Ep.42 - Fake It 'Til You Make It: Is This Leadership Mantra Helping or Hurting Your Business?

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers discuss the concept of 'faking it till you make it' in the context of business leadership. They explore the importance of projecting confidence, the fine line between confidence and cockiness, and the potential downsides of deception in leadership. The conversation emphasizes the need for transparency and vulnerability in leadership roles, as well as the significance of building trust within teams. Through personal anecdotes and insights, they provide valuable lessons on navigating change and fostering a positive team culture. In this conversation, the speakers delve into the complexities of leadership, authenticity, and the importance of communication in business. They discuss the pitfalls of deception, the value of learning from failure, and the necessity of setting realistic expectations to build trust with customers. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of vulnerability in leadership and the power of empowering teams to foster growth and success. Ultimately, the speakers highlight the importance of building relationships and networking to create a thriving business environment.

Takeaways

Confidence is crucial for effective leadership.

Faking it can sometimes be necessary to engage others.

There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness.

Transparency about mistakes builds trust.

Projecting confidence can rally a team around a vision.

Deception can erode trust and create a toxic culture.

Leaders must be mindful of their communication style.

Positive talk can influence team dynamics.

Understanding the 'why' behind actions is essential.

Navigating change requires both confidence and vulnerability. Deception can erode trust and lead to legal issues.

Authenticity is crucial in finding your lane in business.

Learning from failure can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Setting realistic expectations is key to customer satisfaction.

Effective communication is a vital leadership skill.

Authentic leaders demonstrate humility and transparency.

Empowering your team can create a lasting legacy.

Networking is essential for building relationships in business.

Vulnerability can strengthen leadership and team dynamics.

Regular meetings should be purposeful and engaging.

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):
If you're not confident in a new process, a
new product, a new businessadventure, how is your team ever
going to?
They're never like let's justhere you go newsflash.
They will never be moreconfident and more bought into
your business and vision thanyou are.
Yeah, hey everyone, welcome toCrossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about

(00:22):
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
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome back to the podcast.
Matt and Shelby here today withCrossroad Conversations with
Lewis Brothers, episode number42.
42.
42, getting in there, fake ittill you make it.
That's something we hear allthe time in the industry Fake it
till you make it.
Now we're going to dive intothat.
Does it help, does it hurt?

(01:03):
What does that look like?
And so we'll go through what wesee, what we hear, and then
what actually is part of ourbusiness.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I can't wait to get into this subject today.
I'm sure we're going to havesome great content that all the
listeners out there are going toenjoy and hopefully will help
you out.
But before we do that, let'sjump back last week to episode
41.
Last week we spent some timegoing over the power of
proactive versus reactive, andif we really got into the weeds
on some of this, I think wouldbe helpful, and you may not even

(01:31):
know which one you're being inbusiness until you listen to it.
I know we were caught in thattrap for years and years and
years, you know, thinking wewere progressive and moving
forward, but actually when wepulled the layer back and we
were really honest with ourself,we were probably more reactive
we really were and until westarted getting around others
that could then show usdifferent ways to approach

(01:54):
business and how to stop beingas frustrated by being more
proactive.
So I encourage you to go backand listen to that episode.
That's episode 41.
And you can find it whereveryou listen to your podcast,
whether it's on spotify, if it'son apple, or you can go
directly to our website,crossroad conversationscom as
well.
I can't wait, uh, to get intothis week, but before we do that

(02:16):
, make sure to check out all ofour inventory at louis
superstorecom, where you'll findabout a thousand vehicles, new
and pre-owned.
I got a plug, plug right here.
All makes and all models.
Yep, you know, sometimes we getthat of.
Hey, I know you sell new Fords,you sell new Rams, jeeps,
chrysler, dodge, but I'm lookingfor a Toyota, I'm looking for a
Subaru, I'm looking for a Hondaor a Kia.

(02:37):
I'd love to do business withyou guys, but y'all don't have
those.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
you know, that's a message I get often from friends
, from referrals uh, I I got twolast week of people saying, hey
, because they have a cc,something's going on right here,
right, and then we also promotesome other brands, uh.
But I had one that said, hey,I'm looking for a bmw x5 needs
this, this and this.
And they said, because you've,when you found somebody that

(03:03):
you've earned trust and theyknow you can count on them and
the wagon circles, if you helpthem, they help you.
They said can you do that orshould we go to the BMW store?
And I said, absolutely, we cando that.
Give me the spec, tell me what'simportant, let me locate that
for you, because if it's outthere, I can find it.
So, as long as you don't giveme a unicorn and we found some

(03:26):
unicorns, right, but we do wesell across all makes and models
.
I had somebody that wanted abrand new Land Cruiser and, once
again, because relationshipsbuilt, I said, hey, I found this
one.
It has 200 miles, brand newspec, brand new car, brand new
features.
Does this work?
And they said, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
So all the way across the spectrum we can find it.
Hey, you're talking about theunicorn.
I gotta say this story weusually don't pause here as much
, but it's worth noting becauseit goes right along with it.
I was at career day atfarmington uh elementary a few
months back or whatever, and oneof the pieces at the very end I
pulled up.
You know one of the resourceswe have to get the vehicles like
you're talking about and um, Iwas a little scared to do this
but I asked the class.
I said, hey, I'm gonna call onsomebody and y'all pick whatever
you want and let me see if Ican find it for you.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Like second graders.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yes, okay, yeah.
So guess what they picked.
What they picked a Tesla, okay,okay, but they wanted it pink.
A pink Tesla, a pink Tesla,okay, pink Tesla, okay.
And so I'm like, oh gosh, herewe go.
I'm like I know I can find aTesla, okay.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I know I can find a white, a silver black.
They weren't even like superspecific of the model, no, I
just got to get a.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Tesla and we got to be pink.
So I found one like in NewJersey or something.
You know what I mean.
All part of our network.
It was a pink Tesla and of youdidn't know how they were fired
up they were, and the teacherslike jaw dropped.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
They're like how did you find a team Tesla?
It's like the used car factoryright, it really is.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
So I think that was a fun example, but that's a way
for our audience to know that wehave broadened our capacity,
because we have people that knowus, like us and trust us and
would prefer to do business withus.
But maybe they just want thismodel that we have a network,
and that's where we've opened upour business as well.
Maybe we didn't have thosefranchises, but we could save

(05:11):
them a lot of money.
Get a like new, especially whenyou put our Lewis Guarantee on
there.
Hey, let's go to our what Did weDrive of the Week.
We've been talking about thisin the sales meetings and even
in our Saturday morning salesmeeting.
By the way, if you don't jointhat, go on any of our Facebook
pages and check that out ourlive sales meetings on Saturday
morning.
And this vehicle we've talkedabout.
We've sold a ton of them, butI've just got a new shipment in.

(05:33):
It's the two-door Wrangler.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Okay, and sometimes the OG.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Sometimes that gets overshadowed by the four-door
and all the fancy equipment a392 or a Bronco Raptor or
whatever else it may be.
But these are two-door Ramblerswith a hardtop, power windows,
power locks, got the big 12-inchscreen, automatic air
conditioning, and they start at$33,900.
So in today's world whereeverybody's talking about

(06:01):
inflation and how much issomething you're talking about?
I don't know if you guys havelooked for a side-by-side lately
, but they are $40,000, $50,000.
So you can get a brand newWrangler for under $34,000.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
We've definitely been able tohave fun and sell those because
of that price point, Because aWrangler is one of those things
that generally a 98 Wrangler, an02 Wrangler, an 04 Wrangler, an
07 Wrangler like they get tothat point of that value and
they never really go down I know.
So if your starting point is33,000, you're doing pretty good

(06:33):
.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I'll tell you.
What I'm seeing of peoplecoming in and looking at those
vehicles is it might be a couplethat have just become empty
nesters or later on in life andthey want a fun vehicle you know
to take on date night or on theweekends, maybe go to Buffalo
or go wherever else.
And it hits that threshold.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yep, yep, it's not like this is crazy expensive for
a bonus vehicle or not theprimary vehicle.
Yeah, we've definitely had funwith that.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, it makes a whole lot of sense.
Let's dive right into thisweek's episode.
Shelby already introduced itthere.
You know, hey, are you fakingit till you make it?
What does it look like in yourbusiness?
Now, listen in, because it'sgoing to sound like we
contradict ourself through this.
All right, because there's aplace for it all, but please
don't miss when we get to some.

(07:21):
I've already read through someof the notes of some of the
areas where it gets really likewhat's called on the fence or in
the gray to not cross too farover there.
But let's talk about this andI'll kick it to you of faking it
till you make it.
Let's talk about the upside ofstrategic confidence, projecting
vision and overcoming theimposter syndrome and overcoming

(07:45):
the imposter syndrome.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
So let's just start with this that, yes, sometimes
you do need to fake it to be inthe conversation, and we're
talking about two differentthings here, like in business,
and then with your kind of inbusiness, with your employees,
and then with consumers, andnowhere do we say say something
that you don't know or can'tdeliver.

(08:07):
I think that's important.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
We're not talking about lie until you're
successful.
Yeah, we can do that right.
That's not what we're talkingabout.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Okay, but we are saying is that you might need to
commit to be able to dosomething, or say we are going
to do this or hey, that'sprobably something within our
cloud.
Yeah, so that you get in thatconversation, so that you're not
just completely leapfroggedover or that with your team,
like, hey, here's, here's kindof our thoughts and our plans,

(08:38):
and then see what it sprouts.
Yes, you know, see what type ofconversation comes from that.
And then you can say, okay, canI be honest with you?
I really didn't have a gameplan there.
Yeah, but in our vision teamsure, you know, in our team
where we bounce things back andforth like what if we did this?
And like, oh, you're not intothat?
It's like I've been researchingit, yeah, right.

(08:59):
And then once that becomestraction, you say, hey, actually
we're gonna need to go backdown to ground zero on that and
see who's doing it in the space,who's good at it, who's failed
at it, what they learned from it, and let's kind of re-engineer
it from the bottom, because Idon't have a whole lot of
experience in this, but it seemssomething relevant or something
important or something thatneeded attention.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I think what's really important here, and before you
all tune out and and go, whatare they talking about?
Faking it.
You can't fake it.
Let's back up a little bit.
Let's talk about confidence.
Yeah, so you must be confidentas a leader when you're leading
your team.
If you're not confident in anew process, a new product, a
new business adventure, how isyour team ever gonna?

(09:40):
They're never like.
Let's just here you go newsflash.
They will never be moreconfident and more bought into
your business and vision thanyou are.
Yeah, they just won't.
They don't have the skin in thegame.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
So if you're not confident as a leader, well, we
come out with a new product, andwe've been down this road with
new engines.
For example, a manufacturercomes out with a new engine.
Hey, we've watched all thetorture test videos, we've taken
the test, we've heard from themanufacturers, we've looked at
the testing they've gone through, but we haven't personally done

(10:11):
it.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, and so you have to live it a little bit to then
be able to portray it to sellthat, and that's a really good
point.
So in 2011, they released theF-150, the 3.5 EcoBoost.
It was a V6, twin turboturbo in2011, a long time ago.
And the other was the V8 engineYep, or the tiny non-turbo V6

(10:34):
just for the fuel efficient,just go get her.
And they had done all thetesting right, but the rubber
hadn't hit the road within theconsumers and we got so much
hate on that thing and it wasthe unknown.
Now it's the most popularengine.
Other manufacturers are copyingit, but it came down to hey,
shelby, what do you drive?
Hey, matt, what do you drive?

(10:55):
And so then it was intentionaland it was not our preference.
It was just like hey, we needto drive this and we need to
drive this.
There was a time, when electricfirst started, of the c-max,
that you drove a cement.
Yes, it was not that.
That was your preference.
It was not that.
You know, that's what youneeded at the time.
But when they saw you doing itthe, the, faking it you know

(11:18):
there was some faking it they'relike oh yeah, this is what I
picked I love the c-max of thethousand vehicles.
Here's what I picked.
That's the, the C-Max of thethousand vehicles.
Here's what I picked.
That's the faking that we'retalking about in one scenario.
And so they're like, well,shoot, I might like slow down
and pay attention to that.
Yeah, and so then that wassalespeople.
And then the salespeople couldeasily portray that to the

(11:39):
consumers like hey, my generalmanager, hey, my store owner is
driving this car.
Yep, you know, they plug it inonce a week.
They hadn't had to stop for gassince they got the car.
It's cost them, on an average,$112 a month or whatever it was.
And they're like I shouldactually pay attention.

(11:59):
And so then the confidence gainis just astronomical.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
I think that the point there and I hope business
leaders get this, and it'spretty easy to relate to our
business we get asked all thetime hey, what's your favorite
vehicle, what are you driving?
No-transcript.

(12:25):
And I remember asking him andthinking as a kid and it was he
was having that confidence inthe product so everybody else
would pay attention.
So you know, when I drove theC-MAX Energy or then the Fusion
Energy, it was hey, faking it,saying no, this is my choice.
I could pick anything, becausewhat was more important to me

(12:46):
than driving exactly what Iwanted to drive was the success
of the business.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
It's like what are you in?
And I think there's a secondpart to that that I realized
what Dab was actually doingBecause the Dodge Nitro wasn't a
new natural, it was one hebought from the program, from
the manufacturer, and so what hewas really portraying is hey,
this is a good vehicle, this ismy pick, because it was
two-wheel drive.
I remember it's snowing and heput sandbags in the back of it

(13:12):
to prove.
But I think what he was reallyproving is the ability as a
business to be mindful ofexpenses.
Yes, that that's something thathe would not overly tell you,
but he would show you.
Yes, and his expense control wasastronomically very well
weighted to be mindful of thosethings, to be tight in those

(13:35):
areas, because that was in timeof recession, of uh 08, 09, yep.
And so he wasn't driving a newvehicle, it was a program
vehicle, it was expense control.
So then, when he went todepartment heads was like, hey,
we need to do this, we need todo this without reducing payroll
, without cutting people.
Hey, here's how we are costeffective.

(13:56):
And he's not saying, hey, I'mdriving to use Dodge Nitro, like
he would never say that.
Right, but it was just like seewhat I'm doing.
Yes, right.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, I think that's where the confidence comes and
you've got to pivot as a leader,like, like, what are you trying
to accomplish?
Yeah, are you trying toaccomplish a successful business
?
Or for everybody to ooh and ahand say, hey, I love in our
business what you drive and thisand that.
No, we're about the businessfirst.
You know, you know where wehave the ability.
We get to drive a, a demo,because of the position we're in

(14:26):
now.
But I can even remember too,during covid, we all got
together when all the newvehicles shortage and it was.
It was everybody from my mom tomy dad, to my uncle, to us, to
the brother you know, to taylor,and it's we got to get out of
new vehicles.
Everybody's driving a usedvehicle, because it was about
business first and theavailability of that.
And I know that's getting alittle bit off of faking it, but

(14:50):
it's not Because here's whatwe're doing to lead the rest of
our team there.
Now I do want to talk a littlebit about this, because the
second part of this subject isovercoming the imposter syndrome
.
So you must be very careful,and a lot of leaders out there
have talked about this is thereis a fine line between confident

(15:13):
and cocky.
Yes, you must be confident, butnot cocky.
Correct.
And your employees can see that, your customers can see that,
the peers around you can seethat.
And you know the bestadvertising and marketing is
word of mouth.
Yeah, it can either workpositively for you or negatively
toward you.
So speak on that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
So it's more of a walk the walk than talk the talk
.
I'm not saying that's right orwrong, I'm saying my point of
view on that is let me show youhow.
And so if it's an area that youdon't overly know or you don't
overly, let's say fake it tillyou make it.

(15:55):
I'm going to fake that, I'mgoing to fake my way into the
room and then I'm going to learnabout it, and then I'm going to
hyper focus and be the absolutebest at it so it gets you there
.
But you're not going to justget in the room and say, hey,
I'm in the members only club,here's what I have access to,

(16:15):
here's what this allows me, youknow it's.
You see the things on Instagramor Facebook that says, hey, the
guy that's the millionaire andhe has the chains and the
watches and the fancy car.
And then here's the billionaire.
They show the Markan or someoneelse and they're just totally
dressed down and they're justhappy to be a part of things.
Right, there's the difference,oh yeah knock the walker, talk
the talk.
Right, the person who justbarely got in the room and it's

(16:38):
okay, like we talk about that.
Find a way to get yourself intothat situation, to learn and
absorb, but it's not to get into say I'm in the room, look at
me, check out, I'm with markcuban, you know it's.
So you can get in there and bea sponge and absorb, yes, and
then go back to your team andhyper focus.
Hey, here's our game planmoving forward.

(16:59):
Here's another alley we hadnever even gone down or looked
at yes and it's not saying, hey,I was in the room, yeah, with
you know this, this and this,and I did this, this and then
like, cool, where's the lessonfrom that?
How do we apply from that?
So the difference betweenimposter syndrome or going and
actually learning, envisioningand moving forward?

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I think when we talk about this subject is we're not
faking it to be somebody.
We're not.
Most importantly, what we'rereally doing, and I'll talk
about this transition to the newstore for a second, where we
had to cast a vision andconfidence and a little bit of
faking it, hoping the researchwe did would work.
Our whole change where beforewe had always taken appointments

(17:44):
throughout the entire day andwe said, hey, we're going to a
no appointment necessary.
And I can remember seeing theservice director, the service
manager, the look on their face.
They're like, are you sure?
Like no, this is the greatestthing, this is what they're
doing.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Without fully knowing .

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Without, like we've done the research, we're pretty
confident, but we don't fullyknowing.
Without like we've done theresearch.
So we're pretty confident, butwe don't fully know.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
like you said, we don't have a track record of us
doing this, right.
Yep, like, sometimes what welearn we've learned in one
department, like you,micro-focus on that.
And then you're like, hey, thisfrom our study group work.
Now, everyone did it, we didn't.
And I'll tell you anotherexample of that.
Okay, is of that.
Okay is when we toured over 100locations for 10 years.

(18:25):
Sometimes we had an end to aplace, right, yeah, a lot of
times I remember walking into aford store grapevine ford in
grapevine, texas.
We did not have an end.
We'd actually had a delayedflight in austin.
We drove to our connector indallas, right, and uh, then we
had a few hours, so we justdrove around.
There were tons of dealerships,and so I remember walking into

(18:47):
the Ford store.
And so are you being dishonestor you're not?
And so I remember walking intothe sales manager's office and
they looked at us like who theheck are you and why the heck
are you in here?
I was like, hey, my name'sShelby.
This is Taylor Matt's wanderingaround out there.
This is Taylor Matt's wanderingaround out there.
We're with Ford and we came todo a site review, you know.
So we're with Ford, absolutely.

(19:08):
We're with Lewis Ford.
Yeah, right, we didn't say, hey, I'm here with Ford corporate
zone B, land GA, with here withyou know whoever.
But it got us in there and theywere like, okay, guard down.
It was like was like hey, walkus through how this works.
And so it got us into thatconversation, was like, okay,
perfect, thank you for all theadvice here.

(19:30):
Who should I talk to in service?
They can give us the same Inteland then tell us what works,
what doesn't work.
And they're like oh, yeah, youneed to go see Steve back there.
He's a service director, he'llhelp you.
Telling that was like tell meyour name again.
Yeah, he's like, oh, steve,perfect.
And so then, hey, I was talkingto Steve up front.
He told me to come find youthat you'd show me all this.
That was one of those things alittle bit fake it till you make

(19:52):
it Right.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah.
So I think it's reallyimportant that, as we talk about
filters and like, your compassthrough any of these episodes is
, when you do these things, youmust have those in place.
Yeah, so it's, you're doingthis to achieve what?
Yeah, and then understandingand I know we'll talk about this
more in a little bit when tostop?
Yeah, so you don't get too fardown the road.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
It is very important and it's your why.
Why are you doing this?
It's the same thing of thefancy watches and the stuff and
the things.
It's just like why are youdoing this?
And I remember going to NADANational Automotive Dealer
Association and you could get inthe rooms.
I was still in college, youwere fresh into this business,

(20:35):
and we would meet up at theseconventions and the who's who's
were there, the power players ofdealers, also all the vendors,
and I remember one of our goalswas to be able to get to the
after parties and we're nottalking about the parties, but
it was about getting around theright people, the networking of
it, the networking of it onceyou got past the suit and ties.
And so that was always okay,you work this side of the hall,

(20:56):
I'll work that side of the hall.
What did you come up with?
Yeah, and it was like hey, Ifound this, hey, I found this.
But when we got there, Iremember one time we had made
our way in by association ofthis, this and this.
Was it Dodger Stadium?
Yes, it was Dodger Stadium, butthen at that point, while we
got in there, it was not okay.
You know, if you've ever seenVegas Vacation of Nick

(21:18):
Papagiorgio.
It was not that it was okay.
Now let's go find some peopleand network, True, and let's get
around some heavy hitters thatpeople have done this before us
and have learned this about that.
But we didn't get caught up ina lie of this, this and this or

(21:39):
hey, they didn't know us fromAdam.
We've got 200 stores and allthese employees and networks and
this just making up stuffbecause they wouldn't know.
But you just get in there tothen have honesty and then learn
from the people that have goneaway from them.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
I think that's that.
That's a great point.
There is like what is your goal, what are you after?
And once that goal is achieved,you got to move on.
You got to move on from that.
I'll give you another examplewhere we faked it a little bit
not a little bit a lot when wemoved stores, our new car
departments you talk aboutdisrupting it we went to a whole

(22:16):
new layout where salespeopledidn't have desks.
And we're talking about peoplehere that are career-oriented,
that have been here one year to20 years, that many of them make
well over six figures a yearand we're going to take their
desk away from them.
Yeah, and we had learned thisfrom some other stores.

(22:36):
We wasn't a pie in the sky.
We had learned hey, let's put acall center together and then
let's put desks that anybody canuse.
Why center together?
And then let's put desks thatanybody can use.
Why?
Because we can keep people moreproductive on the phone,
answering internet leads.
And then, two, we're not takingup three spaces on the showroom
for product.
Yeah, but we had to fake that,saying, hey, this is going to be

(22:59):
that the best there is, it'sgoing to be more efficient,
you're going to be moreproductive.
There'll always be a deskavailable.
Um at the same time, in theback of our mind going is this
really going to work innorthwest?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:10):
that's just two different conversations.
Uh, because I remember wedeleted a bunch of offices off
the front of the showroom thatford said, and then our
architect said hey, based onyour sales per month, per year,
you need, you need X amount ofdesk.
But then we learned fromanother store in Vegas and then
we saw on some stores in Florida, hey, here's what we want to do

(23:33):
and here's proven track record,but it hasn't.
And so then we said hey, and wehad to sell confidently us to
then the managers, to then thesalespeople that everyone
understood why and how it allfunctioned, because it got
questioned at every singlecorner, you know.
And so I had to be one of thosethings like no, no, no, here's
what we've researched.

(23:54):
And so then we baked it intothem so that when we gave tours,
we first gave them tours andthen we told them explain,
explained to them why and wewere explaining to them why, but
then they quickly became thetour guide and they would
explain why.
So then when they questioned intheir mind why don't I have a
specific desk with my name on it?
It's like you didn't get inthis club to say I'm in the club

(24:17):
.
You got in the club to be ableto serve people at the highest
level, to have the nicest place,this, this and this, so don't
get hung up on the placard onyour desk right.
And so then, as we told thatstory and kind of faked that
whole thing, it became reality.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Something happened right there that we didn't
necessarily even plan for atfirst, but we needed help giving
everybody a tour because wewanted to give everybody a tour.
So they were walking, talking,building for us when the
salespeople were giving tours,and they would explain the why,
just like you said, and acustomer would say, oh, that
makes sense, that's really cool.

(24:55):
Then it started getting intotheir brain of oh man, so many
people really like this idea, Ibetter not block it.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yes.
And so when, if, like, theirfamily came in or a good
customer like, hey, where's youroffice?
Instead of them going negativeand saying, well, they didn't
even build me an office, becausethose conversations happen from
the get-go they did Right.
Well, they didn't even give mea desk, like they didn't even
build this thing big enough andwe were just like we scaled way
bigger, way larger In the end.

(25:29):
Actually, it works designed,but they had to fully be.
You know a couple episodes.
We talked about that of gettingcomplete buy-in.
That was getting completebuy-in, but it was by faking it
initially.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I think that leads into and we've already covered
one of these points, so I'llkind of roll two of these in
together.
But, you know, using projectedconfidence to rally a team
around an ambitious vision.
To rally a team around anambitious vision.
So, whether we're talking aboutremoving the desk and sales, no
appointments and oil change andthe service manager is going,
how do I schedule my day?
How is this actually going towork?
I've got eight people standingaround waiting it.

(26:04):
So giving that confidence forthat ambitious vision, but then
also the power of positive talk.
So any of our meetings, anytime, we could talk about it.
You, you really have to usethat, even when the path is not
clear.
Yeah, like the vision's thereand we think we got an idea how
to work, but we better just staybehind this thing, but our

(26:25):
thumb on it, so we need toadjust when's possible yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
So like if you're in the room and then they're really
asking questions and you'relike, hey, it's time for us to
move to the next room.
Exactly right, we've gone asfar as we can go, we've got all
the connections.
Now it's getting in too deep.
Let's get to the next room.
That's right, right, so knowingthat all right.
Leadership.
Fun fact of the week.
This is our replacement of ourquiz.
This is a really cool thing aswe're talking about

(26:49):
understanding things.
It's called the two pizza rule.
Okay, so, jeff jezos, you knowthe Amazon guy?
Okay, a successful person, weshould probably listen.
You bet famously implemented thetwo pizza room and he said if
you cannot feed the people inyour meeting with two pizzas,
there's too many people.
Okay, there's too many people,and you know and take that with

(27:14):
a grain of salt, sure, how muchpeople eat, but just take the
average, it's too large.
This highlights a leadershipprinciple about effective
communication and decisionmaking in smaller groups Gets
too large.
People, you know, start zoningout.
People start thinking you'renot specifically talking to them
, sure, and we see that in ourmeetings, because we do have
meetings that are larger thantwo pizzas, could you know,

(27:36):
unless we really started cuttingthem up creatively.
But there's different types ofmeetings, as we've talked about.
But I like this for a strategicor a decision making or a very
effective communication whereeveryone's on the same page.
The two pizza rule.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Golly, that's a that's a great one, and when you
think about that, that makessense.
And when we look back,especially on this past year, as
we've gone into what you'veheard us talk about the micro
meetings the amount we've beenable to accomplish with that has
just been so much moreproductive because we could feed
everybody that room with one ortwo pizzas.
But, like you said, it doesn'tmean you don't ever have any

(28:11):
meetings that are full of that,but that's more of an
informational meeting and you'renot looking for two-way
conversation.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Big difference there Informational meeting, sharing
of progress, whatever that maybe and you need both.
You need both for sure.
The downside of deception,eroding trust, creating an
unhealthy culture those are afew items of if you have the

(28:39):
deception that here is actuallywhat it is versus actually what
it is, the things of the trustor unhealthy culture.
What's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 1 (28:49):
You want to talk about something that can devalue
your leadership and you willlose followers, which is what
you need.
You're not there here to beeverybody's best friend or
always invite them over, butyou're here to help them be
successful, and they have towant to go into battle with you
because they trust in you andyour vision.
If you fake it too far you knowtoo far you will start eroding

(29:14):
on that and it'll have negativeeffects.
For example, like you weretalking about, you're trying to
get into the right room with theright people.
Once you've got into that roomnow you got to switch your hat
to why you were in there.
It was to network, it was toshut your mouth, it was to
listen.
It's not to get in there andtalk about your watch or your
shoes or what you've done orwhat you flew in on.

(29:36):
You know you can't get too fardown the road.
We've had employees like thisbefore.
Oh yeah, and like you couldunderstand when they first
started their storytelling,because they were just positive
and pumped up about it, but thenit got two and three layers
deep and it's like stop up aboutit.
But then it got two and threelayers deep and it's like stop,

(29:57):
everybody knows now that whatyou said isn't completely true,
and then they lose their trust.
Yeah, and what happens there isif you do that, then when you
have something really important,nobody believes you, nobody
follows you I know that that's.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
I'm not gonna say that's so tough, but it's.
It's a slippery slope.
That that's I'm not going tosay that's so tough, but it's a
slippery slope.
Yeah, that's what got you intothat room.
But then if you go too far,tell that story too much, or it
grows horns, then when you'rereally onto something you don't
have the value in your word.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
And that's.
You know, that's one of themost important things, and as
you were talking about that, Iwas thinking so that's the
downside of going full speedahead, and then just once you
get in there, then you want tobe the highlight of the
spotlight.
Yeah, we generally and it'sfunny, you said what we wrote in
on and that's what got methinking that Dad's Dodge Nitro,

(30:53):
the way that we travel, expensecontrol, we live that through,
we do, and so we had to kind ofa little bit church that up, may
you call it, because more oftenthan not I like to.
When I get into thatconversation, when I'm forced
into that conversation, I willbrag on my thriftiness rather

(31:17):
than hey, here's what got ushere, this, this and this.
And also I say, shelby, shut up, you're devaluing yourself.
On the other direction, there'snot a devalue, I guess I should
say there's just not anysexiness to it.
Yeah, and by that I mean aperson's like well, hang on,
what's this guy doing?
You know, it's just like no,you know, we, we flew in, we

(31:38):
were in the back of the airplane, we don't even do a sign and
cease whatever.
You know, yeah, just all thethousands of stories.
So there had to be some.
It's like, okay, here's our newstory, and I don't mean new
service like here's our newchapter, and so here's what
we've built right, here's theteam, here's our program, here's
our new chapter, and so here'swhat we've built right.
Here's the team, here's ourprogram, here's our platform,
here's your growth tree, allthese things.

(31:59):
It had to have some teeth to it.
Yes, so that when you got inthat room, or or maybe to get
you in that room or to get intoa new level of rooms, you had to
have some story.
But you have to be so carefulto not cross that line that
you're misleading people.
Well, that's people buying intoyou, your employees underneath

(32:20):
seeing that, or managers thatthey just get too far down the
story and they can't I can'tunhook when it's necessary to
unhook I think what happens isslowly the trust starts eroding
away.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Um, so I'm not going to bring up point here.
You're like, okay, I hear whatyou're saying, but but how do
you figure that out?
You know, if you get in andyou're being confident as a
leader and you're faking thatthis is going to work, but you
really don't know if it's goingto work, if it's not going well
and it's not going to work, justbe honest about it.
You know what I mean.

(32:54):
Because then you continue thatconfidence?
Because none of us are perfect.
We all know that.
We all make mistakes.
We've all failed a thousandtimes before we hit one out of
the park.
Just call a spade a spade.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
That is so important.
You know Like be transparent.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Be honest and so like if we try something.
And I can tell you I'll give agreat example here when we had
some hard-to-get vehicles likewhen the Bronco first came out,
you know, or a specialty vehicle, and we were getting people to
sign documents and this, andthat it all sounded like a great
idea, you know, we wereportraying that in.

(33:30):
But then, as we read fartherdown the line what it was
creating, it was like, hey,let's all talk.
Yeah, this isn't workinganymore.
We need to amend this document.
I went too far over here.
That's on me.
Yeah, I've adjusted.
I've listened to you guys.
Here's the path.
Yeah, you know.
So that's really important thatthey've got to see your

(33:52):
vulnerability.
They want to see yourconfidence, but they want to see
your vulnerability too, becausethey're going to make mistakes.
Yes, so where people cross thatline is they won't put their
ego aside.
Their ego gets involved andthey fake this idea and they're
going forward and they're tryingto get traction, and it gets
too far down the road and thenthey're like I've got to make

(34:15):
this work.
I promised I would make thiswork, and then all of a sudden
they start doing a deceptivepractice.
Yes, or they start fibbing onthis, to cover that, on that,
and then it grows so big there'szero trust.
Then they'll start getting intolegal issues.
Nobody wants to work for them,so on and so forth and then the
main thing is no longer the mainthing.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
It's not right.
You start hopping over allthese things and getting this
guy to cover for that guy andyou forget what you actually
came to do.
And then it's not fun at alland I I was sitting here
thinking about this.
Think about this if you're uh,you know you might need to do
what you can to be able to getin that room.
You know we talk about runningor athletic things.

(34:58):
Think, if you're in a race Nowit's okay to fake your way into
a longer race than what it maybe.
You need to be prepared for it.
But you know, if maybe you'rein a different corral, a faster
corral than you're supposed tobe, but you just wanted to just
get a little bit closer so youdon't have to get through all
the people, right?
if you jump out front with thevery front race leaders for a 5k

(35:23):
, 10k marathon, whatever it maybe, and you fake your way, it's
only gonna last so long it islike you are only going to be

(35:45):
able to fake it so long beforeyou outrun your ability.
It is going to keep saying thatand then you're going to go to
you bust, and then you bust, ie,dnf, you stop, yep.
And what the pros of this willdo is they'll pull out of the
race and they'll come up with anexcuse yep.
Instead of actually justgetting back to their lane a

(36:07):
little bit or getting up frontin the corral seeing what the
pros are doing, running withthem for a little bit and then
saying, okay, now I need to getback to my 8.30 pace, I need to
be at my 9-minute pace or I needit to be 6.40 pace.
I saw what they were doing.
That was good intel.
Now I get back to where I'm at.
But what the pros?

(36:28):
You know?
Assumatively pros, butshouldn't be in that they'll run
hard, run fast.
Presumably pros, but shouldn'tbe in that they'll run hard, run
fast, way above the where theyneed to be.
Now.
Oftentimes that's got us tofaster race.
Sure, that's got us to runfaster because we didn't know
what we didn't know right andokay, I could last a little bit
longer.
But if you fake it too long andyou don't have the ability to
say face.

(36:48):
And that ain't me.
I can't run that fast, I can'trun that long.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Then just say it and readjust Yep, but keep moving
forward.
That's the deal.
Keep moving forward, becausethe fake it pro will just say
nah, he'll write up a wholeInstagram thing.
Drives me nuts.
Nothing like it, right, I know?
And I'm like well, you shouldhave just finished.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
You paid the money for it.
You took someone else's spot.
You know all the things.
Your sponsor paid you to bethere.
You shouldn't have justfinished it.
People would have respected youmore had you even ran slower if
you just finished it.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
So keep that in mind.
I think that's so importantthat your confidence needs to be
there to step into that area.
That makes you feeluncomfortable, yeah, but you got
to learn from it and you got toknow when to shut your mouth
and listen.
You know, I love really lettingmy actions speak louder than my
words, you know, and people tosee from that.

(37:51):
You know, and people to seefrom that.
That doesn't mean I won't putmyself in a situation, not
necessarily where I'm notsupposed to be, but maybe is on
the edge of making me feeluncomfortable, because that's
where growth will happen.
But at the same time, I'm likeand if we're talking about race,
I I know I could blow up here.
Yeah, you know, I know maybethis table that I'm sitting at
for this luncheon, that I maybedon't have the credentials to be

(38:13):
sitting there, but I got theopportunity to, so I'm going to
take it.
But I'm going to make sure whenI'm there, I'm there to listen,
I'm there to extractinformation, because my goal is
to be able to get there, my goalis to be able to run in the
front corral and I know I can'tdo that if I don't get around
those people.
So you know your game plan right, I know my game plan, but where

(38:33):
so many people make the mistakeis they forget to shut that
switch off.
They got to use the switch toget the opportunity, but now
they have the opportunity.
Learn from it so you can growto get to that point.
Yeah, but I just cautioneverybody, or not caution?
I encourage you.
When it's not going correct,call a spade a spade.

(38:56):
Get the right people in theroom because they might be able
to help you to adjust.
And we've had to do that inbusiness multiple times.
We thought everything lookedgreat on paper and then we get
started and it's like okay, boss, I was all in with you, but you
need this feedback.
This isn't going exactly likeyou thought.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
So let me give you a business case.
If the sports one didn't workor you just need another one, we
opened I don't know specificyears, but we opened Top Gear.
It was our performance.
We like performance cars Plus.
We saw a need for it in ourgrowing area.
So across from our old store,we opened a store, renovated it,
spent a lot of money on it, yep, and then went out and bought

(39:36):
some of the nicest inventory,some of the rarest inventory,
had a lot of money invested inthis thing.
It was something we threwtaylor into.
We started line x's there, uh,and everyone loved coming there.
Oh yeah, tons of traffic, uh.
And we hadn't figured out thefull game plan and we maybe had
not fully, fully researched thatbecause we were running the
business and it's like, hey,let's do this Of that we should

(40:00):
have been charging admission forlike a museum.
Because otherwise anyone whoworked there was just taking
their time that's right Hearingtheir dad's story about how they
used to have one of these orthose.
And so our other businessesthat were making money could
have covered for that store.
That was eating money.
Sure, that was burning money,yep.
And it was fun for us and itwas a cool outlet and we kept

(40:22):
buying the cars and then tryingto sell them.
Couldn't sell them, then wesold them dealer to dealer via
auction for a large loss.
And so at that point, somewherealong the way, we had to tuck
our tail and say let's close thestore, which is not fun to do,
to put a closed sign or to takeyour sign down or to have a

(40:43):
vacant lot.
Most people they cannot accepta failure point and so they just
keep running it into ground.
So one of our other businessescould have carried over the cost
of the people and the productand we just could have kept
riding that horse Because wedidn't want to admit that we had
failed in that right that wecouldn't pencil, make it all

(41:07):
work right.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
I think that's a great important there, there,
where we had to put ego aside,and from outside, looking in,
they're like, well, they've gotall these other successful
businesses, isn't it the samebusiness?
Why can't they make this work?
But I will tell you what cameout of it.
Yeah, is is the business itself.
Top gear of, of buying andselling the specialty vehicles
didn't last long term, but in inthe meanwhile we had an open

(41:32):
shop in the back, so then wewere able to go.
What else could we do backthere to produce income to
offset the expenses of the city?
So we're like let's spray inliners we're already doing that.
Let's do window tent.
That stuff stayed after TopGear left.
We were able to move that.
We said, hey, there's anotherbusiness model there that came

(41:53):
out of that.
It wasn't even what we wereafter.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
And a lot of our inventory acquisitions that we
do today have come from that aswell.
The way that we farmed outnon-conventional ways to buy
inventory pre-owned inventorycame from that.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
So when you look at those things, it's like
something else that you didn'teven plan for comes out of it
and you know we faked that.
Going there, there is a needand there's this and there's
that.
But then we go all to space, weadjusted some and we adjusted
and then, when it wouldn't work,we moved on.
You see big companies doingthat all the time.
Oh yeah, you know, I lovewatching Walmart, especially

(42:29):
with their grocery delivery isthey'll pick multiple different
stores, whether it's a drone orthe catapult airplane one.
They've got over there andthey'll pilot all these and when
it doesn't work, it doesn'twork.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Well, and they've gotten smart how they do it.
They call it a test or a pilot.
Now, if the test or pilot works, just like the one in
Farmington, they don't stop it.
The test just continues onright, but they don't stop it.
The test just continues onright.
But if it doesn't work whichthey fully plan for it not to
work they plan for it to succeedand to fail at the same time,
and they're learning from it.

(43:00):
Then they said hey, that was apilot, we learned some stuff and
yeah, we'll try with somethingelse.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I think that's really important.
You know, one of the otherthings they talked about here is
the risk of makingunsustainable promises or
building strategies on falsepretenses.
I'm going to go back to our oilchange for a second.
We did have to implement inwhen people would call or they
would show up to give themcorrect expectations for how
long the oil change would take.

(43:27):
Yeah, you know, and not like,hey, yeah, no appointment
necessary, we'll get you in andout.
Well, that's true, but it'sbased upon how many people had
shown up at that time.
So we had to make sure wedidn't get false expectations
there, because then that wouldequal a bad customer experience
and even further down, that wehad to hammer so hard on no

(43:49):
appointments necessary.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
And we hammered so hard on that that the service
advisors or appointmentcoordinators or BDC, when a
customer wanted to schedule anappointment, they wouldn't
schedule them an appointment,which was bad, because then we
got bad PR on that side to saythey wouldn't even let me
schedule an appointment.
I said, okay, let's look atthis here.
If they call and ask there's noappointment necessary, just

(44:12):
show up and we'll get it in, andhere's the proper expectation
of if you go to Chili's on aFriday night, it's going to be
this long, right, and you tellthem and then they get to make
the decision.
But if someone calls and wantsto schedule an appointment,
schedule them an appointment,put it on the calendar so that
we can be both Right.
Put it on the calendar so thatwe can be both right.

(44:33):
But we had to go so hard thisway for them to understand that
because there were somecreatures of habit that we had
to break there.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
No, that's so good.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Which is the big thing there.
So those are the downsides ofdeception Eroding trust,
creating unhealthy culture.
Just know when to say when.
Don't go too far and don't keepchasing this lie for that lie,
for this lie.
Remember you go into that roomto understand you.
Here's my game plan.
Here's my goal to listen, tolisten and to learn and people

(45:01):
will appreciate you for who youare like.
That is so important that theydidn't let you in or you didn't
sit at their table because ofyour things or because of what
you say.
It's because of value that youcould bring.
Or you seem like a nice guy oryou could bring them value down
the road.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
I think that is one of the best points made so far
today is people will sit at yourtable or follow you, not
because of what you have or whatyou show or what social media.
It's because they feel like youcan help them be successful.
Yeah, and you care about themand their career.
It doesn't mean that you'reinviting them in to be family,

(45:39):
but it means that, hey, thisperson is somebody I want to
lock arms with because they'reat a different stage than I am
and have a proven track recordand they want to help me be
successful.
Yeah, I think that's a greatpoint.
Hey, another leadership funfact for us hey, I like this one
.
The average leader spends a hugechunk of time communicating.
Here's what studies suggestParticularly, those in senior

(46:02):
roles can spend anywhere from 70to 90% of their workday in
communication, whether it's inmeetings, emails, phone calls or
informal conversations.
This emphasizes communicationas the most critical leadership
tool.
That really takes me back andI've said this before to the

(46:25):
college days.
We had a professor, mr Oskoda,and he constantly said I can get
monkeys to crunch the numbers.
I can remember it and so canyou, when you sat in this class
and I'm thinking like, why isthis guy telling me he can get
monkeys to crunch the numbers?
Because he was teaching us thenumbers.
He was teaching us the numberswhich we needed to understand in

(46:45):
the processes.
But this makes the point.
There is, as a senior leader,you must be communicating.
Somebody else can do, and Istill get caught in the rut of
putting all that together.
Somebody else can do that thatcannot do.
The communicating and thevision speak that you can.

(47:05):
So I think that's so important.
It's a mix between all of it.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
That is really good, and it's funny that it says that
that emphasize communication isthe most critical leadership
tool.
We talk about tools.
You know the thing about ourhires, or making sure that
there's value, there is time,tools and training, and so be
like I'm a salesperson.
What are my tools?
your tools are your words andthat's your ability to
communicate so if you thinkabout you even not as senior,

(47:30):
but ourselves professionals,most of the time is
communication, so you have tomake sure you're good, you bring
value when you communicate, sothat's pretty important there.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
And I think, kind of wrapping this whole subject up
is the authentic leader'sapproach and we've talked about
this some but grow into it withtransparency and humility, which
we've talked about.
They want to see both sides andany successful entrepreneur or
sports athlete that you followwhen you really peel back the
layers not them just holding theMVP trophy or the dealer of the
year or the business of theyear or the Forbes top 100

(48:08):
businesses when you look, look,they're very authentic.
They got great vision questingand they have the ability to get
everybody on board with them tosay here's where we're going, I
need you on board, here's whatI need you to do.
But at the same time, they'vegot some transparency and
humility when it didn't go likethey said or they, they need to

(48:29):
pivot.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah, I think that's so good that you say, hey, we're
going where we've never beenbefore.
To your team, right To yourteam yes, hey, we're going where
we've never gone before.
Now, I've done a lot ofresearch.
I'm just saying I hadn't beenthere yet, and here's what I
found.
It's funny when you say thatabout having humility and also

(48:54):
understanding.
I give credit where credit'sdue.
Uh, still reading the book thatI talked about, uh,
unreasonable hospitality.
And so this guy who's running,uh, this restaurant, new york 11
madison park uh, he is chasing,uh, the four stars of this and
the three stars of michelin, andhe talked about I love his a
lot of his meetings.
He would have a staff meetingevery single day and they were

(49:15):
bigger than two pizzas worth,but it was an information
meeting, right, and so anytimethat they got positive accolades
, he wanted to be able to sharethat with his team.
But then, as they startedgetting recognized, they started
getting press, and so theytried to continue to put him or
the chef as the because theywere the brains behind it all.

(49:36):
Sure, as hey, here's the ones.
But what he had learned is theywanted to be known for having
an outstanding coffee to offer.
Yeah, right.
And he's like I don't knowanything about coffee.
And so then he found one of hisemployees that had a passion
for coffee and said hey, you arenow my coffee connoisseur

(49:56):
liaison leader.
Bring me XXX of examplesopportunities.
They did that for beer.
He's like I didn't know thedifference between you know PBR
and a Pilsner, right?
He's like I don't know thedifference the pilsner right?
He's like I don't know thedifference.
And so then, as they gotrecognition for having one of
the best known beer, something,something then he would

(50:16):
highlight this person humilityof not taking all the credit,
like yeah I got us in the room.
yeah, it's pretty sweet place,you know, I got a good team, but
I'd like to say that I put thiswhole thing having the humility
to say that it's we, you know,and it's everyone that makes it
work.
And I love that, me too.
He got a lot of hate from theguys that ran French Laundry and

(50:36):
a bunch of other restaurantsand said stop doing that,
because people are going topoach your chef or your this or
that and that.
And he said may you be right.
At the same time, I want themto know, even if they do leave
me, that I taught them a wholelot.
I gave them the launch pad.
I gave them opportunity.
I helped them get into thatroom.

(50:57):
They helped me get into thatroom.
We faked it until we finallygot one star, yep, right.
And he said I'm going to lose acouple here and there, but as
they go and grow in their career, they're going to remember hey,
I got started here Right career.
They're going to remember hey,I got started here right.
And so they'll speak highaccolades.
They'll say hey, if you want agood experience, you go to this
restaurant.
And they're not even talkingabout the one they work at.

(51:17):
They're talking about the onethat they used to work at, so I
love that of the humility of nottaking all the credit.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
I really like hearing the automotive world's not that
big, especially in northwestarkansas.
I love hearing the stories ofall the byproducts of people
that dad grew.
Yeah, and, and a lot of themall hear the stories aren't
within our dealership anymore,but they've gone out and they've
started their own business.
Yeah, we were talking about itjust this weekend and whether

(51:45):
whether it was real estate or ifit was another car dealership
or you know, there was a guythat uh, invented and produced
all those war eagle fishingbaits and then sold it and all
these different stories that,where he found the right people,
gave them the platform, gavethem the tools and the support
they needed to be wildlysuccessful.

(52:06):
Yeah, and when you do that, youhope to keep them all.
Let's be honest here.
But in reality, you won't, youwon't, but you build that
awareness and that platform thatthen others see and it attracts
people to go.
I want to be a part of that.
I've heard multiple people sayif you want to get into

(52:28):
automotive sales, you must gowork for Lewis's.
And here's why.
Maybe they've got the greatestbrands, maybe they're on fire,
maybe they're not, but theirtraining platform is second to
none.
They pour more in to theirpeople on giving them the words,

(52:48):
like you said, than anybodyelse.
So if you want to catapult yourcareer, go work for Lois,
because of their team and whatthey do to embrace and to build
you up.
Yeah, you know.
So I think at the end of the day, like if you'll focus on that,
you'll build this normalgravitating force to pull people
in and I think that's so good.

(53:08):
And you know, I think, on thetransparency and the humility
any of us, when an award isaccomplished, or big sales goals
, or this or that, we're thefirst one to flip the spotlight
around and shoot it on the team.
Now you'll see us on TV andyou'll see us here and there,
but it's just building thatbrand awareness of we're a
family dealership.

(53:28):
It's not so we get morefollowers social-wise it's not
so we get more followers.
Social wise it's not so.
We're building our individualbrand.
It's because it allows us totalk about a platform that
nobody else has.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Yeah, I think that's really good and that took some
time of going from safe spaceinward space to no, no, no, like
somewhere the script flippedand we said we need to start
this whole brand of the LewisBrothers.
Script flipped and we said weneed to start this whole brand
of the lewis brothers and it waslike we have to start doing
these commercials and push onthis and it has to be our face,

(53:58):
it has to be us.
Um, not that that's the onlyway, that's just the way that we
saw it to be able to selllegacy yes, local, hometown
offering.
And then we had to go all in.
So, yeah, you see us on tv, wepay for that, right that's not
so we get more likes and follows.
It's just to.
At the end of the day, it'sjust as we hire more people,

(54:20):
that's more people that we getto provide for, that we get to
help and that, like majoritypeople are gonna work.
Yeah, why not work for a placethat they can have so much fun
and so much enjoyment and thattheir whole family is involved,
like that's the end goal, right,and then give them the
spotlight if at all possible?

Speaker 1 (54:39):
somewhere I think I'll go back to awards, banquets
and stuff and I'll be honestwith you, that's not my favorite
thing, you know.
After work.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Like I think it's cool.
No, no, I do.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
I do, I think it's cool.
No, no, I do, I do.
I think it's cool and like, butI have to pump myself up to
like go, go towards it, notdiscounted any awards, cause
it's an honor to get that.
But then I finally have torelook at it through the scope
of I need to go, I need to bepresent, not business now for

(55:17):
our employees.
And if we get to go on stageand we get to get that award, I
get that 15 seconds, 10 seconds,30 seconds you do to be able to
talk about our amazing team inour amazing place to work,
because in the end, what it isbecomes a networking event.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
That's what it is.
It's like whoa, I've seen thoseguys on TV.
Right, you hear that a hundredtimes.
I've seen those guys on TV.
And then if you get on stage orif you get an award, then it
like a room of 500 people, aroom of 800 people.
It sparks conversation.
You might be top of theconversation.
So then when they're in anintermission and you're walking
around, you're like please talkto people, please talk to people

(55:44):
, please talk to people, ratherthan go hide in the corner and
like, okay, let's go talk topeople, let's see who we can
make a friend with.
Like man, I've heard about yourstore, man, I got it's like hey
, well, let me shoot you a quicktext.
Come by for a tour, I'd love togive you a tour.
And then you never know what'son the other side of that door
in that conversation, and we'reabout building relationships and
serving the next level and thenext generation.

(56:07):
You bet, and so that's, that'sthe.
I'm not going to the cocktail,this and that and the duck's
unlimited, but it's anopportunity for the network.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
I'm going to, I'm going to pitch this one to you
so we can talk a little bitabout it.
And we've talked abouttransparency, we've talked about
confidence, we've talked abouthumility.
Let's talk about the strengthin learning alongside with your
team and you know, rather thanalways pretending to have it
together.
Let's talk about the strengthin learning alongside with your
team and you know, rather thanalways pretending to have it
together.
Yeah, and I've been down thisroad.

(56:38):
Now, I never said anything thatwasn't correct about acting
like I knew this when I didn't.
Usually, I would tablesomething, yeah, and I'd say,
hey, let me do some research onthat or I'll get back to you on
that.
What I was really doing isgoing I don't have the answer, I
don't know.
I don't know, let me go work onit.
And if I would just would havebeen more vulnerable.

(56:59):
Somebody else in the room mayhave already had that yeah, yeah
, no, definitely.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
And so you have to understand when's a good time to
table something or when it's agood time to say hey, can you
elaborate on that like, what doyou mean?
Can you use that in a second?
You know that's really good tobe vulnerable, and we've learned
that in micro meetings a wholelot, because it is a small
enough meeting to say what doyou mean, like in reference to

(57:26):
what right?
And so then what I'm asked is afew more questions to maybe
give me some direction so Idon't sound like a fool.
Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay withthat now, right, but still, I'm
their leader.
You're their leader.
You know we should at leasthave an idea, right, and maybe
they just use it in a referencethat you didn't know.
And so you ask them that waslike hey, and what do you mean,

(57:48):
like in reference to dailyoperations, how does that
pertain?
And they're like well, when youdo this, it's like oh, yeah,
sorry, they call that somethingdifferent at the ford servers,
the chrysler store.
So here's this and this, buttell me what your struggles with
that?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
so then they unpeeled a little bit more sure, rather
than saying, hey, that's a greattopic for next week, like it
was on their mind, so you mightas well try to juice that orange
a little bit, I agree I thinkon top of that too, or in
conjunction with that, one ofthe things that I've learned is,
if I'm in a meeting, I don'talways have to lead it, yeah,

(58:21):
and you think about if you're atthe head that you have to do
that, yeah, um, and I'll listento craig groeschel talk about
this in all those differentchurch locations and he said
when I walk into one of theother areas, I'm there to
support and to help them.
I don't want them to call me onstage.
I don't want to give themessage for the day, because
then that discredits the localpastor there.

(58:42):
That's giving the message.
Same thing.
We talk about thesemicro-meetings.
There's plenty of times I letour controller down.
Now we're in there to help italong, but she knew all the data
, she knows all the insight andnothing's wrong with that at all
.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
So you get to be a part of it, to be hype, you know
, to bring the value of it.
But then you kind of like backup a couple layers to allow them
to operate.
Because they, what will happenif you delegate that in the
transparency of hey, and youtell them I'm going to let you
run this?
It moves them up, it does theirability to serve to lead it

(59:16):
moves them up.
So now they're becoming abetter communicator, they're not
behind the reports, they're nowdelivering the reports and so
by you relinquishing some ofthat control, it allows them to
grow a little bit there.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I think it gives confidence to the other people
in the room, to the ability tospeak up and say something.
Yeah, because if they go to ameeting and one of us talks the
entire time, it was just aseminar.
Yeah, you know, there wasn'tcollaboration and somebody out
there knew the answer or had agreat idea, so you got to get
that platform.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
You know, I think I learned that a little bit in
going to 20 groups.
If you're the onlyrepresentation of your store,
then you generally need to knowall aspects.
But then we had some managerlevel 20 groups and I remember
taking managers, uh, and thentelling them like hey, you're
the one answering, you're theone giving the the whole

(01:00:06):
narrative.
Uh, they had to really rise upand but also you got to kind of
see the meat underneath the skinto see what do you got here and
are they faking it too much ordo they really understand?
and you saw a boat you wouldopen a can of worms and be like,
dang, like that person's got itfigured out, why don't they

(01:00:28):
speak up more?
And then you hear somebody justblow hard, just saying a lot of
stuff, and they just talk in acircle and you're like, hmm,
okay, that's more.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
That takes some self-control, though, because
you know the answer and you wantto jump and it's like don't
talk.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
There's a lot gained if you can just be quiet.
You know you're not gonna letthem fall off the diving board.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
You know 200 feet to their death but you're gonna let
them sit there paddle for alittle while kind of happy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
You know what I mean.
You need to, because thenhopefully they go back to their
room and they're like I gottastep up.
Yeah, I gotta step up.
That was my opportunity to talkand I totally biffed, so all
right, so let's wrap this thingup.
Frequently asked questions wetalked all the way through of
transparency, of faking it tillyou make it having the helping

(01:01:15):
or hurting of your business, howto get in the room, what to say
, what not to say, based on ouridea, not that it's right or
wrong, but what we've learned.
But frequently asked questionshow many meetings do you think
you have within a week?

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
okay.
So when I give this answer Idon't need anybody to pass out
or say that's too many and itvaries a lot, but on a normal
week I've got between 10 and 12.
But that can go all the way upto 18 or 20.
And I can remember a point intime in my career I was like
I've got to quit having meetings, I've got to pull back, I've

(01:01:48):
got to stop having meetings.
But then you go back up to theleader tip.
It's 70% to 90% of thecommunication, those scheduled
meetings.
The better I've done atscheduling those and making time
for them, the betterinteraction I have with managers
and helping them with theirdepartment.

(01:02:08):
Plus it gives them scheduledindividual time with me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
That's not taken by anybody else, and that's super
important, that it's scheduledand predetermined, Yep, and that
they get one-on-one time or asmall group time.
I think it's also importantthat you also they understand.
It's like and I heard thisagain last night listening to my
book and I learned this inspeech class Tell them what
you're going to tell them, tellthem and then tell them what you
told them.
It's like classic speech Foryour meetings.

(01:02:37):
You tell them what the gameplan is before it happens, so
they can be prepared and theyunderstand that and then also
bring something new into it soit's not the same old, same old.
You'll see them zone out so tokeep those meetings relevant and
so they're not meetings just tohave meetings, because that
happens.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
And I've found myself before going oh my gosh, I have
so many meetings today.
But then when I breathe and Ilook at it, I go yeah, I'm
meeting with people that havethe X factor for our business.
Yeah, bring your best.
If I don't spend the time withthem and bring something
relevant, then the 20 people intheir department or the 10
people in their department orthe 50 people in their

(01:03:15):
department, we're not going toget the most out of them.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Yeah, or if you just fake it until you get there and
say hey, what's going on inservice, how's it looking?
You know what's your problems.
If you don't have a very clearand written game plan to at
least start it, then you're notgoing to look forward to it.
They won't get any value, the Xfactor will go to nothing,
right, and so if you can do that, that definitely helps.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
All right, so then the one for you.
This is how many emails not doyou get on a daily basis?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
how many emails do you answer daily?
So I'm glad you said that,because how many do I get daily?

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
I don't know, 500, 550, a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
And I know that because I'm generally off on
Wednesdays.
So if I finish the day Tuesdayand whatever happens Wednesday,
and then I get back to my deskon Thursday, now I'll check on
my phone during Wednesday ifthere's anything that needs
attention.
I'm not clicking through themall, but I'll show up to 1,200
to 1,300.

(01:04:17):
I'm like, oh my gosh, butresponding to emails, there's a
lot of emails that happensinternally through our
dealership.
It's a track of what's going on.
A lot of them I'm attached toas secondary support or hey,
here's what's going on, so don'tneed a whole lot, but I would
say roughly a hundred a day, youknow, 15, 20%, you know,

(01:04:39):
depending on how many it is.
But I'll tell you thiscommunication if you've ever
texted with me or emailed withme.
It's very short and simple,generally, not even
grammatically correct, cause,I'll be honest, I don't really
care and that's not my firstnature, but it's going to be.
Yes, no perfect.
Please see this.
Hey, let me attach you to thisperson.

(01:04:59):
If it does need to be formal,I'm going to get all the facts
and the data and work on that.
But I've learned people don'tlike me or need my answer for my
formality, my answer for myformality.
So I'm going to go to the data,take it to chat GPT and say,
hey, write me a proper formal.
It does it, I send it and Imove on, because that's not a

(01:05:19):
grand use of my time Right Towrite up this master email.
So yeah, we're roughly ahundred.

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Yeah, I'd agree with you.
You know my emails are taskdriven yes and it's.
You know.
Besides, if I'm puttingsomething together for all the
employees, it's a yes.
No, check this.
What about this account?
This and that?
Don't look for me for an entirewrite-up and this and that.
That's not my forte.
If you want more in-depth,subscribe to the podcast or come

(01:05:44):
to a meeting.
We're much better in person.
You've got a solid 41 episodesor 42.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Let me just stop.
I know you guys are ready to bedone and you can sign off, but
let me tell you this this is areally cool thing in my eyes
maybe no one else's that for anhour a week we fully unpack,
because we can't get up fromhere of, like, what really goes
on right, and so I don't reallyknow of anything else
specifically on a day-to-daybasis that gets an hour

(01:06:14):
dedicated, except this of usbreaking down what we failed at
that's right, or what we'velearned or what's grown.
So the best way to get all theinformation if you want it and
you're like, hey, shelby, howwould you do this?
Because I get that all the time.
You get that all the time.
Mike, there is 42 hours, uh, andI'd love to talk to you about

(01:06:37):
it.
But it's like someone wasasking us about our culture
today and I was like, oh, we gotthree episodes on it, you know,
and I told them about it, so Ihad to make it look, you know,
attractive enough that theyactually clicked on one of the
episodes.
But uh, that's a cool thingabout the podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
No, I agree, and that was the whole point there too,
both for internally andexternally, to be able to share
that information with others.
All right, thanks for joiningus today.
We're going to wrap this one up.
It's been a great episode wherewe talking about fake it till
you make it and kind of thestrategies behind there, and
really unpacking what that wordmeans.
Hey, as always, go visit ourstores and inventory at
lewissuperstorecom and rememberto go see

(01:07:13):
crossroadconversationspodcastcom, where you'll find all 42 of
those episodes, and, if youdon't mind, go ahead and
subscribe.
Leave us a review as well.
That'd mean the world to us andallow us to be able to reach
more people out there.
Hey, thanks for joining ustoday and we hope you enjoyed
this episode.
Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
family, visit our website andsend us some questions.

(01:07:34):
We want to know what you'd liketo hear, who you'd like to hear
from and what you want to see,or maybe even some questions for
us to answer about either theautomotive industry or just
business in general.