Money Series: Digging Deep - A Fresh Approach to Business Inspired by Washing a Car

Ever scrutinized the scratches on your car after giving it a good hand wash? Well, strap in, because that's exactly where I'm taking you – a journey of exploration that started with a hand-washed car and ended up being a whole new approach to business. What began as a simple observation about a local car rental service turned into a profound realization about the dangers of surface cleaning in business. Automatic car washes may be quick and efficient, but they miss the minutiae - the small scratches, the chips in the paint, the dirt in the corners. And that's exactly how we sometimes treat our businesses, covering up surface issues with money and speed instead of digging deep to find the root problems.

Today, I share my own story - how washing my own car led to fresh insights into my business and helped me identify unnoticed issues. It's all about getting your hands dirty, really understanding every aspect of your business, and not shying away from the nitty-gritty. I also talk about my experience as a shadow CEO, where I dissect businesses and rebuild them, starting from the back and working my way to the front. Inspired by the diligence of a centenarian business owner and my own experiences, this episode is a call to action to all business leaders out there. So, let's grab that bucket and sponge, and get ready to dive into the grimy parts of our business, shall we?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The brushes on used automatic washes are not
properly cleaned and thereforeyou know what happens they
create streaks on your car, theycreate all those swirls and,
more importantly, you knowwhat's real they create damage.
Here's the number one thingthat I have sat with forever in
a day.
It is so true as a CEO, tothrow money and to throw speed

(00:24):
at your problems.
The reality is that we can'tthrow money and we can't throw
speed at our problems because itactually doesn't fix the
problem and the real and thegoal for me is to fix the
problem.
So the other day I was sayingto myself man, you know down the
street, so right here we're atthe studio and we acquired a
building down the street here inPhoenix, arizona and right next

(00:46):
to it is like a super mom andpop tarot business.
Now I was driving by and Irealized that every single car
that they're renting out they'rerenting out cars ridiculously
and I saw that every single oneof them were being washed by
hand and it led me to this crazyidea.
I was like why are they washingall their cars by hand?

(01:07):
They have like 35 cars.
In the art of scaling abusiness.
I'm here thinking it would beso fast you could come through,
you're good.
It would be so, so fast for usto put them all through the cars
.
But then I'm like no, becausesomeone that CEO said I don't
want to damage the car, I wantto do it right, I want to get
longevity, I want my cars to becrystal, crystal clean.

(01:30):
And then it hit me.
One was the last time I washedmy car.
The reality is that I sitinside of my car, go through a
drive-through all these thingshappen and I believe my car is
clean on the other side.
But that's because I got rid ofthe surface dirt.
I feel like I had to go wash mycar because in my business I

(01:52):
had become true to just surfacedirt.
Surface dirt is the easiest wayto go out of business.
It's the easiest way to losestar employees.
It's the easiest way to eff upyour cash flow.
Say hello to the train.
It is the easiest way.
I bet you the train's gonnastop right here because it's

(02:12):
like we don't care about whatyou have to say.
But it's the easiest way tojust kind of go down south and,
as a CEO, when you have a lot ofdifferent departments, you're
looking around and you're likewell, what?
Why?
Is it customer service?
Is it the sales department?
Is it marketing?
You're thinking to yourself youneed a new executive leader.
15, you hear this bright ideathat you should have a course, a
podcast, whatever it might be,and all of a sudden you squirrel

(02:35):
and the truth is that theproblems in your business are
right inside of the dirt.
You don't want to see.
It is all the things that thecar wash, the automated process,
the automated process it can'tget to.
This year, coming back into mycompany, I realized that I had
too many things on autopilot.

(02:55):
I came back into my companyafter being a year off, being
sick, and when you're scaling acompany, you absolutely have to
have your hand on things inorder to figure out well, what
do I do next?
What I started to do was putmyself through this automated
process, but then, guess whathappened?
I was like when was the lasttime?
What come?

(03:16):
Let's venture.
Well, I was like when was thelast time there was a whole
fight about to break out?
I'm like I don't think I wantto be a part of it.
But listen, think about thiswith me when was the last time
you washed your own car?
I mean, imagine if I told youthat by washing your own car,
you would pick up the dirt onthe inside and the outside of

(03:39):
your business.
What if I told you that bywashing your own car, you would
make your company stronger?
So what I decided to do was Isat down.
Come with me, we're gonna gothis way.
So what I decided to do was Iwent outside seven o'clock in
the morning and I washed my owncar.
I know this sounds absolutelyinsane, but I realized I hadn't
done this in too long and it wasway too long.

(03:59):
I got a bucket, I got soap, Igot water and I and my hose and
I started washing.
Here's what I found my car hadway more scratches on it than I
realized.
I also saw that I had paintcoming off on the top of my car
and never even noticed.
And then inside of the cracksit looked like that stuff hadn't

(04:20):
been washed in a decade.
And all I could think to myselfwas I would have never have
seen these things had I been onthe inside comfortably paying my
way through the problem Numberone.
Stop paying your way throughthe problem Number two.
Stop throwing money at thesituations and stop throwing

(04:40):
speed the name of the game liketo actually win in this CEO
business thing is to go back tothe basics, go back to the
basics.
So for me, walking outside witha bucket and a mop was every bit
of me going back to the basicsin my business.
It was being able to see, like,what's happening, what's not

(05:02):
happening, where's the real dirt, where do I?
What do I actually need to fix?
You know, it reminds me of thisclient.
I had this client.
I can't wait to tell you oneday about this business.
This guy has been here.
Hold on, let me show you thisreal quick.
This guy has been here inbusiness, I believe, for 60
something years, and the word onthe street is that he's like a
hundred and three or four yearsold.

(05:23):
He's so awesome and inspires meevery day because right now
he's sitting there and he's atwork.
Anyhow, it's a different CEOstory, but the truth is that I
said to myself the very firsttime that I started flipping not
flipping businesses, but I.
We have a world called theshadow CEO.
That's where I take companiesand I go inside and pull these

(05:45):
companies apart and pull themback together.
So I started asking myself likewhat was one of the key ways in
which I went into a chimneycompany.
They were doing about four or$5 million and the reality is
that he brought me in to fixthings on the front end.
So I was brought in to fix liketheir service department not

(06:06):
service department, but to add aservice part of their business
to up their sales, to add morereoccurring revenue.
But the reality is that for me,every time I'm going to like
start something like that, likeevery time I'm gonna dive into a
business and pull apart theirbusiness, I start at the back
end.
I go back to the basics.
So what I did is I got to theircity, got dressed six o'clock

(06:31):
in the morning and got ready toload the trucks.
I went in the trucks and wentout on the field.
There is no way for you to seehow to fix your company if
you're way over there.
The easiest, like right away,number one thing that you can do
right now with what you havethat will cost you a penny,
that'll be easy and that'llbring all your people closer to

(06:52):
you, is by going in the center,into the back, whatever and
wherever is fulfillment.
However, you serve customersand clients.
That's where you see your frontend problems by starting at the
back.
I pray that that makes sense.
From this CEO to another.
I'm gonna tell you there isnothing that's gonna help you
win this thing faster thangetting yourself dirty.

(07:13):
So in our, very on our, in thisepisode of the Daily Tea, that
is it.
I am looking.
I'm headed back inside so I canstart at the back of another
part of a product or servicethat we sell and work my way up
to the front to figure out howto make this thing stronger.
I wanna know what are you gonnado?
Are you gonna go wash your car?
I'm gonna tell you it is sohigh opening.