Ep. 39 - Unleash Your Team's Power - The Buy-In Blueprint

In this episode of Crossroads Conversations, the Lewis Brothers discuss the critical role of vision and buy-in in leadership. They emphasize the importance of effectively communicating a vision to the team and fostering participation and ownership among team members. The conversation explores strategies for creating buy-in, including the formation of focus groups and the significance of involving key players in the decision-making process. The episode highlights the necessity of clear communication and the impact of team dynamics on the success of business initiatives. In this conversation, the speakers delve into the critical aspects of leadership, focusing on the importance of buy-in from team members, effective communication, and the execution of ideas. They emphasize the need for leaders to be present and engaged during meetings, to listen actively, and to foster an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute. The discussion also highlights the significance of continuous improvement in leadership skills and the necessity of inspecting processes to ensure successful implementation.

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):
When you talk about vision and they talk about the
why for sure, the vision, a lotof people just move on.
They're like no, no, I got that, I got that, you know.
And it's like the movie Hitch,you know.
It's like no, no, show me yourmoves.
Kevin James Show me what youmean, show me what you mean.
You got it.
So most leaders out there andI'm guilty of this I keep a lot

(00:25):
of stuff in my head.
I've got crazy ideas in my headand I'm like, man, I better
filter this some before I scaresome people with it.
You know, I don't know aboutyou guys.
Yeah.
So most leaders are like I gotthe vision, I got the why, but
they missed something.
Their team doesn't know it.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Gotta get the buy-in, hey everyone welcome to
crossroads conversations withthe, the Lewis Brothers, where
we aim to share real storiesabout running a successful
family business, working throughadversity and pouring back into
the community that keeps ourdoors open.
We're your hosts, taylor, mattand Shelby, and we'll bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are

(00:59):
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Welcome back.
Episode 39, crossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers.
We're your hosts, matt Shelbyand Taylor, bringing you
relevant business ideas, goingthrough what works, what doesn't
work, how we know what worksand how we know what doesn't
work.
This week we are unpacking,unleash your Team's Power, the

(01:25):
buy-in blueprint.
It's not just the idea, it'snot just the art of leadership,
but it's the art of leadershipwith a compelling vision and
then getting buy-in from yourteam and kind of the nuts and
bolts of what we learned whatworks, what doesn't work.
Hey, shut up.
I want to tell you this podcastthis week is brought to you by.

(01:46):
Did you get a sponsor?
Yeah, the Lewis Brothers.
Brought to you by the LewisBrothers, because if it has to
be, it's up to me, and thatmeans even if you delegate or if
you get very clear writtenwe're going to go through the
blueprint of how to get buy-inand get everyone connected on
the same vision and the samegoal.
So that's how we'll get startedtoday.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Absolutely so.
Diving in buy-in this week Lastweek was accountability culture
and that's completely holdingyour team, letting know that you
have clear expectations, butholding them accountable and
making sure that they're livingup to whatever your vision is
and you have to share that withthem.
Go back, and Matt absolutelygot in the middle of it.

(02:28):
He's holding himself back, butabsolutely got in the middle of
it last week.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
So make sure you recap that he got in the bushes
or he got in the middle of it.
No, just the data andeverything else Bringing good
value there.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, always check us out on lewissuperstorecom.
And I'm fired up about what wedrive today because it just made
sense.
We have two vehicles on Ford'sside that offer this Well, three
if you go to a Super Duty butoffer this type of capability,
and I know that a couple of usused it last night.
But I'm talking about the F-150Power Boost.

(03:03):
Oh man, the Power Boost.
They took the F-150.
That makes make so much, sincethey took the 3.5 motor that's
been so good since 2011 and theysomewhat electrified it kind of
made it hybrid it gets a littlebit better gas mileage, not if
myself or my brother is drivingit I noticed this morning when I
got an 18.7 miles per gallon.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
There is maybe is.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Maybe you just come in a little slower at 4.30 am.
Yeah, 4.30 in the morning Speedis not my no stop and go.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
No, stop and go, so that's the trick, I went a
little smaller tire but thepower boost.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
So what about the power boost, the pro power on
board Pro power on board,Because the power we've talked
about this, the power's great.
A lot of power Motor, a lot ofpower, but the proper iron board
.
We had some crazy storms thatjust came through and my
electric's always going to goout.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
My electricity went out?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yes, absolutely, it's all went out.
We're talking there's notenough plugs in the bed and
there's ample plugs and you canplug everything in.
I started it.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
My front door went through my Wi-Fi to my fridge,
to my lights.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
You my Wi-Fi to my fridge, to my wife yes, I'm
gonna tell you why.
So fun fact for you.
I didn't know if you know ornot, but if your powers out,
your Wi-Fi is still rolling.
So Wi-Fi just the closest tothe door.
That's why I started with that.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
So you plugged in the Wi-Fi in the fridge.
Wi-fi went to.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
That went all the way TV up to upstairs.
I know you laugh about this.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
No, no, you're cool.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
So 20 plus things plugged in.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Did you plug in your bed, jet?

Speaker 3 (04:44):
That's the only way I could sleep.
Priorities.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
America, absolutely.
So all of this was plugged in.
How much power were you using?
690 watts, and there were atleast 10 different extension
cords, so let's put that inreference.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
So if you get the full suite of our Pro Powering
Board, it's 7.2 kilowatts.
You're not going to touch it,which is 7200 watts of air.
Yeah, and that ain't peak,that's rms, that's like rms.
So I had plugged in a few lessitems, but enough that they were
watching tv and the fridge anda lamp was on um, and I was

(05:19):
using less than 400 watts, soyou have 7200, you were using
600, I was using 400 and youturn the truck on to generator
mode and so, because it's ahybrid, it runs the bad, it runs
the power off the battery andthen when it sees that the
voltage is getting low, it turnsthe engine automatically on and
recharges the battery.

(05:40):
And you're talking about likeone or two minute cycles every
10 or 15 minutes.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yes, because I parked it last night and you're like
oh, then it or two minute cyclesevery 10 or 15 minutes, yes,
because I parked it last night.
And you're like oh, that'sanother thing to put gas in.
I took it 110 miles to emptyand this morning I think it had
98 miles to empty.
So it cycled for 12 hours andyou ran it all night, all night
long.
Slept good, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Like nothing ever even happened, except there was
extension cords all over myhouse.
So you can get that.
Yeah, let your family figure itout, so you can get that in
super duty you can get up to2,000 kW.
In the bed you can get F-150.
You can kind of get it with alldifferent engines to get that
big suite.
You need it from a power boostor from a lightning.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's 2.4 to a 7.2 or lightning, you go full 9.6.
9.6 kW.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I'll give you some damage with that.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
You can do a whole lot.
You can weld and you can hookyour air conditioners multiple
up to that.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
So we really got off topic there.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
No, it was topic, but the cool thing is, you can
drive your generator and it wasnot inconvenient.
I flipped my truck around,backed it up to the door, ran
extension cords through thewindow and then I felt like a
hero to my kids because they'relike man.
If dad wouldn't home, I don'tknow what we'd do.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
It'd be dark and nothing worked right, and it was
right there.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
You didn't have to dig it out and clean out the
carburetor and start pulling onthe side.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
I'll tell you a big difference too, because I had
ran a generator last night.
I didn't have a power boostconnected in and it did what it
was supposed to do.
I powered all my stuff and Iflipped the breakers over.
But then I had ran over to yourhouse and I immediately could
tell the difference in the noiseBecause I've got this
construction generator Now.
I put the whoop-how-ow but youcould hear it, you know, like a

(07:22):
construction sound.
You can't hear the truck and thetruck at all.
It was just silent, you know,even when it cycled through.
So what a great feature thatnow your everyday tool of your
F-150 has in it.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Because it makes sense, because I can drive it, I
can spend the money and mygenerator is there whenever I
need it.
I'm not buying a generator,putting it in the closet
anything I can talk about.
So available on a whole lot ofdifferent suites as far as the
trucks, but power boost, bestfuel mileage and has an onboard
generator.
Really cool rig there, love itso diving in today time to turn

(07:55):
you loose.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
All right, understanding the why,
communicating vision and purpose.
Now, a lot of when they hearthis subject, when you talk
about vision and they talk aboutthe why for sure, the vision a
lot of people just move on.
They're like no, no, I got that.
I got that, you know, and it'slike the movie Hitch, you know.

(08:18):
It's like no, show me yourmoves, Kevin James.
Show me what you mean, you gotit.
So most leaders out there andI'm guilty of this, I keep a lot
of stuff in my head, I've gotcrazy ideas in my head and I'm
like, man, I better filter thissome before I scare some people
with it.
I don't know about you guys.
So most leaders are like I gotthe vision, I got the why, but

(08:40):
they missed something.
But they missed something.
Their team doesn't know it Gotto get the buy-in.
Or, let's say, let's takesomebody that took the next step
and they put together a memoand then they emailed it out or
they passed it out.
They're like no, check, I gotit.
That was a layer deeper.
Right, it was, but you missedit.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
You still missed it, still didn't get a full deal.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
What happened?
It's baseball season.
What happened is you actuallymade it to the plate with your
bat, but then you just stoodthere and you're like no, I got
my bat, my helmet, I got up tothe plate.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
So you had the vision .
Yeah, created a memo andemailed it out.
You did, handed it out, butyou're just standing there.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
So what I want to talk and then you guys can run
with it here is where the rubbermeets the road is when you get
the buy-in of the vision I'm notgoing to say your vision, the
vision of the company, becausethat could have come
collectively from people, allright, and then that starts to
spread throughout.
But we're all salespeople and Ido want to take a moment and
tell everybody in the audiencethis If, when I say you're a
salesperson, you cringe andyou're like I'm not a

(09:47):
salesperson, think again.
We're all in sales.
Everybody always says asalesperson is, oh, the one that
sells cars or real estate.
You've got to realize we're allin sales.
I don't care if you're going tothe bank to get a loan, you've
got to sell them.
If you're trying to get a jobor investors, you've got to sell
them.

(10:07):
Your team, you must sell themon your vision and your idea if
you ever expect to get sometraction from it.
So let's talk about this andwhere I want to start before we
have our big powwow of a hundredpeople in the room selling a
vision, we start smaller thanthat with some catalyst.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, and so being careful not to dissect the whole
thing down to there.
So, if you see the multi layers, we'll start with what we may
call our vision people or ourfocus group, to understand that
we could have a lot of ideas andthat we're just looking for one
or two that might fit into therhythm that we're moving and the

(10:45):
direction that we're going,without having to worry about
people's feelings get hurtbecause they didn't.
You know, you saved your oneidea, right, and took it to
shark tank and they said get outright.
So we start with our visionpeople, that one aren't going to
take it and run down to the youknow, the water cooler, the
coffee, and say, hey, here'swhat the lois's are doing, sure,

(11:07):
right, that you know that.
Hey, it's just vision time,let's just whiteboard.
Hey, here's our problem orhere's our next opportunity.
It's one of the two.
It's generally the same ideaone's called a problem, one's
called a next opportunity, andso we start dreaming on that.
Hey, here's the problem we startlooking at.
Why are we having that problem?
Okay, what's the issue?
Do we not have qualityinspection?

(11:28):
Do we not have a proper how to,you know?
So we dissect the whole thingbefore we start solving the
problem.
Yep, so understand what theproblem is, how it's created and
or what's the byproduct of it,where it's happening, who all it
affects, and then that'll kindof that might be our meeting

(11:49):
before then we say, okay, weneed a vision group of fixed ops
or sales, or we need the officeincluded in here.
And then we say, okay, let'sget all those people of our
vision people not all the peopleand then let's start throwing
darts and say, you know, when wesay what if this?

(12:09):
And so okay, don't explain it,just put it up there.
We'll put them all up there.
And then we'll say, okay, let'srun that gamut, let's run that
one, let's run that one.
Does that solve?

Speaker 1 (12:14):
it.
I think what you've hit onthere.
And I'll hit people, becausesometimes people want like a
step one, two, three.
So I'm going to say three stepshere.
You start with step one andthat's the three of us in here,
and we're looking at ourbusiness metrics, poking holes,
going man, we're over capacityhere.
There's opportunities inanother area and you can listen
to other podcasts where we'veidentified those, and then we

(12:36):
talk collectively, you know, atan executive level, before we
even get that vision group andsay, hey, there's an opportunity
here, let's spitball this alittle bit.
If we sit with it and stillmake sense, then let's get our
vision group together.
Now I want to pause in casesomebody's new to the podcast,
and let's talk about that visiongroup.

(12:57):
That vision group is compiledby a small group of people
within your organization.
It does not have to be acertain title or position, but
what you want there is peoplethat are good idea people not
necessarily good doers.
A lot of times the people thatimplement and are good doers.
They're not the bestvisionaries, and that's okay.
You need both, but then alsothe people that are in that room

(13:19):
.
It could be two people, itcould be five people, it's not
20.
Those people know that y'allmight talk about 100 ideas and
only one of them will cometraction and that's okay.
Also, there has to be trustthere that they're not at the
water cooler, they're notbroadcasting it out everywhere,
that they're just helping you inR&D and development.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think y'all definitely hitall of the nails there, going
down of what you need to do, butit's more so starting and going
through making sure you startwith that core group, then it
progresses on from there and somany people you were talking
about sending out an email or doanything else to think, hey,
I'm going to go and do this.
And a lot of times we see thatbecause it's maybe that it's the

(14:03):
non-confrontational way to beable to manage or do anything.
Or sometimes people act likethey do that because it's
something they necessarilywouldn't want to do or they
don't know how to do, becausethere's a big fear sometimes
that, hey, I know, I need totrain on this.
Sure, it's no different than I.

(14:24):
I drug managers out on the floorthe other night and I said, hey
, we need to make sure at theend of the night, we are
everything you're asking them todo, we, we ask them to do it,
and I kept telling them to do it.
And then, finally, then I waslike I'm gonna go out there and
do it because they haven't.
So then I looked up and they'rearound.
That's because of fear, fear ofbeing called out that you're

(14:46):
not actually physically doingwhat you're supposed to do so
and I think there's a time formemos, like you talked about.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
If we're sending like the other day we had to send
out vacate our holiday schedulereminder for the year, like okay
, we've already gone over that,that's a memo.
But when you're trying to getbuy-in for a vision on something
that's new, to get buy-in for avision on something that's new,
you need a core team.
So we've talked at an executivelevel.
We've said, hey, here's what weneed to look at.
We get a core group of two tofive people together we spitball

(15:15):
what's going to be the bestthere.
They then, before we meet witha team which we'll talk about
here in a little bit they becomethe catalyst.
There are anchors, because ifyou guys listening out, there
are, you know, your owners, yourentrepreneurs.
It's very rare that you'regoing to get a whole lot of
employees, even though you sayyou have an open door policy,

(15:36):
that come into your office andsay, hey, I really want to talk
to you about that procedure, butyou know where they will talk
about it.
A layer down.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
A layer down A layer down.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
So you need that core group of people that are
catalysts If you want an idea, aprocess, a change to be able to
get gas and keep moving forward.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
And that's where that comes from and I think that you
say you only got so manybullets, so many meetings, so
only so many words to be said ina meeting before you get
watered down.
We've all been in those meetingslike give me toothpicks, all my
eyes open, and I'm going tofall asleep.
So you have to understandwhat's memo-worthy and what's
meeting-worthy.
If it's something that you needto discover and work on, that's

(16:18):
a meeting thing.
If it's a memo of a reminder ofthis, that and the other send
it's a memo of a reminder ofthis, that and the other send it
in a memo.
But you have to understandgenerally.
If you feel like it needs ameeting, you need to try to
focus on generally one or twothings at the most, because they
need to understand thebackstory, the reason, the why,
the how, the who it affects, sothat you're going to really,

(16:39):
really, really dissect that andthen they understand that it has
value, because otherwise thatin a memo doesn't have all the
things that we're going to talkabout today, so that you get the
team involved to the buy-in toyour blueprint, to unleash the
total power that we talked aboutin your blueprint.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
So that's super important of understanding
what's memo worthy and what'smeeting worthy no, that makes a
bunch of sense and we'llcontinue to take you down this
process as this podcast goes on,but we do have to pause for a
minute for the fun fact quiz ofthe week.
What do you got?
So here we go.
The development of which iconicautomotive feature initially
met with skepticism andresistance from some within the

(17:22):
industry, ultimately became astandard safety requirement and
significantly improved driverand passenger safety.
Was this a power steering?

Speaker 3 (17:34):
that was a good one, be the automatic transmission
see seat belts or D airconditioning talking about
something that has skepticism,had resistance from some within
the industry, ultimately becamea standard of safety and
requirement and significantlyimproved driver and passenger

(17:57):
safety, I'm going to tell you,you can probably just go ahead
and throw out air conditioning.
Well, I mean, yeah, you'reright, comfort Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right, so you've got three options.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Power steering, automatic transmission or
seatbelts.
We'll come back to that.
You bet Absolutely.
You bet Absolutely.
All right, step two in thisprocess we talk about the
blueprint and getting the whyand get.
The buy-in is involving yourteam Yep, involving your team.
Don't have it perfected, but wehave a pretty decent hold on
this of how to make it work,fostering participation and

(18:29):
ownership within your team.
So, without unpeeling theentire banana.
So we have discussion to talkabout If you can involve your
team.
So we've gone from step one, afocus group to then to your
vision team, and then you landon an idea.
And I've talked about thisbefore that you need to have one
problem, three solutions, yourpick, and then land on one of

(18:53):
them, right, and so then, onceyou've decided on that, we've
already gone.
First meeting, second meetingwith the vision board.
Okay, here's our main thing.
We're going to work on Onething, here's how we're going to
tackle it.
But before you go to marketwith your team, there's some
steps that we have to do, thatwe've learned to do, to help

(19:13):
make sure that it's properlydelivered.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's very true.
Now I'm going to give everybodya pro tip here, so you don't
make this mistake, because I'vemade this mistake before.
When you get to step three andit's time to pitch and sell your
team on it, you're not askingfor any more ideas, you're not
asking for any more feedback.
That meeting's over.
We've closed that door.

(19:37):
We've already done that.
It is now time that everybody'ssales hat is on, and the better
job you do at this, the fasterwhatever the idea or the vision
is will take flight.
So you have to go on that, likeyou said, with a very clear
expectation.
Here's what it is.
Here's why we're doing that,here's how we're going to roll
it.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
And so there's and I know you go over this, but
there's some things that beforethey say, okay, go to all the
techs, go all the sales people,go to the entire team.
Here's our new policy.
There's a few things that we doand we newsflash for you.
You generally know how to solvethe problem.
If you've gone meeting one,meeting two, you've read it
somewhere, you saw it within asystem, or you have a software.

(20:20):
Even if it is a software, youdon't have to write it.
You don't have to be the techguru.
There's still one thing thatyou need to do.
So then your catalyst, thelayer below you, knows that
they've done sneakily, you'vemade them do it, but some due
diligence.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
So they say we've looked at this, this and this,
and this is what I pickedabsolutely so when you walk them
through, that one you got tore-initiate just just slightly
about.
Here was the issue or theopportunity.
Here's the opportunity.
Here's what we vetted out, youknow.
Here's the options.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
We've landed on two or three options.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
We've landed on two or three options there.
Here's where we're goingforward with.
Here's how we're going to rollit out.
Here's how we're going to gaintraction, you know, but I'm just
you must slow down and gettheir buy-in.
They need to understand whyyou're doing it.
Here's what we're going to do.
And then you also have to givethem the benefit of here's why
we're doing it.
It'll make your job easier, orit'll make it where you're more

(21:20):
successful, or it's with them.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
You've got to be able to show what's in it for them.
Yeah, we probably went.
You've learned this from from,obviously, whether it be a dad
or any previous generations offamily going through.
Then you have taught to us thebuy-in is so important of your
managers that help you lead thatteam, because if not, they do

(21:45):
not like being sprung upon oranything else, and then your,
your, um, your level of beingable to be successful at getting
anything in there goes waydownhill, because that group, if
they're not pulling with you,they're pulling backwards
against you I've seen that ahundred different times and done
it wrong too many times andlearned this is how the

(22:09):
blueprint to properly introducesomething newer to solve a
problem.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
So, whether it's a software and I see this
constantly that we're working onthe business, right, they're
working in the business, but youstill have to, you don't have
to, but you're going to fail ifyou don't.
You have to have buy-in.
So before I release numa, yeah,after I've done all my due

(22:34):
diligence, I bring my servicemanagers, my dispatchers, anyone
that I think that might have anissue.
I say, hey, what's number oneconcern that you get from a
consumer about the status of thevehicle?
Like, hey, lack of lack ofcommunication, okay, I was like,
and if you go to serviceadvisors or parts counter people
, what do they say?

(22:54):
They don't have enough of Time,right, it's like, okay, well,
wouldn't you agree that if wecould communicate to the
customer more with less effortfrom the people that are having
to do it, that that wouldalleviate stress from our
employees and the customerswould be happy about more
communication?
I said, yeah, it's like, okay,I want you to do a demo.
And so then I get with thesoftware team and say, look, I'm

(23:17):
good to go, yeah, but you haveto sell it to these guys and
you've got 15 minutes and I wantyou to hit these five bullet
points and that's it do not goover cost, do not go over your
engineering.
I want you to hit these fivebullet points and to present to
my service managers the partsdirectors, whatever it may be.
And so then I then have ameeting after the main.

(23:40):
It's like what do you guysthink?
Do you think that works?
And they're like, oh yeah,right, because I presented the
problem we had, you know.
But then what we do is itbecomes their idea.
So then when they have theweekly meetings, I'm not like,
hey, guys, remember we have aNUMA meeting.
They're like nope, it's alreadyon the calendar.
Because then I get with theaccount representative and I say
, hey, I need you also to set upaccountability meetings and I

(24:02):
need you to pitch that to theteam.
And so then I'm not having todrag them to this.
And I've seen it before wheremanagers aren't involved.
And I rag them to this.
And I've seen it before wheremanagers aren't involved and I'm
like, why won't they get on theviado performance call?
I'm like they were not involvedin.
They feel like, why do it?
Because the lewis's make me doit.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
It wasn't their idea that's so key there and I hope
everybody got what shelby justsaid.
He invested more time and morepatience from the get-go to
create buy-in so he didn't haveto go around and babysit it
after it was launched.
So you can pick one of the two.
You may think that you're toobusy and you don't have the time

(24:40):
to go through this with yourleadership team.
It'll cost you tenfold the timedown the road and it'll fail.
Now, taylor, you talked aboutsomething that just triggered
something in my mind I need togo over, because we do have
we're very fortunate to havesome long-term employees we are.
Some of them are doers and someof them are idea people.
But if you leave any of thepeople that have been with us

(25:10):
20-plus years 15-plus years out,they feel like man.
I thought I was a part of theteam and part of the success.
So I'm going to tell you thereis a handful, not a ton, but
there is a handful of peoplethat have been with us that I
know is crucial to our successin launching a vision or an idea
, but that are not visionarypeople.
Okay, so I don't.
Just because they've been here20 years, that does not mean
they get in the vision.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
The 10 year just doesn't say, hey, I get to be on
the vision board.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
But before we go to step three, I will pull that
person personally in my office,spend 10 minutes with them and
go over it with them to makethem feel special and to have
buy-in before we go to stepthree.
And that's the entire team,because they're still a catalyst
.
Their brain doesn't thinkvisionary wise.
They're like just tell me whatto do, boss, and I'll do it.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
I'm on your team, but they still want to feel like
that they're in the know beforeeverybody else knows yeah, that
if you were going to hit that, Iwas going to hit that because
that's so important, becausewhat you'll do is set up a new
system or a new process.
You'll send out an email to say, hey, this, this meeting, is to
come to go over this.
And if they don't know about itand they're a 10-year employee

(26:14):
or somebody that generallycarries some weight, you need to
just do a quick meeting.
It's like, hey, here's how it'sgoing to roll out.
Do you guys have any questions?
Here's what's coming down theline.
And so then when the guy crossedthe office, he gets the email
and had no clue and not everyonehas to know, correct.
They're like, hey, what's goingon here?
And you're like, no, I don'tknow.
It's like, well, crap, Ithought you knew everything.
It's like they don't trust youwith anything anymore and so you

(26:37):
can take a quick second toallow them to have the little
you know, because yesterday wewere looking at a guy's
collection and we were talkingabout how they used to unveil
cars back then and now how theydo it now.
And you, you know, expressfrustration and we all feel it
about how manufacturers don'teven tell us and we're pretty
heavily invested in this, uh,that they just tell the world

(26:57):
first, uh, and so it's nice tobe on that inside to say, hey,
tomorrow we're going to releasea brand new car.
Yeah, please don't leak thisinformation.
And that's the problem.
You know, they got some peoplethat can't trust, but, but the
rest of us have to deal with it,but we don't have that
information.
So then you get the opportunity.
Are you sour about it or areyou a catalyst for it?
So if you can give them someinformation remember they're not

(27:19):
on the vision board and they'renot helping you make that
decision but you give them someinside tips, and so then they're
like oh yeah, that was thatthing Matt and I talked about.
Yeah, yeah, it's solid, it'sgoing to help us big time.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I mean, nothing takes the wind out of your sail more
than you're coming in jacked up,ready to go.
We talked about it.
You're like well, this is goingto be great and the boat
already has water in it beforeyou.
You could just tell it like thefaces.
It's like oh, how did I miss?

Speaker 3 (27:45):
that step Because you , sweating in the trenches,
doing your due diligence, metwith all the vendors, went
through all the systems and youforgot to involve some key
players.
It's like the quarterback justworked his tail off and he
forgot to involve the snapper,and he's like how did I?

Speaker 1 (28:01):
miss that I know, but then sometimes just reaction
and I've been there before isyou want to just say, just do it
on your boss.
Yeah, I'm paying for it and justdo it.
On your boss.
Yeah, I'm paying for it andjust do it.
And and will they go throughthe motions?
Yes, they will.
They don't want to lose theirjob, but do you get the same
results that if you had buy-in?
No, you don't.
No, there will always be andyou'll heard me talk about this

(28:22):
before there will always be themeeting after the meeting,
always any industry, anyindustry you can find it in the
construction world.
You can find it in the educationworld, the automotive.
There's always a meeting afterIn the politics meeting after
the meeting.
So you are not as a businessleader.
You'll never be invited to themeeting after the meeting.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Okay, you'll never be there, which is kind of okay,
it's okay.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
But what you want to make sure is the people that are
in the meeting after themeeting.
They've got your back andthey're supporting you, because
if you can roll it out and thenit's verified and stamped at the
meeting after the meeting,you're off to the races.
The only way you do that isstep two.
You're absolutely getting allthat buy-in.
And then don't forget aboutyour ancillary people, because

(29:06):
those are the doers and they gotyour back.
They just don't have the vision.
You get them in.
So.
So let's go back to step three,and Shelby made a really good
point earlier.
When you get ready to buildyour meeting for step three,
you're going to pitch the idea,you're going to show them all.
So you go back to your visionboard from step two, like what

(29:27):
you were talking about going.
Hey, here's the issue.
What's the frustration?
You took service, for example.
What's the frustration?
Let's spit all this up on thewhiteboard.
That's the same thing you useto set up selling in step three.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
But you envision time .
Yes, you're going to leave itall open and you're not going to
say anything Correct In stepthree.
You're going to answer it LikeI didn't let you guys fill in
what?
Because I didn't want thepossibility that your thought
was different than mine Justwhen I asked you guys that this
is exact food for thought.
And so I said, hey, what's thenumber one struggle with a

(30:04):
service advisors?
This was not step one, this ispodcasts.
I'm teaching level three.
I said communication withcustomers, and you're like you
guys both agree because it'sreal right, so that's so
important.
You have the same framework,yep, but you don't just say, hey
, you want to go eat somewhereno, you're leaving them.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
You dumbed it down.
So you took a like hey, we allidentified this was the issue.
You're not asking for feedback,you're taking the spitball idea
out of it.
So the middle part you take out.
The first part's there for theawareness.
Then you sell them on the ideaand then here's how we're gonna
implement it, roll it out.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Can I just like stop for a second and say that like
we could recite this in oursleep underwater.
But I was just like it's still,you have to be so you have to
be so intentional in doing thatand there's little things and
there's systems are large things, but there's little processes

(31:01):
and procedures that you justhave to stop for a second and it
might be that you just shootthe article to them, just so
they know.
But because I'm sitting herethinking, man, there's ways that
I could have given moreinformation, like finance
training.
We were sending the guys tofinance training.
I was like, dang it, I shouldhave just sent them the
information before I sent themall the information, because

(31:21):
they were like, well, I don'tknow anything.
I was like you don't have toknow anything, it's training, Do
you want to be in it?
But I'm like, so, human doeshappen, and even if you do not,
you screw up.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
So, um, it's okay hey , I'll give you another example,
because it sometimes, you know,stories and actual reality help
drive it home, and we'retalking about communication with
service.
I'll tell you another one wherewe had to get by, and y'all
remember the whiteboard.
On this one maybe one of mymasterpieces on the whiteboard
I'd just like to say beforeshelby took them all away from
me Before we got ready to move.

(31:51):
Before we got ready to move,all of our parts, all of our
vehicles, all of our computers,everything.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
That was a massive deal.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
We first talked how we were going to do it and then
we brought in the correct peoplethat would help us going.
What are the systems to put inplace?
And we have whiteboards onwhiteboards.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
That's probably if you think about it now.
That's probably if you thinkabout now, that's what started
micromanage, irrelevant.
Yeah, that's what started them.
Yeah, right, because we werethinking about that.
That's what started last year,january, february, ish.
That's what started, you knownow, because then we would miss
things.
Yes, you know, we'd have peoplelike, okay, what else were we

(32:30):
missing here?
What's in it?
And then parts guy like well,you got to relabel the bands.
It was like, hmm, okay, put itup there, right, put it up there
.
Yeah, it's like okay.
So we found the problem.
And then the next meeting waslike, okay, who will handle that
?

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Mm-hmm and it was smooth.
And then everybody too, youknow what I've made definitely
multiple times a failure in mypast is not having enough chiefs
when it comes to something thatbig.
So then the funnel all cameback to me about like what are
we going to do?
Which?

Speaker 3 (33:03):
is tough because we're chiefs, and chiefs don't
like giving some of theirchiefmanship to someone else.
They like giving to Indians.
But to give, hey, you are nowchief of this, yes.
And then you're just left therejust sitting in your chief
pants and just like by myself,just getting clobbered.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
But there is some relief and like you finally see
it, like once you do that andthen you're up in the press box.
I'm like go see Ryan, he's theguy.
He's the guy, he's got it.
You got faith and trust in himbecause he was in that step two
Yep, yep, yep.
So then we went to step threeand then, once we finished,
everybody was like how did y'alleverybody from outside looking

(33:46):
in, how did y'all do that?

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Who did you hire and do that?
Who did you hire?
And it seems so simple, but itwas just like, and you talk
about it.
But you started the meeting andsaid, hey, here's our things,
and didn't know how it would allgo, because it was a vision
meeting no, I know uh, but thenif you're a leader and if you're
a doer, you kind of figure itout was like taylor, I see you

(34:09):
sitting over there.
You hadn't said much.
What's on your mind?
What are we missing?
Yeah, right, cuz it's a visionmeeting.
That's different than ateaching meeting or an
explanation meeting.
It's like I'm just thinking howin the world are we gonna
figure out all the nuts andbolts physically, the nuts and
bolts?
It was like okay, oh, like howdo you do it now?

(34:30):
Okay, and do you want to changeit?
Is that good, is that bad?
And so then in that meeting,you just started the meeting and
here's the idea, or here's theproblem, what's your ideas of
how do we solve it?
And then, once you got it, it'slike okay, you're in charge of
that.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I think that's a great point and I'll give you a
tip on how that happened.
That was scary to do at first.
By the way, okay, because youthink in charge, you always have
to have the answers.
I knew the initial questions Iwas going to ask.
Yes, okay, I didn't know howdeep the questions would go, but
I knew the surface levelquestions I was going to ask and
I intentionally, when I askedthe question, I asked the

(35:08):
question so I could learn.
So I asked to listen to learn,not listen to respond.
Most people listen to respondand the quick telltale on that
is if you're sitting therelistening and your mind's going,
how do I respond to this?
How do I respond?
What am I going to say?
Would they shut up so I couldtell them what I'm thinking?
You're not actively listening,but if you listen, then Ryan

(35:32):
brings up about hey, what aboutthis?
And it's like, okay, expound onthat for me, whiteboard that up
, all right, inventory, boom,boom, boom, office, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom.
And then you ask anotherquestion, another question, and
then it comes fruition.
We've got it backed all the wayup to step two there, but that
was some good stuff, becausethat's where the preparation for
a smooth step.
Three comes from and it's okay.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
Can I just tell you this it's okay to not have all
the answers.
That's a hard one to come togrips with.
Right, it is okay, but it's true, no one I mean people might
look up to you more if you say,look, I don't know what to do
here, but I know we have theright people and the right team.
Can you help?
Because generally I don't knowif it's because we were supposed

(36:17):
to, or because we have to, orbecause we'd never discovered.
What if we didn't know?
But it's opened the doors andwe've had in our micro-meetings
someone say can I be honestabout getting fried?
I don't know how to do that,and it's allowed me to be able
to say that, it's allowed themto be upset.
It's like can I tell you that Ithink I hate CDK because I

(36:41):
don't know how to use it,because I haven't been properly
trained, which is my fault,right and so then I don't use it
to its full potential.
Does anyone else have that issueand they're like, oh, oh, yeah,
I am awful in this, my okay, sothen here's the problem, here's
the solutions, but it's okay ifyou don't know the answer now
it doesn't mean, it's not okayto not find the yeah, right, you
can't just like that.

(37:02):
It's okay to be average ormediocre?
It's okay if we don'tcommunicate to our customers?
It's okay if we don't deliveron what we promised?
No, no, you have to, in the end, do what you said you were
going to do.
But it's okay if you don't knowif you have the right in step
to the visionaries of how tohandle that and then go to the
number three, the doers.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Can I tell you, a pivotal point in my career,
which was what you just said,finally smacked me into the face
where I had to say that and hadto do it Because in the past,
like you talked about, if therewas a problem I might table it.
So I can go listen to a podcast, read a book, research the
Internet try to figure out, tryto solve it all.

(37:38):
I'll tell you which one.
There was not an answer, nomatter where you look for.
They just smacked me in theface and said this is what we
got to say was COVID.
I can remember in COVID havingthe manager meeting, saying,
guys, I don't know what the gameplan is, but having the manager
meeting and saying, guys, Idon't know what the game plan is
, I don't know what we'll do,but I promise you that together
we'll work through this andwe'll figure out some solutions.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
And no one ever thought less of you for that.
It's just like hey, Iappreciate your vulnerability,
let's figure it out.
You don't let it fail.
But you just say, hey, I don'tknow which was so backwards of
what we had always been done ortaught, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
So I think, back on step three, let's go back there
for just a second and then we'llmove on to the next subject.
Back to step three.
Remember that meeting.
You're doing a small recap,like Shelby pointed out, from
step two, but then you're justselling on it.
Yeah, it's not time for ideas,you're selling, selling, selling
, selling, selling.

(38:33):
You must be as a leader,especially on a massive thing.
You have to be involved there.
Okay, and I know you're busy,I'm busy, these guys are busy,
but you're not too busy to, inour case, get 100x.
Yeah, you know, when you havethere's power in, if it's a
major decision, not holidayschedule, okay, major decision

(39:01):
that you're rolling out to geteverybody's buy-in, that you're
present.
You don't have to talk thewhole time, but you're present
to get everybody's buy-in, tomake sure, when we leave the
port, the boat's headed in theright direction and we had fuel
in it.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
We got the cargo and the cruise on board yeah, and
you didn't have to do it allyourself.
Yep, yeah, not truly all rightautomatic fun fact quiz.
Automotive fun fact quiz.
We talked about the developmentof the iconic automotive
feature that initially amountedto skepticism, resistance, for
in the world the industry usebecame standard safety

(39:31):
requirement improve the driving,passenger safety.
A, power steering, b, automatictransmission, cc belts.
You guys ruled out d of airconditioning.
What's your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (39:41):
people might think it's an automatic transmission
because heck, nobody knows howto drive a manual.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
You know they would back in the days the automatic
was not the quality that it isnow and so if you got an
automatic it was like you yuppie, that thing's just going to
blow up.
If you want to know if itshifts, get a manual and then
all the way when it shifts is ifyou don't shift it.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
You know the answer and obviously I see the answer
to this question here, but itreminds me that if you take a
decade of this away and somebodyelse, the next generation, they
know no different.
They don't complain anymoreabout this.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, I know, but if you go back a couple generations
, the answer is seatbelts.
It is seatbelts and they'll be.
Like man.
I rode up on the dashboard, Irode in the back of the car
looking backwards, or I was inthe back of the truck.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
And everybody that hears about politics and stuff
and regulations these days.
They think it's something new.
People were throwing a fitabout seatbelts.
Hey, you're taking away myrights.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
You're telling me what to do.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
I mean, it was a riot , yes, okay, but it was for the
good of everybody of seatbelts.
Now we get in and it's habit,you put it on.
It's like you feel naked.
If you don't put it on, youknow you can't go four feet
without the long line.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
They went over the yes, it's ding-a-ding-a-ding.
They went over this analogy theother day and I had a guy that
was getting on the interstateand this will really bring home
you want to know why.
And everyone says I used to dothis, used to do that.
It's because the speed limitused to the new age.

(41:11):
Now.
So he gets on, he hammers, andhe's just just trying to get on.
It gets up to 50.
He's like all right, we're good.
And the guy's in a new modernage.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
He's like oh gosh, I'm up to 95 just listening to
his music cruising along,because modern technology has
made things so smooth, so fast Imean if you haven't driven an
old car on the interstate at 75or 80, like the 74 Bronco that
we have, if you drive that thingthe steering wheel is like this
just to go straight, you knowleft, right, left right, and

(41:42):
then when you hit the brakes youbetter use two feet and know
that it's going to turn rightwhen you brake.
So you've got to turn left andto get to 75 or 80, buddy you
better have your helmet on.
You would be a fool to not weara seatbelt.
And then you're right, and a newtechnology can be cruising 95
non-intentionally just trying toefficiently move through

(42:04):
traffic, because traffic wasgoing 75 or 80, and you always
pass people.
So that's why seatbelts are nowimproved significantly of the
safety features of vehicles?

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yep, absolutely.
So diving into we've talkedabout involving your team and
understanding the why, but fromthe buy-in to execution, so
getting the buy-in moving whenleadership is really in place.
So, looking at the whole idea,there you moving as a leader
business.
How do you get from the buy-instage and moving, hey, let's go

(42:37):
ahead?
We've kind of already talkedabout this a little bit of
rolling into, but, you know,really moving into, hey, we've
had the rah-rah, we're movingforward.
How does that execution?
How do you get that into place?

Speaker 1 (42:50):
So once you have the team meeting with everybody okay
, which was in step three you'reletting them know hey, here's
the problem we had, here's thesolution.
And then here's the game planon how we're rolling this out.
Who's going to be affected andthen who I need help with, and
here's a date and a timeline.
You must establish that it'snot just open like, hey, you

(43:10):
guys just start working it inyour daily activities, work on
it when you can.
No People need a date.
If not, everybody willprocrastinate.
They will.
So after that gets rolling, okay, and you're walking around
making sure I'm talking about amassive idea or implementation
here, you're checking it to makesure it's rolling out like it
should be.

(43:30):
You're checking it to make sureit's rolling out like it should
be.
My encouragement is you takethe people back from step two,
maybe a week later, depending onwhat the subject is.
You bring them back in, butthen also add them back into
that group, a couple of doers.
So you have your small groupand go hey, let's touch base.
Have we ran into any obstacles?
We didn't think about How'sthat implementation going.

(43:51):
Base have we ran into anyobstacles?
We didn't think about How'sthat implementation going.
But then you also, since theywere your catalyst, you say, hey
, next Tuesday we're meeting onthis.
I need everybody to bring meupdates and statuses to let me
know how we're tracking what weneed to adjust.
So they come to that meetingprepared and they're like oh
gosh, now they're expecting meto help them roll this out.
They want the feedback.
I'm being held accountable.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
That's really good, the roles and responsibilities
of going from top-level leaderto then your sub-leaders and
sub-leaders.
Then you give them some buy-inAm I need Not only like, hey,
because you ask bad questions,you get bad answers.
Hey, how's it going with therollout of X?
Oh, it's going good.
Any pain points?
No, it's fine, unless you gotsomebody that just really likes

(44:34):
to talk, which we all have themyou're not going to get the real
under-the-hood feedback.
So then if you can task themwhich takes a little extra
effort from both sides you toask the relevant questions and
two them to have to actuallyshow up with something.
But you're going to go overprogress from this week to next

(44:58):
week and I need you to bring mefirst layer, deep.
Yep, what's the pain point?
Let's keep it.
You know like, so, how goodhave we done at it and what's
kept us from getting to 100 onthat?
And so then you can really makedecisions based on facts of
didn't improve, did it notapprove you?
You know what happened?
Sure, and then you can say,okay, we see the numbers Now,
what's your thoughts?
And then they're really, really, really bought into the oh

(45:20):
shoot, I got to show up withwhat I'm supposed to have and I
need to have relevance to myanswer.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I think that's a great point that you bring up,
and I'll tell you one of theeasy ways to do this to have
buy-in and then, so you're notstressing yourself about what
should I go over next or how doI communicate that one of the
things we do during our micromeetings.
Some of our micro meetings wehave once a week, some of them
are twice a month, some of themare once a month, depending upon
the department.
You know, one of the thingsthat we'll ask is hey, give me

(45:46):
your takeaways.
What are your takeaways fromthis meeting that you're going
to work the most on?
And then what are you going toaccomplish by the next time we
meet?
You keep those notes and thenthat's how you start the next
meeting off.
Hey, you said by this meetingyou'd be working on x process.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Give us an update on that that's my favorite thing
and I like to, even if I'm justinvolved in a meeting, because I
don't want to say it doesn'thave anything to do with me, but
it's, I'm not the mover on it,I'm not the catalyst behind it,
but I am the motivator, theaccountability person per my

(46:23):
department versus anotherdepartment.
And so then when I get to do so, I don't get fidgety because I
maybe know the answer or maybeknow how to solve it, but I need
them to figure it out.
Is I'm just taking notes?
I'm like, hey, what's thecurrent items?
Okay, what's the goal for nextweek?
Okay, what do we need to bring?
And then I get to collectivelybecause it's my jam and it works
for me.
Then I get to share that withthe whole team.

(46:45):
Hey, here's the notes.
So they don't ever have like,oops, I didn't know.
Or shoot, I didn't have that,you know.
So then I get to recap that.
So even if you need to beinvolved with that but that's
not, you're not specifically thedoer of that it's still
important.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
You know it's so important that I just heard
there that a lot of people gothrough and do and implement and
put in place.
And I'm not saying you have tobe at every single thing.
If you don't show importance towhatever you're putting in, it
doesn't matter how good it is,it's never going to stick and
it's never become a staple ofmoving forward.
So even if it's something thatyou are being in the middle of

(47:22):
and you're there, just thereobserving everything and you're
not doing anything like youtalked about as far as you're
not involved in the meeting,it's so important for you to
show that that is important toyou it's important to show that.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
It's also important to check on the quality of the
meeting and, and if you can justput it on, if you can hit them
all, then hit them all,especially if you can multitask
a little bit, like if it's azoom meeting or something.
Uh, because they need to seethat it's important enough for
you to be there, just like yousaid.
But also you need to see thequality of it, because I can

(47:56):
tell you about a performancecall that we have with one of my
vendors, because I'm not gonnapay any vendor without saying I
need a rate of return from you,I'm paying you, I need to see
what you've solved and I needyou to have give me three key
areas that we can improve on,based on our stats.
And I want that a every twoweek or a monthly call, because

(48:16):
there's been some of those callsthat I've got in and I'm not
leading the call, I'm in thebackground.
You guys are in the background,right, but they know that
you're there.
You might unmic and say hey,thank you so much.
Appreciate you.
I'm just coming in thebackground, holler, if you need
me, but I'm listening, becausethe performance manager said hey
, manager, do you have anyquestions?
Nope, everything is going good.
Okay.
Well, how much did you do lastmonth?

(48:37):
Oh, it was great.
Okay, how are you?
And there's times to bepositive, there's times to be
real, to say I need help or tellme what else, because some
people won't ask that, becauseit's just busy work.
We see it during our meetingsthat people are working on stuff
.
It's like when we get in here Isay put your phone on, do not
disturb.
Right, the same thing in thosemeetings.

(48:59):
So you have to get in thosemeetings to realize, and then
you need to have that meetingwith your performance manager
and say, hey, that's not howthat's supposed to go.
So you can have two meetings.
The meeting with theperformance manager said I
expect more out of you, that'swhat I'm paying you for, and I
know you have more insight toshare with the team.
And I saw these two low-hangingfruits and I don't even run

(49:20):
this thing, and then you getwhat the other side of the
team's like come on, guys, wepay for this.
There had to be something youcould have asked.
We can't just tell like, hey,everything's good, and I have
those conversations ofeverything's good and we're
great and grand and wonderful.
Right, that's not the time.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
I think a couple of things that I want to hit on
that you just went over is we'vetalked about this in other
episodes but the dynamics of thethree of us, we're all in
different positions.
Yet if in one of the subjects,if one of it's more passionate
or if it's an idea, it doesn'thave to all flow up to me or up
to Shelby or to Taylor to takeon, we will take a step back yet

(50:01):
support that person.
The rest of the team sees thattoo.
So remember, it doesn't reallymatter your status or your job
title.
If you're out there, you wantbig buy-in.
Take somebody that's a stepunder you or two steps under you
and say, hey, you take the leadon this, but you be at the
meeting in support.
Don't talk, but support,support.

(50:23):
You know one thing that comes tomy mind I listen to Craig
Rochelle a whole lot on hisleadership podcast.
He talks about when he goes tohis different church locations.
He never gets up on stage andtries to speak, even though he's
the face of Life Church.
He doesn't do that because hewants to be there to support and
empower and he wants thecongregation to see that he is

(50:46):
supporting that pastor.
That's there and what's beingsaid.
So that's the same thing withus.
It is like hey Shelby's takingthe lead on this one, boom, let
me back them up.
Hey Taylor's passionate on thispart.
Let me not only say you takethe reins on this, but let me
back you up and let the rest ofthe employees see that you know
and y'all probably resonate withthis when I bring this up.

(51:06):
But can you remember growing upin school and you're sitting in
class and then all of a suddenone day, the principal or the
vice principal comes and sits inthe back of the classroom?
I always would think about likeman, did somebody get in
trouble?
Like why are they in here?
And it never resonated until Igot into business.
They were there supporting,doing a quality checkup.

(51:31):
They didn't have to talk, buttheir presence was there, you
know, inspecting what theyexpected in the classroom.
And that's the same thing.
We're talking about buy-in hereand support within your team.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
The kids knew they needed to be on the game.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
The teacher knew they wanted to be on the game.
You know what.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
I mean, and they kind of get some order without
having to say anything at allanything at all.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
So that's like the, the.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
We'll call that layer four here of our step three
deal of of after you've deployedthe inspection and the
follow-through and the follow-up?
Yes, because I don't know onesystem, one process or one thing
that we've been able to put inplace, that we've been able to
sit and forget I was gonna saythat and, like so many people,
you know what people say whenthey try that done it.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Didn't work, didn't work, I tried it.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
And now I love that.
Uh, for our sake, because it'spretty easy to win if you can
just be consistent and makelittle changes here and there.
But I mean, even from ai, like,oh it's so good, like you
better get in there and inspectit because it's gonna.
I let me tell you this is sogood.
So yesterday, verkata is ourcamera company that has ai, over

(52:40):
170 cameras, our access controlthat does all our locks and
it's I remember talking you intothis.
It was so much more expensiveand I was like we do not need a
solid state drive.
That is so old school, that isdumb.
But here's an option if you wantto go that way so I got an
email yesterday from a ricottarep and there's a lot of reps
right, we've been through that,bring that part up.

(53:01):
But so I got an email from arep yesterday.
I was like hey just, and he wasdoing his due diligence.
I'm proud of him.
He just didn't go a layerenough deep.
I knew this only because and hesaid, hey, I just want to say I
just saw the acquisition ofLewis Chevrolet in Kansas.

(53:21):
It's awesome to have themintegrated in the team.
Let me know if you have anyquestions getting them onboarded
.
Have an outstanding day.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
We're playing on the move, yeah, and so I wasn't
gonna respond but I was like heyguys take the time.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
And it's funny because in google now and I just
done this two days before andit made complete sense when he
answered uh, you can googlesearch, and then it says ai,
it's google's ai.
Oh yeah.
And so I was working on some,uh, google my business metrics,
some stuff, and looking at itand it said AI.
And when I did that it combinedLewis Automotive Group in this
whole recap of Lewis AutomotiveGroup here and Lewis Automotive

(53:58):
Group in Hays Kansas, what weknow.
So that's where.
And so I sent the guy an emailback.
I was like, man, I appreciateit, thank you so much.
It's like actually, we'relocally here in Arkansas,
family-owned, family-operated.
The other group you're talkingabout is in Hays Kansas and
that's not part of us.
He's like dang, he respondsdang.
Well, I've got Google to thankfor that, because it came across
my news feed this morning and Ididn't fact check any of it and

(54:23):
I was like, hey, man, no harm,no foul, right, and so I
remember it.
No, I'm talking about it, butthere, I'm talking about it, but
there's not any system you canjust say go and just let her rip
right.
You got to inspect it If youreally want it to be successful,
which I hope you do, if you'reputting all the time and effort
and money into it.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Absolutely.
So really diving intounderstanding the why, involving
your team, and from the buy-into the execution process.
It's all so important.
All the pieces have to be takencare of in their own retrospect
to make sure that, hey, this ishow it's going to be effective,
this is how you're going tomove forward.
So, making sure, diving intoanything else on there, you

(55:00):
think that we that was prettygood, absolutely.
Okay, I got you.
Well, good, we'll dive intotheir great episode today.
Hey, getting to the best partof the day, your favorite, you
love these.
So we make sure we're reallydeep.
Dive into it.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Frequently asked questions.
Is that where you're going?
Yeah, it's our producer.
He loves to ask questions.
All right well hit it.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Harry.
Matt, what do you do on yourtime?

Speaker 3 (55:26):
off?
No, that's not what it says.
What?

Speaker 2 (55:28):
is the leadership skill that you would like to
improve or learn.
And then, shelby, how do youimprove your leadership skills?
Read podcast, run bike,whatever hauler sauna, anything
like that.
So, coming back, man, what is aleadership?

Speaker 1 (55:42):
First, I would just like to thank for the deep
questions that our producer putsout here, but let me jump on
this one.
You know what's the leadershipskill that you'd like to improve
on or learn, and that is that'sa great question, because I
think, as a leader, no matterwhat position or how much you've
grown, if you don't continue toget better, you don't expect

(56:02):
the rest of your team to getbetter either.
So one of the things that I'mcurrently working on and
studying others is when youscale a business to the next
level, which is what we're doingwhat type of strategies do you
put in place to better, empowerand inspect at the same time not

(56:23):
just empower and forget aboutit others underneath you?
Yes, to allow, to free up yourtime more to work on the
business.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Yep, okay, okay, that's good and solid shelby.
Uh, how do you improve yourleadership skills?

Speaker 3 (56:36):
yeah, so probably just do a quick fact check of,
like, hey, what am I good at andwhat could I improve on and
what am I not good at at all,and also do a quick like systems
check how the gauges look, um,and let's say that I came up
with some things, or let's say,just kind of all across the
board.
Uh, listening is going to be mything, uh, listening, or viewing

(56:59):
, so, uh, like, anytime that Iam eating lunch I'm watching a
youtube video on somethingeducational.
Habit stacking is a very largething that we talk about, and we
do so in drive time.
You know, my drive is like 17minutes, uh, but if you start
compiling that micro, like I Iread it's pretty crazy, because

(57:21):
I had some errands to run and acouple things to do and add in
three hours of workout that dayand then add in I was able to
read an entire book in two days.
It was eight hours and 41minutes, um, and I was just like
, oh my gosh.
You know I put it at 1.25 speedand depends on how fast they're
reading, sure, uh, but if I'mreading it, I I'll get bored.

(57:44):
If I'm physically reading it,I'm not gifted to be just a
speed reader, sure, um, but if Iand and I can't read while
going down the road, but I canlisten, so if it's a podcast or
if it's a book and I have to mixin because if I just try to do
full data download, like whileI'm exercising.
sometimes it's like because whenyou exercise you lose some

(58:05):
bandwidth in your brain andyou're like stop, just turn on
some music or something.
So you got to find that happymix there, um, but then I have
to slow down so that I'm notjust like full download of all
these, listen to all thesethings, because then I'll be
like spaghetti.
I'm like yeah, okay, okay.
Well, it's like, oh yeah, Ijust figured out, I just got a

(58:25):
major in biology and I just likehang on, so that I have to go
through those and then I'll goback, cause a lot of times they
have in audio books, they haveworkbooks, so you can go find
those.
That's good.
If you have the ability to,while you're listening, to take
notes on that it's really good.
And sometimes that's a voicenote.
You know if you're running ordoing something, so it's

(58:48):
definite habit stack and it'slistening or watching something
is how I grow my leadershipskills.
To make sure that stay on thefront, front side of your seat,
not backwards in the seat.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
You know what I mean that's so important to know, to
make sure you're doing it at theright time of day, because
everything has good aspects ofit.
It's like the time that y'alltold me about one of y'all told
me about the richest man inbabylon.
Oh yeah, very good, but youhave to be at the right time of
day because I was doing it atthe end of my days and if you

(59:19):
listen to that book of goingthrough, it's really slow speed
and it's just of the time andeverything that I went through.
So making sure you're puttingthat at the right time, whatever
the training is, if it needs,of the day, middle of the day or
end of the day, winding down.
So huge deal there, greatanswers, going through, really
diving in.
Make sure, and always check usout on lewissuperstorecom or

(59:41):
check us out online atcrossroadsconversationpodcastcom
.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure and give it a like, share
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(01:00:02):
Thank you again and we'll seeyou in future shows.