run it through.
And one of the things that I'vealways lived by is do I have
control over this?
Should I spend any energy ontalking about this or worrying

(32:42):
about this if I have zerocontrol over it?
We get people asking us all thetime like what do you think the
tariffs are going to do?
What do you think about if theymove one of the automotive
factories from here or there?
What about that supplier?
I don't know.
We're not the manufacturer andthere's nothing we can do to
adjust that.
The manufacturer doesn't wantour opinion.

(33:03):
Okay, we can't change theoutcome, so why invest any
energy on it?
It's a total waste.
It's a total waste.
You must devote your energy ona daily basis I'm talking
business here On a daily basisof things that can move the
needle.
It can't move the needle If itdoesn't help your employees.

(33:24):
Why are you wasting your energyon it?
Yeah, don't do it.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Don't do it All right .
Rolling into there, we haveabsolutely beat the horse on
risk versus reward, but it's soimportant.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
We're not done yet, so important.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
So important.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Matt will be back in a second.
No, no, no.
Next we're talking trends.
All right, Tanner, what do?

Speaker 2 (33:43):
you got Trend coming in.
Hey, fun fact of the quiz.
And this rolls straight intoprobably because people are
going this way or this way.
But how long does the averagebusiness stay in business
Statistics to come?
You can think about it, butobviously some probably take us
staying too hard off the bat.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
No, how long does the average business stay in
business?

Speaker 3 (34:05):
I like I do too that one can.
When we get the answer, You'regoing to roll into that.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
We're going to talk about it All right.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Mike, all right, mike , all right.
So the trend trap.
Now, this is easy to do,especially with social.
These days, whether you're onTikTok or Instagram, you're
watching Reels stores, whateverthey be.
Are you in the TikTok too?
You know what I mean?
Oh yeah, are you chasing what'strending out there?
Are you staying authentic toyour core values?
That's gotten you there?

(34:38):
And you see all this pressureand it's really tough these days
because anybody can record avideo.
You know, anybody can putcontent out there on social, but
it's really hard to validate.
Do they have any truth to it?
Are you jumping on that trend?
And then there's pressure.
There's pressure for a businessto jump on that trend, because
that's what any of the socialplatforms, that's what they're
wanting to serve up as trendingthings.

(34:58):
So when you look at thealgorithms, you're like we must
jump on the trend to be relevant.
There's time to do it andthere's times not to, and there
are some fun trends that, oncewe run it through the filter,
could this affect my network orcould it cause somebody to not
come in here?
That?
The answer is no, and it's justfun and it trends.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
So you have to like what's your goal right?
So we're talking trends andwe're not talking political
trends, we're talking justtrends like whether it's a dance
or so-and-so, does this or avideo of you sneak up on these
people?
Or you've seen the car salesworld like, hey, what's your
average month of payment?
And there's a gajillion of themif that's a word is a lot, and

(35:45):
so it's been super tough for usand I try to keep my eye on the
best case scenario.
The tricky thing is we don'tsell or service or clean any of
our products via the Internet.
That's true, and it's so hardto cash your net.
Just say local.
And we trained on thisyesterday in our sales meeting.

(36:06):
I was showing the guys of howseeing followers versus
non-followers and your followersare, generally speaking and it
can get great, you know to justshow you farmington, prairie
grove, bentonville, rogers,fayetteville that's your local
and that's what we want.
Those are our people, those arethe people we want to sell to,
not that we want to ship a car,but 99.6 is our local people.

(36:27):
Yep, and so if you get in theviral trend hey, let's do this,
hey, let's do that it kind of alittle bit gets you away from
the main thing and you could geta lot of views and a lot of
eyeballs on it, but there couldbe a lot of them not in your
locality.
The majority of them are notgoing to be in your locality.
So, okay, you've got a lot ofviews and you've got a lot of

(36:48):
shares.
None of us have ever collecteda check from YouTube, facebook,
instagram.
Joey, you'll say you got acheck from Facebook, but it's 28
cents.
In a video of Wayne or something.
But so then you think, like ourbusiness, our business does not
overly allow us to have aTikTok shop or a Shopify account

(37:12):
.
If that's you, if you'reselling supplements and they
don't have to come to yourbusiness, I think very much so
you should have a socialpresence.
Should that be through aTrinity thing, like there's a
different type of socialpresence, and if it's a Trinity
thing, that's just people likeyou because it was funny and
will they come back to you?

(37:32):
Or was it a one-time funny ofthe guy with the lawnmower?
Or now, have you followed hisstory and his page right?
So it's tough, but in business,does that create revenue for
your main?

Speaker 2 (37:44):
thing.
No, and I think the mostimportant thing of going through
there, do we go off of doingany trends or do anything like
that?
No, not all of them, and we dofollow some of them.
The biggest thing is, though,communication through the
different social platforms.
We've really seen that ofseeing trends, because you'll

(38:05):
get people that are on tiktok,on instagram, anything else.
So we're seeing in our businessof, hey, make sure you're
sending that out there to market.
Sure, creating awareness,creating awareness, but whenever
they try to contact you throughthat, make sure you follow up
that way and contact themthrough that same social media
platform.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
So I think there is what both of you guys are saying
.
There is there is some value onjumping on certain certain
trends you know for in ourbusiness, like you're talking
about, when they go around him,we made video about what's your
payment or what do you drive,and that just shows that we're
having fun with our culture,you're real, which brings
awareness to our business.
Like you said, we don't have ashopify account, you know, so

(38:48):
that then they'll come dobusiness with us when it's time
to get a vehicle or get oneserviced.
We use that trend in our casescenario to be able to show our
culture, to be able to show thatwe're having fun, that it's
somewhere that you would want todo business.
That's kind of our engine there.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, and I think the title of this is chasing being
viral versus staying authentic.
You will find we are alwaysauthentic like it is what it is
and we're not gonna like do awhole puppet show.
We might try to, and it's sorare, like our content like is
less than one percent, that it'sa trendy thing.
Right, it might be a trendysong, yeah, it might be a trendy

(39:26):
edit, but it is not going to be.
We're not skit based and I wasnot saying we haven't tried,
right, I hadn't had the righthorsepower to be able to do it.
Be, we're not skit based and Iwas not saying we haven't tried,
right, I hadn't had the righthorsepower to be able to do it,
and we're just authenticallydoing business.
But, and it says, does thetrend have a negative
consequence?
I think if you were heavy inthe trendy thing and they always
the thing is instagram versusreality, yeah, right, and those

(39:47):
are funny and I send those to mysister, you know, just randomly
.
Things are just funny.
Like don't take any effort towatch and think about, uh, if
you're doing that of theInstagram versus reality, like
hey, I just rented an hour downat the place to take some photos
in a jet, you know, or hey, Ijust stood out next to this car

(40:08):
and this house to show you thatand that's a little bit away
from our business, but that'sversus reality, it is.
So could that have negative?
No doubt about it.
So if you stay authentic, yes,and you have fun and show
because we have fun, I canguarantee you right.
And a lot of people say I wasgiving some people a tour the
other day that came in and thisguy was like, hey, I've built

(40:31):
and been a part of 311 storesand my last job I was part of a
34 dealership group and so Ijust let him do his thing.
He was there for a couple ofdays and said, hey, have you got
a proper tour?
And I said no.
He said no and I said, ok, letme give you a tour.
So then I showed him DarthVader, our pre-owned building,
turned on the conference roomwith the lights and the speakers

(40:51):
, and then showed him the gymand showed him of the five
different balconies and employeeflex spaces.
He's like shelby, I don't thinkyou realize what you have here.
And I said, no, I do, but we'velived in.
He's like I don't know if youremember, I told you about been
built and been a part of 311different stores.
I have never seen this he's.
Does the world know about this?

(41:12):
I said no with a very smallpercentage.
I said we're pretty grassrootsLet me show you.
I said because I can show thison social media and it'll get
some eyeballs, but until youfeel 30,000 watts, and see the
lights.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
You can go on an hour and a half tour, and let me
tell you the details.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
That's your short-term.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
The smell of the sun Inverting, because we're turning
it too loud.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
You put your hand in the 36 degree cold climate, or
felt 230 degrees in the sun, orlooked over the whole city of
Fayetteville, and so he's likeyou have to tell the world about
this.
This is not Disney World right,I try to create as much social
content as I can, but I'mrunning out of time, right?

(42:00):
So that's where I don't thinkyou'll really ever have any
negative consequences ornegative connotation if it's
being authentic.
So don't get too trendy, unlessyou're just trying to make a
living quitting your job andyou're going to become a social
influencer.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I think that's a great point.
There is, you know, number oneour main is our main and we're
authentic.
Yeah, if we can integrate in atrending thing into authenticity
there, great.
We talk about this all the time, about just transparency and
the same.
So what somebody will seeonline when they walk through

(42:37):
the front doors or they talk tosomebody, it's going to feel the
same, it's going to be the same.
It's not going to be like well,where was that that?
You shot that video like you'retalking about?

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, it should be just like a teaser of like whoa,
there's so much more right,it's the same, but it's so much
more in person.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
And that's what we want.
Our goal is you to be wowedwith something online and when
you get there, you're like whoa,this was way more than I
thought.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Right, it's the picture of Yellowstone and then
you get there and you have theopportunity of it.
You know old faithful beinghuge.
You're like that's a tinklefountain, what is that?
What kind of head did you usefor this?
I would rather be the lateralof the two, I'm like wow.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
So no different than let's talk about somebody out
there that maybe is inconstruction.
Let's take a plumber, forexample.
This is a great example.
So if you're creating somecontent for social or for online
and your content is around howclean your workers are and when
they show up they'll be cleanand the this and the that, and
you put together this wholeproduction, it's great.

(43:37):
And then they start going tohouses and they look like
they've ran through the ringerand they can't read the logo on
the side of your car because youdidn't take the time to clean
it.
That's not good.
No, you were chasing a trendover here and your authentic
part, just like you talked about.
They saw one thing and they gotsomething different.
So don't get away fromauthenticity.

(43:58):
Can you use trends?
Absolutely you can.
You just need to use them inthe correct area.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Correct area and the correct mission statement and
plan.
It's funny you say that.
I know I'm sitting herethinking so a good friend of
mine that I I've ridden bikeswith and I've gone and spoke
with some of the students.
He's now retired, he has manyconnections and so one time we
were out on a bike ride and wewere talking about this
opportunity, this opportunity,he's like hey, I gotta tell you
about this guy that started thisbusiness.

(44:26):
It's a window cleaning business.
Sure, been around as long aswindows have been around, right,
yeah, or at least a couple ofyears after that.
And he said this guy has justdone a jam up job.
I don't think he created thebusiness, I think that he has it
for this region, but he kind ofcreated the idea and if I'm
incorrect, tell me.
But it's a Pink's windowcleaning service.

(44:46):
And I was like, ah, I've seenthem on social media.
He's like, no, that was theirnumber one goal and so they've
had all these trendy like of howeasy and how fun and how
exciting, of all these socialcontents and things.
And there are thousands andthousands, probably millions in
total of views of and that'swhere people like doing business

(45:09):
with what seems fun, what'sintriguing, like you could have
Bob's window cleaning, who mightbe a real good window cleaner
or people want to be associatedwith.
Hey, have you seen Pink'sWindow Cleaning?
He's like yeah, and I was likeman, because as soon as you said
that I was like no, I know thatplace because I've seen him on
social media, right, right, andI was like so there is great

(45:30):
opportunity there, withouttrying to be like overly
cinematized, you know of beingable to draw business because
you're going to spend money inmarketing somewhere, and so you
focus where that is and then goon.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
I agree, I agree, cut through the clutter or the
stuffiness of just somebodysitting there reading it so you
can use that trend, but toconnect it to your authenticity
of how somebody would actuallyreceive the business, so on and
so forth.
That's good stuff for sure.
All right, let's get on to thisautomotive fun fact quiz of the
week.
So you hit us with that abouthow long does a business stay in

(46:08):
business?
I added some more content herefor you.
Yeah, I saw that.
Okay, I knew you did.
All right.
So according to the data fromthe US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, that's got to bereal.
Around 45% it's almost half 45%of new businesses fell within
their first five years.
Half of them fell within thefirst five years.

(46:29):
We can't hardly get somebodytrained in five years.
We'll do it.
Half of them failed in thefirst five years.
We can't hardly get somebodytrained in five years We'll do
it Five years, with only about20% surviving for 20 years,
meaning that the averagebusiness lifespan is often
considered to be five years orless.
Five years or less.
Okay, now I'm going to throwthis and then we'll dissect it.

(46:51):
Do you know that less than 3%of businesses make it to the
fourth generation?
3%.
We've beat 97% of otherbusinesses out there just by
being able to communicate.
Do what we've been talkingabout in this podcast of not
drawing a line in the sand whenit doesn't need to be drawn.

(47:12):
We've drawn plenty of lines inthe sand.
We've beat 97% of otherbusinesses.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
So I'm not saying we're the end-all be-all.
You should do exactly what wesay, and it hasn't been all us.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
We're the first piece of that.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
We're just the tip of the iceberg, but we've learned
from the other part of theiceberg and so there's a little
bit of validity there to say I'mnot saying you got to cover
your business with trump rallyflags and I'm not saying that
biden or harris shouldn't be allover this, but we beat the
other 97 we beat 97 of otherbusinesses and tomorrow.

(47:51):
Today there will be anotherhurdle right.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
And we did it by not having the cheapest prices.
Yeah, and we did it by doingthings the right way.
In our values and please listento this we stop, pause and
think before we take an action,and that's internally or
externally.
I mean, I'm just telling you,tap into the powerhouse of your

(48:18):
brain.
So many of you guys, and we'reas wound up as anybody, but so
many of you guys that fight andflight is killing you and your
business.
And if you just freaking,listen for a second.
That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, if you truly want to get in business and
truly want to be a part of it,like just slow down, Just come
see me.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
We'll have a sit down Quick to listen and slow to
respond Quick to listen and slowto respond.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
That's so good.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
If you can think about that, then you'll have a
chance of making it past thefirst five years and past 20
years and then, if you can getfourth generation, get married,
have some kids.
Come on, give your family theopportunity, with proper
structure, to be part of thebusiness.
They don't want to be part ofit.
Don't put them in it becausethey'll hate it.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
But then do it to it.
So that's pretty solid there,all right.
Next up, navigating the culturewar.
Okay, the culture war.
We talk about culture.
We love it.
I know appealing to all versuspicking a side, you know what I
mean.
So where's your culture?
What does it look like?
Are you trying to appeal to all?
We've talked a little aboutthat.
We're picking a side.
So should businesses remainneutral or aligned with a

(49:31):
specific audience?
Yep, we talked a little aboutthat.
We're picking a side.
So should businesses remainneutral or align with a specific
audience?
Yep, we talked a little aboutthat.
Bud Light, you know, kind ofthe challenge of pleasing
multiple generations, politicalbeliefs and social values.
So, like, what do you do there?
And I think we've talked aboutthat.
But we can break that down alittle bit.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Here we go Okay, so the question you must ask.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
We don't have another hour.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
The question you must ask is if I pick a side on this
, will it increase my businessor is there a chance it'll
decrease my business?

Speaker 1 (50:06):
That sounded like a filter.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Absolutely.
I'm going to go into pleasingmultiple generations, because
this is what we're dealing with.
Okay, this is what we'redealing with with all of our
employees yeah, no cap.
And with customers yeah, no cap, anything going in on.
But you have to make sure yourmanagement team is, in the
middle of it, understanding thatthey have to flex one way all

(50:29):
the way over to the next way ofbeing malleable through the
process, because you're notgoing to please them all, but
you're going to have setstandards that you can vary off
of to be able to accommodatedifferent people, because, if
not, you're going to be workingwith the same person that's in
the room with you and that'sgoing to be the only person that

(50:49):
shows up, because they'reeither your brother or they're
your business partner.
So you have to be flexible, notbending to do something that's
outside of your culture, but beflexible to be able to
accommodate different people, tobuild your team.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
So if I were to walk into a meeting.
Let's just start with ourmanagement team For a fact.
I know that there are people inmy management meeting every
single week and some of them areRepublicans, some of them are
Democrats.
Some of them go to church, someof them don't go to church.
I know for a fact that I haveboth sides of that audience and

(51:27):
if I don't watch how I'mspeaking to them or what I say,
I'm speaking to them from abusiness point of view, not a
personal point of view, and thatgets really blurry sometimes.
The last thing I want to do,because I still like that person
, even if they don't have thesame political value.
You know opinion as I do, andthey're a great producer.

(51:48):
They are, and they're not doinganything ethically wrong,
illegally wrong, and they followour business format.
So it's nothing, it's just afreedom of speech.
If I push my values on them, itwill cause them to.
If they don't leave, theirproduction and their happiness
and their culture will go down.

(52:09):
You must think about that.
Yes, you must think about that.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
So you have to be so adaptable and we talked about
this in previous episodes ofbeing adaptable.
But I love this because we usethis for reference, because we
knew it, we know it's proven,yes, but I love when there's
facts to prove what we'reproving, and so I saw this the
other day.
Uh, yeah, we're chiefs fans.
Yeah, the chiefs lost, uh, andthe super bowl, whatever.

(52:33):
Get over it, uh, and I lovethat they got so much hate.
Oh, yeah, I love that they got,because whoever's doing the
best is going to cut so muchhate.
And realize this that no onegiving you hate this isn't what
I was going to say, but no onegiving you hate is doing better
than you.
Hear that, please.
No one giving you hate is doingbetter than you.

(52:54):
If they're doing better thanyou, they're not looking
backwards.
They're looking forward, so keepthat in mind.
But Andy Reid, who backwards?
They don't have time forward,no, so keep that in mind.
But uh, andy reed, who is thechief's uh head coach, said he
coaches, teaches and trainstravis kelsey differently,
because he realized that heresponds differently, he
performs at a different physicallevel and he responds

(53:16):
differently to the way that he'scoaching.
He said he knows he's going toshow up for practice and give
his all.
He knows in a game, at everyopportunity, he's going to give
his all.
Now, has he had off days?
Yeah, haven't we all?
But he said he has had to havea one-on-one, different coaching
and teaching method with himsince the get-go, when he came
on in 2013.
And so we talk about that.

(53:38):
So we understand your culture.
Is this, right?
Here's what we believe in,here's what our main goal is,
here's what we want to do.
But then you're going to haveto be mingled with different.
You know what I'm talking aboutis different people, different
generations.
But come back to your culturethere.
So I love seeing that.
It's like I know that they dothat differently, right?

(53:59):
Sure, and we talk about it andpeople are like no, no, no, it
has to be like this and they'reall, you know, they're all but
does it?
No, no, no, no.
And so it's so goodunderstanding that and then
understand your strategies forbusiness to stay adaptable
without losing your coreidentity.
Yeah, so you can.
And we were having a marketingmeeting just yesterday and we

(54:20):
were talking about something andwe were going there, we
challenged the marketing team,the graphic design team, to come
up with this and I had told youlike, no, I like how these are
all line items.
And then they came up.
We give them free reign andcome up with creative ideas,
which is so good, because it'snot my brain, your brain or your
brain.
And you said the same thing.
I was going to tell you what itshould sound like, but I

(54:45):
thought, hey, let me let you runwith it, because we know what
we know, but they knowdifferently, yeah, and I said,
well, I kind of like that.
And matt was like I thought youliked the other one.
I was like I like the other onebecause it was tied to what
we've previously done.
Yeah, but it's okay to beadaptable and still lines up
with your main goal, and itlooks a little bit different.
And you're like oh, we only havemale salespeople, you know, or
someone says, hey, we only hiretechnicians that are over, and

(55:08):
I'm not talking about us, I'mtalking about just in your
business.
We only have plumbers that areover 45 years old, that are
journeymen.
Never, never, hire a female todo this.
It's like.
But what if you did?
What if you did like?
If everyone could still stayrooted?
That here's our main goal servethe customer at the highest
level.
Yes, always love on theinternal customer first, which

(55:32):
is your employees.
Let them know that they'revalued, that they're needed,
they're wanted, they're wellcompensated.
You're there for them.
You're there to hold their back.
But then understand, okay, thismight.
They might generate so much oftheir activity via social media
so they might not be making alltheir phone calls.
They're like where are youmaking those phone calls?
Why aren't you writing him up?
Because he's got 14 people a daythat are coming from this

(55:55):
channel versus this channel.
That's right.
And she's never been so good atselling real estate and all
you're doing is sitting on thewanted ads over here trying to
buy people's houses that are forsale by owner Right.
So, being adaptable, all thedifferent generations, it is so
important because they all it'sfunny I said no cap.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
Our kids are saying it and yousee, some of these younger

(56:17):
generations and oldergenerations it's not even older.
One of the finance guys theother day was like man, how can
your people even survive withthat pay plan?
Like I would never work for you.
I mean, he works for us.
It was like, well, let me kindof break that down for you.
Like, what's important?
It's not always the pay, it'sabout the time.
But if I broke the pay down foryou and show you all the unit
bonuses and all your bonuses,you'd be like oh, whoa, whoa.

(56:38):
Okay, how much, but you have tobe adaptable on that.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
You got to be adaptable and and I I go back to
we've had some employees andone in one in in general, that
was so rooted in this word thatthey said it, because this
principle and there's a time tobe rooted in in your foundation,
but that doesn't mean that's100% of the time.

(57:03):
There are things we have valuesin our business and you can't
cross that line.
We're not going to allow you tomisrepresent to one of our
banks or a warranty claim oranything like that.
But then there's other areasthat you need to be flexible on,
because no different.

(57:23):
You're talking about Andy Reed.
Go back and listen to thatepisode.
We talked about managing highperformers.
You've got to be able to bendand you've got to be able to do
this and that.
So it's okay to be so rigid,but pick that area.
It's not your life, no, okay,it's not your life.
You've got to be able to ebband flow and stuff.

(57:43):
That doesn't mean you don'thave a backbone, doesn't mean
you don't have this, you don'thave that.
So if you're going to pick aside, you better have gone
through the different filters ofwill it increase my business,
does it help those around me ordoes it not?
And why am I picking this side?
Do I have what I love?

(58:05):
When people ask me aboutsomething, I'll look at it and
be like do we have control overthat?
If we all agreed on this, thenwhat are we going to do?
If we spend an hour talkingabout this, about tariffs, or
about shutdowns, or about unioncontracts, or about this or that
, what are we going to?

Speaker 1 (58:21):
accomplish.
Well, you just lost an hour,first and foremost.
That's it, yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
And then we probably all are, like you know, in a bad
mood about it or not.
At our best, that's the mostimportant.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Even if you forget the hour that you lost.
You just put yourself in anegative headspace.
So then tomorrow's morning inyour manager meeting, they're
like what about this?
Like, what about this?
Like you know you are notjacked up.
You're like tariffs are goingto go up, our cars are going to
be more expensive becausethey're all going to be US made.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
And you know it's like hey you don't have control
over that, okay, you get toassign your energy and your time
however you want to, everysingle day, and your time
however you want to every singleday.
And as a business owner andleader, that number one goal
better be helping your employeesbe successful.

(59:08):
If not, you need to recalibrate.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
And I've got to say this, and it's funny because,
having conversations withdifferent managers or employees
like, hey, can I talk?
Or whether it's your familymembers or your wife, it's just
like, oh my gosh, can we just bereal for a second?
Like, can you not just be?
Like, hey, it doesn't affect me, I can't control it.
Or maybe it affects me, but Ican't control it, like, let's
not talk about it, it's a wasteof my time, it's going to put me
in bad head space, can we just?

(59:35):
I mean, I am being real, soit's going to take you a while.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
It takes a while.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
It's going to take a while.
There's been a lot of beatingover the head of like, oh,
you're penetrating my skull, butjust realize that if you can
see through it, trust me throughthis process.
Trust four generations yes.
And 79 years of making mistakes, of the three percenters, that

(01:00:04):
like it's worth the squeeze.
It is worth the squeeze just oflike understanding all that and
that's why we're doing apodcast can.
I tell you that Tuesdays aresuper busy.
That's why we record these.
On Tuesdays it's a super busyday.
It takes time.
It's going to take two hours,you know, every week to do that,

(01:00:25):
but it's because we've learnedthat from our father, our
grandfather, ourgreat-grandfather and all of our
current active employees andall of our vendors and all of
our customers.
They're like, taylor, you knowa customer's like you shouldn't
do it like this.
And you're just like, oh hey,absolutely, let me work through
this.
And so we want to share thatwith everyone out there.

(01:00:45):
It's like, hey, don't make thesame mistake we did.
Or hey, please do not do this,right, but if you don't want to
do it, then just let it rip.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Just send it.
I think that's a great point.
And, listeners, if you'llreally pull back the layers.
Yeah, we pitched what vehiclewe drove at the first here, but
we're not even pitching for youto do business with us or
anything else.
Now, we won't turn you down ifyou want to come do business
with us, no matter what flag youfly.
But I think that you couldlisten to any of the podcasts,
including two of them, three ofthem or all of them, and go.

(01:01:23):
These guys are just trying topour into other business leaders
to help them be successful andif that'll be your north star,
yeah, you'll be wildlysuccessful.
You know we wild.
It's no different than we'reconnected with everybody that
owns dealerships here innorthwest arkansas.
We're all cordial, we all getalong great.
Um, we're not sending eachother customers no, okay, I mean
it's happened, but no and we'rehighly competitive.

(01:01:44):
But we can be highlycompetitive and respectful and
share information.
That might get one of us introuble because there's enough
customers.
I had another business ownerthat owns multiple dealerships
in the area.
He goes Matt, there's enoughcustomers in Northwest Arkansas
for us to all have a greatliving and be successful, and

(01:02:05):
that's the same, no matter what.
I don't care if you're HVAC orif you're a roofer, if you're
selling solar panels or you'rean accountant or you're in the
doctor business, there's plentyof people start worrying about
you and your business and whatyour values are around,
absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
There's a lot of good things there, so we completely
broke it down.
We went over all the things ofthe buzz.
Engage neutral trend politics.
What should I say?
Should I stand for something?
Frequently asked questions.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
Yeah, so this is a good one.
I thought about this one andit's going to be a little bit
longer than answer, but I'llwrap it up quick is I get asked
all the time, you know, what hasmade y'all so successful?
And when I look at that I say,well, we go after the odds and
if you look, we like endurancesports.

(01:02:55):
But if you look at theendurance part of it, with time
and if we just stay consistentin the basics, we'll weed
everybody else out.
No different than only 3% ofbusinesses have made it that
long.
We're not in here talking from aHarvard or a Yale perspective,
or that.
It's just basics.
When you hear us talk about anyof our podcast, it's just

(01:03:17):
basics.
And what we say on here is whatwe do every single day and when
people come to tour they'relike this is amazing.
Everybody I talk to has thesame.
It's these small buildingblocks that we put on top of
each other and they keepcompounding time after time
after time, and we eliminateeverybody else because we do the

(01:03:37):
right thing, we take care ofthe internal customer first and
then we just outlive everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
That's so good and that's so right.
We don't know if you do it theright way enough times to enough
people, it'll continue on.
I know that doesn't mean youdon't measure every single day
and then sometimes you're goingto be like that was not a good
day or that was not a good month, like that hurt, right.
We've had those conversations.
Yeah, we're looking at thelong-term graph, sure, uh, and

(01:04:08):
so that's really good, taylorfreaking.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Last question this is , uh, of the other day that
popped up and I love thisbecause, you know, whenever we
first knew we were building thisnew location, matt's grand
scheme scheme of things, hewanted a 3D model.
He wanted it to be like DisneyWorld.
Then we wanted to.
We have Lincoln printed.
We're going to get that printedup.
But you wanted to cut theribbon to the front and it's
open to life.

(01:04:30):
Flourish Adventureland.
It's open, everything's workinggreat.
But you know what I love betterthan that?
What Is that?
We have employees and customersthat keep asking us what's this,
what's that?
So I once came up the other day.
I was like there's a basketballgoal out back.
I'm like, yeah, man, we'remaking this the best ever.
They're like, well, what isthis other?

(01:04:51):
What is this other?
I said there's four morebuildings out back, there's four
more buildings out back.
And the other manager stoppedwhat he was doing in the middle
and was like y'all areunbelievable.
And then went back into it andjust kept working.
I love it.
I love the excitement we get toshare and pour into our

(01:05:11):
employees.
So I love that question of like, hey, what is this going to be?
And inadvertently, we wanted itto be the other way, but one,
we wouldn't have had theemployees and two we would have
had who knows what else.
But it's so fun to continuelike, okay, they're done,
they're not doing anything else.
Oh, my gosh, you're doingsomething else, come on.

(01:05:31):
So it's just staying consistent, staying with our core process
and continuing to build just alittle bit at a time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
It's progressive, it's eventual and it's like
ever-growing growth, like, yeah,and that's.
I think that's our futuregameplay of whether it's a
process or whether it's building, like where hopefully it should
get the buildings out of way inthe next couple years.
Right, because there's some.
Uh, yesterday I was, uh, I wasgoing to the back, uh, the back

(01:06:01):
of the 26 acres, walking,walking, yeah, because I mean
you should walk, that you shoulddo, you should move, um, you
should move constantly.
And uh, one of our greatcustomers who was shopping for a
van, because we have so manylike thousand vehicles, he was
in the back lot.
He's like I looked like I wasrunning out the back of the
because I had to leave in themiddle of construction meeting
to go meet a customer and so Iwas hustling back.

(01:06:24):
He's like Shelby, did you quit?
You're running out the back.
I said no, I got constructionmeeting.
He's like you're still building.
Well, look at that, that'sanother 15,000 square foot
coming out of the ground.
I said you guys are ridiculous.
We know that we can do it andwe can do it right and the
chances are we're going to be97% better than someone else to
make it long, eventual and last,and that people know us, and so

(01:06:45):
it's so great, it's so much fun.
So this week we've completelybroke that down Engage, not
engage, talk about it, postabout it, side conversations,
main conversations you bet Mostimportant thing was the filters,
running through the filters andwith them, what's in it?
For me is there growth there.
So, as always, make sure youtune in every single week like

(01:07:05):
subscribe, check us out locallylewissuperstorecom or
crossroadconversationspodcastcomfor more information and
another week of greatinformation.
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure and give it a
like, share it with your friendsand family, and visit our
website to send us questionsabout what you would like to
know about the automotiveindustry or family business in
general.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
that you have.
Thank you again and we'll seeyou in future shows.