Ep. 33 - Hiring for Talent vs. Culture: The Lewis Brothers' Approach

Talent versus culture – which matters more when building your dream team? At Lewis Brothers, we've spent decades perfecting the delicate balance between hiring skilled performers and maintaining our unique company culture. In this revealing conversation, we pull back the curtain on how our 79-year family business approaches this challenging aspect of leadership.

We explore how seemingly small traditions like "Cancun Friday" (where everyone dresses in beach attire) create the distinctive atmosphere our customers immediately notice. These cultural touchpoints aren't just fun distractions – they're strategic elements that strengthen team bonds and differentiate us from 3,400 other Ford dealerships. As one customer with decades of automotive industry experience recently told us: "This place is different."

The interview process itself becomes a critical cultural assessment. We share practical techniques for looking beyond rehearsed answers to discover a candidate's true nature – from conducting informal walking interviews to involving existing team members in the hiring process. You'll learn why gut feelings matter and how aptitude tests can reveal personality traits that might otherwise remain hidden until after hiring.

Perhaps most importantly, we address the potential pitfalls of leaning too far in either direction. Hire purely for culture, and you might end up with a team that's fun but inefficient. Focus exclusively on talent, and you risk bringing in high-performers who damage team chemistry. The sweet spot? Finding talented individuals who are "moldable" – open to embracing your culture while enhancing it with their unique contributions.

Whether you're building a business from scratch or looking to strengthen an existing team, these actionable insights will transform how you approach your next hire. Join us for a conversation that goes beyond typical hiring advice to the heart of what makes a workplace truly special.

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.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome back Episode 33 of Lewis Brothers podcast.
We are diving straight intohiring for talent versus hiring
for culture, or both.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
John, we shipped Matt off to give some culture Joking
.
He's got plenty of culture.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
But it's me and Taylor today talking about
hiring for talent, hiring forculture, this behemoth of a
business, how we keep that thingglued together of the people.
And so I'm fired up to kind ofcut that up and figure out
Because I don't loveinterviewing people.
I know you don't loveinterviewing people.
I don't know anyone who lovesto be interviewed, but how do
you know who a person really isthere?

(01:07):
So that's a big thing.
Last week we talked aboutbusiness niche.
Yes, right, how do you standapart versus any other business
across the road?
How do you keep it fun?
How do you keep it relevant?
And should you stay in yourpocket?
Should you stay in your pocket?
Should you stay in your niche?
How to change and how to makethat change happen.
So if you haven't alreadylooked at that, go back to

(01:28):
episode 32.
Make sure you finish watchingthis one.
Let's fully dive into thisthing.
So you know we didn't drive.
We're here in our home studio.
But what's your pick of the daytoday?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, my pick of the day and it's coming by today.
I'm so excited about this.
It's the all-new redesigned theoriginal family truckster, the
Ford Expedition, the 25 model,and there's so many new features
.
It will be on site here shortlyand we have so many coming in,
but it's newly redesigned fromthe front to the back.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
The 25 Expedition and by the time this airs, we'll
have some on the lot.
We have some that are on theirway in, but I mean it is a split
tailgate so it's a classictailgate to sit down.
It also saw your groceries andstuff.
It's got like a new yoke style.
It's not a yoke, but it's aflat top, flat bottom steering
wheel, A huge Pano screen acrossit a new Google-powered

(02:27):
connectivity screen, a whole lotof stuff A whole lot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I mean, it's got the consoles powered to go forward
and back to be able to hit yourkids or have your big purse or
all your bags and everythingelse.
And they've gotten really smart.
It's like auto manufacturersknow what they're doing.
They do know what they're doingyeah they do, they're going
through.
But the tablet, the connectivity, on the back of the thing, it's
just got an a, an iPad holderlike this.
You just set it on the back.
So take your kids, anythingelse, you're not worrying about

(02:54):
the DVDs, the tape players, getanything in there.
So cool activity.
You'll have to come by andcheck them out, cause we're
really excited about them.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, absolutely Really excited about them.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
But going into it today, we are diving straight
into specific values.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, and we've talked about culture in previous
episodes, but we're going tokind of dive through them a
little bit more.
So specific values andbehaviors that define Lewis.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yes, and the importance of culture, alignment
between leadership and the newhires.
So it's like that can dive sodeep, of talking into, of not
just hiring.
It's no different than youbeing in the process of saying,
hey, I'm not going to ask you todo anything that I don't want
to do.
So being involved with that andthen shifting from seeking
identical personalities tofinding people enhance your

(03:41):
existing personalities.
So, right off from thebeginning, specific values and
behaviors that define lewis.
What does that kind of looklike?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
so, as I was looking through this, uh, and shout out
to our media team for alwaysgiving us good boundaries uh,
brian, craig and david and theteam helping us make sure that
we have something relevant totalk about, their take what we
do and then put it in there andlet us springboard so I was
looking at that, it was like,okay, do you define your culture
first and then hire for thepeople?

(04:13):
You know, like we're talking 79years worth of culture and
that's changed.
You know we're not the sameculture that our dad was, that
our grandfather was Same values,same idea, but as that evolves,
so do you define the culturefirst or do you get the people
and then the people conform tothe culture you know?
So that's, we definitely knowwhat our culture is right.

(04:37):
But our culture is also ourpeople.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It is.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know.
So it's a mixture of processand people, so specific values,
like when you're talking topeople, can you tell they're
going to line up with our valuesor is it like, hey, we're going
to have to bring them into ourideas and our values?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
I mean that's really hard.
I would say they have to be.
You definitely have to see thatthey're multiple whenever
you're talking to them.
Because if you go into aninterview like Shelby said, not
that we don't like talking tothem, because if you go into an
interview like Shelby said, notthat we don't like talking to
people I love conversating withpeople when it's about our
business outside of work.
I don't want to hardly talk toanybody but love being a part of
the business and then bringingpeople in.

(05:16):
But whenever you sit down youcan't be too closed minded
because you'll never findanybody that really you can get
on the team.
That's one you think goodenough.
Two, that's going to conform towhat you're wanting it to be.
So, yes, have thoseexpectations whenever you're
going into that.
But no, I've got to have alittle bit of an open mind if
they're moldable.

(05:36):
If they're not moldable andthey just run away and all of
you all know of interviewsyou've sat in that people just
the whole 30 minutes non-stoptalk and, like you just want to
like, after three minutes you'relike, you know what I gotta go
you validate that's really good.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
But thinking on and I saw this question I love that
seek shifting from seekingidentical yes you know they say
opposites attract inrelationships.
We're not necessarily creatingrelationships.
You know we're creating workingrelationships.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Generally like-minded people like being around each
other they do.
Like, hey, I like sports, or hey, I like selling cars, or hey, I
like to go out on the weekendsor whatever.
And you kind of and we'vetalked about this as we've grown
in the business and hired newareas and created new jobs that
we didn't have before, you hadto go away from the
like-mindedness, right, andbecause we realized, hey, if we

(06:32):
don't have a person that'sreally good at specifics or the
details, but this person isreally good on the fly and you
hire another really good on thefly person, you still don't have
anybody to pull it all together.
And we realized that was some ofour desk managers oh yeah this
person was so good withcustomers and so good with the
salespeople, but theorganization was just awful.

(06:52):
It was like where is all thestuff?
And this person has all theprinted out paperwork.
It's like I'll come in liketaylor, what are all these
papers?
And you're like, no, I knowwhere they all go.
Right, but like Paul, we heardhim on and he's like this
culture is ridiculous.
And it's not like we paint aface on, it's just like who we
are.
But that was kind of seekingdifferent personalities.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
It was.
That was big, seeking that, andI love you.
Talk about the culture ofanything else.
This business, the retailbusiness.
I was laughing, talking withsome of our managers after a
humongous month that we justcame off of, and mentally they
talked about this.
It's funny, mentally thisbusiness is very hard, yeah, and

(07:38):
they said because we were uphere on top of the mountain, as
best in the retail world you gofrom the top to the next day.
You've got to flip the switchback on.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah, you've got to start at the bottom, like you
start over First of the monthstart and it will destroy some
people.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
It will destroy some people and people that aren't in
our industry look in andthey're like why do y'all do
that?
And I'm like I don't know it.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Y'all do that and I'm like I don't know it's crazy I
mean what it?

Speaker 2 (08:03):
and they just drive there.
What are we gonna do?
But this is the business thatwe love to be in and it uh, so I
love seeing that from ourmanagers like I don't know,
we're crazy, but we just lovebeing in the middle of that,
yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
I think it's the thrill of being able to start it
from zero every 30 days andthey're like, okay, and it
should be very simple.
Like hey, here's the game plan,because we have the plan and we
show them how to forecast andhow to do it.
It's still sometimes tough toget the machine back moving.
Yes, and so then that's achallenge.
Like hey, let's go back to thebasic block and tackle.

(08:37):
But we talked about culture andwe were talking about Paul,
specifically In UltimateChallenge on Fridays.
I don't know where this camefrom years ago, but we did
cancun friday.
So what does the cancun fridaylook like?

Speaker 2 (08:51):
cancun friday is absolutely what you would think.
It's anything beachy weather,attire lake, attire anything
else, so like they're wearinglike yeah, the employees are
wearing and we're talkingeverything from a Tommy Bahama
shirt to a Cancun shirt, totoucans, to pineapples, to Opo
suits which you've seen us weararound.

(09:12):
But, paul, he just about lostus.
We talked him into ordering asuit.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
And so, like we have to pause there, paul came from
another dealership group, superorganized, very OCD of putting
things together and like, verylike as it should be.
And so then, the first, theChristmas suits, were the first
suit and I was like hey, paul,christmas is coming up, you
gotta get some suits.
He's like suit, what do you mean?
I have to wear a suit to wear.
I was like no, no, I'm not thatkind of suit.

(09:38):
And he was so hesitant causehe's an early riser, he's here,
one of the first to be here.
And so then he thought he washappy gilmore, ninth, green and
nine and show up in a christmassuit.
I gave him the link, I showedhim where to buy it, told him
how to size it, yes, and he waslike are you sure?
But he was new enough that hewas like I better listen yes

(10:00):
right.
And so it's funny because people, we've done it so much and it's
been a while because of you.
You know the lack of carsduring COVID.
And so people are like why dowe do Cancun Fridays?
And I'm sitting there thinkinglike why do we do Cancun Fridays
?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
You know, because we used to give away Cancun
Vacation.
We did, there was oneinternally and there was one
externally.
But then we didn't have it thisyear because we had a million
other things and so people wereasking like, why are you doing
cancun friday?
It's like because theatmosphere it's just friday fun
right, it was fun of.
Like you don't have to wear yournormal like am I wearing black,
gray or white, you know, uh.
And so it's like that's justfun, and then people just ask,

(10:37):
and so then if you were to say,hey, what's your culture, I'd
probably be better just to showyou a picture it.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, speaking of picture, we got him so jacked up
at christmas, had all thethings.
Mason, our other little fella.
We had him on a podcast live acouple weeks ago construction
shoot our shirt on.
He was uh, he was wound up.
He was so jack.
We'd taken a picture by thetree.
His mom is either his mom orpaul's mom.
One of the two sent us a framephoto of the whole group, of

(11:05):
everyone pictured togetherbecause of the culture and they
said Mason's mom that's been inother dealerships outside the
world.
She's like this culture is likeno one else.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
She's like what is going on?
We look like we were straightadvertising for Gimbals or
something.
I don't know what in the heck.
But you know we spend a lot ofhours.
You go from hero to zero and ifyou have some people especially
that are like-minded but havedifferent drivers, that's where
this conversation started.
Like this person is reallyhyper-focused in this area.

(11:36):
So when we're interviewing,we're like if they're a positive
mindset, they're happy toencourage others, they work well
with others, they're not goingto lie, steal or cheat, they're
not going to holler at peoplethat's the biggest steal, you
know.
And they're hard workers.
We can help them with theculture right.
Because they're going to comein like oh my gosh, because he
thought I was totally justputting him together.
But at the end of a hundredmile race, foot race I'm just

(12:06):
like, oh my gosh, I love this, Ihate this.
I love this, I hate this.
Like it's 10 30 at night andpaul's like I kind of feel bad.
I'm gonna have to put my likecancun shirts away, my suits
away.
He said we're gonna have tofind uh another other day I said
don't you worry, buddy.
I said got all the things.
You can.
Just keep your credit card hot,we're going to keep it.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
He was so jacked up.
Ford just came out with a newcampaign From America for
America.
Yes, he ordered American Flags.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Oh yeah, because you can use that.
You got Memorial Day, you gotLabor.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Day you got.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Fourth of July and you've got From America for
America.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
So the best part about that whenever you're
hiring those people and you getthat team in there, it makes it
easier whenever you're lookinghey, how is this person Maybe
not necessarily going to fit allthe molds that I need, but how
are they going to compliment andfit in?
How are they going to fit inthe whole process?
What are the?
Where are they going to be thespoke on the wheel to be able to

(13:01):
help keep moving it forward?
So know, whenever you're hiringsomeone, you're bringing them
into your culture.
That okay, if you're startingout and you're defining a whole
new process, it's going to looka little bit different.
But whenever you're adding ateam member, be very slow to add
them if you don't need to,because inserting the wrong

(13:22):
person in a good culture youalready have will absolutely
nuke bomb it.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
It's no different than having 12 perfect apples
that are good apples that'll begood for a while and you bring
in a bad apple.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
And you put it in there, it will slowly.
It's not, you're not going tosit in there and it's going to
explode.
No, and it's not like the wormsare going to come out and eat
everything instantly.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Mm, hmm.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
So you do have to be very careful.
You don't have to hire AdamSandler like, hey, this guy is
going to be hilarious.
No, like we talked about, is itsomeone that is going to bring
value to your industry Is itsomeone that's going to bring
value to your customers, youremployees or whatever it is, and
then make sure their culture isnot just like a bomb in the

(14:03):
other direction.
Another good thing that we'velearned is culturing within the
layers.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
So it's been me, Matt and Taylor, and then everyone
falls in suit, whether they feellike they have to or just
because they want to be a part,but that was not multi-layer,
right.
And so then it was like how theheck do we get service involved,
you know, how do we get partsinvolved?
And how do we make sure theproduct and delivery?
Or how do we make sure thecollision center?

(14:31):
How do we make sure that thestores that aren't here?
How do we make sure that theyhave that culture as well?
And then it's the lowestculture, and so when the
customer shows up, they're likethis is different.
Right, I could buy from 3400other four dealers, this one's
different, it feels different,and so a lot of that we bake in
and build in, you know, from the, the content you see across our

(14:54):
digital boards or on socialmedia, uh, but what's your
thoughts, opinions aboutcultures through the ladders of
I love this.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
I had a lady that came in yesterday and whenever I
worked the deal with her shewas a referral from a great
customer of ours happened to behis sister and she'd been in the
business.
She was in her 70s, so it wentthrough all the work life,
everything was in retirementstage and first sat down she's
like listen, son, I know how allthis goes.
I said yes, ma'am, she had beento the automotive industry and

(15:21):
finance and so really good, goodwith numbers, really went
through the whole process.
We went back and forth.
I'll let her know.
Whenever we sat down and said,hey, we're going to go ahead and
take care of you.
Blah, blah, blah, go througheverything so fast forward.
She said well, whenever westarted, she said all of y'all
are always the same.
Thank you, y'all have beengreat, but I understand things

(15:43):
happen.
Name thank you, y'all have beengreat, but I understand things
happen.
Already had the presumptionthat we were going to be like
anyone else because she'd beenaround that her whole yeah well,
fast forward.
And she called and she said Idon't have a spare tire, I don't
have this.
And she said I can't believe.
You just called me right back.
I said well, yes, ma'am, you'dcalled so I want to take care of
you.
So we got it ordered.
She came in yesterday to get itinstalled.
She said I have to tell youthis and it's like I'm eating my

(16:06):
own crow.
And I said yes, ma'am.
She said I used to work infinance and, uh, it worked at a
couple of stores and work someother ones in Northwest Arkansas
and she said this place isdifferent.
She said this place isdifferent.
My managers in finance used toyell at people or do this, and
she said and service would nevercome out.
She said not only did yourfinance guy not yell at me

(16:26):
whenever I wrote him a check andI didn't finance with him, I
said oh good, that makes itreally good.
So he said I got that.
I got a great delivery.
I've never seen that in my life.
Then she said whenever I justcame back in, I pulled in, not
only did the guy open my door toget me out of the car, but he
offered me a car wash.
What did I get a car wash for.
So she was so excited.
Our culture all the way fromsales, which she'd been a part

(16:49):
of, to service, then to gettingthe car wash.
So I love seeing that not onlyfrom just customers but then
customers that are from theindustry.
That's really where thedifference starts to come out.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
So if you hire the right people and the people that
help kind of boost you in theareas that you're not as great,
but you have the good peoplethat want to be there, that want
to work hard that want to takecare of the people that are
honest.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
And then they get to be a part of this culture.
Like make up a random holidayand everyone like, hey, it's
wear this to work today or dothis day, and it won't happen
the first time, it won't happenthe fifth time, but the 10th
time they'll be like okay, thisis here to stay.
And then it flows to thecustomers.
It's never been better, I loveselling industry people.

(17:37):
I love servicing industry people, as long as everyone flows
smooth and it goes good, whichis 99% of the time we drop the
ball, everyone swallows it.
Everyone flows smooth and itgoes good, which is 99% of the
time we drop the ball, everyoneswallows it, it happens.
But the industry people thatwere in the business or in the
customer service business justthe same way that we do when we
go to buy something or take partin something you're really
appreciated.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
If you meet a salesperson.
Just a quick disclaimer if I'mlooking at something and you're
an actual, factual salesperson,I'll just give it to me all
Right, because I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
You've already taken the time, you made up your mind.
You just want to feel goodabout the deal, make sure it
hits all your wants and needsyes, and then make it simple and
easy and transparent, and sothat's you know.
If you haven't, if you're justtuning in once, you can go all
the came about this automotivebusiness and how we designed
this whole new campus, and itwas building the culture and the

(18:28):
process into the process, sothat they would be greeted at
the door.
The door would be open for them.
They would get greeted with acar wash.
You know, the delivery processwas good.
That's baked into our process,so it's a cultural reminder.
Oh, we do this because, hey, wetake care of this person,
because, and so then that allowsit to continue and continue,

(18:51):
and that's through the layersand that doesn't happen If you
think in yourself.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
If you ever get into business, know this, it never
stops you checking up and yougoing around inspecting what you
expect, what Shelby tells usall the time inspect what you
expect.
I'm not saying to micromanage,don't misunderstand me there.
Inspect what you expect, goaround, make sure they're doing

(19:18):
that.
Ask about the car wash Shelbystill goes around and asks about
the car wash.
And the funny thing this is andI laugh, going back of thinking
times with my parents and I wasasking another guy a lot of
times by your superior, by yourmanager, if you're asked a
question, it's because theyalready know the answer and
that's their nice way of saying,hey, remember to do this.

(19:41):
So go around, find out a way tobe able to go, and they don't
know that's what you're doing.
That's just a good reminder tosay, hey, this is what you need
to do, uh, of going through.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
But if you don't inspect that, it doesn't happen
and it's a constant thing, likeif you get frustrated, if you
want to say, hey, here's how wedo it.
Do it like this or else thatain't gonna.
That boat will not float like,you'll continue to go through
people, and so that's one ofthose things that I like to get
to the floor every day.
But on, like Fridays orSaturdays, I'm going to try to

(20:14):
have majority of my desk work oroffice work done reports and
all that so that I can be on thefloor, so I can constantly get
a pulse on what's the businesslike, how's the traffic, but
also if we have new salespeopleor new managers, or if I'm
seeing a new delivery team ornew finance guy or new service
writers, I can see is ourculture, is our value, is what

(20:37):
we stand for still gettingdelivered to that customer, and
then we can make that adjustmenton the fly and without saying,
hey look, jimmy Jack wagon, thisis how we deliver process Like,
hey, what if we did it likethis?
And you're saying, hey, thatwasn't exactly how it's supposed
to be.
And let me help you make thiseasier and a better experience.
You can do that nicely, oh yeah, yeah.

(20:58):
It's the same thing our momwould tell us like hey, treat
others how you want to betreated.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
You know, mother Teresa or whoever came up with
that, is like treat others howyou'd like to be treated, right
Like.
That's so basic and simple, andthat's not just your friends or
your family or random people.
That's in business as well, itis, and so if you can do that,
that's solid.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
It is.
That's big, that's big.
I got something that's going tothrow you off.
You're probably going to knowthis, but maybe a lot of people
don't but question what early20th century automotive pioneer
famously stated.
That's a lot of words, I knowKind of reeling together there.
You can have any color you want, so long as it's black.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Was that Johnny Cash or something?

Speaker 2 (21:38):
He can kind of throw you off there.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Automotive pioneer, 20th century, yes Said you can
have any color you want, as longas it's black.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
What's our options?
Henry Ford, a, b, carl Benz Idon't even know if that's a name
.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
I'm going to say it's Mercedes Benz, it has to be.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
C Ransom Olds, Excuse me.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
It's like Olds Cutlass, uh-huh.
What's this less felt like.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
You all really throw me the tongue twister here.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Zoom your eyeball in there.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, diamler, I'm going to say Stellanus Diamler
Gautier.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Golly, all right.
So we got Henry Ford, we gotCarl Benz, we got Rainston Olds
or we got Goaty B Dimer.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Uh-huh, yeah, you got all of those.
We're not going to give you theanswer, we're colors you want.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
As long as it's black , yes, all right.
So next, uh, next core we wantto talk about is the interview
process as a culture assessmentand we've talked about this a
little bit.
But as we're interviewing, doinga culture assessment now,
remember we said we don'tnecessarily have to hire for the
culture or you hiring for thetalent you know.

(22:43):
So that's kind of that thingthere.
So techniques for assessing acandidate's culture
Compatibility, because theycould have really good culture
but it would not be compatiblewith your team.
We talked about the bad apple,but it doesn't even necessarily
have to be a bad apple.
But if it doesn't fit yourculture, like the way that they
do business or the way that theytalk, we've had people that

(23:05):
interview like this and thenshow up on day one I remember
years ago, looking down from myoffice, and I came down I was
like taylor chris, who is thatperson?
what in the world?

Speaker 2 (23:16):
we hired coolio from gangster's period, oh my gosh
and hey, we'll hire anybody foranything right.
Craig, we will hire anybody foranything right.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Craig, we will hire anybody for anything, and it's
really the puzzle piece thatfits, yes, like you know.
So I'm not saying don't hirethis person for this reason or
hire all these people for thisreason, but what I'm saying is
we might have opportunity.
Like Springdale Ford, like themajority of their business is
Hispanic business.
Yes, I don't know what thepercentage is, but you've got

(23:46):
georgia's chicken.
You have a whole lot of food isright there, and so we have to
be adaptable to fit into thatculture.
Yeah, so when they show up,it's not like everyone's suits
and ties and they're looking forhard work and it maybe speaks
that language.
So yeah, taylor and the crewhired Coolio from Gangster's

(24:08):
Paradise or something.
And I'm not judging a book byits cover or anything but I'm
like hey, man, this guy's goingto get after it.
What is he doing, Taylor?
What is this person going to dothat?

Speaker 2 (24:20):
one was short-lived.
Not on our own doing.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
No, no, no.
We give everybody the time totrain.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
He came back and he said so thankfully.
He said I can't believe y'allgave me an opportunity, but he
had to move away to do somethingelse.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
He moved away.
So what kind of questions doyou have or how do you interview
to see is this a culture fit?

Speaker 2 (24:40):
It has to be of going through not only going through
our skills tests that we are aptto test whenever we go through.
It doesn't lie.
And you can hit the nail on thehead pretty good Now.
You can be close to and seemaybe it'll work in there.
But you can look at the skillset on the last page and see,

(25:03):
depending on what you're lookingat, and it'll tell you, hey,
this guy is a go-getter and hecan get it in sales, but he has
a terrible temper and he's notgoing to work in there.
And you can see that.
I have been in many interviewswith guys that you can ask them
the question, knowing whatthey're going to say, and they
say what you think they want tohear and it's completely

(25:26):
opposite of what their skillsays so to break that down, uh,
so we give everyone a and it'scalled a bunch of different
things.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
It's a skill set or an aptitude, and it's kind of
what you're naturally born, ifyou're type A or type B, type C,
whatever, and there's tons ofdifferent ways to do it.
And my first interaction wasthat and, if you rewind it, one
of my first jobs was at Lowe'sand I remember being at the
kiosk.
I was like hey, I want tointerview for a job and they're
like sure, go sit on thecomputer.
That was the first thing thatthey did and they ran me through

(25:56):
the skills test and my thingwas because I'm a problem solver
is they would ask me thesequestions.
I was like I'm not going toanswer this.
How?

Speaker 1 (26:04):
are you going to do that?

Speaker 3 (26:05):
I wouldn't answer them how I think they want me to
and that you're going to dothat.
And so then I think when youselect B, they say, oh, that's
type A, let's give them a wholedifferent set of questions.
So it's set up when it's forsales or when it's for service
or customer service.
That test is tailored to that.
And so then what you're sayingis we get to look at the results

(26:25):
and it's like a 20 page summary, but you can go into negotiate
or you can go.
Customer service you can go toyou know, know, handling
conflict resolution and ranksthem zero being.
You have no chance of making itin hundreds.
You're really good at it and soyou can.
You know it'll ask you how wellis this person at handling
customer, uh, conflict?

(26:46):
And?
And so you're like, hey, taylor, tell me, you know, if your
situation about customerconflict, how you would handle
that.
And you're right.
It's so funny because it'salways backwards.
Always you're like, oh, I'm sogood at that, and it's like you
want to flip it and say, no, itshows here you're a 13.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Normally I like to ask them that and say how do you
handle conflict in theworkplace?
Because it's going to happen.
It's no different than abrother, sister anything growing
up and we always laugh.
People are sister anythinggrowing up and we always laugh
of people like y'all are soweird as brothers, it just you
get along.
I said, listen, we got mad.
We'd always get mad at eachother, but our dad is just like
you're gonna figure it out,you're gonna figure it out, get

(27:26):
back out there and figure it out.
So it's no different than inwhenever you're in your
workplace, of getting in there.
So whenever you ask manager,hey, you and so and so had a um
misunderstanding about anythingelse, how do you handle that?
They're like oh, that didn'treally happen.
So then you can look into thetest and see that it doesn't and
you don't shut it down then andthere you continue to move

(27:46):
forward and and you're peelingthe layers of the onion back
right or and so you'll peel thelayers of the onion back.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
I was like so, taylor , instead of just asking the
question you know, and say like,hey, how do you handle conflict
resolution?
They'll tell you to, just likeGoogle, would you know?
And so then maybe walk themthrough a scenario.
It's like Taylor, let's walkthrough this.
You've got a customer that'sbeen shopping online and they've
sent in a bunch of internetleads and they've asked for

(28:14):
pricing, trade questions, allthese things.
And then they show up on thelot and they don't remember who
they talked to and thesalesperson doesn't ask, and
Steve sells them a car.
And let's say you're not Steve,but you were Taylor, who
handled all their questionsonline.
How do you handle that?
Because what it means is moneymoves from Steve to you or from

(28:35):
you to Steve.
How do you handle that?
Yeah, because what it means ismoney moves from steve to you or
from you to steve.
How do you handle that?
yes, and if you can ask them inthat, like that real world,
they'll start out with cookiecutter they start to but then
they really expose the realcolors and you're like, okay,
what about this scenario and ifyou can get them comfortable?
Yes then you can kind of reallysee yeah, it's see.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
It's just having more tools in your toolbox so you
can be able to pull out of like,oh, that didn't work, I'm going
to pull this out.
Oh, I'm going to try this.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Or they won't open up , correct.
You know and so maybe they'renot a people person.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Maybe they're so nervous you just kind of keep
circling around and be able totalk to them.
Because a lot, a lot of timesand I have, as I've gotten a
little bit older, reallyrealized have your don't ever go
in and just be wide open,because you'll sit there and
ramble and you'll look up 30minutes later and it doesn't

(29:29):
accomplish anything.
But don't be so structured.
To you're looking.
It's no different than if youthink back of a therapist or
anything and they're justwriting down every single time
you go down.
Don't do that necessarily, buthave you a guide to be able to
walk you through the process,and that's really helped us
helped myself in particular ofbeing able to dive it in.
Hey, this is what's important,this is what I need to go over

(29:51):
and, as Shelby talked about,sometimes you've got to pull an
audible and pull some layers ofthe onion back to be able to get
down to what really makes sense.
But if you spend time there anddo that, it makes all the
difference.
You go ahead and avoid some ofthe circumstances you don't
necessarily need to be in,because last thing you want to
do is whenever you hire somebodyand you're quick to get in

(30:12):
there and you're like, oh, Ineed help.
Now I don't want to.
I went through all thisonboarding process.
I got all of them up, I'm notgoing to let them go.
You don't let them go, thenyour baton starts getting over
to the rest of everything else.
Then you've got a whole notherproblem.
You're trying to put out fires,so just take a little bit more
time.
Go through your culture and itmakes all the difference it's no
different than like paintingthe car.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
The details are in the prep work.
You know, I saw a set the otherday and I don't know if it's
because somebody was trying tosell me something that they said
an average of a militarypersonnel to get them at I don't
excuse me because I don't knowthe terminology but of where
they're finally polished andrefined, that they've gone
through the entire process.
It cost about a million dollars.
A million dollars, uh.

(30:55):
So you better be very mindfulof that person that's probably
in the pt test and early of them, making sure that we have a
person that's able to handle it.
Before you invest because it'sthe same thing in an interview
process you better make surethat person you know has a
willingness to work you know.
Won't lie, still or cheat.
It's going to be nice to peopletreat.
Treat others how you want to betreated.
It's going to show up to workon time, look presentable and be

(31:18):
willing to learn.
Be willing to listen, slow toanger, slow to speak, before you
really invest in them.
Another thing that I generallywill pay attention to is ask a
question and take notes, but I'mwatching their non-verbal
communications, or your gutfeeling.
What's your thought on that?

Speaker 2 (31:39):
gut feeling so big and you only know that if you
start to really talk to theperson and go through it in a
gut feeling is just what makesthe difference.
It's whenever something comesalong and oh, I didn't like the
way and you don't say it, you'relike, ah, show me, I didn't
like what you just said there,it's just I'm that's gonna shut

(32:00):
them down yes, it's gonna shutthem down.
You're like, oh, oh, I'mearmarked that real quick.
I didn't like that didn't sound.
And most people will say, ifyou listen, two ears, one mouth,
remember.
Listen, you're gonna initiatethe conversation, but then
you're gonna listen.
Listen Whenever things arehappening.
You're going to hear thingsthat are you know, whether it be

(32:21):
we talk about language in theworkplace or anything like that.
Whenever they start slipping upand talking a certain way,
you're like, oh, hold on,shouldn't it be more
professional?
If they do that now?
If they do that now, how arethey going to do it?
Whenever they get relaxed, hey,everyone's human, even in our
great workplace we like to dopeople start slipping out.
I'm like, hey, guys, payattention, whatever you want to
talk like that, go, talk likethat in the closet by yourself,

(32:43):
but not here around customers oranything else.
It's so important not to dothat and you have to be back
around to redo that.
But that gut feeling is soimportant to really listen to it
, because a lot of times you'llhear one, two, three, four words
that, even though God, therewas a guy I was working on, a
manager about, oh, about six,seven months ago, and I really

(33:06):
liked the guy and I was likeShelby, I think this guy's good,
we're going to go ahead andmove forward with him.
Hold on, let me double checkwith a couple other people.
Then I went back around and ourthe guy was gung-ho.
I was like I wouldn't put himin there, let him go and did a
little bit more and gut feelingup, turning out he did not need
to come in and had a wholecloset full of things that

(33:28):
weren't going to be good for ouratmosphere.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
It's doing your due diligence, not, like I said, the
prep before the paintwork,paint work.
You're ready to have thepainting car.
You're ready to have theemployee plugged in to help
produce, help take care ofcustomers.
But you have to it's nodifferent than if you bought
something over Marketplace orbought something sight unseen Do
your due diligence to make sure.

(33:50):
And so that was the nextquestion I was going to ask
about involving currentemployees or other people in
that interview process.
So you get a second gut feelingor maybe they ask questions
differently, or maybe they saysomething different to another
employee versus to you or me,and so that's twofold.
But you're saying that you askother employees or other people

(34:11):
about that person and you founddifferent things.
Yeah, I found different things.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You're rolling into your next question there or
other people about that personand you found different things.
Yeah, I found different things.
You're rolling into your nextquestion there, but you know,
running into getting differentemployees in there, that ended
up being an outside trustedsource.
Okay, so just another person,yeah so somebody look inside of
your whole parameters, ofeverything.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
So you actually called references.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, I actually called a reference.
Okay fair enough, I actuallycalled a reference and, okay,
fair enough, I actually called areference and it made a
difference there.
But I remember hiring one ofour current managers.
I looked at my other managersand I was like, all right, we've
got two applicants here thatI've narrowed it down.
I hadn't decided yet.
But I want you to interview.
And they looked at me and theywere like me you want me to
interview?

Speaker 3 (34:57):
And I said yes, me you want me to interview and I
said, yes, it's so importantbecause y'all are really close,
it's a really close group yes,yes, like you're in or you're
not, you're in or you're out,and I I want them to be in
because we need to roll yeah,yeah, I'll be on the same page
yes, uh it was.
So if you, if you had theminterview, what did that do?

Speaker 2 (35:12):
oh, of getting them in there, one it got, their
buy-in was the biggest deal.
It got their most important partyes, they got their buy-in,
which was huge, and then Irealized that they didn't like
something right off the bat.
Or, you know, on one of theguys that didn't end up hiring.
He wasn't my number one pickbut didn't end up hiring.
They had told me a couplethings that I didn't see, that

(35:32):
they didn't like about the guythat they kind of you know,
because, as being a Lewisbrother or anything else, a lot
of times and I'm reallyreceptive I'll talk to anybody,
but still, even being a Lewisbrother, you don't hear the same
as Joe or anybody else wouldover here.
So, including them in there,they just get to talk about it

(35:53):
and so then, involving theemployees in the process, you
get to hear a little bit deeperof what the person's really like
.
Yeah, so that was bad.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
That's really good and I said two things but then I
picked up a third.
So three things there.
So, first and foremost, whenyou're hiring someone or making
a change, number one involveyour people and that by
involving involving your people,that gets buy-in.
So no one says that you can'tgo out and hire as many people
as you want and you plug them in, but you're gonna have

(36:22):
resistance we see in the salesteam because we're not gonna let
the sales people interview theother sales people, because that
would just be chaos.
Yes, they want to uh, but itwouldn't.
That's not money well spent ontheir part.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
No.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
But we will as managers, because they're going
to manage those people you know,technician of a service manager
or a foreman.
They're interviewing becausethey know, hey, they're going to
have to work on them, so itbecomes their baby as well.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Hang on.
I said, yes, I want that personas well, so I better make sure
I'm committed.
The second thing is it empowersthem to know that you care.
Yes, I'm committed.
The second thing is it empowersthem to know that you care.
Yes, you know that you careabout their input right, that
you're not just saying no, it iswhat it is, take it or leave it
, right.
And the third thing is maybeyou realize something about your
manager, of how to help,control and to drive and to fire

(37:09):
them up, because they might betelling you about Petey, who
we're interviewing.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
But then you learn kind of their demeanor and it's
like hey, and so then you get tohelp them, because what that
conveys over to is theirone-on-one with their teammates
you know, when they're workingwith their team or with their
techs and they're like, man, Ihate interviewing.
It's like, well, yeah, no oneoverly loves interview, but how
do you dissect that?
And so then, maybe what theylearned in that interview

(37:34):
whether you hired or didwhatever you did then with their
one-on-ones you can help themto coach and to talk through how
to properly talk to people andhow to get good things out, and
you're not just checking all theboxes.
Yep, I asked him all thequestions.
He's not a felon.
He's got a good driving record,says.
He can pass a drug test twodays from now and we're good to
go yeah it's like what hang on?
there's more to it right.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
You hit the nail on the head there, and it's so
important to know this thatanybody can throw anyone in and
just let them go to work.
Yes, but to make a team special, it's no different than a
football team that wins allthese games.
Anything else there there'sjust a little bit difference of
how you control the process.
And if you want to get the mostsqueeze out of it, get the most

(38:17):
production out of yourracehorse, you've got to know
how to not only your salespeoplebut your management team, how
to encourage them, how to helpthem, what's their drive, what's
their why, and be able toencourage on that aspect, and
then they start to shine and itgoes down to your team after
that.
That's the difference it makeswhenever you dive into and

(38:40):
include your employees in theprocess.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
That's such a good thing.
We talk about this as ourbusiness is rapidly growing and
so we're figuring out of hiringpersonnel and making sure that
they become one of our culture,not because it's a cult, because
it's a culture and it's whatthe customers, like you said,
enjoy and it's a good processand it's proven, and it's not
just ours.
We've learned it from all thesepeople.
But to make sure that you slowdown and they understand that

(39:06):
process and that process getsbuilt because it can so easily
go bad.
You know that culture, so thatinterviewing process is so good.
I've got feelings of nonverbalcommunication.
You know what I like to do.
I generally will not do it at adesk.
Yeah, it's funny, I'll sit inthe waiting area, you know.

(39:29):
I want them to know that theyhave my time.
I don't like the stuffiness andthe formality of a desk.
I feel like a person won't giveme their true to know they have
my time.
I don't like the stuffiness andthe formality of a desk.
I feel like a person won't giveme their true and I won't give
them my true time.
And so it might be.
I've got a seating area in myoffice where we just sit over
there.
I'm like, hey, do you care ifwe sit over here like, or hey,
can we?
If I had my ideal interview, itwould be probably be running.

(39:52):
But if you know, if everyonewasn't suitable to be running
and I'll run with anyone at anypace unless they're way faster
than me, then I'll try.
Or on a bicycle yeah, some ofthe best conversations I had
have been on bicycles, becauseit's like you're stuck here in
it, like okay, let's conversateand let's make it relevant and
let's make it good.
So a moving interview is one ofmy favorites.

(40:14):
So I can see how the nonverbalcommunication of how, if I'm
hiring a lot poorer, if I'mhiring somebody like are they
efficient?
Like did they just go aroundthat whole section or did they
hold the door open for someone?
There's a lot of nonverbal cues.
You know how did they greetwith anyone else that they
passed, they rubbed shoulderswith or what it was, and I can

(40:36):
see just a whole lot into howthat happens.
So get out of the formality ofjust a desk and then take them
around and introduce them to acouple people and see, you know,
if other employees are like Iknow that person or they've got
that.
Look on their face, like youneed to don't pause and say, hey
, taylor, hang on right here.
I'm gonna go ask larry.
He looks like he hates you.
But later you could just makenotes and say like, hey, larry,

(40:58):
I see that.
Like, did you know that guy?
He's like yeah, I love that guy.
It's like okay, what do youlove about it, right?
Or like, hey, watch out for hey, because gut feeling is gut
feeling.
We've seen a hundred times andsome sales people's like dang it
, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
so another manager didn't take the time because the
hiring manager didn't go andask him Looking for the easy
button.
He said I told you not to hirethat guy.
Don't let your guy sink overthere.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Generally, in your aptitude test, your skills
assessment test.
You are what you are.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Yes, right, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
And we'll bring you in and surround you with a good
culture, but that's really good.
So the interview process is aculture assessment and also a
skills assessment there, becausewe can, as long as your culture
is not just your way over here,and I'm not saying that we all
have to be the same and look thesame no and so we talked about
spring, no ford, and we talkedabout like, and you know as

(41:52):
carefully as I can say, and dothis like we might as well do
that, what's that?
show the Voice where they'relooking the other way.
We might as well be doing that.
You know, as long as you lookpresentable and that's totally a
questionable thing whatpresentable looks like anymore
but you know you need to bepresentable enough that you
don't scare people away, andthat's a questionable thing as

(42:12):
well you need to be clean, youknow, and those things, whatever
, without going down a trailthere.
But we'll hire the fit for thejob.
The fit for the job, like Ilove Wiley is one of our
technicians in our quick cluband she's amongst a bunch of
guys and she fits right in anddoes so good.

(42:33):
And then we have salesprofessionals that are females
in her Chrysler store, and sopeople were like, hey, why don't
you have more of these type ofpeople?
Or why don't you have?
It's like we're going to hirewhatever fits, and so if that
person comes along, he, she,they, them, this color, that
color, let's sit down and talk.
Absolutely, I want to be ableto, hey, and I'm not saying, hey

(42:54):
, I need x number of these and xnumber of those.
No, no, no, no, it's the shoethat fit correct and I'm not
meaning like, hey, I'm onlylooking for this kind of shoe.
I'm looking for someone thatfits in our culture, that will
help us rise up, and thatculture check you talked about,
like the guy that slips up andis hollering or cussing I need
people sub layer that check themas well it's like whoa well,

(43:17):
hang on, dude you okay.
Yeah, like why?
Why are you f-bombing thatperson?

Speaker 2 (43:21):
they didn't need that , that doesn't need to just be
us so our culture should allknow that so, yes, absolutely,
it's been what about our funfact quiz uh, so you can have as
any color, so long as it'sblack?
I know the answer, obviously.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Okay, what's the?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
answer.
The answer is a good old HenryFord Henry.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Ford.
So that was when I guess youknow I'm a little bit
storytelling but he was workingon an assembly line, right, and
so he was just trying toformalize everything as much as
possible to say, hey, you knowwhat, In the assembly line line
we're going to make this so theyprocess through quickly,
because they used to be justtotally hand-built, one-off,

(44:01):
one-off, one-off.
And he's like what if we kind ofdid this in a line, yep, we get
to see that, uh-huh, in detroitthey have in an area that has
some of that assembly line model, a model t, and they said, hey,
you can have whatever color youwant, as long as it's black.
Yes, you know which is reallycool there.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
So good history all right.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
So last piece, balancing talent and culture.
Which one comes first?
How do you prioritize that?
And so maybe I and I guess I'llgive you the potential risk of
hiring just for culture, like ifyou you're just hiring Chris
Farley God rest his soul, goodguy or if you're hiring just for

(44:41):
skills.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
I'll tell you the biggest deal we've reigned into
this.
We've had multiple that havebeen great employees over the
years but are so bought intoculture.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
We lose the efficiency of task or anything
else, so they're just loving theculture but they don't have the
ability to go to work.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
And produce.
They can produce, but you'rehaving to go through and push
them.
But on the flip side of havingthat, the producer is just like
a-holes, not paying attention toanything, and you're like whoa,
whoa, whoa.
So you got to have that perfectbalance.
You can't have one or the other.
It can be weighted heavier onone side.
That one's a little bit hey,and they're never going to be

(45:21):
right down the middle.
They're right down the middle.
It's one of us brothers thatknows how to handle either side
of it and can bring that.
But the biggest.
I mean I'm going to say I wouldlean more towards having the
talent and they're moldable tothe culture, like they love the
culture, love being a part ofthat.
But then they've got that spark, that drive in their step.

(45:41):
That's gonna, hey, I'm gonnaproduce and I love being a part
of this.
I want to be involved with it.
It's no different than we getso aggravated in our meetings of
our top level salesprofessionals are like come to
the meeting, sit, go over ourculture, but then they're
delivering a unit outside.

(46:02):
I'm like all right, attaboy,good job, keep going.
Hey, be a part of this.
I'm never going to stop askingyou to come and be a part of
this right, because we got tokeep pouring into you.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
But keep doing what you're doing yeah, that's,
that's so good of like, okay,okay, so you hired me to do a
job.
Do you want me to do a job or?

Speaker 1 (46:20):
do you want me to be a class clown?

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yes, Well, both right , he is.
So you know we referenced Pauland I'll reference Paul again.
It was like hardworkingindividual, very organized, very
task-driven, which I love, buthis culture wasn't all one way
or all the other way right.
But then he was like, wow, okay, this is different.

(46:44):
And so then was moldable,wasn't closed off in one
direction or the other.
It was awkward to him.
And then now he's just like achain link, clicked in and just
go in.
So then he's a reflection of usand that's one of those things
of just I would say hiring fortalent is your best, is your
better bet, because you can ifyou have a good enough culture.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
They'll conform to it .

Speaker 3 (47:08):
And you have a large enough culture, they will fit in
with that and they'll add theirpiece.
You know what I mean.
Like it might be our workthat's all green and blue, and
then you have someone that comesin that's yellow, uh, and I'm
just talking just random colorsthen.
And so then the the colorchanges and you're just like, oh
okay, that works.
You know that is a differenttype of comedy, or is?

(47:29):
it a different type ofpersonality or greets customers
differently, or or takes care,you know, like one-on-ones.
We talk about that constantlywith our team and so we're like,
hey, make sure you go in andcheck on your team.
So they're just fuses, like yougot to make sure the fuses are
are on, and then you can say how.
How are things going?
You know, did they have a flattire on the way to work or

(47:50):
something going on with theirfamily?
like has a you know, down thechain, you got to make sure
those things are good.
So then one person might bebetter at talking to them than
the other.
If we've seen that there's likeokay, this person is better in
one-on-ones, this person isbetter at closing, this person's
better at efficiency.
But you have to know how tolike.
If you didn't overly know meand I wasn't whining or dying

(48:13):
which I don don't, it's so rarethat I would do and you just
caught me in one moment, you'dbe like God, that guy has no
personality.
He's totally just like go, go,go, go, go about efficiency.
But if you're around me longenough, you'd know that there
was a mixture and one is easierthan the other for me, right?
And so, like Taylor's way morepersonality, and I'm like taylor

(48:35):
efficiency, efficiency,efficiency.
And he's like yeah, yeah, I'mgetting in it, and so he's way
better off of like green,meeting and greeting with the
people and all those things.
And then I'm like targetedtowards the efficiency.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
But you have to find to be adaptable, so it's not to
say that you do or don't have it, but the people around you will
help those colors come out andthe biggest deal there you'd hit
on, I love you can take anyoneand insert them in, and no
different than like going intohorses or if you're on in the
middle of you get an old, juststeady as far as process.

(49:09):
So if you're not insertingyourself, make make sure there's
another manager, but nodifferent than I.
Brought on a manager that wasyoung, wild, excited and I knew
I was like hey, shelby, I thinkthis is going to be good, but I
know I'm going to have to sitright beside him for a year at
least to like hey, here's yourrope.

(49:30):
You can run as hard as you wantto, but when the rope hits
you're at the end of your rope.
You've got to come back into itand keep them structured, like,
hey, you tried that, let's trythis.
Hey, let's try that, let's trythis.
And there's a lot of give andtake there, but you have to be,
if you're going to bring peoplein, no different than what you
said our culture.
If you have a good culture andyou're really um, you want to

(49:53):
really make sure that theculture stays around everywhere
else and you're involved in it,anyone you bring into will adapt
to that every single time, aslong as it's a strong culture
and you're involved in it.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Yeah, and so you have to kind of do a risk assessment
on just bringing pure talentversus bringing pure culture.
And I don't know how many timesI've said culture.
There might be a Brian willcome up with a culture count for
us.
But we've definitely hit itmany times.
But it is so important.
A couple weeks ago we talkedabout we're not in the retail

(50:27):
business, we're in theexperience business.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
We are.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
And it's about making sure, without me saying culture
again, it's about the cultureand that's the experience it is,
and so you have to.
Can that person rise to thatability?
Because not everyone's made togo work at walt disney world,
right, and just like, be okaywith the lines and put the
mickey mouse ears on constantlyand do all that?
But the people that are able tofit into that and maybe have

(50:53):
never had the opportunity to gothat far out there, right, right
, to wear a Christmas suit or,to, you know, bring out the pink
suit They've never had thatopportunity but they have a
really good skill set.
Then that takes the monotonousof the day in and the day out,
and the day in and the day out,and so then you get to have fun.
Because, at the end of the day,if we just sold a crazy amount

(51:15):
of cars and serviced a ton ofcars and everyone was doing good
and making money, but it wasn'ta culture oh my gosh.
Like it would be a revolvingdoor of people you know, of
employees.
So you have to find thatbalance of like okay, and we've
talked about the volume businessLike do you want to be in the
volume business or do you wantto be in the crazy quality of,

(51:37):
just like you know, people thatsell high-end cars?
so I'll make a lot more money ifI sell high-end cars and just
do a few like, okay, I kind ofwant both, but let's find that
fine line there, uh.
And so that new manager is likehe'll go real hard in this way,
or another manager, go realhard this way is like if they're
young and willing to adapt, andyou could say, hey, let's try
this, but you have to keep yourthumb on oh, you do because

(52:00):
it'll go wild and he'll run offsome salespeople or you know
they'll run off some techniciansthat they're just willy-nilly
like.
Nope, they hired me forefficiency.
Here's your efficiency.
You took 13 minutes on yoursmoke break instead of 10
minutes.
You're out of here.
It's like hang on like, but weturned in 100 hours last week,
you know.
So, totally realizing that.
And another note is theimportance of clear

(52:23):
communication about expectations.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
You have to be where you go into that.
You have to.
A lot of people don't want totake the time to be able to do
that, but then they're quick toget mad whenever the person
isn't doing what they expectedthem to do whenever they hired
them.
It it's no different thanwhenever you ask us saying, hey,
uh, of the three t's, wheneverI look at either moving somebody

(52:46):
or hiring somebody, have Igiven them all the time, tools
and training to be able to besuccessful at what they're doing
?
We are the worst of going in,and it's just I think this whole
industry it's probably guys ingeneral of taking time to
document and go through, andit's always in passing hey,
let's try to do this.

(53:07):
Hey, let's do this better,because we don't want to be
confrontational and say you'redoing terrible at this in a nice
way, we have to be better.
So then whenever it finallyhits that point and we sit down,
they're just like whoa, yeah,and it flies off the handle.
So you got to make sure that wedo better at that and we go

(53:31):
through and document it and youtell them those clear
expectations.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
If you do that, it's going to make all the difference
you have to be superintentional on that, because I'm
not going to say all men, but alot of men are just like don't
overly communicate, and maybewomen are like that as well, I
don't know, uh, but don't overlycommunicate expectations or how
things, if we hit or missed orwhatever it is, until it's
really festered up yeah and thenthey're like whoa, you know,

(53:54):
just like you said, like hey,that's a lot and I am really bad
and maybe I'm on my own island,but in my philosophy, which is
old philosophy, which is not asgood, and I I've gotten much
better, but I can do it bettermyself, uh, and so, like
yesterday, I had a lot rodeo andwhere we had to line up because
we had sold so many cars and wejust had holes.

(54:15):
Everyone looked like a bomb wentoff and the team was busy
delivering cars and checkingcars in and all this stuff.
I was like Taylor, I got aquick minute, can you rally up
some people?
And so he went to rally up somepeople and there was no people.
I mean, there was plenty ofpeople, but they were all doing
something.
I was like I got it.
I'm going to get my Topo Chicocarry out eight boards and get
some keys.
And so then, slowly, Taylor waslike you better get out there

(54:38):
and help Shelby, because by thetime he gets back and moves in
150 cars, he's going to be nothappy.
And I was like, hey, sonia,let's go hit this thing and line
it up.
And so I had to be smart enoughto say I need some help.
But then I had to be very clear, so then I could kind of be the
trained conductor, you know,the conductor of telling people
where to go, rather than memoving the car.

(54:59):
Because, I knew I could movethem faster and I know that's
egotistical, but it's provenfact that I, just because I've
done it so many times, I knewexactly how the angle I wanted,
how far spaced, how I wanted theF-150s and the Expeditions and
Rangers and Mavericks.
But I had to say, whoop, hangon back up.
Let me clearly communicateexpectations.
Like taylor, we need to do alot rodeo.

(55:19):
You keep working on what you'reworking on.
These managers keep working onI just need bodies, yeah, and so
then I could say no, no, backup, I need you over here, move
those over there, move it, andthen it was more efficient.
But, yes, if you, within yourculture, assessment of your
hiring people, if you're notclearly, when you're
interviewing that person,clearly giving expectations of,
hey, here's what I think itneeds to be, here's what we're

(55:40):
currently doing, here's what wecurrently have, and this might
change, like once we start, youmight be way better at this than
that and we might say, hey, Iknow we hired you for this, but
you're so good at this yeah andso just clear expectations, so
they're not like blindsided,like, well, I didn't think, I
don't think that's what youhired me for, I didn't think
that I was doing good at that orwhatever it may be.

(56:02):
So have those conversations kindof as it goes Like, hey, you're
doing really good in this area,could you try this?
Or hey, I'm going to completelytake this off your plate and
give you that because you'regood at that and we're not the
best at it.
But we, you know one, surroundyourself with people that are
good at that and then work on itright, communicate that and say
like, hey, at some level, ifI'm not giving you proper

(56:23):
communication, just say, hey,what can I be better at?
You know, what am I doing goodat?
Yes, right, so that's superimportant there of knowing what
to prioritize.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
That is, that is absolutely.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
All right.
Frequently asked question.
Frequently asked questions.
I don't know if we've hit themall, but there's a bunch of them
.
So what's something that peoplealways ask you that you think
we haven't covered in the last33 episodes?

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Well, I got asked this again the other day and it
just is a testament, obviously,of everything we went through
here.
One of the employees lookedover at me and he's like's like
we just to finish up the cartower and, um, it done something
else with another print thatcame out of overlay, of
everything like an aerial shot.
I was a lot now like how manyplaces did y'all go, how long

(57:07):
have y'all been working on this,and so it's so fun to go back
over and talk about hey, we wentto over 100 different stores
where there's over 10 years ofplanting.
It was real deal and they seemore and more that wasn't just
fluff as the project goes on,that things our basketball court
, pickleball court just poppedup in the back and like what,

(57:29):
where did that come?
from we're still going, we'restill going, and there's not
stuff done after that, so so funto see.
Not that they didn't believe us, but they thought it was just
like oh yeah, they're full of it, it's not a big deal.
No, it's really a big deal andthey really did take that much
time.
So it's fun to get that.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
question C I love that and sometimes you get
bogged down with that.
And I was talking to one of theguys yesterday and I was
talking to one of the guysyesterday and I was like, yeah,
did you share the LewisGuarantee with those people?
He's like man, I love wowingthe people with the car wash.
He's like you talk about it,but I don't think everyone does
it.
But it's fun to remember thatit's somebody's first time to

(58:08):
Disney World and they've beenopen for a long time and they've
processed millions, probablybillions of people.
And so it's just a reminder oflike, oh, the car tower is so
cool.
We're like, oh, you've got carwashes, or oh, what's this?
And so, instead of beingfrustrated, it was like, oh yeah
, hey, can I give you a tour?
Yes, you know so jokingly.
Like our old store was like,hey, can I give you a tour of

(58:29):
our new fills in from 1969, sothat that's a really good thing.
I'm just remembering that yeah,absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
a lot of good information we went over today.
Always make sure and check usout there at lewissuperstorecom
orcrossroadsconversationpodcastcom
, and thanks for being with ustoday thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
We'll see you soon.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Make sure you like and subscribe, and we'll see you
next week hey, thanks forjoining us today and we hope you
enjoyed this episode.
Make sure to give it a like andwe'll see you next week.