Ep.50 - Real Leadership Q&A: Honest Answers to Tough Business Questions

Summary

In this episode of Crossroads Conversations, the Lewis Brothers discuss the intricacies of running a family business, emphasizing the importance of leadership, community trust, and employee engagement. They share insights on navigating growth, maintaining a strong company culture, and the significance of clear communication and training. The conversation also touches on the challenges of starting a business, the reality of sustaining success, and the need for adaptability in a changing market. Ultimately, the brothers highlight the value of teamwork and the importance of investing in both employees and the business for long-term success.


Takeaways

Leadership is about more than just titles; it's about influence and impact.
Community trust is built over generations and is crucial for business longevity.
Consistency in training and culture is vital during periods of growth.
Engaging employees through open communication fosters a positive work environment.
Handling difficult conversations with top performers requires tact and understanding.
Sustaining a business requires slow, steady growth rather than rapid expansion.
Starting a business demands commitment and hard work, often with little immediate reward.
Reinvesting profits back into the business is essential for long-term success.
Team success is more fulfilling than individual accolades.
Adaptability is key in navigating the ever-changing landscape of business.


Sound bites

"You have to put in the time."
"You have to earn your position."
"Reinvest it in your business."


Chapters

00:00 Leadership Beyond Titles
02:47 The Importance of Community Trust
05:58 Navigating Business Growth and Culture
08:51 Employee Engagement and Training
11:52 The Role of Consistency in Leadership
14:59 Handling Employee Dynamics
17:45 The Value of Communication in Business
20:46 Sustaining Business Through Challenges
23:46 The Reality of Starting a Business
26:36 The Long-Term Vision for Success
29:55 The Power of Team Success
32:41 Adapting to Change in Business
35:31 Leading Without Authority
38:34 Identifying the Right Leaders
41:31 The Myth of Leadership
44:36 Final Thoughts and Future Directions

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):
Look at the head coaches how many of them won the
Heisman Trophy?
How many of them played in aSuper Bowl?
So just because you have a topperson in your business, now
maybe they are, maybe they are,but more than likely there's
somebody else that may just bedoing average in a position, but
they've got great leadership,great communication skills and

(00:22):
they're going to help you outmore in that area.
So take the time to invest tomake sure you're putting a
leader in a leader position.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hey everyone, Welcome to Crossroads Conversations
with the Lewis Brothers, wherewe aim to share real stories
about running a successfulfamily business, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community that keeps our
doors open.
We're your hosts, Taylor, Mattand Shelby, and we'll bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe

(00:54):
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.
Welcome to Lewis BrothersCrossroads Conversations.
This is the 50th episode,Five-oh, 50th episode of
Answering.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Questions Week after week, we've almost made it,
almost made it Real world stuffhappening.
This is really us two.
It's not AI.
No, this isn't live.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
No, 50 episodes, let's go.
Somehow we get along and it allworks really good.
Always showing up, always good,always together, talking about
what works.
So welcome back.
In this special episode.
We're answering real questionsfrom our own Lewis Automotive
team.
Ooh, this could be interesting.
Everything from leadership andbusiness challenges to what we
wish we'd known sooner.

(01:40):
No scripts, no filters, justhonest answers and real
conversations.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Before you go any further, let me tell you how
this format happened.
We talked about a little bitlast week like, hey, we always
ask at the end of this podcast,hey, drop it in the comments,
let us know.
And we continue to grow ouraudience.
Each week I get the metrics ofof all the views and the
downloads and somebody's seenrelevance or lapdice or

(02:05):
something.
But so we said, hey, let's seeemployees, wise, 260 employees.
Okay, what questions they havenot necessarily for podcasts,
just for us, like if we sloweddown and held still for a second
, okay, what would they want toknow?
It's like a real q a.
So then the the team actuallywent around and said no, you
have to ask a question and ask agood handful of employees.

(02:27):
And that's where these came.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Do we have the recording of them asking the
question?
I don't know.
I think they wanted to beanonymous.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
We have a solid, and that's a good point.
This is not on the script.
We have built this outstandingmarketing Dang, marketing Dang
From social media people todouble video, people to graphics
, people to events, people tocoordination of all of it, and
so yeah they did a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I just got to say, when you're saying that, I know
we're getting off topic here,but this is exciting, whatever,
you might be driving down theroad and you saw the buildings
and you've seen all theinventory and you're like, dang,
what's next?
We're always looking for thenext level and what you're going
to see in the next six monthscoming out social wise, our
interaction wise, how thispodcast, our Saturday morning
meeting will be next level.

(03:14):
We're so excited about it, yep.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Hey, matt, but what happened last week?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Recap last week, episode 49.
If you missed out, go checkthis one out, and I think every
leader out there.
If you've not experienced ityet, it's only because you just
got started and it's coming, soyou might as well go earmark
this one.
Burned out and still in charge.
You know, as a leader, as anentrepreneur, you can feel
burned out but you can't give up.

(03:40):
You got people who are like,okay, I'm back in the corner,
I'm whipped up.
You got people who are like,okay, I'm back in the corner,
I'm whipped, but what do I do?
Because I got to come out ofthis corner fighting.
I can't give up.
My family depends upon it.
You know all my employeesdepend upon it, so on and so
forth.
So we unpacked all of that onwhat's called the dark side of
leading under pressure.
You know we unpacked all that,gave you some real-world advice

(04:04):
on how each of us has been ableto go through that and how we
have the tools to be able to gothrough it again in the future,
because it is a cycle that willhappen.
I don't care how many positivepodcasts you listen to.
I was going to say cassettetapes.
You can listen to them allCassette tapes, podcasts, videos
anything, but you still needthe tools in place to help you

(04:25):
through all that.
Hey, as always, go toLewisSuperstorecom.
You'll find over 1,000 vehiclesin stock, all during our Trade
In Trade Up event, where you canget an additional $2,500 in
addition for your trade value,plus our Lewis guarantee.
And then all these podcastepisodes are on
CrossroadsConversationPodcastcom.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
All right.
So what did we drive today?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
It was a good one.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
We specifically didn't all drive this together.
That's because it's only atwo-seater.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
But I want to point this out this is a pre-owned
vehicle.
We always feature a breed.
We sell pre-owned, we do.
We sell a good amount ofpre-owned.
A matter of fact, we sellprobably 1.25 to 1.5 use to new
ratio.
So if we sell 200 new, thatmeans we sell around 300 use.
That's right, right, um.

(05:16):
And so I'll tell you ourfeature and tell you how we come
across this stuff.
So you know that we're fordguys, you know that we're mopar
guys.
It's our core product, it'swhat we've grown up around.
But today's feature is a 2020Chevy Corvette Stingray C8.
Mid-engine, 4,700 miles.

(05:37):
It's torch red with adrenalinered interior, so it's red on red
.
It's a 2LT packagelt package4700 miles.
Z51 performance package.
It has all the options.
Uh, 3lt z51.
Uh, it's got the upgraded frontlift.
Okay, it's got the interiorcomfort package, engine

(06:00):
appearance package, thepersonalized plaque, the bright
red calipers you want to show.
But how do you know this?
Well, one we took a look at it,but to our website shows that.
Okay, pretty cool thing there,lewis superstorecom, the cool
thing that you're going to loveabout this, because non-core
product, it's not a ford or cgr,it didn't come from the
manufacturer, the used carfactory suggested retail

(06:21):
everything that everyone looksat ke Kelley, blue Book, ada.
All the online sources saysthis should sell for $73,000.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
With our Lewis exclusive trade assistance Got
that $2,500.
You can buy this car for$68,000.
Wow, so saves you a bunch ofmoney.
Five grand less there.
This is just one of hundreds.
Bunch of money.
Five grand less there.
This is just one of hundreds.
This morning, I think, we lookedat it and had close to 470
pre-owned cars on the ground,and I need you to know that we

(06:51):
don't buy these at auction.
I think that's the importantpoint, right there.
We buy majority, majority ofour used cars come from trade,
yeah, right, but things that weacquire comes from private
collections, from for sale byowners, from local people.
Because what happens at anauction?
Let's say the three of us don'twork together.
We all work at three differentplaces.

(07:11):
We go to an auction because wehave to have used cars, because
the ratio says we need to sellused cars.
Sure, we go to that auction.
There is generally 100 timespeople per car of cars to buy
there, and so that means we'reall going to be focused on this
car.
We all like it, it has theright options and we're going to
raise our hand.
We're going to bid against eachother, the guy with the last
hand up, gets the car, it'sgoing to be above value.

(07:33):
Plus, they're going to chargeyou an auction self-fee.
You're going to have apost-sale inspection fee.
You're going to happen andyou're going to hope it's a good
car before, before it evershows up here.
So you're going to pay anastronomically high amount.
Yep, that's why we put this$2,500 trade assistance, because
that's about the average amountthat it costs to go to an

(07:54):
auction to acquire that.
We want to give you that money.
Yep, so if your car's worth 10grand now it has the value of
$12,500.
So we purchase a ton of carsjust locally off the street.
So if you've got a car for sale, bring it to us and we'll give
you top dollar.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Hey, you know I like to throw the facts in there for
everybody to grab a hold of.
So, like last month, forexample, of the 415 vehicles we
sold, 226 of them were pre-owned226.
In addition to that, what youwere just talking about about
local vehicles that we take intrade or we buy out of
collections Last month weacquired over 302 of those.

(08:31):
So every single month it's over300 new pre-owned vehicles that
comes into our inventory andover 50% of those are non-core
products.
Love that.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
So that's our feature of the day Solid car there.
So let's dive into.
We talked about questions fromour employees, what they thought
, and we'll see how deep thisgets.
I haven't completely readthrough this whole thing, but
number one question what is onething that you can credit to
being in business for 79 years?

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, 79 years is a track record that has proven
itself that you can't do if youdon't put in the time.
And what I mean by that is realtrust in the community from
generational.
When you bake in generationaltrust like my dad did business

(09:22):
with the Lewis's, my grandfatherdid business with the Lewis's
that is something you can't goout there and buy yeah.
So that generational trust onthe buyer side, and then having
the culture of a employer thatyou want to work for, that
you're like, that's somebodythat I can see myself having a

(09:42):
career with.
Not only are they going to giveme a fair wage and support me,
they're going to be there withme, they'll actually train me.
The culture I'll go to everyday is going to lift me up so I
don't go home in a worse mood.
Those are a couple of thingsthat you can't do without
putting in time Now.
Once you get past onegeneration, it starts showing

(10:03):
you that what they're doing iscorrect.
There's plenty of businessesthat can go one generation, but
if you want to go fourgenerations, like we are, you
must continue to do the rightthing with your employees and
with your customer.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I think that's really good, Taylor.
What's your thought?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
there.
I think it's structure, taylor,what's your thought there?
I think it's structure.
It's honestly structure fromall that happens because and
we've went over this in previousepisodes a family of house
story of how you get into thebusiness, how you work,
everything else, that all hasmade every family member that's
ever worked in this business.
They've had to put in the time,they've had to put the work in,

(10:42):
so they have sweat equity inthe whole circumstance've had to
put the work in, so they havesweat equity in the whole
circumstance of everything goingon.
So then it makes them pour outinto employees where they want
to work there.
So it's structure for me of andyou know we've talked about this
whenever we were younger, justrewinding a little bit that it's
.
I've got a long mountain I'vegot to climb before I can get to

(11:05):
where I want to be, where I canrun this business, where I can
own this business, whatever itwould be.
But that is one thing that hasallowed it to sustain for 79
years because we haven't takensomebody in the family and
thrown them into the reins andsaid, hey, here you go.
They have had to work their wayup through the ranks and prove
their worth.
That then pours down to all theemployees, all the community,

(11:28):
because that process that's beenbaked in for 79 years continues
to stay in the circle.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
I think that's really good and so that talks that
business is more than business,you know, and it's not just
business.
And so you think about that andlike, okay, 79 years, what's
happened?
I think it's having the correctmoral compass of understanding
what's right, doing what's right, and that's for customers but
also employees right.

(11:56):
And the funny thing isyesterday in our board meeting,
uncle tommy um semi-retireduncle tommy he said hey, when I
was 18 years old this is funnybecause he doesn't always tell
stories, but just like I don,tommy he said hey, when I was 18
years old this is funny becausehe doesn't always tell stories,
but just like I don't knowwhere he's.
Like, when I was 18 years old,my uncle uh told me that that
would have been buck, I suppose,or it could have been her so

(12:16):
that was second generation, herb, and he said listen, son, and
I'll say this, just like he saidlisten, son, and I'll say this,
just like he said.
He said you're never too damnbusy to get out in the shop and
go talk to the technicians.
He said you're never too busyto get out and go talk to the
employees.

(12:36):
He said you better go findRandy, you better go find Steve,
you better go find Larry andask them how was Junior's first
day of school, how's footballpractice going?
And I think that's the valuethat this business has been
built on is hiring the rightpeople, giving the time, tools
and training, at whatever stagethat that is, and then showing

(12:57):
them that you care, because youdo right, because you do care,
and it's important to them thatthey know that you care about
them.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's good.
I want to say one other pointthat came to me, I think, taylor
, as you were talking, and Ithink this is vitally important
to say one more time is that wedo not have people in positions,
especially family members, thatdid not fund the position.
None of us were given anopportunity.
Yeah, we were given anopportunity.

(13:24):
None of us came in at we weregiven an opportunity.
We were given an opportunity.
None of us came in at amanagement level.
We were all given theopportunity, but we had to earn
and I would say harder than anormal employee earned the
ability to go to the next stepand the next step and the next
step, and I can remember in mymind, being frustrated, that I
wasn't at the next step yet Gone.

(13:46):
What else do I have to do?
We've broken these records,we've done this, we've done that
and it was just time.
Now it's easier to see.
Okay, that's why, dad, let methink about it, let me sit in
that situation for a while,because it paid dividends down
the road versus progressing tooquick.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, I think that that's really good and that all
contributes to long termbusiness.
We're not chasing the dollarright Now.
That's important.
But I think that answers thatNext question how do you stay
consistent with training andculture when the business is on
a tremendous growth?
Whether we're saying hiring abunch of new employees like when

(14:26):
we moved to our new location,100 plus new employees I think
that speaks to the culture.
Or just training of making surethat everyone understands Lewis
Automotive how we treatemployees and customers.
What's your guys' thoughtsthere?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I think it is extremely important and we were
all challenged on this,especially during growth and
construction.
It's extremely important tomake sure you have
non-negotiables and some of ournon-negotiables even on our
busiest day or our most hecticday, we still have our meeting
with our managers.

(15:00):
We still take time to train onMondays and Fridays.
We still do cake day in themiddle of it, we still have our
micro meetings.
So when we start off our week,those are non negotiables, that
those things are in place.
And no, I can't go do thisduring that because I'm in
meetings.

(15:21):
And I had to get that throughmy brain early on in my career
because when I was thinking well, there's a customer out there,
there's somebody else that needsmy time today.
Well, but Matt, you've got 40people in the room waiting for
you to train on.
What's the multiplicationfactor there?
Because as soon as you let offthe gas and you don't prioritize
something, your team now thinksthat's not important.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, and I think also that was working in the
business and on the businessright, A lot of those things
that drag you away are workingin the business, which are
important.
But now it's next layer,working on the business.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
You're just.
You're never no different thanyou were talking about Uncle
Tommy saying that going aroundand talking to your employees.
You're never too busy to train.
Now, if you got people notshowing up for your training,
that's a whole differentdiscussion.
But you're never too busy totrain and to be involved in your
business and sometimes thatmeans you got to cut out some

(16:14):
other stuff.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
That's not as important, no doubt you can't
just keep stacking them in, andwe've tried to do that.
Oh yeah, how many more metricscan we put on a page Like I
don't know.
Let's keep trying.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, so that's interesting in others too.
Yeah, you know, I mean when,that, when that I'm not going to
say simple, because it wasn'tsimple.
You know when that handoffhappened where, then I was like
OK, I have all the trust inShelby and running the Monday
morning meeting on training.
Ok, then that freed me up tocommunicate back with the board
some more to working on thebusiness.

(16:46):
And then same thing with Shelby, with Taylor going okay, well
then I can be used over here,taylor can shift into this.
So I think it takes that aswell.
Yeah, most definitely.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Taylor have any different thoughts or feelings?
No, I think the biggest.
And we talk about this but asbeing present, present around
the business, because then youreally hear what you need to
train on.
Yeah, you know that we need totrain, but the only way that
you're ever going to really hearand it's no different than I
was in the being yesterday I'mlike, hey, some of y'all are
getting aggravated with me ifthe abcs you say I know the abcs

(17:20):
, but I sat there and went overcompetitively, repetitively,
over and over, and over and over, and the class finally looked
at me because I kept asking theguy the same questions and he
was scared and was fumbling it.
But we did it about 10 times ina row and then I stopped and
sat back and class was like,okay, all right, that's okay to

(17:41):
do.
I said, yes, it's okay to do,because then you get where
you're confidently doing itevery time.
But we wouldn't know thosethings that need to be addressed
if you're not sitting indifferent areas.
No different than you saying,hey, you got to take the time to
go talk to people.
Go take the time to go and sitsomewhere and work.
Go talk to someone else youhaven't talked to, because

(18:02):
you're going to hear an employeethat may not be treating a
customer correctly and you'regoing to hear an employee
completely drop what they shouldhave been a walk in the end
zone, but they fumbled the ball.
So that's the only way thatyou'll ever know to be able to
implement that in our consistenttraining, and you can't be mad
at them first time or two, forthem doing wrong, saying wrong

(18:25):
or going through the processwrong.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
If you haven't properly trained and like
newsflash this is gonna blowyour mind.
You will continually have tocircle back to the basics
regularly, continually,regularly.
Circle back to the basics, likeit just like oh my, I just went
over that.
You know it was funny.

(18:47):
Taylor was talking aboutsomething for service training
when the three of us weretalking yesterday and it was
like Matt just went through acourse and he's like well, but
like Ford, and I was like no, itwas Ford in Christ, or like a
12 week training process.
He calendared out an hour everysingle week to do this, this
and this is like better firedback up again.

(19:09):
Like fire the old girl up again.
But it it like if that bugs you, you're in the wrong spot,
right, it can aggravate you.
It's like no, no, no.
Like how much do you forgetfrom yesterday?
Like a decent amount, right.
So it's okay to circle back toit and hopefully it just fires
them back up.
And I love that you continuedto.
You weren't mean and you didn'tmake fun of the person.

(19:32):
I was one time at Allen Ramtraining and I went, I was
general sales manager and took acouple finance managers and
took a couple sales managers andAllen Ram was very intact
Military training, had reallygood training and he gave us the
whole training meeting rightfrom the get go and he started
out with the most importantstuff page one, page two, page

(19:53):
three, and we were training thefirst four hours.
And so then he started.
He would say ring, ring andsomeone had to answer the phone
and he would ask a very specificquestion, that it was an open
book test and the answers wereright in front of you and just
give them to him.
One of our finance managers wasanswering it but not saying it
correctly and he'd say ring,ring and then he'd say ring,

(20:14):
ring and he did it like 18 timesand I was sitting.
I was like, stop thinking, readthe sheet of paper.
It was embarrassing for me andit was aggravating because I was
sitting there.
I was like just read the paper.
It was embarrassing for me andit was aggravating because I was
sitting there.
I was like just read the paper,just read the paper.
And so I know that was youraggravation.
But I can promise you he neverforgot the process of how to

(20:34):
train.
He didn't belittle him, didn'tsay, hey, you're dumb or hey,
you can't figure this out.
He's like he finally stopped.
He's like it's in front of you.
Read the paper.
Yeah, he was like because hekept trying to just go off of
natural instinct.
What he would say he's like no,this is brand new to you.
I know you won't understand it,but this is how you need to be
training with your team for themto fully get it.
Otherwise, they'll just gothrough the training, check that

(20:56):
box and go back to what theyknew.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, that's so good.
I got a question off of thisquestion I'm going to ask both
of y'all, because this issupposed to be real Q&A.
Have you ever been in asituation where you had a
meeting, training meeting comingup, a cake day coming up, an
employee event coming up, and inthe back of your mind you're
like I am frustrated, I got toomuch to do right now.

(21:23):
Why are we doing this?
So on and so forth.
I'd say 50% of the time.
You, yeah, who put this on mycalendar.
Yes, I got to get other thingsdone right now.
Now, we love doing those things, but we're human.
I think that's what we want toget across here is it's

(21:44):
important to us the employeeevents, it's important to us the
training stuff?
But to think that it comes easyand that's what we wake up
every single morning we'repulled eight different
directions.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
And I guess let me explain that and give some more
context.
In our keg day celebration wecelebrate all the birthdays and
all the anniversaries.
For the week positive accoladesand for the week positive
accolades and most importantly,it's positive.
Never, never have I, ever,never will we get up there and
speak of really anything thatneeds attention or anything that

(22:13):
wasn't done.
Well, now, sometimes you'll begoing into that meeting looking
for some positive outlook whenthings have turned down a little
bit.
And you're like because thenyou look at the hard numbers and
you're like, okay, well, thatwas.
We were down $48,000 there, orwe were down 38 units there.
Expenses were up 47% there.
It's like son of a gun.

(22:34):
And then you're looking at itand you got a ping from a Google
review.
One star review is like, ah,they promised me a car but they
didn't wash my car.
Like what the heck?
Yeah.
And it's like, hey, thesalesperson was great, never
called me again, they didn'tfollow typically used car
dealership, and those thingspile on.
And you're like now I gotta gopump my team up about how good
they are.
Am I lying to them?
And I'm like, no, that's asmall percentage, that's a small

(22:56):
percentage.
So maybe in your office,banging your head up against the
wall, doing some push-ups,dunking your head in the cold
plunge, just to walk on thestage like Ric Flair and just
say, hey, I found it.
Here are the good things.
And I want to say thank you somuch for you actually caring and
doing good.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
But you're so real that it sometimes is like
whatever, and I'll pitch it overto you have you ever been
frustrated just thinking?
I know this is important, but Igot too much on my plate right
now.
And why are we meeting aboutthis?

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Oh, yes, like I'm going through things that I know
.
I know, especially as a managerand it probably irritates me
more, not in sales, but more ofa manager level that we have to
meet with managers to be able togo over processes or procedures
that should be done, you shouldknow.

(23:52):
That's why you're empowered,you're employed at this level.
I'm like, come on, guys,because nothing irritates me
more than to stop during the dayand have to slow down to teach
someone that should know.
Yeah, and is to a level thatthey should know.
That's when it ever really acts.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
It's like you're on a power drive down the field.
Oh, you've got a fast break andyou call timeout.
Well, now everyone's caught upto you.
It's like you were leading thelap in the daytona 500 and you
had four seconds on the guy.
Then a caution comes out.
Now everyone's stacked behindyou.
But it's important.
You were leading the lap in thedaytona 500 and you had four
seconds on the guy.
Then a caution comes out.
Now everyone's stacked behindyou.
But it's important, you know,because sometimes we'll do a
manager checkup, like we weretalking about our trade-up thing

(24:33):
and saturday, we were talkingabout her in the saturday before
and I was like, hey, if it'sthis, does it qualify?
If it's, this is a qualify, howmuch to get?
And one of the managersanswered wrong three times in a
row and I was like I guessthat's why we're going over this
right, but that's life andpeople.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
The reason I brought that up is because hopefully
there's some people listeningthat realize we're pulled eight
million directions, just likeyou guys are.
We have plenty of things to do.
It's not that we needed toschedule those meetings or those
events to fill our calendar.
We're actually having to removethings off of the calendar and
reprioritize.

(25:12):
But you're never too busy toinvest in your team.
You're never too busy torecognize your team.
But if you don't prioritize it,you don't calendar it, it will
never happen and all the normalstuff of every day will eat all
your time out.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yeah, it definitely will.
So that is a good point thatwe're not trying to share our
Instagram highlight reel.
We want to give you all thestuff you know, all the dirt, so
that's really good, all right.
Last question for me what keepsyou going every day as a leader
?
What keeps you going going,whether that's just you or the
business or whatever it is.
I'll jump into that one.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
I I love seeing.
Is it steak?
Yeah, yeah, oh.
People are highly concerned,and my brother being one of them
right over here.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
My daily input of protein because like in one
seating this is totally derailyour head, but I want to say it
and one seating somewhere fromnoon to three o'clock.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
A paper plate has never worked so hard we've got
to get the video and the picturepart going no, no, I have one.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I'll send it to uh the team so they can put this.
Please put this on there.
A video I videoed the other day.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
It was like three 16 to 18 ounce ribeyes stacked on
top of each other, coated inmustard, like a stack of
pancakes and he does this.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
It's like this training act and it's because
he's on carnivore diet and hegenerally will just eat one time
a day.
So I'm not just saying, hey,you're a big fan.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
No, I ain't.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
No, he has a theory, but I'm just like I can't sleep
if I eat half that much steak.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I've never and I challenge, I'm going to make
y'all do this of going through,because I know y'all like being
completely healthy.
You've never felt so good.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I felt, okay, let's get.
Before you go on the step yousaid you've never felt this good
we got together to celebrateour birthdays.
We do a campaign on birthdaydays as a family.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Right we did it.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
We went out to the lake.
Taylor cooked 18 of thesehumongous rib eyes.
First of all, thank you.
Thank you, I loved it.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
So I ate it Saturday night.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
It was amazing it was amazing.
And then we had a lot left, andso Sunday I put it in the
microwave and ate another one.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Like for breakfast.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
I had to turn my air down to like 66 and slept in my
underwear on top of the sheetsand I still sweated Like I was
on the beach.
I was just like how do you dothis?
What?

Speaker 1 (27:31):
is going on.
What's the protein?
All right, so on each one ofthe, how many steaks did he have
?
Three?
Okay, there's an average on an18-ounce steak is 126 to 138
grams of protein.
That's a lot.
Let's use 130.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Two of those gets my daily intake.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Three of at 130 is 390 grams of protein.
That's why I'm so strong.
Mr Universe, what are youtraining for, golly?

Speaker 3 (27:58):
All right, a lot of water?
No, that's okay.
So the question what keeps yougoing every day as a leader?
One, it's steak, but two, whatwas you actually going to say?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
No, it's got to be the success of others around me,
not only providing for myfamily.
I love doing that, making allhis brothers proud that you put
me in a position that I can dogood at.
But it's not my own goals.
It's not saying, hey, look atme.
What I'm doing, it's seeing mywhole team succeed.
And that's when it's like youcan tell me hey, your team did
this and not Taylor, you didthis.

(28:31):
I'd be more proud whenever youtold me my team did this than
saying, hey, you did good,because I don't want the credit,
I don't want to stand up thereand be going through everything
else.
So it is me pushing forward totry to make sure my team has the
best ability to crush all oftheir goals.
I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
I mean, it's not that I'm copying you, but we all
talk about the same culture andit just rings in my head because
growing up in my dad's vehiclewas a library of cassette tapes.
Okay, not this thing.
Come on Of cassette tapes.
They were the old podcast andyou know what One of them we
regularly played on there is ZigZiglar, and Zig constantly said

(29:12):
if you'll help enough othersget what they want, you'll get
what you want.
It's exactly what Taylor'stalking about and I got to agree
.
As a leader, there's beenobviously multiple different
chapters and stages and therewill be many more throughout my
career.
But there's one thing I enjoyhitting your own goal, and
that's exciting for a short term, but then it's like who else

(29:35):
are you going to tell about that?
You get an entire team toachieve their goal and the
celebration on that is nodifferent than watch a football
game Okay.
And if you get a running backthat has record yards in the
game, okay, but they didn't winthe game, yeah, there's hardly
any celebration.
He can have half the yards andthe team wins and there's a huge

(29:57):
celebration, you know so to methat's really important.
And I'll say the other thingthat just keeps me going every
day as a leader is the justconstant growth of opportunities
where I feel challenged andit's like man, I'm stepping into
an area that I don't have apath for.
I've got to learn.
It's challenging me, it'staxing me, but I know if I do

(30:20):
this then the team will bebetter and it will continue to
project our family business anda constant growth forward.
That's good.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
I'd say one thing that I would add.
I think it's really scary, cooland rewarding to know that, not
only specifically directly myfamily, our family, but 260
employees in their families,count on us each day to bring
our best and to help them.
It's scary, challenging, butwhen it all works, when you,

(30:54):
that's one of those things likeif we ever said which was so
rare hey dad, is there any waythat there'd be something else
that I could do to make somemore money?
Right, when we were in the washbay and in the parts warehouse,
yeah, right, and it was one ofthose things early taught us was

(31:20):
like well, figure out to bemore efficient, work a little
harder and help enough peoplehit their goals and you should
make some more money.
Right, and so that's one ofthose things.
We know that and that's ourdriver of like help other people
, and then you should besuccessful, right, and if you're
not successful, you've failedall around that's not a sign you
better figure it out that'sgood

Speaker 2 (31:32):
oh, that's good.
Hey, I'm gonna mix it up alittle bit.
A little fun fact.
Fun fact quiz of the week whatis the longest continuously
produced vehicle model inhistory?
Okay, I've got a chevy suburbanb, the volkswagen beetle c, the
ford f-150 or d.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
None of these the longest continuously produced
vehicle model in history.
Shout out to our our team thattook the answer off here.
I love that they do.
We don't know the answer Chevy,suburban, volkswagen Beetle,
f-150, or none of these.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
You know I was getting ready to ask the
question.
I'm going to go ahead and askit anyways.
But I was going back to myschool days on not reading the
question correctly and I wasgoing to say, well, what about
the Volkswagen Beetle?
And I was going to say, well,what about the Volkswagen Beetle
?
Because they had a period oftime where they weren't built.
Do we count all that?

Speaker 3 (32:17):
But right there in the question it says
continuously yeah, that would becontinuous and that hints us
why I wasn't good at multiplechoice.
That's okay, we're going to beall right.
You made it.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's all right.
Hey, rolling to anotherquestion here.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
What is one simple key to business sustainability?
I would say a simple key tobusiness sustainability is this
and I was talking to somebodyabout this yesterday, in fact
slow growth, slow growth.
Everybody wants massive growth.
You give me sustained slowgrowth.
I can plan for it.
We can do better at handlingcashflow for it.

(32:58):
We can hire the right employees, we can get the structure how
we want it.
You just and I know that's kindof tough to say like hey, you
don't want all this businesscoming at you.
Slow growth will helpsustainability.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
We've seen that in companies that we've like
vendors that we use, they'relike well, this person's good,
this person's good and theydon't have a slow growth pattern
and they don't have the supportto handle it, and you become
dissatisfied.
Yep, I would say.
Along with that, uh is solvethe little problems.
You know you're never going tofind the $50,000 ideas like, oh,

(33:36):
never going to find the $50,000idea.
It was like, oh, that was easy,you just flip that switch and
you know.
But if you focus on the littlethings, it's no different than
we say in endurance events, likehow in the heck do you run a
hundred miles?
I'll tell you exactly how.
You start with the first stepand then you make it to the
second step and then the thirdstep.
You're not trying to say, hey,how do I scale a million dollar
business or $ million dollarbusiness, 100 million dollar
business?
You're saying, hey, how do Imake sure the customer that
walks in the first one todaygets the best experience?

(33:59):
How do I make sure my employeewalks in today that they know
exactly where to go, exactlywhat to do, that they have a
very clearly written process,that they feel valued, that they
have a clean place to go thatthey, you know all the things.
And so if you focus on justthat very simple thing and then
get that figured out and thenmove to the next thing, so just

(34:19):
focusing on little things alongwith slow growth yeah, I think,
then you're just like whoa.
This is a monster.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
it really is, I gotta add.
I know they said one, so I'mgonna go onbased, and we talk
about that word and we love, welove in there, and you could
layer that.
However adaptability changingwith times, but solution-based,
which means finding a way to notsay no.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
Let me put that in simple and easy Solution-based
means.
When the answer is no and it'sokay that the answer is no give
them an option that doesn't sayno, it does.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
And it means when the faucet turns off on new
vehicles, we provide usedsolution base to keep selling.
When the shop has got a reducedamount of RO accounts, we lean
heavier on selling the vehicles.
Yeah, when used isn't sellingor we can't get enough used, we
lean harder on selling thevehicles.
You know, when used in theselling or we can't get enough
use, we lean harder on the new.

(35:17):
You know we're just alwayslooking for a way to be
solution-based and change withthe times and the molding.
We know this.
But just so our audience knows,do you know how much different
car buying looks now than 79years ago?
It's a little different.
You know, just because you'reopen, 79 years does not mean

(35:38):
you're going to be successful.
No, you got to keep evolvingwith no.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Okay, that's good there.
Well, next one of rolling intohow do you lead a team of people
in the right direction that youwant as a leader without making
the team feel push obligatedand make it their idea?

Speaker 3 (35:54):
I like at the very end there.
That's how you lead a team ofpeople in the right direction
that you want as a leader,without making them feel pushed,
obligated.
You make it their idea.
We spent a whole podcasttalking about that, but that
becomes a discovery.
It's like hey, guys, the nextthing I want to work on is
customer CSI or shop up time orwhatever it is.

(36:16):
And so then you get that crewin there, that hyper-based crew,
that micro meeting, and say,hey, here's the next thing we
want to focus on.
Let's start whiteboarding someideas of what your thoughts are,
and you know generally what youwant the answer to right, but
you're going to let them andthen they might throw it up
there.
And then you get to circle it acouple extra times.
Sure, uh, but then if it's notthere, you say, hey, what about

(36:40):
if we offered this first?
Yep and no, oh, that's a goodidea.
It's like, okay, okay to put upthere.
And they're like, yeah, put itup there.
So you put it up there.
And so the end you circle backto is like, okay, is this good?
Now?
Like man, let's x that one, youx that one.
So you end up with three.
He's like okay, which one doyou think?
So then your idea becomes theiridea, and that's how you lead
people in a clear direction, tothink that they're not just
cattle getting driven down theroad, right.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
That's such great insight on developing it as
their idea.
I'm going to take this from adifferent side just to add some
context to it.
Let's talk about putting peoplein the right position.
Here's what I do want to remindyou is that if you're
somebody's leader, boss, manager, whatever you want to label it

(37:24):
employees are generally going totell you yes, even when they're
not.
You're their boss, even if theydon't mean it.
Even if they don't mean it andlet me tell you this we have
seen this.
We talked about this yesterdayat one of our other stores you
can put an employee in aposition.
They will make it work forabout a 90 day to a six month

(37:45):
period.
They can put on their big boypants and their smiling face,
but at some point in time theirtrue talent will come out of
liking this position or beingfrustrated by it, to lack of
motivation and all those things.
But at first you'll think youmade the right decision, yeah.
But then and that's why we usea lot of personality tests now

(38:06):
because that doesn't lie it'snot the end, all be all, but it
doesn't lie.
Here's the second tip here Justbecause somebody is a top
performer in an area does notmean that they're your perfect
candidate for management levelwise.
So you got to get people in theright position.
I'll give you a couple examples.
In our business, a team ofsalespeople Because somebody is

(38:37):
a top technician doesn't meanthey should be the service
manager.
Because somebody is a topservice advisor does not mean
that they should be the servicemanager, so on and so forth.
Look at the head coaches in FL.
I know it's football season, sowe got to talk football.
Look at the head coaches howmany of them won the Heisman
Trophy?
How many of them played in aSuper Bowl?
So just because you have a topperson in your business, now

(39:00):
maybe they are, maybe they are,but more than likely there's
somebody else that may just bedoing average in a position, but
they've got great leadership,great communication skills and
they're going to help you outmore in that area.
So take the time to invest tomake sure you're putting a
leader in a leader position andto spin off of that.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
If you have a let's say that you have a sales
manager position available andwe've learned this the hard way
and how to do it properly youput that ad out internally Yep,
absolutely.
And then you give theopportunity, especially if they
raise their hand.
You know good and well theycould manage people better than

(39:43):
they could manage a dozen eggs,right.
But they're really good atmotivating themselves, doing
their own schedule, figuring outhow to handle customers, right.
But you know that and generallythey know it.
But they have earned the rightto be able to interview for it
and you need them to let them.
So you have to walk them throughthose stages and at least give

(40:05):
them the right opportunity tosay do I think?
I see you don't have to offerthem the job if they're not the
right fit, matter of fact, youshould not offer them the job,
but you should offer them theopportunity for sure.
And so then you can walkthrough that as like, hey, do
you want to have to control all15 of those people when they
can't hit their goals?
Like, what would you do there?
And do you want to be gluedhere full time?

(40:27):
Yeah, you can't go, run someareas and you can't go do this
and you can't just hop on aplane to go here and here and
they're like you need to givethem opportunity.
They need to give them areasfor growth without having to
move to a new role.
So they still feel valued.
Because if you just in yourmind say there's no way they
could make it as a manager,there's no way they'll make it
as a head coach, and you makethat decision for them, then

(40:49):
they're going to say thesepeople don't value me and
they'll go somewhere else.
They'll be a manager thatdidn't work out and then they'll
fall back to salesperson inanother store.
They'll be unhappy, but they'renot coming back because that
situation was never at leastpresented.
And then they get to say theyoffered me the manager position
but I don't Right, you have towin.

(41:11):
When we've done that wrongbefore, we've learned that
that's the proper way to do it.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
That's good, that is very good.
Hey, last one here Best adviceto someone who has started a new
business or wants to.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Don't give up.
Yeah, don't give up.
And let me just tell you, ifyou're starting in your career,
or especially if you're startinga business like this is as real
as I can be is it's going totake time.
And if you're married, sit downwith your wife and y'all have

(41:45):
this conversation.
It is going to take work.
I don't care all the AI toolsand all the technology out there
, it takes work.
You're not going to open abusiness tomorrow and all of a
sudden take three weeks ofvacation.
This year You're not taking anyvacation.
No, none, zero.

(42:06):
Okay, you're opening the door.
You're closing the door Now.
Eventually, you're putting allthat time in so you can layer
teams in with systems andprocesses.
So then you have thatflexibility.
But the next three plus years,if you're not ready to commit
yourself and your wife's not onthe same page, do not do it.

(42:26):
Just don't do it.
I know this doesn't soundpumped up, but it's reality.
Doesn't sound pumped up, butit's reality.
Too many people think they'regoing to open a business and
then all of a sudden sit backand work part-time and this and
that the money's going to flowin.
You got three to five yearsbarely making payroll.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Yeah, any podcast or any story of some of a founder
or business producer.
They were bleeding money.
The first three to five.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
I love listening to Guy Raz's stuff on how it built
this.
They mortgaged their house.
They didn't take a salary, theydidn't do.
They paid all their employeeswith themselves.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
It's a long-term play .
If you think that you're goingto start an IPO or a dot-com and
flip it for some millions rightquick, like you either are a
genius and somehow you'll figureout how to sell something from
your basement without having totouch it.
But in the real world, firstpiece of advice I'm going to
give you is listen to the first49 episodes of Crossroad

(43:27):
Conversations Not because wewant you to watch them all,
because it is 49 hours, which isjust about a normal work week
of things to learn and to listen, of the cash flow and figuring
out the inventory.
Turn and don't dive in like youneed to be committed with both
feet, but don't just get like,hey, I've got $400,000 to spend,

(43:48):
let's put all $400,000 in andlet's buy $400,000 worth of
inventory.
You're going to need some morecash and let's buy 400,000 worth
of inventory.
You're going to need some morecash.
So you're going to need about50% reserve there because it's a
long-term play.
But if you fully have vettedthis thing out and gone through
the metrics we've talked aboutthe questions that you asked
then fully dive in and just knowyou're committed.

(44:10):
Communicate with your spouse,said, hey, I won't see you for
35 years Yep, and we're notgoing to have anything extra.
Beans and rice, rice and beans,yep, and then somewhere along
the way you'll get a one-weekpaid vacation by yourself.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
You will, you will.
Last piece of advice on thatlet's say your business is up
and going and let's say you dohave some profit.
If that comes in the first sixmonths to the year, my hat's off
to you and reinvest it.
Reinvest it In your business,in your business.
If you even think about buyingand we're in the business of

(44:44):
selling cars, so I can't believeI'm saying this If you even
think about buying a third car,a fun car, or a boat or a Jets,
come see us.
We'll sell it to you and sayit's an awful idea.
Or a new house.
You're an idiot, I'm sorry, buttake that money and reinvest it
in your business.
Reinvest, reinvest.

(45:05):
You live off of rice and beansand beans and rice.
If you want it to catapult downthe road, reinvest the money.
It drives me nuts People.
I I've seen, I had a guy theother day and I whacked him with
a louisville slugger okay,because I've got that
relationship with him nowbecause he was doing well and I
saw him at the gas station witha brand new wakeboard boat and I

(45:29):
called him and I said where'dthat boat come from?
And I have nothing besideshelping mentor this guy and I
said cash it now he's like whyI've had a good month, reinvest
it.
There is some type of this orthat coming.
You're going to need the cashoh lord, what?

Speaker 3 (45:48):
not the people you want to ask for advice and that,
because we're going to hit youwrong.
And real, yeah, maybe that wastoo raw.
No, no, no, that's 100 on.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
No, that's 100.
Real because what's happened isso many people see the fun,
fluffy side of owning a business, and there are multiple
benefits of owning a successfulbusiness.
Let's be real about that.
Okay, whenever you put the timein, whenever you have the short
equity, it is great to be partof a thriving, successful

(46:17):
business.
But no one talks about what ittakes to get there, and even if
you have small success in thefirst six months, in the first
year, doom and gloom might becoming right behind it, and so
it's so important to know that,hey, I got to be ready for that,
I got to weather this storm sothat I can be successful, so

(46:39):
that's so good that you, youpoured into that and said, hey,
this is real, this is what youhave to do.
It's hard work, it's great todo, but you're not going to just
set out tomorrow and it'd besuccessful, that's good, all
right, let's jump back onsomething fun.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
okay, what was the longest continually produced
vehicle you hit me with inhistory?
Was it the Suburban, theVolkswagen Beetle, the F-150, or
none of those Since 1935.
Okay, since 1935, this vehiclehas been produced.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Well, generally people would probably guess the
F-150, but I think it was theearly 40s they started this
thing.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Yeah, it's tricky because it wasn't necessarily
the F-150 nameplate, it wasRanger and F-100 going through
there.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
So it's not the Suburban.
The Chevy Suburban startedproduction in 1935 and is still
in production.
Pretty crazy.
We got those for sale too.
That is crazy.
We do.
Next up a couple more questionswe got from our team.
How important is sharing yourvision and goals for growth and
the objectives for the companywith your team?

Speaker 3 (47:53):
I think it's so important, like it's one of
those things that you know agoal not written down is just a
wish, right?
So if you say, hey, we need toaccomplish this, sure, like hey,
I want to be at 120% growth.
Or hey, I'd like to be X amountof ROs.
Or hey, I'd like to hit thisnumber.
Or I'd like to be in amount ofROs.

(48:14):
Or hey, I'd like to hit thisnumber.
Or I'd like to be in thepresident's award, or hey, I'd
like to, if that's just in yourmind, even if you're giving them
very clear direction of youknow we need to do this, this
and this, but you don't tellthem what it's for, what you're
after, they won't have that samenugget of everyone pulling in
the same direction.
At least that's my feeling,right.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah, the same direction.
At least that's my feeling,right?
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's.
It's completely a wish thatyou're already setting up in
your head that you really don'twant to happen, because you told
no one you've written it,you've not shared it, what's
written down or anything else.
You, you are saying, hey, Idon't want this goal to be
successful inadvertently.
That's how what you're relayingon, even though you may want it
, you don't want it bad enoughto be able to share with your

(48:57):
team to help them hold youaccountable.
That's the reason you're doing.
It is because you think thegoal is too far-fetched, that
it's not attainable, and youdon't want to be held
accountable whenever you fail.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
And I think the flip side of that is the objectives.
If you don't share thoseobjectives, then someone might
think they're absolutely killingit, but in your mind you never
shared where you'd actually liketo be, and so that was a
misrepresentation on bothparties.
They're super excited becausethey had some growth at this
level, but the expense, thegrowth and all the things that
you had to go through to getthat does not outweigh that, and

(49:31):
so then you're dissatisfied.
They're super happy.
You're on two different planetsand it just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Have either of y'all been in the situation before
where you had a goal and avision in your head and you
thought that your team was onthat same level with you?
You hadn't directly said here'swhat we're after, but you just
assumed that they saw what youwere doing.
They saw what you were talkingabout, you assumed that they

(49:59):
were on the same trajectory asyou were, but at the end of the
month, just like you said, theythought we did well and you're
like no, we way missed the mark.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
A hundred, maybe a thousand times, and I want to go
as simple and as basic aswalking around, pick up trash
yep, the goal and the objectivewas let's keep a clean area,
because I've seen my dad do it.
It's just the proper thing todo.
Without me clear, it'llfrustrate me.
I've talked about moving thewhole lot of myself and I'm you

(50:30):
know, I'm just like you fool,why are you doing that?
I'm like well, no one else isgonna do it.
It's like you if you askanybody else to do it.
You know removing snow, youknow when you're doing that and
you assume everyone's like ohdang, the owner's been here
since 4 am clearing snow.
It's their day off and allthese things.
Like then they're drinking yourfree coffee.
Just staring at you at the glass.
Get in there.
Like, oh, I didn't know it wasjeans day.

(50:51):
It was like, well, I didn'tknow you were going to be a
slacker today.
You idiot, right, that's whatyou feel.
That's not what you say, butthat's totally my fault.
Yeah, I know it is, and it'slike hey, hang on, stop being
the doer, be the teacher.
Right Process implementationprocedure that was.
I've failed at that a milliontimes.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah, that's good.
How do you separate oneindividual?
Now think about this how do youseparate one individual that
you know is good for businessman?
They leave a negative impact onthe team.
So they've got great numbers,but every time you see they are
just trying to drag others down.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
That's a tough one.
We went through this recentlyof you have to be hard on of
going through it, hold themaccountable, because a lot of
times you find yourself youallow, um, high performers to
get away with things that you'renot going to hold the guy
that's just starting accountableto, and a lot of times you've

(51:54):
got to reset them and say, no,we got to remember how you got
to being successful and we'verecently done this with salesman
.
He's started to taking itconstructively and started to
move in the right direction.
But you have to have that unfunconversation and say this isn't
working and we have to changethis if we want to continue to

(52:17):
be in a business relationshiptogether.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
And I think that's probably best case scenario.
If you can make that work andthat top performer, a technician
, someone in the office, whoeverit is, it's just really
efficient and does really wellGenerally.
They know that right, and therest of the team knows that as
well.
And so then they start kind ofdividing the team the

(52:41):
underperformers and theoverperformers and they're like,
hey, they get special ruleseven if, no, like they're,
they're just performing thatwell.
Um, and so you have to be verycareful that it's clear
expectations, communications andit doesn't get out of hand,
because this is so importantwith that.
The three of us could notoperate this whole thing by

(53:01):
ourselves sure I could not dothis on my own.
You could not, you could not,and the three of us couldn't do
it without everyone.
So this is 1000 a team eventyeah and so you have to realize
that no one is above leaving anegative end.
And so sometimes and it happensmore often than not that you

(53:23):
have to part ways and realizeyou just lost a top performer.
But what they were, thedetriment they were doing to
your team was none.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
It wasn't.
And you know this, callie.
This is a tough one becauseit's really hard to coach that
top performer and you guys knowwhat we're talking about.
Out there that might be thetoughest person to have a
constructive conversation withthings.
I've found that help is if youwill find something they do
outside of work, because usuallya top performer is not good at

(53:59):
sitting around at home.
So they're involved in thethings.
They might be involved in theirchurch, they may lead a group,
they may be a coach for a kid'steam or involved in some type of
philanthropy, work in anonprofit.
And if you'll spend that andyou'll talk to them, say, hey,
have you ever had anybody inyour XYZ team that just didn't

(54:19):
have the right attitude andwasn't bringing it up?
You know, and like you put themin that role.
So how do you handle that?
And then you can come back andsay, hey, I'm having the same
situation here at work and letme explain to you.
I know your numbers are greatand you sold a lot of cars last
month and I you know Iunderstand you're giving
everybody else a hard time andand you're trying to get them

(54:42):
out of the way so you can getmore lot ups or more
opportunities.
Can I share something with you?
If you made a more positive andI'm not asking to hang out with
them all day, but a morepositive impact and they were
more successful, you'd have moretrade-ins to sell.
If we sold more cards, we'dhave more trade-ins.
So then you could put more ofyour deals together and you

(55:04):
start spinning it like that.
We'll work a hundred percent ofthe time, but if you can put
them in a scenario there, we hadone of our employees the other
day and I called him straightout on that and I'll say their
name.
But I was like hey, do you dothis same thing when you're
leading people?

Speaker 3 (55:19):
yeah yeah, and it's different than just say, hey,
you got a piss poor attitude.
No one likes you.
I know you do well, but you'regonna figure it out, we're gonna
cut away.
It's like it eventually cancome down to that like, hey,
we've talked about this seven oreight times.
You want to know the funnything that you're sitting here
talking about this and I thinkthis and you wonder, is this
important?
This is a question that one ofour employees asked.

(55:41):
It said how do you separate oneindividual that you know is
good for business, but theyleave a negative impact on the
team?
One of the employees asked that.
So you know that's relevant,right, so that's how you handle
it.
If you're listening out thereand you ask these questions,
that's how you handle it.
And if you didn't ask thisquestion but you might be on
that side and if you're a badperformer, you're negatively

(56:03):
impacting the team as well.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
If you didn't listen.
Last week, on episode 49, oneof our questions was what
percentage of employees say theyleft a job because of poor
leadership?
75%, three out of four, 75.
So is this question relevant?
Absolutely, 75% of employeesleave because of poor leadership

(56:25):
.
All right, how do you guyshandle an employee or a process
that doesn't align with aposition or the company?
So think about that.
How do you handle employee or aprocess?
I guess the process is probablythe easier thing to talk about
here first, how do you handle aprocess that doesn't align with

(56:47):
that position, what you'reasking about that position or
with a company?

Speaker 3 (56:50):
So I think and we've talked about this before but an
employee that's not aligningwith the current position,
whether it's the process or theposition we look and see, never
mind the role tell us about theemployee.
Do they have a good attitude?
Are they a team player?
Do they treat others the waythey want to be treated?

(57:11):
Do they greet customers?
Are they on time, are theypresentable, are they respectful
All the things you would say ofa model person, right?
So if the answer is yes to mostof those questions, or all those
questions, then you slowlystart discovery with that
employee and say, hey, what'schanging?
Is it a lack of me giving youresponsibility to not be able to

(57:35):
do your job?
Do you not have the time or theproper tools and stuff to be
able to do your job properly?
And they might say, yes, likeI've asked for this, I need
these tools, sure, and youhaven't and, like my bad, didn't
know that.
I don't know who you ask.
Please tell me.
Without telling me, so I canmake sure this doesn't happen
again.
Let me get you the tools.
And they're like no, no, no,I've got all the information.
I've got all the tools I need.

(57:55):
This isn't working.
I'm having another kid.
Life changed my life.
I'm having another kid, I can'twork as late.
Or hey, my wife's schedulechanged, I need to do this.
Or my husband's schedulechanged, I need to do that.
I'm like, okay, so if you havethat person that doesn't align
with the current role, then Imean right now we have 19 job
openings available.
That's not spots.

(58:16):
We probably have 35 spots open,right, and we're not just
filling them with just peopleraising their.
You have the right person rightand so quickly we're going to
say who's in this dealershipthat might be looking for
advancement or might need tocompletely, because we'll take
somebody that's barely making it.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
And I'm not saying financially but just like
doesn't love showing up to workand doing what they do.
And we have dozens of thesecurrently still in our business
that move to another store orjust a different department.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
That is a twinkling stock.
You know, we just talked aboutthat just yesterday, yeah, and
aboard me just just that theywere a good person, they'd been
with the company for a while andand they did well the first six
months in that position.
But then the new war on and wesaw like hey, they're really
just not, it's not aligning withthe process of that position
didn't challenge them, but they,you know, the fit wasn't there,

(59:07):
so I'd say that was.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
That's the first thing that we would do as an
employee.
Yeah, what we would do.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
There were your thoughts your thoughts, yeah,
going into there.
It's just so important to knowand realize that whenever it is
happening that you see thatthey're not aligning it's and
this is reiterating what y'allhave just went over and said
it's so important to grab a holdof them and say, hey, let's
make this change, let's do this,let's dive into it At that time

(59:34):
, whenever it needs to be done,because one either you're going
to let it go too long and youlose the employee, or it's going
to negatively impact someoneelse in your family or not in
the family, yeah, in the workfamily, but affect them so'm
glad you said it because I wasgoing to jump in is that you

(59:56):
need to have that conversationcenter.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
The farther it gets along, the more damage that's
been done and the less likelythat you'll be able to recover
and adjust to keep that employee.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Yeah, most certainly there.
And then think about a processthat doesn't align with the
position.
You need to look and see whatwas the process for.
Is it a process that we evenneed?
And the answer is yes, thatdoesn't align with the position.
You need to look and see whatwas the process for.
Is it a process that we evenneed?
And the answer is yes.
It's like, okay, well, whatdoes it accomplish?
Or what is it trying toaccomplish?
And so once you get those thingslike hey, manufacturer said we
got to be at 96% satisfaction,whatever it is and you're like,

(01:00:31):
well, the process does it helpwith that and does it align with
that position?
Like, should another positionhelp with that?
You know, forget the employeefor a second and just process
some position.
Like, okay, maybe we couldstill have that process, but
maybe we need to rework thatprocess, maybe the verbiage
isn't correct, maybe the timingisn't correct, and so if that's
still needed the process in thatposition then you just like

(01:00:54):
rework at that.
And then you put a little bitof with them.
What's in it for me?
Right, adjust a pay plan tocompensate them, to help you do
that, because employees areproducts of their pay plan.
And so if you can helpincentivize them to help make it
make sense, to help thingsalign once again going up to the
top a little bit about havingclear goals and communication
about what the expectations are,then I think that helps align.

(01:01:18):
All three of those peopleprocess empathy.
That's good.
That's really good.
That's an imperfect worldExactly Right.
That's good, all right.
Mythbusters time Leaders haveall the answers.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
You want the answer or do you want me to explain
myself?
Oh, whatever, oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
It's your show, you do whatever you want the answer.
Or do you want me to explainmyself?
Oh, whatever, I don't know.
Oh, absolutely, it's your show.
You do whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Mythbusters leaders have all the answers?
No, they don't.
No, they don't, and I thinkthat's supposed to.
So you have all the answers.
Yeah, you're out of your mindand as soon as you think you
have all the answers you'refarther away from it.

(01:02:00):
What that tells me is you'renot open to outside influence.
You're not open to productivecriticism.
Leaders don't have all theanswers.
Leaders leaders identify areasof growth and they work to find
those answers.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Yeah, and that's something that we're struggling
with some of our leaders rightnow.
And we ask, hey, what's this onthis RO?
Or what's this on this account,yep, and they just knee jerk.
And so this is like okay, thatwas fast.
Are you sure that's across2,000 ROs?
What's happening here?

(01:02:36):
Or in all these car deals 500deals a month are you sure this
what's happening?
It's like, yep, that's exactlyhow it's going, is like, and so
then I asked the office.
I'm like hey, what are youseeing?
They're like no, it's directlygetting close to this line.
It's like, no, we never do that.
So that's a sign of not a goodleader.

(01:02:57):
Like how many times do you wantto put your shoe in your mouth
and have to take it out and looksilly or sit there and chew on
it because, nope, that's mydecision I made.
And so the answer, of course,is no.
But it says leaders don't haveall the answers, but they know
how to ask the right questionsto finding the answers.
That's like the age-old gamewhen somebody asks you a

(01:03:17):
question you don't want toanswer it or you don't know how
to answer it, you then ask aquestion back to that person,
say hey, in reference to tell mespecifically what you're asking
.
Right, and it's not dodging thequestions.
Hey, giving me some more contextand then say you know what?
That's a really good questionand without me just vomiting out
something that might not be 100true.
I need, I need to dive deeperinto that.

(01:03:39):
Tell me specifically somereferences of example so I can
help us all understand the goodleader slow down, listen and ask
the right questions.
The person that wants to takeall the recognition, like Taylor
said, that says I'm not tryingto get my name all over
everything, I just want my teamto win, and that makes me feel

(01:04:01):
like I won.
The guy that says, yep, I gotit.
Yep, I know the answer.
The person, the lady, thewhoever that says, yep, I did,
yep, I did like I'm on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
So I got to be good.
Here's a pro tip for you Ifyou're the quickest one in the
room to answer a question, okay,this isn't a game show the
quickest one to answer thequestion, you're probably the
one that is least likely toimprove and progress your
department.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Because you didn't listen or learn anything.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
So back all the way to and of course we have kids
now, so this is all resonating.
But back to even when you werea kid.
If your parent asked you if youcleaned your room, what does
that mean?
That means they went and lookedat your room and it's not clean
.
It's not clean.
So if you have an owner or amanager that asks you something,
you better pause for youranswer, because they're probably

(01:04:51):
asking because it hasn't beendone.
Is there a nice way of sayingyou haven't done your?

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
job.
I was going to say that's theirnice way of saying if I say,
hey, what's this still doingbehind the shopper, hey, do you
know what's going on?
That's the nice way, becausegenerally someone's not going to
be like, hey, you fool, thishas been parked back there for
18 days.
It hasn't moved.
It's been checked off on this,this and this.
You haven't done anything withit.
That's not how I want to bemanaged.

(01:05:16):
Generally we don't, but whenthey ask that, they know it
hasn't moved or they know theanswer.
So don't just verbal vomit backat them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I agree.
And what a great conversationtoday on our 50th episode.
50th episode pretty solid.
That's almost a year.
That's almost a year.
We look forward to the next 50.
So you guys, keep the greatquestions coming, whether it's
employees or from the outsideworld, and let us know.
And if there's anybody locallyyou'd like us to interview to
get their insight on business,let us know that as well.

(01:05:46):
Yeah, you can get ahold of usdirectly or on any of the social
channels.
I think we got 55 of them.
Send a message over there, hey.
But, as always, check out ourinventory on lewissuperstorecom
it is our trade-in, trade-upevent this month and then find
this episode, episode number 50,and many more on
crossroadconversationspodcastcom.
Hey, thanks for joining ustoday and we hope you enjoyed

(01:06:10):
this episode.
Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
family.
Visit our website and send ussome questions.
We want to know what you'd liketo hear, who you'd like to hear
from and what you want to see,or maybe even some questions for
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business in general.