Ep.47 - Why Leaders Fail — And What Smart Ones Learn From It

Summary

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers delve into the theme of failure in leadership, emphasizing that failure is not final but rather a stepping stone to success. They discuss the importance of vulnerability, accountability, and learning from mistakes, highlighting that true leadership is about owning failures and using them as opportunities for growth. The conversation also touches on the significance of creating a culture that embraces learning from failures and the necessity of unpacking failures to prevent them from recurring. Through various anecdotes and examples, the brothers illustrate how leaders can navigate challenges and foster a supportive environment for their teams.


Takeaways

Failure is not final; it's feedback for growth.
Vulnerability in leadership fosters trust and connection.
Admitting failure is the first step to learning.
Leaders must unpack failures to prevent recurrence.
Creating a culture of learning is essential for success.
Accountability is key in addressing failures.
Recognizing wins amidst failures boosts morale.
Failure is a teacher, but only if you learn from it.
Don't let failure happen again; learn from it.
True leadership is built on scars, not perfection.


Titles

Navigating Leadership Failures
The Power of Vulnerability in Leadership


Sound bites

"Failure is not final."
"Vulnerability builds trust."
"Don't let failure happen again."


Chapters

00:00 Understanding Failure in Leadership
05:13 The Importance of Vulnerability
11:22 Learning from Mistakes
19:06 The Role of Accountability
23:42 Unpacking Failures
29:47 Creating a Culture of Learning
39:52 Myth Busting: Leaders Don't Fail
46:19 Preventing Repeated Failures

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):
I think at the core here, what we're talking about
is not failing the same waytwice.
So you're a fool if you thinkthat if you don't address an
issue and unpack it, that it'sgoing to fix itself.
It's just going to keep failingand you're going to blame it on
everybody else.
You have to take time andunpack it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey everyone.
Hey everyone, welcome toCrossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about
running a successful familybusiness while working through
adversity and pouring back intoour community that keeps our
doors open every single day.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real, relevant,local business advice, maybe

(00:40):
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe even
throw in a plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Welcome back to episode 47, crossroad
Conversations with LewisBrothers.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, bringing you what we
think is relevant, what mightneed the attention, or just what
we're going to talk about today.
And today is why leaders fail,and smart ones learn from it.
Right, it's not okay to fail.
It's just what you do with it,what it looks like.

(01:15):
Sometimes you fail harder thanother times.
Sometimes it stings more,sometimes it's in the background
and sometimes it's 100 in theforeground and everyone sees it,
and so we'll break that down.
What leaders face every singleday, all the things that go into
that decisions that didn't work, hires that went sideways in
moments that we flat outcompletely missed man, that's

(01:36):
going to be a fun one to diveinto.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
But before we do that , let's go back to episode 46
last week.
In case you missed us, lastweek was the cost of chasing
trends.
We really dove in there andtalked about when to pay
attention to trends, when to lettrends maybe simmer a little
bit to figure out if you shouldtake action on it, and the cost
of not paying attention totrends or paying too much

(01:58):
attention to trends withoutdoing your due diligence.
So if you want to learn moreabout that, make sure to go to
CrossroadConversationsPodcastcomand check out that episode and
many more.
But on to this week.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
On to this week.
Hey, always check us out onlineat LewisSuperstorecom.
We've got all of our inventoryover a thousand units on the
ground.
A transition when we drive, andthis is on both sides.
Okay, I love this technology.
We've kind of talked about itbefore, but I want to bring
light back to it because we havean off-road segment.
We also have it one of our oursecond best selling nameplate

(02:32):
vehicle, talking about theplug-in hybrid technology.
Yeah, the plug-in hybridtechnology that gives you takes
away that that fear of rangeanxiety, yeah, of only plugging
in.
Yes, so it allows you what itdoes.
So we have in four by ease thatare in, uh, wranglers and grand
cherokees.
We have it over in fordside inthe escapes.

(02:53):
That allows you to be able toput the vehicle in your garage,
charge it every night and youcan drive 25 to 30 miles purely
electric you know I can talkabout this a little bit because
my life's van for multiple yearswas a plug-in.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yes, so what we saw is we plugged it in at night and
90 or 80 of our driving we didon all electric.
We put maybe one tank of fuelin there a month, but if we
wanted to take off and drive todallas or tulsa or oklahoma city
or kansas city, we just use thegas, no worries there was no
range anxiety but we got thebenefit of the other and I think

(03:32):
when you look at the statsright now, what's trending and
growing in new vehicle sales, itis that plug-in hybrid.
Yes, there's more excitementabout like hey, kind of give me
the best of both worlds becausewhen it is running on gas it's
still a hybrid system.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
So there's a piece there, it's a, it's a hybrid
vehicle which is gas andelectric.
It works simultaneously.
You don't realize it'stransition.
And then it's the plug-inversion of that, so that we have
plenty of hybrids on the groundthat aren't plug-in, but these
happen to be that we're talkingabout.
You can plug in, so then whenyou are in non-powered, plugged
in electricity, you're stillgetting.

(04:07):
You know, our f-150 power boostis probably roughly five to
seven miles per gallon betterthan what the standard 3.5 equal
boost is, and then gives youcool like pro power on board and
stuff like that.
So that's kind of like a swissarmy knife.
It is pretty cool really cooltechnology.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
You got to come check it out and drive it because
really you won't know thedifference.
You think you will, but youwill know.
No different than your regularvehicle.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, I have to point that out before we go any
further, hey, with the big billthat just got passed, september
30th is the end of ev creditsand, as you were saying that, I
was thinking the jeep wrangler4xe gets up to 3750.
You say I don't want anything todo with electric Cool.
Do you want a new vehicle forless money?
Yeah, jeep Wrangler 4xe you canget it in a Rubicon style, you

(04:52):
can get it in a Sahara style orall different types of styles.
And that 4xe gets you someoff-road and throw the charger
out the window.
I mean I'd keep it so you cantrade it in.
But it's initially going togive you additional savings
because it's a growing segmentand manufacturer says sell, sell
, sell, and then you get the3750 tax credit, but that ends

(05:12):
september 30th.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Don't miss out on that.
That's a good point right there, absolutely so good, good uh
features there.
Make sure you come and check itout all right, solid.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
So jumping into this core subject failure.
Failure is not final.
You know we talk about whyleaders fail.
Failure is not like well, wetried, we gave it all we could,
we invested all that we could.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's feedback right, it is.
But I'm going to say this youknow, as a human being and we
all, no matter how much we say,we all have feelings and we all
care about our success.
None of us like admitting to goman, I just failed on that all
care about our success.
None of us like admitting to goman, I just failed on that.
Now, looking back after we getsome success on it, we might say

(05:52):
, hey, I had to go through thesefailures to get to that success
.
But nobody's posting on socialmedia hey, this last weekend I
just failed, you know, today Ijust failed.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
The thing is like, if you're talking social media and
you want to talk engagement.
If you share some tough thingsthat you're going through, it'll
engage a whole lot more than belike hey, killed it last week,
close x amount of deals likepeople don't love your success
right.
I love your vulnerability andyour failures, and so it's not
easy to admit that, but ifyou're looking for something uh
to post about, that's probablysomething pretty relevant that

(06:21):
people can relate to, andthey're like I thought no one
would ever come to light andadmit that they had an issue
with that hey, I had a failurein doing this, but I think the
hardest time to admit failure isthe very first time.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I think that's true because you know you're kind of
in uncharted waters and youdon't know what the response is
going to be say what will theydo?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
what will they?

Speaker 1 (06:40):
think of me.
But then once you see that andlike it's okay, yeah, and then
like people got you and likewhat you said, it's easier than
to relate like they're human,you know then it's like, okay,
let's share those and let'slearn from it yeah you know, the
one of the things I liketalking, you know, to you guys
about, or the team about, iswhen we haven't had success in

(07:02):
an area, I don't know,necessarily necessarily use the
word failure, but when thingsdon't have the outcome we wanted
, let's unpack it.
What adjustments could we havemade?
You know, maybe that was stilla great goal.
We just need to adjust the pathor the way we got there, and we
share that with the team and wedo discovery.
You know, we've all heard thegreat sports analogies, but I'll

(07:24):
remind you of this, of thosefailures that it takes then to
win.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Sports is really easy to relate to, but if you look
at Michael Jordan, for example,he said he missed over 9,000
shots in his career Can youimagine the headspace that that
would put you in if you justsaid, hey, I want you to step up
to the line and shoot, and youwill miss 9,000 times.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
He in if you just said hey, I want you to step up
the line and shoot and you willmiss 9 000 times.
He lost over 300 games.
Okay, sounds like that.
And now get this one you wantto talk about stress.
26 times he took the gamewinning, shot the last shot of
the game to win the game andmissed and then lost the game
because of him and then lost.
Let's talk about babe ruth onstrikeouts.
You know, everybody knows theiconic babe ruth for all of his
home runs.
During his career he struck outfar more times than he hit the

(08:13):
ball or hit home runs, which isbig.
And then you go to Tom Brady.
You talk about Tom Brady in oneof the Super Bowls where he had
the largest comeback in history.
At halftime they said there'sno way even for the great Tom
Brady that he's coming back fromthis, that they had failed so

(08:33):
much there.
So I think it's important toremember that you must have
those failures to identify whereyou need to grow and what you
need to work on then to becomesuccessful.
And if you don't admit that,your team never will.
So there's some vulnerability,shelby, as you brought up that
it's important for them to seethat you are human, that you do

(08:55):
fail but you're willing to talkabout it, not say I'm okay with
failing, but I want to figureout why I failed and what I
could do to fix that goingforward.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think that's a really good point that you said
there of admitting to failure isnot saying you're okay with it.
There's a differentiation thereof you're okay to try something
and to fail but then learn fromit.
It's not like, eh, it's okay tofail.
You know, like Michael Jordandidn't say, hey, I've lost 300
plus games, I've missed 9,000shots, he said, no, I need to

(09:28):
take X more shots and work onthis and let's watch film and
let's figure out was my stepwrong?
Was my hand in the wrong place?
Who was in my face?
What was going on, and thenwork on that.
So a failure is okay, butwhat's not okay is just making
it seem like it's okay to fail.
It happens to everyone, right?

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, that's a great job unpacking that.
And I think some of thetelltale signs on are you
handling failure correct is areyou unpacking what could be
improved on or are you justjustifying it by comparing it to
others or other people in yourmarket?
The one thing I don't want tohear from managers or management
team they're like, yeah, but Iknow we didn't hit our goal, but

(10:10):
nobody else did in our regioneither, and I'm like I really
don't care about the otherpeople that's the misery loves
company thing it is and it's notlike you need to know the stats
, yes, so that you can be betterthan those stats, right, but
it's not a comfort food of like,oh, it's all right, nobody
really hit their numbers andthat's an easy thing

Speaker 3 (10:30):
especially when things aren't going well.
It's like, well, the market'sdown 34% and GM lost $1.1
billion because they took a hitin tariffs for $2.6 million.
It's like you know one of thepeople that I follow that during
the uh, the pandemic, hecreated this, uh, this avatar
and it was called the pandemicof positivity.

(10:51):
It was david long and he saidwe create our own economy.
Right, you can be in this hyperbubble.
Northwest arkansas is in ahyper bubble.
Yes, when you see things trenddown, it's like you kind of look
around like, huh, so superblessed to be in the area that
we are.
But create your own economy andlike failure is gonna happen.

(11:12):
Right, you should be reaching.
We talked last week about thetrends.
If you're not chasing thosetrends, jumping into those,
you're not gonna be like.
If you're just in your safetyblanket on your couch, you're
not gonna have as much failure.
But you're just in your safetyblanket on your couch, you're
not going to have as muchfailure, but you have very
little opportunity for growth orwinning.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I think, when you or your team or your business has a
failure or you didn't achievewhat you set out to achieve, I
think then that's when you seethe real leader show up, and
here's what I mean by that.
Are you the leader that thenthe next day helps them identify
that misery loves company,saying, well, look what the rest

(11:51):
of the industry did.
Well, look at this.
Well, interest rates went up.
Well, this happened.
Well, that happened.
Or are you the leader that goteverybody in the room and said,
hey guys, it's okay that wedidn't accomplish that goal this
time, but what's not okay is ifwe don't accomplish it again.
Help me identify what we needto change, moving forward, so we

(12:14):
can continue to grow.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, I think it's always a fine line of like when
we forecast for teams, eachindividual department, for each
performer.
It's a fine line of findingthat number, because my team at
the Ford store I just keepthrowing what I think potential
numbers are and telling them hey, we're going to shoot for the
moon, right, sure, we're goingto shoot for this.

(12:37):
And I could give them a lowernumber and they still have
success without hitting thatexact number.
Right, they can have successand growth and huge growth
numbers throughout it and at theend not exactly hit that number
.
But if I just set a number thatwas easy for them to hit and
they hit that, like it was kindof an empty success.

(12:58):
Yep, you know.
So it was like, okay, well, wejust keep winning, but like what
is that win and is it allowingfor growth?

Speaker 4 (13:07):
It's so important to know as well that, with failure
we're talking about this ontrends a lot of times, failures
not hey, I set this out and Ifailed, like anyone thinks I'm
doing A lot of times failure is,for you, looking back we talked
about this but adaptingwhenever something happens.
So, if you're following a trendor anything else, a lot of

(13:30):
times, if you're listening tothis, you sometimes fail when
you're not trying to go out andaccomplish a goal necessarily,
but whenever something comes inand happens in business and you
don't pivot and you don't moveon, that's failure that you
really need to step back and beable to recognize, because
that's something that is goingto be able to help you change

(13:52):
and move forward.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
I think that's good.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
You know it's one of those things, I think, a random
stat, I don't know it's completevalidity, but there's tons of
people that you know they say,hey, you think you just haven't
been able to achieve yourpotential.
I think the status like DonaldTrump's has filed for bankruptcy
like six or seven times.
Like imagine if he just stoppedit.
You know like well, I failed.
You know like I put it all inline and I messed up.

(14:16):
You know, like somewhere inthere, one of the founders I saw
had heard 323 no's on businessproposals before he got the yes
and created his multi-trilliondollar industry.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
323 no's, that's got to be like a Ray Kroc with
McDonald's or something I don'tknow.
I want to say whenever he wasgoing through.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
KFC was 65.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Colonel Sanders yeah, well, hey, here's another one
from the business side.
We talked about sports, let'stalk about Walt Disney.
All right, so Walt Disney, waltDisney's first animation
company, laugh-o-gram Studio,went bankrupt.
He filed bankruptcy, yep.
And if he wouldn't have learnedfrom that failure and moved on,
he would have never opened upthe global entertainment giant,

(15:06):
yep, you know, if you thinkabout that and if you think
about Steve Jobs with Apple, didyou know this?
He was fired from Apple in 1985.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
They fired him.
It's a good thing they did Losthis job.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
He later returned to Apple and spearheaded the
company's research, becauseApple hasn't always been the
juggernaut that it was no.
But they took the same personafter they fired him, got him
back involved, unpackedeverything and said let's go
with this thing again, let'sfigure this out.
You know James Dyson, who youknow.

(15:40):
The Dyson vacuum, it's a goodvacuum.
Get this, I mean.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
I don't know that I would have been this persistent.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
He built 5,127 prototypes of his vacuum before
achieving success.
He didn't try to vacuum 5,000times.
He made 5,000 prototypes.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
That's passion, right there, that is being involved.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's passion right there, that is being involved.
That's big and I thinkhopefully that encourages all of
us.
And you know, because we're allhuman beings and we have
feelings, we have emotions, andwhen we don't hit a goal or
something, we're like what am Idoing?
Am I doing the right thing?
Am I in the right position?
Am I cut out for this?
You are, and a lot of timesyou're just one more push away

(16:28):
from breaking through.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
I think that's one of those things like digging
through a cave, like you're overit looking for a way out.
You're just looking for thatspeck of light.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
And then once you can get thatspeck of light in that struggle,
then that allows you to fullypropel, like that's my direction
, that's where we're going,Prototype number 5001, this is
it right?

(16:50):
And so then when you see thatray of light there, I think it's
important that we work on howto build our teams so they
understand it's okay to try newthings and fail and what that
feedback looks like, to say okayand we get to unpack that
failure.
It's a thing we talked aboutyesterday about employment.
If someone leaves the company,they get replaced, they get

(17:11):
fired.
You know, whatever happens,there was a person in that job
and they were removed from thatjob.
On our side or on their side,the question that you ask is do
we need to replace that job?
Yes, you know.
So if something's failed, thefirst look and see why did it
fail.
So the next thing is hey, do weneed to change pay or structure
on that job, excuse me?
And then the third thing was dowe need to go in and change

(17:34):
that job, roles andresponsibilities.
So before you just say, well,that didn't work, let's find
another person, put them in thesame thing, pay them the same,
give them the same job, rolesand responsibilities.
The same thing goes for an ideain your business.
You have to create that cultureso the team can say, hey, all
right, we tried that in ourmicro business.
That didn't work.
And we say, okay, well, let'snot throw everything out.

(17:56):
Let's see what was good andwhat we could change.
Did we have propercommunication?
Did we have proper metrics?
Did people know when to expect,how to expect and what that
looked like?
And so then, just knowing that,the team says, hey, we're not
going to put it all on the linehere, but we're going to give X
percentage and try this here.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
I hope everybody understood what Shelby just went
over there.
So what he's talking about iswhen you have a position that is
not achieving their goals or isfailing and you have to part
ways with that individual is,before you just replace it and
say it was all that person andthe individual.
You first look in the mirrorand you answer those three
questions.
You know you're just.

(18:33):
What are you thinking if youthink you just got to keep
replacing the person in the samestructure, in the same culture,
in the same pay, in the samedescription, just saying, well,
I hope one of these makes itwork.
Yeah, or maybe it's deeper thanthat.
Yeah, so those are great checksand balances as a business
owner to go through, going, hey,I do need to replace that
person, I got to get somebody inthat position.

(18:54):
But let me check.
What does their roles andresponsibilities look like?

Speaker 4 (18:57):
What does their?

Speaker 1 (18:58):
pay.
Look like you know what are weasking them for there and adjust
those.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, adjust those, adjust those, yeah, adjust those
.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
so that's super important there, that's the
feedback, making sure your teamunderstands that and how to grow
and how failure is okay, learnfrom it and we use something.
Yep, all right.
Next up is our uh transitionquestion here, and it's uh, you
know what's one thing you'vecompletely failed at, but would
a hundred percent do againanyway.
That's tough I agree, and I wasunpacking this one and I'm going
to sound like I'm contradictingmyself what we just talked

(19:35):
about, and I learn from myfailures, but I also don't let
them just sit there in the backof my mind.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
And so I don't even know where you're going with
that.
But I'll tell you that.
You know, sometimes my wifewill ask me this and I'll say
hey look, I only have so muchbrain capacity.
You know, I was blessed withwhat I have.
I am not.
I'm not the one who judges orcompartmentalizes things.
So if it's something that wastotally detrimental, then I'm
going to say, ok, let's learnfrom that, let's work on it.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
I agree that and let's work on it, but I agree, I
agree.
So I got, I got a coupleexamples for you.
Okay, I got a couple examplesfor you and and the first one is
is not easy because I don'tlike admitting this, but I'll
admit this on it because, uh,there's a lot of business,
people and we're trying to bereal, yeah, when one of our
businesses, on a month, printsred ink, that's a loss.
Okay, that's a loss foreverybody else money.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
That means that we operated the entire month and
you didn't make jack squat.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Okay, now everybody else in your business did.
Okay, you paid them, youremployees, yeah, all of vendors.
But it and I'm not talkingabout losing 500 or five
thousand dollars, uh, when it'swhen it's a large amount and if
it happens more than one month,and then you're looking at going
.
What am I doing?
What?
What's going on?
You know, I thought I had thisship moving in the right

(20:55):
direction, but you don't give upon it because you know it's
there and you see that and it'sjust a couple tweaks away.
I'm not sharing all that withthe whole rest of the team, you
know, but we make thoseadjustments and we come out even
better on the other sidebecause we're better operators
with efficiency and expensecontrol and inventory and cash

(21:18):
control.
I had to go back and listen tosome of my own advice, you know,
when I talked about inventoryand cash and expenses, it's like
hey don't say one thing and dosomething different.
So that one was pretty big.
So now I got another one, I gotanother one.
So throughout my career we havelooked at different areas and I

(21:39):
kind of picked it up from dadas I was going along in the
areas of marketing and investingand trusting people in our
marketing and advertising and sothat just kind of flip-flopped.
I always had this vision and wehad this vision of what we
wanted marketing to do, what wewanted social platforms to do,
how we wanted to reach people.

(22:01):
But we didn't always have thestructure right and then we
failed with different peoplealong the way.
But we never just closed thatdepartment down because we
understood In fact we went fromjust entrusting one person to
now we have an entire team offive plus people that are doing
that.
So as we started unpacking that, where we did not have the

(22:24):
success we wanted it's, we hadto go through your questions,
you know, and discover what dowe do to accomplish success
there.
We know that this position,this department, is necessary.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
So it was one of those things like, hey, ok, you
know, if it was something youwere self-performing and there
was a spin, but there wasn't thereturn, which in marketing is
tough to always see the returnon, but there are some certain
factors you can look at.
But it was like, OK, what do Ido there?
I'm doing what I can do, right?
That's one of the things like,matt, you need to give that to
some more people, right?

(22:57):
And so it was like, ok, well,what's our spin?
Our spin needs to be more, andmaybe not as more externally, it
needs to be some internal tocreate.
So then, when you do spend themoney, that it has some traction
, don't just keep buying 22-inchtires or 24-inch tires.
You need a bigger tire, sure.
So then we realize that.
And then changing job roles andresponsibilities, and then

(23:20):
we've tried one person to handlethree different things and
we're like, okay, we need tohyper-focus on that one person
to do that.
So that's really good there,yeah, focus on that one person
to do that.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
So that's really good there.
Yeah, that's a real one.
That's a real one that'sconstantly evolving.
All right, the next part ofthis we want to unpack, and this
is going to be fun here.
The real failure is not owningit.
So think about that.
We just barely tipped into thaton the last subject, but the
real failure is not owning it.
What's that mean that on thelast subject, but the real

(23:48):
failure is not owning it.
What's that mean Notrecognizing that you failed or
blaming it on everybody else?

Speaker 3 (23:52):
So there's something before you go any further.
There's something that we'vealways trained to say at our
dealership that some people love, some people say it naturally
and some people hide in thecloset.
But when a customer says, hey,you forgot to do X on my car or
you said you were going to dothis, now, a couple episodes
back, we told you that welearned that dad says, hey, if
you say you do it, you do itright and that's our thing, no

(24:15):
matter what it costs.
Somebody opened their mouth anddid it, you're going to do it.
But when a customer comes toyou with that concern, or comes
to anyone with that concern, thefirst thing would say, hey, let
me apologize, that is my fault,not yours, and that's not
always true facts.
I'm not saying you're lying tothe consumer.
I'm just saying, if you cantake that burden off of them, it

(24:38):
puts the wall down and then wecan fully unpack that.
But that's the number one thingthat we train to say hey, let
me apologize, that was my fault.
I take full responsibility forthe lack of communication, of
not delivering what we promised,of not following through, not
doing exactly what we said we'regoing to do.
Let me look into that and seehow I can help.
And once again, I apologize100%, completely, that is my

(25:02):
fault.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm going to take that and really break some stuff
down here and then relate it toa book that a couple of us have
gone through and just hopefullyyou'll gather this.
Okay, can I tell you thatnaturally human beings are.
They have a defense up of rightor wrong, of defending their

(25:24):
team and the facts.
Now, what Shelby is not sayingthere when he says, hey, that's
my fault, I take fullresponsibility, whether it was
or it wasn't.
You know, take the person thatwe repaired their flat and then
the next day their car didn'tstart because their battery was
dead and they blame that wemessed up their battery.
Hey, it was probably just anend of life.

(25:45):
You know what I mean.
But it's not about who's rightor wrong.
And by saying that doesn't meanwe're opening up our checkbook
and paying for everything.
Here's what you've got torealize.
It's about how does it make thecustomer feel?
How do they feel?
Do they feel like that?

(26:07):
They're, you know, in debateclass or in court?
You may be right, but if theyfeel attacked and if they feel
embarrassed, guess what?
They won't come back and seeyou.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
They're not coming back, they're not telling their
friends.
It's not good CSI, it's justlike bad news spread so much
quicker than good news.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
So in the book Unreasonable Hospitality.
This guy has a server andreally, really high-end
restaurant in New York you know,and person orders a steak.
They order it medium rare.
It came out it was part oftheir QC process Check the
temperature on every singlesteak before it came out to the
table.
They knew without a doubt intheir mind it was dialed in.

(26:48):
It was dialed in at medium rare, dialed in.
Customer cuts into it okay andthey're like I ordered medium
rare, not rare.
Server knew They'd already seenthe temperature that this was a
medium rare steak.
They took the time to get thechef to come out.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
I think so Initially, the first time they talked
about that.
The server wasn't fully versedand trained on that Correct and
they felt like they feltattacked, they did.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
They felt like that they weren't, that they didn't
listen, they weren't doing theirjob.
So then the next time they wereprepared, chef comes out, they
redo the temperature on.
There gets really awkward withthe customer on like who's right
, who's wrong, who knows what.
Medium rare is the?

Speaker 3 (27:37):
chef, like a fool, like no, this is how you know I
did it right.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
you know what I mean.
So, and then finally, the GM ofthe store gets involved.
They just take the steak backand said hey guys, prepare a
steak medium, not medium rare.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
They read the defense yes, and they're like it
doesn't matter who's right orwrong, it doesn't really matter.
You can tell that this is toorare.
Forget the scale, cook it alittle bit more?

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, so at the end of all that he's unpacking it
and they had, they did damagecontrol, but the damage was
already done.
On how they felt, because itwas a whole rigmarole yeah,
about measuring the temperatureand this and that at the end of
the day, had the chef preparedit correct?
Yes, did the waitress say thecorrect information?

(28:26):
Yes, but how did it make thecustomer feel?
They felt belittled, they feltattacked, that they didn't know
what they were talking about.
And those feelings of thatcustomer is what brings you
repeat business and referrals.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
So then he not being a he was not kitchen focused,
right, he was a customerexperience focus.
So then he created the policyand procedure.
You know that, hey, when youserve that up, you have them cut
into it and make sure it's totheir satisfaction.
Right, and we're not defendingwhat they order versus what they

(29:04):
got.
And then he brought them, ifthere was ever an issue, they
brought back two differentsteaks, prepared differently,
and said hey, take a look andpick which one of these you like
best.
And so then it became anexperience that the customer was
like hey, they were wrong, theyweren't wrong, newsflash, they
weren't wrong.
But without confrontation, theyquickly brought me two options,

(29:24):
they went above and beyond, andthen I got to pick the steak
that I like and these peoplewere great.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
I am going to say, though, we talk about all this
very smoothly and like it'ssecond nature.
It is a battle every day for usin our business to have
employees.
They get in there and they'relike yeah, but boss, I was right
, I never touched that battery.
How did the customer feel it?

Speaker 3 (29:47):
doesn't mean buy them a new engine, but listen to
them.
A lot of people have a hardtime of taking responsibility
but then not paying for all thethings.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Yep, let me give you an example of yesterday.
So we were sitting and I talkedabout this as a salesman and
this is so fun because it goesinto you saying what you're
going to do and you actuallyfollow through and you know what
you're doing.
It's so fun.
So we're sitting in there onSaturday and talking Me and Matt
were talking, and whenever ahot pitch comes down the pipe,

(30:23):
you're never ready, right therewith your glove.
You've got your popcorn andeverything else.
So one manager was just gettingsome lunch and we're talking.
Guy walks in like who's incharge.
I step back and I was like,yeah, he's like, you better be
ready.
I was like absolutely, slug mein the side of the head.
And he's like oh, I mean notthat.
So I was like now, come on out.
So we talked about it.
I love talking to people.

(30:43):
That's where I'm really good at.
I'm just a big teddy bear thatcan go through.
So he started off real hot andguess what, I didn't get hotter
with this situation.
I loved on.
Him apologized.
We had dropped the ball onsomething, but it was something
that he had changed his mind on.
It was on a Bronco.

(31:04):
He was mad because we'd paintedthe fenders and they chipped.
Well, real world example.
I'd said I kind of startedlaughing.
He said what?
And I said, sorry, I laugh.
I said Broncos are so fun andhe said, yeah, they are.
I said, sir, I laugh.
I said Broncos are so fun andhe said yeah, they are.
I said I repainted my wife'sfender flares eight times, eight
times, and I don't.
She doesn't off-road, no, no,she doesn't put it in four-wheel

(31:26):
drive, no, yeah.
I said she goes through the carwash eight times a day maybe.
And he started kind of laughing.
So I went through there.
He wanted to PPF them and wherewe'd had them for a week and
they have to sit for two, threeweeks to off gas and cure before
they do that.
We didn't set clearexpectations.
So I took full ownership ofthat, went outside.

(31:48):
But whenever I'm telling himall this, he's like OK, he's
digesting everything else.
We walk out to the car.
I had told him that I'd done itbefore.
I was knowledgeable about thevehicle.
We walk out.
I'm still talking to him.
I don't even look at the carand I'm flipping the clips and
rip it off the thing.
He's like oh, you've reallydone it before.
I'm like did you not believe me?
Because I just told you and soI'm sitting him down on the

(32:10):
ground.
He's like okay, real deal.
And his wife, meanwhile, islike oh, you're one of the
losers.
I love y'all.
This place is so great.
So we went through the wholething.
So I was telling people insales meeting yesterday I said
it's so fun.
It's so fun when you get tocombat a bad situation, whenever

(32:31):
you love on them, and then youknow what you're doing.
You're admitting you failed,you take responsibility, but
then you know what you're doing.
You know what.
You're admitting you failed,you take responsibility, but
then you know what you're doing.
You know what you're doing.
So that was so fun because thesalesperson was there, saw how
it handled and guess what?
I didn't even have to pull thesalesperson to the side whenever
we were walking back inside.

(32:51):
He's like I did wrong.
He said I understand that.
Yep, you showed me how to doright.
I appreciate that.
I'm not gonna let you down thenext time.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
So it was fully on in this situation but going
through there that's so good anda couple things taylor went
through there is is owning themistake and building some trust.
The next thing that he did notdo yet did do.
So he did not hide or blame,because both of those create
long-term damage.

(33:21):
So if you hide and don'taddress the situation, if you
blame somebody, else it createslong-term damage and most
people's surface level.
They can't think that deep andthey're like, no, I handled it
no big deal.
I explained it to them, yada,yada, yada.
Well, you explained to them thefacts, but how did they go away
from that feeling?
Did they feel like, hey, I wantto do business with them again?

(33:44):
Do they feel like I want tocome back to that restaurant
again?
Or they're like, okay, I waswrong, but man, they made me
feel like crap, like I was adummy about it.
You know what I mean.
So, yeah, it's again.
You first talk about this butit but it's a long-term game.
What do we do there?
And then, same thing.

(34:04):
You know the, the model,accountability, so your team
does the same.
Oh yes, so then your team sawwhat you did and then you
unpacked it right there.
You train the one person on it,but then our next training
session with the rest of theteam, you use it as an example.
Oh yeah, and that's some of ourbest training we talk about is
in the moment when it's fresh oneverybody's mind to use a story

(34:27):
and to show them an example.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
That just happens, so it'll stick in their brain yeah
, that, I mean, that's the samething of that restaurant of
cooking the steak, like thewhole operation was not wrong.
The consumer just didn't fullyunderstand what they needed to
order, because everyone preparessomething a little differently.
Right, they're not looking up,uh, I don't know what the the
high-end google is forrestaurants where they're not
looking at the certificationlevel of this temperature in

(34:51):
this bacon, uh, but it's, it'sso important and, using those
examples, and I think it'sreally important to be very
vulnerable in showing youraccountability of, hey, here's
something that we worked on andthis is what I said we were
going to do, and I failedbecause it did not play out like
I thought it would.
And so, if you guys are okaywith forgiving me, here's what

(35:14):
I'd like to try this time.
Can you guys get behind me?
I'm going to pilot it first.
I've actually been working on itfor two weeks over here.
I fully feel like we've vettedand most of the kinks are worked
out and I need your guys tohelp bring it to market and make
sure that.
But I have failed and Iapologize.
I led you into that directionand the vulnerability in the

(35:34):
accountability that you'reholding yourself accountable in
front of all the people.
Then they realize when you holdthem accountable they're not
like well, what the heck Don'tyou think I'm good at my job?
It's like no, I think you are.
It's like I was going over withour parts manager this morning.
I was like hey, here's how werank here, here and here.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
He's like yeah, we're pretty good in a lot of those
areas and I was like you'redoing amazing I said I apologize
.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
I'm not always the best at you know, I tell that to
my wife.
Last night I'm sugarcoatingthings.
I said, no, no, you're doingamazing, I'm just thinking
there's more opportunity and hewas like right on, you know he's
like I'll always try for moreright.
Yeah, and so it's one of thosethings of just having
vulnerability and youraccountability knowing that it's
across I'm gonna say that Ihave all these things I'm
talking about.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
I haven't been the best, and, especially early on
in my career is that when I wasnot patient, I felt like I was
attacked by maybe a customer, anemployee, and I needed to
defend what the rules were.
There's been times that I'vecalled a customer back and said
I just need to call andapologize to you.
I didn't handle that situationcorrectly.

(36:42):
You're really a valuablecustomer to ours and I really
respect you and I thank you foryour business and I just want to
apologize to you on how Ihandled that, and some people
are like you did what I'm in thelongterm game.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, and there's never been somebody.
You know the thousands of timesthat we're blessed Michael
Jordan, 9,000 missed shots.
We're blessed with thousands ofdifferent times that
something's messed up rightwhere it wasn't prepared to the
level that they thought.
And every time that we canremove responsibility, take that
responsibility.
Like I remember one year forHalloween, taylor was dressed up

(37:18):
asansas city chiefs uh fan witha full headdress and his face
was painted.
His customer was trying so hardto be so mad and he's like can
you be serious?
The customer was like, can youplease be serious?
Like I'm trying to do this yougot.
And he's like sir, have we not,uh, exceeded your expectations?
like yeah, but I'm trying to geta better deal.

(37:39):
He's like, sir, have we notexceeded your expectations?
He's like, yeah, but I'm tryingto get a better deal.
He's like, sir, are we notdelivering an experience?
He's like, yes, this is great,like this is so simple and easy.
He's like why are you upset?
He's like I don't know, I'mjust trying to be upset, but I
can't because you guys are overthe top taking responsibility
for all things, and there wasn'ta problem, he was just wanting
to back and forth, and back andforth, sure, and there's never

(38:01):
been a customer who's like youknow what?
We've had people that are likeno, I want you to argue with me,
but you're like oh my gosh, Ican't believe how nice you are
about this, after they just MF'dyou and after they just Sucked
you right in the on hey, Iapologize, you know I would be
way more upset than you were.
I'd probably drive a carthrough the front door and

(38:22):
you're like what?

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Once, then, and we talk about that verbiage now,
but once we learn that verbiageof just taking that pressure off
and apologizing first, youstarted seeing it.
It sounds goofy, as can be atfirst, and some people were so
hung on right versus wrong.
They are but once you do it, itopens up this world, and once
you apologize to somebody andsay I apologize, I take full

(38:47):
responsibility for that.
In fact, I want to thank youfor being so calm about this
situation.
I would even be more upset.
It lowers that down and thenyou can start moving.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
It's so ingrained into our brain.
I'm not kidding.
We were with some friends outthe other night and they were
talking about we talk aboutthings all the time and I think
it's just natural.
We talk about how our wives arelike, can you be real and not
be positive, like I don't careif the kid's hand's cut off,
we're going to fix it and it'sgoing to be okay.
It's going to be okay, I'm notgoing to.

(39:24):
Yeah, at least he's still alive.
So the positive side of itgoing through it.
But they were talking about HR.
That is like, oh, I just alwayshave this one, this person's so
negative and I said, hey, trythis whenever you do it.
Next time you need to step backand say, hey, I apologize so
much for the treatment.
I'd have been so much more madthan you had.
She said, but I probablywouldn't have.
I said it doesn't matter and Iwent through people outside of

(39:46):
this whole circle.
We think it's so normal, it'snot and it is so deadly strong
to be able to step back, saythese couple little things that
we think is so normal.
But but no one's ever heard itbefore.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
No, that's good.
It makes it easy to win there,absolutely.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
Well rolling into the Myth Buster segment.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
It's back, here we go it's back better than ever.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
A myth great leaders don't fail.
They just win differently.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
I like that.
Okay, you know Okay.
So that's the myth.
Great, I like that.
Okay, you know Okay.
So that's the myth yeah that'sthe myth, don't fail.
So the winners, the people thatare killing it.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
They just win differently.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
They just win differently.
That's like I don't know.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
That's just saying like they never fail and there's
never any setbacks, or theydon't have to step back and they
just always win.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Now, I like that optimism there.
Okay for being a positiveperson.
But we've got to look at themyth itself.
Okay, the facts of it.
The great leaders don't fail.
It's like the great leadersdon't fail and I think we've
already kind of talked aboutthat through the sports
analogies and the Walt Disney,steve Jobs and all the rest of
that.
I've got to go with busted onthat one.
Yeah, I think that's.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
Yeah, go with busted on that one.
Yeah, I think that's.
Yeah, you're busted.
Even the best leaders fallshort.
They just don't hide from it.
Real leadership is built onscars, not perfection.
I like it, you have thosebattle scars in there.
Plenty of them that'll go inthere.
Hey, roll into the next segment.
We've talked about owning it,being in the middle of it, but
this is so important to go offof, so failing the same way
twice now.

(41:19):
Now that's the problem.
That's what really starts tohammer down on a lot of
different situations.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
I think that goes back to what we started with on
when there is a failure, youcome up short from your goal,
what you do with it.
Yes, you know, we don't justbuy everybody donuts and orange
juice and talk to them aboutwhat the rest of the region did
and said, well, if the wholeindustry is down, y'all are OK,
you did good, you know it's notyour fault.

(41:45):
That will equal failing twicein the same area.
If you take the failure and yousit down and you say and you
unpack it and you figure outwhat we could have done better
to prevent it from happening thenext time, you never, don't
ever, miss the opportunity of afailure to catapult you to the

(42:05):
next level you want to go toyeah, you fully unpack that.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
It's kind of like shame on, shame on me, fool me
once.
Yeah, shame on you, fool metwice, shame on me, right.
So it's okay to fail one time,but unpack it, yep.
Why did we fail?
Was it a failure in process?
Was it a failure in people?
Was it a failure in execution?
Yep, you know, generally it'sgoing to be one of those three
things, and then learn from itand so then teach on it with

(42:30):
your meetings, create newprocesses or procedures, adjust
roles and responsibilities orany of those tasks, and then you
can say hey, and you're goingto have to follow up with it a
lot.
You are Right, Because it'sgoing to be the trend that they
say, hey, I just looked it upand the customer's like, you
never called me back and you'relike, oh look, I called you nine
times.
You're the idiot.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
You know it's like well, that doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
It goes like number here it's going to be xxxxx, and
they're like yeah, I was likeyou know, let me update my
records, I think something wasoff there.
Let me go ahead and shoot you atext, verify that you got it.
You bet.
And they're like yeah, I got it.
It's like okay, perfect.
Well, here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna send you an updatehere and by noon I'm gonna set
myself a reminder and I'm gonnafollow back up with you and
you're gonna have to do thatconstantly.

(43:13):
And let me give you a quickexample, because I like stories
rather than just talking aboutrandom things.
When we opened this dealership,one of the things that we
created was our automatic carwash, and I heavily negotiated
the lease on it to have anastronomically high this is
inside tips an astronomicallyhigh wash total usage per month.
It was way higher than we everthought we needed, but I thought

(43:36):
I knew, if I negotiated upfront, that we'd be okay rather
than have to ask for permissionand forgiveness after the fact.
So if we blew past it, I knewthey'd charge us more.
So then I said every singlecustomer that comes through here
gets a car wash offered and nocharge, complimentary, going to
take an additional two to threeminutes and they get to leave

(43:56):
here with a clean car, because Iknow it's a better experience.
There's no hidden fees, it is acompliment.
And then we threw it to salesthat you could wash anybody's
car you wanted that.
It became like a club, becausethere's car washes everywhere.
People like clean cars, right,and so stay in the art facility.
But what I saw was it was notpart of their normal habit,
because we just came from thedinosaur that didn't have

(44:16):
automatic car wash.
I was like what the heck thatdidn't have automatic car wash.
I was like what the heck, whyaren't they offering this free
service?
And it was just another stepthat they had to take, but they
weren't doing it.
So then I created theaccountability and a decal that
I put on the windshields of thecars, that I had them put on the
windshields so we could spotcheck.
And so then I would quickly runthrough service, especially the
oil change area, and I couldlook like, hey, lower that down,

(44:42):
let me look at that like, has acar wash, doesn't, doesn't,
doesn't.
And so then I run back insideand I was like, hey, who's
working on the explorer outthere?
Like, oh, that's me.
It's like perfect.
Whose car is that it's?
Mrs smith is like is she here?
Like, yeah, she's here, no,she's not here either way.
So, hey, let's go talk to herreal quick.
And they knew what was comingright, but I'd created the
process, we had fully gonethrough it.
Why wouldn't we do that?
We have the car wash, we havethe washes in place.
We get to deliver a higherlevel experience.
So then I say hey, mrs smith,hey, I apologize, I didn't.

(45:04):
I wasn't able to greet you.
I'm saying, larry, do your jobI'm not saying it that way, I'm
not saying larry failed yeahsaying hey, mrs smith, I
apologize, I wasn't able togreet you when you came in and
new thing that we just rolledout.
We've been doing it for a yearnow.
A new thing we just rolled outis our VIP complimentary car
wash club.
This sticker here.
If you're okay with it, I wantto go ahead and put it in the

(45:25):
corner, knowing that you're okaywith any time you're here that
we'll go ahead and wash your carfor you without even have to
ask you.
Would you be okay if we washyour car for you for free today
and put this lifetime membershipon there?
And what does she say everytime?

Speaker 4 (45:37):
yeah, put it right by the seven bro sticker.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
Right, I'm in, put me in there and they'll even say,
well, I got a car wash things,like well, it's okay if we wash
it too for you, isn't it likeyep.
And so then I have the personbeside me who should have asked
that question and I go back andlike hey, I go back.
I'm like hey, do you haveenough stickers?
Yeah, got the stickers.
Like okay, were you the onethat wrote it up?
Yes, I wrote it up.
Okay, do you have any questionsof why we should or shouldn't

(46:00):
have done that?
No, I'm good.
It's like okay.
Do you need anything else fromme to help make sure that you do
that every single time withoutfail, no exception?
No, I'm good.
It's like okay, perfect, I'llbe back next week to check on it
again.
That's right, pressure from thecustomer.
You didn't dog cuss thesepeople, but you're gonna.
I still have to do that.
Yesterday I was through therejust double checking stickers

(46:21):
you have to and it's just one ofthose things like learn from
your the failures and thencreate a process that allows
failure to be less of an optionand you gotta, you gotta, come
to grips with that is.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
That's something that you're gonna have to continue
to manage that's one of themanagers and coaches.
That's why I mean, in evensports team, you'll never see
them show up for the gamewithout any coaches they got a
lot of coaches, you know, theygot a lot of coaches seeing it
from different angles that'sright and making adjustments.
Um, I think at the core here,what we're talking about is not
failing the same way twice.
So you're you're a fool if youthink that if you don't address

(46:56):
an issue and unpack it, thatit's going to fix itself.
It's just going to keep failingand you're going to blame it on
everybody else.
You have to take time andunpack it.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Which is not easy.
It's not easy, it'sconfrontational.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
It's not easy, but let me give you a couple tips on
that.
I'm glad you brought that up.
So when you set everybody downa management team you're not
sitting the whole dealershipdown to unpack this, but you've
got three, four, five, sixpeople in the room.
The first thing I want you totalk about so you can put your
team's mind at ease are the winsyou had, like what let's first

(47:29):
talk about, because even in thebiggest failure there were some
wins in there, and you don'tever want to not recognize those
wins.
So you bring the wins out andthen you maybe go around the
table and say, hey, share withme somebody or something that
was a win in your department themonth, and then everybody gets
to talk and then you starttalking because, okay, the walls

(47:51):
come down.
Then you start talking abouthere's what happens we fell
short of our goal, we fell shortof these surveys that came back
in.
What are some ideas we can doto prevent it from happening in
the future?
The other piece I want to talkabout there too and I'll tell
department managers about thisin our manager meeting if they
didn't hit their goal whetherit's a sales goal or a service

(48:13):
goal let's talk about those two,I said hey guys, but before you
just absolutely come down oneverybody, there is somebody
that exceeded their sales goal,there's a technician that passed
their hours turned goal.
You go find them, even thoughyou didn't hit your goal, and

(48:33):
thank them and tell them greatjob last month, because if you
don't guess what happens to them, they're like nobody even
noticed.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
They're like hey, I overperformed, I can't control
that.
Other people didn't overperform.
No one even noticed.
We all got whipped.
Now we all go to work saturdaysyeah, why should?

Speaker 1 (48:50):
I have to do that.
When I busted it, yeah, I waspulling the whole load, so if
you miss that, you will run goodpeople off.
So always put yourself to theside for a second and identify
those that did win, even if yourentire business didn't win, and
go thank and congratulate them.
And they should not be in thesame meeting as everybody else

(49:11):
that didn't achieve their goal.
Don't drag them through the mud.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
That's so good.
Just remember, failure is ateacher, but only if you
actually learn from it.
That's right.
You have to learn from yourfailure and don't let it happen
again.
So yeah, so, so very good.
There, hey time for somefrequently asked questions.
Have you got anything good?
What is one leadership fail?
You've had to learn the hardway, like crash and burn style.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Let me tell you like a few of them yeah, there's
plenty of them, not keepingtrack of all of them uh,
learning on the processes andreally focusing on that.
But matt was talking about it.
Uh, I'm gonna say early on inmy career and I've gotten better
at it, I don't likeconfrontation.
I know right from wrong, I knowwhat needs to be done, and so

(50:07):
initially I wouldn't always takeit out of my brain and my
thoughts of how we could havedone better what was supposed to
be done, and go to the peoplethat are driving that department
or that ship and say, hey, this, this, this, this, this and
this here's kind of what I'mlooking at.
What's your thoughts?
Here's what the goal was.
Here's where we ended up at.
These people didn't generateany income.
What's going on here?

(50:27):
I didn't fully.
I would beat myself up of goingthrough that and how to make it
better, but I would not take thetime and go and confront the
issue and say, hey, do you needhelp?
Do you need some more structure?
Do you need help moving throughsome people, whatever it may be
?
I would just assume that,dadgummit, I can fix this

(50:50):
without communicating with them.
You fell short.
You weren't here when you'resupposed to be here.
You didn't do what you said youwere going to do.
You know all those things justearly on.
Confrontation, confrontation isstill not my thing, but I've
just very quickly learningbusiness is business and if I
come to you, it's not because Idon't like you and it's not

(51:10):
because I want to fire you andit's not because any of those
things.
It's just because I've beenhired to manage you and you've
been hired to manage this andthis isn't doing what needs to
be done.
And so figuring that out, ofjust how to properly confront
that and have success and learnfrom that failure.
That's good, that's somethingI've struggled with for a long

(51:32):
time to keep working on.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, and I kind of talked about mine earlier.
You know where I've crashed andburned on.
You know whether it may beoverreacting to a situation, or
we talked about marketing, orthe store just lost money.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
The store just.
I mean you want to talk aboutcrash and burn.
Nothing's worse than crash andburn when you work a million
hours and paid everybody elseout in the dealership and then

(51:58):
the other business owners outthere, they're gonna, they're
gonna resonate with us.
You might be chuckling.
It's like hey, you look up andyou made less than anybody else
in your business because itdidn't make any money.
You know, um, and you talk aboutcrashing and burning.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
You just got to recalibrate and that's a tricky
thing that you're generallyusually almost always in your
own boat.
Yeah, right like you're all inthe same boat and then somehow
you got it's like, hey, I'mgonna go down with the ship,
yeah, right, like you put airbelts and lifeboats and you're
like I'm gonna go down with aship and, unlike everyone
watching you go down on the ship, they generally don't know

(52:33):
that's behind enemy lines, uh,and it doesn't help if you share
with the team, like, hey, well,jack wagon, figure it out.
You made twice as much as I didlast month, you know that
doesn't solve anything but whatyou can do is refocus on that.
It's like, hey, let's dissect,let's hyper dissect your
department, yes, and let's offanything extra that we don't

(52:54):
need like.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
I think that's important and I think if you ask
any of the managers, I don'tknow that they could tell you
which month we lost money in,because I never had a meeting
and said hey, just to leteverybody know, we lost money
last month and y'all got paidmore than I did.
So fix it.
That wasn't the leadershipstyle.
That's not how you unpack itwhen you crash and burn.
You get back up, dust yourselfoff and figure out how to

(53:17):
improve on it, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
Yeah, it becomes a new challenge and it's like,
okay, let's figure out how towin here, because you put so
much effort, you know, youfigure out what your break-even
number is and everyone else justsees it like the people who
don't see it think you're makinggood jillions.
Oh yeah, and the people thatyou come across that are closest
to you think you're justrolling in the deep.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Yeah, and because they look at what they've made
and they're like, if I've madethis, they had to have made,
yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
And then the people close to you, like in the
dealership.
They're like well, yougenerated 1.2 million dollars in
income and they have no cluewhat the expenses are expenses
1.3.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
They didn't see the expenses 1.3 or 1.4 million and
they're just like oh gosh, theyjust made 1.4 million.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
And they're just like oh gosh, they just made $1.2
million.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
We just got everything for free and didn't
pay everybody.
Hang on, Harry and Larry.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Listen, but you're not going to.
You know, at certain levelsyou're not going to hear that
the CEO of you know Boeing isnot going to say well, our
import tariffs are justastronomical.
Now, if they're public, they dohave to share that.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Even if you did, they still wouldn't understand.
They wouldn't believe you, theywouldn't believe you.
So a whole lot of good thingsrolling through there.
Make sure always check us outat lewissuperstorecom and go to
crossroadsconversationpodcastcom.
Hit like, hit, subscribe andgive us some content feedback
there of what we can cover to beable to do in the future.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it
a like.
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Even visit our website.
Send us the questions aboutwhat you want to know, what you
want to hear.
Tell us about the automotiveindustry, family business in
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Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
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