Ep.54 - Time for a Gut Check; How Business Leaders Make Decisions

Summary

 In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers tackle the age-old question: Should business leaders trust their gut, the data, or outside voices when making critical decisions?
They dive into how intuition develops over time, when emotions can cloud judgment, and why balancing facts with instinct is key for effective leadership. Using real-world examples from football play-calling to dealership decision-making during COVID, the brothers break down the risks of relying solely on data, the dangers of emotional gut calls, and the importance of trusted advisors.
From commercial vehicle strategy and Section 179 tax savings to marketing budget waste and mentorship, this episode provides actionable insights on how to make smarter, more balanced business decisions.

Takeaways
Gut decisions grow stronger as leaders gain experience.

Emotional decisions made in frustration or anger can be dangerous.

Data provides clarity but can “lie” without proper context.

Leaders should know when to call a “timeout” and gather more facts.

Trusted voices and mentorship help balance instinct with perspective.

Sleep on tough calls — time often brings clarity.

Avoid paralysis by analysis; find the stopping point where action is needed.

Separate personal and business decision-making to stay effective.

Combining gut, data, and trusted advisors leads to the best outcomes.

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):
Time out, right?
Yeah, absolutely, they take thetime out Now, here we go let's
relate this to business but youcan't.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
You only get so many time outs you only get so many
time outs.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
So when do you do that and I know we're talking
football here If it were thirdand eight, that's a great use of
time out.
If it's first down, he cangamble there a little bit In
business if you can make thegood decision.

(00:27):
If it is absolutely, we'rechanging computer systems.
You know what I mean.
Like okay, call a timeout,let's get some help, let's
research that.
Hey everyone, welcome toCrossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about
running a successful familybusiness, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community.

(00:48):
That keeps our door open.
We're your hosts, matt Shelbyand Taylor, and we bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.
Welcome back to CrossroadConversations Podcast.
We are your hosts, the LewisBrothers.

(01:09):
It's episode 54.
You know what time it is.
It's time for a gut check.
A gut check on how businessleaders make decisions.
This is going to be a great one.
Today we get to talk about doyou go off your gut?
Do you go off emotions, factsor what others are saying.
You know, it's really importantthat you look in leadership of

(01:33):
how are you making decisions andwhat all are you pulling in to
make that decision.
We'll dive into all of that andmuch more today.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
But before we do that , let's recap.
Last week, episode 53.
We had a guest on here, isaiahfrom Dodo Coffee.
We kind of broke down andpeeled the layers back and kept
peeling them back about hisbusiness, where it came from,
how he's kind of made his waythrough difficult situations and
then how it is justastronomically growing.
So if you didn't already go,check that out.

(02:02):
Episode 53 on CrossroadConversations.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Absolutely, hey.
And talking about what we drove, it's that time of year getting
ahead of commercial and we knowcommercial better than anyone
else.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, I think that's important and not to jump right
on there.
But that's such a big categorythere, but that's that.
That's such a big category andyou really you gotta know the
ins and outs of commercial ifyou're going to be in commercial
.
You know, for example, it's notjust slapping a bed on there.
So we got experts.
You know whether it's on theford or the ram side of hey, do
you need a 60 cab to axle?

(02:38):
Do you need an 84?
Do you need a crew cab?
What's your gvw need to be?
What are your upfits?
Do you need a pto?
What psi?
And if all this sounds foreignto you and you need a crew cab,
what's your GVW need to be?
What are your upfits?
Do you need a PTO?
What PSI?
And if all this sounds foreignto you and you have a business,
allow us to be the experts thereto make sure that you get the
vehicle upfitted correctly soit's more efficient and more
productive for your team.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, the big thing also is like breaking down what
is commercial, because a lot oftimes it's missed there.
So let me give you my basic andsimple definition Commercial is
you use your vehicle forbusiness, Okay.
So a lot of times that's avehicle to check meters.
You know, the Maverick is agreat option.
That has a truck bed so you canput some tools in.

(03:19):
It can put a camper shell, canput a utility camper shell.
That is a low cost of entry,sub $30,000.
That's a commercial vehicle.
We have those.
It might be we have tons oflocal government officials that
are in Bronco Sports or that arein Escapes or that are in
Compasses or Renegades.
That's a commercial vehicle.
You might just be thinkingF-750 dump truck, eight tons,

(03:42):
eight cubic yards and we dothose as well, right Up to F750,
we have that available.
But, like Matt said, the upfitwe have, the relationship of 75
years of this person is great tohelp us with this.
This person stands behind theirproduct.
These people have got itfigured out because they've got
a built-in wiring harness.
This one allows you to continueto keep all your GVWR, and so

(04:05):
it's commercial season.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, commercial season.
It's time now.
Really, the real ones that havebeen in business know get it
started now, because at the endof the year the only thing
that's going to happen is you'reunder the gun of trying to
close out your year-end books.
The supply is not there.
You're mad at yourself becauseyou didn't start it earlier.
So know that we haveconnections and flatbeds and

(04:27):
refrigeration units and dumpbeds and meter vehicles and
everything else.
We own commercial and weabsolutely love being able to
assist in that way.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Hey fun fact, just coming back from a dealer
meeting For 41 years Ford haswon every single year the
commercial business.
And we sell Rams as well.
I don't know where they're at,but we're going to call it
second.
So number one, number twocommercial vehicles.
41 years Ford has ownedcommercial and that's not by

(04:58):
accident and that's not bybuying people to buy their
product.
It's because they have thequality product and the right
product.
And it's fourth quarter.
Don't wait till your accountantsays hey, you need to do this.
You should probably call youraccountant and say, hey, is this
a year that we buy some morevehicles to depreciate and save
some more money?

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know it's funny you bring that up because you
just you threw me an alley-oopfor what I was going to talk
about.
But that's because it's factsand we both studied it.
When you take Ford and you takeRam, they own over 70% of the
commercial fleet and governmentvehicles, so over 70% of all the
vehicles used out there forcommercial.
Like you said, it could be aMaverick, it could be a Transit,

(05:36):
it could be a Promaster, youknow, or obviously it could be a
cabin chassis.
We have that in stock and we'reready to go for you guys.
We'll help you out with asection 179 bonus depreciation.
We'll get the vehicle out thereand then even get you set up
with software.
You know, that's another partwe didn't even talk about To
manage your fleet, because youdo not need downtime as a

(05:58):
business owner.
We're here to help you withthat.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Another cool thing, just if you want all the cool
things this year, they justreleased with the big beautiful
bill that you can ride off up to$11,000 in finance charges with
Section 179.
So not only ride the vehicleoff but the cost of financing it
up to $11,000.
That's solid.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, it's a huge take, A little insight of a huge
part of business that we'reable to contribute to you as a
customer.
So come see us if you need tohave any more details.
If we didn't already hit it onthe head, hey rolling into, do
you trust your gut?
Like trust your gut like whatI'm going to eat tonight.

(06:39):
Yeah, kind of no, this is, thisis more of in business, inside
of how you do business, how youhandle situations, how how you
move forward with that.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
So the role of um, in the role of rolling you into,
like your intuition ofleadership, I think, and and to
help everybody like, define,like, you've heard about that
gut feeling and what do I do?
Just go through this exercisehere.
If, if something is presentedin front of you and you had to
make a decision, right, thatsecond, internally of your body,

(07:07):
without talking to anybody else, what is your decision?
Yeah, you know, if you got thatfeeling.
People talk about that gutfeeling of like no, we should do
this instead of that.
That's your gut feeling.
Let's first define that.
Now I'm going to take you downmy path just so.
I love using stories ofpersonally, examples and how
we've improved over the years.

(07:27):
We never want to come on thispodcast and act like we got it
all figured out.
We always have, because that iswrong.
That is wrong.
I will tell you, going off ofgut feeling for decision early
on in my career, that's what Idid the majority of the time.
You know making gut, decision,making, gut decision, making,
gut decision.
As I've been in it longer, mygut is still there, but I do

(07:52):
slow down to fact check it.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
So there's two things there in that piece there.
So, and it will break down evenmore.
But of those two things, youslow down to fact check it to
make sure it's real.
But also your gut grows and I'mnot talking about getting
bigger pants, yep.
Your, your knowledge of thebusiness and your decision grows

(08:18):
as long as you allow it to.
So your initial gut, ourinitial gut, would say stew,
would say hold, say reduceexpenses, would say slow to fire
.
Your gut grows based on thepeople you're around and so your
gut can evolve in your business, right, like don't you feel
like that's happened.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think that's such a great point and I'm going to go
, just as you know, a little bitdeeper there.
And I'm going to go, just asyou know, a little bit deeper
there.
And so if, if your gut is basedupon previous experience and
what the outcome was, you gotsome track record there, you
know.
So if it's like no, you got agut feeling because you've been
in that situation, you know whatto do, probably pretty good to
trust your gut there.

(08:58):
But if you get a gut feeling inuncharted territory, you better
slow down and gather to allow,like you said, your gut to grow.
Then the next time that comesaround, you have the track
record there.
So I think it's reallyimportant that.
Do you trust your gut?
Yes, but in what context?
Because sometimes I need to diga little bit deeper because I

(09:21):
don't have the track recordthere and we need to grow.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
So if people are completely lost here, think
about how it's football season.
Yeah, think how football goes.
You have a head coach, you havea offensive coordinator.
They might be up in the pressbox they're seeing it from a
different view than you are andthey're saying, hey, here's play
one, two, three, four, and thenwe're going to see what
happened there run, pass, run,run, whatever it is.
But then they might get in asituation where a quarterback

(09:53):
sees something on the field thatthey've just pressed from the
middle.
Or you've lined up threereceivers on the left and you've
got quadruple coverage overhere and you might see your
tight end on the right mightavailable.
And then at that point they'regoing to call a gut change check
and they're going to say hotroute, hot route, 680, right, or
whatever it may be.
That is going from your gut ofseeing opportunity without fact

(10:17):
checking.
A lot of stuff.
It's based on things thatyou've learned, yeah, throughout
the system.
You're like opportunity,opportunity, right that.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
But you've learned throughout the system and you're
like opportunity, opportunity,right, but you've been in that
situation before, so I'll throwyou a curveball.
It's such a great analogy withfootball.
And then all the way down, thequarterback to make that gut
decision Gets up to the lineplay, comes in defense, starts
moving, so he checks downbecause of his gut, because of
the experience, and then all ofa sudden something happens that

(10:45):
they haven't practiced, theyhadn't gone through tee for
timeout.
Yeah, you know.
So then that quarterback knowsI don't have experience and a
gut feeling in this formation,and that's more of a mature
quarterback, the rookiequarterback says I can wing this
right, but what?

Speaker 2 (11:01):
the mature quarterback the person who's
been through it says I only getfour downs to get a first down.
Do I want to waste 25 on my gutof their full coverage over
here?
Their full coverage over here?
They're fully pressed and Idon't have anything extra here.
Yeah, and our line hasn't beenable to hold the pressure time
out.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah right, yeah, absolutely.
They take the time out now, nowhere we go.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Let's relate this to business.
But you can't.
You only get so many timeouts.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
You only get so many timeouts.
So when do you do that?
And I know we're talkingfootball here If it were third
and eight, that's a great use oftimeout.
Yep, If it's first down he, youcan make the good decision.
If it is absolutely, we'rechanging computer systems.

(11:48):
You know what I mean.
Like okay, call a timeout,let's get some help, let's
research that.
Don't waste all your time andeffort on the small things that
I don't want to say they don'tmatter.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
But it's going to be okay and those need to be just
quick decisions on the go, right.
They do Like it's a, you'rerunning a post and then you're
like, well, hang on, need to dothis, right.
I told everyone hey, we need tocheck everybody in first and
then we need to do multi-pointinspection in the lane.
And then I realized in theservice lane, if we're doing
multi-point inspections on 160cars a day, we don't have enough

(12:22):
space.
The parking lot's getting full.
Let's go ahead and check themin, then do the multipoint once
they get in the service.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I mean in the bay itself right.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Let me give you a real world example here, and
y'all will chuckle when I gothrough this.
When we first moved into thebuildings, we're going over
simple things like supplies Okay, toiletries, paper towels, this
and that and we're makingorders and our supplier comes
around and says hey, for allyour paper towels that are in
the bathroom that you're using,do you want the I think they're

(12:55):
recycled ones the recycled brownones, or do you want the white
ones?
And we said what's the cost onthem?
Well, the recycled ones were25% less.
We said boom, put those in.
That was a gut reaction.
We knew we needed paper towels,so good for the earth, so on and
so forth.
We put them in.
So multiple months into it Tony, you're going to laugh here
Multiple months into it, we seethat we're going through twice

(13:17):
the amount of the recycled ones,because something happens in
the process and they don'thardly absorb any water.
So now we've changed and we'reusing the other ones, aren't we?

Speaker 3 (13:27):
oh yeah, yeah, absolutely figured out once we
realized because we made thatinitial decision off of facts we
thought were logical of less.
Yes not only are they less, uh,absorbent, yeah, they're
thinner, so more of them pullout.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Whenever they pull them out, they were coming out
in clumps yes, like 20, and sopeople weren't putting them back
in there, sure.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
They were just like In there on the floor or
whatever, and you would just seelike almost a fresh stag, but
kind of wet just in there.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
It's like.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
I know that's a silly story, but it puts a valid
point.
Did we make the wrong decisionfrom the get-go?
No, it wasn't abusiness-changing decision.
We made a gut decision basedupon what we had done before.
No, we didn't have theexperience with the two
different options, but then wejust adapt and we change and I
know that's funny and some ofyou are like okay, Matt, we're

(14:20):
talking about paper towels.
Really, it's just a greatexample of how you do.
Something Doesn't need to bethe end all be all.
We trusted our gut there andthen we adapt.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Let's dive into a little bit.
We've really talked about, hey,of gut feelings, of what they
are, of how you implement them,how you use them in day-to-day
business.
But what gut calls aredangerous?

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Those when you go off a gut call combined with
emotion in the moment, out offrustration or anger.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yes, that's when it's dangerous I think all those
things, those, those were allfeelings.
Right, if I'm teaching a lesson, I guess I don't know uh,
emotions like heightenedemotions, super excited or super
depressed about a situation,angry at someone or a process.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Let's stop there and talk about because it's more
times excited.
Okay, you'll make some.
Depressed, okay, you'll reallynot pay attention to it.
Either you're sad or anythingelse but anger.
That's one that probablymajority of of owners, business
operators, will go through.
Why is that so?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
dangerous.
Well, generally, because yourdecision will overreach past
that one thing and it will.
It'll be, this is how we weredoing it and this is who's
involved.
And then the anger happensbecause something was missed and
it ends up in your lap andyou're like what the heck?
How didn't this person nothandle this person?
This person, this person andnow my customer that we worked

(15:51):
hard to get here and to curateand to take care of is super
angry and it's basically justbecause their emotions got high.
Then you go the completeopposite direction and you lose
that feeling complete oppositedirection and you lose that
feeling.
You know that that feelings youhad, that this is warm and
fuzzy, based on one person orone situation you know what
probably the worst thing aboutthat is.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
I know y'all both agree and go through this.
Whenever that situation happensand you could react that way,
do you normally have moreencouragement from the team to
go ahead and react like of hey,yeah, you need to do that, or
anything else?
Or do you normally have moreencouragement from the team to
go ahead and react like hey,yeah, you need to do that, or
anything else?
Or do you have someone say,well, let's sit back?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
and think about that.
No one's telling you that, no,but it's what you need to do.
It is what you need to do.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Take the facts in your gut will still be there,
that inside feeling that youhave, even if you just pause for
five minutes or for 60 seconds,and nothing's wrong with that.
You just call the timeout.
That's what we're talking about.
You just call the timeout, evenif you got somebody upset on
the phone.
Hey, thank you for sharing allthis information with you.

(16:56):
I want to make sure I have allmy facts.
I'm going to go check with theteam, I'm going to look for
solutions, I'm going to diveinto this and then I'll be back
in contact.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
It allows you to cool off, it allows you to collect
some more information, becauseif you out of anger, you might
not have collected all the factsor got a second person's
opinion, because after all,you're getting the heat from the
person who's heated Sure, andnine times out of 10, before you
just fly off the handle.
If you're like, hey, did youwork on Mrs Smith's car?

(17:26):
He's like, yeah, can you tellme what happened here Without
telling him I just got smashedon this, this and this.
They'll be like, hey, here'swhat happened.
He's like, okay, peel it back.
Hey, did we text or call orcommunicate that?
He's like, yeah, they told medon't text them.
Yeah, okay.
It's like have you left somevoicemail?
Yeah, I've left them like fourvoicemails, but they won't call
me back.
It's like okay.

(17:46):
And it's like, hey, did we tellthem that it would be thursday?
He's like, yeah, I told him itwas going to be friday, but we
got it done on thursday and wedelivered it to their business.
But they were upset because theytold us the business, but
actually they wanted it home.
It's like thank you for givingme the facts.
I appreciate you deliveringearlier.
Thank you for giving me thefacts.
I appreciate you delivering itearlier.
Thank you for communicating.
And then you have the facts.
But what would happen, though,if you're just like dadgummit?

(18:08):
This person never listens.
We're supposed to communicatemore, and why didn't they text
them and you didn't have thefacts?
Then you only can burn so manymatches with each employee, and
you might just burn your wholematchbook with that employee.
They're like dang they alwaystake the customer side.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
You know, the other thing that'll happen to there
and that's such a great point isthat can happen either way.
You know it'll either happenwhere you develop, where your
team is like they never have myback it was at the customer side
or you flip the other way of Ialways have to have my team's
back and you'll be closed off toareas you need to improve on.
You know, and we've seen thatwhere business owners have then

(18:45):
just hammered a customer andit's like be ears first, you
know, and at the end of the day,what did you win by doing that?
And I've been there before.
I've gotten after a customerthat I just they were in the
wrong, but then I lost them as alifelong customer.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
And that could be like getting your ego involved.
For sure, you know, like, ifyou've gotten your ego involved,
like, no, we've got a goodprocess.
No, we've got this figured out,but you don't just stop yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
I think sometimes too , when you know the subject
we're talking about, of this gutfeeling, where it really comes
into place.
I know now that I am a betterlistener and I'm better at
pausing and gathering, and I'lltell you when this comes into
play for me is when we're goinginto something new and we've all

(19:34):
talked about it, we've askedother people, we've sat through
the demos and this and that, andit's still just not clear.
You know, and we've done ourdue diligence.
And then you sit and you thinkabout it and you're like man,
something's just tugging me togo this way.
You know that's when you'vedone your due diligence.
Emotion's not involved.
You, you know that's whenyou've done your due diligence,
emotions not involved.
You've reached out to everybodyand then, as a leader, you got
to make the gut decision basedupon what you have.

(19:55):
You know, and that happensespecially when you're going.
If you're starting up a newbusiness right now, that might
be happening all the time.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yes, you know, absolutely Diving into so, of a
personal experience, tell me ofeither of y'all, of a time when
instinct beat the spreadsheets,of going over you know just of
reacting in there and reactingthe correct way, because it was

(20:23):
now shelby was talking aboutanalogy of on the move.
You're there in the middle ofthe play, you're in the middle
of a business opportunity,you're in the middle of a
situation and you see it, youcall the audible and it rocks.
I got one for you.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Okay, and this is a big one, I'm going to use COVID
because it was amplified duringCOVID.
So when we're ordering vehiclesat either of the dealerships,
any makes, there's spreadsheetsupon spreadsheets of quick turn
units, best colors,configurations, engines, rearing
.
I mean we can go as deep as youwant to and the manufacturer is
like here's what you shouldorder.

(20:57):
Well, during COVID, if you hada vehicle, it sold, didn't
matter the color, didn't matter.
If it was a long bed, short bed, right motor, wrong motor,
right gear, wrong gear, it sold.
So that data went into thespreadsheet.
But that doesn't tell what'sactually going on in your market
.
And we know, gut wise, thatthis is the best package.
We just couldn't get it.

(21:18):
The spreadsheets were wrong,you know.
They reflected what sold, butthat's not actually what the
market wanted.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
No, and I'll tell you to go even further off that.
So they continued.
They plug orders.
If they can't fulfill theassembly line from dealer orders
, they'll create Sims orders,and those are my worst nightmare
because they're built withleftover parts.
Not that there's anything wrongwith them, it's just not the
most desired.
And so during COVID and I'mtalking like, and you say,

(21:49):
anything sold, it's because theincentives are so high, because
they had this fear we won't beable to sell.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
They forced the sale.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
They forced the sale and so it was a great time to
buy.
Super low rates, 0% across theboard, some 0% for 84 months.
It was a good time to buy, sure, and I remember Sims orders
coming in.
Now I clean orders all the wayuntil 1030, and that's an hour
past my bedtime.
That's 1130, and that's an hourpast my bedtime, that's 1130.
In Detroit.
That means they've got 30minutes left before they close
them.
That's on Wednesday night and Iremember, in the heat of COVID,

(22:18):
like when we had down to like13 new Fords on the ground,
we've got 530 right now, so 13,.
You couldn't spread them anywider apart.
Yeah, and they put, based ontheir sims, based on their sales
data, nine super cab, extendedcab.
Those are great, but it's noteveryone's favorite.
Two-wheel drive, xl, 17-inchwheel, big motor, lots of

(22:44):
options, brown in color, nine ofthem identical.
Now I had 13 vehicles on thelot.
That was 70 to 80% of my ordersand as soon as I saw them I
sent an email to my rep.
I said please change these, atleast a four wheel drive and at
least a white so they could befleet vehicles.
I said we can't change them.
They could change them.
Yeah, they would not changethem.
They never changed them and Isent a chain of about 18

(23:08):
different emails over the nextfour months and could.
I said I don't want them becauseI still had to pay for them.
So what happened?
Because stuff was so hot, mygut then said I need to get rid
of these before they even gethere.
They were just now.
It contradicts what you said,that anything would sell like to
a certain point, nine that areidentical.

(23:29):
What's wrong?
And so, because they were sohot, I got with a locator
service and said I need helpmoving these.
So as soon as they hit theground I had a semi waiting to
ship them out.
But because inventory was solittle, it got around to
everyone and my regional managercalled me and said why did you
just sell off 70% of yourinventory?

(23:50):
I said I'll forward you theemail chain for the last four
months.
You guys wouldn't cancel.
I mean, it was an incorrectbuild, so that was gut of their
gut or their bad system.
So that's where the spreadsheetwas not good, yeah, and it was
a gut like I got to get rid ofthis.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Absolutely.
That's really good of divinginto knowing when it's right,
knowing where you adapt andwhenever you change, there off
your feeling.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's good.
Hey, fun fact quiz of the week.
Hey, this is a good one.
I like this one.
On average, what percentage ofa company's marketing budget is
wasted due to poor targeting orexecution?

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Well, before you answer that, let me tell you
this that you could spend yourentire life savings in Meta oh
yeah, in Google, right?
Craig's giving me a thumbs upbecause he knows that's real,
because they'll give you that,and it's just a slider, right?
You can just slide and say, hey, how big of a region do I want
to cover, what age group do Iwant to cover?

(24:46):
And it'll gobble it up so fastand it'll have zero relevance.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, because you'll be marketing to people in China.
Yeah, even if you say a target.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
it's just like these people are not in the market.
These people are not interestedin Ford, so that's my role.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
I think it's larger now than it's ever been, you
know, because when I first gotinto the business, it was really
traditional marketing and therewas only so much you could
waste there.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
And there's only so many players right, there's only
so many pages in the localpaper, yeah, in the Arkansas
Democrat Gazette.
There's not a limit on theinternet.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
There's not.
It will just keep serving it up, no matter the demographics, no
matter this, no matter that.
So I think this is a little bitof a low, but studies estimate
25 to 30% is wasted, you know,but some leaders out there feel
it's closer to half.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I would agree with that.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
It's probably taking intoaccount everyone that doesn't
spend, and then there's an overyou know, because they and they
can bamboozle you with themetrics.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Okay yeah, service level.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
So here here's the deal, and I've said in meeting
after meeting on this, trying tocompare this provider with that
provider, and they both giveyou different metrics.
Why?
Because they want their metricsto look better.
It's like Sam's Club.
Now, I love Sam's Club, yeah,but Sam's Club they don't have
24 packs of Coke and water, theygot 30 or 34 packs, because

(26:09):
then mentally in your mind youcan't go.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
well, here's how much it was at Target or at Costco
or wherever else they change thedivider.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
They change it.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's different than the provider says.
Hey, let me show you your KPIon a click-through rate.
Everyone else is showing onconversion or something.
They'll find it on a differentlanding page.
They will.
That seems high.
I'm like Matt.
This is 92%.
Like 92%, what?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Of what you know.
So, you can waste up to 50% ofyour marketing budget due to
poor targeting.
Hey, and our producers put thisnext part on here for me, and I
appreciate that.
It said data doesn't lie untilit does.
Whoa, I'm going to have to getdeep on that one Until it does.
So here we go, let's get intothat one and give me y'all's

(26:55):
thoughts on.
You know why data is critical,but it's not perfect.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Because it doesn't have the gut.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
It doesn't, yeah, but it is critical because it gives
you an unarguably.
Here's what's going on.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, I think it removes the data is good because
it removes any bias.
Yeah, any emotion, my feeling,your feeling your feeling based
on a track record, based on asales rep?
Yes, based on ease of using theproduct.
You know, sometimes we see thatin our systems People love this
because it's spoiler alert,because it's really easy and it

(27:32):
means they don't have to work asmuch, you know.
So then the dad is going to say, hey, this works, this is
simple, this is easy, like forthe longest time.
And they were super smart andwe love star shopper.
For the longest time, they wewould buy the whole center
section or we buy the cover, webuy the back.
And they were like, hey, weneed to run specials.
And I'll tell you at at the time, wayne had given it to me and

(27:52):
he's like hey, you don't evenhave to pick them, just tell her
to pick them for you.
Right, just have her, the reppick 30 vehicles, which seemed
really easy.
Right, the data, thespreadsheet said hey, have them
do it.
They make it simple and easy.
Well, how did they do it?
They just went the first 30,right.
And you could say, hey, pickthis, this and this.

(28:13):
But if you really wanted it tobe effective, you needed to
insert yourself and say, let mepick some of the oldest vehicles
, let me pick some of my goodspecials, let me pick these hot
vehicles, and so that's why yougot to be careful there.
It's not just data.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
You do, and you guys have heard me say that I like
data, no-transcript.

(28:56):
They're going to be like well,give me an example, show me
where that happened.
And if you go into a meetingand you first go over the data,
it just it puts everybody onlevel ground and it takes that
emotion out and then it's wherethe value is is.
Then what do you do with thatdata?
Because the data doesn't tellthe whole story, it just shows

(29:17):
you where to start.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yep.
So let me give you real worldin our business when the data
does lie.
So in our service micromeetings that we have, we go
over a lot of metrics.
One of the metrics we go overevery single day is service
gross percentage.
This allows us of the moneythat we spend and pay for the

(29:42):
employees to be here, what thecustomer pays, what our
retention rate is, and we knowthat percentage of where
breakeven is like hey, thismakes sense to show up, and so
forth.
So we were looking at that andwe continue as a whole service
gross percentage.
The entire department, which isa lot of people, needs to be at
this percentage.
And our business keeps growing,keeps growing Units in

(30:06):
operation keeps growing.
We keep moving more and morepeople through our quick lane.
But here's one of the thingsthat gross percentage kept going
and we're like why does thatkeep going down?
And so then we like had to peelthe layer back and a layer back
, and then the data kind of liedas a whole, because what we
didn't take into account I meanwe were, but not in this data

(30:27):
extraction spreadsheet is thatwe, the more oil changes we did
it drove that down, because weactually have to cost off.
When somebody comes in to do anoil change, people think, dang,
that's high.
It actually cost us money.
Yes, so we have to write offevery single time that labor and
that cost of its works packageat $99 or $119.

(30:49):
So the gross percentage goesnegative.
And so we were looking at it asa whole.
So the data was like why don'tyou increase that?
Why don't you increase that?
And they were like, well, weneed to push more oil changes.
And so you're like, no, no, no,the more oil changes you push,
the lower that numbers.
So the data gives you that idea.
But then when you go a littledeeper, like actually it's lying
a little bit there, and here'sa bonus part for you.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Shelby brought up a great example.
She's like well then, what do Ido?
Recalibrate, yeah, Recalibrate.
So if you find something inthere that's watering it down
yet it's a goal of the business,you just simply recalibrate.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Change the goal a little bit.
You just change the goal.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Or maybe go sublayer, go sublayer, layer, right, you
go sub layer, you know.
So then you can look at thatand we, so we saw that.
Let's talk about that.
Or, for example, let's go slipover to sales.
You know, every Monday we do adeep dive, you know, with all
the managers, on salespeople'sactivities, because that's what
a manager should do, is manageactivities.
So we look at it, a store, ourtwo fable stores on our
Springdale store, and okay,here's where it is, here's the

(31:49):
percentage of calls toappointments, here's percentage
of pencils, so on and so forth.
Well then, at the end of themonth we go a sub layer within
those stores, because within thetwo fable stores they have two
stores under that umbrella.
So then we broke those out andit was I don't know about you
guys, of course I was the oneputting it together, but then
when I showed it it waseye-opening because what was

(32:10):
hidden in there is within bothof those.
We had a top performer and wehad an underperformer but we
were just looking at the averageat the average.
So average it looked okay, youknow.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
So you had one person that was like yeah, we're okay,
and they were actually waybelow yeah, because they were
like I'm doing pretty good andthe other team deserved a bigger
high five right, that's rightyou guys have been killing it.
You've been carrying everybodyand really the team.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
That was because we had two teams that were
overperforming.
They were then using theirenergy, their management energy,
in the wrong capacity.
Yeah, Because there was adifferent area that they could
have improved on.
So that's where sometimes youdo do deeper.
You can't always go deeper,because then it's like you're in
a four-hour data spreadsheetmeeting.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well, and that's what happens from the manufacturer
they'll send us tons and tons ofspreadsheet but never actually
even open it or look at it.
And then we get it and butbecause we're in the weeds, yeah
, we're like um, did you happento look at this like that?
No, we can't sell our mustangsbecause they all have a recall,
right.
So you just hammer, like we gotto sell these.

(33:12):
I well, you need to fix thembefore I can sell them, right?
And so it's the same thing withour team that we got to get
further deep in the weeds andsay, actually, let's go two more
layers deep and see You're good, you're good, you're good, we
need to help get you going.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
I think that's where the next part comes up is the
risk of paralysis by analysis,and that's what we're talking
about.
If you just keep going and youguys have called me out before
is I keep going layers deep butI want to get to what we can
take action on and then I'mgoing to stop there, like once

(33:46):
we see that.
But you could, if you just lovethe numbers, you can keep
breaking down, breaking down,breaking down.
It's like, okay, we break itdown by day.
Do we really need to break itdown by hour?

Speaker 3 (34:02):
and by second.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, no, could we yeah we could, but then other
people are going that's true.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
It's not accomplishing anything else.
You know, and okay, we lookedat trend for 90 days in 12
months.
Could we do a trend analysisover five years?
I'd be cool to look at once ayear, but that's not something
we need to look at every singlemonth.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I think you've got to look at the frequency.
It's kind of like the movie theMatrix and you just see just
like all the numbers and thecomputing you know probably 99%
of people.
You're just like, oh my gosh,what in the?

Speaker 1 (34:27):
world and as a good leader, and you learn this
through speech class at firstand then just being around
people.
You got to look at youraudience and I can tell you and
you guys have done the samething we may have a whole agenda
of something and if somethingis not making progress now, it's
different if we're teachinglike a word track, but if we're

(34:49):
going through the data andidentifying areas and it's not
hitting, we might need to skipto the next subject or we might
have to go a deeper dive hereand delete one of the other
subjects.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
You got to be able to do that in many of sales
meetings where I prepare 24slide deck to go over and I want
to recap from last week andthen I want to go over some
metrics and then I want tointroduce two or three new
things, but then when I'mchecking on last week's stuff
I'm like we're not going to makeit to the new stuff.
But that's okay.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
That's okay, it's okay.
Because you're so.
You're at the line, you're thequarterback and you had all
these facts, but your gut,reading the room, says we got to
spend extra time here.
It's not about a checklist.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
You know your job's not to check off that you went
over the subject.
Your job is to help themimprove.
Yeah, you know, and if thatdoor opens, step through it and
double down Instead of just data.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
says I got to get 23 or 24 slides.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, and we'll find that with managers.
So let's talk about how wemerchandise vehicles online.
You know, we got to do theanalysis of what's the market
look like.
How's it priced in the market?
Is the description, are thepictures right?
When's the last time weadjusted the price?
So on and so forth.
We got some managers that spenda ton of time in there and we
got other ones that check allthe boxes, but did they really

(36:07):
involve their gut there?
I'm going why is this vehiclereally not moving?
Did I go look at it?
Does it smell funny?
You know, is it not presentable?

Speaker 3 (36:16):
No, I think it's so important you have more leaders
than not that get the data,training data, going over
anything else, and they'reinstructed to go over this and
they do it all and it's justthey're not reading the room
whenever they're going through,they're not paying attention to
how they're delivering the dataand they do it all every single

(36:39):
time without fail, going throughword tracks, going through
steps of the sale, going throughthe steps.
The process for your businesswould be, and they never stop,
they never change, pivot,audible anything else and it
becomes ineffective and you taketime.
So think, listen to this Ifyou're out there and you're
doing it and you are getting atraining you go over every time,

(37:03):
you don't have to go over thewhole training every single time
, read the room and know whenyou need to pivot, when you need
to double down on a situation,because it'll make it far more
effective.
So many times it gets lost andso many times we go and listen.
We just got back from trainingand they weren't on the same
page.
They'd went completely throughand I'm not joking, this is real

(37:27):
bill deal, big training theyshould be on point about.
They just reiterated whateverything had went over because
they didn't listen to what hadhappened.
So know this whenever you getyour data and you go over the
data and it's good data um,deliver it how it needs to be
delivered and don't over, justpush it down.

(37:47):
And matt does a really good jobabout that.
He he does diving into datagood, but then doesn't
overanalyze and push if it's notneeded.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, you just pick a couple of them there.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
I got to take the 180 side before we move on here,
because there's some people outthere listening that are going
yeah, exactly, I don't get inthe weeds on data.
My business is growing.
I know what to do.
I started my career off thatway.
I wasn't deep in the data andmy gut and we were moving the
numbers.
We were selling more cars.

(38:19):
We were doing this and that Iwas just going off a gut
instinct.
That'll only get you so far,because you cannot see the trees
when you're in the middle ofthe forest and you know our
association that we're in.
We go to these NADA 20 groups.
That's really helped us do that.
We step back and the firstthing we do before we have
discussion is what do we look at?
Look at the data, don't we?
We look at page eight, column BI mean column eight, line B.

(38:42):
We look at the facts first andthen we have the discussion.
So without the facts and somecomparables, you're just
shooting your gun everywhere.
You got no targets you'reaiming for.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, it's no different than we go back to the
company's marketing budget.
If you're not targeted to whatare you selling?
What is that demographic andhow do you get to them?
You're like hey, marketing team, you've got 50 grand to spend
this month, get us some morecustomers, that's right.
And they're like hey, do youcare what customers Like?
No, I'm just buying customers,I just want customers.
And they're like okay, so ifthey don't do any more research,

(39:19):
you just and in every businessout there I'm telling you
there's metrics and they're easy.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
So if you've got a roofing business, here we go.
How many roofs did we go lookat, Did we inspect this week?
How many estimates did we writeup?
Did we follow up on theestimates that did not say go
forward and do it, the oneswe're doing, what's our
turnaround time there, what wasour cost?
Like all these things that youcan look at within your business
.
That's the data.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Now bring in the gut and coach and I think, okay.
So what do I do with data?
Data becomes a line.
If you think about long ago inschool, it becomes a line and
generally if it's aprofitability or gross, you want
that to go up.
If it's a production, you wantit to go up.
If it's an expense, you atleast want it to stay the same.
But look to see if there's apossibility for moving it down.
And so you look at that.

(40:09):
And so sometimes it's funnywhether you're stepping on a
scale or you're measuringnumbers like man, this scale is
a little off, it doesn't matter,as long as it's the same scale.
You always step on, that'sright.
So you just find those datametrics and you just look at
that and because otherwiseyou're just going off your gut
like it was a good month, likecompared to what, yeah, right.

(40:29):
And it's like, well, we'rebetter than last year.
Well, last year we're in abuilding from 69.
Right.
Or last year we didn't evenhave a used car department.
So you're just like, yeah,better than last year.
It's like, hang on, put it in achart.
Look at the facts.
Last year you had six people.
Now you've got 18 people.
Last year you did 12 roofs inthe month of August.
This year you did 34.

(40:50):
How many people?
What was your expense?
So did your profitability riseenough to supersede your
expenses?

Speaker 1 (40:58):
I think it's just so important that people take the
time and they look at the dataand then they find a stopping
point.
Stop and then take action,because there are some times
that the data lie.
Let me give you an example.
We're talking about football.
Let's keep talking aboutfootball.
I've seen data and stats beforewhen two teams are playing and

(41:19):
the offense of the losing teamhas more yards than the offense
of the winning team.
So the equation was brokesomewhere.
Now the start if you were justlooking at yards that the
offense had, or time ofpossession, it looked like boom,
they won the game.
They didn't because they didn'tconvert on third down.
They didn't convert when theygot into the red zone, whatever

(41:42):
it may be, and that's important,and Taylor talks about this.
But, like on Monday, we startfrom phone call to appointments,
to shows, to pencils, tofinance, because in every one of
our departments we're the sameorganization, but when we're
there on Monday, each managerhas a different area they work
on, don't they?

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Even though, Shelby, you train every person on the
same thing, they each havedifferent areas to work on.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Most definitely.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
So that's an easy sport analogy to look at as you
go, okay.
Or if it's basketball, theywere shooting a higher
percentage from blah blah blah,but they didn't win the game.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, yeah.
John Madden says the team withthe most points will win the
game.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
And in order to get the most points you must look at
the data upstream.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Right Little data, little gut.
All right.
Mythbusters time, Mythbusterstime.
The Data never lies.
What's your thought?
True or busted?

Speaker 1 (42:39):
I don't like.
If you have clean, good data, Idon't think the data itself
lies.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
It just doesn't tell the whole story.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
It doesn't tell the desk phone, so then it doesn't
accurately show how many phonecalls.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Or, if you take it at surface level, they called the
same person to trick the systemto get eight phone calls.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, that's right.
So, like the data itself is notwrong, it just doesn't tell the
whole story.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
And you've got to validate it.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
It goes back to the who's inputting it, how's it
getting inputted, and everybodyelse there.
So I'm going to say it.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
All right, data only tells part of the story.
Okay, we know that.
Harvard Business Review found42% of companies admit that
they're using bad or incompletedata in decision making.
Can you imagine if you didn'tknow that 42% of companies admit
to using bad or incomplete datato make decisions?

(43:48):
Without context Data canactually lead to worse choices.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
You know how to get the data better.
So, before you just throw thebaby out with the bathwater okay
, because this is what somepeople do when the data is so
messed up, they just quitlooking at it.
However, I'm telling you pushforward, get the data and share
it with your team, Because whathappens with our salespeople
when you go over up there on thephone calls and the
appointments?

(44:12):
Nobody likes to lose, do they?
And they're like no, no, I mademore phone calls, why won't it
show up there?
They'll clean your data up foryou, they definitely, definitely
will.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Or create a system or process that says if they're
not in here, you don't getcredit for this Bingo, right.
That quickly says, oh shoot, Ishould actually use the system.
Yeah, right, and thatdefinitely helps there, all
right.
Last piece we want to talkabout the power of trusted
voices.
So it's kind of like a sub gutright Someone else, the power of

(44:43):
trusted voices, listening tomentors, team members or
advisors when that's important.
What's your guys if you go likepast your gut?

Speaker 1 (45:04):
you're like I'm not going to just make this on the
fly decision it's necessarysometimes and look at the data.
What's your next step there?
I mean, obviously we know whatwe talk about, but we live in a
world today that is easier tounlock what I'm getting ready to
talk about than ever before,ever before.
There's so much information outthere, there are so many
trusted sources that you know,then my go-to is I start looking
at books, podcasts, shorts,youtube videos of experts in

(45:25):
that area.
Okay, now, if it's an area thatI'm not really familiar with,
I'm listening to multiple to seea common theme before I just
take one suggestion.
So podcasts just like this,where you get to actually listen
to other people that havealready been through there and
they've tried this and they'vetried that.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
No, that's really good, and I think I love that
you talked about that of, yes,have your inside your, your
trusted source that you can talkto, which would be no different
than we talk about all the timewe bounce ideas off of each
other.
But if you don't have that andknow that, you can go and look
to books, you can look at shortsof anything online that they go

(46:05):
through and there's a lot ofinformation to be found in there
.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
So, on top of those two that you guys talk about,
this will be no surprise to youtoo.
Um, you want to know what I useoutside of those two, and I've
used it seven times so far thismorning.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Chad gpt yeah, are you?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
using ai, sure?
And you're like, oh, I don'tknow, that's cheating.
It's like, really, that I justoutsmarted the system because we
had a question from ford basedon a lending situation.
And so, in context, we're like,hey, this decision based on
business and so first I willcommand it, as like hey, chad,
are you familiar with this, thisand this?

(46:44):
And like yeah, I was like, okay, tell me who's the top 10
people in this field.
These 10 people, I was like,hey, do they have books?
And they say, yes, they havebooks, because there's times
when you can read the whole bookand learn a lot.
And then there's times when youjust and so then I say, hey,
scrub these 10 people's booksand rank that for me In this
current situation, give me topthree examples of what they

(47:06):
would do, and in less than aminute I can ask all those
questions and it gives me a veryclear decision.
So you're saying I have no oneelse in my business, I'm a
solopreneur, I'm all by myself,I can't listen to anything, I
can't read anything.
Then you can do that and it'sgoing to very quickly give you
other people's opinions of whatthey've publicated and it's out

(47:30):
there and if you use that, thenyou're just.
You are time compressing likenever before.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
I think I think the important part there, with what
you're talking about, what webrought up, is are you taking
the action for that?
And most people will be likewell, I would if I could and if
I knew where to go.
Look, ask Chet GPT.
Go online, look, it's out there.
You can Google up and AI willbe in there too.
Top five podcast in handlingdifficult employees.

(47:59):
It's there, it's there and youjust you start looking for it
and and you engulf yourself init and it'll help your team be
better too that's good.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
How to balance outside opinions with your own
conviction?
Outside opinions, mentors,mentors, podcasts, your gut.
How do you balance that?

Speaker 1 (48:18):
This is such a good one because you must take the
time, even if you learn fromsomebody else, to make sure that
it fits in your culture and theway you do business.
Okay, and I'm going to back upone layer before that is
validate whoever's pouring intoyou and if you're listening to a

(48:38):
book, or if it's somebody,before you just go do what they
say, look at them and say isthat somewhere where I'm trying
to go?
Or if they're not at the nextlevel, maybe that's not the best
piece of advice.
You know what I mean.
If somebody is giving youfinancial advice but they're
currently in bankruptcy mightnot be the best person to listen

(48:59):
to.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, and to put that into real deal context, if you
see a train moving down thetracks and you're trying to get
moving, you think, hop on train,let's go.
But did you happen to see whichdirection the train was going
or where its next stop is?
It's the same thing of gettingthat outside advice past your
gut and you're just like I loveit, let's go.

(49:22):
Hey, team, we're changing thewhole thing.
I know we were going this way,but now we're going to go this
way and they're like someone'slike hey, didn't you sign up for
that two years ago?
Yeah, exactly years ago and wedidn't like it because of this,
this and this or hey, didn't weget a couple of violations
because of this, this, and itwas like this person's doing it,
they look like they're killingit and you're like you got.
You got to kind of balance withyour gut and the outside

(49:44):
opinion.
There's no reason that says youcan't take outside opinion,
outside mentorship and then runit through your gut.
That's right, right.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Yeah, and if you want to know, if you're like, okay,
well, how do we validate that?
After you get done with thatconversation, go back to your
computer and send their businessan internet lead.
Call them up, mystery shop them, yeah, drive by their place of
business.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, because they might be just giving you their
gut.
Yeah, and they haven't checkedthe facts, and so that's in the
20 groups.
Oh yeah, we laugh about thatbecause they're like oh yeah, I
got this, this and this and I'mup 30% and this this and this,
and then you pull it up, andthen you're lower, like oh, you
see this.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, yeah, he's up 78% in expenses.
Whatever he's doing, don't dothat.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
And we've all been called out by that, and the
moderator in this.
It's just, it's amazing becausesomebody will start running
their mouth with their ego andthey're like, okay, if everybody
, please flip to page 20, columnA, line B, dealer number 19.
It looks like you're thefarthest down of anybody in the
group.
Tell me exactly what you'redoing.

(50:49):
So a little bit of validationthere helps.
And then also you got to seehow does that fit in your
culture and your way of doingthings?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
That's really a lot.
You could bring in a pink gooseand everyone's allergic to
geese and don't like pink, right, and you're just like dang it I
forgot the vet.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Oh yeah, and I think it's really important to know
that you can listen to outsidesources, because I'm not saying
to stiff arm them, because youmight pick up on something small
that you could always implementand put into process that would
work really good in yoursituation.
Yeah, so know that.
No, I'm not taking your planand putting it into here,

(51:23):
because nine times out of ten itwill not work.
You're not replacing the wholecar, you're just saying hey,
those tires might upgrade myride.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, absolutely that seat might change the way this
bike rides.
So it's handlebars.
You're not just saying saying,hey, take this one out, put that
one out, that's good, that'ssuper important there.
All right, any stories whereyou guys have saved from a bad
call, from from a trusted voiceor something that you see out
there, that you have seen astory of where data said it

(51:51):
should do this, or x person saidwe should do that, and then you
said, well, hang on that.
And then you said, well, hangon, that's not us.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
I I gotta give a little bit of a blanket answer
here Um, the the most powerfulthing that I've been taught and
dad really, really put this inme is just sleeping on it
waiting to make that decisiontomorrow.
And and that break and allowingmy emotions to go down allowed
me to make that decisiontomorrow.
And and that break and allowingmy emotions to go down allowed

(52:19):
me to make a better call.
You know, just slept on itovernight.
Building started on fire.
I don't have to make thatdecision right this second it
opened my mind to make a cleardecision where I would have made
a mistake if I would havereacted right then.
You know, and I know that's a,that's a blanket.
We've talked a bunch aboutgutting.
You know an emotion in, and Iknow that's a, that's a blanket.
We've talked a bunch about gutand you know an emotion in here,
but that's the biggest oneeverybody can take away no, I.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
I think that answer is the same for me as well, of
of going through and learningthat just to step back, yep, and
if it doesn't have to be maderight now, just hold on on, just
hold on.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
So the funny thing is , because we were all raised
that way right To contradictthat a little bit, I constantly
feel challenged to find thatquicker response based on
something right.
Based on something becausethere's been plenty of times and
I'm totally joking that we'veall been in this scenario a
little bit, but because there'splenty of memes and funnies

(53:16):
about it that you're sittingthere scrolling with 38 cents in
your savings account and you'repissed because the $3 million
house in California just sold.
I was about to buy that.
But if you know what'simportant to you and your
threshold sometimes, like CodySanchez talks about, the person
that can make that decisionquicker will often win.

(53:37):
So that's my challenge is tohelp, because more often than
not you can push things awaylike unnecessary things by just
icing them, by letting them stewno, come back up.
But then sometimes you'remissing opportunity.
Like we get so many people andI love it most of the time
Sometimes people asking forsponsorship, or hey, can you

(53:59):
give me a lot of money?
And?
Or this, this and this,whatever.
And sometimes, because ournormal thing is, let it stew,
run it through the filter, sure,we miss some opportunities.
So, while that is really goodand that's how we've been raised
, there's some other opportunityand you you have to train that.
That's no difference.
If you've always ran at 10minutes a mile and then you're

(54:20):
hoping to go race at six minutesa mile, it's not going to
happen unless you practice thatfaster moving muscle, you know
so that's a good point, and I'lltell you what I've had to do so
I make sure something doesn'tgo too far out of stewing on.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
It is, then it has to immediately go on my to-do list
.
Yes, so then I'm reviewing thatin the morning because I know
all the to-do list stuff andthis stuff rolled over.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Okay, I need to address that yeah, yeah, so that
it's a scheduled stew, then itgets in the chat yeah, it's not
just sitting on the back burnerhoping that they reach back out
to you.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah, it burns up you know you've got to be able to
do that.
That that's so good.
Now it is Okay.
A couple of questions for youguys on our frequently asked
questions.
You know, what do you do toseparate?

Speaker 3 (55:08):
how you make personal decisions and business
decisions.
I mean, I'll jump on this one.
I just went through an easiestthing of his personal and
business a family going to thingand outside of that emotion has
to be taken out of itcompletely and within reason.
Um, in going through andknowing that, hey, I need this
to stay on its own.
And then in business, I needthis to stay on its own as long

(55:31):
as something morally over thetop, illegal wasn't done that
needs to be reacted to rightaway, then you step back and you
let this stand on its own and,more times than not, if there's
something that's really wrongthat's happening, it will work
its way out, either if it's inyour personal life or if it's in
business.
You just have to stop and slowdown a little bit.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
You know we've talked about that forever, right,
whether we were supposed to ornot about leaving business to
business and home at home.
It's so tough to do and, likeI've talked about it many times
in podcasts Like I'm not and Istill don't talk about work at

(56:14):
home, not that it's taboo, butit's just like I don't want to
like, it's not necessary, it'snot good.
The problem is that seems likea pretty clear line, but there's
so many other like.
More often than not, my wifewould be like hey, can you not
problem solve for a second?
And just just like let me think, or like let me be upset about

(56:35):
this or whatever it is.
And I'm like, whoops, I totallybrought my problem solver and
like you should be frustrated,you're right.
Like you know, I'm just like ohyeah, let's work through that.
Hey, we got it.
Here's how you do this.
And it's like so that's toughthat you don't let those.
It just naturally happensbecause you do it all day, you
know.
And so those decisions.
I think the biggest thing isnot that you're not human at

(56:57):
work, right, it's just much moreprescribed and very specific,
even when you're superhuman, ofbeing available for employees
and customers at home.
Be way more of I'm just dad orI'm just husband and can I just
be normal for a second Right,and so that's like, and that

(57:21):
really gets into my antisocial Ilike talking to people in a
genuine conversation.
Sure, and that's probably thefirst time you've heard me say I
like talking to people in agenuine conversation.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
In a genuine conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
when it's a person, I realize they're not superficial
and they're not just trying totalk, just to talk because I'm
Larry Hoover and they want totalk to Larry Hoover, yeah,
Otherwise I'm like just the guyin the back.
I'm just the guy in the backand I just want to be normal,

(57:53):
and just not that I'm not normal, but I just want to be human
for a second.
So that's.
I have to work to separatethose two.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I think that's that's really important and I think
more it's.
It's not we don't go home anddumpster fire, everything going
on, but it's how do we get outof business mode and more in a
personal mode.
And if you haven't had this,I'm talking to the audience here
If you haven't had thisconversation with your spouse,
have the conversation and givethem the ability to call you out

(58:18):
and say, hey, can we not be inbusiness mode or will you just
listen to me?

Speaker 2 (58:24):
That's really good.
It's not fun to get called outand if you're a leader, people
naturally aren't calling you out.
Can I just say that, likethey're not naturally calling
you out, so sometimes we'll calleach other out because, no one
else is going to call us out.
I mean, every once in a whilesome smart aleck will just, and
it's fine.
If it's necessary, yeah Right.

(58:45):
But then you have to give yourwife or your family the ability
to say, hey, be respectful,we're all going to respect each
other.
But you can call BS Well torespect each other, but you can
call BS.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Well, and as men, we just need to be told.
You know what I mean.
And it's like if you tell methe game plan and you tell me I
just needed to listen, I can dothat.
So you just want me to sit hereand listen and not give you a
solution?
Yes, but more often than notthey're just going to give you
the problem.
It is.
So I'm just that's a bonus tipfor you have that conversation

(59:15):
with your spouse and give themyou know the ground to be able
to go over that with you.
Hey, great conversation todayon time for a gut check.
That got over to data too, sohopefully you take that into
consideration and it helps yourun your business better.
Hey, as always, make sure thatyou check us out on
lewisssuperstorecom orcrossroadconversationpodcastcom,

(59:37):
and if you do us a big favor,hey, go ahead and smash that
like button, share it or, whatwould even be better, leave us a
review.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Please do Leave us a review, uh-huh.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
Hey, thanks for joining us today and we hope you
enjoyed 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
us to answer about either theautomotive industry or just
business in general.