Ep.58 - Leadership Confessions: Our Hardest Lessons Learned

In Episode 58 of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers open up about their toughest leadership lessons and the costly mistakes that shaped who they are today. From the challenges of promoting only from within to learning the balance between kindness and accountability, they share real stories of growth, humility, and resilience. The conversation covers the creation and evolution of the Lewis Guarantee, how emotional decisions can derail progress, and the importance of slowing down, analyzing data, and adjusting instead of abandoning great ideas. The brothers reflect on the difference between managing by fear and leading through example, the pitfalls of comfort, and why true leadership is a continuous process of self-awareness and correction.

Takeaways

• Every leader fails—what matters is how you respond and adapt.
  
  
  
• Emotional or rushed decisions often lead to costly outcomes.
  
  
  
• Great ideas may need refinement, not abandonment.
  
  
  
• Promoting only from within can protect culture but limit innovation.
  
  
  
• Hiring outside talent can bring fresh perspective—if trained into the culture.
  
  
  
• Accountability and kindness must coexist for a healthy team.
  
  
  
• Managing by fear kills creativity; leading by example inspires growth.
  
  
  
• Data-driven reflection beats ego-driven decision-making.
  
  
  
• Strong cultures need both compassion and high standards.
  
  
  
• True leaders lift others up but also hold them to excellence.

Chapters

00:00 Intro – Why Failure is a Universal Leadership Lesson
 01:00 Welcome to Episode 58: Leadership Confessions
 01:25 Learning from Mistakes, Not Avoiding Them
 02:50 Recap of Episode 57 – Breaking the Rules
 04:00 In the Garage: The Jeep Wrangler vs. Bronco & Business Adaptation
 07:40 The Story Behind the Lewis Guarantee
 10:00 Building It from the Ground Up: Research, Risk & Reward
 14:00 Mistakes in Over-Promising and Adjusting Coverage
 18:00 Realizing When to Pivot, Not Quit
 21:00 Costly Lessons in Emotional Decision-Making
 25:00 The Endurance Analogy: Knowing When to Push vs. Pause
 29:00 60% of Costly Decisions Come from Lack of Information
 30:30 Promoting from Within: Pride, Culture, and Limitations
 33:00 Hiring Outside Talent: The Growth Catalyst
 36:00 HR, Finance & Marketing Overhauls Through Fresh Talent
 42:00 Integrating New Leaders into Culture
 46:00 Scaling, Structure, and Policy Over Memory
 48:00 Balancing Internal Opportunity with External Talent
 50:00 MythBusters – Do Great Leaders Always Trust Their Gut?
 51:30 Balancing Kindness and Accountability
 54:00 Managing Without Fear: Culture vs. Control
 56:00 Creating a High-Accountability, High-Care Culture
 58:00 Final Thoughts – Growth, Grit, and Grace

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_05 (00:00):
So it's how you talk to people, you know.

(00:01):
And if you were in any of ourmeetings, we do not manage by
fear.
You know, we we don't putultimatums out there, especially
in a group atmosphere.
Now, if we have a write-up withsomebody, it's totally
different.
But in a group atmosphere, wedon't cuss, we don't holler, we
don't threaten, we don'tdiminish people.
You know, we lead as true,high-level leaders do, lifting

(00:23):
people up, showing themopportunities, looking in the
mirror first.

SPEAKER_04 (00:28):
Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad
Conversations with the LewisBrothers, where we aim to share
real stories about running asuccessful family business while
working through adversity andpouring back into our community
that keeps our doors open everysingle day.
We're your hosts, Shelby, Matt,and Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real relevant localbusiness advice, maybe some

(00:48):
automotive insights that aresure to change the way you look
at running a business or buyinga car.
And maybe even throw on a plugfor you to do business with us
here locally.
Welcome back to the podcastepisode 58, Crossroad
Conversations with the Lewisbrothers, bringing you hopefully
something that's relevant,something that makes sense.
Today we're talking aboutleadership confessions, our

(01:11):
hardest lessons learned.
And we're going to do our bestto give you stories of things
that we've experienced, thingsthat we worked on, and just
realizing that every singleleader makes mistakes.
Today we're opening up aboutsome of our own, and we have an
idea, and hopefully some morecome out as we've talked about
it.
Stories of tough lessons that wemade or didn't make, what they
cost us, and how they shaped whowe are as leaders today.

(01:34):
And so we want to fully run thatback, break that down, and
realize that mistakes sometimesfeel isolating, right?
Like it's just you, it's justone-off, just this one time.
Why has it happened to me?
But they're super universal,like that they happen to
multiple people and they breakdown kind of across everyone
there.
Listeners, totally, this is away to relate of what we're

(01:56):
talking about, but breaking itdown into your business or into
your life, and then realizingyou don't have to avoid failure.
Like, failure is going tohappen, especially in a growth
pattern.
Failure is gonna happen.
You don't have to avoid it, butlearning how to learn from it
and to pivot a little bit fromthat.
So we'll we'll fully break thatdown.

SPEAKER_05 (02:16):
Well, we really will.
And I'll just say, you know, totip into that, if you're not
failing every once in a while,you're not pushing yourself hard
enough.
You're not looking for growth,like you said.
But before we dive into allthat, let me recap last week,
episode 57.
If you missed that, hey, go backand give it a listen.
It was a good one.
Breaking the rules when leadersshouldn't follow the playbook.

(02:37):
So we talked about differentscenarios there where we had to
pivot, we had to make on-the-flydecisions, or we had to
challenge the way of thinking orthe way we did business in the
past, or the rules maybe thatthe industry had set, but maybe
didn't equal the best businesspractices or the best customer
experience.
So go back and take that, take alisten there to learn, hey, when

(02:57):
breaking the rules, maybe okay.

SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
Absolutely.
Hey, and always check us out forthe freshest specials,
everything we've got going ondealership wise at
lewissuperstore.com and onlineat crossroads conversations with
the Lewis Brothers Podcast.com.
I just added all of that inthere, but you go ahead and cut
it out.

SPEAKER_04 (03:13):
Yeah, if you if you type all that in, H T T T P.
Just put the PL.

SPEAKER_00 (03:18):
Just Google it.
Absolutely.
Hey, always check us out onlineat Lewis Superstore.com and at
Crossroads ConversationPodcast.com to see what's going
on that we've gone over in theprevious week.
In the garage.
In the garage.
I love this because it's beenthe OG since long, long ago.
Wartime coming through, talkingabout the Jeep Wrangler.

(03:40):
The Willy's that started it all,and they have evolutionized this
thing from that.

SPEAKER_05 (03:45):
They really have.
And what we're going to talkabout here with the Jeep
Wrangler, I mean, that's ahousehold name.
Everybody knows what a Wrangleris, even if it's a CJ5 or CJ7,
or you know, you get the the oldXJ's and the scrambler, you
know, and then James.

SPEAKER_04 (03:58):
TJ's.
Just take a J and just add aletter before after.

SPEAKER_05 (04:02):
It's got to equal one of the decks.

SPEAKER_04 (04:05):
And they're just indestructible.

SPEAKER_05 (04:06):
But but you know that the Jeep has kind of been
on an island by itself for along time.

SPEAKER_04 (04:12):
Like what do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 (04:13):
Like it didn't have any competition.
Okay.
And I don't mean that it justoutsold others, it just didn't
have any competition until theBronco came back along.
And you know, back in the 60s,70s, the the Bronco and the Jeep
really battled out.
Yeah.
When you got into the 90s andthe Bronco got bigger and the
Jeep stayed the same side, itwas kind of two different
segments.
Bronco comes back in.

(04:34):
Okay, it's been wildlysuccessful.
But what it did is it challengedJeep.
Jeep had become a littlecomplacent on about like
features, creature comforts,that type stuff.
And that's what we're talkingabout today.
So the Jeep Wrangler, a coupleyears back in the Rubicon
edition, you could get what wascalled an XR.
And that's an Extreme Recon.

(04:55):
Now, the Extreme Recon gave youthe Dana 44s, it gave you the
wider axles, the stronger axles,it gave you a factory lift, it
gave you factory 35-inch tires,it re-geared from the factory to
456 gears from 410 gears.
So it gave you off-roadcapability, the look everybody
likes on a Bronco or on aWrangler, uh, and then they gear

(05:15):
it correctly.
So the drive's still good, allbacked with a factory warranty.
Oh yeah.
But now they've put that in thewillies.

SPEAKER_04 (05:22):
Because the problem was they offered that, but it
was on their top tier package.
It was only if you clicked everybox and if you were top tier,
which made it unobtainable forsome beas.

SPEAKER_05 (05:32):
65 to 70 grand.

SPEAKER_04 (05:33):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (05:34):
You know, so then it was like, oh yeah, that looks
cool, but guess what?
It doesn't fit in my budget.

SPEAKER_04 (05:37):
Yeah.
Or I don't want to off-road itbecause I just spent 70 grand on
it.
Right.
That's the other side of it.
Yes.

SPEAKER_05 (05:43):
So then when you start looking at the willies,
the willies comes out and it'sit's like the sport, but with
the off-road capabilitieswithout all the extra stuff.
But now on the willies, you canget the extreme recon.
So you get the Rubicon axles,all right?
You get 456 gears, you get35-inch tires, you get the
factory Rubicon lift to fit allthat.

(06:04):
You still get a locker in therear, and it all hits a price
point in the mid-50s.
So now we're talking abouthighly capable.
We just got two transports in,and we now have over five of
these in stock, ready to go inthat package.

SPEAKER_00 (06:19):
That's good, good package.
I love that they'veevolutionized.
I love that they're actuallylistening to the customer to see
hey, this makes sense.
We want this, but it wasn'tobtainable.

SPEAKER_05 (06:28):
Oh, we forgot to tell them though, with the
Wrangler, what was one of thethings that Bronco pushed them
to do?
And we finally got a biggerscreen.

SPEAKER_04 (06:36):
Which includes a backup camera.
Backup camera.

SPEAKER_05 (06:39):
And now a trail camera in the front.
Okay.
You can also split since the thescreen is not portrait, it's
landscape.
Kind of like how you can do inthe F-150 or some of the other
Ford models, you can split it.

unknown (06:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (06:49):
You know, you can integrate in, you know, on X
Hunt as far as their maps, someother trail maps, and a lot of
user stuff that you would seepeople mount iPads and stuff in
the Wrangler is now integratedinto the system.
Yeah.
And the big game changer, youbrought it up before the show,
we finally have power seats.

SPEAKER_00 (07:06):
Power seats.
Sometimes it's the simplestthing that you're completely
missing in your business, inyour product, whatever it is.
They added power seats, which isa huge game changer.
Because believe it or not, Ithink I know you know the truth
is majority of Broncos andWranglers never get put in
four-wheel drive and they'redrove on the street every single
day.

(07:27):
They want to look the part, butthey got to have creature
comfort.
I know.

SPEAKER_04 (07:31):
Competition pushed them to do that.
That's right.
That's super solid.
It's healthy.
All right, breaking it downtoday.
So decision making stories.
So we kind of racked our brain,went over this of like, okay,
what's a story that's beenreally good or we failed at,
right?
Everyone wants to know thefailure.
So I wanted to talk about whenwe came out with our Lewis
guarantee.
So our Lewis guarantee was ourown warranty that we built and

(07:56):
branded for a plus item for aconsumer.
We don't sell it.

SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (08:01):
It's a why buy from us versus someone else?

SPEAKER_05 (08:06):
Because the price could be the same up and down
the road.
And we've talked about that withvehicles.
We all pay the same.
So why should they buy from you?
Right.
And then the people really saw,they're like, okay, yeah, you've
been in business for a longtime, but what it sent it for
me.

SPEAKER_04 (08:17):
So that allowed us to have something on paper and
that actually had some depth toit that was more than say, hey,
we care about you.
We're going to take care of you.
Those were words, and wherewords became less and less and
less and less and less and lessrelevant.
You know, like the good oldhandshake.
Yeah.
It was like, there needs to besomething more.
So we've researched this for along time.

(08:39):
And it it starts with a asix-month, six thousand mile
warranty on a pre-owned vehicleuh that's over a certain amount
of mileage and goes up to afive-year, 60,000 mile
powertrain warranty on a usedcar.
Generally, that's out ofmanufacturer warranty.

SPEAKER_02 (08:53):
Correct.

SPEAKER_04 (08:53):
And then on a new car, any new car that's bought
from us non-commercial, you geta 10-year, 120,000 mile
powertrain warranty, which, ifyou don't know, that's double
what any manufacturer does, ormajority of domestic
manufacturers are.
So our our Fords and our CDJRsare gonna get a five-year,
60,000 mile powertrain and athree-year 36,000 mile.

(09:15):
That's when they say, hey, we'redone with this car, you're on
your own.
Right.
And we know cars last long, butit's just kind of crazy to think
that they say, hey, yeah, atthat time, you're on your own.
Yep.
Right.
And so we, man, we researchedthis for a long time.

SPEAKER_05 (09:30):
And what you mean by research is we looked on other
dealers' website, we talked topeople in our 20 group, we so we
saw what everybody else wasdoing, and then we flipped the
hat and we said, from aconsumer's point of view, take
dealer out of it, whatever weknow, what would we see that was
of value to the world?

SPEAKER_04 (09:47):
What's relevant, what feels good.
And the biggest point is when itcomes time for them to use that
warranty and claim it, what'sthat process look like?
Does it actually work?
But the last thing that wewanted to do is really just have
a why-buy, then it didn't work.

(10:07):
Because news flash for you,majority of them out there have
so many pages to flip through.
If you get that lifetime, whichwe found out you have to have a
term on lifetime.

SPEAKER_05 (10:19):
Okay, well, let's pause right there because the
audience needs to know this.
So if somebody says lifetime,like engines or transmissions or
or just on your appliance orwhatever.
Whatever it is, it's regulatedby insurance.
All this is insurance.
So tell them what we found outwhen we look deep into it in the
insurance.

SPEAKER_04 (10:36):
So it had to have a term, you know, because they had
to figure it somewhere in aterm, and the average that we
saw was a seven-year term.

SPEAKER_05 (10:43):
So even though it said lifetime, regulated by the
insurance contract, you had toput down there an actual term.

SPEAKER_04 (10:49):
Yep.
And that term was seven years.
And so then we're like, we don'twant to say that.
The last thing we want to do isus sell you something, we tell
you it's lifetime, and then youshow up eight years from now,
still have the car, and we say,actually, no, it's not covered.
That did not carry what LewisAutomotive does.

SPEAKER_03 (11:06):
No.

SPEAKER_04 (11:06):
That does not cover carry what we say.
So we're like, scratch thatidea, right?
And because we were building itfrom ground up, we could build
it however.
Now, we got with the insurancecompanies and said, Hey, have
you done this before?
And they said, Yes, we've donethat.
No, we've never been there.
Yes, we've done that.
And so there was a lot of backand forth.
I was like, okay, what's theclaim ratio on that?

(11:26):
Most importantly, how close isthat coverage to a factory
warranty?
That's right.
You know, I'm not talking aboutjust covering one piston, yeah,
or maybe in one scenario, like,I want this act.
This is not, hey, let's findanother profit opportunity.
Let's find a good coverage thatwe can offer our consumers
because it's a free thing.
Yeah.
But we wanted it to be goodenough.

SPEAKER_05 (11:48):
Um we wanted it to be a great experience.
And you guys have heard us talkabout on the podcast before.
We have two lenses we look outof.
You know, and if you want to getlike an eye terminology, we got
a near side and a far side ofgoing on at the same time.
Is it what helps sell the carright now?

SPEAKER_04 (12:04):
So the near side of like what's sticky now.

SPEAKER_05 (12:06):
Absolutely.
And then far when they actuallyhave to use it, how was the
experience?
Because if the experience wasgreat, they're more than likely
going to buy their next car fromus too.

SPEAKER_04 (12:16):
In today's world where not as many people are
loyal, brand loyal, dealershiployal, place loyal, it just
takes one slip up or one mistaketo say a Google review.
I mean, it's like the worldended, right?
And it was just happened to belike a lapse of coverage or
something.
So we knew that.
And so it was like, hey, let'snot open this can of worms if
we're not really willing to seethe near side, the far side, and

(12:38):
everything in between.
So we waited a long time beforewe fully put that together and
then we released it to the team.
We were generally planners inthat scenario.
We're not very quick.
So that that was a delayed thingto make sure that we had it
fully vetted.
Um, and one other thing before Itell you the nugget, but most of

(12:59):
those warranties we saw that youhad to hit every single metric
with a dealership.
So if you bought it from Xdealership, that's where you had
to get your service work at, andyou had to perform every single
recommended service metric withthem, which was just a game show
with them.
So if you're traveling or youspend half your time here, half

(13:19):
your time there, and you getyour oil changed at a reputable
place, nope, coverage expired.
Nope, coverage did not.
And we're like, once again, painpoint, that's stupid.
Don't do that.
We want it, the far side is begood and be usable.
And we see that now that wepitch that, because people are
like, are you sure I can claimthis?
Yeah.
They're like, hey, if I movesomewhere, like, yep, you're

(13:41):
good.
It's registered to this Venomer.

SPEAKER_05 (13:42):
So when we let me let me tell you before you go,
because I'm gonna play the otherside of it for the business
people out there.
And I could tell you why thebusinesses were thinking about
that.
They were thinking right now,and they're thinking, hey, is
there any way that we can writein there where the contract will
get canceled or not validanymore so we can reduce our
expense and it doesn't cost usas much.

(14:04):
So that's what they werethinking.

SPEAKER_04 (14:05):
And that's the nearsightedness of making that a
profit thing.
Yes.
Of hey, we want to reduce ourclaims.
We want to write all these rulesand it says no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no.
Yep.
And so then your claim ratio issuper low.
It's no different than, youknow, claim on your house or
claim on your car of somedamage.

(14:26):
They make you run through thehoops and then guess what?
They jack your rates through theroof.
You'll never get this ratejacked because you didn't pay
for it.

SPEAKER_05 (14:33):
That's right.
And so, so their plan looks likeif we were running two of them
down the tracks at the sametime, theirs looks more
profitable.
Theirs looks more successful forthe short term.
However, in the long term, whenours actually works, even if you
move to Georgia, yeah, they'remore likely to buy their next
car from us.
Over here, they're not gonna buya car and they're gonna tell

(14:56):
everybody about how big a scamit was.

SPEAKER_04 (14:58):
Right.
Right?
So that was us trying to reallyfar-sight this thing.
You know, seven, nine years inthe business.
Hey, before we just launch thisthing.
And so when we launched it, wegot the 10-year 120, uh, cars
that were uh 50, uh see zero to50.
Zero to 50, thank you.
Zero to 50 got a five year 60.

(15:18):
So a used vehicle got five year60, 50,000 miles to 100,000
miles got a 336.
So warranties expired from Ford,from Kia, from Hyundai, from
CDGR.
We got you.
We covered five years 60.
And it starts, yours is yourfavorite, two-term true mileage.
All those other programs, even afactory CPO, because people all

(15:40):
the time are like, hey, whydon't you do a Ford CPO?
It's because they start thatmileage from its original
in-service.
Who knows when that was?
Nobody does.
We don't most of the time andpull an Oasis and all.
So when you sign up for thatcar, this is a really big deal
because everyone else starts itwhen the so they're like, hey,
you get 60,000 mile warranty.
Well, newsflash, if it's got50,000 miles, you only have

(16:02):
10,000 more miles of cover.
Do you feel who dated if youbought something like that and
you're like, yeah, I got 60,000miles?
You would.
Like my wife got Cole's cash,and it's like, well, what in the
world?

SPEAKER_05 (16:13):
So again, we were looking from customers on eye.
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (16:15):
So that was another near side, far side thing.
Uh so it starts at that time.
But then our biggest one was our6'6, and we carried that from
100,000 miles to 200,000 miles.
We got indeed.
We were like, because we werekeeping those cars because every
we knew that everyone needed acar at every price point.
We generally always kept those,and which we've learned from
that, uh, that we're justcreating our own black eyes,

(16:38):
trying to serve everyone.
Uh, because although that's adifferent client, or that client
has a kid that needs that$10,000car or whatever it is, and we
want to say, hey, it's got that.
There's two things that welearned that$200,000 miles was
too far.
Because remember, themanufacturer said at$36,000
miles, we're done covering this.

(16:58):
It's no different than lifeinsurance saying, hey, at 60
years old, we're done.
And we said, hey, let's go aheadand insure them for 240 years.
We were just shooting for themoon, right?

SPEAKER_05 (17:08):
Well, but when we sat in a room and and you guys
that are listening, you nowhopefully know us well enough to
know that we're not just likethrow it out there, throw it out
there.
We're deep research people.

SPEAKER_04 (17:16):
Yeah, five or six years.

SPEAKER_05 (17:18):
So what we looked at, and I'll just tell you the
data, but we didn't know theunknowns and the variables, is
we looked at, we said, hey,we're selling 180,000 miles,
170,000 miles, 160,000 miles.

SPEAKER_01 (17:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (17:28):
And generally, if they come back within X amount
of days and it's a mechanicalissue, we're taking care of it.
And we said, hey, if we're doingthat, why don't we at least tell
the world about it and then justcover it?

SPEAKER_04 (17:40):
Right?
That was a thing like, hey,could this be marketing?
So for a near sight opportunityof when they're looking from us
or Bill's used cars, we havehuge, like that makes sense,
right?
Why wouldn't you buy from thisplace that's reputable?
So far down the tracks, maybe ayear, maybe not quite a year, we
realized there were two thingswhy it didn't work to 200,000

(18:02):
miles.
The mistakes that were made.
One, so that because it openedthe floodgates.
And they were like, oh, my, youknow, my window won't roll up
anymore.
This one has a sunroof, and theit's not there, or it doesn't
work.
Hey, this door isn't the samecolor.
Hey, my tires aren't, you know,this one's a little wonky, or
the none of the stuff really waspowertrain components.

(18:23):
There were.
We're like, man, we just openedup like the billies, you know,
and what are we doing?
And so then you have twooptions.
Don't do it or make sure it's1,000% ready to go.
Well, it's like taking a95-year-old person and saying,
hey, let's run them through afull check.
They get new knees, newshoulders, new hips, new heart,

(18:44):
new lungs, yeah, put them onsome stem cell.

SPEAKER_05 (18:48):
And then it's more expensive than the car that has
80,000 miles.

SPEAKER_04 (18:50):
Right, that's the exact same thing.
So then you've well, the problemis it was still a 95-year-old
person.
It was still a car that had180,000 miles.
It was 15 years old, and we justspent$3,800 in the shop, and it
still has a green door, and therest of it's blue.
Yeah.
It's got Michelins on it, but itstill has rust in the quarter
panel.
Yeah.
We were like, what are we doing?

(19:11):
We're like, no, we don't want abad name that we're selling a
car that we say gets the Lewisguarantee.
So then we sat in the room,like, hey, we need to sit in the
room sooner than later and talkabout this.
Are we gonna get it ready tosell or are we gonna change the
way that we sell that?

SPEAKER_05 (19:28):
I'll interject one other thing that uh, you know,
you you hit on that side of itand how much money to spend.
The other unknown we didn'trealize because we had all the
data on how much money we hadspent on vehicles over that came
back that we had to fix ofbroken pieces.
Um what we didn't realize isthat there are a good majority

(19:50):
amount of people out there thatunderstand when you buy a car
with 140 or 170,000 miles, it'sas is, and you're buying a
170,000 mile vehicle.
Clearly, generally went overthat.
You know, what we didn't realizeis once you give them a
guarantee, it switches theirmindset.
So then all of a sudden, thepeople that would not have asked

(20:12):
for something to be covered thatthey understand they bought a
170,000 mile vehicle, are nowasking because you changed their
mindset.

SPEAKER_04 (20:19):
Yeah, that's that's the crucial part.
We created that mindset ofsaying you're covered, and then
the line of what coverage waswas blurred so much that it was
gone, right?
And it just opened up, it washeavy stress on everyone,
salespeople, sales managers, andon us, and we're like, and then
the shop is like, what are thesecars coming at?

SPEAKER_05 (20:39):
What we ended up spending the amount of the money
we spent on those cars sometimesequaled what the car was.

SPEAKER_04 (20:48):
Oh yeah, and that was after the fact, and after we
put the warranty on it.
So if you got it ready to sellor not completely ready to sell,
because and then they come back,and then we're majority of the
time if we've gone through it,we're going to take care of the
issue to get the customer on theroad.
That's not an open checkbooksegment, but that's generally
how it goes.
And then we were like, okay, sowe sold that car for six grand.

(21:11):
We spent$3,200 initially in theshop.
They just brought it back to usand we spent$1,500 more dollars
off for us to make$700 when wesold the car.
Yeah.
So now we spent$4,200.

SPEAKER_05 (21:24):
We're in the hole.

SPEAKER_04 (21:25):
Yeah, it was not good.
And then guess how much thewarranty paid?
None of it, because it was notcomponents that were covered of
powertrain.
And so we just we we createdunrealistic expectations.
Yep.
And so instead of so here's whatwe did.
We changed that after lookingat, okay, where's the line at?
Sure.

(21:45):
Like, let's not throw this.
The whole idea is don't throwthis out the window.
Yep.
You know, don't throw the babyout because there was a bunch of
babies in the bathtub.
That's right.
That's right.
Like let's just drain it.
Drain the swamp.
Put a new couple, seven filterson it, and then fill it back up.
So we we ended up moving thatback to 150,000 miles.
That is still a hundred plusthousand miles past where the
manufacturer said they're coverthat.

(22:07):
You know, so that that's on 10years, 10 years, right?
10 years and newer, 150,000miles or less.
We you still get that sixmonths, six thousand mile.
Uh, it's just a saying, hey,you're you have some coverage.
You're not just on your own.
Like, you know, you spent 4K,8K, 10k, 12k.
Good luck to you.

(22:28):
You know?
And so that was a big thing.
And and just so you know this,we just went over a full
portfolio of, okay, how is thisworking?
We want to know what's the takerate, uh, you know, where are we
at there?
Almost all of our coverage wasover a hundred percent paid out
of what we we have to pay forit, right?
We don't charge a customer, it'sfree ninety-nine.

(22:50):
We have to pay for thatinsurance.
Think of life insurance.
We pay for that insurance, andso what we'd paid versus what
claims paid out were was theaverage of 150%.
So wondering, is it working?
Is it real?
Oh yeah, what was the averageclaim amount?

SPEAKER_05 (23:07):
$3,200.
So when we looked at the averageclaim rate from, and for all you
insurance people out there,you'll understand what we're
talking about.
Well, we looked at ourdifferent, we looked at it three
different segments.
What's the 560, what's the threeyear 36, and then what's the
6'6?
We're talking exclusively aboutthe 6'6 right now.
It's it's over 3,200.

SPEAKER_02 (23:25):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (23:25):
So when you look at the average claim, it's over
$3,200, and like this is notsustainable, but we didn't scrap
the whole idea.
So we made a bad decision.
That's what this episode'sabout.
I I don't like admitting that,but we we we made a bad
decision.

SPEAKER_04 (23:41):
But then it came down to data.
Hey, let's look at the data,let's look at the realistic
expectations.
What's the curb of feel?
Yeah.
The curb appeal and the feel,right?
You put those two together, thecurb of feel.
And uh, so how is the consumerportraying that?
How's the salespeople?
How's the service team?
How's the sales manager?
And they're like, hey, I knowyou said go, go, go, go, go, but
maybe we should whoa.

(24:02):
Yeah, like let's and so we did.
We said, let's let's reel itback to 150.
That makes the car easier to getready to sell.
And then also says, hey, I'm notputting life insurance on your
106-year-old dog, you know?

SPEAKER_00 (24:14):
Yeah, you know, the important thing that a lot of
people don't do, just becauseyou make a decision, now don't
do this quickly, but you don'thave to ride it to the ground.
A lot of people make thatmistake that they absolutely
like, I'm not giving up, I'vegot to make this work.
No, we're gonna, we love theidea, we're gonna adapt and
change it, and it's turned intoa great thing.

(24:35):
But but but I do want to saysomething there.

SPEAKER_05 (24:37):
You bring up a good point because naturally, I know
myself and and y'all are aswell, we're all at different
levels, but naturally we willride something really far.
Here's why, because this is awhole different subject, but
it's a slippery slope.
There's some people that won'tride it long enough because
there is some growing pains yougo through to get something to

(25:00):
work.
But then there's the we we startcoming down the other side.

SPEAKER_04 (25:04):
So so let me explain that to you in something that
really resonates and makes senseto me.
In endurance sports, biking orrunning.
We've experienced that a hundreddifferent ways, a thousand
different times.

SPEAKER_05 (25:16):
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (25:17):
Majority, I don't care if you're Usain Bolt,
Elliot Kipchobi, or who LanceArmstrong.
When you start out that day inan exercise on a bike or a run,
generally no one in the firstmile is gonna say, I feel good.
It's amazing.
Right?
All your levels gotta get to thesame, right?
And so realizing that thatyou're you're gonna have to work

(25:41):
through some stuff.
Yeah and some stuff's gonna gowrong.
But you generally in a primerace or a stage or whatever it's
you have a goal.
It's your a goal.
Hey, I want to, it might becomplete the whole thing.
Sure.
Right?
No time, or it might be, hey,I've been 230 in a marathon,
want to go 225, I've been fourhours, I want to go sub-four,

(26:04):
whatever it is.
That's your a goal.
You need to have B, C, and D,and everyone has a different
opinion of that.
Some say it's A or bust.
What I don't love about thatfollowing pro people is if it's
not their day, they justwithdraw and they don't really
feel what could have been,right?

(26:25):
What type of real grid orendurance do I have?
And so it's not riding thisthing to the ground.
And it's funny, I I heard likehim, love him, hate him,
whatever it is, Lance Armstrong.
He said every single day he hada training ride, no matter how
he felt, sick, tired, worn out,he would never make a decision
whether it was a good day or badday, or if we should call it

(26:46):
quits, until after 30 minutes ofmovement.
Yep.
And then at 30 minutes, he wouldthen do a systems check and say,
hey, but think about that.
Like sometimes I've been in arace of A, and it's like that's
out the window.
Then like B, okay, if I couldjust get this out the window.
I've probably gone down most ofthe alphabet in some of my races

(27:08):
and like finish this thing.
Yep.
Yep.
And you'll learn something,right?

SPEAKER_05 (27:13):
And I think like what, and I've heard other
runners talk about that, but youtalk about Lance on that.
What when you, this is a wholedifferent lesson, but what when
you allow your mind and you tellit like, hey, just give me 30
minutes and then we'll revisitthis, it shuts your brain down.

SPEAKER_04 (27:26):
Yeah, chances are you get to 30 minutes and don't
remember you're supposed tocheck it.

SPEAKER_05 (27:29):
So same thing in business is it's like, okay,
let's make it through.
It looks like this is exploding.
Let's make it through sixmonths' worth of data or 90 days
worth of data, and then let'sreevaluate.
So we have the data.
So it's not just emotion.
Yeah.
Because that's no different thanlike when we get a customer
complaint.
They usually come in twos orthrees.
Yeah.
So then when it hits you threeat a time, you're like, holy
cow, what's going on?

SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
But then you might go two weeks without you don't
fire everybody, you don't changethe entire policy.
So that's such a good point too,of realizing.
So that was one of the largedecision factors that we had
that initially sounded great,and then we had to pivot on
this.
But we didn't throw the wholething out, we just adjusted
that, looked at the metrics, uh,and it makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 (28:10):
Yeah, that's really good.
I th I think you know the bigtakeaways there are make sure
you do your research, that it'sa value, that it lines up with
what your business plan istoday, tomorrow, and in the
future.

SPEAKER_02 (28:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (28:22):
And then be willing to look at the facts, sit back
down and revisit it to adjust.

SPEAKER_02 (28:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (28:27):
And I don't know how many business plans out there,
I'd say almost 0%, go exactlythe way the business plan said,
and they never adjust anything.

SPEAKER_04 (28:36):
If if they do, it wasn't a good business plan.
Yeah, it was.
It was the first one you clickedon on Goo or Yahoo, right?
Maybe on AOL.
It was the first one that cameup, and it was the most basic
high-level, and there was noroom for growth, then like air
wasn't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_05 (28:52):
Yeah, that's good.
That that that's a great exampleright there.
All right, here we go.
Let's get a fun fact here.
What percentage of leaders saythey've made a costly decision
due to a lack of information?
Man, do I like this one?
Nah.
They just did it off of gut andemotion.
Oh, yeah.
I'm just saying on that, I knowit's got to be high, but uh A is

(29:12):
25%, B's 40%, C is 60%, D's 80%.
What do y'all think it is?

SPEAKER_00 (29:17):
I'm throwing out the bottom.
I mean, at least 25%, so it'sway too well.

SPEAKER_04 (29:25):
Yeah.
From the gut.
From the gut.
They went from the gut and itdidn't work.
And it was costly.
It did not work.

SPEAKER_05 (29:31):
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (29:31):
What do you think?
I mean, it's I'd say it's over50%.

SPEAKER_05 (29:36):
So the both both of y'all are heading the right
direction.
It's C 60%.

SPEAKER_04 (29:40):
60% of the time.

SPEAKER_05 (29:41):
So if it says this, like let's let's look at let's
look at the data here.
If it says 60% of the time whenyou make a decision based upon
emotion, it will be a costlydecision.
I'd slow down and gather someinformation.

SPEAKER_04 (29:54):
Slow down and get some information based on facts.

SPEAKER_05 (29:56):
Yes.
I think for sure.
All right, let's continue onwith the stories because.
I think, guys, that the audiencecan relate when we're talking
about stories and we walk themthrough real world here at Lewis
Automotive with the Lewisbrothers, how we've made
mistakes.

SPEAKER_02 (30:09):
Okay.

SPEAKER_05 (30:10):
And they always up front looked like they were the
right decision.
So here's here's mine for you.
I I've been back in the businessover 20 years now, and one of my
things, and then we all starttalking about it as a vision of
the company, was we wanted togrow people from within.
We wanted to grow people fromwithin.
That's technicians, that'ssalespeople, that's people

(30:32):
admin, that's advertising,that's managers, finance, every
position.
Because we said if we grow themfrom within, they understand our
ethics, they understand ourculture, they understand the way
we do business, and we're nothiring somebody else's bad
habits.
Not only that, I'll tell youthis from a retention side,

(30:53):
everybody else doesn't knowabout them.
You hire a technician or asalesperson or a sales manager
that has been at six other Fordor CDJR dealers in the area,
they still have all thosecontacts in their phone.
They're still texting all thoseguys.
And one bad day, which we allhave them, it's just a phone
call away and the wheels are onthe toolbox, and then there they

(31:14):
go.
Right.
So like we made it a goal oflet's always promote from
within.
Let's give them the time, thetools, and training necessary so
we elevate people within.
We created that culture, andI'll prove that here in a
minute.
Um, that we moved everybody up.
We we elevated them up.

(31:35):
We we would only put jobpostings within, it'd go out to
email everybody, and then wewould interview them and then
start moving them up.
And there were multiple times,whether it's a sales manager, a
finance manager, servicemanager, uh whoever, that we
moved up and it was past theircapacity.
Yeah.

(31:55):
Now, what did happen is ourculture stayed in place.
The way we do business stays inplace.
We didn't have to worry aboutany any moral, any ethical
issues out there, because theyhad been in our system.

SPEAKER_04 (32:08):
Yeah, and you already knew what they were,
right?
You did.
Just because you moved positionsdidn't change who they were,
their habits, their when theyshow up, how they handle things.

SPEAKER_05 (32:17):
So we that was protected, and we continued to
do business how we wanted to dobusiness.
So for guys, for over 15 years,we didn't hire anybody
streamlined outside to come inat management.
So I'm talking sales manager,GSM, finance manager, service

(32:41):
manager, parts manager, any ofthose.
15 years.
That's big.
Yeah.
There's some people out thereright now, maybe somebody next
to us, that their managementteam has changed how many times
in a year did they say?
Fourteen times in a year.

(33:03):
14 times in a year, they broughtoutside people in.
We brought zero in in 15 years,and that was just one store.

SPEAKER_02 (33:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (33:12):
That's got to be good.
It is, but it isn't.
Okay.
So it created where everybodyknew that you had to get in at
ground level with LewisAutomotive to be able to grow
up.

SPEAKER_02 (33:23):
No.

SPEAKER_05 (33:24):
What it kept us from is hiring good outside talent
that had learned and that couldelevate us up.

SPEAKER_04 (33:31):
So there's a couple things there that I want to stop
and park on.
The people that are within onlyknow what you've taught them, or
only know what they know, right?
Which is generally you're anaverage of the people that you
hang out with.
We hang out with people all daylong in our industry.
So it was only the same ideascirculating around.
And we would listen to otherpeople and bring things in, but

(33:54):
then to create a habit's 90 daysminimum.
And so then it just stayed inthat same habit cycle.
And so the the ceiling was onlyso high.

SPEAKER_05 (34:02):
And we didn't have high turnover.
So I do want to point that out.

SPEAKER_04 (34:05):
No, it was very consistent.

SPEAKER_05 (34:06):
Very consistent, very low turnover.

SPEAKER_04 (34:08):
Performance was consistent, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (34:10):
Just growth wasn't there.

SPEAKER_04 (34:13):
Right.

SPEAKER_05 (34:13):
New ideas weren't there because it was us
gathering the ideas fromoutside, not necessarily hiring
somebody that had that.

SPEAKER_01 (34:20):
Yep.

SPEAKER_05 (34:20):
Um, and and then plus, I'll tell you one of the
things that we we still doeverything we can when we talk
to management level wise.
We didn't want anybody coming inthat treated our employees
wrong, yeah, that did anythingjicky to get us in a financial
issue.
Um, so we were always concernedabout that because there's other

(34:41):
businesses up and down the roadthat have those and and they
embrace that.
We don't.
We don't.
So it's how you talk to people,you know.
And if you were in any of ourmeetings, we do not manage by
fear.
You know, we we don't putultimatums out there, especially
in a group atmosphere.
Now, if we have a write-up withsomebody, it's totally
different.
But in a group atmosphere, wedon't cuss, we don't holler, we

(35:03):
don't threaten, we don'tdiminish people.
You know, we lead as truehigh-level leaders do, lifting
people up, showing themopportunities, looking in the
mirror first.
So we didn't want to mess any ofthat up.
You know, we didn't want to walkin and we hired a manager and
all of a sudden they're cussinglike a sailor because then
what's their team start doing?
Cussing like a sailor.

SPEAKER_03 (35:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (35:24):
Uh we wanted to protect all that.
It kept us from growing, though.
So what I talked about all thetime on being so proud that we
hadn't hired from anybody fromoutside was keeping us from some
growth areas where there wastalent out there that we needed
to embrace.
We needed to make sure theystill fit for our culture and

(35:44):
our ethics, but we didn'tembrace to be able to move up.
What happened uh naturally?
Uh I can't say that we made thisdecision, but when we got ready
to move, we had to hire over ahundred people.
We only had 150 people at thetime.
So we we we couldn't elevatethat many people up.
We needed sales managers, weneeded finance managers, we

(36:07):
needed office managers,controllers, marketing people,
HR people, all of this.
We had to start hiring fromoutside.
It forced us to do it.
So eat the humble pie, yeah, go,okay, we gotta move forward.
Uh-huh.
What we found by that was webrought in some incredible
talent to our team.

(36:27):
Oh, yeah.
Some incredible talent.
Now we still had to teach themthe culture and the way we do
business, but the incrediblytalented team that has
catapulted our business.
And I'm talking about like ourHR department.
Oh, yeah.
You know, I'm talking like ourHR person that had been with
Walmart, all right, opening upsuper centers in Walmarts across

(36:50):
the entire US that thatunderstood how to protect Legal
and this and that from a largecorporation.
Shall we like you talked about?
We didn't have that.
We only knew HR at 150employees, X amount of sales
every day.

SPEAKER_04 (37:04):
It was the second line on Google that we had
picked, all right.

SPEAKER_05 (37:09):
You know, well, it really was an admin person that
had elevated.

SPEAKER_04 (37:13):
It was family-owned mom and pop that we had just
like kept like bumping up.
Hey, you might you should haveto be able to do that.
We were in F1 still racing ourbox car.
We had just a bigger engine.

SPEAKER_05 (37:27):
That was probably the first position we saw like,
hey, there's there's somethinghere.
Like I'm saying this a littlebit quiet before I just
announced to the world we'reopening up flood games.

SPEAKER_04 (37:35):
Yeah, no, we're gonna we're gonna try it, right?

SPEAKER_00 (37:36):
We're we're gonna try it.
I think it's important for youto know.
We tried to try it, but withoutreally trying it.
Like we went into the HR and wewere like, Oh, yeah, we want to
do more, but we don't reallylike I want to pay the same
whatever amount of time.

SPEAKER_04 (37:51):
Well, and that's the biggest thing.
We had to pay more.

SPEAKER_00 (37:54):
We did have to pay more.

SPEAKER_05 (37:55):
We did have to pay more.

SPEAKER_04 (37:56):
Because we were expecting bigger results at the
same money.
And we're like, you fools, whatare you doing?
Like, Nike is$35.
If you want nicer than Nike,you're gonna have to pay more,
yeah.
Right?

SPEAKER_05 (38:06):
So we found that out.
So next, you know, we go to wewe hadn't got into like our core
of sales and service yet.
Uh so next we get into ouroffice.
Yeah.
And we start looking for anoffice manager or controller.
What does that really look like?
Some places have CFO controlleroffice manager, some people just
have CFO, some people have CFOoffice manager.

(38:29):
Like, what do we need?
What layers?
And we hire a controller fromthe outside.

SPEAKER_04 (38:35):
Can I just tell you the initially the change of
hiring from inside to thenlooking?
We sat in, we were so manyinterviews.
I remember at the old building,you'd bring me like six resumes,
like, hey, we've got six peoplethat we think have made it to
the gauntlet that we're doinginterviews, and we're hiring for
an office manager, maybecontroller, maybe that we can

(38:57):
grow into CFO.
It's like, who, we, which oneare we hiring for?
And so then we talk down to allthese different people, some of
them high level, some of themjust looking for a job, and
just, and I'm just like, oh my,after six hours of this, and
it's like, okay, well, don'tmake any decisions because we've

(39:17):
got eight more tomorrow.
I was just like, oh my plan.
And then, you know, you get justan interview, and like, do you
really know about the person?

SPEAKER_05 (39:26):
You know, we had personality tests.
We had, I mean, we and a lot ofthem said by the end of it,
they're like, I've never sittingin interview like that.

SPEAKER_04 (39:33):
Well, yeah, because it was some two or sometimes
three of us sitting across fromthe table, like the other side
of Step Brothers are likehuffing dough, but we were
interviewing them, and like,what are you gonna do for us?

SPEAKER_00 (39:46):
Our one manager said he thought he was running to be
a politician whenever he came inand we hit it.

SPEAKER_04 (39:51):
Yeah, because then the sales managers, we were
there was five of us just likerapid fire, you go, you go, you
go.
And it's like, okay, we're gonnahire from the outside, but we're
gonna grill.

SPEAKER_05 (40:03):
And I think that was the hesitation on the other
side.
I was like, we've never donethis.
We better make dang sure it'sthe right decision.

SPEAKER_02 (40:10):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 (40:11):
So on our on our controller, let me get back to
that.
When we stepped out and weinterviewed all those people, we
ended up hiring a controllerthat used to be over 16 plus
stores.
So then we're three stores plusa body shape.
Just like, okay, there's gottabe some talent there to bring in

(40:31):
to help us elevate up when we'retalking about systems and
processes, because we're we'rewe're not content with staying
where we are or selling two morevehicles or five more ROs.
We want to scale this sucker.
Yeah.
Um, and obviously we need towith what we build.
Yeah.
So we brought that person in.
It took a while to adapt to ourculture and the way we do
business.
But then once they adapted withtheir talent, an explosion has

(40:55):
happened.

SPEAKER_02 (40:56):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (40:56):
You know, so so we couldn't lose that because in
their role before, verystructured, very great, culture
and sense of belonging, not somuch because it had gotten too
far the other way.

SPEAKER_04 (41:08):
And with the controller, I guess it's good to
point out that as cousin Chriswould have said, were they
plug-in plays?
Like he liked to say, hey, giveme a plug-in play, right?
Uh, were they plug-in plays?
They were talented.
Absolutely.
Uh they knew what they weredoing.
They did not know LewisAutomotive.
In fact, our HR director didn'tknow automotive at all, just

(41:31):
knew people and systems ofprocess.
So it still took some time.
But our office, we had to do acomplete reset kind of.
And some of those things took 12months plus, 18 months that we
still had to agree that this wasthe right decision.
Yes.
This is a delayed result, adelayed, you know, long, long

(41:53):
side that we were looking at.

SPEAKER_02 (41:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (41:54):
Uh, for it to really like, okay, and now, you know,
they're closing the month inthree days and just close our
entire physical year and monthat the same time in less than
seven days.
Turnover's less there now.

SPEAKER_05 (42:08):
There were rouse up.
But so I don't want anybody tothink about you just go out and
hire talent.
It's not just a plug and playand forget it.
No, there are, you're talkingabout endurance, there are ups
and downs until it finally getsits rhythm.
And you're gonna have goods andyou're gonna have bads, and you
gotta be there helping themthrough that.

SPEAKER_00 (42:26):
Yeah, because you got to put on your shoulder pads
and helmet.
Because as we've learned overthe last year and a half, yeah,
we've had to be extra strong andinvolved because it's just
you're getting hammered overhere, and you're like, okay,
that area's good.
Okay, I'm gonna come over here,and this area blows a tire
again.
You're like, whoa, hold on.
So you have to be involved.

SPEAKER_05 (42:46):
You do, you do.
And I think it's no differentthan Shelby talked about
endurance.
It's football season, so I'lltalk about football is that
quarterback goes to the line,and at any point in time,
they've got about three, four,five, who knows, ten audibles
they could call.
It was supposed to go this way.
We're not gonna give up on theplay.
We're not gonna give up on thedowns or have a delay game or
call a timeout.
We're just gonna call anaudible, and then they keep

(43:08):
moving.

SPEAKER_04 (43:08):
And in the same way, if they get a transfer, they get
a top running back from anotherteam.
They cannot just plug them inand say, hey, you're good,
you're golden, let's go.
Nope.
They still have to learn theirset of plays, how they operate,
their expectations.
And so that was the differencethat we learned.
And if we brought a person upthrough, yes, they understood

(43:32):
Lewis ethics, Lewis model, howwe take care of customers.
So we didn't have to train themthat because we've been training
them for years.
Sure.
But we were restricted there.
Bring new person in, they knowhow things operate, but you got
to teach them how our cultureand how we operate.

SPEAKER_05 (43:47):
So I'm gonna give a couple more examples and then
we'll keep moving.
Um, so so next I want to talkabout, you know, in our in our
marketing department, you know,what we had done marketing-wise,
you know, in the past was atthat level.
So then when we started lookinglike, how do we develop this?
How do we bring more value inmarketing?
It's a whole lot more complexmarketing than it was when we

(44:09):
first started.
Where when we first started, youown radio, TV, and have a little
bit of newspaper, you've grilleda market at all.

SPEAKER_02 (44:15):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (44:15):
It's not that way anymore.
So when we went, we hiredmarketing, a marketing director
to run it.
They came from an experience ofnot only being over a store, but
working with somebody where theyhad over a hundred different
platforms that they were lookingat, looking at the data,
figuring out how that wassuccessful.

SPEAKER_02 (44:33):
Yep.

SPEAKER_05 (44:33):
You know, so then when we brought that talent in,
that helped us to elevate too.
It takes all these pieces towork.
You know, again, understandingthe culture and how we do
business and adding that to it,because you get both of those
together, it makes a winningcombination.
Next, I want to go to salesmanager and F and I manager for
just a second.
When we launched an ad for salesmanager or finance manager,

(44:58):
especially the first time we didit.
We've had we've done it multipletimes now because we're growing.
We had the largest influx ofresumes ever.
And quality, right?
Ever.
We're talking over 50 resumesfor a sales manager position.
Over 50 resumes for a financemanager position.

(45:20):
And you're like, whoa, why wasthat?
Because they knew this industryis only so big, you know.
They knew out on the street,Lewis never has a sales manager
position open.
They hire from within.
They never have a financemanager position, they promote
from within.
So it was a flood, it was it waspretty humbling of like, dang,

(45:42):
that amount of people want tocome work for us.
And they knew that this positiondoesn't open very often.

SPEAKER_04 (45:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (45:48):
What we found by that when we brought the sales
managers in, they had some greatexperience from other stores.
You know, on high volume, onmarketing ideas, spiff ideas,
this and that.
What we did have to make sure wedid was be very close, like what
you talked about, Taylor.
And as soon as they started tostray along from what we did,
boom.
A deal didn't look right, boom.

(46:10):
They changed figures, boom.
Right.
And when I'm saying boom, there,you can't see me if you're just
listening to this.
We had to knock them back inline, say, we don't do business
that way.
We're proud you're on the team.
We want you to stay on the team,but I just want to let you know
that's a hard line.
We don't do that.

SPEAKER_04 (46:24):
Which uh there was two corrections there.
One correction was, you know, inperson talking about that, hey,
we don't do that.
Here's how we do it.
I apologize if I've never sharedthat with you.
Here's how we do it.
Second was in every one of thoseopportunities, you better make
sure why did that mistakehappen?
One, had you not gone over itwith onboarding, you can't go

(46:45):
over everything, right?

SPEAKER_05 (46:46):
Even if you do, they don't retain it all.

SPEAKER_04 (46:48):
Right?
They're not gonna retain it allin, anyways.
Learning impairment, 3% is allthey're gonna learn.
Um but do you have a very clearwritten and drawn policy
procedure or how to do that?
Um so every one of those cornersthat we turn at a higher level
management now is like, hey,keep them in balance, make sure

(47:09):
that they're delivering thecustomer service that our
grandfather did, our greatgrandfather, our dad, and
treating people how they want tobe treated, and then make sure
if there's a mistake, we correctthat, and then we say, Well,
here's our policy to show youhere's how we do it.
So for then the next person, wehave a little more in depth.
And so for the next time,there's a little more depth,
there's a little more structure,and so then because most of our

(47:32):
ideas or our structuresgenerally were in somebody's
head.
That's right.
That's right.
We we learned that that was abig part of our scaling.

SPEAKER_05 (47:38):
It really was.
All right, so that's so thoseare just a few examples of the
different areas where, you know,the part that we had so much
pride about, and I mean, Irepeated that story so many
times to people about we hiredfrom within, we hired from
within, we don't hire fromoutside, we're so proud of that.
Like so much that it set up fornow, you're gonna say something

(48:01):
different, but that's the pointin time that you check your ego
at the door and you look for theopportunity.
If there's a better way to doit, say, hey, my bad.
I don't want to lose this overhere.
We'll always still look, even tothis day, when we have, and
we've got a couple positionsopen right now.
About 19.
If you're interested.
We'll always look internallyfirst.

(48:21):
We always look internally.
We have that conversation beforethe ad even goes out.

SPEAKER_04 (48:25):
And so there's there's a couple of reasons why
we do that.
Okay.
Because we value our employeesso much.
If there was ever, and majorityof the time, they really don't
want the position, right?
And it's not the position forthem, but we value our employees
enough as human beings that wewould want that job offer
opportunity as well.
So we have a salesperson that'sbeen here five, 10, 8, 10, 12,

(48:46):
15 years, and a sales managerpositions opens up.
We want to know internallyfirst, it goes out.
If you're interested, put yourname in the hat, submit a
resume, and we want to talk toyou.
And then we can say, hey, let'sgo through this and this.
Do you want to manage people?
Do you want to be on a fixedschedule?
This, this, and they're like,I'm pretty good with where I'm
at.
It's like, hey, totally get it.

(49:07):
I just wanted to know if not ifyou wanted the job, but if you
want to be in the running.
And they're like, nope.
It's like, okay, I just wantedto offer that first.
That says I care about you, andI'm not just bringing in the
next wing ding just to tell youwhat to do.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You had buy.
That's the biggest thing ofgetting by in there of us
offering it to them first.

SPEAKER_05 (49:26):
I think that's good.
So I think, you know, to kind ofwrap this story up here, I think
there's a couple things, nodifferent than the Lewis
guarantee we talked about.
We're we're we're gonna stay toour core and look internally
first.
But number two, we're not gonnajust promote somebody if they
don't have the talent, they'renot ready to do it.
We're gonna see if there's anoutside person that has the
talent.
Maybe they don't want to travelanymore, maybe they don't want

(49:47):
the big corporate anymore thatwants to be a part of our team.
So we can run simultaneouslyboth of those down the track at
the same time.

SPEAKER_04 (49:55):
Solid.
All right, mythbusters time.
Here's the myth Great leadersalways trust their gut.
You know, we talked about guts acouple uh episodes ago.
We're kind of talking aboutdecisions or mistakes that are
made from guts, but greatleaders always trust their gut.

SPEAKER_05 (50:15):
Uh you know, i i if you say gut alone, I'm gonna say
that's busted.
Um I'll just tell you personallymyself.
My gut usually gives medirection on what I need to dive
into more.

SPEAKER_02 (50:26):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (50:27):
You know, like, hey, something's going wrong here.
And then I look at like what thedetails and the facts are, and
then my gut tells me, I hey, Ilooked at the facts, here's
where you should go.
So I think gut alone, no.
They don't.

SPEAKER_04 (50:39):
Well, I mean, if you look at the fun fact quiz, it
says that 60% of costlydecisions uh were due to lack of
information.
So uh that is busted.
Instinct has value.
Like there's value in yourinstinct to tell you what I
should look at, what I shouldreally prioritize.
But gut alone creates blindspots.
True strength is checkinginstincts against trusted input.

(51:02):
Yeah.
So fact checking it, should Idive into it?
What other info should I lookat, and who should I bounce it
off of?

SPEAKER_00 (51:09):
Absolutely.
I love my story.
It's not near, don't worry, I'mnot gonna go near as in depth as
we did on our first two.
We did too much?
No, no, no, it was good, it'sthe right amount.
It's perfect because it uh me upfor this.
And this is all of us havetransformed from this, but I'm
probably more guilty of thisthan either of y'all.

(51:31):
But I'm gonna say if managingemployees and going into what
we've learned of, and we talkedabout this, but niceness, our
culture, being overly too nice,letting people really mistake my
kindness that I don't care.
And we're really walking throughthis with our team right now of

(51:55):
being not being that countryclub mentality with no
accountability.
We're trying to transform overto being highly accountable with
a great culture and not losing.

SPEAKER_04 (52:06):
So I know exactly what you're gonna say, but I'll
help them.
Um what are the some of thethings of, you know, people
mistake your kindness as aweakness, uh, or lack of
call-outs or lack ofaccountability in those certain
things.
What are some of the things thatyou've seen that that's allowed
the team to do or not to be ableto do?

SPEAKER_00 (52:26):
Yeah, so the biggest deal there, we'll we'll put in
management side of whether it'sin finance or sales or or
wherever it would be, ourwillingness to always help and
be there and be involved is acrutch, is a really big deal
crutch whenever you pullyourself out of it trying to let
your team elevate.
So I've seen a whole lot oftimes that of um specific

(52:52):
manager that I'll have them inthere and doing what they're
doing.
I know they're not good at that.
I'm okay with that because I'msitting there and they're a void
that I need help with here, butit's not allowing them to grow.
And I am really basicallycrippling them, not letting them

(53:12):
be able to know, hey, I need togrow in this and I need to be
held more accountable there.
So that's really where I've seenof growing that we've had to
step in there and be able tohelp them.

SPEAKER_05 (53:25):
Yeah, Terry, you bring up a subject that
everybody out there struggleswith.
And and and here's and we justrecently listened to a podcast
that I sent to you guys and youlistened to as well, of a really
successful dealer down inHouston.
And he said, Here's here's kindof the two different scenarios
I'll see.
He said, I'll either find peoplethat that really care, okay, and

(53:47):
they're kind and their culture'sfantastic, but they have more of
a country club setting.
Or I find people that thatreally have great
accountability, okay, but don'tcare and have more of a
dictatorship and they'remanaging by fear.
Yeah.
And so what we've really workedto do is how can we combine both

(54:10):
of those?
How can we combine culture andaccountability?
Yes.
You know, because what you'resaying, there there's a couple
of quotes I'm gonna put togetherhere, but what you're saying is
I'm kind to our employeesbecause I care about them.
Yeah.
And there's a quote out therethat says, People don't care how
much you know until they knowhow much you care.

SPEAKER_00 (54:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (54:32):
So you'll never get access to them to pour into them
if you're not kind.

SPEAKER_00 (54:36):
Yes.

SPEAKER_05 (54:37):
However, on the flip side, and Shelby brought this
quote up just a minute ago, itsays, Don't mistake my kindness
for weakness.
So, like, you gotta be able tomake that transition you're
talking about.

SPEAKER_00 (54:47):
Yes.
And what's been going back toyour managers of hiring from
outside, I love this because itgives us a breath of fresh air.
But remember, we talked aboutdoing something we had never
done.
Hiring managers allowed us to beable to see new ideas, new
processes, new things that wedidn't know about.
But the number one thing that Ilove, they come from a corporate
store that they could care lessabout them.

(55:09):
It's a policy procedure, andthey're going here.
So you think whenever we bringthat manager in and they see how
we're working hard, oh, theywant to go to war for our team
and be involved, never want todo anything else because it's a
culture like none other.
But that's really helped me growand see okay, there's some stuff

(55:31):
we're missing out on.
Okay, there's a level ofaccountability that's okay here
to hold our team to.

SPEAKER_05 (55:37):
So, what do you think like for the audience out
there, uh, you now versus threeto five years ago?
What change have you madethrough that story to keep your
kindness but have youraccountability?

SPEAKER_00 (55:51):
Your biggest deal in which you grow and do this, uh,
this this changes as you growthrough your business ranks of
realizing, and we've all beenthrough it, but of your
coworkers that you're workingwith all the time, they can't be
your best friends that you hangout with outside of the group.

(56:12):
So it's really been splittingand separating.
I'm not saying you can't go outwith a team every now and then,
sure, but it's not the personyou hang out with at work and at
home because it we're we asbrothers have something
obviously that we know, hey,when to expect something more or
less, or it's time to kick it ingear and go.

(56:35):
If I'm hanging out with thembuddy buddy all the time and I
ask him for more, uh, it's mybuddy.
I don't have to, he doesn'treally mean it.

SPEAKER_01 (56:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (56:42):
I think that's a great point.
And and and so many people messthat up as they they cross that
line.
This is a business.
It is, this isn't a hobby.
And and and our role, like yougot to remember this, this has
to be your North Star.
Is our role is to provide agreat place for people to work,

(57:03):
to thrive, and to earn a greatliving to support their family
or whatever else it may be.
And if you allow that align tocross over into more of a hobby
in your relationships, you can'tdo what you're supposed to do
because your emotions getinvolved.
Um, and again, some people takethat the wrong way, and they're
like, oh, that means you don'tcare.

(57:24):
Has nothing to do with it.
You actually care more becauseyou're trying to help them be
successful, but a great placefor them to work.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (57:31):
That that that's so, and there's different managing
styles.
So I don't know the coach'sname, maybe you guys will tell
me.
Um, but I just watched the theJerry Jones documentary and his
two different coaches after hebrought in his coach that was
from Arkansas with JimmyJohnson.
Jimmy Johnson.
Barry Switzer was the secondone.
And then Barry Switzer was thesecond one.
Two complete, you know, JimmyJohnson was all about

(57:54):
accountability, right?
Performance at a high level.
Whoever you were, we're gonnaget out there.
You know, he was doing the hedid the 10 hundreds or whatever,
and he was just running throughit.
And I was like, yes, I lovethat.
He wasn't nice to anybody.
No, no, no.
And it was it was not because hewas mad at you, and it was not
because you weren't performing,it was just because he was
pushing you to the next level.
I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes.

(58:15):
And then Barry Switzer came in,and that's where uh him and Troy
Eggman.
Troy Eggman, thank you.
Where Troy Eggman, um, I I lovethe competitiveness.
I'm not overly, you know, in theweeds about the who the person
is, but Troy Eggman didn't getalong because he was so used to
Jimmy Johnson's accountabilityon the whole team.
Now he was mad at people missingblocks or people not showing up

(58:37):
on time or people not putting intheir full effort.
And it went to a country clubmentality, and it was like, oh
my gosh.
And so I was so resonated.
One of the things when you askhim, hey, what's the biggest
changes in three to five years?
I was sitting here thinking, andone of the things it's funny
because this we didn't talkabout these topics before.
And if I wasn't gonna do theLowest Guarantee, I was gonna
talk about kind of that exactsame thing and taking what's in

(59:00):
your mind that needs to behandled, what needs to be done,
and getting the team tounderstand that.
One of the biggest things of youbeing able to perform, by you, I
mean a high-level leader, is youare now managing the people and
the activity versus actuallydoing the activity.
So, which is tough because wewere all raised.

(59:22):
If the trash needs to be pickedup, you go pick it up.
Yes.
But more often than not, lastnight I left here, it was 7:30,
and we'd closed at 7, but I wasstill wrapping some stuff up and
this and that, as we always do.
And I noticed there were still acouple convertible tops down
right next to the salesmanager's office at the pre
owned building.

(59:44):
So I was like, what did I do?
I got my keys, I unlocked thebuilding, and I put the tops up.
Because that's just ourmentality, and that's what you
do as a leader, right?
Yeah.
But then I was like,opportunity, right?
I have to coach through this.
Was like, hey, these cars righthere, top.
Are down, please get with yourteam.
And at the end of the day, it'syour responsibility.
The same way it's myresponsibility, right?

(01:00:06):
I'm not gonna say, hey, get yourass back down here and do this.
That's just, but I want you toknow that I had to do that.
So hopefully it doesn't happenagain.
So you're no longer the one thatis doing all the tasks.
Doesn't mean you don't have todo it every once in a while, but
you're gonna help the peopleunderstand how to get to do the
task.

SPEAKER_05 (01:00:25):
The coach is not running the football anymore.
No, they will not.
The coach is not throwing thefootball anymore.
And even if they were talentedenough, they were young enough
to still be the running back, ifthey were if they were out on
the field running the ball, theywouldn't be able to see what's
going on on the field.
They would only see what's rightin front of them.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:41):
And that's one of the biggest things from an
outside perspective watchingTaylor, because I'll go in the
sales manager's office, bring myiPad and work on stuff or work
on, and people have learned nowthey're not going to ask me to
desk a deal.
Now, if I see a swamp and itneeds help, I'll get in and desk
a deal.
Right?
I'm just observing.
And so where Taylor has grownand learned was that people were

(01:01:03):
coming to him because he was thewarm and fuzzy.
And they had two sales managershe was paying great money for,
and they wouldn't go to himbecause he was the easier,
nicer, more fun option.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:01:12):
And so then he's learned to grow to say, see
Mason, see Paul.
Right?
They're sitting right there.
And the salesperson's like, youknow, especially if they were
buddy buddy, they're like, No,they want to talk to you,
Taylor.
They want to talk to Mr.
Lewis.
And it's like, mm-mm.
Like, I can't do my job if I'mdoing other people's jobs.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01:31):
I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say this and I guarantee
you y'all resonate with us.
We've never talked about it, butI bet you'll resonate with us.
So, so we have top gun sheetsthat come out.
Now it's digital, you know, itshows top finance manager, top
sales manager, uh topsalesperson, average PVR, amount
of deals done, and this andthat.

(01:01:53):
And I'll tell you one of themost difficult things to do is
to go from a position in afinance manager or sales
manager, and let's say you go upthe next level of finance
director, GSM, GM, whatever itmay be, and and that sheet comes
out.
Well, more than likely yourname's still gonna be on that
sheet because you're stillhelping and you're involved.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:12):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:12):
Well, there's the competitiveness of you that that
still wants to be the one thatdesked the most deals.
Or even if you didn't desk themost deals, you want to have the
highest PVR because you want toset the example for the whole
team.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:25):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:26):
Or in finance, you want to have the highest PVR or
the most deals done.
Even though you're managing theproducers now, but instinctly,
you're like, I still want tomake sure that I'm proving and
I'm showing that I've got thisand you should listen to me
because the proof's in thepudding.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:42):
And I can remember going from each of those
positions, and it took me awhile to go, let go of that, let
the spotlight be on the others.
And even if your PVR showsnegative$632, quit saying that's
a reflection on you.
Your reflection is how manypeople did you have that you
elevated up?

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:01):
Yeah, because now winning was getting your team to
be better than the other team.
Yeah.
But I mean, I mean, I've justgotta think that y'all had felt
the same way at points of timesyou look at your name on there,
fresh out of it, going,especially if you work on a good
deal or something that, youknow, is much more than the
average or whatever it is in anydepartment, and it comes across

(01:03:22):
and they put it in anothermanager's name.
You're like, no, no, sir, nomath.
Uh uh uh like I close that down.
It's like, yeah.
But uh it's it's learning to winof never wanting any
recognition, of allowing otherpeople to win, because that's
now what we're doing.
It's helping other people.

SPEAKER_05 (01:03:43):
Yeah, I might just take my name off that list so I
don't have to look at it.
But but it's but it's more thanthat.
It's the zigziggler quote ofhelp enough others to do what
they want, and you'll get whatyou want.
But that it's it's hard.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:53):
But as soon as you can get better at that, you open
a whole new door that you nevereven knew.
It's like, oh my gosh, we've gotall this over here.
It's like, uh-huh.
You can never see it because younever stop desking deals.
It's buried.
You've just been desking deals,you know, and and we see it
because we're all phasesdifferently, right?
Five years apart.
And I'm like, yeah, I've walkedpast that thing four times and

(01:04:14):
text this and this, like, yeah,that thing's been right there.
And it's like, oh, I never sawthat because I was just buried
in this.
I know, but I was winning.
Yeah, good job.
I'm at the top of it.
Well, that thing's 184 days oldand uh still waiting on the
city.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:27):
So the difference is there is if you take a leader
there that okay, they might bethey might have held on wanting
their number one position, butthey've pushed and buried at the
cost of the rest of their team.
Right.
Versus elevating the whole teamand then actually the
production's larger.
Yep.
Yep.
You know, that that's a big dealthere.
Yeah.
All right, that's a good, good,good subject there.

(01:04:47):
Absolutely.
Okay, so a couple of questionsfor y'all on uh, you know, our
quiz of the day or question ofthe day.
What's the hardest leadershiplesson you've learned about
people?
So, what is the hardestleadership lesson that you've
learned about people and how hasit changed the way you lead

(01:05:07):
today?
So, what's something that justreally kicked you in the teeth
hard enough that you thoughtabout it, thought about it, and
then ended up changing the waythat you lead today?

SPEAKER_04 (01:05:16):
I'll start.
Uh, I thought I'd given you allmy intel that I knew so far
today, but I found another one.
Um just because it's easy foryou does not mean it will be
easier for someone else.
And I see that with my kids, Isee that for my wife, I see that
for everyone.
You're an expert in your areaand you're generally in your

(01:05:37):
mind gonna deliver the absolutebest in that.
So, what I've struggled with islike a manager that I've given
tasks to, like, why don't we getthat?
Like, and why do we need to comeback to that?
Because here's the task, here'show to do it, here's a little
opportunity for you to use yourown thinking and grow in that.
But why is why are we notperforming that?

(01:06:00):
You know, and so then that's alayer deep, like the people
below are they doing that?
Uh but just understanding, andso that was the problem that
people will not learn and adaptat the same level, and they
won't get it the same that youwill.
And and it's one thing becauseit's in your mind and it's
always been there, or it'singrained in there, and then
getting it to paper is the firsttime you've ever shared it.

(01:06:20):
And so you've you've had theadvance of knowing about it for
a long time.
So I've had to change that ofexpectations.
You've heard us talk about our70% rule.
If you can get someone else toperform at 70%, and you get to
another task, then you're gonnawin, right?
Especially if you get to keepmultiplying that.
But then just really doing myvery best to take everything
from my brain of what it thinks,scramble it down on paper, clean

(01:06:43):
it up, and deliver very clearexpectations before the task has
ever started rolling down theline, you know?
So, like, hey, in my mind,here's what I'm thinking.
What's your guys' thoughts?
What works, what doesn't work,and then going through that.
So that's a big thing of peoplenot being able to deliver at the
level you think.

SPEAKER_05 (01:07:02):
And I think that's that's a great point.
And I think we we we have toremember that everybody has
different talents, and there areareas that they'll boom, pick
up, and go.
And then other no differentschool.
You know, I didn't do well inEnglish, I did well in math.
And then there were other peoplethat did really well in English,
like, why don't you get this?

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:20):
And let me give you real world because that's so
real.
In like three weeks ago, ormaybe more, uh, in our Monday
morning meeting, I was talkingabout trying to invite everybody
to an event here at thedealership.
And so I was like, I have tolike get really granular.
I'm like, so on my iPad, I pullup Facebook, and I'm like, hey,
you need to go invite everyoneto this event.
I said, and if you do it fromyour desktop, it's gonna allow

(01:07:41):
you to scroll through and youcan hit invite and it'll allow
you 500 people's time of allyour friends.
And then one of the guys, one ofthe salespeople, you know,
because I'm like, majority ofthe people don't figure this out
or won't do it.
So I'm gonna help themcompletely walk through.
Everybody, get on your phone,let's do it now, but get on your
desktop because you can doinvite 500.
And he was like, uh, Shelby?
And I was like, Yeah, bud, whatdo you got?

(01:08:02):
He's like, hey, if you do ateveryone from your phone, it
tags everyone.
I was like, You got it, right?
Yeah.
I was like, thank you so muchfor saying something just
because I'm, you know, this guyup here on the stage, yeah,
thank you so much.
I was like, all right, hiteverybody hit add everyone.
I was like, so do we just hitthe blue button and it's in?
He's like, yep.

(01:08:22):
I was like, all right, here wego.
So there was someone that Ithink this, this, and this, and
I got it handled.
Nope, there's someone out theredoing better and more knows more
about something than you do.

SPEAKER_05 (01:08:32):
But that's because you created an atmosphere where
you could be vulnerable andpeople could could be able to
say everything.
Absolutely.
No different when we get upthere and we'd say people, hey,
if you see an error in thenumbers, let us know.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:41):
Yeah, just please tell me so I don't just keep
looking like a fool saying that.

SPEAKER_05 (01:08:44):
And you're just talking about the meeting after
the meeting, how bad that's it.
Let's just have it now.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:49):
Keller, what do you think?
We've talked about this time andtime and time over several times
today, but clear expectations.
It I got so aggravated is thiscommunicating those.
It it's hard enough on um beinga guy, we don't communicate well
at all.
But getting aggravated when itreally is just yourself that you

(01:09:10):
should be aggravated at becauseyou're not clear.
Like yesterday, had been workingon uh pricing reports all day
long and been going around, andI get to the simplest thing that
I have told them umpteenthtimes, clean the back windows,
clean the back windows.
And I wanted to kick yell screenflip the desk over.

(01:09:31):
And I said, Hey, you know what,team, let's all get together.
I walked out and it was kindlystern.
Yes.
Walked outside and I said, Hey,this is a back window.
When I say clean this backwindow, I mean this is how you
scrape it off.
These are stickers that we pulloff.
Are we clear?
And then all of them are like,oh my gosh, like dad's mad now.

(01:09:53):
I understand I've done bad.
Sometimes you have to get sosimple with your team and have
your clear expectations, haveyour game plan laid out, but you
get too busy to do that, andthen you get mad when you should
really only get mad at yourself.

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:07):
Yeah, and you're real, your your big nugget there
is clear expectations, but thenshow them.
Yes.
But then show them.
You took the time, you said,okay, I get it.
They're not grasping a hold ofme just coming out with a memo,
and here's how you do it.
Come on, everybody come on.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:21):
Well, that's no different than the learning
pyramid of the three or fivepercent from the email or from
me saying it.
You know, if it's written, it'sa little bit more hands-on task.
All right, we're gonna do afield trip because everyone is
really struggling with the carwash, and we're all gonna walk
through the car wash together.
Here's how you put it in, here'show you bring it through, here's
how you put the sticker, here'swhere it goes.

(01:10:41):
Any questions?
Yeah, you two, what's yourquestion?
Let's go through it.
Okay, is there any reason wecan't do this every single day
without fail?
Okay, and what do I need to doto hold you accountable every
single day without me having towash every single car myself?

SPEAKER_05 (01:10:57):
That that's a great one.
Hey, it's been some greatstories today, and hopefully you
guys have gotten some out ofthis as well when we've walked
through when we've made mistakesor adjustments, how it didn't
bury us, but it just challengedus and helped us to be able to
find opportunities andadjustments to be able to pilot
this monster going forward.
Make sure as always check us outat Lewis Superstore.com and then

(01:11:19):
Crossroads ConversationPodcast.com to get this episode
and many more.
Hey, thanks for joining ustoday, and we hope you enjoyed
this episode.
Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
family, visit our website, andsend us some questions.
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

(01:11:41):
business in general.