Ep. 36 - Automate, Elevate, or Alienate? What AI Means for Your Business in 2025

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers dive deep into the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world of small business. As technology rapidly transforms how companies operate, they highlight the critical balance between embracing automation for efficiency and preserving the human touch in customer interactions.

The discussion explores a range of AI tools and platforms that small business owners can leverage to streamline operations, enhance communication, and reduce costs. From chatbots for customer support to AI-driven analytics and workflow automation, the episode provides actionable insights on integrating technology to boost productivity without losing the personalized service that sets small businesses apart.

Key topics include:

• The growing impact of AI and machine learning on small business growth
• How to implement automation without sacrificing customer service quality
• The importance of seamless handoffs in tech-assisted customer experiences
• Managing payroll as a major business expense in the age of AI
• Evaluating the risks of AI adoption and how to mitigate them
• Why maintaining a human-centered approach is essential in a digital world
• Strategies for improving employee engagement and customer satisfaction

Whether you're a local business owner, startup founder, or entrepreneur looking to future-proof your operations, this conversation offers practical advice for adapting to technological change while staying grounded in human connection.

Tune in to learn how small businesses can navigate the crossroads of AI innovation, operational efficiency, and authentic customer engagement.

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):
know that whenever you get AI in, that is so strong
and I love that going out usbeing in sales.
Whenever you go out and you seesomebody walk through and you
inquired about something, youwalk in the door they're like
hey, taylor, are you here to seeyour F-150?
Instead of hey, what are youdoing here?
Because it's a differentapproach than it should normally
be of just talking to acustomer around on the lot.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
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

(00:46):
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers.
Matt, shelby and Taylor here tobring you something that we
think is relevant, somethingthat may be engaged, may be
disengaged.
Episode 36, crossroadConversations.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Man, we're glad you joined us this morning.
You know we have so much fun.
We never pause to talk aboutthat.
We have so much fun just beingable to share real-world stories
that we've gone through inbusiness, what we've learned
from others, and then what wealso have just dug through the
mud figuring out some successand you know some things that

(01:24):
were tough and that we just hopeeven if just a small piece of
it helps you in your business.
That's our goal.
That's our goal.
So again, make sure to sharethat back with us in anything
you want us to cover.
But I do need to jump back tolast week.
In that episode it was a greatone because it was talking about
your competition.
We talked about yourcompetition both locally and,

(01:45):
let's say, globally Okay and wetalked about how those are two
different conversations andrelationships for us within the
industry.
Locally, we've gotrelationships with all of them
that safeguard us.
You know it's a protection thatwe communicate on.
We also know what incentivesthey're running, what offers
they're running, so we can stayat a competitive advantage.

(02:06):
And then globally, we've gotconnections where people are not
in our trade area so they'remore likely to share maybe some
of their marketing or theirstocking or their pay plan
techniques, and that's out therefor every single industry.
Even if you think it's not,just take the time, go back and
listen to that episode and startcreating those relationships,

(02:28):
so it can help you.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Absolutely.
This week we're talkingautomate, elevate or alienate
Automate, elevate or alienate,and we're talking about what AI
means for your business in 2025.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Hey, that's going to be a good one.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
So we're going to fully cut through that and
understand what works in ourdaily business, what doesn't
work, what we've tried, what wehaven't tried, what can replace
the person or not replace theperson, what the consumer wants,
and then all the pieces thatwe've seen tried and failed with
Agreed.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, transitioning into what did we drive today.
Well, something back in stock.
That we've not had for a whileand I really love this because
you know what they did, whatthey took a proven vehicle and
they just electrified it.
I'm talking about the FordF-150 Lightning.
Ford F-150 Lightning I have oneback in stock, a 25 model
starting to come on the ground.

(03:21):
If you've not checked out,every person I put in one of
these to drive tells me thatexact verbiage this vehicle
drives.
It doesn't feel like it'splastic, it doesn't feel like
it's.
I said well, they took theF-150.
That's tried and true, provenand electrified it.
We have one we use for events,we power up to Matt's Head,

(03:43):
coffee Makers and everythingelse going 30 plus hours, and
they are absolutely amazingvehicles you have to come by and
check them out.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know the thing I like about the f-150 lightning
and taylor you hit on it thereis.
What ford did is they took whatwas tried and true, where the
buttons were, where thefunctions were of an f-150, and
they said let's just enhancethat from an efficiency and
drivability standpoint, butlet's not recreate the wheel
here.
When somebody gets in it, youknow, when you get in a vehicle

(04:12):
you take the time of like whereare my buttons?
Do I feel familiar?
Do I feel confident with thisvehicle, before I can enjoy the
experience?
And Ford cut down that learningtime by taking the same type
platform and converting it overto electric yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
You gotta love the lightning of.
Sure.
It's all the fun and the wow,but also not too scary to jump
over from gas over to electric.
So they've done a heck of a jobthere.
So we finally got one back instock, like it's been since
december.
They had a.
Uh, really, it's been sincedecember, since we've had a and,
and it's not just an averageeddie, isn't it a flash?
It's a flash.
So it's been since Decembersince we've had a, and it's not
just an average.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Eddie, isn't it a flash?
It's a flash.
It's extended range, blueCruise, big screen, all the
technology, but saving you themost money.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yep, it's a big value .
I think that's a point and thisisn't even on here, but we're
talking business on this podcastis that some people think that
there's just a car vendingmachine, that we get what we
want when we want, and when Somepeople think that there's just
a car vending machine, that weget what we want when we want
and when we don't want it, wesend it back to them in the
return shipping label like anAmazon.
That's not how it happens, andwe've been trying to order some

(05:12):
more of these flashes because,Taylor, you really started to
make a mark out there in theindustry with that flash package
.
But in our business we have tomanage commodities and we don't
always get what we want.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
So we're always pivoting.
Yeah, because ford kind ofchanged their program of how
they would do dealer allocationon the lightning.
Yep, uh, they had a, a pool thatyou could pull from, and that
was a great thing yes it wassuper great for us because we
had this large pool of availableinventory but we didn't have to
have the holding cost or thewrong color, the wrong trim

(05:46):
level and we could have itselected, picked and delivered
within a week of a consumersaying, hey, I want this.
Well, ford pivoted away fromthat for various different
reasons and they said, hey, wewant to switch it back over to
the standard ordering.
They had a a layover gap ofwhen they shut the portal down
to when we did wholesale andthat rolled out.

(06:08):
There was a.
I mean there was some time fouror five months in between there
.
So Ford's got stuff to learnthere as well.
We all have things to learn.
It was like, shoot, we had ahuge gap because, as we were
leading the industry in EV sales, we haven't had an EV to sell
to be able to be in an areathere.
There were some high trimPlatinums and Lirias, but that's

(06:32):
not what you as a consumer haswanted, so we have not got.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
So that didn't fit the bill.
And this is probably one of theonly times and we're trying to
be more transparent with youguys you didn't really even hear
us talk about that.
Could we have sat around andcomplained and talk about that?
Yes, we could, but we can'tcontrol that, no.
So before we get into all thisai, let me just remind you out
there if you can't control it,don't assign time and energy to

(06:59):
it.
Why would you do that?
Don't?
But everybody does.
Well, I'm not gonna sayeverybody, we don't.
You know what I mean.
It's just you get seasoned togo.
Okay.
Why am I?
Why am I talking about this?
Why am I spending time on itwhen I can do jack squat about
it?
Yeah, there's plenty otherthings that you can control.
The easiest thing to do is holda mirror up in front of you and
see what's staring back at you.
That's what you have controlover.

(07:19):
Yep, yep, for sure about that.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
so that's a stop by check that out, drive that thing
, and if it's something elseyou're looking for, we'll find
it for you.
So, transitioning into our mainfirst core topic.
Let's talk about it.
We said automate, elevate oralienate, and we want to talk
about how small businesses areusing AI to automate and boost
efficiency.
Now, what you'll see there isthat is not a replace, correct,

(07:47):
that is not in place ofsomething else, but it's how
small businesses the keywordsmall businesses where expense
and we'll talk about that laterbut expense is very important.
So you say how much does asoftware cost?
Well, how much does anotheremployee cost?
So, if you can allow AI to helpautomate and boost efficiency
within your business, there's alot to be gained.
Cost.
So, if you can allow AI to helpautomate and boost efficiency

(08:07):
within your business, there's alot to be gained there.
So, whether we're talking aboutinventory management, we're
talking about online descriptionmanagement or we're talking
about communication withcustomers, what's something that
you guys have seen that we'veused that makes sense?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
I think when we get into this subject and we start
talking about those pieces thereis I'm going to let everybody
else know out there, nobody hasit 100% figured out and we
haven't taken like multiplesystems and replaced them with
AI.
And this AI is on a fast track.
It's going to be here to stay.
It's going to help yourbusiness, but there's going to

(08:44):
be some trials and some pick andchooses about how does it fit
within my business, how do wework with that?
You know, and at a simplicitylevel, right now it's really I'm
seeing that like what task doyou do on a daily basis that it
can either automate or they canhelp enhance or they can help
enhance.
You know, one of the things I'mnot the best at is definitely

(09:06):
English, and literacy is not atthe top of my level of skill set
, but AI helps that.
You know what I mean.
So when you start talking about, you know, emails or
descriptions.
That's an easy plug-in to useto at least get thought starters
, even if you have to go backand modify it to get you moving
forward there.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, most definitely .
That's something that's goingto help you.
So you don't get hung on thedetails that overly don't matter
and by that I don't mean likeit's not important or relevant,
but it's not your strong suit,or it's not your skill set, or
where you want to spend all yourspace and time of you writing a
perfectly written email to makesure that it's the exact way

(09:47):
that it was supposed to bewritten, in the correct
terminology.
No, the email just needs to goout, right.
So if AI can be a system thathelps you and then reminds you,
hey, you have not responded tothis email, and it brings it
back to the top.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
That's relevant, that makes sense and that's
something that any industry canplug in that you don't need to
go buy a whole other system for.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
You can simply use the plug-in on that, yeah, and a
lot of them are free becausethey're trying to get in front
of people.
Currently, you see it on youriPhone.
Every update has some more andmore to it.
There's ChedGBT in a freeversion.
There's AIGBT in a free version.
There's AI plugins that go onyour Outlook or your Google.

(10:31):
You get an entry-level versionand obviously they have you
wanting to get some more to helpyou there.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
But there's generation buttons within your
email that says, hey, would youlike me to generate that for you
?
I think that's the point, as wekeep talking about topics here
is that this space is going tochange so much over the next for
sure, 12 months, but you take12 to 24 months, and maybe even
quicker than that that you'llstart seeing the big companies
really buy up some of thesmaller AI startups and really
integrate them in you knowwhether it's and Google has
their platform and Microsoft hastheir platform and Apple has

(11:10):
their platform.
You'll start seeing all theseand they will then integrate it
more into the systems.
But you'll be ahead of the gameif you'll take, like you said,
some of these free plugins.
Start getting familiar and usedto it, because it's all about
the commands of what you ask itfor, yes, and if you don't do
that right, it's just going tofrustrate you.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, and I think it's a thing One don't plug it
in, set it and forget it.
There's still the proof foryour human element, how often,
how good, what's the quality.
You have to inspect that.
But then you have to really,really really give it direction.
You know, no different thanemployee.
It's the exact same thing, it'sjust it doesn't call in, it

(11:50):
doesn't get sick and you knowyou don't have to pay it
overtime, you know.
So it's not a replacement forhumans, but it is a good add-on
that can help you.
You know, and you might say theprompts.
The prompts are so importantand I see ads all the time and I
think they're just trying tosell me more.
But so many people are still inthe elementary levels of AI and

(12:11):
the things that they ask it for.
But if you ask AI what it needsto know in order to help you at
the highest level, you can useits system to give you the
feedback of what it actuallyneeds.
So it's a it's kind of aconversation of a ping pong, uh,
and I'll tell you how.
One thing that we use duringultimate challenge, uh, I task

(12:34):
myself to create a video everysingle day of a vehicle special,
and it was more or less justproof to the team that it was
super simple to be able to do,and so I used a couple AI apps
to help me with that, because mytime did not need to be spent
to edit a video, to write textfor that video and to put

(12:56):
captions in that video.
So I used two different apps tohelp me do that, but I would
use Chad GPT and it continued toget smarter and smarter.
It knew about the ultimatechallenge.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
It did.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Because I no longer had to prompt it and say, hey,
chad GPT, write me a descriptionof day 18 for a 2024 Ford
Escape.
It's the ultimate challengewhere 555 vehicles must be sold.
I could say hey, chad GPT, it'sday 18.
My vehicle special is 2024Escape.
Here's the high point.
Uh, search the internet, tellme what's relevant in a mid-size

(13:28):
suv, and it would say perfect.
And it would give me all thestuff that was relevant for and
I would tell it hey, this is foran instagram social story, yep,
and I could do this all voicetext after I'd shot the video
and if I needed help gettingdirection on the video, it would
tell me hey, go over these highpoints.
It would bounce it off theinternet to know what's relevant

(13:51):
or trending, and then it wouldjust throw it back at me and so
I could copy paste, send and letit go, do what it does.
And so I wasn't trying to be afilm editor, creator, director
and all those things.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Because you utilize those systems, but for the
listeners out there, let's takethem through.
So you were utilizing ChatGPT.
What were the other AI toolsyou were using to put, if you
walk them through, just one ofthose videos?

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, so the first video.
If you had no clue of context,chatgpt would give you the
direction.
But I would shoot the video andthen I would import it over
into captions.
Okay, capt, I would shoot thevideo and then I would import it
over into captions.
Okay, captions then would takeand put visual on the videos.
So the AI would take my wordsand put captions.

(14:34):
Okay.
So, because we realize that alot of people are scrolling
their phones during work, in thebathroom or, you know, maybe in
the area where sound isn'toverly, available.
Sure, in the bathroom or youknow, maybe an area where sound
isn't overly available, sure, so, but if I can put text over
that, I realized that the scrollthrough rate was much less,
meaning they would stop on thatvideo.
So then there's an ai generatorwithin captions that I say hey,

(14:56):
today, give me a color that'sbright, orange and yellow.
Yeah, and so there was fourdifferent colors that would give
me of the actual um word, itwould give me the highlight word
, it would give me the emphasisword and it would give me the
outline.
So, instead of me having toeach day pick those colors, sure
, I'd say hey, today, give me abold look.
Hey, today, give me a fast look.
Hey, today, give me a supersaver look.

(15:17):
And I would just make up stuffand it would give me the AI
scheme.
So then it would copy it, evenwill change your languages, the
languages you speak or thelanguage of the captions, and
that would take me about 30 to45 seconds.
I would hit save, I wouldexport it, export the video.
Then it would go to instagramand then I would take that and
it pushes out to everything andI would say hey, generate me a

(15:39):
description from jad gpt that isrelevant for instagram for a
reel yeah it would do that basedon the caption of what I had
said.
It would put it in there and Iwould say hey, give me 10
relevant Instagram hashtags.
Based on my information, itwould give me that.
I would put it in there.
I would publish it to all thesocial channels.
Then I would copy and paste it,put it in our Slack channel.

(16:00):
All in less than 10 minutestime.
So just using a couple toolsthere.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
So I think the point, the reason I wanted Shelby to
walk through that is what hejust said took him 10 minutes.
And the first time you probablydid that, what did it take?
30 minutes, probably 30 minutes, and then after let's call it a
week or however many days, thenthat moved down to your
efficiency point of 10 minutes.
It didn't replace Shelby.
It didn't replace the idea ofgetting content out there to

(16:27):
social media.
What it did is it upped yourefficiency.
What it did is it got morerelative content and it
collected what would have takenyou hours and hours, and I don't
just mean by editing and comingup, but then searching the
Internet on what's relevanthashtag, what else you know,
what's relevant that people arelooking for with SUVs.
Yeah, so it's a tool nodifferent than some other tools

(16:50):
in our business that justenhances, it ups your efficiency
of your current employees.
We're not replacing that, we'rejust making them more efficient
.
So then it opened up your dayto do more managing things.
So I think that's reallyimportant.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
It's so important to know whenever you're going
through that, though.
I was looking up a stat to see,because a lot of people that
are listening are probably likeAI.
You hit the nail on the headit's replacing.
I don't want computers, I don'twant to do this, don't want to
do that, but so many people areseeing through and you're like,
well, it's a really big deal,because if you look online, over
80% of businesses are eitheralready engaged in it or

(17:29):
exploring that and that wholerevenue of it, knowing they're
expecting that it's going tobecome over $190 billion.
Industry of AI being in thebusiness world.
That's not even anything else,just in the business world.
So, yes, it's that virtualassistant that can help you be

(17:50):
more productive throughout yourday and allows you to be able to
hey, let me look and see if Ihave this one system that can
help me here, instead of maybegetting another personnel in
there.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
This would be way more expensive than that would
be hey, I like that stat youcame up with there, that 80%
because we all get caught inthere.
This would be way moreexpensive than that would be.
Hey, I like that stat you cameup with there, that 80% because
we all get caught in this andI'm the same way and we're all
different generations in here.
But you start getting into yourcareer and especially you have
a successful area.
But if you're not continuing toevolve and your competition is,

(18:21):
it doesn't matter what youropinion is about that.
If other 80% of the businessesout there are embracing or
exploring that, they're going topass you by.
And some technology like AI cancatapult somebody an entire
decade.
You know they can really, and Iwas talking to some graduate
students at the U of A the otherday that are either getting

(18:42):
their master's or working ontheir doctorate.
Here's what everybody needs tounderstand Within the next X
amount of years let's call it anentire college class.
So four years, within the nextfour years, the people that are
going into the marketplace.
They're using AI for paperresearch.
They're using AI notnecessarily to write all their
papers, but to gather theinformation so they can write a

(19:03):
better paper or have betteranswers.
They're going to be experts atthis, go into business and
rapidly be able to identifyopportunities and ways to
increase their market share,which could erode yours if
you're not embracing it.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
No doubt about that.
I'll tell you one of thebiggest things that we saw if we
get complaints and we don't geta ton, but we're in business,
we do, we get complaints right,and so one of the largest
complaints that any businesswill ever get is lack of
communication.
Even if you communicate a crazyamount, someone's still going to

(19:41):
expect it a whole lot more andat a different level.
So we have a tool that helps us.
Uh, for missed phone calls.
So you ring into our dealershipbecause if you taylor mad, if
you ever get a customer getsahold of you, it's like oh my
gosh, does anyone work on yourphones?
You're just like oh, I have allthe systems and I have all the
operators and I try to givedirect phone lines.

(20:03):
So we saw a company out therethat recognized when a phone
call was dropped, they quicklyreferenced hey, has this person
been in your dealership?
Do you have a record withinservice?
It's a service tool, mainlyservice on parts, and it shoots
them a text that says hey, wesaw that we missed you.
Can we text you an update andlet you know on the?

(20:27):
And.
So it scours the system superquickly and sees that you have a
couple vehicles, whetherthey're in service or not, is
what it?
says back, and so it goes froman opportunity of someone not
communicating well or not beingable to get ahold of somebody,
then transfers them over to textand it says hey, are you
checking the status of thevehicle?
Do you want an update or howcan we be of assistance?

(20:49):
Are you okay to text?
It sends, roughly sends andreceives, because it goes back
and forth and it has anotification system.
14,000 texts a month, that'shuge, wow, and that gives time
back to our service riders If wecan answer the question in text

(21:11):
.
We're not trying to push thecustomer aside from the
communication, but we overlydon't need your diagnosis on the
vehicle because you couldn'tfix it.
Yeah, right, you brought it tous and we need a proper
description.
Sure, but if you're justcalling for an update, we left
you a voicemail, but we get it.
Not everyone checks theirvoicemail, so let me just be

(21:31):
able to text it back to you.
So then that tool recognizedthat and that was a tool that we
saw.
That was like, hey, this couldbe good opportunity to take a
frustrating situation and to sayhere's how we can serve you.
So that's something thatthing's always moving of ways to
adapt the ability.
It also sends surveys out andsays, hey, here's kind of a

(21:53):
pre-survey survey, you know, sowe can see if there's an issue
that we can quickly get with thecustomer to solve that at a
higher level before it reallystarts boiling, you know.
So it really has helped ourefficiency, yeah that's a good
point.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Again, not replacing the employee, but enhancing not
only the employee but then thecustomer experience as well,
because a lot of that was evenunknown we only got.
A tenth of the people that wereactually dropped or not
communicated with would actuallyget to us.
The rest of them, unfortunatelythey might have left and not
ever come back.
You know we've talked aboutthat at a restaurant before.

(22:28):
We're not going to complain andthey can serve us a hot dog.
When we order a steak We'll eatthe hot dog and we're not going
to roast them.
We're not leaving you a badreview.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
We just won't come back and won't recommend it,
yeah, and if it was dropped, youforget that it was dropped, as
long as you do something goodwhen you picked it up, sure,
that's right, right, you know,like no one's saying, hey, they
fumbled it, and then what didthey do?
From there, they're saying, no,he scored a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know.
So that's something that hasreally helped us.
Anything else you guys think offor automation or boost
efficiency?

Speaker 2 (23:05):
No, I think good intro to it solid all right, so
the next thing I want to go tois our automotive fun fact quiz
of the week.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
okay, all right, I like this one, all right.
So what is our largest expensecategory within our dealerships,
outside of the cost ofinventory?
And fun fact for you, as ofyesterday morning, our cost of
inventory was $31.6 million.
That's large, that's what wehave available on the ground,

(23:28):
that we've paid for $31.6million in inventory that we've
got to find a home for.
So, outside of that what is ourlargest expense category?

Speaker 2 (23:42):
I think I got this one, but we'll wait and see.
Don't answer.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
So think about that one.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Give us some options and comments on what you think
of our largest expense categoryoutside of inventory okay, and
I'll even throw it out therethat if you take the amount of
interest we pay on inventory,the answer we're going to give
you is even larger than that.
You know, yeah for sure, that'sgood.

(24:08):
Okay, next up ways AI canactually improve customer
connections.
We've kind of gone into that.
So we'll take it and move on.
That's how this podcast goes,you know what I mean, without
losing the personal touch.
And I think we'll pick up hereand I'll kick it back to Shelby
to kind of pick the ball up withwhat he was talking about.
But here's where I want him totake it from is how do you

(24:32):
utilize AI?
But you don't make it into thefrustrating prompted call
service.
You know we've all been there.
I was on the phone callyesterday with it.
Hit number two, hit numberthree enter your social.
Enter this, I know it's notyour social but yeah, give me an
agent.
Give me all this stuff Zero, andit's like have you rebooted

(24:53):
your?
Modem Representative and didyou know you could visit our
website?
Most questions could beanswered there.
I've already been there.
That's where I got your phonenumber.
You know we're all frustratedthere.
So then, how do we take alittle bit of a step back,
utilize AI, but then make surethat we still have the personal
touch for an employee, Like howdo they grab that ball from what

(25:14):
you're talking about and thencontinue on with it?

Speaker 3 (25:16):
So let me talk about that With NUMA, what we were
previously talking about.
So it starts that process ofcommunication because it's a lot
of text and so its main job isto take a missed call and start
that text communication.
Yep, but then if a customersays, yes, I need to know an

(25:37):
update on my 2018 F-150, Ihaven't been able to get a hold
of Larry?
Yep, I'm like, okay, perfect,yeah, so then it will text back,
but at the same time, whetherit recognizes it via through our
DMS system or it recognizesLarry's name, it's going to then

(25:59):
tag Larry to it.
Okay, and then there's timersbuilt in and we constantly move
these timers to say what is arealistic amount for the
employees, but also for theconsumer, because we realize the
window's pretty small right now.
Text means you've got a littlebit more time because they're
not just sitting there on holdand they can be doing something
else.

(26:20):
But then we've built timers inwhere then larry can respond and
say hey, it's me, you know,like that, they know that a
system was talking to them.
It's a real system, uh, butthen also that it's a Lewis
Automotive employee on the otherside.
And so then we put a timer into say, if said agent Larry, who

(26:40):
works here, does not withinnine minutes, then it tags all
connected managers to that.
It says hey, this one needsattention.
That says hey, this one needsattention.
And so before that customerstarted boiling, it allowed
service manager, servicedirector, foreman and me on
there.
So whoever is available hop in.
And then, because it's such anadapting, moving forward system,

(27:03):
it is so good that you can movethrough it that I can tag and
say hey, no, this is a parts, Ineed help from parts, and so I
can just do at and tag LFS partsand so then they all get the
notification and so, withoutthem having to pick up another
phone because they got a phonegoing looking for these parts
and another screen.
It just pings them.
It says hey, can you check onMrs Davis's F-150?

(27:26):
She needs an update.
And so while they're on holdwith someone else and looking
for something and waiting ontech hotline, they've got.
Oh, yeah, that came in thismorning.
I got it out to justin he'sworking on your truck.
Yeah, so then service knows,hey, we've got the part, and
then they can get on date.
To miss davis hey, absolutely,your part came in this morning.
We're working on it.
Yeah, we'll let you know assoon as it's ready.

(27:47):
So you take the system, theprocess, the ai, and then you
have the system the process theAI, and then you have where it
segues over to us.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
And they realize it's still a human, so you're not
caught in this phone, like giveme a representative, give me a
representative.
And they're like no, I needyour manager who actually knows
what's going on.
Here's my loyalty number.
You don't even see my records.
I've already had to tell thisstory six times and we've
learned from, obviously, trialsand tribulations of what we do
wrong, but what we is experienceexperience.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
I think that's a point and and we're not perfect
on it yet but one of the thingsand I'll talk about in service
and in sales, of picking theball up from technology and ai
we're talking about right now iswe've all been caught in that.
I was on a chat, a support chatthis morning and I typed out
all my stuff, my originalinvoice number, this and that

(28:39):
Finally got to an agent and thenthe agent says how can I help
you?
And I'm like, and this is whatI typed in there, and I wasn't
trying to be an angry person,but I was like please see all
the previous messages before,because it had it all in there.
And I wasn't trying to be anangry person, but I was like
please see all the previousmessages before, because it had
it all in there.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Can you scroll?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
up and it's like well , just let me know what you're
looking for.
And I'm like I've already takenall the time to.
I don't mind giving theinformation.
I don't want to give itmultiple times.
Same thing happens at adoctor's office.
I go in I'm not saying alldoctor's offices are this way,
but I go in and the nurse orwhoever checked me in I go over
everything and I see them typingit in the computer, all the

(29:15):
stuff.
Then the doctor goes in likewhat's going on?
What are you here for?
What are you here for?
And I'm like I just spent thelast 15 minutes pouring
everything out to there.
So I think what's important is,if it's with Pneuma, that we've
actually looked at it and we gohey, I see that you're inquiring
about the status of your part.
Here's what I found out.

(29:35):
That's real.
That's a smooth handoff.
If it's with sales, it's thesame thing that our goal and
we've been talking about this isto meet the customer where they
are in the process Process ofgetting it repaired, process of
buying.
You know where are you at onbuying, because you know the
stats say it's over 20 hours now, but it's 20 hours on the
Internet before they reach outto us.

(29:57):
So in order to reducefrustration and increase the
customer satisfaction, we mustmeet the customer where they are
and it must be a smooth handoff.
You know, we can't be at the 20yard line and all of a sudden
get the ball and say let's goall the way back to the other

(30:18):
goal line and just start over.
Don't give up that progress of80 yards you've already made.
But I'm not telling you, wehave all that figured out.
It's just what we're workingtowards.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
No, and what people, most people learn within our
industry or within our businessis they enjoy being able to see.
You know, you say the doctorsthat you can see the records yes
right.
So before they fully put theirfoot in their mouth or say hey,
what are you here for?
I don't think anyone reallylikes intentionally getting
punched.
You know, sometimes they justdo it out of reaction, like, hey

(30:48):
, you just hear shopping orwhat's going on.
You're not feeling good.
So because, like in numa or inin our crm, you can go back and
look at history.
What have they clicked in?
Do they have a trade in?
What is their vehicle here inservice for?
And so then you can be supereducated.
It's no different than if youshow up here at the dealership
and I'm walking the lot or goingaround greeting people or

(31:09):
checking on the team and I up acustomer, because we should all
always stop and say, hey,welcome, louis, how can I be of
assistance?
And so they're like, hey, I'mactually looking for a new
ranger, I need a four-wheeldrive, I'm coming from a car, I
need a truck.
If I ever introduce that in,that person like, hey,
absolutely, let me get one of myspecialists that's going to

(31:30):
know way more than me.
And that that means, hey, Ineed to get a salesperson to
help me out so they can givethem the time they need.
I'm going to.
This is so important andspecific.
I will find a salesprofessional and between that
I'll offer some hospitality.
Can I get you some coffee orsome water complimentary.
No, I'm great, whatever.
And so then I'll bring thatsalesperson in.

(31:55):
But before I do, I'll recap yes,hey, this is matt.
Yes, I just met him earlier.
He is super excited.
He is coming from a suv or acar.
He's looking for a ford ranger.
He needs a four-door,four-wheel drive.
He needs a red, black or silver.
Uh, did I miss anything?
Matt on what we were talkingabout?
And he's like nope, it's likeperfect.
This is Steve.
He's one of my salesprofessionals.
He is very specific and ranger.

(32:16):
Steve, do you have anyquestions about what Matt's
looking for?
Yeah, and I said perfect.
You guys take it from here yeahyou know, and so then that is a
and so we want to do that withAI as well.
Let's see what conversationthey've already had, so they
don't have your exact situation.
They say, say oh, did you havea question?
And you're like dadgummit.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
That is so important.
Know this whenever you get anAI and don't flip the switch and
just turn it on and say, hereyou go, turn it loose because it
will run away, but know thatwhenever you get AI in that is
so strong and I love that goingout us being in sales.
Whenever you go out and you seesomebody walk through and you
inquired about something, youwalk in the door.

(32:57):
They're like hey, taylor, areyou here to see your F-150?
Instead of hey, what are youdoing here?
Because it's a differentapproach than it should normally
be of just talking to acustomer around on the lot but
doing the handoff of what you'retalking about is what you can
still do with AI technology ifyou manage it properly.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
I think that's important and you were talking
and it just brought up.
I'm working through a bookright now called how to Talk to
Anyone, and this lady is amaster communicator on there.
One of the things she talksabout is exactly what you're
talking about and it's calledabout the transfer.
So she talks about it in person, or, if we're doing it, from a
technology to a person or personto person.

(33:40):
You know she talks a whole lotabout never have an empty
transfer.
Yeah, so if you want success, ifyou want the ball to continue
to roll like that conversationand in our business, the
communication to get to the nextstep in the sale or repairing
your vehicle don't hand somebodyoff without any information.
And what you just said wasperfect is you got to give them

(34:03):
a little bit.
Here's where they're currentlyat, here's what they're looking
for and here's a hobby they'reinto or something you know well.
Here's my specialist that knowsthe ins and outs of all the
F-150s, you know.
Here's my service advisor who'sbeen with us for X amount of
years.
They're really good at walkingthrough these situations so you
don't have an empty transfer andthat person can pick the ball

(34:24):
up at the right stage andcontinue moving forward with it.
We don't want to back all theway up.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
That's a bad experience and a bad handoff.
You know to go one layer deeperon that of not having an empty
transfer.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
It's funny you say that because we've just learned
to do that, I know.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I was like yeah, like no, we do that and it does a
couple things.
If you break that down, likethis, where you freeze frame and
you start breaking it down, itdoes a couple of things and it's
very intentional.
Now, I do it for many differentreasons.
One, to say to my salespeoplehey, bozo, there are customers
outside you should be talking to, but I'll never say that, I

(35:04):
just said it, but I'll never sayit.
But I boost the confidence ofthe salesperson by saying hey,
here is my F-150 specialist.
There's no one on the lot thatknows more than them.
So they're like dang, shelbypicked me.
That's me Right.
The customer has confidencebecause I've instilled it that

(35:25):
he's the F-150 specialist.
So they're not going toquestion like hey, do you even
know anything about trucks?
Then the customer is delighted,on the same speech, that I took
the time not me as shelby lewis, just me as a person took the
time to hear what they said andregurgitate it, and I asked him
hey, did I miss anything?

(35:46):
And they're like nope, that'sit was like okay, perfect, now
my specialist meets my customer,who is very important, and I
regurgitated all the things andI just boosted both of their
levels of confidence.
I boosted their levels ofefficiency.
I put them right where theystopped at.
That should just project it toa quicker, better experience
like right from the get-go.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
I got to compound even more on that, because this
is such a good subject is youdid the transfer, you told them
where to be, you boosted theconfidence with whoever they are
, and then one additional stepyou can take is you can set the
expectations so you can tellthem, say, here's what's going
to happen.
What's going to happen,shelby's going to take you on a
test drive.
I'm going to go ahead and takea look at your trade in.

(36:28):
We'll meet back inside toreview all the figures, and just
to let you know is my salesmanager then will take over.
Those numbers, though, arecoming from me.
He'll be able to communicate.
What I've done is I've set upthe transfer, I've set up the
expectations that I know I wantdone as a business owner, and

(36:48):
then I've told them so-and-so isgoing to be able to do that,
because I need to free myselfback up and put that confidence
in there.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yes, you'd never realize it.
You know listening, goingthrough, hearing this of a good
process, of what you want to do.
So often, more than not, ithappens, of the bad handoff and
the bad handoff of you handle itand we've all been in that
situation the weather, and a lotof times we'll be walking

(37:16):
through the showroom and it'sreal quick hey, matt, I got
something.
You're like whoa, and then youturn real quick so you don't get
to present yourself to thewhole thing, but whenever then
you go to hand off and you'relike I don't know who this guy
is I don't want to say and youdon't want to stick your foot in
the mouth, like I've beentalking with this guy through

(37:36):
everything, because it wasn'thanded off properly.
Hey, matt, this is Mr and MrsSmith.
They're here to look at theexpedition.
I'll do that all day long and Ican stop and pull the e-brake
and go through, but you don'trealize how bad that process is
until you go through the correctprocess of what we've been
talking.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I think that's probably how, just by default,
how we got better at it, how wegot good because of the bad,
because you know, like I don'tknow this person from adam now I
apologize.
I see a lot of people, sure, andI maybe I know who they are,
but I can't remember their name,and so we just kind of teach
and train on that, whether it'sgoing from an ai system to, hey,
this person, like I saw adecent amount of people that via

(38:21):
instagram or via facebookmessenger, that I've I don't
know their phone number and I'venever met them in person yeah,
but then it has to be a properhandoff.
I meet them at their channel, attheir level of communication,
from an ai system or a system oftechnology, may we say, and
just having that good transfer,and so then, if it doesn't come

(38:42):
to you properly, a handoff later.
That conversation would be like, hey, remember how I introduced
you to mr smith?
Like wasn't that nice that youknew everything?
Would you mind, would it beokay?
If wasn't that nice that youknew everything?
Would you mind, would it beokay if you gave me all the
information you knew in 30seconds or less next time you
hand over, so that I cancontinue to give it back to you,

(39:03):
you know.
And so just teaching, coachingand counseling on that.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
I think so that's just so important.
That communication, thathandoff, and I think if you talk
to any service advisor or anysales manager that I've brought
them a referral, not only I'llsend them their referral
information, but I'll go inperson and I'm just a walking
around talking type person and Isay like, hey, I sent you
so-and-so.
Let me give you a little bit ofbackstory so you know enough,

(39:28):
so you can pick the ball up inthe correct area.
This is how they normally dobusiness.
Here's what I would do, here'swhat I would show.
So I give some insight so thenthey can pick it up.
And that transfers.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
It is so, so smooth so that that's, that's having
the systems to help you scaleyep be efficient without losing
the personal touch absolutelylet's answer that fun fact fun
fact.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
So what is the largest expense category for the
most car dealerships after thecost of the inventory?
We kind of talked about thisbut I know y'all kind of had a
couple ideas.
We took the inventory out of it, I'll throw the.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
But, like I said, though, take the cost of
inventory but the interest,which is enormous.
You take 31 million dollars andpay.
You know, you guys know theinterest rate out there.
Pay the interest on that, I'llthrow it in.
Of all expenses, all expensespaid.
No, yeah, we pay them.
We pay them.
What is the highest?

Speaker 1 (40:27):
What is the highest.
I mean this is the drivingfactor of your business and what
helps make the businesssuccessful.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
We got about 260 of them.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Do you know what most people would say when they're
driving down the interstateright now?
They would say it's got to be arent factor.
All those new buildings and the26 acres, it's got to be a rent
factor.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Maybe even as high as that is.
It's not high.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It's not it.
It's not it, it's payroll, it'sall the individuals that are in
your business in our business,that is the next highest expense
, right behind inventory.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
It's our number one expense.
I like to call it investment.
It's our number one investmentand it has been throughout all
the years.
It's the highest.
We'll call it like expense here.
It's the highest expense, butit's the last thing we look at
when we need to reduce expenses.
We look at systems, we look atshop supplies, we look at office

(41:22):
supplies, we look atrenegotiating contracts with
vendors, before we ever look atour highest expense, which is
payroll.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Which you have to be super mindful, and I might have
said this, but I'll say it again.
I saw the other day that themilitary spends on average $1
million to train a new militarypersonnel to get up to speed
before they send them to battleor whatever they do.
So it is your largest expenseand make sure you're spending it

(41:50):
the right way.
God, that's a good point, that'sa good point and make sure that
you're getting a good ROI.
Yeah, Don't just hire them, sitthem, forget them, plug and
play them Like.
No, just because it is and itwas doesn't mean it has to be so
.
It is by far the largest.
It is the largest.
You would never guess or knowthe payroll expense and it's

(42:12):
super high.
But the rate of return, whentrained and given the right
direction of the transfer andall the things is very good.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
You've got to make sure you go back through and
we've talked about it on theepisodes but the time, the tools
and the training necessary tosucceed and that comes from
managers.
I saw a video the other day andit made so much sense, it made
me me laugh is that a managerwas complaining about an
employee.
Won't do this, won't do that,won't do that.
And their manager looked at himand said well, who hired this

(42:40):
person?
So what I did?
Well remember when you came tomy office and you sold me on
them and how great they were.
Now, why can't you, as amanager, pull that greatness out
of them and support them andhelp them move the mark?

Speaker 1 (42:54):
The more times than not you look at that and see
that that manager that did thatisn't doing everything they need
to give them all.
This time it's old checkup timeit is.
It is big there.
Hey, we've hit on the other twotopics but coming down, the
biggest risk and mistake smallbusiness owners must avoid when
embracing AI.
So this is really big.
Obviously, we know anythingtechnology comes in there, but

(43:16):
data privacy, ethical concernsand over-reliance on automation
I think that I'll take this tostart off.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
I think that's why it's so important where you use
it at an individual or atext-wise, and if you get it,
where it's going to open up,like take NUMA, for example.
Numa is connected to some ofour other software that you take
the time and make sure thatthey have their credentials, the

(43:46):
insurance to be able to cover.
You're not going to get let mejust tell you this don't get a
free tool out there and connectthem to your CRM or your DMS.
No, that's going to beexpensive.
Okay, you need to pay money ifyou want the protection there

(44:06):
Now, different than if you'reusing it plugged into your phone
or plugged into your email andyou're getting used to it all.
But you've got to do your duediligence too there, because
you've got to remember that thecustomer and identity fraud it's
by far greater than any otherfraud out there and it's
something that can take yourbusiness the other direction
really fast.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Yeah, I mean it quickly can be compromised, it
quickly can be stolen, itquickly can be compromised, it
quickly can be stolen, and it'sinformation that no one really
generally is going to doanything with, but they can hold
a really large leverage pointon you.
So if you let the wrong systemin, that you haven't done their
due diligence or doesn't havethe correct layers of security,

(44:47):
in the end you're the one thatgave them that gateway, and so
then your response so foreverybody out there that's like
well, how do we do that?
Gave them that gateway.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
And so then your response so for everybody out
there is like well, how do we dothat, matt, I got 10 employees.
How do I do that?
Well, here's the number onething you ask, whichever company
you're looking at, you knowwhat type of backing do you give
on identity theft?
How am I protected?
Once I give you and you say,well, show me that, show me how
you protect me there.

(45:13):
And then you go to yourinsurance company at the same
time and say, hey, I need tomake sure that I have
cybersecurity here.
Don't necessarily just pay themmore for cybersecurity if
you're paying it over there, butthey're more than happy to look
at that contract with you aswell to say you're covered or
you're not covered.
So those two you got to look at.
Don't run scared from it.

(45:33):
Just do your due diligence andmake sure you have something in
place.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Yes, so those roll straight into this next part of
it.
But how mistakes soover-reliance, bad AI outputs
and impersonal service, so itbeing too computer generated how
that can damage your brand soeasily.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I think that's with any system, with any system that
we put in place or if we got anew product or if we open up a
new store, a new department, itbecomes a whole lot more of
micro not necessarilymicromanaging the people, but
micromanaging that business orthat system to make sure that

(46:14):
that installation period andthat first six months or first
12 months, depending upon thesystem that you are getting
those alerts and you're almostgetting inundated with all the
stuff to go, you need to haveinvested interest.
Is this doing what we werepromised?
Is this enhancing our brand oris this diminishing our brand

(46:35):
value?
And the only way to do that isboots on the ground, ears to the
ground, and you're listeningand you're watching.
You can't replace inspectingand actually hearing what's
going on with anything else.
None of it's a set.
It forget it.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
So talk about businesses and how understanding
how AI can be bad.
You say, especially in theearly FNC ages, you have to
really, really, really keep yourhands on it and give direction.
So McDonald's ends their AIexperiment after drive-thru
order blunders.
So they had an AI system thatthey piloted at 100 different

(47:13):
stores and it was on the speakerand the microphone in the
drive-thru and like hey, this ispretty simple.
People speak in their order andthen it throws it in the POS
system, the point-of-sale system, and then bam, we're good to go
right.
Seems simple enough.
Well, what you don't understandis there's about a million
different versions of theenglish language.
There's hillbilly, there'shillbilly.

(47:33):
Hillbilly, there's hillbilly newyorkers new yorkers,
northerners, californians, andso they worked with ibm for
three years.
Ibm, pretty reputable company,okay, uh, to leverage ai to take
drive-through orders and theyput it in a hundred different
stores and they said one, tiktokvideo, in particular.
So you know it's real featuredtwo people repeatedly pleading

(47:54):
with the AI to stop as it kepttaking Chicken McNugget orders
on and on and on, and eventuallyit was Andy with 260 orders of
chicken nuggets.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Excuse me.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
And so the internal memo obtained said shut down all
AI systems that had to do withordering.
So it seemed to be a great ideaand they had worked with a good
company to make sure that theycould make it work.
But there was some humanelement.
You know, their car mufflersreally loud, or the kids are

(48:30):
screaming in the back, or theydidn't speak clearly, or they
didn't read it verbatim, how itwas supposed to be.
Uh, or they, kevin, hearted thecoffee order, whatever it may
be.
But then they, they kept closeenough hands on it that they
could say, well, not a greatidea, pull it back.
Before just completely, thatthey said, hey, boom, ai, I'm

(48:50):
good to go, I'm going to hit thebeach.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Because, if not, the AI company is not going to be
the one to fault, no differentthan whenever Ford CDJR,
whenever we have a product thatwe have taken in and facilitated
, they're not at fault.
You are, we are as the business, and if you're not closely
managing that, you'll come backfrom being gone wanting to beat

(49:13):
the beach.
Everything else it's like theold visions you see of the
printer of like Santa's wishlist just shooting over your
head and you're like whoa, whathappened?

Speaker 3 (49:26):
You weren't inspecting, that's right and
I'll tell you that within chadgpt, when I use it to generate,
to get a good final product thatI want for, to start an ideal
list or for a post, I'll say trythat again four or five times.
And so it says, hey, try thatagain, but write it more simple,
try that again and add lesssass to it.

(49:48):
You know so.
Then you have to hone that in.
Now it's still doing a lot ofthe heavy lifting, but you give
it direction.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
You cannot just say raise it go just because
somebody said this system's goodI think that's where that's the
good point on the human elementthat's not going away.
And if we go back, if we've gotsome older listeners out there
like, think about when roboticsfirst started going into
manufacturing, everybody's likeyou're just gonna have factories
full of robotics, you stillhave to have people to work on

(50:16):
them, adjust them, program them,tell them what's going on.
It's the same thing.
The human element, guys, is notgoing away.
The role may change, but that'sno different than the workforce
looks way different today thanit did in the 1900s or the 1800s
.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Like you just evolved yeah, and I think you have to
to stay relevant to, to be able,because our number one cost
short of the inventory cost ofemployees we're not trying to
eliminate employees, but if wecan continue to scale the
business and stay at the 260?
.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
So we didn't eliminate any jobs, but we
helped each person be moreefficient than the output or the
throughput, and the end resultserved more customers at a more
efficient rate at a higher level.
At a lower price means everyonegets to grow.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
And we evolved.
Otherwise you're going to say,gonna say, no, I don't do ai, no
, I won't use a computer, no,onto this and you'll become a
thing that's right.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
You keep that's right that's huge deep dive into ai,
talking about being fullyinvolved, anything else there on
that that you think we hadmissed on, because you know,
talking of staying on top of it,being involved and making sure
you still have to manage AI.
You're managing them nodifferent than like an employee
would be.
Yeah, other employees All right.

(51:34):
Our fun fact quiz, obviously,and there are questions on here.
Now this is almost preloadedand asked about in here because,
of course, of course, you'regoing to have any of those days
or anything else, but Matt andShelby will both go into and
come back in there.
So, matt, kicking off with you,have you ever thought about not
being the automotive business,our production manager really

(51:57):
threw this one out there, didn'the?
I can almost answer that.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
So I think every human mind, no matter what
business you're in it, alwayswonders what about this, what
about that?
And that's part of our creativeflow.
You know, I obviously I lovewhat we're doing and what we can
provide, not only for ourcustomers but for our employees.
I have had different jobsbefore this, yeah, but you know,
like if I just had to paint upon a wall or really think on

(52:25):
those days like, hey, what if Idid something else?
It would have to be somethingwith numbers and trends.
I like both of that and seeingopportunities, not necessarily
like the accountant side, butmaybe the investment side, or
maybe looking for trends andopportunities you could do there
.
It would probably be somethingin that realm.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Something like like that.
But I envision, like you see,old school professor that has
the green board that is reallylong and they've chalked the
entire thing.
Matt really likes charts andeverything else of data and
everything else in there but.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
But I liked I don't like the data and then turn it
into somebody.
I like the data to be able touse it then to explain to
somebody, to help them progress,whatever their profession is.
So it could even be sometraining within that on how to
develop leaders or trends orwhatever else it may be fair
enough, shelby.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
What is something that you wished you knew before
you started in the automotive?

Speaker 3 (53:26):
uh, it's probably best I didn't know most of this
stuff before I started, becauseI might not have started.
You know, we grew up aroundthis industry.
We had an idea before we had anidea that I'd make American car
parts for American Work Command.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Makes me feel bad about every time I ever gave my
dad a hard time whenever he camehome from work.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Because he never brought any of that home with
him.
No, no, no, he did a fantasticjob.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Never complained, never whined, never you know,
like oh, these customers burnedus, or you know, we're printing
in the red again this month.
I've never said thatManufacturers screwed us on this
.
Oh yeah these employees calledin.
You're not going to believewhat Larry did or what, but so
luckily he didn't do that, so wedidn't see it behind the scenes

(54:18):
and I will tell you the goodoutweighs the bad.
Every single day there are.
We worked from a really earlyage because it meant, uh, if we
had a job which none of usworked at the dealership first,
but if we had a job we could geta hardship which means we had
freedom, we could drive.
So, um, then we went to collegeand then we, uh, during the

(54:42):
summers, got to work at thedealership.
Now I'm a very hands-on person,you know.
Uh, I, I thrive on the idea ofbeing able to fix and I love it.
Now showing my kids because,like, hey, this is broken.
I'm like, yeah, we can fix it.
And every once in a while it'slike man, dad can fix anything.
I'm like, yep, I'm gonna do it,I can figure it out.
But there's been some timeswhere, like man, I wish during

(55:05):
my summers, instead of justgoofing off, I would have went
and got, because I can weld abunch of different ways and I've
built a whole lot of stuff.
And like man, I wish you weretaking time to go get certified
in this yeah and there's there'sdefinitely the what if, like
man, I wish I would have had Iknown right, because now all my
time is filled with things, uh,so I have to be super

(55:26):
intentional to get outside ofthat.
But had I known before, maybe Iwould have been more
well-versed in some other areas,not to change my trajectory,
just to have more depth in thoseareas of skills and skill sets.
But yeah, where we're at ispretty good.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
No, it is.
I'm going to jump in, eventhough that was your question.
I've got to say something here.
You can go ahead.
Okay, I've got to say somethinghere.
There's nothing that really Idon't know.
That Dad could have taught usor you could have learned in
college.
That has to deal with people inconflict and you know, one of
the things that just takes timeand really some maturity and

(56:06):
wisdom is thicker skin, reallythicker skin, and then really
don't sweat.
The small stuff.
Yeah, they don't really meanthat.
They don't mean it.
And I can remember when I tookthat in my 20s and even in my
early 30s, when I took thatpersonal and I took it and it
was unnecessary.
And now you've been throughenough battles that you're like

(56:29):
I know what this outcome is.
Just let the fire die down alittle bit and then there will
be a solution there.
Don't let it wreck your day.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
You don't have to stop what you're doing because
initially, early in your career,you're just like something
happens, jerk, go handle thatand that's so hard one because
you care and you want to be thebest that you can, but like it
has to be super thick and youjust have to.
And it's because I have a buddythat uh, just got served papers
for a lawsuit and lawsuits comefrom all different directions

(56:59):
and I I we have had plenty ofthem for just random different
reasons, some kind of deserved,and most of them not at all, and
I could see the look on hisface like that's about to
destroy him.
Yeah, and I was like, if I cangive you any device, do not give
that thing any power, don'tgive it you have an attorney.
No, you did what was right andyou let that ride.

(57:20):
And I tried and tried and andjust like, hey, it's not that
big of a deal, it's okay.
And he was like I just got theask today and it was over $3
million.
It's like offer him $350 back.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Yeah, it's not a big deal.
Turn it over to your insurancecompany and move on.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Because it diverts your time and your effort into
what you love to do and whatyou're good at.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
And I remember the first handful of those and never
to be taken lightly, like yougive them the attention that
they need but then you hand itto the person that handle it and
let them sweat it because itwill wreck you kind of like some
of this construction and someof the some of the things that
we face.
I remember just walking aroundthis place just like before it
was ever anything.
It's just like oh my, my Lord,please help me.
I don't know how and what andwhere and when, and we're a year

(58:11):
into this thing and we're stillfloating and we're still loving
life, at whatever level.
So, don't sweat the small things.
Get things skimmed, just kindof like weekend at Bernie's.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
It's so important to know anything that you get into.
No one one can teach you.
And two, you're not going toknow Because if we'd been set up
in that of like, hey, you'regoing to have these late nights,
you're going to get screamed at, you're going to do this,
you're going to do that andyou're going to say why in the
world.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Am I doing?

Speaker 1 (58:43):
this, but you get into it, no different than
loving a kid growing up of.
You know whenever they yell atyou or do anything else, you
look at and you say, nope,that's exactly why I do this.
So whatever business you get in, get into it because it's
something you enjoy doing,because it will far outweigh
anything that definitely are anyof the bad days so huge.

(59:05):
We kind of got off of AI therein all of it, but all of it
definitely relevant, really goodinside of AI and all the pieces
of it there.
So always check us out onlewissupersorecom.
Click the like.
Subscribe on YouTube there atcrossroadsconversationpodcastcom
.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Hey, thanks for joining us today and we hope you
enjoyed this episode.
Make sure to give it a like.
Share it with your friends andfamily.
Crossroadsconversationpodcastcom.