Ep.43 - The Ethical Compass: Navigating Moral Dilemmas in Leadership

In this episode of Crossroads Conversations, the Lewis Brothers discuss the importance of ethics in business, focusing on building trust, defining values, and navigating moral dilemmas. They emphasize the need for clear communication of non-negotiables and the ripple effect of ethical choices on employees and customers. The conversation highlights the significance of long-term thinking and creating a culture of accountability and trust within a business. Through personal anecdotes and examples, they illustrate how ethical leadership can lead to lasting relationships and a positive reputation in the community.

Takeaways

Building trust is essential in business relationships.

Navigating moral dilemmas is a key aspect of leadership.

Defining non-negotiables helps guide decision-making.

Communication of values is crucial for team alignment.

Ethical dilemmas often arise in sales and finance.

The ripple effect of ethical choices impacts the entire organization.

Long-term thinking is necessary for sustainable success.

Creating a culture of trust enhances employee engagement.

Ethical leadership fosters positive customer experiences.

Helping others succeed is a rewarding aspect of leadership.

Sound Bites

"Navigating moral dilemmas in leadership."

"It's not just in a handbook."

"Ethical choices create a powerful echo effect."

Chapters

00:00 Building Trust in Business Relationships

01:00 The Ethical Compass in Leadership

02:31 Defining Non-Negotiables and Values

05:07 Communicating Ethics and Expectations

07:58 Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Sales

11:05 The Slippery Slope of Shortcuts

15:08 The Importance of Integrity in Transactions

17:47 Leading by Example and Building Culture

21:57 Making Tough Ethical Decisions

24:56 Navigating the Gray Areas of Business Ethics

32:45 Navigating Financial Transactions in Automotive Sales

35:50 The Importance of Ethical Business Practices

41:01 Understanding Ethical Dilemmas in Business

46:17 Building a Legacy of Trust

51:47 Managing Customer Expectations

56:42 The Ripple Effect of Ethical Choices

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):
And we could go on and on.
In each of our areas ofbusiness, anytime we have a
relationship, getting refundedor paid, whatever it may be,
from a different company, we'vegot to build that trust and
those morals and at the end ofthe day we talk about this is we
want everybody to be confidentin the service they provide and
the transaction, where, if theyrun into a customer in any

(00:23):
situation, we say the grocerystore at the grocery store that
they would not turn and walk theother way.
Hey everyone, welcome toCrossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about
running a successful familybusiness, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community that keeps our
door open.
We're your hosts, matt Shelbyand Taylor, and we bring you

(00:50):
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.
Welcome to CrossroadsConversation with the Lewis
Brothers, episode 43.
Shelby and I are in the studiotoday excited to share with you
I'm going to say, some knowledge, shelby, but a lot of this
we've learned from a early ageand been tested on it multiple

(01:12):
times.
Yeah, no doubt Today's subjectis the ethical compass.
Now, that phrase is somethingmuch easier said than done.
We're going to talk aboutnavigating moral dilemmas.
In leadership and in anybusiness, you'll be tried not
once, twice, but hundreds oftimes to see what your morals

(01:33):
are, what your ethics are, notonly for you but for the rest of
your team.
So this is going to be a greatepisode today as we get to
unpack what we've seen throughour leadership and through our
business here, hopefully toshare with you.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Absolutely, and last week, if you did not take a
chance to watch it, go back andwatch it.
Episode 42 was fake it untilyou make it the leadership
mantra of helping or hurtingyour business.
And we talked about generallyno one really plans that and how
that works, but kind of how youplan to plan so that you're not
in the just reaction business.
So that was a great episode wegot to break down.
So make sure you tune in withthat.

(02:11):
Also, tune in at our localdealership level at
lewissuperstorecom.
You can visit us, see our localspecials, see our offers, see
over a thousand vehicles we haveavailable for sale on the
ground.
All right, so now we transitionover to our core topic.
What we're talking about todayis navigating our way through
the ethical compass.

(02:31):
Matt, where do you start inthis?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's right.
We're going to talk aboutanchoring your business Now,
defining your non-negotiablesvalues and principles.
That sounds like a lot, butthere's one specific word that I
want to throw out there.
It's defining.
Defining Because everybody,whether you've defined them or
not, have non-negotiable valuesand principles.

(02:54):
But as we start thinking aboutour organization and Shelby and
I might be on the same page, orShelby, Taylor and I might be
all on the same page with ournon-negotiable values and
principles, but if we have notdefined those and then shared
them with the rest of our team,we're three of only 270 that are
out there speaking what ourcore values of the business

(03:17):
actually are.
So as we start unpacking thatdefining and I would add to that
, communicating that with therest of your team, that's where
it all starts.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I think that's really important as you grow, or even
if you're not growing, both whatyou have and what you think.
And then what you've shared isso important because if it's
just in your head or just in asmall group and not shared at
the opportunity, but when theyget in a scenario, when their
backs up against the wall andit's not always large things and

(03:47):
it's not always somethingthat's astronomical, but it's
the little things that compound.
And so if they don't understandthat clearly non-negotiable,
here's our game plan, here's howwe handle this, here's how we
handle, and it's not, it's notjust a playbook, it's just hey,
this is how you should react ina situation.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
That's so good.
There's a common theme therethat if you listen to other
episodes that you'll hear, andit's the communicating and it's
the expectation and it's gettingthe team on board and making
sure they completely understandit.
Like you said, it's not just ina handbook.
They hear us talk about it,whether it's at our cake day or
our sales meeting rallies or inour manager meetings.

(04:30):
You constantly have to talkabout it so they not only see it
in writing but they see it inpractice, because that's when it
sticks.
So don't just think that becauseyou added another page into
your employee handbook or sentout a memo, that all of a sudden
, boom, you're good to go.
It's like anything else, you'vegot to introduce it.
We got to get our catalystinvolved early on, before we

(04:53):
announce it, and then they gotto help us put that in place.
Because I'm just telling youthat you'll think everything's
going great and then all of asudden, somebody will get
tempted to get in the gray areaor on the other side, maybe just
barely of the fence, in aethical and a value perspective
that don't line up with yours.

(05:14):
Yeah, you know, and usuallythat happens.
This is such a slippery slope.
Usually that happens becausesomebody's behind their goal.
You know what I mean they'reshortcut.
They're shortcutting they wantto make you proud that they hit
the overall goal for thedepartment, or they want to win
because it was their next bonuslevel.
And I would say our business isa little bit trickier than

(05:37):
others out there because of theamount of people we have on
commission-based pay.
We'd have to have HR in here,but I would say we're somewhere
between 80% and 85% of ouremployees are on some type of a
commission or bonus pay plan.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and so you have to think about a lot of things.
People think about it justpurely sales, and there's so
much more to it.
Most of our operation is infixed ops, which is parts or
service or body shop, um.
So it even gets down to the,the cellular level, or you know,
a sub level of like peoplethink of, like fudging numbers

(06:16):
or maybe information.
But it even goes to the fact oflike, when the manufacturer
releases a recall, yep, and says, hey, install this part, but
only 50 of the cars actuallyneed it, or 30 of the cars
actually need it, uh, but theystill say to do.
And we've been down that roadbefore where we've seen like
this person's been, uh, fullytrained, they were certified in

(06:37):
that they know how to do thatrecall and somewhere down the
line, shoot.
No one else is here inspectingthis.
This is in the door.
Right Door panel has to be offto be fully inspected and all
I'm doing is putting a differentrivet in.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Right and we've seen that before where down the line
where someone got caught of justa bunch of recalled parts in a
dumpster somewhere and theydidn't have their very clearly
non-negotiable values orprinciples and they knew they'd
get away with not having toactually perform that because it
didn't change anything on thevehicle.

(07:14):
It still performed like it wassupposed to, but they didn't
have that moral compass.
If they're running behind andthey didn't have all the hours
they needed for that week or forthat month, they could shortcut
that.
If they didn't have very clear.
Do what's right even when noone else is looking.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I think that's a great example.
I think it's time worthy hereto stop and just kind of rapidly
let's rattle off all thedifferent areas in our business,
Because a lot of businessowners are out there thinking
they're like, okay, where doesmy business fit in there?
And most people, when we talkabout this subject, they think
about a customer yeah.
And did you overcharge them?
Yeah, you know what I mean.

(07:52):
Or did you not give them enoughfor their trade?
Yeah, or estimate the job right.
It's way deeper than that forus.
Obviously, customer facing isimportant, but I'll start
rattling off a couple here.
When you start thinking aboutour relationship we have,
besides the customer part, withthe banks, we're one of the few
businesses out there where youcan buy the product and then you

(08:12):
can sign the paperwork for thefunding at over it's probably
over 30 different lenders nowthat we've gone through a
certification process to be ableto sign everything.
That's a convenience to thecustomer, but we have to hold up
our ethics and what we said wewould do on representing the
customer there.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
That we say it is what it actually is right.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Whether it's their income, their job time, where
the down payment came from, thatit's actually them, and not
their roommate or their aunt ortheir uncle or their brother or
their sister, that leaves a lotof room.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
For maybe you know that a bank won't finance a
customer that doesn't at leastmake $1,800.
Yeah, right, and so then afinance manager would know that
and the salesperson would askthe customer hey, what's your
income before taxes?
They'd write it down.
They're like I'm not sayingthis is what we do, I'm saying

(09:10):
that this happens all over theplace, and if you don't have
very clear written principles ormorals, let's say, okay, do you
have any?
And they won't just straightout, flat lie about it.
They'll say, hey, do you haveany other income?
yeah you know, and so they say,well, hey, do you get it?
Do you ever, uh, sell anythingon the side?
Do you ever sell anything onmarketplace, or do you ever?
You know, and they're like,okay, would you say, at least

(09:31):
make two hundred dollars?
And like, yeah, so they takethem from 1600 to 1800, put it
on the app and then that becomesa breach of contract between
the dealership and the bankthat's right, right.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
And they'll also ask questions.
We're talking to a financemanager in this situation.
They'll also ask questions likehow much is the most you've
ever made in a month?
Yeah, or what's your potential?
Yeah, they'll coach them, youknow they'll coach them through
it.
What if you hit all your bonuslevels?
And some of you guys are likedoes that really happen?
Well, let me tell you a case inpoint.

(10:06):
We'll have a customer comes in,likes our vehicle's price,
likes our dealership.
We'll submit them over tofinance and it gets turned down
yeah, because the payment we'retrying to get them approved for
doesn't meet the algorithms ofthe payment to income ratio.
Well, they'll call in to BankXYZ and the customer says, well,
down the road.
I got approved with Bank XYZ.
So finance manager calls in.
They said, yeah, down the road.

(10:27):
It showed you put on theirapplications, they made $100,000
a year.
When you submitted this over,you showed $65,000 a year.
So then you go talk to thecustomer and they're like well,
no, I could prove $65,000.
At one point in time I gotclose to $100 thousand in one

(10:48):
month If it did that over 12months.
So then that gets in asituation you want to talk about
back in the end of the quarter.
There is you have got a financemanager, a sales manager and a
salesperson all staring at youthat it's in charge, going just
do the same thing they did downthe road.
The customer doesn't care, theyjust want the vehicle.
You are affecting me, my goals,my income and the livelihood

(11:09):
for my family.
So you want to talk about beingtorn, being in one of those
meetings while the customer ison the show around.
You got three people trying tohit your goals.
They have a way to do itbecause it got approved down the
road.
You want to talk about testingyou.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, no doubt.
And I'll tell you, just likethe theme, that if anyone ever
asked me, you know, in asituation of maybe someone's
calling you out for hey, youshouldn't have done it like this
and there's more to the storyor if someone's just asking, hey
, how do you do this?
And I would tell this to anyone, just the same way I would tell

(11:41):
you, guys, hey, there is not adollar amount of money that you
can make that ever makes itright to not do what's right
there's.
There's not a dollar amount.
You could not make a million,two million, ten million, a
hundred million dollars and saythat's a lot of money to do

(12:01):
what's not right to make thatmoney today, like cause it's
going to catch you down the roadand now that's easier said than
done.
Right, when that customer'ssitting there and they're like,
hey, we're making good money onthis deal, this helps us sell
this 300 day old vehicle, thesalesperson needs another unit,
the finance manager, you know,needs another car across the

(12:23):
desk, and you're like it's notthe right thing to do.
So then they're all mad at you.
Right, and they in their heart,they know it's not the right
thing to do.
But then they go home and youknow their family or their
friends like, hey, how was yourday?
He's like, oh, wasn't good, Ihad this deal all ready to go
Talk to the bank, talk to thecustomer, and my boss wouldn't
let me sign the deal.

(12:43):
They're like what?
They don't give them the wholestory, right, that they coached
them up on their best mind, andthat's just one of those things
and it's better to have thatconversation and that
expectation.
So it's like why would you putyourself in that scenario, larry
Bill?
Why would you do that?
You know that is not correct.
We're not going to do that forthis time or that time or any

(13:05):
time.
So I feel bad that you putyourself in that scenario, but
you need to go tell yourcustomer they're going to need
more cash down or a cosigner inorder to qualify for this.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's so good and I just I hope you guys are
understanding like it's.
It's not easy.
It's not easy to do the rightthing when we're in a world of
so many people living in thegray area and we've hired people
from other dealerships I'm notcalling anybody out, but from
other dealerships where they'veallowed that or maybe management
didn't even know about it.
You know we're in a positionwhere, you know, shelby Taylor

(13:37):
and I are pretty heavilyinvolved.
So I'm not saying that therearen't things that get past us.
Yeah, but we got a pretty goodand we've got some long-term
employees that know that like no, they're not going to do that.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, and that's the culture and the tenure of the
employees.
It might make it past phase one, because new salesperson or new
sales manager, they might noteven know different.
Let's just give them thebenefit of the doubt.
Okay, right, someone taughtthem some funky math, yep.
And so then they figured thisand this and this and this.

(14:13):
But then maybe a financemanager or an office manager is
going to say hold up, thisdoesn't calculate, this isn't
correct.
You know, our QC person in theshop is like hang on, did we
actually put this part on?
I'm looking at this here, youknow, because you know, think
about in your business if you'redoing something that is not
facing a client.
You know you're doing stuff inthe ground, right, you're doing

(14:35):
work under the ground or you'redoing something behind the wall
that you knew that.
Just hey, real quick, before Igo home.
If I do it right, I'm going tohave to come back tomorrow and
spend another four hours on it,or I could just.
I know a shortcut, a way to dothis, and it'll work sure I'm
out of 12 gauge wire but Ihappen to have some 14 gauge
wire and I know it's gonna workright now.
Does it meet code and did youput it in a box?

(14:56):
And does it have proper wirenuts and is it gfci?
Yeah, you know, and so moreoften than not, if you don't
have those very clearly writtenthings, they'll shortcut that if
someone's not holding themaccountable.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's so true.
I mean, it's no different thanif you were doing some plumbing
and you're like, instead ofputting copper here, let's just
run PEX pipe.
Nobody will ever see it, itmeets code, it'll work.
I've never had a fail.
That's not morally correct.
Would you make more money inthe short term?
Yes, you will.
It will always, always catch upwith you.
It might be hard for you toidentify it down the road

(15:30):
because five years down the road, seven years down the road,
three years down the road, it'sgoing to be someone else at a
different job.
It will be, it will be, but itwill come back.
And what we say to everybody isthat, at the end of the day, you
need to be proud and confidentof the service you've provided,
the vehicle you've sold, thatit's been at a fair
transactional price.
Yeah, profitable yes, yes, itcan be profitable.

(15:54):
Yeah, we have to make profit tostay in business.
Yeah, we have to make profit tocontinue to invest in our
business and in our employees.
That's not a bad word to investin our business and in our
employees.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
That's not a bad word .
Profit is not a bad word.
It has to make sense for aconsumer in order to transact.
But they're going to spendmoney anywhere, they're going to
need to change the oil orthey're going to need to buy a
car.
I've said it many times, I'llsay it again they're not paying
for your product, they're payingfor the experience.
So make the experience good,make sure that everyone's

(16:24):
delivering exactly what we say,yep.
And so they're like, hey, thisis worthwhile.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
You know, on the other side of it, you started
going into service there, youknow, from a technician
standpoint on morals there.
But then also you know we'vegot a warranty administrator
that submits for warrantypayment, whether it be from the
manufacturer or an aftermarketwarranty on getting repaired.
There's again the same typetrust there, you know, because

(16:51):
they can't actually see thevehicle and we have different
statuses with each of thosecompanies because every once in
a while they'll audit us, youknow, to see, hey, do we have to
have the checks and balances onevery single submittal on this
dealership or have they donereally good every time?
We've spot checked them andthey can fast track through this
.
Yeah, but it's really easy totry to add half an hour, one

(17:12):
hour, two tenants here, extragaskets here saying that it
needs this and needs that andmaybe it didn't really need it,
you know, and they're always inthe ancillary.
You know, if you ever hearabout fraud, especially
internally, it's always athousand cuts at once.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, it's not a big item here.
It's somebody who transferred$10 million.
No, it's calling for suppliesfor something for a job and
ordering 10 extra sacks of quickcrate and they happen to end up
in the back of your truck or anextra pallet of lumber, and it
actually wasn't needed for thejob.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
So I think, I think and we could go on and on in
each of our areas of business.
You know, anytime we have arelationship, getting refunded
or paid, whatever it may be,from a different company, we've
got to build that trust andthose morals and at the end of
the day we talk about this is wewant everybody to be confident
in the service they provide andthe transaction where, if they

(18:11):
run into a customer, in anysituation, we say the grocery
store at the grocery store thatthey would not turn and walk the
other way.
Yeah, Because they have fullconfidence that they know what
they said and even if there is aproblem, they've got full
confidence that we'll fix it.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, there's always going to be problems, right, but
if everyone has the same valuesin mind, the same principles,
we did what we say we're goingto do.
We offered what we can and ifwe need to come back to it and
try it again, then do it.
But you should be able to layyour head down on the pillow at
night knowing that no one'schasing you and no one's mad at
you for this, this and this, andthat you did what was correct

(18:46):
for the people, for the business, for employees, and that it
gets out of hand.
You know, I, there's, there'splenty of movies and shows that
everyone likes watching.
Uh, that you're like cool,that's kind of slippery oops,
that that you know, like thatlooked good today, but what
about tomorrow?
Right?
So and I think it's importantto wrap this portion up of that

(19:08):
it's very clear to understandwhat is your game plan.
Everyone needs to know out ofyour head what's your game plan,
how to communicate that andwhere's the yes or no, and
communicate that often andexperiences of like, hey, we
were in this scenario and thisand this and this, and here's
what we did.
And that's tough because, likeyou know, I think it was last
week or the week before.

(19:28):
We talked about meetings.
If you can't, if two pizzascan't feed the meeting, that's
too big.
Well, you need to communicatethat to the whole team.
And if you have the meetingwith the managers, the managers
have it with this team and thenthat team, it might get a little
bit watered down.
Yeah, team, it might get alittle bit watered down.
Yeah, but it's tricky, like inour, our keg days it was our

(19:49):
main areas where we have ourentire team.
You lose attention reallyquickly.
You do right.
So when you're doing your kegday, I'm watching, and probably
vice versa.
I'm just watching the peoplelike what, what perks?
They're at risk where they'reengaged, where they're not
engaged.
So you have to have some ofthat so that they understand.
Hey, and a lot of times wherewe get to see it as our employee
of the month, you know kind ofdescribing who they are, before

(20:12):
we say who they are and thethings that they do.
Um, I'll tell you, saturday,after the car show I was, we
were closing up.
Um, I don't know what time itwas 5, 45 or 6 or something I
saw a lady out in front ofChrysler.
Okay, the Chrysler 300 servicehad been gone since 130 or
something, and I just happenedto be driving by we were moving
cars and looked like she waschanging her tire, okay, in

(20:36):
front of the shop, looked likeshe was getting stuff out of it,
and so I walked over there.
Oliver was with me.
We walked over there there, um,oliver was with me.
We walked over there and I said, hey, ma'am.
I said you changed your tire.
She said yeah.
I said, um, okay, is your, isyour tire messed up?
Or?
She said I don't know, it won'thold there.
I said, okay, can I help youplease?
Yeah, she said well, it's likeit costs.
I said, well, it won't cost youanything.

(20:57):
I said they don't pay me to dothis, so I'll just do it for you
.
They can embargo keys.
So I pulled her over to theshop and to use a lift because I
knew I would the donuts alwayshave no tire pressure.
So I knew I pulled her overthere.
Well, I loved this, becausewe're talking about the employee
of the month and the values andthe morals and service had
closed at 1.30, right, and itwas about 6 o'clock, so I had to

(21:21):
open the doors, pulled in onthere and I said, hey, oliver,
will you go show her where thewaiting area is, show her where
the coffee machine is, where thesparkling water is.
And he said, huh.
I said, sir, go show her.
I said she gets first classexperience.
You know, that's what my 11year old I said, dave, just go
show that.
I said, ma'am, he's going toshow you where that is.
That is, this won't take mevery long.

(21:41):
Well, I loved it because one ofour technicians just happened to
be driving by and he said hey,what are you working on?
I said I'm just putting thespare tire on.
He said well, you think we canfix the tires?
I don't know, I hadn't taken itoff yet.
So he helped me take it off.
Am I capable?
Yeah, I've taken a lot of Right.

(22:06):
Uh, he just hopped in fullspeed ahead and, uh, he didn't
ask for a tag number, what we'redoing to clock in, clock out.
And he's like look at thesetires.
There's no way.
They're like the wear bars arehanging out.
And I was like man, where areyou going?
She said Little Rock.
I said, oh my.
So I looked around in our usedtires to see if we had a tire.
Everywhere I couldn't find atire.
I said you need to go find likea Tire Tracks or a Walmart

(22:26):
that's still open and get a tire.
She said, sure, this isn'tgoing to cost you.
I said absolutely not.
So we put it on there and fixedher up ready to go.
I said, hey, thank you so muchfor helping out.
I said you didn't have to dothat and she was so excited and
higher on, but it made me proudto know that he saw that someone
needed help.
The same way I saw someoneneeded help and the moral

(22:46):
compass said, hey, let's stopwhat we're doing.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's such a great example, not only you leading by
example, but then showing thatobviously that's been ingrained
in the rest of the culture andthe expectations.
Yes, you know.
So, really defining to wrapthis subject up here, you know,
defining your non-negotiablevalues and principles.
Ours are pretty simple.
You know, you've got to be ableto have confidence in the
transaction or what serviceyou're providing.
No matter where you see thecustomer, you'll know exactly
where you stand, because wedidn't have a little white lie

(23:15):
in there that we're chasing.
Like what did we say?
Yeah, you know.
And at the end of the day, didwe do what was right?
Yeah, we do what was right.
And did we treat people how wewould want to be treated?
If you'll just pause for asecond and think about that and
there's like, man, there's noway that I would want to do
business this way.
Well then, why let's not dothat way with a customer?
So, those simple values andprinciples, but we do have to

(23:38):
always talk about it.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah, automotive Fun fact quiz of the week.
Always love, love.
This, just random off the wall,whatever it may be which major
automotive manufacturer back in2010, guys speaking of, face a
scandal for intentionallyprogramming millions of its
diesel vehicles to cheat onemissions tests, resulting in

(23:59):
billions of dollars, billionsand dollars of fine?
So the epa says, hey, cars needto be x standard, right, and
diesel was the vehicle thatwould go further and got good
fuel mileage.
Uh, it generally gives us away.
But I'll give you four optionstoyota, uh, ford general motors
or volkswagen.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
I'm not gonna tell you the answer yet, but I know
the answer.
Yeah, and here's I'm gonna tellyou why I know the answer and
then we'll come back to theanswer later is because this
manufacturer that got in troublefor this, the fine they paid
went to Billions, billions,billions went to the states,
divided up to put in theinfrastructure for EV chargers.
Yes, so we just happen to knowthat because in our early days,

(24:42):
years, years ago, uh, we wereinvolved on the other side of it
.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, you know receiving some, uh some state
assistance on putting an evcharger.
So, yeah, all right.
So now we're gonna talk, youknow, same same idea, different.
Uh, navigating the gray, okay.
So navigating the gray of thenon-negotiables, values or
principles, making tough ethicalcalls when profit meets
principle we talked about that alittle bit with finance, but it

(25:10):
really dives into the worldscenarios of business.
Objectives like maximizingprofit, hitting that next bonus
level, seemingly conflict withyour ethical obligations.
Seemingly conflict with yourethical obligations Like leaders
sometimes will make decisionsof.
I know it's right, but I knowthis is so easy just to do this

(25:31):
right.
I know that deal's there.
I know it can turn X more hours.
I know I'm competing againstthe next Ford dealer, the
advisor next to me.
I know that I can get away withthis, and it's just a little
thing there.
What's your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (25:46):
on that.
Here's what I like to do is Ilike to walk people through
solutions, and sometimes theydon't like listening to how
long-winded it is, but it's ajourney that it takes to get
there.
You got to learn from it.
So I'm going to talk aboutfinance again and then we'll get
over to techs.
I'm going to give you asituation where you got to make
a tough call and we talked aboutearlier about fudging income.
You know our fudging job timeto get the deal approved.

(26:08):
Well, let's talk about the otherend, on a straw purchase.
Okay, so what's a strawpurchase?
So a straw purchase is whensomebody comes in to buy a car.
I come in to buy a car, yeah,okay.
And at the very end, we agreeon figures and when it's time to
do the credit app and stuff, Igive your information.
Okay, okay, not because I'vestolen.
It's not an identity theft.

(26:28):
I'm your brother.
I'm your brother and you knowit.
Yeah, you know it Like yeah,we're going to put this in my
brother's name.
It's going to be my car, thoughthat's a straw purchase,
because what that's saying isI'm not representing to the bank
the person driving and buyingthe car.
Okay, this is a very gray areathat a lot of people get in and
it's easy to say, okay, run itall through, shelby, I'll take

(26:51):
the paperwork to him, get him tosign it.
But that's not how our dealeragreement reads with all the
finance institutions.
It says we will represent theperson.
And so then the salesperson,let's say, is talking to me and
they're like no, we need to getyou on there.
And I said, well, my credit'sreally, really bad and it'd be a
high interest rate.
What I like to do is to walkpeople through a scenario.

(27:13):
We're a long-term business here79 years and I said you know
what, if we did the strawpurchase stick which we're not
going to do, but if we did that,what does that fix?
Gets us a car deal today.
But then what happens?
When Matt, in three or fouryears, comes in to buy another
vehicle?
He's in the same boat.
We're not helping long-termthere.

(27:34):
Yeah, we saved him three orfour percentage points on
interest rates, but we didn'tfix this.
So my coaching is Matt, Iunderstand your credit's really
bad, let's put you on there.
Get your brother to co-signhe's already agreed to be on
there so that then next timewe've graduated out of this.
That's an experience that youget to help somebody do, not
only for today, but to help inthe future.

(27:55):
Yeah, so that's how you flipsomething like that from a
negative and ethical issue ofgoing okay, this is represented
to the bank correctly, plus,we're helping them go forward.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
And that's the optimistic solution.
You know, because, gosh, itshows its face every single day,
every single day.
They've worked really hard withthe customer.
Now, whether the customerknowingly is doing it or not,
they might have a storyotherwise than not having bank
credit.
Like no, I always put this andhis name because actually he's

(28:28):
the owner of the company and theseller be sold.
Every day you're going to sellor be sold, right, and so then
that salesperson went fromselling the consumer to then I
need to.
It'll flip the script and thecustomer will sell the
salesperson why he needs to goand his and his.
And at the end of the day, thesalesperson is just trying to
hit his quota for that day andif he doesn't have very strong

(28:49):
understanding in your moral codeand your ethics and your
principles, then he's going tofully buy into that.
Oh for sure.
He's going to go to your salesmanager and say, hey, I changed
the name on the deal.
Will you reprint that for me?
Yep, and how often does thathappen?

Speaker 1 (29:08):
It doesn't like they try to.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Well, yeah, but think about that, like if I come in
and I do the whole deal but I'mlike, hey, I need to add my wife
.
Yeah, that happens a lot, sothat we see that the desk.
All the time You're like, hey,actually I'm gonna put this in
my company legal to do as well.
Yeah, so they're used to namechanges.
So then the so they're like,hey, can you reprint this?

(29:31):
Still, I had to change someinfo on the purchase agreement,
so sales manager should besalesperson should be the first
screen, but the the firstbackstop is sales manager say,
well, what changed here?
Right, if I never talked to thecustomer what changed here?
And look at the credit up like,well, who's that guy out there?
You know who's that guy?
Well, that's a straw guy yeah,why isn't matt on the deal.

(29:53):
He's like, well, no, he was justsitting negotiating for his
brother.
He's like, okay, oh, where'sthis guy at that's on the paper.
And they're like, uh, he'sworking today.
It's like, okay, um, because dowe do deals like that?
Deals can be done like thatright, all above above board.
Everybody understands yeah,that everyone's on the same page
, but where the is, is that it'snot for the person who's at

(30:17):
work, it's for you, but it's astraw-off situation.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Now, all you entrepreneurs listen in because
you want to talk about amultiplication factor that
buries businesses.
Unfortunately, here's how ithappens, and we see this for

(30:42):
people that want to get intostartups of the automotive
business.
So when I do a transaction andwe finance it, okay, we are
floating that money till we getreimbursed back from the bank.
Go listen to our episode oncashflow if you want more
details on that.
Number two we have given ourpromise and our guarantee to the

(31:02):
customer that we're gonna sendin the payoff on their vehicle,
on their vehicle.
Now, when a business is growing,you get in this gray area of a
cash flow issue and you have achoice.
You can either pay off thecustomer's $30,000 on their
vehicle, that to do their payoff, because I've got to buy more

(31:24):
inventory if we're going to sellsomething else to be able to be
profitable this month.
So it's like you're in thein-between, like you're going to
pay it off, you're justdelaying a little bit.
What happens is that neverstops.

(31:45):
Yeah, because then the payrollon Friday hits.
Yeah, oh, shoot, wait, one moreway, one more week.
You know, if we've got to paytheir per diem, we'll pay their
per diem.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
And then it gets even trickier than that that you
might have a couple of lines ofcredit with a couple of
different banks, yep, you know.
So you've got Bank of America,you've got Ford, you've got Ally
, whoever it has.
You've got Arvest.
And so then you might, becausewith a line of credit you don't
send in the title generally tosay I want to borrow, and they

(32:17):
see what the amount is.
So you can't just make up anamount.
You can do less, but you can'tdo more.
If you've got a $30,000 car, sothat trading comes in and
you're like, shoot, so you slowplay the payoff.
Yep, right, so they owe $35,000.
You're like, hey, I've got a 20day payoff here, I can wait on

(32:39):
that.
The customer financed in theper diem, so I got 20 days, I
can take that 30k of the one Ijust sold.
I can even slow play payingthat one off of my floor plan
and take the actual what thebank gave me.
And then you're going to takethat trade in and you're going
to go over here to a differentbank Arvest and say, hey, can I
get 30 grand against this?
Yep, and then, when it getsreally sticky, a second line of
credit because you didn't havethe title and you go over to
Bank of America and say, hey, Iwant to buy 30 grand of gossip

(33:02):
here, yep, and you're like what?
And we've seen it happen atother dealerships many of times.
If they don't have that veryclear written, do what's right.
And that was taught from usfrom a very young age, like if
the business runs into theground and you did it right and

(33:22):
you were thrifty and you workedsuper hard, then so be it.
So be it, but do what's right,no matter what.
No matter what.
And we saw people.
It's a federal offense.
We saw people go to prison forthat.
That.
You double leaned against it.
You didn't pay off a customer'strade.
You don't talk about notsleeping good, but you get in a

(33:43):
cashflow situation.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
So that's one transactional.
Let's just roll through thisreal quick.
That's one transaction and thevehicle you sold you had $40,000
against it at the bank, okay,so you're out that 40 grand.
The trade you needed to pay off, which was another 30 grand.
But you went to two of yourother lines of credit and used
it as collateral because you'dgained trust with them that you
didn't have to provide the title.
So then that's another 60 grandthere plus the 40 grand.

(34:08):
So we're over $100,000 in onetransaction and you're just
trying to kick the can to have abig weekend to make up for it
all.
I don't care how much you madeon the car.
You could have made five.
You could have made 10 grand onthe car.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
It does not drop a bucket of water.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Not for $110,000.
No, and then?
How fast do you think that wordspreads on the street?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
They didn't pay off my vehicle yep, yep, and I
didn't get paid my commission ontime and uh, it's.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
We've seen it happen time and time again.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
You know where people get into that instead of them
just saying we talked about inthe previous episode, of saying
I don't have this figured out,we're gonna need to work on this
, right.
They're like no, no, I got it,you're good.
Yeah, yeah, just go out thereand sell that car.
Yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Shelby.
One of the things that peopledon't see and we didn't see at
all because we're not 79 yearsold, but is that they look at
our dealership now and the 26acres and all this inventory and
they're like man, it must benice and it'd be much easier to
run there.
Let me tell you one thing Ifyou can't manage $1,000, you
can't manage $100 million.
Okay.

(35:13):
But number two is we startedwith six cars, yeah, in 1946, we
started with six cars, yeah,and then we got to 10.
Yeah, and then we got to 20.
And we had to figure out how toeffectively manage 150 people
with the right morals and ethicsbefore we could do 250.
Yes, and there's been timeswhere we've met.
We look at our cash reportmultiple times a week and we go

(35:36):
over it with managers.
It would say freeze on buyingstuff right now, sell only what
we have because of our cash flowsituation, because we're not
going to bend on paying off thecar, doing what we said we do to
our customers, paying ouremployees, our obligations, just
to try to leverage ourself overhere to make more money

(35:58):
potentially.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
And that's like a lot of this stuff.
Maybe you're on the other sideof this listening like, oh no, I
would never do that.
No, I would never do that.
I'm just telling you somewherealong the line in your just
being a human or in businessyou're going to be, don't want
to tell people, um, that thecash needed for an operation
like this is astronomical, justbig, ridiculous.

(36:21):
So you couldn't sell enoughcars, just sell cars to fund the
cash needed.
Uh, it's the whole operation,and so it's one of those things
like put your, your pride asideto say, wait, hang on, because
you've got, you know, accounts,receivables, accounts, payables,
the warranty stuff, everythingit gets.
So, after a big weekend whichyou would generally think of in

(36:42):
a business, you have a verylarge weekend, and I'm working
on not talking about cashflowthrough this whole thing, but
that would be good Right now.
It's a delayed good.
Yeah, right, there's some moneythere, but it's a just a small
drop in the bucket.
But what you did is juststrapped yourself completely on
to this large cash monster, andyou do it every weekend, over

(37:02):
and over and over again well,it's such a slippery slope
because you did it one time justto get you out of it and it
worked.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
So different than gambling, yeah, or any other
type of addiction out there is.
Business is the same way and itworked.
You're like, okay, that wasn'tso bad, I got the money shifted
over in time.
I did this, I did that, and itjust multiplies.
And then your team sees youdoing that, whether you think
they do or they don't.
Then they start replicatingthat because you're their leader

(37:29):
and they follow the speed ofthe pack and you're at the front
of the pack, yep.
So then all of a sudden, yourbusiness is written up, and
Arkansas business and attorneygeneral and all the rest of the
stuff.
You're like, what just happened?
Well, I'll tell you whathappened.
Rewind the tape three years.
Yeah, right, there is where itstarted, yep.
So we always tell ourmanagement team like they need

(37:53):
to come ask us about these.
Let us help walk them throughit.
Let us be the bad guys.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
That's a really large thing to understand because, at
the end of the day, if you getto that level that you can make
that decision, you're generallyyou know what you're going to
say.
Sure, you'll listen to it, youwalk through it and you help
them, but you get to be thescapegoat that you're saying
Because one you haven't directly, specifically, every single
time had to talk to thatcustomer, so you don't have this

(38:24):
whole emotional buy-in.
You're like, hey, here's thefacts.
You told me no, that does notmake sense, no, we're not going
to do that.
And if that doesn't sit easywith them, tell them hey, we're
trying to protect you, protectour customers, protect our
business, but here's what we'regoing to do and not do.
And let them, let you, be thescapegoat.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Doing that provides a buffer layer in between.
So if you take a sales managerand they can blame it on you or
I or our family that we're notgoing to do this straw purchase,
we're not going to fudge on theapplication that allows them to
save some face saying I'mputting in a policy that the
business has, so then theirsalesperson is not necessarily

(39:05):
mad at them and I'll tell youevery single time we make one of
those calls everybody's heardabout it for a minute.
Yeah, they want to hit theirgoals for the day, but 24, 48
hours the next week you can seethem.
They know it was the right call.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
And we've had plenty of people miss goals.
Our stores missed being numberone in this region of this
reason because someone else willdo that, yeah, just the chance
they don't get caught andthey're like Shelby.
Why would you do that?
Like all you had to do is takethis still and this still and
you would have taken the numberone spot.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
It's like that's not what we're here, for it's not
worth it to us to get an awardor recognition at the expense of
a customer, no or at theexpense of a relationship with
one of our companies we dobusiness with.
Because at the end of the dayand this is what you were going
to earlier with what dad justpounded into our heads as a kid

(40:03):
if we said we're going to do it,we're going to do it, I don't
care what the expense.
If we said we're going to dothis and it comes out of our
mouth, you do it.
Same thing he says.
He says if it's owed, it's owed, and we can hear that If it's
owed, it's owed.
You know, and we can hear thatIf it's owed, it's owed.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Pull out the checkbook and go write it Right.
So then, taught us to be verycareful with our words, to when
you said something, you bettermean it, because you're going to
have to put your money whereyour mouth is Right.
So be very diligent with whatyou say and then you know
because if nothing else, if youdon't have your word, you don't
have anything else.
Yeah Right, like, nevermind thefancy and all the things, if,

(40:37):
if you're not going to do whatyou said, you're going to do it
which she's like God, shelby,that simple, basic and like,
really like.
In today's world of keyboardwarriors and all this stuff,
people aren't even what they say.
They are over here.
So to be able to have that itin what they say they are over
here, so to be able to have thatit means something to somebody
and at the end of the day youcan sleep good, right, and you
don't have to wonder about who'schasing you or who you screwed

(41:00):
over or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
I think that rolls right into the point about
ethical dilemmas.
You know they're rarely blackand white, so one thing I do
want to point out here is we'remaking this sound easy.
It's not easy and I am going toencourage you before you ever
make a decision on this, always,always, always, pause and go
pull all the facts, becausehere's the deal A customer

(41:28):
they'll tell some white lies onyou.
Think of what you want, nodifferent when we're kids and
when mom and dad oh yeah, youknow, they'll do some white lies
on you to get what you want, nodifferent when we're kids and
when mom and dad, you knowthey'll do the same thing and
they'll say the service is false.
So they get a hold of salesWell, they just didn't get the
answer they wanted, right.
Or they get a hold of you knowservice and your employees will
do the same thing, they do thesame thing.
So I always pause before I letmy emotions get involved.
Yeah, now, early on in mycareer, I let my emotions get

(41:49):
involved.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And boom, I wanted to attack it, right.
Then put the fire out, yep.
But now I go gather thatinformation because I know that
the customer probably justdidn't get the answer they
wanted, yeah, and they'refibbing just a little bit, yeah,
to try to get this or that.
So always go verified first,most definitely.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Before you think your team just screwed up.
And your team will see that,like when I get a ping for bad
google review, yeah, and it'slike, oh my gosh, why didn't we
call that customer?
How hard it is to do it in thisand what are we doing here.
And I'm just like, yep, you gocheck like, hey, how's
everything going?
Hey, have you had you know?
We've gone through that.
And they're like, hey, this is.
And it's like, okay, well, doesthis have anything to do with

(42:30):
that?
And they're like it's likewhat's going on?
Yeah, right, but just 98 of thetime you're going to want to
just fly off the handle, like,no, you do this and you do it
like this because that's how wesaid and that's what works?

Speaker 1 (42:41):
yep, but the customer could have led you down the
wrong way.
Oh yeah, you know they could belike well, I've always done my
blah, blah blah, my service worky'all.
Now it needs an engine and yougo pull the history records and
it was here when we pdi'd it andit was here 2 000 miles ago.
But what happened the other 100000 miles?

Speaker 2 (42:56):
and I guess my point that I guess I was getting to
before I got wound up is uh, ifyou go and just fly off in your
service manager, uh-huh he's,then he might not even show you,
but he's gonna be like here'sthe facts exactly.
And you'll be like I'm an idiot,yep, you know.
And so then, if you, if you'llhave their back and just come at

(43:17):
it from a different angle,they're gonna be like man, this
guy does care.
Man, these people do actuallylisten to what's going on.
They just don't take it forsurface value and then they help
you navigate through it.
So, that's so good, all right.
So, speaking of, we're talkingabout gray areas uh, we ask,
what made your automotivemanufacturer face a massive
scandal?

(43:37):
Now, think about that.
There was a gray area wherethey could, they were injecting,
uh, I don't remember.
Uh, it was the programming.
It was the programming tore-inject something into.
Uh, it was the programming tore-inject something into the
exhaust gas recirculation tobring the tailpipe emissions
down.
So it passed.

(43:58):
So in their programming itbecame an engineer, you know,
because from the top said hey,we have to hit 40 EPA, it has to
hit 98% smog level, whatever,whatever, right.
And so then the guy that waslike, or the person was like I
don't know, and he's like hey,what if you did this?
What if you programmed it todetune at this point, or what if

(44:20):
you programmed to inject?
At this point he's like hey, Imade it work.
And then the head guy was likeyou made it work.
And he's like yep, so massivescandal in the 2010s for
intentionally programmingmillions.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
It waskswagen, it was volkswagen and I don't remember
the mileage on it, but you hiton, exactly there is.
They did it through theprogramming of the car and then,
when it hit x amount of miles,it went back to the actual tune
of where it ran and drove.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yes, great, yes, you know and so when they went to
get state inspections, yep, yep.
And so then that you know youdon't talk about slippery slope
they made it work and they madetheir car pass and people loved
them because they got good fuelmileage and they had good power
and their reliability was great.
But then it cost them billionsof dollars, plus their pr

(45:04):
relationship of doing what theysaid they were going to do,
having a good product followingall the standards whether you
believe in the standards or not,they got a a black eye for that
.
It slowed them down, mostdefinitely for a minute there,
hey.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
but it was kind of good to see that that money and
we don't follow all this legalstuff as much as like where the
chain of the money goes but thatthey use that money then to
inject back into the automotiveindustry.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, that was pretty funny because we weren't
looking for it and we didn'tknow it was there.
But when we were installingfirst level VV chargers, they
said, hey, there's some grantmoney out there for
infrastructure.
It's like okay.
And so then you had to submitfor it and all the things.
It's like where did this comefrom?
And somewhere in there itshowed from the Volkswagen
emissions that I was like, okay,that's cool that it didn't just

(45:50):
go in somebody's pocket likecircle back around.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
I think too, kind of like in the college world.
I hear in college sports, Ihear if you know when an athlete
gets fined, that goes in acollective pool then for
scholarships?
Yeah, in that area, yeah.
So it's like, okay, well, atleast you know it's not just
going towards somebody's salary,yeah.
And the next subject, theripple effect.

(46:19):
I like this one because it's along-term thinking and there's
only a few that can think reallyfar long-term.
I can say that I like beingable to have the ability to
think long-term but put theshort-term game plan in place
that lines up with long-term.
So this is the ripple effectand it's building a legacy of
trust through consistent ethicalleadership.
So when we think about thatShelby, when we make these
choices and these examples, onesituation at a time, what that

(46:42):
starts building up for a legacyof trust through not only our
employees, all the companieswe're connected with, and then
our customers too, of like no,you can trust those people.
You know, that is way moreimportant to me than somebody
saying we were the cheapest.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Well, a thousand times over, you cannot buy
enough customers, or you knowwhat I mean.
But buy customers like, hey,come into my store because we
were the cheapest, right, we hadthe five dollar roll change or
whatever it was, because, at theend of the day, what was
delivered with that, what wasthe experience, remember?
They're never going to rememberhow much you cost or any of

(47:21):
those things.
They'll just remember how youmade them feel that's right.
The experience how was it?
How was the experience?
And so building that legacy oftrust through consistent,
ethical leadership, of knowingthat you do what's right even
when it's not profitable.
You do what's right even whenit takes longer.
You do what's right even whenit means you don't hit your
bonus level.
You do what's right even whenno one's looking, or even after

(47:43):
they've closed, or even afteryou don't even get commission
for it, or there's a thousanddifferent ways that gets cut up.
And so then you do build thatname in the dealership and then
it goes outside the dealershipand so you can proudly wear your
Lewis Automotive shirt to aball game and you can go to a
PTA meeting, or you can be outand about to the community and

(48:06):
you're not worried about someonejust flying off the handlebar
like man.
They treated me like crap, crapor man.
I can't believe they did this.
Or they over promised me this,or they they charged me an
astronomical amount for awarranty, or they said they were
going to fix this and theyended up putting used tires.
There's so many different ways.
It's like that's the last thing.

(48:27):
If you were at the grocerystore with your family or you
happen to go to a ball game andyou get eddieEddick center and
he's just like you know,probably just rowdy anyways, but
then he, you, your team giveshim a reason to be here.
Just like embarrassed, likereally do I get any time away?
Then I'm not just hammered bythis business.
That's the long term that isthe long term.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
And hey, I do want to be crystal clear with everybody
out there it doesn't always gothat way for us no, no, no, no,
we're saying this because we'velearned it the other word it.
And then we've learned too, likewhat is the response when
somebody does need to dump a badexperience, because it happens.
Yeah, we drop the ball daily.
You know our new vehicle salesfiguring out the price on what
you're paying for a vehicle.

(49:10):
It's complex, let's.
Let's be honest, there's thingsyou got to qualify for and if
you don't qualify, we don't getreimbursed for it.
Yet you got to advertise itwith that because everybody
else's price has that.
So there's all these complexparts and you need to know that
if you run into that situation,have the confidence that we're

(49:31):
going to figure out a solutionand be able to back it up.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Just be timely in it and communicate at a high level
of just communicating there.
It's funny you say that andI'll throw you this stat, so
maybe, if you're not payingattention, maybe you will.
When people buy a brand new car, they have crazy high
expectations.
Sometimes a used car stillcarries that expectation.
But I want you to know thisstat that a Ferrari who's not

(49:54):
built in America, a veryhigh-end vehicle, average price
of $430,000.
Sure, $430,000.
When it gets shipped over hereto the United States, very, very
thorough process.
It gets detailed, its originalplace of build, and then it
comes through the port Okay, andthen it gets detailed before.

(50:15):
Then it's handed to thedealership.
They then on average spend over$2,700 detailing and PDIing
that vehicle that $430,000 carto get it ready for the consumer
Wow, of areas that were missedfrom Ferrari, yeah, car to get
it ready for the consumer ofareas that were missed from

(50:36):
Ferrari.
And then the second hand weremissed.
It was over $2,700 on averageto get that vehicle right.
So we're going to work ongetting your $30,000 Escape or
Maverick right, I promise you.
But the manufacturer doesn'thave a whole lot of margin and
we have literally no margin inthat car.
So we're gonna do it and makeit its absolute best.

(50:58):
But just understand there thatthere there needs to be some
cohesive understanding that wedidn't build this thing right.
This is how it was delivered tous and if something is owed,
then we'll make it right.
But don't hate on just like,hey, why don't all these lines
line up?
Because yeah, I mean don't.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
And this is real.
Don't just call our employeesup and dog cuss them.
Yeah, they didn't build thevehicle.
Nope, they're trying to assistyou.
They don't know why you keepdisconnecting your phone, but
with a smile on their face andnot laughing at you they're
trying to walk you back throughit.
Yeah, you know they.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
They don't know why you didn't do this or did and he
brought it in and it's had acheck engine light, but it
doesn't have the check enginelight anymore and it's an
intermittent issue, like okay,well, let's go ride together,
see if we can find it like.
I don't know, I like it'sfrustrating.
It is, you know, like as I getit, but at the same time, if we
can't diagnose it, then we can'tfix it.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
It's no different than going to the doctor's
office and saying, hey, this hasbeen going on and they're going
to say they're going to sendyou away and say for the next
three months, six months, wewant you to try this and then
come back.
It doesn't mean instantly.
You're just going to feel likea million bucks, no bucks.
It's going to take some trialand error and if the check
engine light went off.
So just remember that too, thatyes, we're your connection

(52:15):
between the manufacturer, but wealso have to submit.
I had a case the other daywhere I was helping a customer.
I said, listen, we're not theone declining the warranty work.
The person that's reimbursingus for us has declined it.
We want to do the work, we wantto fix your car and we're one
of those businesses.
If you've ever wondered, wehave a crazy, crazy amount of

(52:41):
expectations from customers.
Yeah, think about the warranty.
We got 10-year warranties,five-year warranties, six-year.
You don't own anything in yourhouse that has that type of
warranty.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
No, this dealership we just built at the maximum has
a one-year warranty.
One-year warranty, a one-yearwarranty and a lot of times when
we submit stuff and ourcompany's been great, they
helped us with it, right, butthey've been like, hey, that's
actually a wear and tear item.
Yeah, are you kidding me?
In the automotive industry, ourGoogle reviews would be through
the floor.
They would be under the floor ifwe told people some of the

(53:11):
things that we get told yeah forthis multi, multi, multi, multi
million dollar dealership, like, hey, actually that's not part
of that, that's, that's actuallygoing to be above and beyond,
you know.
So that's okay.
Yeah, we're gonna still servepeople the the highest level.
We have very clear expectations.
Uh, I'm just making sure thatthey understand that, not just
today, but but all the way down.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
So so listen to this statement here about ethical
choices.
Okay, cause I thought this isgood and we'll get your thoughts
on it.
Ethical choices are notisolated incidents.
They create a powerful echoeffect that shapes how employees
, customers and the communityperceive and interact with the
business.

(53:53):
So echo ripple whatever youwant to call that if you do this
and this, this and this, seizeit.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Yeah, I like that.
That is so important and oftenyou don't get to see the ripple
effect and it's definitely adelayed ripple effect.
But just understand that yourdecisions are very clear here,
here and here of we're going todo it like this we're going to
take care of the customer, we'regoing to treat others how we
want to be treated.
Those things are going toripple to the employees and then

(54:24):
hopefully they do that with thecustomers and the customer's
like.
You know what those people saidthey were going to do it.
It maybe took a little longer,but they actually did it and
they followed up with it andthey followed through and they
were nice and they were kind andthey went above and beyond and
I'm like that's a place I wannado business with you know the
ripple effect.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
You don't get to choose whether it happens or it
doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
It always happens, correct, and it's either going
to happen with how amazing of anexperience you did Yep, or how
bad of an experience you didRight, and I guess the best way
of seeing that is if you're at alake and a mountain somewhere
and you skip a rock and you seethat water ripples, like that's
calming to see that.
But if you see like a tsunamior a hurricane and very large

(55:10):
waves, those are the same wavesand so that was how you handled
a situation, very clearly.
And either way, you're fixingthe car you know.
So handle it correctly andmindfully and say, hey, what if
we tried it like this?
Would it be okay?
Would it offend you in any wayIf we tried this, this and this?
That's the lake that you'reseeing, like, oh, that's calming
, that was nice.
Or the tsunami is like, oh mygosh, these waves are just

(55:32):
attacking me.
Well, that's because you justwent straight in and attacked
and said, dude, why didn't youdo this, this and this whether
that's what they employ or withthe customer, like a frustrated
customer, an angry customer, acussing customer, if you match
their anger, you will never win.
We've gone through that with somany managers, so many
teammates.

(55:53):
It's like, okay, you are notallowed to go out and say
anything for the first threeminutes, like you just need to
go listen, say, oh my gosh, Ican't believe that.
I apologize like that's themost you can say.
You just take notes.
It takes two people to argue,and so then, if you can do that,
then you're just like hey, thatwas a tsunami.
What we're going to do here isstand on the shore, we're going
to let those waves go by, andthen we're going to be like, oh

(56:16):
yeah, that's where we needed togo.
It's like hey, sir, would youmind hopping on my boat?
We're going to take you rightout here good, that's.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
That's.
That's a great example on justlooking at it down the road,
pausing.
Please don't let your emotionsget involved, and they will.
If you, I don't, they willalways get you every time.
It's just natural.
It is natural, it's natural,but you got to calm it down, to
let the logical part of yourbrain, brain, think so again.
Be it, be in the long-term game, be in the legacy game.

(56:44):
Yep, of building your businessone block at a time.
There's no shortcut for that.
Okay, doing the right thing,one at a time, even if it costs
you business, it'll paydividends in the future.
But but it all starts with therest of your team.
Knows you know what, what isyour North star?
You know what are your morals?
How are we ethically going tohand this and how are we going

(57:05):
to treat people?
And if we say we're going to dosomething, we're going to do it
.
You've got to communicate thatfirst.
It always starts with you'veheard us talk about this before
the internal customer, before weget the external customer
reflection, and that's your team.
And that starts in the smallmeetings with your managers,
your managers with theirdepartment, and then you circle
back around.
We were talking about our cakeday Cake day.

(57:25):
We can't dive all the way intoit because, like you said,
they'll retract and they're notengaged.
But if they've already heard itfrom their manager and you
recap it real quick- it helpsmake it a little more sticky?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Yeah, most definitely , so don't miss those
opportunities, all right?
Well, frequently askedquestions Always love to dive
into a way that we could peelanother layer back or just see
what it is.
So my question for you, in allthese years of business that
you've been doing this, the longand few years that you've been
doing it, what's one thing thatstill genuinely excites you when
you come to work?

Speaker 1 (57:56):
I love the opportunity to help others be
successful.
It brings me a lot of joy tohelp somebody develop their
skill sets to achieve their goal, and most of the time that's
not just a paycheck goal, it'sactually the paycheck did what?
Yeah?

(58:16):
So if I've been able to sitdown somebody and help them put
a game plan together on how topay off their credit cards or
how to save up this amount tobuy their first home, or how to
take their family on vacation,or that, then you see the
excitement with selling somemore cars or turning some more
hours.
I really like doing that.

(58:39):
I like achieving my own goalstoo, but I achieve them by
helping other people achievetheirs.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Very much so.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
So for you, after these years in the business,
what's the one thing that'sstill genuine and excites you
when you come to work?
Was that the same question?
That's the same question.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
So I didn't read what your question was and so I had
an answer.
But it was exactly your answer.
So the same thing, I love that.
So think of that.
Like no one raises their hands,like man, I love going to my
job.
Like I love my job, I justgrind and yeah, uh, I mean enjoy

(59:19):
what you do, right, sure, uh,but just think about that.
Like, think about when you wakeup really early.
You're never just like I lovegetting up at 4, 15 in the
morning.
You know what I mean.
Let me see what fires I can putout, like you love what comes
from that.
And so then, to echo what yousaid, uh, helping those people
and in every fashion, if you canget them to where they enjoy

(59:41):
coming to work, and the peoplethat they work with, and that's
by helping them be successfuland saying, hey, what's next?
There's a guy in the peoplethat they work with, and that's
by helping them be successfuland saying, hey, what's next?
There's a guy in the shop that,um, I love to see his growth in
the last couple years that he'sworked here.
And it was just my managementby walking around talking to
this guy and it's like, hey,what's next in your radar.
And so then he was so proud hewould bring, you know, when he

(01:00:01):
had a daughter, he brought hisdaughter.
But I was like, hey, I want youto meet lucy, and so I don't
know.
And so I was like, okay, he'slike, shelby, I'm really trying
to buy a house.
And I was like, oh, you are.
And I was like can I give youquick five minutes of like what
you should do?
Because he's like I don't thinkmy credit score is like, okay,
here's what, based on myexperience right, wrong or
indifferent you need to do this,this and this.
Well, flash forward.

(01:00:22):
Two years later he's bought ahouse, he's doing renovations to
his house and he's like God putme here for a very specific
reason, because of you and howyou've been able to pour into me
.
I'm like this is so much morethan renting on cars.
Right, that's good.
And so in all those littlemicro conversations of all the
employees some of them much more, some of them not at all, but

(01:00:42):
you try for all of them.
If you can help them's, it'snot going to work and it's not
just a job.
You get to really, really makea difference in a lot of people
of like, of all the fun, andthen they work together so good
and you're like we've builtsomething here, you bet right,
and then it allows them to gohave vacation, allows them to do
things for their family, andyou're like that's what you do

(01:01:04):
it for, it's not so you can sellanother car or this, this and
this.
It's just helping all thosepeople putting all the dots on
the paper.
So I definitely enjoy that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Such a good answer, and I hope all you business
leaders out there heard that.
I'm going to tell you right nowthat every single day there's
doors that God opens for you tobe able to use you in your place
of business.
But I've been guilty of thistoo.
I don't step through that doorbecause I'm too busy, or I think
I'm too busy.
He's like no, I need you to gothrough there because he wants

(01:01:37):
to use you to be able to helpthose others.
That's good stuff.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
It's been a great episode.
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(01:01:59):
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Feel free to share that withyour team.
Yeah, you know, we do that too.
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(01:02:21):
the time on marketing,advertising, different difficult
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